Son of Sam Speaks of God
At 58, he’s balding, and his remaining hair is solid white. But the biggest difference is in his eyes.
Oh! Give me a BREAK! *Sorry, couldn't stop that outburst*
Do you see a difference?
When David Berkowitz made headlines in the 1970s as the serial killer “Son of Sam” in New York City, his bold glare was brazen and threatening. Thursday, on videotape from a prison in Fallsburg, N.Y., there was a near-peaceful glint in his eyes as he addressed the 28th annual Suffolk Leadership Prayer Breakfast.
“I came to prison with no hope, no direction, no reason to live,” he said from a screen suspended above the meeting room at the Suffolk National Guard Armory. “After 10 years in prison, I met Christ, confessed to God. I asked him to please forgive me.”
Berkowitz, who now calls himself “Son of Hope,” spoke at the breakfast that is held each year on the National Day of Prayer. Organizers typically don’t announce who the guest speaker is going to be, but this year’s video appearance by Berkowitz was more of a surprise than usual.
“It was different,” City Councilman Leroy Bennett said afterward. “I talked with people when it was over, and I think everybody was impressed. It was interesting. I think he has honestly changed his life and feels the Lord has blessed him.”
Through Norfolk lawyer Stephen D. Lentz, who was sent to New York to interview Berkowitz, the convicted killer said his message is that God can forgive anyone.
The selection of Berkowitz as speaker was a marked contrast to other recent speakers – people such as a retired Air Force colonel who was a POW in Iraq, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
“No matter where you go or what you’ve done, you can’t get away from God,” said lawyer Randy Singer, who introduced Berkowitz to the capacity crowd at the early-morning event.
Berkowitz was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and adopted by the owners of a hardware store. In the murders he was convicted of in 1978, he claimed a demon-possessed dog owned by his neighbors commanded the slayings. Berkowitz was arrested in August 1977.
The writer of this story does not say how Berkowitz later admitted to lying and that he actually killed because he hates women. We will get to that. I am curious as to why the writer does not mention all that though.
When finally captured, he said, “You got me. What took you so long?” according to a website about his history. Berkowitz, who killed six and wounded several others in eight total shootings, was known for using a .44-caliber Bulldog revolver.
In 1987, he became a born-again Christian after an invitation from another prisoner and now devotes his time to a prison ministry. He has in recent years refused to attend his parole hearings, saying he believes he needs to spend the rest of his life in prison.
“You are one prayer away from God doing something miraculous in your life,” Berkowitz said. “God bless each and every one of you.”
Pilot writer Jeff Sheler contributed to this report.
I can not believe that people are buying Berkowitz’s b.s.!
I know, you want to ask how can I know that it is bull? Isn’t it between him and God? How can another see inside a man’s heart?
Well, let’s start with the fact that his parole is coming up in May. He might not ‘fight’ for it but he still comes up for it. If he gets it he can not say “no thank you.” either. So it would seem like he was forced to leave prison. He can still get paroled and I believe 100% that he is hoping for it. He is posturing for the board. Every time that he has a parole date coming up he starts with some kind of outreach and his website becomes more active. He gets his “Christian” message out. His last parole chance was in 2010, it was the 5th time he had been denied.
Let’s also look at the fact that he has used religion repeatedly to try to get what he wants. Originally it was demons in dogs and his neighbors that made him kill. Remember?
Howling dogs in the neighborhood kept Berkowitz from sleeping and in his deranged mind, he turned their howls into messages from demons that were ordering him to go kill women. He later said that in attempt to quiet the demons, he began to do what they asked. Jack and Nann Cassara owned the home and in time Berkowitz became convinced that the quiet couple was in truth, part of the demon conspiracy, with Jack being General Jack Cosmo, commander in chief of the dogs that tormented him.A Thirst for Blood:
When he moved away from the Cassaras into an apartment on Pine Street, he failed to escape the controlling demons. His new neighbor, Sam Carr, had a black Labrador named Harvey, who Berkowitz believed was also possessed. He eventually shot the dog, but that did not offer him relief because he had come to believe that Sam Carr was possessed by the most powerful demon of them all, possibly Satan himself. Nightly the demons screamed at Berkowitz to go kill, their thirst for blood unquenchable.
David later admitted that was bull.
While he was still active, Berkowitz was profiled as being a paranoid schizophrenic believing himself to be the victim of demonic possession. He later admitted in an interview conducted by FBI veteran Robert Ressler in prison that he had pretended to be insane to get a lighter punishment and that he actually killed out of resentment towards his mother and contempt for women in general.
I know, you are thinking he was still “messed up” then. David could have changed since then. He really could have found God and changed. The problem there is that he is still lying and he still does not accept full responsibility for what he has done.
A while back David was contacted by a writer named Maury Terry. Mr. Terry was jumping on the Satanic Panic boat that was sweeping the world at that time. His book basically blamed Satanists for almost every crime ever committed. In just a quick search can you find quite a few links showing how wrong Mr. Terry was. He even settled lawsuits out of court due to the misinformation in his book.
