In an unbelievable courtroom proceeding, a St. Croix County judge found that 31-year-old Father Ryan Erickson murdered both men to cover his tracks after one of them learned that Erickson had been sexually assaulting a teenage boy. In December 2004, shortly after being questioned by police, Erickson hanged himself outside his rectory. In a suicide note he denied killing anyone, but testimony from 15 witnesses and evidence presented by prosecutor Eric Johnson painted a dark image of the priest and the desperate path he had chosen.
Among the evidence was testimony from a young boy who alleged that Father Ryan served him alcohol and sexually assaulted him repeatedly during 2000 and 2001; an eyewitness who described a car similar to Erickson's parked outside the funeral home at the time of the killings; testimony from detectives who said Erickson knew undisclosed crime scene details such as how many bullets were fired (three) and where the victims were hit (in the head); Erickson's own fondness for guns (he owned 16); and a statement by a deacon from another church who said Erickson had confessed.
Among the evidence was testimony from a young boy who alleged that Father Ryan served him alcohol and sexually assaulted him repeatedly during 2000 and 2001; an eyewitness who described a car similar to Erickson's parked outside the funeral home at the time of the killings; testimony from detectives who said Erickson knew undisclosed crime scene details such as how many bullets were fired (three) and where the victims were hit (in the head); Erickson's own fondness for guns (he owned 16); and a statement by a deacon from another church who said Erickson had confessed.
Evidence also showed that Erickson had been the target of allegations of sexual misconduct before arriving in Hudson, but the allegations were never proven and he was never brought to charges by the church, nor were the people of Hudson aware of the young priest's record. Because the defendant in this case was deceased, the judge ruled that if Erickson were alive there would be probable cause to charge him with sexual assault and murder. Erickson's attorney and parents, who maintain that he is not guilty, refused to attend the hearing. St. Croix D.A. Eric Johnson explained that even though the evidence was not cross-examined and was not heard by a jury, the judge's ruling "can be construed as a finding of guilt."
#4 Father Hans Schmidt
Hans Schmidt was a Roman Catholic priest convicted of murder, in 1916, and the only priest to be sentenced to death in the United States. While serving in New York, Schmidt met Anna Aumüller, the attractive housekeeper for the rectory who had recently emigrated from Austria. Despite his subsequent transfer to a church in a distant area of the city, Schmidt and Anna continued a secret sexual relationship. It was later revealed that they were married in a secret ceremony of dubious legality, which Schmidt performed himself. However, after discovering that Anna was pregnant, Schmidt slashed her throat on the night of September 2, 1913, dismembered the body, and threw the pieces into the East River.
Once the body was discovered, a police investigation led to Schmidt and he was arrested and charged with the murder. A media circus spectacle ensued, comparable to those caused by the Scott Peterson and Mark Hacking cases of a later era, as the New York papers competed against each other with an ever greater degree of sensationalism regarding the case. After feigning insanity during his first trial, which ended with a hung jury, Schmidt was eventually convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair. On February 18, 1916, Schmidt was executed at Sing Sing Prison; he remains the only priest ever executed for murder in the United States.
#3 Father John Felt
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| When John Feit was a 27-year-old Roman Catholic priest, he was questioned in Garza's killing. |
Searchers had found the lifeless body of former Miss South Texas, Irene Garza, face down in a canal in her hometown of McAllen. She'd disappeared on the day before Easter after going to Sacred Heart Catholic Church for confession. An autopsy determined Garza had been raped while in a coma, and then had died from suffocation. Near Garza's body investigators found items that belonged to the church, including a candelabra. One item, a metallic Kodak slide photo viewer, belonged to a 27-year-old priest who was assigned to the church: the Rev. John Feit. Questioned by police, Feit failed lie detector tests. What was also suspicious was that just 24 days before the killing, Feit had been arrested for attacking another young woman at a church in a town about 10 miles from McAllen. Feit pleaded no contest to misdemeanor aggravated assault. A judge found him guilty and fined him $500 with no prison time. All this took place in 1960.
Now, more than half a century later, Feit lives in a pleasant neighborhood in Phoenix, after leaving the priesthood in the late '60s. In a sworn statement to authorities and during an interview with CNN, Feit denied he killed Garza. Feit told police Garza left the rectory after he heard her confession and the last time he saw her, she was standing outside the church.
