He was inspired by the demon dog to commit murder, but now he is driven by the diary.
David Berkowitz, the son of serial killer Sam, likened his decades in prison to the “inspirational” writings of Anne Frank. This comes just days before the self-proclaimed “father figure” appears before the parole board.
“My favorite book is the Bible, but the book that has inspired me the most throughout my years in prison is Anne Frank: The Diary of a Little Girl,” David Berkowitz wrote in the Post this week. Told.
“Young Ann wrote a diary during her incarceration. She shared her heart within its pages,” wrote the 70-year-old from the high-security Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill.
“Little did she know what impact her life and writings would have on her future,” said Berkowitz, whose diary detailing her life hiding from the Nazis after her death during the Holocaust was shared around the world. added about a Jewish teen author published in .
“She touched the lives of millions of people,” Berkowitz said. “Little Anne changed the world with her pen. So I ask myself, what can I do with my trusty typewriter? Maybe I, too, can change lives with a message of hope to God? ”
The notorious serial killer whose reign of terror left six people dead, seven injured, and a city paralyzed with terror is scheduled to appear before the Parole Board for the 12th time this week for murders in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. This is what he told the Post. .
His horrific spree began on July 29, 1976. Berkowitz, then 23 years old with curly hair, emerged from the shadows on a quiet Bronx street with a .44 Bulldog revolver and walked up to the car in which 19-year-old Jodi Valenti was riding. She was sitting with her friend Donna Lauria, 18.
He opened fire, killing Lauria and wounding Valenti.
Less than three months later, Berkowitz struck again. Injured Carl Denaro, 20 years oldthe gunman apparently mistook the long-haired victim for a woman as he sat with his date in a Volkswagen Beetle in Flushing.
Over the course of nine months, this deranged killer made several more attacks, leading the press to call him the “.44 caliber killer.”
On April 17, 1977, he left behind a note after killing a couple, Alexander Esau (20 years old) and Valentina Suliani (18 years old).
“I’m a monster. I’m the son of Sam,” Berkowitz boasted.
“I love hunting, roaming the streets in search of delicious game meat,” he said of his prey. It was a young woman with long, dark hair, and a couple sitting in a car.
Panic spread throughout the Big Apple, women cutting their hair and wearing wigs, discotheques empty, and locals bracing for another attack by the madman.
As the New York City Police Department launched a major investigation, the perpetrator mocked authorities in the tabloids.
“Hello from the gutters of New York filled with dog waste, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood. Sam is a thirsty young man who won’t stop killing until he’s had his fill of blood.” he wrote in the Daily. News columnist Jimmy Breslin.
On the night of the final murder, police finally cracked the case after Berkowitz was ticketed for parking his car near a fire hydrant and police were taken to his home in Yonkers.
When Berkowitz emerged from his building on August 10, 1977, police swooped on him.
“I’m Sam. David Berkowitz,” he told police.
“Why were you so late?”
Berkowitz later told a psychiatrist that the bloodshed was ordered by neighbor Sam Kerr’s black Labrador retriever.
In June 1978, he was sentenced to 547 years in prison.
Berkowitz found God inside a bar.
“Jesus allowed me to survive and grow,” he told the Post.
For years, he worked as a chaplain’s clerk, preaching “forgiveness, salvation, and hope,” while serving as a “father figure” to wayward inmates.
“Yes, I have a life sentence, but I have chosen to do well with it. I always try to help and encourage young players,” he said.
“Over the years, I’ve become a father figure, an older brother figure, to young men.”
Berkowitz became eligible for parole in 2002, and a board has decided his fate every two years since then.
He has missed several appointments and knows there is no release date in sight, but this time he intends to appear before the board.
“Not appearing at a hearing could be considered defiance of authority, and that’s not me,” Berkowitz said.
“Above all, I am attending to frankly apologize for past crimes and express my remorse,” he added.
“I am also there to share my faith in God and how He can forgive, heal, and restore even the ‘worst’ offenders.”
