The murderer of the son of Sam David Berkowitz continues to change his story, even now (2023)

Netflix's new true crime seriesO Children of Sam: Descent into Darkness takes a closer look at a case that terrorized New York City in the late 1970s. Between July 1976 and July 1977, the Son of Sam, originally known as the .44 Killer because of the revolver he wielded, shot 13 people. and killed 6. Most of his victims were young women with shoulder-length brown hair. He taunted the police and wrote letters signed "Son of Sam", a possible reference to Satan or "Uncle Sam", officers thought. On August 10, 1977, David Berkowitz, a 24-year-old postman, was arrested. He wasa parking ticket that led to his arrest. "Fine," he reportedly said when the police found him. "You got me."

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It was believed that the city could be sure that Sam's son had been captured. However, investigative journalist Maury Terry, who died in 2015, long thought the case went far beyond Berkowitz. Netflix's four-episode limited series focuses on the "Children of Sam", Terry's theory thatBerkowitz did not act alone. Whether this is true is unclear, but Berkowitz is still in prison after more than 40 years. He is the only one accused of the Son of Sam murders.

Berkowitz's Confession to Sam-Morden's Son

Emsons of sam,A former police officer who interviewed Berkowitz after his arrest said he "couldn't be happier to talk about what he did and why he did it". He confessed to the murders and told police that "Sam" was a 600-year-old being who spoke to him.your neighbor's dog Sam Carr. He said he drove every night waiting for the "signal". The .44 gun found in his car is believed to be the murder weapon.the murder of Stacy Moskowitz, who was shot while sitting in a car in Brooklyn. She would be the final victim of the Son of Sam.

In 2013, Berkowitz told CBS News that he was at the time of the shooting.obsessed with the occult and satan. He said that after being discharged from the army in 1974, he was drawn to the occult. He was never ordered to kill by his neighbor's dog, but instead, he said, his urge to kill made him feel like "a soldier on a mission". He felt that Satan would release him if he killed, but his death only made him feel empty. In that interview, he said he acted alone.

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The problem with Son of Sam police sketches

Those who knew the mild-mannered Berkowitz at the time of the shooting were stunned that he was the killer. His neighbors in Yonkers, NY said he was "a good man". Others wonderedWhy Berkowitz Didn't Look Like Police Sketchesthe son of Sam. This included then-Mayor Abraham Beane. "I was a bit surprised to see a person his size," he told reporters after his arrest. “He appeared to be a well-built, heavy person. And it didn't look like the final sketches." Terry wondered the same thing, writing at the time: "How could all those witnesses and all those sketches be wrong?"

Despite inconsistencies in the drafts, Berkowitz was charged in Brooklyn six days after his arrest. He was taken to court in an eight-vehicle motorcade as residents lined the streets to see him. The crowd cheered as he was taken into court, where he was seen smiling. He too smiled the night of his arrest.

Berkowitz trial, apologies and recent interviews

After an eventful trial in which Berkowitz was nearly attacked, heplead guilty to killing six peopleand seven others wounded. 1978,he was convictedto six consecutive 25-year sentences at the maximum security Sullivan Correctional Facility in Catskills, NY. A then-minister of the state Supreme Court said that theywould have sent him to the electric chairif it had been an option because "it would have been a deterrent to the obviously utterly senseless murders that came to my court".

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In 1987, Berkowitz became a born-again Christian and began calling himself thethe "son of hope".twenty years laterHe wrote an apologyon their riseandshine.org website. “I am sorry for the wounded and for the families of those who lost a loved one because of my selfish actions,” he wrote. "I regret what I did and it haunts me."

He continues to express remorse for the shootings, which he claimed again in 2017 to have committed while possessed by a demon. On the 40th anniversary of the murders, he told CBS New York that his killing spree was "a break from reality". Thought I'd do something to appease the devil. I'm sorry, but I really don't want to talk about it anymore."

When asked in the same interview if he was the sole perpetrator, he said he took full responsibility for the Son of Sam shootings, "but let's put it this way, there were demons".

Berkowitz believes he has progressed this time and that timeGod forgave him. In a 2011 letter to Fox News, he wrote, "Jesus Christ has already forgiven and forgiven me. I'm not saying this jokingly. I really am. He's given me a whole new life that I don't deserve." He added, "Although society never forgives me, God did."

He wrote that in the same letterhe would stop asking for parole, to which he has been entitled since 2002. "Not many people who are in prison don't want to get out," Carole Weaver, a spokeswoman for the New York State Division of Probation, told Fox News. She said that Berkowitz is a stand-up supervisor, howeverthe victim Roberto Violante, who lost his eye when he was shot during a meeting with Moskowitz in the summer of 1977, was not interested in his apology. “He can say whatever he wants. He knows he deserves to be where he is,” Violante told Fox News in 2011. “He will never get parole. He killed a lot of people."

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David Berkowitz Now: An Ever-Changing Story

Berkowitz continuednot apply for parole, who often choose not to attend the hearings. In 2016, he attended the parole hearing, only to say that he had no interest in parole. But in 2020, he admitted that he thinks about parole "all the time", butdon't you think he deserves it. "But at the same time, I think, 'Wow, if I ever get parole, I could do every good thing there is,'" he told WORLD, a Bible-based magazine.

At 67, he became a spiritual advisor and mentor to his fellow prisoners. Your salvation hasallowed him an unexpected "image reform",withDie New York Timesput it in 2010. Three years ago, hehad a quadruple shiftand changed prisons several times to ensure his safety. He also changed his story over the years about whether he was a member of a cult. (In 2020,he said he was.) He also hinted thatmay not act alone, Terry even said in a 1993 interview forin-house editing,OJoe and Michael Carr, sons of Sam Carr, were involved in the murders. But since that interview, when he revealed that he had not pulled the trigger on all of the Son of Sam murders, he has not publicly named any other accomplices. Instead, he points tothe "demons" that possessed him.

What has remained constant is Berkowitz's commitment to sharing his redemptive story.a website of theirs. He describes himself as a Messianic Jew and says his faith has helped him survive. "I deserve nothing, no goodness from the Lord," he told WELT in 2020. "But I tell you, God delivered me."