Sam Mullet Will Be Released To Finish Sentence At Home

Following a motion filed last week by his attorney, beard-cutting clan leader Sam Mullet will be released early due to threat from the novel coronavirus. From the AP:

Sam Mullet Sr. was moved to a halfway house in Youngstown on March 4 and was scheduled to be released in January. But his attorney argued in a filing last week that he should be sent home because of his age and underlying health conditions increase his risk of getting sick.

The Bureau of Prisons said in a ruling Monday that Mullet will be released as part of the Elderly Offender Home Confinement pilot program. The action was not opposed by prosecutors.

The attacks in 2011 were meant to shame fellow Amish who had defied or denounced the authoritarian style of the leader of the Bergholz community in eastern Ohio.

Mullet is 74 years old now. At the time of his sentencing, fear of the man among Amish was so great, that some requested he be given life imprisonment.

Mullet has served about seven years of his close-to-11-year sentence. He was scheduled to be released next January.

I can imagine this news might make some of his victims uneasy. That said, I’m not aware of any retaliation carried out by, say, Mullet’s associates in the years since the 2011 attacks.

Hopefully this brings an end to this ugly story.

Get the Amish in your inbox

Join 15,000 email subscribers. No spam. 100% free

    Similar Posts

    Leave a Reply to Joseph Slabaugh Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    33 Comments

    1. thom

      coronavirus

      For a perspective that may not yet be hitting the Amish or rural areas…. Several hospitals in New York City are moving refrigerated trucks into their parking lots because they can no longer hold the amount of bodies dying from the virus. Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and California are a couple weeks behind NYC. This is why these extreme measures are happening. If these measures are successful this will all seem like an overreaction. That is the goal.

      1. Stephen

        Wow! Amazing how people react to fake news

        Please! I urge people not to give in to the lies that the fake news media is putting out. Go to the CDC website to see the actual figures.
        I checked their website yesterday. The total death toll from Corona virus in the u.s. is a wopping 201. That is for the entire United states since the virus began. Compare that to the swine flu which killed over 10,000 Americans within a few months, and infected nearly 55,000,000 americans. Theres an old political saying , never let a crisis go to waste. And if there isn’t one, it’s always a good time to create one.
        As for Sam Mullet, I’m very glad he’s getting out. I think his sentence was waaaay too harsh. And I doubt seriously if he and his fellow believers would ever think of doing anything like that again. I believe he’s a good man at heart. The media just loves to go overboard with a story. It attracts advertiser’s and boosts their ratings.

        1. thom

          you might want to check out that website again. it is 24 hrs behind but is already reporting more than 700 deaths. by tomorrow it will be over 1,000. Again, the first death in the US was only 25 days ago. We are in the very beginnings here in the states.

          1. Off by a mile.

            This is at 1051 already, but I believe the flu, which this is compared to a lot, is a lot worse. I use the newsbreak app.

            Keep informed of everything you need to know about the coronavirus, the stats, breaking news, latest updates, etc.
            https://www.newsbreak.com/topics/coronavirus?s=a99&pd=02cdgTIW

            But to compare the symptoms of this supposed virus to pneumonia which is already been done too, is wrong as well, pneumonia has phlegm it does not have dry coughs they are not telling us the full story.

        2. COVID-19

          Stephen: Your information is very old. As of 3/26/1010, there are 54,453 confirmed cases, 737 deaths, and 52,883 cases being investigated for the virus. The epicenter is in New York. The prediction in some quarters is that the US will surpass China’s totals. Especially because so many people still believe that the virus is a hoax.

        3. Stephen we have two topics going here, but I’ll address the second:)

          Did you happen to read the book Renegade Amish and/or hear about some of the things that were going on within Mullet’s group, even beyond attacking Amish people?

          Why were Amish people so afraid of him that they asked that he be put in prison for a very long time?

          I hope you’re right that he’s a good man at heart.

          1. Jewels

            Sam Mullet release

            Hi Erik, I read the book written by Sam’s grandson Johnny Mast. At the end of the book he states that Sam is basically still controlling the group from his jail cell, so it sounds like Sam has changed very little. You are correct, this goes so far beyond the beard-cutting incidents that I would imagine there are many in the group not looking forward to his return. I’m really not sure why this group is continued to be called Amish, as I’m sure a true Amish person must cringe at what has gone on in this group.

