What made David Berkowitz kill?

Question

Was it his neighbors dog giving him orders, was it "Sam", or was it the song "Rich Girl" by Hall and Oates?

Answer 1

like most low life murderers....he had do---do for brains!

Answer 2

The voices in his head made him do it.

Answer 3

That depends entirely on who you talk to.

When Berkowitz was first arrested, he alleged that the neighbor's barking dog gave him orders.

Much later, a journalist named Maury Terry in his book, Ultimate Evil, alleged that Berkowitz was the fall guy for a Satanic cult. He dug up a lot of circumstantial evidence to support this, including some half-hearted affirmations from Berkowitz himself.

But in the end, does it really matter who gave the orders? Berkowitz pulled the trigger, not anyone else. And he should suffer the penalty for doing so.  

Answer 4

schizophrenia, no support system, and a bad childhood. Was he ever officially diagnosed with schizophrenia? Certainly the dog giving him orders implies full blown psychosis, ie, schizophrenia.

Though he did prove remarkably lucid in interviews, didn't he? I'm not going to pretend I understand the mind of a psychotic killer. If it wasn't schizophrenia he must have had one h**l of a childhood.