Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 290 - Amish Killer Edward Gingerich

Episode Date: April 4, 2022

Long before he brutally murdered his wife Katie - crushing her head and disemboweling her on March 18th, 1993 - Ed  was really struggling with his mental health. He'd been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia a year earlier. He'd been really sick long before that. He's been battling powerful hallucinations and delusions for over a year. He'd been tormented by visions of things like a giant rabbit. He was convinced the devil was using his wife to keep him from salvation. He thought he could read messages from god by studying his spit. Despite all this,  instead of getting proper treatment, he was encouraged to not take his antipsychotic medication. He was told his ills could be prayed away. He was told he was cured by a quack chiropractor who thought he could ease Ed's troubled  mind by pulling on his toes and making him drink blackstrap molasses. Seriously. Today's episode is a fascinating, ridiculous, darkly funny at times, so sad in others, cautionary tale to remind us all to take our mental health very seriously. Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation:  This month our donation will be going to Lifting Hands International whose mission statement is “We provide aid to refugees both at home and abroad. No politics. Simply humanitarian.”  If you are looking for a way to help those in crisis in Ukraine, please visit liftinghandsinternational.org and look for the Urgent Ukraine Banner at the top. Our donation amount is TBD as we recorded this one in advance!TICKETS FOR HOT WET BAD MAGIC SUMMER CAMP!  Go to www.badmagicmerch.comWatch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9OLHJJzbdxgMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

On the 9th March 18th, 1993, the Gingrich and Shetler families were hoping for a break. The two Amish families, along with the entire Brown Hill community of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, were hoping that egg Gingrich's unexplained insanity might just go away. Ed hadn't really fit in with this community since his family had moved from Norwich, Ontario to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1983. The teenage Ed was, surly, bit of a rebel. He liked to work with machines. He didn't seem to want to live a life dictated by strict Amish codes, it didn't make any sense to him.

And then over the next several years, it became clear that Ed was suffering from more than just a general frustration with the Amish way of life. What started out is disobedience and refusal to stop associated with non-Amish friends soon progressed to something that the Amish were not equipped to handle at all. First, Ed complained that he was always itchy, tired. They felt like his brain was about to explode. And his Amish family and friends didn't know what to do to help him. Then he started talking about God, a lot, about salvation, about a war between good and evil. He made a non-omish

friend named Dave Lindsay, a practicing evangelical who told Ed that if he accepted Jesus Christ under his denominations faith, then he was bound to be saved. But if he did not, he was bound for damnation. And that went for his family, too. But his wife, Katie, had no interest in switching religions. So now Ed was worried about her soul and his own. Over time, he'd be convinced that she was trying to damn him to hell. She was in league with the devil.

Then Ed started hallucinating. He was seeing all kinds of things that weren't there. Giant rabbits, angels, he was behaving in the strangest of ways, trying to decipher messages out of his own spits, barking like a dog while scooting around the house on all fours. He was seriously mentally ill, and his mental illness was also making him paranoid. He accused his family of plotting to poison him when they took him to a hospital and got him medication for his paranoid schizophrenia. He said that what was really wrong with him

was that he had liver cancer or that his heart was moving around inside his chest. Caught in the middle of all this, his young wife who had married Ed in 1986, largely due to worrying about becoming an old maid. Because if she didn't marry someone, she was gonna be an old maid, even though she was only in her early 20s. And for his part, Mary Katie, because of pressure, too,

pressure to give up his love of technological innovation and a non-omish life, pressure to be a dedicated father and husband and a husband to an especially faithful, omnis wife. But he would not turn out to be a good father or husband. His largely untreated or mistreated mental illness did not allow for that. He was hospitalized twice for schizophrenia, given medication. And the medication he was prescribed was stopping his delusions, but his wife Katie, who did not trust modern medicine, would agree with him that he should stop taking it. This was terrible. His condition, of course, was then worsened. As the fits of insanity became more and more frequent and intense, Ed and Katie's family members wondered what to do. Should they take him back to the hospital? Prayer and

time hadn't worked. Was their face not strong enough? Was his face not strong enough? Was he possessed by the devil? Is Bishop Rudy Scheller thought? Should they take him to an herbal healer? A man who claimed that he could see people's afflictions in their eyes. Did he just need to keep seeing a strange quack of a chiropractor who thought he could cure Ed's mental illness by pulling on his toes, twisting his ankles and having him drink black strapped molasses. In the midst of all this debate, Ed snapped. As Katie got ready to go to an omnis wedding, Ed walked into the kitchen, knocked her to the ground, proceeded to pummel her with his fists until she was unrecognizable. Then he put on his heavy farmer's workboots, went back inside to stomp on her face until

her head was just obliterated. And then with two of his three young children watching, still watching, he disemboweled his wife, let the need stack of her organs beside her. Then he and his children started walking down the road like everything was just fine. That's how the Mill Village Pennsylvania law enforcement found him. From Ed's column demeanor, they had no idea the magnitude of what they were about to encounter when they'd walk into his house.

When they did see what he'd done, Ed was charged and convicted of Katie's merger, murder. He would be released from prison March 19th, 1998 after serving just four years. He then moved to an Amish mental health facility in Michigan, then Indiana, receiving further treatment there before returning to the Brown Hill Amish community in February of 2007. And then his story would take another turn or two before ending in more tragedy.

