One advantage to having this journal is that I can set the record straight, or at least try to, when the need arises…
In this case, I wish to address the oftentimes media generated belief that I was a "loner." Friends have asked me about this. They're puzzled as to why, for more than forty years now, various "experts" always make this claim.
I myself have heard it said many times and read it in various publications. But is it true? What exactly is a loner? According to the dictionary, a loner is defined as "one that avoids others." Another word would be a "recluse." This being someone who "leads a secluded or solitary life."
Anyone who grew up with me would know that I was a hyperactive kid who would often be seen playing in the streets. I participated in a number of street sports such as stickball, handball, curb ball, and punch ball. These were games that most kids growing up in New York City's congested urban neighborhoods would have at least have some familiarity with. I also played little league baseball, and for several years played in a summer softball league.
Then when my dad and I moved to another section of the Bronx, being sixteen years old at the time, I made many new friends, including several girls who I ended up going on dates and hanging out with. It was all a part of growing up.
After my three-year enlistment in the Army was over and I returned to the Bronx at the age of twenty-one, I tried to reconnect with those whom I hung out with. But after being away for three years, I discovered their lives had changed. Some of them graduated college and moved away. Others had fulltime jobs or were now married.
For me this meant having to find new friends. It wasn't easy, especially since I was going to college under the G.I. Bill for military veterans, and also worked as a security guard assigned to the night shift at the same time. This left me with little time for socializing.
Nevertheless I tried my best to make friends. This, unfortunately, helped cause my plunge into darkness because the friends I would end up meeting and joining up with, turned out not to be friends at all. They were devils who journeyed on the dark side, for lack of a better way to put it. It nearly cost me my life.
But this is a story for another time. As for being a "loner," it is nonsense. I have always sought to encircle myself with friends. Yes, there were times, shortly after my discharge from the service, when I found myself alone. But there is a drastic difference between finding oneself alone - like when you move into a new neighborhood or change jobs - to someone who avoids others and chooses to be by himself.
Everywhere I went, and even in prison, I've never had a problem meeting new people and making friends. Yet to this very day, the portrait of David Berkowitz as a loner lives on.
D. B.
I myself have heard it said many times and read it in various publications. But is it true? What exactly is a loner? According to the dictionary, a loner is defined as "one that avoids others." Another word would be a "recluse." This being someone who "leads a secluded or solitary life."
Anyone who grew up with me would know that I was a hyperactive kid who would often be seen playing in the streets. I participated in a number of street sports such as stickball, handball, curb ball, and punch ball. These were games that most kids growing up in New York City's congested urban neighborhoods would have at least have some familiarity with. I also played little league baseball, and for several years played in a summer softball league.
Then when my dad and I moved to another section of the Bronx, being sixteen years old at the time, I made many new friends, including several girls who I ended up going on dates and hanging out with. It was all a part of growing up.
After my three-year enlistment in the Army was over and I returned to the Bronx at the age of twenty-one, I tried to reconnect with those whom I hung out with. But after being away for three years, I discovered their lives had changed. Some of them graduated college and moved away. Others had fulltime jobs or were now married.
For me this meant having to find new friends. It wasn't easy, especially since I was going to college under the G.I. Bill for military veterans, and also worked as a security guard assigned to the night shift at the same time. This left me with little time for socializing.
Nevertheless I tried my best to make friends. This, unfortunately, helped cause my plunge into darkness because the friends I would end up meeting and joining up with, turned out not to be friends at all. They were devils who journeyed on the dark side, for lack of a better way to put it. It nearly cost me my life.
But this is a story for another time. As for being a "loner," it is nonsense. I have always sought to encircle myself with friends. Yes, there were times, shortly after my discharge from the service, when I found myself alone. But there is a drastic difference between finding oneself alone - like when you move into a new neighborhood or change jobs - to someone who avoids others and chooses to be by himself.
Everywhere I went, and even in prison, I've never had a problem meeting new people and making friends. Yet to this very day, the portrait of David Berkowitz as a loner lives on.
D. B.
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