Sin, Shame, And Secrets

In 1980, Sister Margart Ann Pahl, an elderly nun, was strangled nearly to death in a chapel in a Catholic hospital in Ohio. The killer then covered the nun's body with an altar cloth and stabbed her nine times over the heart, in the form of a perfectly shaped upside-down cross. He then removed the altar cloth and stabbed the nun 22 more times on the face, neck, and torso. The police investigation in the months that followed included interviews with more than 600 people. No arrests were made until April 23, 2004, when Toledo's cold-case squad went to Father Gerald Robinson's home and charged the 66-year-old, mild-mannered Catholic priest in the 24-year-old murder. Father Robinson's trial in April and May 2006 is believed to be the first in which a U.S. Catholic priest was charged in the murder of a nun. Father Robinson was convicted May 11 and is now serving a 15-years-to-life sentence in an Ohio penitentiary. This book details not only the unique and bizarre circumstances of Sister Margaret Ann's death and the arrest and conviction of a Catholic priest decades later, but also the myriad factors that caused local law enforcement and criminal justice officials to come up empty handed in the original 1980 investigation, as well as the cold-case squad's investigation, the findings of leading forensic experts, and courtroom testimony that led to Father Robinson's arrest and conviction. David Yonke takes an examined look into instances of violent and sexual crime and cover-up in the Catholic Church that ranges from the Father Robinson case to questions about church hierarchy and canon law.

Year

2006

Language

English

Publisher

Continuum International Publishing Group

Editions

4

Pages

228

ISBN

9780826417558

Data source: Wikidata