What do you think?
Rate this book
Confessions of Son of Sam
Based on fifty hours of personal interviews with Berkowitz, as well as discussions with his family, friends, former teachers, and others, this book describes the emotionally pained life of the mass murderer and details the motive behind his crimes
245 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 1985
2 people are currently reading
239 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 30, 2014
written before all the major research done on serial killers, Hence there is a lot of Freudian clap-trap.
January 4, 2017
I have been terrible at reading this year so far. I find myself ordering books and picking out books that I think are going to be awesome and that I am going to love, but then when I actually begin reading them, I lose interest right away and then they sit there while I watch NetFlix.
However, I stuck with this one and actually finished it. Probably because serial killers. 'Nuff said.
I had never really read in depth about David Berkowitz before. Sure I had read some of the case files about his victims and the nature of the crimes, but never about the man himself. This was a very nice change from that. Especially since it was written by someone who was in contact with him. There are several conversations transcribed verbatim within the book and I really enjoy that. I love getting in depth about people and their state of mind. Since this was written from the transcripts right after he was arrested and during his trial, the events are still fresh and the way he describes everything is very much in the moment instead of a remembrance from years after the fact.
It was fascinating to read about how David (because we're on a first name basis) tried to blame insanity and demons for his wanting to kill people and everyone wanted to believe that except for one psychologist. It's funny how no one ever wants to believe that sane people are capable of tins like murder. They always want something else to blame because if an otherwise rational person can commit atrocities like that, then they fear that they are also capable and some people just don't like to think about that.
This was a very interesting read and I would definitely like to read more books like this in the future.
However, I stuck with this one and actually finished it. Probably because serial killers. 'Nuff said.
I had never really read in depth about David Berkowitz before. Sure I had read some of the case files about his victims and the nature of the crimes, but never about the man himself. This was a very nice change from that. Especially since it was written by someone who was in contact with him. There are several conversations transcribed verbatim within the book and I really enjoy that. I love getting in depth about people and their state of mind. Since this was written from the transcripts right after he was arrested and during his trial, the events are still fresh and the way he describes everything is very much in the moment instead of a remembrance from years after the fact.
It was fascinating to read about how David (because we're on a first name basis) tried to blame insanity and demons for his wanting to kill people and everyone wanted to believe that except for one psychologist. It's funny how no one ever wants to believe that sane people are capable of tins like murder. They always want something else to blame because if an otherwise rational person can commit atrocities like that, then they fear that they are also capable and some people just don't like to think about that.
This was a very interesting read and I would definitely like to read more books like this in the future.
July 22, 2014
Wow !
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews