Allegations renew nun's death case

Toledo Blade ^ | 25 april 2004 | David Yonke

[csvset]

Toledo police detective Steve Forrester, left, and Tom Ross, an investigator with the Lucas County prosecutor's office, and formerly of the Toledo police, talk about the Robinson case.

Allegations made last year by a Toledo woman that she was sexually and physically abused as a child by Catholic priests during Satanic and sadomasochistic rituals led to the reopening of the 1980 case of a nun's murder for which the Rev. Gerald J. Robinson was arrested Friday, authorities said.

[heyheyhey]

Why did he kill her?

Don't you have a television? It's because that's what the Catholics, and priests especially do in their spare time - kill babies, dogs and nuns.

[heyheyhey]

there IS the FACT of the DEAD Nun, killed in a "ritualistic" fashion

It looked as if it was a satanic ceremony. It also looked, (look up the article) "as though she had been sexually assaulted, but investigators said yesterday they found "no evidence of any sexual activity."

The bottom line is she was killed, or, as you have said, "the DEAD sister is a FACT."

Satanism is real, it is deadly and it likely is part of this case.

Sure, sure.
When was the last time a bunch of Catholic priests put you in a coffin filled with cockroaches, forced you to eat a human eyeball, and penetrated you with a snake? Everybody who watches television knows these are the things the Catholic priests do in their spare time. And, of course, every Catholic FReeper knows, the Pope is to blame for it.

On the second thought, I still think it's a bunch of heavy baloney.

[saradippity]

I found an article on the Poynter Abuse Tracker that originated on Toledo Blade.com.

According to another priest who was ordained the same year,1964,the accused priest was somewhat an unknown among the priests in the diocese.

The interviewed priest said that most of the diocesan ordinands that year (1964) graduated from Mount St. Mary seminary in Cincinatti. Robinson graduated from a seminary in Orchard Lake Mich. Cardinal Dearden was the archbishop of Detroit at the time. However,I do not know where in Michigan Orchard Lake was/is,nor do I know the name of the seminary that was/is located there.

I also checked whether Bernardin was in Cincinatti but in 1964,he was not even a bishop.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

This is a pretty bizarre case. One assumes they have compelling evidence to make an actual arrest of the priest.
Just because there are sensationalist allegations which sound kooky does not mean that there was not something bizarre going on. There are demented, psychotic people.

[OpusatFR]

Oh yeah. You are definitely not living in the real world if you think they need compelling evidence.

Edenton, NC comes to mind along with several other cases in which satanic abuse was charged.

I can't tell you the people whose lives have been ruined by allegations of this garbage through "recovered" memories.

I will no longer deal with children after watching these witchhunts. This 40 year old's story sounds very much like one of those "multiple personalities," with "dissociative" symptoms. Very scary. No proof is needed, just a therapists notes and an imaginative patient.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Thanks for the "real world" tip. No need to personalize.
Um...Satanists DO target Catholics, btw. Just to keep you up to speed on "reality" and the aggression of secret societies and deranged cults.
We'll see how this pans out. Whether it goes in the "Maria Monk" can or the way of Paul Shanley and that outrageous display of sodomite neo-Catholicism in Boston papered over by the decadent hierarchy.

[OpusatFR]

I'm not trying to insult you. If that's what it appeared, I apologize.

I left the field because of the satanic conspiracy hysteria. It started as bonafide abuse cases, and then blew into full bore crazy. There are some bad priests in Boston and elsewhere, but I think people had better step back and look very carefully because this is starting to take the same route.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Agreed. If the allegations are false and the priest is innocent, he is the victim of a terrible injustice.

However, there still could be something demonic going on. A thorough investigation by competent authorities is in order. That deranged cults exist and that some target Catholic institutions are phenomena that I have some experience with. In the "real world."

[maryz]

No proof is needed, just a therapists notes and an imaginative patient.

Granted, in all those day-care child abuse cases of the 80s, the therapists themselves implanted the notion in the children's minds. I'm in Boston, and Gerald Amirault is only now, after 17 years, about to be released. He was convicted in spite of absolutely no physical evidence to back up the children's stories.

In the present case, though, the woman's claims did nothing except, through the occurrence of this priest's name, re-open the case. He was not arrested on the basis of her story. The priest had originally been a suspect, but without the development of the blood transfer imaging (IIRC the term) the police couldn't prove it at the time.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

One thing to keep in mind is the language games the media play with such sensationalist scandals. If the spin is "a Catholic priest" committed such a crime, it sounds like the problem is with Catholicism. However, the truth of the matter is that weirdo types with serious psychological problems are pretending to be Catholic priests. The crimes are being committed against the Church as well. The media spins it as if sodomy and sexual crimes are CAUSED by Catholicism. These men came from modern American subcultures - in a society which promotes pornography and sexual immorality with wild abandon. What is causing such weird problems is an issue of hot debate.