There was 1 church that Terry (and an associate Ed Saunders) really had their minds on, The Process Church. Now I am not saying that I know all about them but they are really not a secret organization and getting information is not hard at all.
For an in-depth article on the Process Church (and splinter groups) as well as a good look at the conspiracy theories this next site is excellent!
In The Ultimate Evil, Terry attempts to paint a picture (with a very, very broad brush) of a super-secret, underground Satanic network of serial killers, rapists, drug dealers and child pornographers running amok on the American landscape, including an “Occult Superstar” he calls Manson II. Most of Terry’s claims that the Process splintered and went underground to form a bloodthirsty group of gore gangsters, are simply too absurd to be believable and he offers almost no credible substantiation for his claims. More here
Once Mr. Terry spoke with Berkowitz he (Berkowitz) decided that he had done some (not all) of the killings and was a look out for the Process Church in NY. Oh! He also became a Satanist. Just like other serial killers. He was part of the cult and the killings were rituals (because ALL cults sacrifice people using guns, have for ages!) Yep, that’s the ticket. Not the old lie of Demon Dogs and Demonic Neighbors. It was really Satan himself and his minions in the evil Cult that did the murders. David only went along out of fear, I guess.? Maybe he wanted to be one of the cool kids and since all the other cool kids were killing people?
He still makes these claims (in various forms) to this day, on his sites. Yes, he has sites and an online journal! Of course he does not have internet in prison but he has people on the outside that run the sites for him.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
In 1975 I met some guys at a party who, I later found out, were heavily involved in the occult. I had always been fascinated with witchcraft, Satanism, and occult things since I was a child. When I was growing up, I watched countless horror and Satan-type movies, some of which totally captivated my mind.
Now I was 22 and the forces of Satan were becoming more and more evident in my life. I felt as if something was trying to take control of my life. I began to read the Satanic Bible by the late Anton LaVey who founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966. I began, innocently, to practice various occult rituals and incantations.
I am utterly convinced that something satanic had entered into my mind and, looking back at all that happened, I realize that I had been slowly deceived. I did not know that bad things were going to result from all this, yet over the months the things that were wicked no longer seemed to be such. I was headed down the road to destruction and I did not know it. Maybe I was at a point where I just didn’t care.
That all started right after he met Maury Terry. Neither of them were very good at getting facts straight about things that they were either involved in or that they were supposed to be experts about.
More recently, a book was published that claimed a second mass murderer, David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” was also a member of The Process. The book stated that The Process was a network of killers and that Berkowitz was a look-out who did not take part in all of the killings. This conflicts with the police investigators who believed that Berkowitz was operating on his own. If they thought otherwise, the police certainly would have investigated the Church. Berkowitz claimed to have been a Satanist, and to have converted to Evangelical Christianity in prison. He claimed that the “Sam” in “Son of Sam” came from the name of the Celtic God of the Dead, Samhain (which he pronounced “Sam-hane”). His story is suspect, because:
his pronunciation of “Samhain” is incorrect; the Celts never worshiped a God of the Dead; there is no Celtic God by the name of Samhain; Satanists do not worship Celtic Gods, and the Process Church no longer existed at the time of the Son of Sam murders. In reality, Samhain means “end of summer.” It was a Celtic seasonal day of celebration, and remains a Wiccan Sabbat.
There is this as well
I first learned in 1987 that some of the conspiracy literature regarding The Process Church was either dishonest or was poorly fact-checked. After hearing a rumor that Robert de Grimston was listed in the Staten Island phone book under his given name Robert Moor, I called him up—that is, after certain hesitation. After all, Maury Terry’s
The Ultimate Evil informs us that de Grimston is a diabolical mystery man who had removed himself from the world at large to pursue the practice of evil. What was he doing so easily reached in the phone book? And how confident could I be of Maury Terry’s research if he couldn’t even bother locating Robert de Grimston by calling the Information operator?
Yeah, so forgive me if I am doubting his authenticity now. David Berkowitz has a history of trying to use religion to get himself whatever he wants.
He apologizes all the time now. They are obviously empty. Let’s just take a second to think about those apologies.
Either Berkowitz killed all those people himself, no cult or occult directives or he knows who actually did the killings that he did not through the cult connection.
He could give the families closure, he could have the bad guys taken off of the streets, he could but he hasn’t and he won’t.
His apologies are empty without truth and this ‘man’ is a liar.
Liars are not Christians.
Berkowitz (imo) can not be a Christian since he can not be truthful.
Berkowitz: “I made a lot of bad choices. I made a lot of bad mistakes. I’m truly sorry for the lives that were destroyed. I’d like to say that I’m very, very sorry.”
He is just not sorry enough to either testify before a grand jury and move the whole supposed conspiracy case forward or close it forever by admitting once and for all, he was in fact the lone gunman responsible for the Son of Sam shootings.
I do wonder what else he gets for being a “Good Christian Leader”. There have to be little perks, if not from the prison than from all the actually good (and naive) people who write to him, the write for him, that add to his commissary and accept his calls so that he is not lonely. I am sure some even visit. It is sad that he is being allowed to do all of this.
R.I.P
Real Life Monsters 