#2 Rev. John M. Fiala
A Catholic Priest, The Rev. John M. Fiala, was arrested and taken to Dallas County, Texas, charged with one count of criminal solicitation to commit capital murder. He was also is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Fiala, 52, of Dallas, was out on bond on other sexual assault charges involving the youth, now 18, when he allegedly attempted to negotiate the boy's murder, said Tom Rhodes, the teen's attorney. He was arrested after he offered an undercover agent with the Texas Department of Public Safety $5,000 to kill the teen, according to department spokeswoman Lisa Block. "This guy," Edwards County Sheriff Don Letsinger said, "is an evil man." The youth met Fiala in 2007, according to Rhodes. The attorney said the priest started "grooming him," buying him gifts including a computer and a car. In early 2008, when the boy was 16, under the guise of providing private catechism lessons, Fiala "gained access to him and began to sexually abuse him once or twice a month, including on church grounds," Rhodes said. At the time, Fiala was administrator of Sacred Heart of Mary.
The alleged abuse occurred in two counties, and included the youth's rape at gunpoint, the attorney said. Fiala allegedly threatened to kill the youth if he told anyone -- threats he repeated in daily text messages, Rhodes said, and Fiala also threatened to kill himself, telling the teen they would "go to heaven together." The teen, after struggling with the abuse, told a school counselor, who notified authorities, Rhodes said. He filed suit in April against Fiala, as well as the archdioceses of San Antonio, Texas, and Omaha, Nebraska -- where Fiala was before Texas -- and Fiala's religious order, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, the attorney said.
The suit claims that all three covered up Fiala's record of abuse. All three have denied doing so, according to the San Antonio, Texas, Express-News. When former San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez and the religious order learned of the police investigation into Fiala's relationship with the teen, he was removed from active ministry in October 2008, the newspaper reported. In September, an Edwards County grand jury indicted Fiala on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of aggravated sexual assault by threat, according to the Express-News. Fiala was arrested in Kansas by a fugitive task force and was extradited to Texas. A grand jury in Howard County handed up an indictment on the two aggravated sexual assault charges, the Express-News said. Meanwhile, " we got an anonymous phone call from someone saying, 'Look, I'm living in a building with this guy, and he's talking about killing this young man,' " Rhodes said. "Our response was, 'You need to call police.' " Letsinger said he got a call November 11 from the neighbor. The man at first just told authorities they should "be looking at this guy," the sheriff said, but later said Fiala had offered him $5,000 to kill the teenager.
The Department of Public Safety and its Texas Ranger Division got involved, sending the undercover agent to speak with Fiala, Rhodes said. The conversation was caught on video and audiotape. Rhodes said his client was relieved to hear of Fiala's arrest. He was attending college but h d to withdraw and be spirited away somewhere safe because of the threats, he said. "He's still very afraid, but he is hoping that this time Fiala will stay behind bars," Rhodes said. The Omaha diocese had argued it should be sued in Nebraska rather than Texas. The judge rejected that argument, Rhodes said. "I think he's cooked his goose now," Letsinger said of Fiala. "We know that pedophiles sometimes threaten their victims to keep them quiet. But this is kind of an older victim, and you wonder sometimes why they wouldn't come forward. ... I can see now the evil in this guy is pretty bad."
#1 Rev. Gerald Robinson
On April 5, 1980, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, was found dead on the floor of the chapel room in Toledo's Mercy Hospital. The elderly nun had been strangled and stabbed in the neck and torso at least 30 times. Candles surrounded her body and her arms were folded across her chest. Investigators deemed the murder a "ritual" killing because the way her body was posed — lying face up with an altar cloth draped over her torso. From the start, investigators focused on the hospital's chaplain, Father Gerald Robinson. He was questioned several times and his living quarters in the church were searched, which resulted in finding a letter opener police believed was used in the slaying. Prosecutor Bates found the similarities between Jane Doe's alleged ritualistic abuses and the "ritual" killing of Sister Margaret intriguing and decided to take another look at the 25-year-old murder case.
Bates hired several forensic experts to conduct a battery of tests on the original evidence, including the letter opener, which had been in police storage since it was taken from Robinson's room in the hospital. Other experts studied blood evidence taken from the crime scene and reviewed taped interviews they saved from a 1980 interrogation of Robinson. On April 23, 2004, The Toledo Blade reported Gerald Robinson was arrested on an aggravated murder charge in the slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Prosecutors said there was enough evidence after all to charge Robinson with the murder, stating that after investigators analyzed blood patterns they concluded that the murder weapon, the letter opener, was in his "control."
The case against Robinson went to trial on April 24, 2006. Robinson was found guilty on all counts on May 11, 2006. This is the second conviction for homicide of a Catholic priest in the U.S.; Hans Schmidt, executed in 1916, was the first. Robinson's attorney said that the decision would shortly be appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, and that once state appeals were exhausted, the case could move to U.S. District Court. On July 4, 2014, Robinson died in prison, after a judge refused a request for him to be released to Toledo to die.
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