Why We Love Serial Killers

by Scott Bonn

  Driven by obsessive fantasy, serial killers are compelled to murder repeatedly in order to satisfy their desires. However, the brutal and messy reality of murder never completely fulfills the promise of a serial killer’s fantasy. In fact, the aftermath of murder usually results in an emotional letdown for the killer, yet the fantasy does not go away because it is too deeply ingrained in the killer’s mind and psyche.64 Ted Bundy observed, “The fantasy that accompanies and generates the anticipation that precedes the crime is always more stimulating than the immediate aftermath of the crime itself.” When a serial killer is disappointed by a failure to experience his ultimate fantasy in real life exactly the way he envisioned it in his mind, he will continue to kill in an attempt to achieve the ideal fantasy. Such is the obsessive, compulsive, and cyclical nature of serial murder.

  Keeping Trophies of Murder

  Many serial killers keep souvenirs or trophies from their crimes which serve to sustain and refuel their violent and sexual fantasies. When Ted Bundy was asked why he took Polaroid photos of his victims, he said, “When you work hard to do something right, you don’t want to forget it.” The former FBI profiler John Douglas has said that keeping mementos from a victim such as a lock of hair, jewelry, ID card, or a newspaper clipping of the crime helps to prolong and even nourish the serial killer’s secret fantasy. In between their murders and while targeting future victims, serial killers often take out their trophies to help them relive past murders through fantasy. Trophies help a prolific killer such as Bundy to recall each one of his many victims. Similarly, Dennis Rader kept a locked treasure chest of trophies in the basement of his home which helped him to prolong and heighten his autoerotic fantasy life as he recalled each one of his victims.

  Some serial killers such as Bundy and Gary Ridgway give their trophies to a family member or intimate partner. The recipient might be the wife or a girlfriend who was causing the killer psychological pain at the time the trophy was acquired. Like a cat that catches a mouse and gives the special item to its owner, a serial killer may take a trophy home and present it to his significant other. For example, Ted Bundy would give an item of jewelry to a woman in his life and say, “Look at what I found on the street. I want you to have it.” When the killer later sees the trophy being worn by his wife, girlfriend, or mother, it becomes part of his secret game. He will look at her wearing it and fantasize about the victim he raped and murdered in order to acquire it. Bundy said that in such moments he would think to himself with much delight, “If she only knew that the necklace she is wearing came from someone I murdered.” (I provide further insights into the significance of trophies and fantasy in chapter 7 based on my correspondence with BTK.)

  The Unique Motivations and Techniques of Female Serial Killers

  As briefly discussed in chapter 2, the motivations of female serial killers differ significantly from their male counterparts. In particular, sex is generally much farther down on the list of motivations for female serial killers. In fact, sexual or sadistic motives are extremely rare among female serial murderers. Psychopathic traits and histories of childhood abuse are often found among the very few female serial killers who have sexual or sadistic motives. Unlike male serial killers who are frequently driven by sexual lust, female serial murderers tend to take a much more pragmatic approach to their killings.65

  Female serial killers are much more likely than males to kill for profit or revenge and, therefore, they are more likely to be hedonist comfort/gain killers than any other type. Unlike male serial killers who usually target unknown victims, females tend to kill men who are emotionally and physically closest to them, particularly husbands or lovers, and they generally kill to improve their lifestyle. However, victims of female serial killers are not confined to male husbands or lovers. An important psychological study of eighty-six female serial killers in the US found that their victims also included children and the elderly.66

  The news and entertainment media have popularized the female comfort/gain killer in the cultural image of the “Black Widow.” The black widow serial killer is a woman who murders three or more husbands or lovers for financial or material gain over the course of her criminal career. The black widow killer was featured in the 1944 classic dark comedy film Arsenic and Old Lace starring Cary Grant. This highly popular film tells the fictional tale of two sisters who murder elderly gentlemen by serving them elderberry wine laced with arsenic.

