‘Whydunit’ tells story of Amish killing

Judge denies mistrial request
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Burrows’ lawyer: Jury info seen
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JURY SELECTION CONTINUES IN MURDER TRIAL

The Associated Press

Crime writer Jim Fisher of New Wilmington took longer to write a book about an Amish man’s brutal murder of his wife than the man spent behind bars.

Fisher, a professor of criminal justice at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and a former FBI special agent, this week released his book, “Crimson Stain,” about a 1993 murder in Crawford County in which an Amish man killed and disemboweled his wife in a schizophrenic frenzy. He said his book — his fifth — examines why the killer, Edward Gingerich, killed his wife, Katie. “All of my other books focused on who committed the crime,” he said. ‘“Crimson Stain’ is not a whodunit, but a whydunit.”

Gingerich, 34, formerly of Cambridge Springs, told police he did it to excise the devil from his wife and because she intended to attend a wedding without him. He had stopped taking medication for paranoid schizophrenia.

He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter but found mentally ill, and served five years in prison. Gingerich was released in March 1998, and moved to central Michigan rather than returning to his former community.

Fisher said that while researching his book, he learned from Katie Gingerich’s mother that Gingerich abused his wife. He said Gingerich knew what he was doing despite his mental illness. “You could see this murder coming like a train,” Fisher said.

When Gingerich was released from prison, his lawyer, Donald Lewis, said he was not a threat as long as he takes his medication. He said Gingerich resumed taking his medication while in prison, and worked as a sawmill operator in the prison carpentry shop.

Lewis said that at the time of the killing, Gingerich had been off his medication for nine months. Fisher said Gingerich also had been admitted to two hospitals, and associated with people outside his Amish community.

Fisher said Gingerich now lives in a halfway house for troubled Mennonites and works in a sawmill.

“We can only hope he continues to take his medication,” Fisher said.

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