Ready to dive back into the strange world of the Amish? Today we return for a much more personal tale of mental illness and religion colliding in such a tragic and unavoidable, actually completely avoidable way in a different kind of true crime, frustrating, this could have all been prevented at so many different points addition of time suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to time. Happy Monday, meet sacks. I'm Dan Cummins, master sucker, deep state Ukrainian show, false flag coordinator, and you are listening to time suck. Hail, name, right, helluose, if you know, praiseable, jangles and glory, be to triple

in recording this episode right after getting back from Charlotte, North Carolina, had so much fun to the Comedy Zone, thanks to everyone who came out Saturday night in particular, was just amazing. Also Charlotte, what a cool city. I stayed downtown or I think uptown, as it's called, that city is happening, something in the air there, just a lot going on. It feels exciting, feels like an exciting place to live. Next up, Tempe, Arizona, the improv,

15th and 16th of April, great club, big club. Some comics, film specials there. So one of the shows is sold out, but there's tickets to the other ones. There's four shows total. Hope you can come. And then it's Mizzoula, Montana, only about 50 tickets left for the show

at the Wilma on April 23rd. Then it's Good Night and Raleigh back to North Carolina. Then out to Salt Lake City, Springfield, Missouri, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Davenport, Iowa, Chicago, Illinois. You can find dates for the Symphony of Insanity Tour at Dancomans.tv. Just locked up the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis, shoot a special there December 10th Saturday, take its sold out almost immediately. So we're adding shows on the night.

You can still come and see what the special will be the next night. I know I said I was going to shoot it in St. Louis, but we just couldn't lock up the venue. We wanted when we wanted it. So I got to get back to St. Louis soon now to do some shows. Adding some cryptids to the Bad Magic Store this week. And thanks to everybody who's gotten tickets to the tour by the way. Introducing none other than the Jersey Devil and Goatman. So head on over to badmagicmerch.com, collect your favorites, get some weird shirts inspired by

our Appalachian cryptid suck. Check it out. Don't see your favorite monster. Well, let us know on Instagram, which cryptids we should do next by using the hashtag time suck cryptid. And then one last announcement, charity. This month, our donation going to helping Ukraine. We're donating to lifting hands international, whose mission statement is we provide aid to refugees, both at home and abroad, no politics, simply humanitarian. They have in boots on the ground

in a variety of places for refugees, and currently our station in Moldova and Romania, aiding and evacuating Ukrainians, providing meals and so much more to those who have been evacuated. If you're looking for a way to help those in crisis in Ukraine, you can go to liftinghandsinternational.org, look for the urgent Ukraine banner at the top, so many ways you can help, including sending care packages to those in Ukraine. We continue to be amazed by the resilience of the Ukrainian people and carry them in our

thoughts and hearts every day. Our donation amount, TBD, is every cordless in advance. We'll keep you posted as soon as we make that donation. Thanks so much for the Patreon Spacers for making it possible to donate to worthy causes like this every month. And then now time to set some tone for today's show. A super sucker and good Christian, Elise Helmick called me out. And it feels like this update belongs here and not at the end. It's a quick one and pertains to today's episode At least writes Feel like this keeps coming up a sir sucking to and I wish you'd understand Feels like you've been dogging on Christians a lot and for someone who for the most part seems very tolerant of a lot

The traditional views of Christ followers seem to be thrown under the bus a lot recently It's because you don't understand the beliefs of others Just because you don't understand God doesn't others, just because you don't understand God, doesn't make us wackadoodles or devoid of critical and rational thinking. Faith is a powerful thing. Pray for you regardless, keep on making bad ass podcasts because I love them and we'll continue to listen to them all.

At least, well, at least, thank you for the prayers. Seriously, and thanks for calling me out. I was just thinking the night before your message came in about addressing this on my own. It was when on my mind and then this came in. So yeah, it was my own little sign to talk about this. I keep covering only the terrible side of faith, specifically often Christian faith,

and how it affects people's lives in negative ways as it will tremendously for today's subject Ed Gingrich and for his wife and children. I get mad at the social control, natural impulse, oppression, judgment, the denial of human nature, rejection of science and critical thinking aspects of some members of some denominations and offshoots of Christianity, some that they possess.

But I do know, and I should say this more often, that many Christians, some of the most tolerant people out there, very forgiving, very accepting, right? Very tolerant. So like you must be be to keep listening. So sorry, I shouldn't only focus on the negative. That's not fair. And you were right to call me out and I'm glad you did.

So I apologize. That being said, I am on a fucking hammer on a certain homage beliefs today because some of their beliefs are objectively not good. I understand faith, I do understand the nature of believing in things that are not real, but when you let that belief intervene in ways that are needlessly, truly destructive

and negative and damaging, I got a comment and it can be positive. So I hope you understand at least, and I think you do. I think you will. Okay, so now for another dive back into the world of the Amish, so quickly we return, space that was voted this topic in, and they made a great choice.

This will not be anything like our previous episode of the Amish. That was an overview of their history, lifestyle, recent controversies. This is much more singularly focused. In this episode, we'll dive into a very specific time and place in one Amish community, the Brown Hills settlement in the early 1990s. That's what we do most of our focus. We'll cover a truly horrifying crime that happened there and events that led up to it,

learning a bit more about the homage ways as we do. So there will be some of that. First I'll let a little homage culture refresher. Then we'll explore how the homage handle crime and punishment, we'll learn about mental illness, the kind Ed was afflicted with, paranoid schizophrenia. The meat of this episode will be a timeline of Ed's life.

I thought this episode would be interesting and it ended up being far more interesting than I expected. So let's get into it. Journeying back into the realm of true crime now, though again, in a way we don't often cover here. You know, we're fully back in the land of the Amish, not the setting for violent crimes normally. Overall, they seem to be an especially nonviolent group, right?

The Amish are forbidden, they believe, by Christ to become involved in any warfare or violence. They do not defend themselves. If attacked historically, when faced with hostile neighbors or governments, they have simply abandoned their farms and moved on. And I feel like I probably should admire that. I don't know that I do. I admire their conviction to their beliefs here, but not fighting to keep what's yours. I do have a hard time wrapping my head around that.