[heyheyhey]

While I could understand the snakes and eye balls part, I didn't get anything from the "blood transfer imaging" part of the story. Could you?

[heyheyhey]

Here is the whole part of the "blood transfer" text,

When investigators took the old evidence out of storage in December, "we noticed something that was startling and apparent to us," Detective Forrester said.

The discovery involved "blood transfer patterns" that, the detectives said, conclusively placed the murder weapon at the scene of the homicide.

...

Investigators believed in 1980 that the murder weapon belonged to Father Robinson, but at the time did not have the technology to prove that the weapon had been at the crime scene, according to the detectives.

"Blood transfer patterns" is a rarely used technology that analyzes the patterns made when a weapon or other object is laid down, they said.

Detective Terry Cousino, who works in the police scientific unit and draws composite sketches, was able to spot the pattern because "he has an artist's eye," Mr. Ross said.

Investigators contacted "one of the most renowned experts in the country" on blood transfer patterns "and that expert has supported our theory in this case," Detective Forrester said.

I don't see what this means, and why it suddenly, after 24 years, became "evidence."

[maryz]

Sorry -- I recalled the phrase wrong. It's "blood transfer patterns.

I googled it and found here an explanation: "Bloodstain pattern interpretation is a discipline, which utilizes the sciences of biology, physics and mathematics. . . . The study of bloodstain patterns and the consideration of the physical processes in the distribution of these patterns to reconstruct details of activities at scenes of violence have recently emerged as a recognized forensic skill. . . ."

"Low velocity impact [bloodstains include] blood transfer patterns caused by hair, swipes, hand, foot or bloody object impressions."

The document at the link is in pdf format, so I was switching back and forth typing a few words at a time and I restricted myself to the gist of it. (My eyes are crossing now!)

[maryz]

I don't see what this means, and why it suddenly, after 24 years, became "evidence."

I see you were busy while I was googling. See my post above -- it only recenly emerged as a "recognized forensic skill." It does seem almost as much art as science, but there are apparently recognized scientific checks on unrestrained imagination.

[maryz]

I inadvertently posted my last reply to you to myself (I told you my eyes were crossing!). I wanted to add, though, that I'll bet the wide availability of computers made the development possible (figuring trajectories, etc.), but I don't have a lot of scientific background.

[heyheyhey]

Thank you very much.

I have the feeling that thank to some bishops' flirt with clerical homosexuality now it became so easy to accuse a Catholic priest of anything, even feeding little girls with human eyeballs - welcome to the new world of "zero tolerance policy."

Personally, I don't think this particular priest was involved in any satanic rituals, with or without the killings - if it were so, he would not be able to stay in the Priesthood. He was one of the suspects 24 years ago simply because he was working at the same hospital and the nun was killed in the chapel. Everyone who watches TV knows that Catholic priests kill in chapels. ;-)

The sad part is that even if he is acquitted (and most likely it will happen) he has no chance to prove to everybody the lack of his involvement in the murder.

[heyheyhey]

Here are few other details published by WTOL-TV Toledo,
Sister Margaret Ann Pahl wasn't just some "nun from hospital," she "was a former director of the hospital's nursing school and also was an administrator at hospitals in Toledo and Tiffin." In other words, she knew many hospital workers, of whom some could be friends and some enemies.

There is also mention of the murder "weapon" in the article, "Investigators determined that the killer used a small knife."

Another article "Quiet cleric not well-known..." in the Toledo Blade says the following,

The Rev. Gerald John Robinson was born in Toledo, ordained in Toledo, and served as a priest in Toledo for nearly 40 years. But he is a quiet man and a loner and few priests or neighbors seem to know him very well. "He was not much of a socializer," said the Rev. Joseph Jaros, a retired Toledo priest.

Father Robinson, charged Friday night with the murder of a nun, was ordained in 1964, the same year as the Rev. Martin Donnelly. But Father Donnelly said last night that he does not really know Father Robinson.

Most of the priests in the class of 1964 went to Mount St. Mary Seminary in Cincinnati, while Father Robinson attended seminary in Orchard Lake, Mich., Father Donnelly said.

Edward and Martha Wesley, who live around the corner from Father Robinson's tidy brick home at 1401 Nebraska Ave., said they rarely talked to him.

"It was a shock," Mr. Wesley, 85, said of the cleric's arrest.

Mrs. Wesley, 83, said she and her husband used to chat with Father Robinson's parents, Mary and John, both now deceased, and that Mary Robinson was a member of the Altar Society at St. Hyacinth Church and was proud to have a son in the priesthood.

