The protagonist of today's case is extremely crazy, after committing the crime, he not only wrote letters to provoke the police, but also claimed to be controlled by dogs, and finally he wrote a book and became a rich man.
David. Berkowitz (left)
Let's pull back to July 29, 1976, in the early morning of July 29, 1976, in the Bronx district of New York, the police received a report that an 18-year-old girl, Donna, had been shot and killed
Deceased: Donna
According to Donna's parents, they and their daughter's friend Jody that day. Valenti went out to eat together
Jody. Valenti
In the early morning, the couple drove home first, and before they got home, they learned the news that their daughter was shot, the police and ambulance personnel rushed to the scene and found that Donna's neck was shot and died on the spot, and Jody's injury was in the buttocks, after treatment, there was no big problem, the police found 5 shell casings at the scene, in addition to no clues, when the police put the case as a very ordinary shooting case, after all, shootings in the United States can be said to be commonplace.
In the early morning of October 23, the police received another report, the same shooting, occurred in Queens, was attacked by a young couple, fortunately both were injured, but not life-threatening, the police learned that at the time of the crime, the victim was chatting in the car, a strange man suddenly appeared, and then shot at them.
Late at night on November 26, another shooting occurred in Queens, New York, attacking two middle-aged women, one of whom had not been hit, but the other had less luck
Victim of being beaten (Kristen Floynd)
She was hit in the spine, eventually paralyzed for life.
All three shootings occurred in the middle of the night, and the shell casings at the scene of the crime showed that the murder weapon was the same pistol, and the police had to link the three shootings together, believing that it was likely a series of gang attacks.
In the early hours of January 30, 1977, a fourth similar shooting took place in Queens, New York, attacking a young couple, killing and injuring one
Deceased: Donna Demasi
Police found the same shell casings at the scene as in previous cases, and on the night of March 8, a female student was shot dead on her way back to her dormitory
Female student killed by gun: Virginia Voscory Chain
Since then, there have been several shootings and killings
Couples killed by gunfire: Valentina Suriani & Alexander Esau
Deceased: Stacy Moskowitz
Deceased: Bobby Viorant
But in one of the cases, the killer left a letter
Letter left by the murderer (page 1)
Letter left by the murderer (page 2)
Letter left by the murderer (page 3)
Letters left by the murderer (page 4)
This was deliberately left to the police, in the letter the murderer claimed to be "Son of Sam", he said that his father was called Sam, a bloodthirsty monster, he had been imprisoned and abused by his father since childhood, and now that Old Sam was old, he was still controlled by him, so he came to shoot innocent people and collect blood for Old Sam.
From what is described in this letter, we seem to be able to understand that this murderer seems to have been forced to kill people? On May 30, a writer at the New York Daily got in touch with police, saying he had received a letter from "Son of Sam."
The second letter from the murderer
In the letter, "Son of Sam" said that he killed people to help Old Sam collect blood, and his killing would not stop until enough blood was collected, and at the end of the letter, "Son of Sam" left a sentence for the police, "What will the police do on July 29?" What does this sentence mean? Will the murderer commit the crime again on July 29th? In order to prevent the recurrence of the shooting, the police sent a large number of police forces to patrol at night, while warning the public to minimize going out at night, by July 29, there was no shooting in New York, just when the police were a little relaxed, on the 31st, there was a shooting in Brooklyn, the victims were a couple, one of them was hit in the head to rescue the ineffective death, the other person was also shot in the head, although he saved his life, but the left eye was blind, and the remaining right eye was only 80% of the vision, For a long time afterward, the "Son of Sam" seemed to have disappeared, and it wasn't long before the killer couldn't help but be lonely and actually sent a letter to the police
A letter from the killer to the police
The letter revealed that the killer was "Son of Sam" and that he was possessed by a demon, which made the police suspect that the killer probably had mental problems, and later the police investigated that the killer was driving a Volkswagen, but this clue was not very useful.
In August 1977, a witness contacted the police, who told the police that he had seen a man holding a gun before hearing the gunshots, and that she had also seen a police officer post a ticket to the man's car, which was a very important clue
The police read the ticket for illegal suspension
While flipping through the parking ticket, the police found the name of a man, David. Berkowitz
David. David Richard Berkowitz
This person had been reflected on him before, but at that time the police did not take it seriously, there was no evidence, so it was gone, and the reappearance of this name made the police pay attention, so the police began to investigate Berkowitz as an important suspect, and the results of the investigation made the police more suspicious of Berkowitz
Berkowitz's physical characteristics are very similar to the murderer, he once worked as a security guard, will be skilled in the use of pistols, so the police immediately applied for an arrest warrant to arrest Berkowitz, when seeing the police Berkowitz did not resist nor surprised, just said lightly "How did it take so long to find me?"
Police arrestEd by the police, Berkowitz
Police found a semi-automatic rifle in his home, and in the subsequent investigation, the police found that they had been misled by letters from Berkowitz, who had never been abused by his father, the so-called old Sam, but berkowitz according to the landlord Sam. Carl's name was made up, and during the interrogation, Berkowitz tried to make the police think he was mentally ill, claiming to be a dog slave who was controlled by a neighbor's Labrador
Berkowitz Neighbor's Dog (Name: Harvey)
The dog has the soul of an ancient demon in his body, and he has to obey its instructions to kill people, I don't know what it feels like to listen to it, anyway, I think it is very ridiculous, in court Berkowitz is the same statement, Berkowitz said that he was woken up by a dog barking one night, felt that the dog barking was a kind of summoning to himself, it issued an order to let himself go out and kill, and later he felt that being a dog slave was an insult to him, so he moved away, but he did not expect that the new neighbor also had a dog. It was a yellow Labrador who barked at the sight of him, ordering his slave to kill, but the jury did not believe the serial killer who claimed to be a dog slave.
Berkowitz was eventually sentenced to 365 years in prison, and Berkowitz was granted parole, but he gave up, saying that his sins had not been cleared and that he would continue to be punished in prison.
In 2005, Berkowitz presented himself to the prison to meet with a lawyer, and after meeting with the lawyer, Berkowitz said that he had decided to give his letters and other personal belongings to the publisher, hoping that the publisher would publish an autobiography for him, and that a portion of the profits would have to be given to the families of the victims.
Berkowitz wrote his memoirs in prison
In 2012, Berkowitz began to write a personal memoir, in which Berkowitz mentioned the word faith, he said that faith does have an incredible impact on other people's lives, Berkowitz's memoirs made a lot of money, but he donated all the money to the New York Crime Victims Foundation, which is also his redemption.