I don't know. Feels like a good way to end up dead or homeless. But again, they don't take their convictions lightly. They really seem to practice what they preach in regards to non-violence. After that 2006, West Nichol Mines School was shooting the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We talked about in the previous homage episode, when five homage children were killed by deranged gunman Charles Karl Roberts and another five were wounded. The homage families of the victims immediately forgave the shooter, who shot himself in the

attack and they extended condolences and to condolences uh... you know sorry to the family of the shooter an exceptionally nonviolent group so now for that uh... omnis refresher i understand that not everyone who listens to episode also listen to episode 284 or remembers it all if they did i needed a refresher myself to the omnis their religious group live almost exclusively in settlements in the u.s. and canada as of 2015 there have been a handful of Amish in South America, not many though. One small settlement in Bolivia, one small settlement in Argentina. The beachy Amish have communities in Europe, Africa, cross Latin America, but that offshoot

a lot more men and night than Amish in my opinion, not who most of us think of when we think of the Amish. They're not part of the horse and buggy crowd. We're talking about today. The Amos stretch humility, family community, self-sufficiency, uniformity, separation, real big on uniformity. Where are the wrong color suspenders and you are banished, brother, hezeka, Daya. We can see your ankles, sister, Margaret, Daya. Stop trying to destroy our community with your Jezebel ways. I think covered by tomorrow, find a new home. The omnis were part of the early anabaptist movement in Europe, part of the Protestant Reformation.

Anabaptist believed strongly that only adults who, you know, confess their faith should be baptized, not stupid babies. There might be little devil god haters. All right, they should also remain separate from the larger society to avoid the devil's temptations. European Catholics, other Protestants were not fans of the early anti-baptists. They put many early anti-baptists to death considering them to be heretics. Baptize your babies or be drowned, hanged or burned. We're not just going to stand by and let you anti-baptists condemn your baby's souls hell, but not to sprinklin some magic, wizard water on their foreheads.

This persecution soon led many Baptists, including the Amish, who formed the tail end of the 17th century to flee to America. They settled first in Pennsylvania, establishing their initial settlement in Berks County in 1740. And they've been in Pennsylvania ever since, also expanded into Canada and many other US states. The Amish from the beginning have sent their lives around farming, hard manual labor, long days of simple work, a bit of their big parts,

excuse me of their culture. And rather than churches, they hold their worship services and members homes, rotating services from home to home to reinforce very tightly knit insular communities. They are especially insular. They don't do missionary work. 99.9% of the Amish were born into this religion. One source I found says that less than 100 people in America have ever converted to the Amish church and actually stayed for any length of

time. Another source says that maybe up to 200 people have converted total. Since they don't share records regarding much of anything, don't keep records regarding much of anything, because they don't communicate frequently with the non-amish world as well. This is all pretty speculative, but everyone agrees it is exceptionally rare. It would be hard to find a way into their communities. While the Amish don't have arranged marriages, they also are not allowed to date outsiders for the most part, right? Must choose a partner from within the community. Outsiders, non-amish, English, as they're called, are not permitted to marry within the Amish community. Young Amish person on Rumspringer, you know, when teens, generally the age of 16, are allowed to explore the outside world so that they can choose to return home and

become Amish, be baptized, and the Amish faith, right? Lifestyle. They could theoretically bring someone into the faith and then marry them, but that person would have to become fully Amish. Live within the community, live by the communities, many, many rules, they could theoretically bring someone into the faith and then marry them, but that person would have to become fully omnis Live within the community live by the communities many many rules Right so many rules from how long your beard can be to how it's trimmed to what color is the spenders you can wear how wide the brimmy your hat must be Etc And because of all these rules how strict it is again very few people ever think oh cool Sounds awesome. I can never watch TV again or listen to any recorded music or use a microwave or have a cell phone or a car or a

Central AC or almost anything else good and I'll be told what I get to wear every day where I have to be every day Etcetera etcetera sign me up Modern day homage differ very little from the early end of 17th century, dawn of the 18th century predecessors, old order groups, the groups with the most rules and restrictions, such as the one Ed Gingrich belonged to, they all still drive horses and buggies rather than cars, they do not have electricity, they don't have cell phones or computers, they send their children to private one room Amish schoolhouses, etc. Children in these communities only attend

school to the eighth grade and after that they work on their family's farm or some other Amish-approved business, right, until they marry. Well, they work on their family's farm until they marry, then they can have their own farm or they can sometimes work on somebody else's business. The rules differ a bit from settlement to settlement, but the lifestyle always strict. The rules differ a bit from settlement to settlement, but the lifestyle always strict. Each settlement does have their own ordn, or ordn, a collection of settlements, or their rules largely unwritten. Most homage tanks these rules forbidden to even use tractors and powered river machinery to do their farming.

Now, sir, you start using too much machinery. Well, now you might make too much money. Start thinking you're hot shit. Might want to live in a bigger house than brother, horse is only a akaya. You know, now the conformity of this settlement is eroding and whether there is no conformity, there is ego and whether there is ego,

there is room for the devil to sneak in and completely destroy your soul. Suddenly instead of farming all day with a horse-drawn plow, well now you have enough energy to want to play monopoly. Teasing the devil's competitive ways You might want to try out 69 in your partner gross What are you doing sexually experimenting you might like that so much start thinking about that during Sunday services instead of thinking about

