Delusion serial killer refers to himself as the “Son of Hope”
By: Dani Hendrix
Tags: Serial Killers, True Crime, Crime, Murder, Psychology

At this point, police begin to believe that the attacks could be connect. They investigated the car and the crime scene. Police had initially thought that the man was actually a woman because he had long hair and had wondered if the shooter thought the same. Police were beginning to notice a pattern between the crime scenes.

In November of 1976, two girls were hanging out on a front porch and noticed a man dressed in a full combat uniform approaching. The man asked for directions before he pulled out a gun and shot both girls once. He fired several more shots into the front of the house. One of the girls was shot in the neck and survived without any complications but the other was shot in the spine and was rendered a paraplegic.

Feeling increasingly confident because he hasn’t been caught yet, David attacked another couple in January 1977. Bullets flew into the car and the man driving pulled the car away as quickly as he could. The driver survived without any real injuries, but the woman in the driver’s side was shot and died later that night. Media coverage of the attacker was starting to grow, and women everywhere were terrified. The police released a statement saying that they believed the attacker was going after women with dark colored and long hair. Hundreds of women cut their hair and dyed it blond in hopes of saving their own lives from the nameless monster.

The anniversary of David’s first attack was coming up and police were on high alert. David decided to travel to Brooklyn to kill in honor of his year. On July 31st, a man and women were on their first date in their car. Shots were fired inside, and the woman died instantly. The man lost his eye, but these victims stood out because the woman was the first female David killed that had blond hair.

David had left several handwritten letters with poor grammar and spelling at some of the crime scenes for police to find, taunting them.

“I am deeply hurt by your calling me a wemon hater,”

He had written in one of his letters to the police. David asked the police to refer to him as Son of Sam, instead of the name that the media had given him which was the .44 Caliber Killer. In another letter to police he wrote,

“I want to make love to the world. I want to love people. I don’t belong on Earth. Return me to Yahoos. To the people of Queens, I love you. I want to wish all of you a happy Easter. May God bless you in this life and in the next and for now.”

What lead to his arrest

Earlier in the day before the killing had taken place, a woman was walking her dog in the area. She saw David and noticed a dark object in her hand. She said she got a horrible feeling and ran in the other direction, hearing shots fired behind her. After she saw the news about the couple that was killed, she called the police believing that she had seen the caller. She was able to give police important information but the most helpful piece she told them was that the car the man drove had a parking ticket on the windshield. Police were able to use the parking ticket lead to locate a license plate number, and from there they were able to get an address.

Police went to the residence and found David’s car out front. They saw an assault rifle in the car and called a judge to get a warrant. While searching, they found a duffel bag filled with bullets, maps of the crime scenes and a threatening letter addressed to an inspector of the Omega Task Force.

Investigators waited for David to leave his home to arrest him. David finally walks out of his house at around 10:00 PM. They made their arrest and David said,

“Well, you got me.”

It took all of thirty minutes for investigators to get David to confess. David explained to the investigators that a Harvey the demon dog had commanded him to kill pretty women and that he didn’t have a choice. He was planning on using the insanity plea, but three mental health exports proclaimed that David was mentally competent enough to stand trial.

After seeking counsel, David pled guilty to all of the shootings.

He was sentenced to 6 life sentences, one for each life that he took.

In prison, David claimed that he found God and now wanted to be referred to as “The Son of Hope.” During his time in prison, he wrote several pieces about the murders he committed. Publishing companies picked up word of these pieces and rushed at the chance to publish them. However, the New York legislature office quickly passed a bill that would prevent convicted criminals from receiving royalties on any books, movies or media that they could produce about their crimes. This law became known as the Son of Sam law.