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by Leigh DeVore
Topics: Freedom, Forgiveness, Transformation, Salvation
David Berkowitz fatally shot six New Yorkers, wounded seven others and set more than 1,400 fires throughout New York City in 1976 and 1977.
Today, as one of 266 convicted murderers in the Sullivan Correctional
Facility in Fallsburg, N.Y., two hours from Manhattan, Berkowitz studies
the Bible in his cell.
"I feel more free now in prison than I ever felt in my life because
I know Christ," Berkowitz told "Charisma" in a special report released
this week in the magazine's June issue.
Berkowitz said he felt connected to evil as a child. "I used to feel
that the devil was all around me, that somehow he wanted me as a child,"
he told reporter Peter K. Johnson.
Berkowitz was uncontrollable in school, skipped classes, smoked marijuana,
didn't fit in and was haunted by suicidal thoughts. His personality deteriorated
after his mother died in 1967.
In 1974, after a three-year hitch in the U.S. Army infantry, Berkowitz returned to New York, hooked up with a group of satanists at a party and became fascinated with the occult. He participated in satanic rituals and animal sacrifices and continued to set fires throughout the city until the idea for a sacrificial shooting spree was hatched. One night in a park, Berkowitz made a final pact with evil, inviting Satan and his demons to take control.
"I surrendered myself to the powers of darkness. I became a soldier for the devil," he said. Berkowitz justified the killings and believed they were part of the battle of Armageddon. His "Son of Sam" nickname originated from the name of a druid demon, he said.
Berkowitz served hard time in Attica and Clinton prisons, once surviving a murderous attack by another inmate. He was stalked by despair and anger and considered suicide.
Rick met Berkowitz in the yard at the Sullivan penitentiary and told him God loved him. The two soon began working out and walking together. Rick continued sharing his faith and gave Berkowitz a Gideon's pocket New Testament that also contained Psalms and Proverbs.
Berkowitz cried when he read his first Psalm. Several weeks later, after reading Psalm 34:6, Berkowitz broke down weeping. "Suddenly God just started to melt my heart," he recalled. Sensing God was speaking directly to him, he fell to his knees sobbing and poured out his heart in a lengthy confession.
After he got up he said he felt as if something had lifted. "It was a heaviness that I had for so many years. A yoke seemed to lift," he recalled.
Rick was thrilled about Berkowitz's commitment to Christ and invited
him to chapel services. Berkowitz said, "I enjoyed the fellowship and have
been with the Lord ever since." Corrections officers and inmates doubted
his conversion, but Berkowitz grew in faith and gradually won their
respect. Today he is considered a model prisoner.
Berkowitz knows and accepts that he deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. "But God has given me peace," he said. "He's reassured me that He's forgiven me, although it took time for me to understand that. I stand on Paul's words that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. I survive on that verse."
** Visit the "Charisma" Web site at www.charismamag.com for the full version of the article on David Berkowitz.