    2. Randy

      The Concept of Fake News is Propaganda - Stick to Facts Only

      Stephen,

      I support your position that it is important to get information straight from the most reliable source (in this case, the CDC). I also agree that politicians have always found it expedient to use a time of trouble to endeavor to expand and improve their respective profiles.

      However, the tenor of your comments suggests that you hold versions of these viewpoints that are somewhat extreme and inaccurate. If I have gained a misimpression in that regard, I ask you to accept an apology from me. If my perception is correct, however, I ask you to calmly ponder whether these viewpoints might be refined by considering the thoughts I have set out below.

      Before turning to the points that I am requesting you to mull over, it is important for me to say that I hold you in respect. I don’t see any reason not to do so, and I also respect your right to reject my thoughts. By asking you to engage in a touch of soul-searching, I do not mean to come across as condescending. In fact, your comment above caused me to sit quietly and do some soul-searching of my own before responding. What I concluded was that this is a moment when I should break out of my usual role as part of the silent majority that populates the central region of our American political continuum.

      I resolved that it is no longer sufficient to merely observe the partisan battling that rages between the minorities that occupy the opposite ends of that continuum and to simply draw from that my conclusions regarding how I cast my ballot as an independent voter. Don’t get me wrong – I value that battling for its explication of issues and potential solutions. It reveals choices. But that fray should be about the merits of issues, and not about propaganda points. In this instance, and henceforth when I encounter it, I will no longer sit silently when either (i) a partisan strays from legitimate issues and instead tries to score on the basis of propaganda, or (ii) I witness someone espousing (whether intentionally or unwittingly) as fact something which is actually only propaganda.

      In this case, the propaganda involved is the unsupported (and unsupportable) assertion that the American journalism profession has somehow united itself to carry out a program of intentionally publishing inaccurate information. If it wasn’t for the fact that some folks have actually bought into that notion, the idea that one could unite American journalists about anything (much less a tactic that is anathema to most of them) would be not only ludicrous, but also side-splittingly humorous. For health reasons, I don’t find it easy to compose these types of statements. It is personally exhausting. But propaganda in American discourse is too repugnant and unacceptable to not make this effort.

      These reflections are expressed with the hope that they hold value as wisdom. To the extent that it is wisdom, which is a quality that only recipients of advice can assess for themselves, it has been gained through the crucible of
      (a) a long life;
      (b) much experience in dealing with a great many people (domestically and globally) in business and in my chosen profession (law) — often in uncommonly difficult circumstances, both as a leader and as a team player at various times; and
      (c) perspective enhanced by a considerable amount of formal education acquired in earning my degrees, including at the doctoral level.

      First, your comments suggest that you doubt that most people are familiar with the longstanding and commonly known adage that one should not automatically believe what one reads in the newspaper (or encounters in other media, of course). There is room for some of that doubt on your part, to be sure. But not much. While there are some folks who naively believe anything published, those people constitute only a small fraction of the populace. This is especially true in the U.S.A. This is borne out, among other things, by the healthy and balanced degree of skepticism typically exercised in the course of decision making by Americans of all stripes and in all walks of life. This is the basis on which so many good decisions are made every day across the country. Are there some bad ones made? Sure. Every day and at all levels. But the fact that most Americans are capable of consistently making good decisions — and this certainly includes determinations about what to believe from journalistic reporting — is readily evidenced by the inherent stability and generally successful society in which we live. No, it’s not perfect. Yes, it’s still in need of improvement. But the degree of personal freedoms and the standard of living in the U.S. remains, taken as a whole, the best that has existed in the history of the world and is with good reason still the envy of the rest of the world. Inaccuracies in reporting have always existed. Given that people cannot be perfect, the existence of some inaccuracy will always remain. But the vast majority of Americans are not sheep who need to be warned of that danger by a shepherd.