How you can't wait to die and get off this filthy, you know, shit hole of a planet so many rules So many rules and a partying force to make sure that you have to work all the time truly Truly, that's part of why there's the rules. The homage not believers in the concept of work smarter, not harder. They seem to firmly preach the opposite. Work harder, not smarter. Work longer, work all the time. The more you work, the less time you have to, I don't know, think about how batshit crazy at all is. Bottle gas can be used to operate water heater stoves and refrigerators and many old order

communities. Gas pressured lanterns and lamps can be used to light homes, barns and shops, but not battery powered stuff in most cases. Not electricity. Keep Satan's electrical fire out of the community. Gas is acceptable because it's seen as more natural. It's more godly. Closer to how life was, you know, back when the Amish guest started in 1693. Electricity, man-made power. Mm-mm. Ego, not godly. Clothes as I tucked on already. Also heavily regulated. Old order Amish women and girls wear modest dresses made from solid colored fabric with long sleeves and a full skirt. Their dresses, you know, covered with an apron, fastened with straight pins or snaps. They never cut their hair, which they wear in the bun on the back of the head, on their

heads, they wear a white prayer covering, if they're married, a black one, if they are single and ready to not really mingle. Men and boys wear dark colored suits, straight cut coats, broad trousers, suspenders, solid, colored shirts, black socks and shoes, black or straw brbrimmed, broad-brimmed hats. There are shirts fashion with conventional buttons, but there's suit coats fashion, a fastened fastened with hooks and eyes. Thomas Field is distinctive clothes, encouraged humility and separation from the world. Be humble, have a bowl cut, look like an idiot.

Keeps you not being focused on vanity. Truly, facial hair also regulated. Amish men do not have mustaches, A.K.A. the devil's pussy and ball ticklers, but they do grow beards after they marry. And speaking of marriage, no such thing as an Amish divorce once you get married. I don't remember coming across that,

doing the research for the episode 284 in the Amish. Not allowed to get divorced in the eyes of the church4 in the Amish. Not allowed to get divorce in the eyes of the church. If an Amish church member should get a divorce, the person initiating the divorce would then have to leave the Amish faith, which would result in them being shunned. Then the spouse of the one who gets the divorce also punished in God's divine wisdom, they would never be allowed to remarry again if they wanted to remain Amish. As this would be considered adultery since a divorce, while it may be legal, would not be recognized within the Amish faith.

Isn't that crazy? So many fucking rules. So many rules that to me seem needlessly harmful. I'm sure you can see, I hope you can see how not allowing divorce is a great way to open up the door to just a never-ending stream of domestic violence, spousal rape, child abuse, sexual abuse, etc. And there have been some terrible cases of omniscettlement leaders ignoring brazen domestic abuse within families and of banishing some of those who dared to speak out about it, right? Especially if they speak out to people outside of

the omnisc community, tragic and unnecessary. This policy could also lead to say, someone being murdered by their spouse, like what happens in today's tale with Edward Gingrich. This policy definitely contributed to his wife, Katie's death. He abused her before he killed her. And no one did much about it. No one wanted to intervene, not intervening

part of the Amish way. There aren't good structures within Amish communities to intervene and adequately judge and punish offenders. In a community that is largely left to police itself, there are no courts, no set of formal punishments attached to any given transgression. And that is Kuku for Coco Puffs. The more I learn about the Amish life, just a less of a fan of it I am. No matter what the crime, if the perpetrator professes repentance before the church community, they are forgiven. Says historian Debra Morsecon who studied and wrote about the Amish extensively before she passed away in 2019. As we know from the last episode of the Amish, this has disastrous effects on victims.

One father who sexually abused his daughter only got six weeks of shunning for his depraved acts. No one look at Todd for six weeks. Don't talk to the Todd, did ya? Not until May 15th. Then everything's cool again. And we can pretend he's not a dirty pedophile. The allegations of Amish crime victims, especially when their women or children are frequently

not believed in their very patriarchal subculture. A man's word carries more weight than a woman or a child's word, which is obviously mostly fucking awesome and good and right and has got intense. No, it's terrible. It leads to victims getting in trouble, you know, for line and to perpetrators getting off scot free. You know, and I by line, I mean, not line, telling the truth, but being accused of line. I would have victim is believed the punishment has decided by the bishop in most cases. Highest ranking member of the Amish clergy, sometimes for the most serious allegations, other bishops from other communities, we'll step in and help solve it.

There'll be a whole gaggle of bull cut having bearded maniacs with junior high educations, forming a punitive think tank. Fuck yeah, bro. What a fantastic system it doesn't work out that well uh... the worst punishment you can get is not to be imprisoned uh... not to be like executed no you can be x communicative

you can be banned for the settlement for life but only if you're utterly unrepentant as long as you repentant you don't have to worry uh... that much about punishment uh... as long as you're willing to repent you probably i don't know molest literally every single kid on the whole settlement uh... maybe run around You don't have to worry that much about punishment. As long as you're willing to repent, you could probably, I don't know, molest literally every single kid on the whole settlement. Maybe run around one day,

just punching every woman in the face. Maybe also bend over every man and rape him. And after all that, you're gonna receive a stern shunning. Get out of here for a year, brother, Michael, a dire ding dong. We need time for our spirit and about holds to heal. you need to bring that devil bone at the heel make him mind And we'll gladly have you back Ed, despite numerous instances of domestic violence leading up to the murder of Katie

He would never even be shunned. Why not? Maybe because he was too important to the community. He was good at fixing buggies and keeping their sawmill running Or maybe because again intervening in matters between husband and wife, not really the Amish way. Eventually, though, family members would intervene. Ed's mental illness kind of forced their hands. So let's talk about that illness now. Paranoid schizophrenia. Improperly treated paranoid schizophrenia. Ed was continually encouraged to get bullshit, non-western medicine treatment for his very serious mental illness, or when he would get the proper treatment, he was not encouraged to stick with it.

He was encouraged to abandon it. His Amish community mistakenly thought folkures and faith could fix him, but that is not how mental illness works. You cannot just pray it away. So what is paranoid schizophrenia? How is it treated ideally? Paranoid schizophrenia is essentially super fucking fun. If you have it, congrats.