  Although they comprise less than 20 percent of all serial killers, females are very effective in their work and they typically use quieter and less messy methods to kill than their male counterparts.67 The methods they use for murder are more covert or low-profile such as murder by poisoning, which was the preferred choice or modus operandi of female serial killers in the aforementioned research study. Other methods of murder that were also identified in the study include shooting, stabbing, suffocation, and drowning.68

  Female comfort/gain killers are frequently involved in theft, fraud, or embezzlement prior to becoming serial killers due to their interest in material things.69 Although most female serial killers murder for money or other profit, some do it for the attention and sympathy they receive following the death of someone they cared for. It is not uncommon for female comfort/gain killers to be employed as caretakers in nursing homes for the elderly. Female serial killers generally operate in a specific place that they know well such as their home or a health care facility where they are employed. They rarely go trolling for victims out in the open as male serial killers often do, but rather find victims in their family or workplace. As previously discussed, the deadly landlady Dorothea Puente is the prototypical female hedonist comfort/gain killer.

  Dorothea Puente, the Sacramento boarding house landlady and serial killer, during her trial. (photo credit: Associated Press)

  Occasionally, a female serial killer will become involved with a male serial killer as part of a serial killing team.70 In such instances, the female will typically be the more submissive of the two and help to select victims in order to please her dominant male partner. The husband and wife serial killing team of Gerald and Charlene Gallego provides an example of this rare affiliation. Between 1978 and 1980 the Gallegos killed a total of ten victims, mostly female teenagers, whom they kept as sex slaves prior to murdering them. The victims were selected primarily for the lurid sexual gratification of Gerald Gallego who was the dominant partner in the murderous relationship. Gerald dictated his taste in victims to his wife, who helped him to lure the unsuspecting girls into a fatal trap. Following their capture, Charlene agreed to testify against her husband and plead guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. Gerald was found guilty and given the death penalty, which was later commuted to a life sentence. He died of cancer in 2002. In return for her cooperation, Charlene was granted transactional immunity in California, Nevada, and Oregon for the other eight murders. She served sixteen years and eight months prison time in Nevada and was released in 1997. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

  A notable exception to the typical characteristics of female serial killers is the notorious highway prostitute Aileen Wuornos, who killed outdoors instead of at home, used a gun instead of poison, killed strangers instead of friends or family, and killed for personal gratification and vengeance. I believe that Aileen Wuornos rose to infamy because she was atypical of female serial killers. The lack of public awareness of female serial killers prior to Aileen Wuornos was due to the virtual absence of female serial killers in the news and entertainment media. Until Wuornos, the mass media almost always depicted a serial perpetrator as a deranged man due to the erroneous and paternalistic societal notion that women could not commit such crimes. Unlike the obscure and rarely discussed Black Widow killers throughout history, Wuornos became a modern-day celebrity monster and popular culture icon because she defied stereotypes and did not kill demurely as a woman “should.”

  Interestingly, the most prolific serial killer of all time may have been female—that is, Hungari
an Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed who was born on August 17, 1560. Elizabeth was a countess from the renowned Báthory family in Hungary. Following her husband’s death, the countess and four collaborators allegedly tortured, sexually assaulted, and killed hundreds of girls and young women. One witness attributed more than 600 victims to them, although the number for which her alleged co-conspirators were charged and convicted was eighty. Incredibly, Elizabeth was never tried or convicted of any crimes herself. Nevertheless, to pacify the public in 1610, the countess was placed under house arrest in the Csejte Castle where she remained bricked in a set of rooms until her death four years later in 1614.

  Conclusion

  In this chapter, we have examined the strange and diverse needs, motivations, and rituals of serial killers. We also looked at the highly regarded four-fold typology of serial killer motivation that was developed by criminologists Ronald Holmes, Stephen Holmes, and James De Burger, now called the Holmes and Holmes typology. We’ve identified the various categories and sub-types of serial killers, including thrill killers, hedonist lust killers, and power/control killers. We discussed the many significant contributions that criminal profilers, criminologists, and clinical psychologists have made to the identification and classification of serial killers. We’ve seen that the key to understanding the career trajectory of a serial killer lies in the nature of their fantasy and how they actualize it. And finally, we discussed the unique motivations of female serial killers who tend to seek comfort or gain from their murders.

