David Berkowitz, known as the "Son of Sam" killer, shot and killed 6 people in New York City between 1976-1977. He was a lonely, troubled man who struggled with mental illness and claimed to be taking orders from demons inhabiting dogs. Berkowitz carried out the random shootings with a .44 caliber handgun, targeting young women with dark hair between the ages of 18-20. He was eventually caught after his neighbor called the police with suspicions of arson and notes from "Son of Sam" were found in Berkowitz's apartment. Berkowitz was sentenced to 365 years in prison.

1. AKA: Son of Sam

2.  Berkowitz did not having the most promising
future as a child.
 He was adopted immediately after he was born
 His adoptive parents were middle-class
 He felt uncomfortable around his peers during
childhood.
 He was a bully, for no reasonable explanation at
all.

3.  He had a known violent streak
 His adoptive mother died when he was 14,
causing him to believe it was a plan to destroy
him
 He was abandoned at the age of 18

4.  He became a loner at age 18, allowing his
fantasy world to take over his life.
 He had one relationship, with Iris Gerhardt,
even though it was mainly fantasy for him
 Berkowitz attended a few classes at a local
community college in the Bronx.
 He served in the Army from 1971 to 1974
 He got briefly back in touch with his biological
family, but separated himself again.

5.  He started 1,488 fires in New York City, keeping
a diary of each fire that he started.
 He wrote a letter to his father saying that people
hated him and wanted to kill him, that the world
was becoming a dark place.
 He told psychiatrists that he was giving into the
“demons” of her personal life.

6.  His personal demons
 He claimed that the demons inhabited local
dogs, and when the dogs barked, it was telling
him to go on a search for blood.
 He was a paranoid schizophrenic
 He wasn’t able to establish good relationships
with women.

7.  Each time he used a Charter Arms .44 caliber
Bulldog handgun
 He approached them in the middle of the night
 He usually did his killings around one in the
morning.

8.  All women
 They all had dark hair
 They were all between 18 and 20 years of age

9.  Eye witnesses were stating that they had seen
Berkowitz, and they described his looks.
 Two Yonkers Cops: Chamberlain and
Intervallo conducted an investigation,
searching all of Berkowitz’s places of work.
 Berkowitz’s neighbor Craig Glassman called in
under suspicions of arson, when he went to
check the apartment, he found the notes of Son
of Sam.

10.  He was called in for parking tickets
 He was finally caught by the New York City
police, on their second try, the first of which
was unsuccessful, because it was his next-door
neighbor Craig Glassman.

11.  He was sentenced to 365 years in jail

12.  Bardsley, Marilyn. David Berkowitz: The Son
of Sam. <Crimelibrary> Criminal minds and
methods. 2011. Accessed November 11, 2012
from
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_
killers/notorious/berkowitz/16.html