Edward Gingerich I have met this madd man

[Habeas corpus]

http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu/amish/photos.html

The only Amish man to be convicted of murder. This man crushed his wifes skull flat with his boot, then he opened his wifes chest up removed all her organs, stacked them neatly on top of each other and rammed a steak knife right down the middle of them while his little girl watched! Edward served 5 years, he has violated his probation twice on other offenses. I shared the elevator with him and he asked me "hi how are you?" I took a breath and said "good and you?"

If you can pick up the book "Crimson Stain" its a great read and not a long book, goes pretty deep into the Amish ways of life and mental illness.

[Alf]

There is a writeup of the case here, at TruTV (the old Crime Library site) if anybody wants more information on the case.

--Al

[Valasca]

You have any idea how inbred the Amish are? I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Seriously.

[Siobhan]

You have any idea how inbred the Amish are? I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often. Seriously.

Look up Eli Stutzman.
His wife died in a highly suspicious fire, and then he left the Amish order, taking his son on his twisted travels, until the boy also ended up dead and discarded like rubbish in a roadside ditch.

[Habeas corpus]

Well were I live the Amish are everywhere and yeah there are stories of inbreeding, and no doubt I think there is alot of inbreeding going on. They are strange looking people and I've seen alot of Amish children who are mentally retarded.

The Amish are very to themself people, I buy alot of my produce that I don't grow from the Amish and I deal with the same family and they are a wonderful bunch, but they still do not care for us modern people.

Also from my research the Amish are a cult, yes they have a strong belief in God on the outside but the "Bishop" of their community is their commander and cheif he is the holy man and all Amish need his approval on everything and I mean everything.

The Amish aren't all pure and sinless, I've sat on many hearings involving the Amish breaking the law.

[gee]

Thanks Habeas. This was quite an interesting read.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Ed Gingerich commits suicide

A Crawford County man convicted in 1994 of involuntary manslaughter in his wife's slaying was found dead Friday morning in Rockdale Township.

Crawford County Chief Deputy Coroner Scott Schell identified the man as Ed Gingerich, 45. Schell ruled the cause of death as suicide.

Schell said Gingerich was found hanged inside a barn on the property in the 27000 block of Miller Station Road where Gingerich lived.

Gingerich in 1994 became the first Amish person in Pennsylvania ever charged with homicide.

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...49894/0/NEWS05

He had been living at the property with his attorney, George Schroeck, for the past six months.

Schroeck told Reuters that his wife, Stephanie, discovered Gingerich's body, along with a message written in dust on top of a bucket that read, "Forgive me please."

Gingerich became the first Amish person found guilty of homicide, when he was convicted in 1994 of involuntarily manslaughter for killing his wife, Katie, said Jim Fisher, who covered Gingerich's story in his book "Crimson Stain."

A jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but mentally ill, for the 1993 killing in the couple's home in Rockdale Township, Pennsylvania, where he crushed his wife's skull and used a kitchen knife to remove her stomach organs from her dead body.

"I always thought, and made the point in the book, that he would have been better off and society would have been better off, if he would have been found not guilty by reason of insanity rather than manslaughter," Fisher told Reuters.

In that case, Gingerich -- who was diagnosed with schizophrenia -- would have been placed in a mental institution and received more treatment than he ended up getting upon his release from prison, said Fisher, a former professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
[...]

Gingerich, after serving his maximum sentence of four years in prison for the killing, moved to a mental institution in Michigan before going to Indiana and eventually returning to Pennsylvania and the Brown Hill Amish community in 2007.

Gingerich had been on antidepressant medications, but Schroeck said that he had apparently stopped using them, Schroeck said. The attorney said he took Gingerich to see a nurse this week, and that Gingerich told him then that he was taking his medication.
[...]

One of Gingerich's most painful experiences was his alienation from the Amish community after his crime.

"His community completely deserted him. They shunned him. They kept him from rejoining his family," Schroeck said. "He was an awfully good person, and he could have helped his community a lot."

Despite all that, Gingerich will be buried in an Amish cemetery, his attorney said. He added that is what Gingerich would have wanted.

"We'd often find him stumbling around the house using a lamp, even though I would tell him to use the light switch. He was Amish to the end," Schroeck said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70F02G20110116

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Look up Eli Stutzman.
His wife died in a highly suspicious fire, and then he left the Amish order, taking his son on his twisted travels, until the boy also ended up dead and discarded like rubbish in a roadside ditch.

On a side note, Eli Stutzman also commited suicide. That was in 2007: http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/1567721

[MichaelJCheaney]

he had been living at the property with his attorney, George Schroeck, for the past six months.

Why would he be living with his Lawyer?

Something seems odd here.......

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Why would he be living with his Lawyer?

Something seems odd here.......

Because no one else wants a wackadoodle living in their house.

[MichaelJCheaney]

Because no one else wants a wackadoodle living in their house.

No, because nobody lives with a Lawyer BY CHOICE!......

[Rekrats]

"His community completely deserted him. They shunned him. They kept him from rejoining his family," Schroeck said. "He was an awfully good person, and he could have helped his community a lot."

I dunno... I'm sure he was a great guy, when he was on his meds. And maybe he was an okay dude before his schizophrenic break.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's lots of schizophrenics in the world. However, most of these people do not break into the disorder by stomping his wife's head open, reaching in and proceeding to sling her brains all over the kitchen, followed by the meticulous removal of all her major bodily organs, which he then stacks neatly beside her hollowed out corpse before skewering them with the knife he used to cut her torso open. All while his kids are watching (quite possibly screaming and going slightly insane themselves).

Hmmm. I tend to think anyone who commits an act this gruesome and heinous is going to be shunned from their community and blocked from their family, Amish or otherwise. I suppose this would be why the poor guy was reduced to living with an attorney.

On a side note, although my sentence up there is grammatically incorrect in a number of places, I think it's still sufficiently gory enough that I guaranteed myself nightmares tonight by writing it.

[walkingeagle]

I have met the kid that is accused of murdering his girlfriend and her 4 kids over in El Reno. As I understand it, he used to camp out at a few friends houses before this happened.

I also used to date the sister of the man who is in the pen now for stabbing the guy at Ft. Reno.