Stories about the Amish as victims – or perpetrators – of crime.
The failure of A&M investments tests the Holmes County community A financial controversy has been playing out in the Holmes County, Ohio Amish settlement over the past few months. Amishman Monroe Beachy operated A&M Investments, a fund in which hundreds of locals, mainly Amish, invested money. One day early last summer, a sign appeared on the door of A&M Investments’ Sugarcreek office, reading simply: “Due…
This is a disheartening story (no longer online) which I’ve meant to address, about child abuse in one Amish community. Four bishops in a Missouri Amish community have been charged with failing to report sexual abuse inflicted by an adult member of the community upon two children. Clearly there is no moral question that abuse of any kind is a criminal matter, and not one…
Just read an interesting article in the Mount Vernon News about the relationship between law enforcement and Amish in a few Ohio communities. One of the two sheriffs interviewed–hailing from Knox County, an area with a relatively small Amish population–says that law enforcement tries to be sensitive to Amish customs and in particular the Amish system of church discipline. “I believe a lot of times…
The crime was horrendous. But the point now is not the crime – it’s the hard issues at hand for the Amish community of Ed Gingerich – allegedly the only Amishman ever tried and convicted for the death of another human being. Gingerich killed his wife in a fit of insanity in 1993. A paranoid schizophrenic, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served a…
The body of ex-Amishman Eli Stutzman – convicted of one murder, suspected in four others – lies in a Texas morgue, unclaimed by his former Ohio Amish community. Stutzman’s DNA may be the case-breaker in the 1985 deaths of two Colorado men. Gregg Olsen, author of Abandoned Prayers, commented on the case which has hounded him for the past 20 years. Olsen shares an interesting…
The stories are heartbreaking. You feel for the victims. It’s hard to imagine what they’ve been through. But at the same time, a 20/20 piece on Amish abuse from a few years back points to the generalizations that many journalists rely on to tell their story. The 20/20 folks lean heavily on cliches and misconceptions–from the ominous opening music, to the overplayed stories they trot…
Convicted murderer Eli Stutzman, formerly of the Amish of Wayne County, Ohio, has died. His death has been ruled a suicide. The father of “Little Boy Blue”, suspected in three other deaths in addition to that of his son, killed himself in a Fort Worth, Texas apartment last week. Gregg Olsen, who chronicled the case in Abandoned Prayers, says the story might not be over. “I…