Oh, what a lucky duck. Holy shit, you have won the fun lottery. Paranoid schizophrenia is basically like always having a nice hefty dose to quality LSD in your bloodstream that you can turn on or off at will. That's the best part of Paranoids gets a frenzy. You choose when you want to lose Nate or fill your brain with powerful delusions. You want to have a normal lunch by yourself and then just head back to work?

No problemo. Just leave it turned off. Easy peasy. You want to have lunch with a dead relative or maybe Marilyn Monroe or a demon? You want to feel convinced that if you don't kill Charlie Sheen, and soon the Earth is going to rip itself apart, we'll all fall inside, be eaten by bloodthirsty reptilians, we'll then turn it on. And join a fun ride. If things get too scary, just think I'd like to take a break now, please, and bingo, bingo,

back to normal you go, just like that. Again, the best part about paranoid schizophrenia is that it's a choice. It's entirely up to you if you want to feel crazy or not. And because of that, you don't ever need treatment. And you certainly don't need meds. No, meds are what the fucking Hollywood's resilience wants you to take. Because that's what's gonna keep torsing alive. And it's gonna send us all into a bloody, get ready to be eaten or am I getting it?

No, no, no. Now, paranoid schizophrenia is very serious and severe form of mental illness that if you don't want to have your life become totally unmanageable, you have to take very seriously. You have to find a great psychiatrist who will work with you to have you take the right medication for you, follow the correct treatment plan.

You'll need a great support system around you, make sure your paranoia and delusions and hallucinations do not drive you to stop following the treatment plan. Paranoid schizophrenia or schizophrenia with paranoia, as many doctors now call it, it's characterized by many of the symptoms of regular schizophrenia, including delusions and hallucinations, and also fun feelings of paranoia. An unjustified suspicion and mistrust of other people or their actions and or the Unwarranted or delusional belief that one is being persecuted harassed or betrayed by others

This illness dangerously blurs the line between what is real and what is not making it very difficult for the person who has it to lead a typical life During an active psychotic state your mind is not processing reality correctly, which is a wee bit problematic when you're trying to live a normal life. It's for any occurs in about one in 222 adults, .45% of the adult population, according to 2022 World Health Organization statistics. Overall, including children, it affects 1 in 300.32% of the population. So, not super common, but not really that uncommon either. Luckily, how severe schizophrenia is varies from person to person.

Some people do not have severe cases. Some people will have one psychotic episode in their life and it'll never come back. Some will never have any. Some will never even know they have it. Others will have many episodes during their lifetime, but lead relatively normal lives in between episodes. Still, others may have more and more trouble functioning over time with little improvement between full-blown psychotic episodes

when they're not having an episode to experience a multitude of other debilitating symptoms like extreme fatigue, headaches, depression, much more. In general, for most sufferers, it seems if left untreated symptoms worsen over time. This will definitely be the case with Ed Gingrich, who seemed to have a very severe case of this. How do you get it? Well, did not know this either before this week.

You catch it from someone else who has it. Paranoid schizophrenia is actually fairly contagious. It's the only known serious mental illness that is contagious. It's a virus, distantly related to the Herpes virus, thought to be spread through the air though, and if someone with schizophrenia sneezes on you, coughs around you, you breathe in that air, there is a chance that you will get it. But, as long as you spin around three times, count backwards from 13 sharp and a stainless steel sword every night, right before you go to bed, and you have to go to bed at exactly 10, 12 PM, you can't catch it.

As long as you refuse to make direct eye contact with the goblins and the gremlins, then only you can see, but they're definitely real. And I'm always trying to talk you into eating double A batteries and time traveling, but you can't get it. Ha ha ha. I'm being ridiculous, of course.

But those are the kind of things that you will actually believe, possibly, during a full-blown psychotic episode. It's a fucking terrifying disease. The exact cause of schizophrenia, not known, which I think makes it even scarier. Seems to run in families, which means you have a greater likelihood

to have schizophrenia of your parents, aunts or uncles, or grandparents have it. Thought that certain environmental triggers can cause a disorder to become active. Like you could haveals, or grandparents have it. Thought that certain environmental triggers can cause a disorder to become active. Like you could have it, but it's latent. It's in your blood or your brain. But like someone carrying a virus who is asymptomatic, it doesn't really affect your life.

But then maybe a viral infection, exposure, or certain mind altering substances, like various hallucinogens, dammit, even marijuana, can activate it. That is currently thought currently thought highly stressful situations may also trigger schizophrenia and people whose genes make them more likely to get the disorder. Schizophrenia most often seems to surface

when the body is undergoing hormonal and physical changes, like those that happened during the teen in young adult years. The average age onset is late adolescence to early adulthood, usually between the ages of 18 and 30. Highly unusual for schizophrenia to be diagnosed in anyone after the age of 45 or before the age of 16. Onset in males typically occurs earlier in life than females, early symptoms that schizophrenia may seem rather ordinary, could be explained by a number of other factors which makes it real hard

to detect until you start to have the more serious hallmark symptoms. Early symptoms can include socializing less often with friends, right? You're withdrawn, trouble sleeping, irritability, no longer caring about things that were once important to you, like work, grades in school. During the onset, it gets a frenzy, otherwise known as the prodroimal, pro-droid mole phase. Never seen that word before.

