Ask 'Son of Sam' serial killer David Berkowitz if he is a dangerous man now, and he will likely tell you what he did a Fox News reporter.
"I have deep regret and sorrow over my past criminal actions." But don't expect to hear that from Gregory Davis, the 24-year-old who disembowled one of his victims -- and is going to be released in the UK soon. In fact, Davis claimed diminished responsibility for his crimes during his day in court.
Like Berkowitz, David exhibited odd behavior and wrote peculiar things in the course of his life. But unlike the Son of Sam killer, Gregory Davis appears to have not been motivated by alleged abuse, as David Berkowitz claimed in his earlier writings.
David Berkowitz now says he will not seek release from his prison cell come May of next year, his next schedule parole hearing opportunity. But Gregory Davis did seek a release and was granted one on a conditional discharge, according to the BBC, with final arrangements to be discussed this week.
David Berkowitz terroized a nation
One man terrorized a nation (Berkowitz); the other terrorized three people (Davis).
Berkowitz has been incarcerated for more than three decades; Gregory Davis for only eight years, since his 2003 murder of a 48-year-old mother named Dorothy Rogers and her 19-year-old son, Michael, whom he disembowled on a school playground.
Berkowitz says Jesus has already set him free, so he feels no need to seek the same from a parole hearing next year.
Davis, on the other hand -- who happened to have a fascination with serial killers before his murderous activity (keeping a journal about what he planned to do before he committed his crimes) -- does want his freedom.
He is said to have committed his crimes due to alcoholism and a bad reaction to medicine, which, eight years later, has subsided enough to make him okay to be released back into UK society according to doctors and his legal defense.
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Many people suffer from the plight of alcoholism. Others suffer from medication reactions. Some even suffer from both. But few, if any, are able to claim their journal writings detailing plans to murder certain people -- and then to traverse the countryside to kill more (and then doing it) -- were the work of a bad case of alcohol and medication mixing.
The FBI's Serial Murder symposium helped to debunk that myth perpetuation -- and others like it.
Few killers can convince a court and medical personnel that their crimes are due to alcoholism and a drug medication combination in order to gain their freedom and get back out in society when they detailed their plans days before the event. Uncontrolled behavior is usually "uncontrolled" and you can't "plan for it."
David Berkowitz's unwillingness to seek parole three decades after his killings mirrors that of Edmund Emil Kemper III, who was known as the California Co-ed Lust and Thrill Killer. Both men committed atrocious crimes; both men fear they might do it again. Neither man seeks parole.
On the other hand, Gregory Davis doesn't appear to have acknowledged any responsibility for his murderous actions, blaming it on alcohol and medicine, instead. This makes him the more dangerous person to be released into society, since it essentially absolves him of his conduct of the past -- and any he potentially conducts in the future, especially if he takes a drink again.
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