David Berkowitz Biography

To begin, David Berkowitz was brought up by middle class adoptive parents by the names of Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz. His birth mother was Betty Broder who grew up in Brooklyn as a poor, single, Jewish mother trying to cope with raising a daughter. Broder later had relations with Joseph Kleinman and became pregnant by him, but he was not happy about the idea of having another child and on June 1, 1953 Betty put him up for adoption. Pearl and Nathan adopted David and were devoted to him and nothing in his childhood seemed to indicate that he would become a violent serial killer. However, he did show the classic serial killer profile being that he was isolated from his peers and did not feel good about himself. His neighbors recalled him a being

December 24, 1975, Berkowitz began his killing spree by stabbing two women with a hunting knife, one was identified as Michelle Forman and the other has never been identified. He struck again on July 29, 1976 on two young girls, Donna Lauria, who was eighteen, and Jody Valenti, who was nineteen. He fired three shots at the girls as he approached the car they were in and while Lauria was killed, Valenti survived. Although she was not able to identify him, police were able to gain enough information to determine that a .44 caliber Bulldog gun was used. The next crime occurred on October 23, 1976, where he shot at a car and luckily the two people survived with fixable injuries. November 27, 1976 the next crime took place when he shot two more young girls with his .44 caliber gun. The women, Donna DeMasi (16) and Joanne Lomino (18) both managed to survive the act, but Lomino was left paralyzed. Following this, on January 30, 1977, Christine Freund and John Diel has their car shot at by Berkowitz and while Diel suffered minor injuries, Freund died from injuries at the hospital. Again, police were able to determine the shots came from a .44 caliber gun. March 8, 1977 the shots continued as Virginia Voskerrichian was gunned down with several shots and eventually was killed from a shot to the head. April 17, 1977, Alexander Esau and Velentina

During his years there, he claimed to have had a spiritual awakening in his cell and had devoted himself to God. During his time there he been visited by criminologist Dr. Scott Bonn, who was informed by many people at the facility that Berkowitz is nothing like the man who committed those crimes and claimed that David was unlike the man who sat in court 36 years ago. Berkowitz informed Dr. Bonn that he loves God and all people and also expressed deep remorse for his crimes even though he realizes he will probably never be forgiven. At the end of his meeting with Dr. Bonn, he left him with a message for the public saying to “Tell them with God there is always hope. If he can save someone like me, then he can save anybody” (Serial Killer). As of recent times, Berkowitz just turned 62 and his next chance for parole will occur in