David Berkowitz

David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco; June 1, 1953), also known as the Son of Sam, the .44 Caliber Killer and the Phantom of the Bronx, is an American serial killer, serial arsonist, and former United States Army soldier who committed a stabbing and a series of shootings in New York City between 1975 and 1977, killing six people and wounding eleven others. Armed with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver during most of his crimes, Berkowitz terrorized New York City with letters mocking police and promising further crimes, leading to possibly the biggest manhunt in the city's history. With a parking ticket proving a vital clue to finding him, Berkowitz was arrested on August 10, 1977, and subsequently indicted for eight shootings. He confessed to all of them and initially claimed to have been obeying the orders of a demon manifested in the form of a black dog named "Sam", which belonged to his neighbor. After being found mentally competent to stand trial, Berkowitz pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to six concurrent life sentences with the possibility of parole after twenty-five years. He subsequently admitted the dog-and-devil story was a hoax. In police investigations, he was also implicated in many unsolved arsons in the city. Intense media coverage of the case lent a kind of celebrity status to Berkowitz, which many observers noted he seemed to enjoy. The New York State Legislature enacted new statutes – known popularly as "Son of Sam laws" – designed to keep criminals from financially profiting from the publicity created by their crimes. The statutes have remained in New York despite various legal challenges, and similar laws have been enacted in several other states. During the mid-1990s, Berkowitz, by then professing to be a converted evangelical Christian, amended his confession to...