"People I know say that Father Robinson is good to the elderly," Mrs. Wesley said. "As far as I know, he was very well liked by the elderly."

The Wesleys, who have lived on Kopernik Avenue since 1950, said they sometimes saw the priest mow the grass or work in his flower-lined yard, but that he rarely, if ever, interacted with neighbors.

One woman who has lived next door to the priest for eight years said Father Robinson basically ignored her and her family.

The 66-year-old priest never said a word, not even a "hello," said Jackie Powell.

Jim Floyd, business manager of St. Joseph's Parish in Sylvania, barely remembers Father Robinson, who served as associate pastor there from 1989 to 1990.

"He's very devout. Kind of quiet," Mr. Floyd said. "He seemed like a nice enough guy."

Father Robinson has been serving St. Joseph's, making hospital calls to visit sick parishioners and serving Mass at nearby nursing homes, Mr. Floyd said.

Attorney John Thebes, hired yesterday to represent Father Robinson, said he has known the priest since he was a child when Father Robinson served as associate pastor of Christ the King Church from 1969 to 1972.

"The community at large, everybody to a person, says he's a gentle guy, a nonviolent person, and that this is really out of character," Mr. Thebes said.

[heyheyhey]

Article from Minneapolis Star Tribune,

Parishioners support jailed Toledo priest
John Seewer, Associated Press
April 27, 2004

TOLEDO, OHIO -- Supporters of a Roman Catholic priest charged with the 1980 killing of a nun rallied around the priest Monday, trying to raise money for his release and legal defense.

The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 66, wearing a brown jail jumpsuit and appearing tired and unshaven, didn't enter a plea at Monday's hearing in Toledo Municipal Court. He made no statement.

Robinson's lawyer, John Thebes, argued that he was not a flight risk. "He's not going anywhere," he said. "He hasn't gone anywhere in 24 years."

Bond was set at $200,000. Thebes said he hoped Robinson's supporters would raise the money. "We will take any financial, emotional and prayer support we can get," Thebes said.

Robinson, 66, was charged Friday with killing 71-year-old Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Her strangled and stabbed body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lit candles, her arms folded across her chest. Robinson later performed her funeral.

Parishioners at St. Anthony church, where Robinson was a pastor after the slaying, were setting up a legal defense fund.

"There's no way he could've done this," said Mary Ann Plewa, a distant cousin of Robinson. "He couldn't have lived 24 years and had that on his mind."

Investigators reopened the case in December after the Lucas County prosecutor's office received a letter, assistant prosecutor Gary Cook said. He would not say who sent the letter or what it contained.

Later, based on rarely used technology that allowed investigators to analyze blood patterns, they concluded the murder weapon was "in the control of the suspect," police detective Steve Forrester said.

Robinson's arrest warrant described a weapon that was in his possession as an "instrument with unique characteristics" associated with the nun's wounds. It said numerous cuts were made after she was dead.

"Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes allows you to begin making connections," Cook said.

Last June, a woman testifying before the Diocesan Review Board initially prompted a re-examination of the nun's death. The woman had written a detailed statement alleging years of abuse by priests during her childhood -- and mentioned Robinson. Years ago, Robinson had been questioned in the slaying.

[WestTexasWend]

Thanks for fleshing this out...

"He was a quiet man..."

When I was a news reporter it was almost a ritual (like "break a leg" for actors) for someone to utter those words as we headed out the door on homicide calls.

80% of the time it was the first thing a neighbor said.
So having noisy, nosy neighbors can be a good thing ;)

[heyheyhey]

The Toledo Blade reports this morning,

Victims' group faults reaction by local diocese
Priest accused of killing nun on radar for a year, SNAP says

...SNAP [Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests] co-leaders Claudia Vercellotti and Jon Schoonmaker said the diocese didn't follow its own protocol when it failed to place Father Robinson on leave after he was mentioned in an allegation of abuse against another priest or when the murder case was reopened.

"Father Gerald Robinson has been on the radar for over a year," Ms. Vercellotti said.

SNAP leaders also called upon Bishop Leonard P. Blair to launch an outreach effort throughout the diocese -through such means as church bulletins, the diocese Web site and the diocese's weekly newspaper - to notify area Catholics about abuse allegations against Father Robinson and clerics whose cases have not been made public.

Sally Oberski, diocese spokesman, said Father Robinson remained in his position for good reason after the woman's allegation that ultimately led to the reopening of the murder case...

The woman's allegations (eating an eyeball, penetrating with a snake, killing dogs, children, etc.) are listed in post #20

And, of course, there is a jail picture of Fr. Gerald Robinson,