David Berkowitz - Early Life

Early Life

David Berkowitz was born Richard David Falco on June 1, 1953, to Betty and Tony Falco of Brooklyn, New York. His mother, Betty Broder, grew up in an impoverished Jewish family and later married Falco, an Italian-American Catholic. The couple ran a fish market together. His natural parents separated before his birth: his father left for another woman, and his mother later had an affair with a married real estate agent, Joseph Kleinman. When she became pregnant, Kleinman threatened to abandon her if she kept the baby – she put the child up for adoption and listed Falco as the father. Within a few days of his birth, the infant boy was adopted by Pearl and Nathan Berkowitz of the Bronx. The Jewish-American couple were hardware store retailers of modest means, and childless in middle age. They reversed the order of the boy's first and middle names and gave him their own surname, raising young David Richard Berkowitz as their only son.

John Vincent Sanders wrote that Berkowitz's childhood was "somewhat troubled. Although of above-average intelligence, he lost interest in learning at an early age and began an infatuation with petty larceny and pyromania." Neighbors and relatives would recall Berkowitz as difficult, spoiled and bullying – his adoptive parents consulted at least one psychotherapist due to his misconduct – but his misbehavior never resulted in legal intervention or serious mention in his school records. Berkowitz's adoptive mother died of breast cancer when he was thirteen and his home life became strained in later years, particularly because he disliked his adoptive father's second wife.

In 1971, at the age of 18, Berkowitz joined the US Army and served in the United States and South Korea. After an honorable discharge in 1974, he located his birth mother, Betty Falco. After a few visits, she disclosed the details of his illegitimate birth, which greatly disturbed him, particularly because his birth father was deceased. Forensic anthropologist Elliott Leyton described Berkowitz's discovery of his adoption and illegitimate birth as the "primary crisis" of his life, as a revelation that shattered his sense of identity. Berkowitz fell out of contact with his birth mother, but remained for a time in touch with his half-sister, Roslyn. He subsequently held several blue collar jobs, and at the time of his arrest he was working as a letter sorter for the U.S. Postal Service.