David was shocked to see how badly the chemotherapy dissipated Pearl's health, and was devastated by her death in the fall of 1967. Prior to Pearl's death, she and her husband had been hoping to move David out of the dangerous streets of the Bronx, and into the middle-class safety of the high-rise development, Co-Op City. The apartment, however, was not ready until after Pearl's death, so David and his father lived there alone (Berkowitz 1).
David began to fall apart after Pearl's death. His grades plummeted and he lost all faith in God. He began believing that her death was part of a plan to destroy him, therefore becoming more and more introverted. His father's remarriage in 1971 only added to his stress. He and his stepmother never got a long, and when Nat and his wife moved to a Florida retirement community, David was left to drift absently without a purpose or goal. David became more obsessed with his fantasy life (6-1). Many experts believe that this re-occurring sense of abandonment was what drove David to the violent acts of murder that he would later commit (Berkowitz 1).
David attended a local community college in the Bronx for a few classes, more to appease his father than anything else. He later joined the Army in the summer of 1971. He remained there for three years, during that time becoming an excellent marksman. While in the Army he converted from Judaism to the Baptist faith, but again lost interest in religion. This disinterest in organized religion hints toward a lack of belief and a lack of hope, as religion offers comfort to many. David was more interested in his fantasy world than he was in anything substantial (Berkowitz 2).
David became driven to find his biological mother, Betty Falco. He eventually did, and she and her daughter, Roslyn, did everything possible to make David feel welcomed in their life. For a while David seemed happy for their presence, but eventually withdrew from them, making excuses not to visit.
