Satanic bible gave me twisted ideas, says Son of Sam serial killer

SON OF SAM serial killer David Berkowitz told a New York state parole board this week that he only "vaguely" remembers gunning down six people in a crime spree that terrorised New York City in 1977.

Sat, 13 Jul, 2002 - 02:00

Berkowitz, who was denied parole on Tuesday in his first chance at freedom, said a satanic bible he read gave him “twisted” ideas. He said he could not understand his violent behaviour, according to a transcript of the hearing released yesterday. “It just happened,” he told the two-member board in the interview at Sullivan Correctional Facility, about 80 miles north-west of New York City. “I thought I was a soldier for the devil and all kinds of crazy things,” he said. “At the time, I thought I was pleasing somebody, you know. It’s not going to make sense.”

He recalled leaving satanic parties, where he drank wine and smoked marijuana, to commit crimes, but he denied the drugs influenced him.

Berkowitz, 49, told the panel he did not deserve parole, should stay in prison until he dies and only appeared to publicly apologise for his crimes. “I wish I can go back and change the past. I can’t, so I came to terms with this and realise that I’m here in prison” Berkowitz, a former postal worker, killed six people and wounded seven others in a shooting spree that began in 1976. His nickname came from a note he left at one shooting scene that read: “I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam.”

Berkowitz told police after his 1977 arrest that he was following the orders of his neighbour’s dog. He told the parole board his crimes were random and denied reports he targeted young couples parked in cars in lovers’ lanes and teenage girls with long, dark hair.

He is serving six consecutive life sentences at the maximum-security facility in Fallsburg. He will next be eligible for parole in June 2004.

Berkowitz has tried to commit suicide several times and got into several fights before his professed conversion from Judaism to Christianity in 1987.

Now, he said, he has no desire to hurt anyone.