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Confessions of Son of Sam

Name: Confessions of Son of Sam
Author: David Abrahamsen
ISBN: 9780231057608

by David Abrahamsen

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Overview

In 1976 the country was shocked and fascinated by a bizarre series of murders in New York City. The killer, known as "Son of Sam," stalked his victims after dark, choosing as his prey young women, usually sitting with their dates in parked cars. For one long year, the city lay in the grip of fear. On August 10, 1977 it was finally over. David Berkowitz was arrested, and eventually sentenced to several hundred years behind bars. But the story didn&#180t end there. In March 1979 Dr. David Abrahamsen, a psychiatrist retained by the Brooklyn district attorney to examine Berkowitz - and the only one to judge him competent to stand trial - received a letter from the killer. He wanted to tell his whole story to, ironically, the man who pronounced him fit for trial.
Confessions of Son of Sam is a probing analysis of the mind of the man responsible for one of the most terrifying and most publicized serial murders of all time. Based on fifty hours of personal interviews with Berkowitz and four hundred pages of personal correspondence with him, it is a unique and compelling portrait of a killer who told all to the psychiatrist he came to know and confide in - in a man he knew he could not fool.
From police interrogations, exhaustive psychological tests, and numerous discussions with Berkowitz&#180s family, friends, former teachers, and others, Abrahamsen unmasks the killer&#180s complex personality, weaving both a terrifying psychological profile and a riveting detective story.