The Case of Sister Mary Janina

Up through the muck of current crime stories, another murder case is rising to ascendance in our public discourse. It concerns Father Gerald Robinson, a Catholic priest who is currently on trial for the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.

The case has a striking parallel in Michigan's criminal history. Father Robinson, you see, isn't the first priest to fall under dark suspicions for the murder of a nun.

It was 1907; the place was Isadore, Michigan, a remote Catholic outpost where a priest and two young nuns worked on a mission to raise the Polish farmers' children into good Catholic boys and girls. Sister Mary Janina was young and plain. The priest may or may not have been intimate with her. In either case, one day in August she up and disappeared.

They looked for her in every farmhouse, in the swamps, in the woods. Not a trace. Did she break her vows, flee her holy orders? Did someone kidnap her? Was she lost? For years, nobody knew what became of her. Everyone assumed the worst of the priest. He must have gotten her pregnant. That was the speculation.

Then someone confessed to bludgeoning the young nun and burying her half-alive in the crawlspace underneath the church. The priest who heard this confession was a gossip, and he told the bishop. It soon became common knowledge in certain Catholic circles that Sister Mary Janina had been murdered. Still, the church covered up the crime.

Then, nearly ten years later, the bones of Sister Janina were found, and the trial began for her murderer -- Mrs. Lipczynska. The person who murdered the nun was not the priest, but the priest's housekeeper, a very old Polish grandmother who was furious that the priest was "treating her [Sister Mary Janina] like a wife." Mrs. Lipczynska was convicted and went to prison.

Meanwhile, the story of the murder has been dramatized as a play written in the 1970s called The Runner Stumbles, which is occasionally produced as community theater to this day.

The lesson in this case from Michigan's past is a motive alone does not a murder make. Even where the truth seems apparent, the reality can be even more diabolical.

***

The best book about this case is The Errant Nun by "Natsolim," pen name of H. Milostan; a used copy sometimes pops up on Amazon. The case was also the subject of a chapter of the book Butcher's Dozen by Larry Wakefield, about 13 famous Michigan murders and one of this Michigander's favorite books.

Comments

[JstAnthrTrvlr]

I was just reading up on the Father Robinson case last night. The thought crossed my mind as to how frequently such occurences manifest - especially within a religion such as Catholicism, where chastity is such an huge issue. I would garner to guess that such things occur more often than those in the faith may want to believe because it is human nature to have physical desires; and to be required to suppress such an integral part of the human make-up can create a tremendous imbalance in some people. Obviously I'm not Catholic. ;0)

[David Zaffina]

Where do you get your facts about Sister Janina? None of what you say about her and the parish priest's relationship show up in People v Lipsczinska, 212 Michigan Reports December 1920 at pages 484 etc.

[Laura]

David,
There are a lot of newspaper articles about the case on Newspaperarchive.com. Author Larry Wakefield also devoted a chapter to the case in "Butcher's Dozen."

[fahrrad]

Dies ist ein großer Ort. Ich möchte hier noch einmal.

[Laura James]

danke und kommen Sie wieder!

[Heather]

You don't mention the newest book on the case - ISADORE'S SECRET by Mardi Link. A great read and it details a lot of facts about the case.