  PART 2

  UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH TWO INFAMOUS SERIAL KILLERS

  CHAPTER 6

  FROM SON OF SAM TO SON OF HOPE: THE STRANGE JOURNEY OF DAVID BERKOWITZ

  Over a period of two years I forged a relationship with the incarcerated serial killer whose self-assigned pseudonym, “Son of Sam,” is synonymous with evil in our society. The murderous exploits of the man behind the pseudonym have become a permanent tale of horror in the popular culture. David Berkowitz is one of the most notorious serial predators and criminals of all time. Jeff Kamen, Emmy-winning journalist who covered the Son of Sam case extensively, astutely observed that before Berkowitz “leaped from hating women to killing them, he had been one of millions of worker bees [in New York] who lead anonymous lives . . . [Then] Berkowitz bought a revolver and shot his way into the headlines and infamy.”

  David Berkowitz murdered six people, and wounded seven others, with a .44 Bulldog revolver during his reign of terror several decades ago in New York City. He ignited a public panic of epic proportions during the so-called “Summer of Sam” in 1977. After the largest manhunt in New York history, Berkowitz was arrested without incident outside his apartment on August 10, 1977. As he was being taken into custody he mildly said, “Well, you got me. How come it took you such a long time?” Berkowitz received six consecutive life sentences for his crimes. Incredibly, he became a born-again Christian in 1987 after having a self-proclaimed spiritual awakening one night in his cell at Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York, where he now permanently resides.

  This chapter explores my personal interactions with David Berkowitz and presents the unique insights I have gained into his personality, life, and current way of thinking. I corresponded with Berkowitz extensively through letters, and I have also visited him one-on-one in prison. My interactions with Berkowitz have produced revelations about both his past and present. In particular, I believe that certain aspects of the popular culture image of Son of Sam—including key elements that are now taken for granted—are myths which were created by law enforcement and the media over the years. Unbelievably, the serial killer whose pseudonym symbolizes evil in our society now spends his time as a spiritual adviser to troubled prison inmates in upstate New York and he regularly corresponds with sick and suffering people around the world. This is his story.

  The Evolution of a Serial Killer

  David Richard Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, to Betty Falco and Joseph Kleinman, who were both married to other people at the time. When Betty had become pregnant, Kleinman threatened to abandon her if she kept the baby, so she put David up for adoption and listed her husband Falco as the father. Within a few days of his birth, David was adopted by Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz of the Bronx. They were Jewish, working class, middle-aged and childless.

  David Berkowitz, left, arrives at the 84th police precinct in Brooklyn, New York, 1977. (photo credit: Associated Press)

  By all accounts including his own, Berkowitz had a troubled youth. He told me that he “hated school and would run home every day” after the final bell sounded. Although he was above average in intelligence, Berkowitz was hyperactive and surly, so he lost interest in school at an early age and became obsessed with petty theft, bullying his peers, and pyromania. He frequently got into fights and acted out in school. Although Berkowitz claims to have started more than 1,000 fires during his adolescence he was never in trouble with the law prior to becoming a serial killer at the age of twenty-three. His adoptive parents were concerned about Berkowitz and sought psychological help for their troubled son.

  Morbid thoughts about death and his adoption haunted Berkowitz during his youth. At the age of five, he was told that he was adopted. At that time, Berkowitz was also told by his adoptive parents that his biological mother had died during child birth. That was a lie. Berkowitz grew up feeling responsible and guilty for his biological mother’s death. He also had disturbing and conflicting thoughts about his biological father. Berkowitz sometimes fantasized that his natural father would come and save him from his adoptive parents, although the Berkowitzs were supportive and never mistreated him. Berkowitz also wondered why his father had abandoned him after his mother’s death. He thought that perhaps his biological father had given him up for adoption because he hated him. He says that he became “afraid of the dark and thought that his father would come and get him for killing his mother.” Berkowitz’s adoptive mother Pearl Berkowitz died of breast cancer in 1967 when he was fourteen. He was devastated by her death and became severely depressed. Berkowitz viewed his mother’s death as a conspiracy designed to destroy him. He began to fail in school and spent most of his time alone. When Nathan Berkowitz remarried in 1971, Berkowitz resented it and fought with his adoptive father’s new wife. Nathan and his new wife moved to Florida that same year, leaving eighteen-year-old Berkowitz behind.