      Second, strident calls to ignore so-called fake news reveal more about the communicant than about the actual state of affairs bring decried. They reveal a questionable level of distrust, potential insecurity and/or an attempt to smear others who are expressing things that can’t be rebutted on the merits. As a result, legitimate points also being expressed by the communicant are weakened. In a nutshell, these types of complaints about the state of reporting are akin to the apocryphal prosecutorial courtroom question, “So, Mr. Defendant, when did you stop beating your spouse?”

      Third, suggestions that U.S. journalism is rampantly inaccurate are based either on a limited bad experience or are made as what logicians refer to as an ad hominem attack – i.e., an illegitimate stance taken because the speaker disagrees, but has a position that is factually unsupported and thus is not logically acceptable. I have had inaccurate statements made in the media about me and/or matters with which I was involved. If that occurred only a time or two, and the content was quite inaccurate in all respects, I would certainly be tempted to conclude that the media is frequently wrong. But in my experience, which ranged beyond only a time or two, the inaccuracies were infrequent and insignificant in degree, and it was basically the same regardless of whether a local hometown paper was involved or the media outlet was national in scope. I’ve known talented journalists over the years, and I observed the process one of my children went through to obtain a Master’s Degree in Journalism. From my own observations, and from what I’ve been told by trustworthy journalists, that profession is like any other walk of life in terms of the range of participants. There are some bad journalists, ranging from mere sloppiness to a malicious disregard of accuracy in order to advance a personal agenda. The good journalists – careful and ethical – well outnumber the bad apples.

      In sum, please remember that there are very, very few appropriate exceptions to the time-tested truisms to the effect that (a) one should never say never, and (b) one should never say always, and (c) blanket characterizations are red flags for extra scrutiny.

      1. I didn't read your entire book

        But I got to the part where you were saying noone could unite the media. That is false. They will print what the editor tells them will sell papers. We have video of them admitting as much.

        1. Sam Mullet

          Mr. Slabaugh: Who are “they” and who are these editors who tell their journalists to print what sells, and where are those videos? Of course editors want stories that will sell their newspapers! That doesn’t mean that all stories are “fake news”.

          1. Who are they?

            CNN is on record for having their on air personalities saying they do certain things for ratings for example. Check out project veritas. They have the videos.

            1. Sam Mullet

              Mr. Slabaugh: Name one station or newspaper that doesn’t want stories that will attract viewers or readers. FOX is notorious for its lies. OAN is no better. Do you really think any well-informed person would believe Project Veritas, a right-wing conservative activist group that is notorious for producing edited videos about media organizations and left-wing groups in order to mislead the public? Project Veritas has been proven by many sources to be nothing more than a right-wing, disinformation organization! If you want to prove your point, please use unbiased sources.

              1. Left, right, who cares?

                I’m not your typical left right monkey that will jump based on your rhetoric. I don’t care about that. I only care about the truth. Truth is I barely watch Fox or CNN. And that’s only if I happen to be at a house that is playing those actors that call themselves news. But I do know CNN has admitted to those things on video. Fox has had its own problems.

      2. There is a plethora of hypophrenics among us

        Kudos to Randy for a truly cogent reply to Stephen’s iteration of a certain fatuous term frequently used by a certain “politician.” The uneducated and underinformed fall prey to those who deal in mendacious tactics to get their unprincipled and amoral ideas across.

        Luckily, there are more like Randy than Stephen in America!

        1. Stephen

          The silent majority doesn't agree with you.

          The silent majority spoke loudly and clearly in the voting booth. We are tired of the distortions and outright lies of the American media, with the exclusion of a few credible news sources such as fox news. The american public are sick and tired of people who believe themselves more intelligent simply because they have a dime a dozen degree in liberal arts. It is the lefts narcissistic thinking and attitude that has brought America and most of the west into the state of depravity that exists today. They in defiance, completely ignor the reality that there is someone much higher that instills his unlimited wisdom in those who humble themselves and turn to him. And unfortunately their are some on here who hold the short sighted thinking of the left in higher regard than the eternal truths of Almighty God. We have watched the god hating, liberal media bash Mr. Trump for the past 3 years. And we have seen the screaming and emotional temper tantrums that the left openly displays.
          The battle lines have been drawn. Those who believe in the conservative morals and values that God endorses on one side, and those who lack Godly values and morals, who embrace the perverted ideology of the left, along with their hatred for God, family, and country, on the other.

