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Son Of Sam Speaks Out From Prison

CBS News, WJZ.com, USA
May 21, 2007
Kai Jackson
wjz.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Monday May 21, 2007

(WJZ) NEW YORK — Three decades after a serial killer terrorized New York City, he claims he’s found God.

David Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam, is serving six life sentences in a New York correctional facility, and for the first time in 30 years, he’s speaking out.

Kai Jackson has the interview you’ll only see on Eyewitness News.

Horrifying headlines describe the random killings of a chilling crime spree.

The targets: young couples parked in cars and young women with long, brown hair.

As an eerie paranoia spread across the city, New Yorkers changed their daily routines fearing they could be next. Panicked women cut and dyed their hair as beauty supply stores ran out of blond wigs.

Locked away for 30 years now, David Berkowitz says he killed six people, wounded seven others and held all New Yorkers hostage because he surrendered himself to darkness.

“I dedicated myself to Satan and became a soldier and had the Satanic Bible and went through stupid rituals,” said Berkowitz.

He eluded police for more than a year, even leaving a letter at one of the crime scenes. In it, he called himself the Son of Sam and signed it “Yours In Murder, Mr. Monster.”

Ironically, a parking ticket finally cracked the case. When he was captured, Berkowitz reportedly asked police, ‘What took you so long?’

Joseph Coffey, a retired NYPD lieutenant, took a full confession from Berkowitz the day he was arrested.

“He went through killings like you and I were talking about going out for a cocktail,” said Coffey.

Son of Hope

Today, Berkowitz claims to be a born-again Christian. It’s a transformation, he says, happened 20 years ago.

“In the darkness of the prison cell, I got down on my knees on that stone floor, and I began to talk to Jesus. I told him how sorry I was for things I did,” Berkowitz said. “A lot of harm was done to innocent people. I regret that terribly and by the grace of God I am what I am today.”

At New York’s Sullivan Correctional Facility, Berkowitz is considered a model prisoner.

He’s twice canceled his own parole hearings saying it wouldn’t matter where he was as long as he could spread the word of the Gospel.

“It’s God who delights to show mercy. He’s the one who I believe has chosen me for this time we’re living in to let people know that he does forgive sin,” said Berkowitz.

Berkowitz is again up for parole in 13 months.

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