Other symptoms mount. These symptoms might include an increasing lack of motivation, decreasing inability to pay attention, social isolation, ed with exhibities. All these symptoms appear in advance, the big, most debilitating symptoms, right? The hallmark of schizophrenia, which is the symptoms you get when you have a full-blown psychotic episode. Psychosis occurs when people lose contact with reality. How much contact varies

from person to person, episode to episode. This episode, this psychotic break might involve scene or hearing things that other people cannot see or hear hallucinations. And or believing things that are not true, right? Delusions. Most psychotic episodes won't last for more than a month. Some will ask for no more than, you know, hour or two, but in rare cases, especially when the disease is untreated, they can last for six months or longer,

like continuously. How fucking terrifying to lose contact with reality for six months or more. Easy to see how that would mess up your life plans just a little bit. Pretty hard to make any progress in your personal professional life when you lose touch with reality for months. When you're seeing shit that's not there, hearing things that are not happening. If loose nations weren't bad enough, your brains also convinced you of shit that's not true. Maybe that the deep state is real. And most people you see aren't real. The robot created by the deep state to control actual living people who are having their

life energy harvested wirelessly from cell towers to feed reptilian overlords living inside the earth. But you can free humanity if you find out who one of the robots are and then access their hard drive, which is inside their skulls. You have to cut some people open to see if they're a man or a machine. You also have to make sure that you're not a machine. Maybe you cut inside yourself a little bit, looking for some wires or mechanical parts.

Your delusion doesn't have to make any sense. Often does not make any sense, because your brain is not working properly. And you're paranoid. Why doesn't anyone believe in the robots? Why don't they take my claims more seriously? Because they're all in on it. They're trying to get me. All right? Oh my god, your brain is working against you in the robots. Why don't they take my claims more seriously because they're all in on it. They're trying to get me. Right? Oh my god, your brain is working against you

in the worst ways. Warning signs at psychosis may be imminent or I've already arrived, include yet seen hearing, tasting things, others do not, suspiciousness, general fear of others' intentions, persistent, unusual thoughts or beliefs, difficulty thinking clearly, withdrawing from family or friends and a significant decline in self-care. When schizophrenia is diagnosed, anti-psychotic medication is most typically prescribed. This medication can be given via pills, patches, injections.

There are long-term injections for some drugs that have been developed, which help eliminate the problems of a paranoid patient struggling with reality from convincing themselves that they should not regularly take their medication. A common concern for obvious reasons with paranoid schizophrenia, called medication noncompliance. Too bad Ed was not given a drug that way because medication noncompliance was a real problem for him. Even more so than usual with a paranoid schizophren patients, because Ed didn't have much faith in traditional medicine to begin with due to his homage upbringing,

and neither did anyone around him. The homage believed that medicine can help, but that God alone heals. And that belief is very problematic in cases of serious mental illness. Are you struggling with clinical depression because your brain chemistry is not balanced right, and you're biologically not geared for happiness and Literally only medication will fix that shit. Well tough Don't believe the lies of Godless arrogant Western doctors only God can heal and if your face was stronger You wouldn't be sad or paranoid or delusional or hallucinating Right that kind of belief system invariably creates a sort of victim-shaming culture around mental illness and in a very

He creates a sort of victim-shaming culture around mental illness and a very dismissive attitude towards proper treatment. They can leave people to believe that their mental illness is a result of a character defect, a character flaw, not the result of random genetics. So now you have paranoid schizophrenia and you just have low self-esteem. Right? Now you have clinical depression compounded by the fact that it's your fault. Now, if you just had more faith, if you just prayed harder, you'd be fine. Medication compliance are a real problem

even for schizophrenic patients who do believe in treatment because by the time you need it, you don't have a good grasp on reality, you're paranoid, you're thinking they're poisoned you. How terrible. Schizophrenic patients frequently exhibit non-compliance because of something called another crazy word that I'd never had to say before.

Anah sanosa. Oh my before. Anah Sanosa. Oh my gosh. Anah Sanosa. Ja. Anah Sanosa. Fucking eight medical students listening right now. We're like, oh yeah, that's what you say. It's a lack of insight and an awareness of the presence of a disorder.

Oftentimes some of us get to friendly, doesn't recognize that their behavior hallucinations, delusions are unusual or unfounded, right, because they're very real to them. Why take anti-psychotic medication if you don't have a problem, right? You're not crazy to believe that you have to kill Charlie Sheen to keep everyone you know and love for me to eat and buy reptilians. Everyone else who doesn't recognize this obvious truth, they're the crazy people. Again, scary. Thinking that there is nothing wrong, people

stop participating in therapy as well. And the combo of no longer taking meds, not going to therapy, quite often leads to relapse into an active psychotic state, active face psychosis. Another issue that can often lead to patients refusing to take their medication are the terrible side effects that you can get from taking anti-psotics. Side effects of antipsychotic medication can include weight gain, drowsiness, restlessness, nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, dry mouth, not be willing to do what is necessary regarding Charlie Shade in the leather, Bable! Lowered white blood cell count on and on. Medication can also lead to the development of movement disorders like tremors and ticks.

Thankfully, these are more common with older generation antipsychotics known as first generation or typical. Not with newer generation antipsychotics known as second generation or A-typicals. Luckily, there's a lot of different antipsychotic medications. So when one doesn't work or when one has side effects that are too severe, psychiatrists have a lot of other medications they can try. Unfortunately, some are much more expensive than others, which could lead to a whole separate conversation we could have about how fucked up our healthcare system is, right? If you don't have insurance, you might only have to pay, you know, 12 bucks a month to get

your medication, or you might have to pay a thousand more to get the medication you need to not have your life completely fucking fall apart. And that cost doesn't include the separate cost of therapy. Psychotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of schizophrenia. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to help patients develop and retain social skills, alleviating anxiety and depression symptoms, cope with trauma, improve relationships with family and friends, support occupational recovery and much more. Ed unsurprisingly will get almost zero therapy. Once he was released from a few hospital stays, he was taken to after really freaking people

to fuck out. He would do almost zero follow-up therapy. His treatment would mostly revolve around foot rubs and totals, given to him by a chiropractor and con artist, or maybe another mentally ill person named Dr. Torell, we'll get into him later, Jesus, he's crazy. Spoiler alert, getting weird toe pulls from a shitty chiropractor will not help Ed Skitsifrenia. How the fuck did his homage brethren think that would work?

