David Richard Berkowitz (born June 1, 1953), better known by his nicknames Son of Sam or The .44 Caliber Killer, is an infamous serial killer who confessed to killing six people and wounding several others in New York City in the late 1970s.
Though Berkowitz remains the only person charged or convicted in relation to the case, some law enforcement authorities suspect that there are unresolved questions about the crimes, and that others might have been involved: according to John Hockenberry of MSNBC the "Son of Sam" case was reopened in 1996, and as of 2004, was officially considered open.
Biography - Early life
Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco in Brooklyn, New York, to Betty Broder and Joseph Kleinman. Broder was married to Tony Falco and had a daughter with him, although Falco abandoned her, they never divorced. She later had an affair with the married Kleinman. When Broder told Kleinman that she was pregnant, he told her to get rid of the baby. However, Broder had the baby and listed Falco as the father.
A few days after his birth, the baby was adopted by Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz, a Jewish couple who reversed the order of the baby's first and middle names.
