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This circle of admirers, to a great degree, is made up of evangelical Christians, including a Town and Village Courts judge in upstate New York and a financial adviser in Manhattan, who have been moved by Mr. Berkowitz’s story of becoming a born-again Christian 23 years ago, and many of them have sought to publicize his account of redemption.

...Joseph Coffey, the police sergeant who took Mr. Berkowitz’s initial confession, said his statements about his religious convictions were as believable as his amended claim that members of a satanic cult to which he belonged were responsible for some of the shootings.

“It’s a total charade to promote himself,” said Mr. Coffey, who retired from the Police Department in 1985. “I have had people who I sent to prison or put in the witness protection program find religion because it suits them by providing them access to the outside world.”

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