Well, I mean, in a word ignorance. This will perfectly illustrate the importance of education. If we trust the scientific process, if we continue to improve medicine and tech, and focus on the accumulation of secular knowledge, we don't have to keep doing stupid medieval shit, like trying to cure mental illness with prayer and totals. Adding to Ed not getting the proper treatment for,

and inability to properly process reality was the fact that he was living in a community that is also kind of detached from reality. His life without schizophrenia was already enough in many ways to make him feel crazy. He been told his whole life that God will punish you if you drive a car that it's sinful to have a fucking mustache. His mental illness was layering more confusion on top of an already pretty thick coat of

confusion. Nice little base layer of what the fuck are we doing here? Then adding further to edge confusion was the influence of some nearby Christian evangelicals He came into contact with you know now he has two groups of people tell him that if he doesn't follow their nonsensical rules He will burn in hell and he can't follow both groups rules since following the teachings of either group We'll put him in conflict at odds with the other groups, so that's fun. When Ed killed his wife, Katie, in his extremely warped reality, he was delusionally focused on salvation, thinking Katie was actively keeping him from being saved.

She was in league with the devil, she needed to be stopped. He was so gone that after he killed her, he thought he could kind of rebuild her, possibly somehow. Okay, enough setup now now, enough story teasing. Let's actually get into the deep thrust in parts of this. Let's take into the meat of this literally insane narrative in today's time suck timeline. Right after today's mid show sponsor break.

Thanks for listening to our sponsors, Meet Xex, truly appreciate it. So thankful we have them. Now let's really get into the strange story of. Truly appreciate it. So thankful we have them. Now let's really get into the strange story of Ed Gingrich. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time, time, time line. Not a whole lot known about most of Ed Gingrich's early life, because he'll be in homage, he let a very private life away from the public and not recorded.

But we do know that Edward Gingrich born on August 12, 1966 in a small Amish enclave clustered around the town of Norwich in South Eastern Ontario. Of course, of course, he's Canadian Amish, right? Canadians in my experience, they're just, they're different. They're just, they're more murderous. I just, it's something in their blood. Had he been born in America? The tragic murder he committed would probably have never happened. We're, we're just a much, much more peaceful rational bunch down here. Sarcasm!

No, as parents were Daniel, known as Danny, born in 1935, and then his mother Mary, also known as Danny, born in 1941. J.K., no, she wasn't also known as Danny. That would be so great though, for storytelling purposes. It's my dad, Danny, this is my mom, also Danny. Danny and Danny. Mary's maiden name was Shetler.

She was disliked related to Ed's future wife, Mary Shetler. Not uncommon for this to happen in the Amish community as we learned before. Shallow genetic pool plus limited education. I'm sure that no more crazy stories will come from this group in the future. Ed's oldest brother born in 1963 was Atley, followed by his brother Joseph in 1964. The brother he was closest to was his younger brother Daniel, born in 1967. The brother he was closest to was his younger brother Daniel born in 1967 Pretty disappointed that none of his brothers here named like Nebuchadnezzar or Michael Adaya Right his numerous other siblings not named in sources. Maybe some of them have fun more fun names The Brown Hill Amish community Edward was part of as I mentioned was a part of an old order Amish community

He was he was then one of those half-ass beachy motherfuckers, right? One of those groups. He was raised all in. He grew up without electronic luxuries like televisions or telephones. They didn't have electricity and or plumbing in his home, right? As one is supposed to live. I never went to the mall, never attended a traditional school, but that didn't necessarily mean that, you know, Ed followed all the rules perfectly. He was known to be a bit of a rebel Dottie As a child he was said to be a practical joke or something of a show off. He liked to goof around and he liked to have You're gonna want to you're gonna want to make sure you're sitting down for this because this is

disturbing he You like you like to have fun you guys as a child He liked to have fun? You guys. As a child, he liked to have fun. What the fuck? Uh, no. Uh, maybe too much fun. Not enough work. Uh, he was too curious.

While he was destined to grow up and be an Amish farmer, like those before him, he didn't want to be. He was more interested in mechanics and technology. Right? Yikes. He engaged a lot of non-amish outsiders outsiders growing up, which fueled his desire to want more of life and leave his community fucked up.

You gotta keep homage kids on the settlement. You can't let them find out how much your community sucks compared to basically every other settlement in the world. They get one taste of comic books or root beer or peanut eminems or yo-yos. Well, now you're never gonna get the devil out of them. Right? Oh, man, be careful. I'll play the devil.

Also, never let him listen to Striper. Mm-mm, mm-mm. Must get way into harder rock. But as much as he dreamed of moving away and joining modern life, he didn't have the guts to do it. Which I mean would've taken a lot of guts., you know, hard to turn your back on everything everyone you've ever known, insanely difficult. I can't believe some people have done that. So impressive. When Ed was 16, he and his family moved from Ontario to a 150 acre farm located in Crawford

County, Pennsylvania, 30 miles south of Erie. This is spring in 1983. But you know, there was going to be no hope for him when it got to America. It was too like he had spent too much time on Canadian soil. The hockey, the poutine, it had poisoned this blood, it made him too violent. Now the nearest town mill village, not really a town, a few hundred people scattered about in the loose assortment of houses. Currently from what I can tell in the map, there's only one business there, the village tavern. It does look like it has good burgers. Good price. Cold beer. It is ranked number one out of one restaurant in the area on TripAdvisor. I love that. I saw it at the first when I looked at it. I was like, number one, that's cool. And I love that it said one out of one, one out of one restaurants in the area. I doubt it even

existed in 1983. Based on photos, it doesn't look that old. Maybe there was no restaurants back then. Just like they liked it. A couple miles north Based on photos, that old, maybe there was no restaurants back then. Just like they liked it. Couple miles north was a highway, route six, 14 miles to the west of the settlement, I-76, which connected Eerie to Pittsburgh, 125 miles to the south, sounds dangerously close to a freeway. Edwards parent, Danny and Danny, I mean Danny and Mary,

and his seven brothers and two sisters, the first of seven homage groups to move to this section of Northwestern Pennsylvania. Danny Gingrich had brought his family to Pennsylvania because, unlike Ontario, there were no government restrictions on dairy farming. We like restrictions, just not dairy farming restrictions. By this time, Ed then called Eddie and I completed his eight grades, excuse me, a formal Amish education in a one-room school house in Norwich.