        2. Sam Mullet

          Mr. Tibbetts: I appreciated your use of the word: “hypophrenics”. Indeed.

      3. Sam Mullet

        Randy: I enjoyed reading your response. It was well written and very respectful. I hope everyone reads it to the end. It’s well worth it. Thank you!

    3. Sam Mullet

      Stephen: I feel very sorry for you and those who believe as you do. I’m a Christian and a liberal. I do not hate God. None of my liberal Christian friends hate God. The difference between conservatives and liberals is that most of us actually care about other people. We are for programs that help those in need. Most of the social programs that exist today, are in place thanks to liberals. You know that social security check that you are or will be benefiting from upon retirement? That is a Democratic program that President Roosevelt put in place because of the Depression. The FDIC? That was another program by the Democrats/liberals because of what happened to people’s money during the Depression era. Are you or were you a union member? The pension you receive or will receive…a liberal idea. Conservatives have been trying to kill the unions for decades. Do you think Jesus would have approved of social security, pension funds, the FDIC? Was it not Jesus who championed the poor and needy? There are myriad social programs the liberals try to implement which the conservatives refuse to pass. What does Jesus think about that? I’m going to assume you are one of those highly intelligent, God-fearing persons you believe conservative Trump supporters to be and reflect on all the Christian acts your fellow Christians have put in place that are very unchristian. Remember the separating of children from their parents at the border? Would Jesus have approved of that? As for the bashing of Trump by the liberal media, he deserves it. Did you speak up in defense of President Obama when the conservative media and the Republican party did everything they could to discredit everything he tried to do for the country? Was President Obama a perfect president? No, he was not, but, he didn’t try to divide the country. He didn’t rant and rave about them (conservatives) against us (liberals), as Trump does at his rallies. President Obama didn’t appeal to the base character of his supporters and incite them to do harm to certain communities. President Obama wasn’t despised and reviled worldwide, as Trump is. B the way, even FOX “news” admits that they are not a news station as CNN, MSNBC, NPR, etc. are; they say they are an entertainment station. The truth is, they are simply a mouthpiece for Trump. The man you call president is the archetypical narcissist! Even during this pandemic, Trump keeps campaigning for reelection and touting his accomplishments, instead of caring about the sick and dying. He is blackmailing the states that didn’t vote for him. He is demanding that they “be nice to him” in order to receive ventilators. What kind of a president does that? You talk about morals and values and decry the bashing of Trump? What kind of decent, God-fearing supposed Christian president cherry-picks which states get help based on their support for him??? Isn’t he supposed to be president of ALL Americans? You talk about values and morals, yet you voted for a man who cheated on all his wives, declared bankruptcy at least five times, has cheated every business rival he has ever had dealings with, received several deferments during the Vietnam War, has been lying to the American people since he started campaigning and hasn’t stopped yet. You talk about narcissistic liberals and the media, yet, you support a president who makes everything about him. He whines like a petulant, schoolyard bully when the Democrats show him up. He has managed to turn this pandemic into a circus with him as the ring master! He is campaigning and talking about the economy instead of the people dying! He is taking credit for every positive outcome and deflecting every failure. He claimed he knew more about viruses than even the experts, and denied that this virus was going to affect the US. Look at the mess we are in today! If Trump is being bashed by the liberal media, it’s because he deserves it! By the way, I wonder if God doesn’t have a hand in how the liberal media is “bashing” Trump? Stephen, with respect, I urge you to consider getting a very serious reality check!

    4. Stephn

      Janice calling the kettle black!

