The other night I was watch a TV show called Most Evil where it profiles different aspects of serial killers. I thought it was just a special but apparently it is a series on the Discovery channel. It is pretty interesting. I always find myself drawn to these kind of shows.
The show I was watching highlighted several well-known killers, but one stood out for me that you might not know. His name is Ed Gingerich. He is Old Order Amish. He is the only Amish individual to date to be convicted of murder. I don’t normally think or murder and mayhem when I think of the Amish. Edward Gingerich has changed that.
On March 18, 1993 he murdered his wife in front of two of their children in the kitchen of their Pennsylvania farmhouse. He had pushed her down, crushing her skull with his foot. Then he eviscerated her with a kitchen knife stacking her internal organs next to her body.
You would think his story would end there, right? Well it doesn’t. He was only sentenced to 2.5 to 5 years for involuntary manslaughter. He was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic prior to the incident, which mostly helped with his reduced sentence. He was released from prison in 1998.
The Amish society he had lived in had shunned him therefore he was no longer welcome there. Other than Jim Fisher’s website Edward Gingerich dropped off the media’s radar after his release that is until April of last year when his 17 year old daughter went missing. He was later charged with criminal conspiracy to commit concealment of the whereabouts of a child; concealment of the whereabouts of a child and interfering with the custody of children (everything short of kidnapping). The girl was found about two hours from her home. (Is that two hours by car or by horse and buggy? The article doesn’t say.)
This February he was back in front of a judge. This time for a weapons charge, which can carry a maximum of 10 years in jail. Perhaps it is time for that maximum sentence before someone else gets hurt.