David Berkowitz: A True Psychopath

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According to the “Hare Psycopathy Checklist” a psychopath is a person who knows right from wrong in our society but often feels no guilt, remorse or empathy when they engage in wrong actions. They lie easily, blame others for their actions and often hurt people who are close to them. David Berkowitz meets the criteria of Hare’s checklist and is believed to be a true psychopath. Berkowitz is known as the “Son of Sam”, a thrill seeking serial killer who terrorized the city of New York for over a year. Information about David Berkowitz’s background, personality traits and lifestyle and his serial killer profile help to prove that he is in fact a psychopath. In conclusion, this essay will prove to readers that David Berkowitz is a notorious serial killer that is also a psychopath.

David Berkowitz was born David Falco, the son of Betty Broder. She had married Tony Falco, and had a daughter, Roslyn. The Falcos ran a fish market together, until he left her for another woman. Broder later had an affair with a married real estate agent, Joseph Kleinman. When she became pregnant he threatened to abandon her if she kept the baby, so when David Falco was born, she gave him up for adoption. Three days after Berkowitz was born he was adopted by his adoptive parents Nathan and Pearl Berkowitz. Berkowitz was raised in a middle-class home in the Bronx. He had what seemed to be a normal childhood but Berkowitz and his family knew there was something different about him from an early age and at the age of ten Berkowitz started seeing a therapist. Because of adoption policies Berkowitz’s family told him that his birth mother had died in childbirth with him. This haunted Berkowitz his entire life making him suffer from horrible nightmares as a chi...

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... We can start community lessons to learn about psychopaths as well as teach it in our schools as classes. This will help people to be more aware and to possibly know how to help a psychopath. As an individual you can help yourself by researching more on psychopaths and notifying others in your community. In conclusion, David Berkowitz has been proven to be a serial killer who is also a psychopath and this essay has notified readers about what psychopaths are and how they develop.

Works Cited

http://crime.about.com/od/murder/p/sonofsam.htm

http://www.nndb.com/people/278/000025203/

http://www.biography.com/notorious/crimefiles.do?catId=259456&action=view&profileId=262883&selectedIndex=1§ionName=Crimes

(Soylent Communications, Initials. (2011). NNDB tracking the entire world: David Derkowitz. Retrieved from http://www.nndb.com/people/278/000025203/).

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