The Nation: Sam Told Me To Do It... Sam Is the Devil

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The question of how the once unremarkable Berkowitz acquired his demonic delusions will, of course, be the object of intense psychiatric study. Born Rich ard David Falco, but given up for adoption by his mother at birth, the killer was raised by Nathan Berkowitz, a respected owner of a small hardware store in The Bronx. His first wife pampered David, but one family friend recalls that the boy sometimes would "curse her because he knew he was adopted." Nevertheless, when she died of cancer in 1967, her teen-age son sobbed openly at the funeral; no body could remember his crying since then. The youth apparently was never close to Berkowitz's second wife, a congenial woman, active in charity work. After his father retired two years ago with his wife to Boynton Beach, Fla., David occasionally visited the couple.

The father flew to New York last week and, with tears flowing freely, he faced reporters. Addressing himself "to all those families who lost their children and had their children injured," he said: "If David did these things, I don't expect you to forgive him. The only thing I do ask of you is to understand the pain and agony that is within me, knowing the pain and agony of all you parents." Referring to the Berkowitz family, he said, "We too are victims of this tragedy."

If Berkowitz had no continuing attachment to a mother, he also seemed to have little affinity for women of his own age. According to Columnist Jimmy Breslin, a detective asked Berkowitz: "Do you go with girls?"

"No," he replied.

"Did you ever go with girls?"

"Yeah."

"How long back was that?"

"Couple of years."

"And you don't get invited a second time?"

"That's right."

Said the same detective: "He killed people, and I asked him about it. But he has no remorse. To him it was the same as eating an ice cream cone. He doesn't know the difference."

Around dating bars in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Berkowitz was remembered as a quiet listener who would timidly attempt to join animated conversation, inject a few comments with his bemused smile, quickly be cut out of a group as an odd duck, retreat, then try futilely to strike up a conversation with others.

Nothing seems to have been unusual about his education. He attended Christopher Columbus High School in The Bronx, where he rarely dated and was teased for being fat, and he stuck to Bronx Community College for only one year. He spent some of his free time with the New York City police auxiliary service. This did not involve training in the use of firearms or crime detection. He was taught how to direct traffic, administer first aid and perform other rescue-related duties. Fellow trainees considered him introverted but not particularly reclusive.

Berkowitz's rather withdrawn personality seems to have developed its more ominous oddities after he joined the Army in 1971. He flunked his first rifle-shooting test but eventually qualified as an infantry sharpshooter (the middle ranking between marksman and expert) with the M-16 rifle. Early in his Army service, for unknown reasons, he left Judaism to become a fundamentalist Baptist after attending hand-clapping revival meetings.