  Berkowitz grew up feeling extremely lonely and longing for a sense of purpose and meaning in his life. He thought that perhaps he might find that by serving his country in the war with Vietnam, so he joined the US Army in 1971. He recalls feeling like he was embarking on a “special mission” and it gave him a sense of pride to be in the military. Instead of sending him to Vietnam, however, the army stationed him in South Korea which Berkowitz recalls as a “boring time.” During his tour in the army, Berkowitz had his one and only sexual experience with a prostitute and he caught a venereal disease from her. He recalls that experience as being humiliating. So, after serving a self-described “disastrous” three years in South Korea, Berkowitz left the army with an honorable discharge. Ironically, he had entered the army in 1971 looking for meaning but he left it in 1974 feeling more lonely and unfulfilled than ever before.

  When he returned home from the army, Berkowitz became obsessed with determining his roots. He found out that his natural mother was still alive and that he also had a sister following an exhaustive search of public records. He was shocked but excited about the prospect of finally meeting his birth family. Upon locating his mother and sister, there was a brief family reunion. After a few visits together, however, Betty Falco disclosed the details of Berkowitz’s illegitimate birth, which greatly disturbed him, particularly because his birth father, Joe Kleinman, was deceased. Berkowitz fell out of contact with his mother but remained in touch with his half-sister, Roslyn, for a time. Berkowitz’s visits with Roslyn eventually dwindled in number, and he drifted in and out of a
series of blue-collar jobs. He would eventually be employed full-time as a letter sorter for the US Postal Service throughout his killing rampage.

  Forensic anthropologist Elliott Leyton, PhD, has described Berkowitz’s discovery that his birth mother was alive and that he was born out of wedlock as the “primary crisis” of his young life, which effectively shattered his sense of identity. Upon discovering the truth about his origin, Berkowitz’s feelings of guilt and shame over being responsible for his mother’s death were replaced by rage over having been deceived and abandoned by his birth parents. Berkowitz’s rage was given direction as well as an illicit purpose through his growing interest in Satanism, which began shortly after his release from the army at the age of twenty-one. Before long, he became obsessed with Satan and the occult. By 1975, isolation, fantasies, and paranoid delusions had progressed to the point that Berkowitz lost touch with reality.

  Armed and Ready to Kill

  On Christmas Eve, 1975, his self-described demons drove him into the streets with a hunting knife to find a victim to kill. After his capture in 1977, Berkowitz confessed to plunging the knife into two female victims that first night. However, only one of the two alleged victims was ever confirmed and Berkowitz was never under suspicion for the crime. The one confirmed victim from that first night, fifteen-year-old Michelle Forman, survived the attack and was treated for six knife wounds. Berkowitz also injured himself with the knife when he attacked Forman. He would never use a knife again in his subsequent attacks. Soon afterward, he moved out of the Bronx to Yonkers. It was in his new home in Yonkers that the Son of Sam was born in 1976.

  David Berkowitz is considered to be a visionary serial killer because he was driven to kill by an obsession with the belief that he was carrying out the work of Satan. Berkowitz murdered six people and severely wounded seven others (some permanently injured) during his reign of terror in New York City that extended from July 1976 until his arrest in August 1977. The first Son of Sam shootings took place in the Bronx on July 29, 1976, when Berkowitz killed Donna Lauria, age eighteen, and wounded her friend Jody Valenti, age nineteen. Although the killer seemed to focus on young white women with long dark hair, he frequently targeted male-female couples who were seated in parked cars. He would approach their automobiles and shoot them through the glass with his powerful revolver. A few of his victims were shot in public out in the open. The Son of Sam normally struck either in the evening or late at night.