Steve Mizera

Born in 1940 as the thirteenth child of unmarried parents, I was committed to St.Francis Orphan Asylum in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania at the age of two. At the age eleven I transferred to St. Joseph's House for Homeless and Industrious Boys, in Philadelphia. I ran away at the age of fourteen from the sexual abuse by a Catholic layman there and learned how to survive on streets of Philadelphia.

At the age of sixteen, my employer at Gimble's Department store informed me I was a "Dime a Dozen". I stole $25,000 worth of tires to prove I was not.

A four year stint in the USAF introduced me to Republican politics where I met the John Birch Society's founder, Robert Welch, and Ronald Reagan before he became California's governor, and the US president.

I quit the job I had for four years as a salesman for the California Fruit Exchange because I did not get a promotion I thought I deserved and embarked on a career with the Southern Pacific Railroad while pursuing a formal education in both journalism and the law.

I moved from Sacramento to Pollock Pines, a foothill community in Northern California and took with me Judith Nelson, whose mother thought I was much too old for her daughter. Judy and I founded and published the town newspaper for two years.

My relationships continued to implode and I found myself committing a horrendous crime for which I was sentence to Folsom State Prison in California for twenty years. Folsom was considered the most violent US prison in the US.

I was released early because the Board of Prison terms deemed my sentence to be disparate. I started a career as a public servant with the State of California as a secretary and retired in 2004 as an Information Systems Analyst.

Having the burden of being a registered sex offender, I decided to write my autobiography because it would be one way I could pay for my grave sin and help to prevent the victimization of children.

In 1998, I found a family of Russian immigrants - The Klimovs - who informally adopted me and showed me the way to eternal salvation.

In 2004 I retired from the state and moved to Christmas Valley, Oregon where I currently reside.

I returned to grace and was baptized in 2009 at Grace Family Church in Carmichael, California. I consider this part of my life to be priceless.

I published my unbelievable autobiography under two titles. From a Dime a Dozen to Priceless represents the beginning of my life of crime and the end.

I also published under the title Pedophilia: A Cause and A Cure. This more accurately reflects why I wrote my book. To look at my life after 71 years and to try to answer the two questions society's experts are not able to. What is the cause and is there a cure for my pedophilia? Hopefully, readers can take a close look in their environment, use my life story to detect and prevent the victimization of children.

----- The following was written about me, but the above was written by me.

Steve A. Mizera endured endless hardships and emerges. It is the lesson he learned from these experiences that he wants readers to take away after reading his powerful autobiography.

Born in 1940 in Cressona, Pennsylvania, the youngest son of a coal miner worked in a variety of industries since running away from a second orphanage at 14 to live on the streets of Philadelphia. Having a strong work ethic he is called a Dime a Dozen by a heartless and employer. He retaliates by stealing $25,000 in tires in 1956.

He taught himself how to repair automatic transmissions, spent four years in the USAF, sold fruit on the international market, worked as a railroad conductor for a decade, founded and published a weekly newspaper in a small northern California town, and attended law school before going to Alaska to serve in the legislature.

Starting life without bonding and winding through decades of rejection and failed relationships, at forty he commits an unthinkable crime and is sentenced to 20 years in California’s Folsom Prison. Following his release he spends two decades in public service.

Although raised with a bleak view of the world, it is how his life is transformed when adopted by loving immigrants who lead him away from a life of crime. His priceless reward is the redemption that forms the fabric of this compelling life story. In writing his autobiography at seventy one, he believes he has identified a cause and a cure for pedophilia, and offers his 377 page narration to help prevent child abuse.

He retired to Christmas Valley, Oregon where he pursues photography and travels.

----- The first four chapters can be read at vistagraphs.net/dime.html

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