Criminal Justice: Serial Killer Research Paper

Infamous Serial Killer: David Berkowitz
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Infamous Serial Killer: David Berkowitz
Introduction
Infamous serial killers are people who are known for taking great pleasure in causing great pain to people by killing them. Such killers have different motives that motivate them to do the killings. There has been many serial killers over the years, especially in the United States who have been known to kill masses of people. This paper seeks to describe the life of one infamous serial killer who was caught in the United States, David Berkowitz. He is known to have killed six victims and injured eight one of which became blind.His life, his victims, killings, motives, capture and life in prison is the purpose of this paper.
Figure 1: David Berkowitz
Background
David Berkowitz was born in June, 1953. His name was Richard David Falco. He was born adopted immediately after birth and renamed David Richard Berkowitz (Harmening, 2014). This was after his father said that he wanted nothing to do with him. He is described to be muscular and built. Berkowitz was a male and a white. He was well groomed and clean-shaven man as described by witnesses of his crimes. He was described as a disorganized killer. He displayed his, personality disorder at an early age. Most of his childhood life is not known.
While in the army, he abused marijuana, LSD, amphetamines and Mescaline and was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenic (Harmening, 2014). This affected his mind slowly as is always the case with drug abusers. He is believed to have been bewildered by the death of his mother (Crime and Investigation, 2015). This made him be full of anger and rage. The only woman who loved and accepted him had died.
Nick Names
Berkowitz’s nickname was "The Son of Sam" (Harmening, 2014). He first revealed this nickname when he wrote a letter to the columnist journalist, Jimmy Breslin that arose the curiosity of the world. The letter was signed with the name Son of Sam. His neighbor was called Sam Carr. He was also known as "44-caliber killer (Harmening, 2014). This nickname resulted as a result of him using a 44-caliber revolver every time he did his shootings. David Berkowitz was infamously known for shooting attacks that mostly occurred in parked vehicles, especially in places where young lovers met.
Figure 2: Berkowitz’s letter identifying him as "Son of Sam"
Berkowitz’s Modus operand
The son of Sam’s Modus operandi was approaching cars that were parked late at night. He never stalked his victims. He took advantage tifie the potential victims being in a particular area which he visited. He targeted areas where young lovers would meet frequently. He always approached the vehicle on the passenger side because he supposed that that was the position the female target would be seated (Harmening, 2014).
His modus operandi was depicted well when he passed by, an older woman who was walking alongside her dog and did not shoot her yet she was an easier target. Instead, he went ahead and shot Stacy Moskowitz and Robert Violante, who were seated talking. His targets were young ...