My birth Mother Betty was overcome with grief at my arrest...
The situation was beyond her ability to make sense of it all. For my mom, it was a nightmare. Thankfully my sister and family were there to support her. Unfortunately, however, she would take her grief to the grave.
From the outset of my arrest and in the days and weeks that followed, individuals from the fields of psychology, and criminology, and even members of law enforcement, would be approached by various media people asking for their opinions as to why the "Son of Sam" shootings happened. They were looking for answers as to the motivations for the crimes.
But with this came an array of personal theories and speculations. This amounted to a lot of guesswork, much of it consisting of the usual Freudian ideas and concepts that, I believe, are oftentimes overused. In my case, the opinions of these "experts" went unchallenged. But I am taking exception to them now.
For example, commenting on the initial meeting I had with my birth mother, one particular author and journalist wrote, "Psychiatrists later said that this encounter so angered Berkowitz that it set off his urge to kill." Where did this come from? In my opinion, it came from an arrogant "expert" who should have been challenged as to why he would believe this to be true. What was his source for making such a rash statement?
While in another piece, a very opinionated individual wrote that I was greatly upset upon seeing for the first time the woman who had "so casually" given me away. But if one was to hear her side of the story, my mom fought hard to keep me, even using her fists on one occasion upon my birth father, Joe. He was the one who stubbornly insisted that my then pregnant mother not be allowed to keep her child.
As I wrote in my previous entry, all this can be substantiated by my mother herself when she was interviewed by the journalist who wrote the article for Good Housekeeping.
The person who interviewed my mother was able to reveal things that, for whatever reasons, the media has for the most part chosen to overlook. How tragic! Why is the truth being kept hidden while the opinions of very ignorant individuals are so thoughtlessly and repeatedly shared on crime shows, in articles, and in books?
D.B.
Good Housekeeping magazine
"The First Time Ever - The Startling Story of Son of Sam's Real Mother."
November 1978
From the outset of my arrest and in the days and weeks that followed, individuals from the fields of psychology, and criminology, and even members of law enforcement, would be approached by various media people asking for their opinions as to why the "Son of Sam" shootings happened. They were looking for answers as to the motivations for the crimes.
But with this came an array of personal theories and speculations. This amounted to a lot of guesswork, much of it consisting of the usual Freudian ideas and concepts that, I believe, are oftentimes overused. In my case, the opinions of these "experts" went unchallenged. But I am taking exception to them now.
For example, commenting on the initial meeting I had with my birth mother, one particular author and journalist wrote, "Psychiatrists later said that this encounter so angered Berkowitz that it set off his urge to kill." Where did this come from? In my opinion, it came from an arrogant "expert" who should have been challenged as to why he would believe this to be true. What was his source for making such a rash statement?
While in another piece, a very opinionated individual wrote that I was greatly upset upon seeing for the first time the woman who had "so casually" given me away. But if one was to hear her side of the story, my mom fought hard to keep me, even using her fists on one occasion upon my birth father, Joe. He was the one who stubbornly insisted that my then pregnant mother not be allowed to keep her child.
As I wrote in my previous entry, all this can be substantiated by my mother herself when she was interviewed by the journalist who wrote the article for Good Housekeeping.
The person who interviewed my mother was able to reveal things that, for whatever reasons, the media has for the most part chosen to overlook. How tragic! Why is the truth being kept hidden while the opinions of very ignorant individuals are so thoughtlessly and repeatedly shared on crime shows, in articles, and in books?
D.B.
Good Housekeeping magazine
"The First Time Ever - The Startling Story of Son of Sam's Real Mother."
November 1978
