The notorious ‘Son of Sam’ killer, David Berkowitz, who both murdered and taunted police from 1976-1977, is reportedly currently in Albany receiving treatment for a heart condition. As reported by the Times Union, he was transferred from Shawagunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, Ulster County to a hospital for medical treatment and is awaiting emergency heart surgery. Now, according to the Times Union, it’s being assumed that he is at Albany Medical Center, because of the level of security needed and the location and proximity to the jail where he was housed. They report that it’s the only hospital with security measures in place able to treat an inmate of such. Of course as probably most of you know, there’s a little thing called federal law that prevents any nurse or medical provider from confirming or denying a patients presence. So it’s not confirmed.

I’m kind of on the sociopath path kick lately since seeing the movie “My Friend Dahmer” the other day at Crossgates mall the other day. His string or murders began coincidentally the same year that David Berkowitz was incarcerated at his current prison. As a psychiatric nurse, I actually work at times with sociopaths and what drives people to do what they do is an interesting field, however awful. Also let’s talk about the ethics involved in treating a serial killer with emergency surgeries and such, and how many different opinions there are about that (medical ethics is a whole separate can of worms).

In an interesting turn, David Berkowitz has over the years gone from the ‘Son of Sam’ serial killer, to being called ‘Son of Hope’, even starting a Christian outreach ministry in prison. For all of the fascinating details, check out the Times Union article!

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