      Janice, there’s an old saying: to anger a conservative, lie to him.
      To anger a liberal, tell her the truth!
      All those social programs for the poor wouldn’t be needed if the liberals hadn’t allowed the country to be flooded with illegals.
      Look at all the homeless in california, the most liberal state in america. That’s the future of the rest of the country if people like you get back in controll. Your vision is the vision of all tyrants who gained power through lies and deception. Yes, you just want to do it for the children. Ha ha! By stealing away the jobs and money from others to pay for your childish pipe dream. If you really care about people, stop endorsing those who promise financial rewards for doing nothing. All those wonderful programs to reward those who would rather have babies out of wedlock, than act responsibly. You and your democrat liberals have a done a fine job importing voters from other countries when hard working Americans would never elect the criminals you idolize, and giving american jobs away, so all that’s left is government programs to get by on. It’s people like you who think they know better than everyone else, despite the irrefutable facts that prove otherwise. The democrats have used the strategy of divide and conquer for decades, stirring up people’s emotions and racial hatred, women against men, black against white. Using one group to attack another in order to gain their political support. Thank God people have wised up. We’re not falling for your lies Janice. By your own admission you are a liberal. By your own admission you are in direct opposition to God and what he stands for. He doesn’t stand for stealing and plundering one group of hard working people, in order to give it all to those that won’t work. That’s what liberals do in order to buy votes. And then they feel they’re entitled to everything they’ve stolen. That’s why Amish and mennonites do not get involved in government programs or take social security. Because they know those programs were created by stealing from people. Those programs are Satan’s way of corrupting people. And that is exactly what you endorse. And you dare to call yourself a christian. You and the father of all lies.

      1. Sam Mullet

        Stephen: I feel pity for you and the rest of the ignorant and misinformed people of America.

    5. Louisa

      Thank you Stephen

      Thank you Stephen for an intelligent, objective comment regarding this country’s elected leaders. I wish all those who comment would follow the writing guidance of: never use two words when one will do. If you drone on and on and would have to scroll down to read your comment, no matter your beliefs are I pass right on by.

      1. Sam Mullet

        Louisa: Your comment proves what so many informed people think of supporters of the guy squatting in the White House: you people don’t like to read and you most certainly are not well-informed! Is this comment brief enough for you?

        1. Trump?

          What in God’s name does Trump have to do with anything in this article?

          1. Sam Mullet

            Mr. Slabaugh: Trump has everything to do with how and why racists and bigots who call themselves “evangelical Christians”, are openly showing their true colors. He is manipulating you evangelicals like a master puppeteer by appealing to your baser nature, and your arrogant belief that Christianity is the religion that all Americans must adhere to.

            1. Now I'm an Evangelical?

              That’s news to me. I also did NOT vote for him, but now it is obvious that your whole thing is “I hate Trump and Jesus, therefore I will attack both.” And by assuming I was a trump voter, you assumed it’s ok to attack me. As he would say: “wrong!”

              1. Sam Mullet

                Mr. Slabaugh: I do not hate Trump. To hate someone, one must have had feelings for that person at one time. I have always felt indifference for that man. That indifference for that man has turned into horror. As for hating Jesus, what have I written that would lead you to believe that I hate Jesus? Is my disagreeing with you or other “Christians”, evangelical or otherwise, proof that I hate Jesus? Does that mean that your comments about me are proof that you love Jesus? Hmmm…I am not attacking you; I am countering your assertions. That you did not vote for Trump is commendable. By the way, Sam Mullet and his ways have nothing to do with being “liberal”. He’s just an evil human being!

                1. passionate hate

                  i can see the hate in all of your posts, so dont try to deny it’s existance.

                  1. Sam Mullet

                    Mr. Slabaugh: If it pleases you to believe that about me, please indulge in that pleasure. Have a blessed day!

                    1. Pleasure

                      That is not to pleasurable, but it’s an obvious truth.

                      Gl with that.

                      Joe

                      1. Sam Mullet

                        Mr. Slabaugh: May your day be blessed by light in your darkness and all storms within your heart be stilled.

    6. Dan

      Sam Mullett

      So, he is controlling his followers from the jail cell.
      If he is a very conservative Old Order Amish, other than writing letters which people can be thrown away and the Bureau if Prisons censoring his mail for threats, this doesn’t seem possible.
      And using the phone, well, that doesn’t seem plausible.
      So, how is he doing it?

      1. He's not that conservative

        He’s a rather liberal amishmen, a multimillionaire, and owns 800 acres with oil rights, so it’s not inconceivable at all.

    7. Julie Wilbur

      Guess Sam Mullet forgot to look in mirror n cut own beard. How un loving!! Not a leader!!!