Wife-Killer’s Pending Freedom Splits Amish

Edward Gingerich ripped his Amish community apart four years ago, beating his wife to death and gutting her like a deer at their farmhouse. He may be forever snubbed by his former sect.

The case has stretched the limits of forgiveness in his Old Order Amish congregation, where 50 members have signed a petition to keep him in a mental hospital forever. His own sister, Clara Gingerich, stood behind a screen door last month and said only, “Do you think they’ll let him out?”

But not everyone seems willing to abandon him.

Two dozen members of a less conservative branch of the quiet sect, the New Order Amish, have told authorities they are willing to live near Gingerich.

“If Edward would have killed my sister or sister-in-law, it would be a lot harder, but if you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven,” said Andrew Troyer, a New Order member who visits Gingerich in prison.

Gingerich’s pending release next spring has revealed a rare crack in the seamless peacefulness that the Amish show to the outside world. His own sect shuns him but not the New Order branch.

The Amish were founded in 1693 by Swiss Mennonite bishop Jacob Amman, who believed Mennonite doctrine and practice were too relaxed. Amish are taught to live apart from the world and abstain from worldly goods.

The Amish began arriving in this country about 1720 and settled first in Pennsylvania. About 150,000 Amish live in 22 states and Canada.

The 1993 killing of Katie Gingerich by her husband, then 27, is believed to be the first of only two Amish-on-Amish slayings in the sect’s U.S. history. It drew extraordinary and unwanted attention to the Amish farms of northwestern Pennsylvania, 100 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Prosecutors said Gingerich had stopped taking medication for schizophrenia before the slaying in Rockdale Township. He later said he thought his wife was possessed by the devil. Found guilty of involuntary manslaughter but insane, he was sentenced to 2 1/2 to five years in prison.

Since then, he has resumed treatment for his mental illness and has expressed regret for his act. His sentence ends in March.

Members of the Old Order have reportedly excommunicated him--the sect’s severest penalty--because he has adopted the beliefs of the New Order. An Old Order bishop declined to explain the group’s position.

“We try to be a quiet group,” said Rudy Shetler, who is Katie Gingerich’s uncle.

But more than 50 members of the conservative sect have signed a petition calling for Gingerich to remain in a mental hospital, said Douglas Ferguson, the Crawford County prosecutor who tried him.

He is aware of the other branch’s interest.

“Others felt because of the way their society is they had a duty to help him,” Ferguson said.

Troyer said the Old Order--of which the Cambridge Springs group is one of the most conservative--values plain living and good deeds. The New Order puts more emphasis on salvation in Christ; members also use telephones and electricity, unlike the Old Order.

New Order Amish member Bill Miller said Gingerich cried every day for the first two years after the slaying. Gingerich also had a religious experience convincing him God has forgiven him.

He has made friends and works in the carpentry shop at the state prison in Mercer. Gingerich once built pallets at the family sawmill and was known for his intelligence and ability to fix machines.

Gingerich hopes to one day live with his children again, his supporters said, but it seems unlikely he will see them or his parents as long as they belong to their church.

Miller said friends have found several possibilities for Gingerich, including living with a cousin in Flat Rock, Ill., or working with wayward Amish boys at a camp in Everett, Mich.

“He’s learned not to let his emotions control his attitudes, which is very important for a person who comes out of prison,” he said. “Medication is something he may have to look at for the rest of his life.”