Wanted - Softcover

Coss, Richard David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0882897071 ISBN 13: 9780882897073

Publisher: Pelican Pub Co Inc

Synopsis

A former convict tells of his life on the wrong side of the law, and of the chance meeting that led him to Christ and changed his life forever

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Richard David Coss was a hardened convict and habitual criminal, listed by the FBI as "dangerous and incorrigible." The son of alcoholic parents, he committed his first crime at the age of nine and quit school at fifteen. He became a drug addict, and by the age of twenty-five he had accumulated twenty-eight convictions and spent nine years behind bars.

Prison psychologists, social workers, rehabilitation experts, and sociologists all failed to change him. Coss seemed destined for a life in jail. But one afternoon a group of Baptist deacons confronted him with the message of Jesus Christ, and his life was instantly and permanently changed.

Coss became a new person, was paroled, and in 1975 received one of three Presidential Pardons from Gerald Ford.

In the years that followed, he experienced his share of gains and losses, yet no loss was as severe as that suffered on April 19, 1995--the day of the Oklahoma City bombing. Coss, a grandfather at the time, would describe that day as "the worst day of my life." Yet he and his remaining family survived with the support of each other and the strength of their faith.

Richard Coss is an ordained minister and lectures in prisons and schools throughout the country. Wanted tells the moving story of how his life was changed, while also pointing the way for others in similar situations.

From the Inside Flap:

"I was thirsty and you gave me drink . . . I was sick and you visited me . . . I was in prison and you came unto me."--Matthew 25a:35-36

Richard David Cross was a dangerous criminal. The child of indifferent, alcoholic parents, he had already served nine years behind bars by the time he was twenty-five, with twenty-eight convictions to his name. He had shot, stabbed, and beaten people. He had stolen cars, burglarized homes, sold and taken drugs, and was in a constant fog of intoxication. He had been through every type of counseling and psychological study known, with no results. He seemed destined to a life behind bars, returning time and again to the deep pit of criminality, emerging each time a tougher and meaner man, walking the same road he had before.
On a fateful afternoon, a group of Baptist deacons visited his cell, where he was serving two three-year consecutive sentences on top of his previous four-year sentence. Richard listened and responded to the message of forgiveness, hope, and redemption. From that moment, his life changed.
Richard David Coss is now an ordained minister who shares his message of hope with schools and prisons throughout the country.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pelican Pub Co Inc
• ISBN 10: 0882897071
• ISBN 13: 9780882897073
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1