SAVING SERIAL KILLER’S SOUL
How jailhouse holy men brought Lord’s light into notorious murderer’s dark heart
STRANGLER, MUTILATOR, pedophile, self-described cannibal, Arthur John Shawcross ranks high in the annals of America’s most notorious serial killers.
In 1972, he sexually assaulted and fatally choked a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl in separate attacks in upstate Watertown.
In 1988 and 1989, he killed 11 upstate women. Most were prostitutes. Most died by battering and strangulation. He cut one corpse open from chest to crotch.
Adding to his notoriety, Shawcross spun fables about suffering sex abuse as a child, engaging in murderous atrocities and cannibalism while serving in Vietnam, and cannibalizing some of his murder victims.
Those evil deeds will not be retold. Instead, this is the story of how Shawcross turned to the Lord in the last months of his life — as told by four men who grew closest to him.
With God as their witness, they say that a man long diagnosed as a sociopath embarked on an intense, genuine, conscience-driven quest for forgiveness.
“He saw himself forgiven by Jesus,” says Father Maduawuchi Stan Ogbonna, a Catholic cleric who has ministered to prisoners at the Sullivan Correctional Facility for almost 22 years.
Shawcross was serving a 250-year sentence at Sullivan. There, murderers, rapists and pedophiles alike scorned him as a monster below even their dignity.
He lived as a pariah until two devout Catholic prisoners and a volunteer Catholic layman encouraged Shawcross to attend Sunday Mass, go to confession and prepare for a baptism-like ceremony of religious renewal.
In their own words, these men will tell the uplifting story of the serial killer’s final reckoning, along with the meaning they found in his religious awakening.
Felipe Rodriguez served as Shawcross’ primary guide to faith.
Convicted of savagely stabbing a woman to death in 1987, Rodriguez spent 27 years in state prison until Gov. Cuomo granted him clemency last year.
Rodriguez has adamantly protested his innocence. Profiling his case in detail, the Daily News on Sunday raised serious doubts about the finding of guilt, reported that a key witness against Rodriguez appears on the verge of recanting, and chronicled Rodriguez’s transformation from rage-filled inmate to dedicated follower of the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi.
Larry Sieteski gave Shawcross lessons in the ways of St. Francis.
Raised in Buffalo, Sieteski graduated from a Catholic grammar school and a Jesuit high school before earning college and master’s degrees at a Jesuit university. He began his career as a Catholic high school teacher, moved on to pharmaceutical sales and then opened stores selling lottery tickets, cigarettes and alcohol in poor neighborhoods.
Although married and the father of four, Sieteski began an affair with a married woman. There was conflict with her husband. Sieteski hired a tough guy who stabbed the husband to death. Convicted of murder conspiracy, Sieteski was paroled after 22 years and says he deserved every moment of the time.
Otto Schaefer engaged Shawcross in deep discussions.
A graduate of Aviation High School in Queens and retired IBM executive, Schaefer visits Sullivan once a month to hold group sessions among prisoners studying toward “formation” in the Third Order of Francis, a group dedicated to living by the saint’s precepts.
The prison chaplain — fondly known as Father Stan — sets out every year to save at least one soul among the thousands of hardened cases he has long served.
Here, they speak.
Felipe Rodriguez:
Shawcross was hated in prison. Hated. He was befriended by no one. I was working as a maintenance mechanic. I would walk around the prison fixing things with a shopping cart full of tools.
I was locking in A block, meaning I was living in A block. Shawcross was in A block, too. I was in cell 221 on the second floor. Shawcross was downstairs in the flats. He was so heavy they didn’t put him on top. He was in cell 153.
One day, I went to Shawcross’ cell because his toilet was leaking. He wasn’t there. I took the toilet off the wall. I changed the wax seal, the O-ring and fixed the toilet. He came back to the cell and said, “Aw, man, you got water all over my floor.”
I said, “You think you are paying me for this work, dude. You are a rapist, you are a pedophile, you killed a lot of people, do you think I care about water on the floor?”
After that, we didn’t have yes or no between us for a long time.
Larry Sieteski:
I saw Felipe in the yard playing baseball in almost a Yankee uniform. He is a very good player. I knew that he had identified as a Catholic. So, I talked to him about coming to a three-day program that is a lot of fun and involves outsiders coming into prison. I told him it was called REC. He thought it was a recreation program. Actually, it is Residents Encountering Christ.
Men from the outside lead discussions and activities aimed at leading you back to the Catholic faith. One guy was a fire lieutenant at 9/11 and he talked about how faith got him through.
The speakers affect you. For Felipe, it was a turning point toward truly making faith part of his life.
Father Stan:
Felipe was not attending our church. Lo and behold, he attended our weekend retreat, REC. At the time, in his frustration, he had switched religion. Now he became a Catholic again. He made his mom happy.
I gave him period of grace. He continued to be his old self. Then I tightened the noose by saying, “You’ll never ‘F’ this or ‘F’ that in my office. I told him to go to the men’s bathroom, where you have enough detergent to clean your mouth out.”
He whined to his mother on the phone. He went back to his cell and cried for more than two hours, how to deal with this hard man Father Stan.
Otto Schaefer:
The Franciscans have three orders. The first is brothers and priests. The second is nuns. The third order is lay people, Franciscan seculars, who go through a two-year formation class.
Larry Sieteski sent out 80 letters trying to get a formation class in Sullivan. I couldn’t find anybody willing to work with men in Sullivan. After about a year, I contacted Father Stan. I spent three hours talking with the men. I had no intention of ever visiting a prison. That was about 12 years ago.
Felipe joined the group. Half of the classes should be the men sharing. These men immediately started sharing. That was the most impressive thing.
The lessons are associated with Francis’ 24 rules of life. We would talk about a particular rule. Felipe would talk about the impact on him. I sensed that he was a special person. He became very spiritual. He would write his own rosary meditations and they were like beautiful prayers.