“You got me, you took a long time”! This August 10, 1977, “the 44 caliber killer”, the one who had self -proclaimed “Sam’s son” was arrested in New York. In two years, this modest postal employee has coldly shot down six people and made seven seriously injured, sowing chaos in town. Who was David Berkovich really? Almost 50 years after the facts that have left many scars across the Atlantic, the documentary mini-series Sam’s son: self -portrait of a killer On Netflix sheds light on a new day the bloody route and the demonic personality of the Serial Killer.
A monster that New York will not forget
He terrified New York between July 1976 and July 1978 and was still serving his sentence in prison. Today, he appears on the list of serial killers whose history has retained the name. Alongside Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer or Jack the Ripper, David Berkovich is one of the monsters that we will not forget. “A crazy first,” recalls journalist Jack Jones who has repeatedly interviewed him! Almost 50 years after the facts, the Documentary Mini-series Sam’s son: self -portrait of a killer In particular, exhumes Berkovich audio interviews by Jack Jones.
The series immediately capsizes the spectator by the mind -blowing remarks made by the killer, the glazing facts reported, but also by the precision mechanics of a story to the staging millimeter by the director Joe Berlinger. Fascinated by serial killers, he had already signed Conversations With a Killer : The Ted Bundy Tapes For Netflix.
Childhood traumas
“It brings back to the image of these girls who sleep in a car with guys. Unconscious, what. It is degrading for me to know that I was an accident. Everything is said. When you hear David Berkovich explain from his cell why most of his victims were killed, while they were on a car with their boyfriend, it is the traumas of a tortured past that are expressed. Those of an unwanted child, abandoned at birth by a pregnant mother outside marriage. Those of a man who wants women. Preferably brown, with mid-long hair.
Thus, the series (in three 60 -minute episodes each) of Joe Berlinger relates as much the crimes of Berkovich through his words, that he explores the life of the killer. Multiplying the back and forth between present and past, the director found the method to keep us going.
Study the type as a cancer cell
The eight shootings perpetrated by Berkovitch are obviously “distilled” over the three episodes … until a “ twist Unexpected that we will not reveal to you. Atmosphere: surprise guest! At the same time, the testimonies flock, the director having found almost 50 years after the facts the police loaded with a puzzle investigation where it took them for a long time to understand that different crimes were linked.
At the helm also flock to journalists who have worked on the file of the “Caliber 44” killer “, whose famous Jack Jones who, visiting the killer in his prison, then found” that it was as important to study this type of type as cancer cells “. Also present are people who miraculously survived the “son of Sam”, while their partner was massacred at close range.
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“I just needed to kill”
Punctuated by numerous interviews, archive images, fictional sequences, Sam’s son: self -portrait of a killer ice cream when Berkovich tells himself and tells his murders: “I went out every night, settled like a clock […] The feeling of power, I didn’t care, I just needed to kill “…
Where when a letter he had addressed to Borelli, a New York criminal brigade, in charge of the investigation: “I love to hunt, prowl in the streets, in search of game, tasty meat. There is paradoxically a real suspense in this mini-documentary which we already know the end. Because unless you have inquired before viewing it (which we do not advise you to do as a posteriori!), We are waiting to know how the “Son of Sam” was arrested, he who, during his trial, refused to plead “madness”, but preferred to plead “guilty” by fully assuming his crimes. A quest for media recognition, in a way …
Besides, why had this nickname “Son of Sam” which Berkovich had decked out?
Come on, we let you go a few marbles …
Sam was the name of his neighbor’s dog (Sam Carr), a Labrador who, by barking, turned his head (tired, he tried to delete him). And why, too, “the 44 caliber killer”, reference to a large weapon, which then circulated very little in the United States?
After that, I promise, we don’t let go!
The film Taxi Driver (1976) could be the cause of this nickname. In a scene in the film, director Martin Scorsese who makes a cameo, told Robert de Niro about his wife who cheats on him “I’m going to kill her with a 44”. In all likelihood, Berkovich could have identified with the character of Niro, like him veteran of Vietnam … and mentally disturbed. “It was me in the film, you see!” “, Will let go of the monster from his prison at the microphone of his interviewer.
« You’re talking to me ? »…
Berkovich converted to Christianity in 1987, ten years after his arrest. He is now called “Son of Hope” … for the killer, little hope of regaining freedom. Sentenced to six sentences in life in crime (325 years), his last parole request in May 2024 was refused.
