Criminal Profile: David Berkowitz

By Gary C. King
Edited by Kevin P. Allen

Paranoid loner David Richard Berkowitz, known as Son of Sam and the .44-Caliber Killer, terrorized New York City from July 1976 to August 1977, claiming six innocent lives and wounding several others as he satiated his hatred for women. The police search for the serial killer was known as the greatest manhunt in New York City's history.

Early Days

Born out of wedlock, Berkowitz was given up for adoption shortly after his June 1, 1953, birth in Brooklyn, N.Y. Psychiatrists who later examined him believe trauma caused by his birth mother's decision instilled his hatred for the opposite sex and caused his aberrant behavior as he grew older, according to court records. Although possessing above-average intelligence, Berkowitz suffered from low self-esteem and engaged in arsonist activities as a child and teenager. He joined the Army in 1971 and was honorably discharged in 1974. He later worked for the U.S. Postal Service but remained withdrawn and continued his downward spiral into paranoid delusions.

Knife to a .44

According to Berkowitz's admission, his first attacks involved knife assaults on two women on Christmas Eve 1975. Fortunately, both victims survived. By the following summer, he traded his knife for a .44-caliber Bulldog revolver. He shot two victims on the night of July 29, 1976, while they sat in a parked car after approaching them on foot and keeping his gun concealed in a paper bag. One survived. Witnesses reported seeing a man sleeping inside a yellow car before the shootings, parked near the crime scene. Other witnesses reported seeing a yellow compact car cruising the area for hours before the shooting.

Berkowitz struck again nearly three months later, on the night of Oct. 23, 1976, when he again approached on foot and shot at a man and a woman in a parked car in Flushing, N.Y. Neither was killed. On Nov. 26, 1976, he walked up and shot two women from a distance of about 10 feet (3 meters) on the front stoop of a house in Queens. Both survived, but one of the women was left paralyzed. Although the manhunt for the elusive shooter was massive, he struck again on Jan. 30, 1977, in New York City's Ridgewood neighborhood, killing a woman as she sat in a parked car. On March 8, he claimed another female victim in Forest Hills, and on April 17 he shot and killed a man and a woman as they sat in a car in the Bronx.

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