So he was basically like an Amish doctor or a professor now. He was as educated as he gets in the settlement. He could read and write. He could add and subtract small numbers without a calculator, which was important, since he was not allowed to use a calculator. For real though, he was an average student, noted for being a better than average at reading. Also said to be moody, a little bit snappy, quick to get in school yard fights. Some people thought he was a little bit of a bully

because he was taller than most of their kids. After graduating from Amish school to ripe age 14, time for long days of farm labor, which he hated. I can't imagine that that many 14-year-olds love it. Sometimes he pretended to be sick to get out of his chores. He got a reputation for being a slacker. His father helped you outgrow his laziness

and start living the good, Amish life. Also had a tendency to lie. He was a real black sheep. And he was more curious about the outside world than his siblings were, right? Is he was a curious guy. The more he looked towards the outside world, the less he liked the world of the Amish.

I get it. Danny and Danny worried about their son, kind of. They didn't have too much time to worry. They were busy farming and raising nine other kids. The Gingrich farm was in the heart of the Rockdale township, a sparsely populated region of Hardwood Forests and rolling pastures. Farm had three main buildings, one of them a massive red barn, two story house across the street, where the Gingrich's lived was a small run down little place And then there was another building that was just basically a shack Six homage six small non-omish farms boarded the gingriches new place

Dangerous Playing with fire right? Yeah pretty close to heathens Surrounded by him and the world the influences this proximity would lead to problems with ed actually There are non-farming neighbors where most you blue collar farmers live in houses with cement block steps and trailers with rabbit cages, outdoor swing sets, above ground swimming pools, snow plow blades, left land about random junk cluttering the lawns. I can picture it all well. In April, the other Amish families started showing up. One group came from Greenville, Michigan, another from Jamestown, New York. These people like Danny, unlike Ed, they believed they had found the perfect place

to raise their families. I can't even smell fun here. This is what I'm supposed to be. The referral farms, woods nearby, providing lumber for homes and barns, as well as fuel for heat and cooking. Deer were abundant, provided food. Union city of town, right?

Fuemiles of the East was reachable by buggy. Casey Yomish needed anything, and by anything, I mean, you know, maybe parts to repair wagon width, flower, salt, basic necessities. No buggy not into town to get egg McMuffins or kind of Dr. Pepper. Anything else wicked? When I was said and done, the Brown Hill settlement was a rectangular area of roughly nine square miles,

settled by eight families, 43 children, 16 adults. Plans were underway for a school house to be built, not far from the Gengrich barn soon enough. It didn't seem like Ed was taken to his community life, any better than he had been in Canada. His rowdy brothers also not helping matters. Shortly after arriving in Brown Hill, Ed's three older brothers, Atley Joe,

like his two older brothers, and then his younger brother, Danny, wrestled him down and tied him to a pole in the barn. Then they covered his mouth with duct tape. Jesus. So he couldn't yell for help. And then they left him out there all night. Haha. What a, what a fun brother prank. That's just boys being boys permanently traumatizing one another.

Next morning, Ed's dead found him in the barn. Excuse me. Then Ed got furious when his dad said that he would not untie Ed until he promised not to retaliate. Ed finally kept his word, but I'm guessing his brothers were a little nervous for the next few weeks looking for signs of possible and pending vengeance. By June of 1905, when Ed is now 19, the Brown Hill settlement has a population of 93, 13 different families. It is the fucking city now, guys. Mr. Gingrich, with the help of his four oldest boys, build a sawmill in the center of the property

Sitting next to the shack that now houses a woodshed or that that point house a woodshed the sawmill had a five foot saw blade driven by a Deachle powered motor Deesles. Okay, Deesles godly. Obviously. It's it's the fiendish gas You got to keep your eye on that gas Rough cut lumber the community hoped would draw more homage to the area All right, so they could make some money to enjoy their lifestyle When the mill was done in July Mr. Gingrich hired Levi Shetler's oldest son Elmer Who was an experienced Somal operator to run the business now Levi was Ed's future wife's father As part of

The deal Elmer got to live in the Gingrich's old house because they built a new one for themselves At least Ed's oldest brother would become Elmer's assistant. Ed was excited about this new mill. He had a natural interest in mechanics, would spend hours tinkering around with a saw as motor, something broke. He'd always figure out how to fix it. He liked impressing his fellow Amish with his technical skills, yikes! Sounded a bit like pride there, brother Ed.

Sinful, gross. Someone needs to knock this hot dog down a peg. That summer, Ed and his brother Joe began spending time with Richard Zimmer, the owner of a horse in cattle farming neighborhood, the gongrages, sorry, the owner of a house in cattle farm, neighboring, that'll be kind of funny, a horse in cattle farm neighborhood. I guess why not? There's so much sentiment. It was neighboring the gongrages land, Richard Zimmer, old dick Zimmer, old dicky Zim.

Dick Zimmer sounds like a male grooming device. Trim all the hair. None of the skin with the dick Zimmer 2.0. Zimmy dick, Zimmy balls. Say goodbye to your trimmer. Say hello to the Zimmer. Anyways, Zimmer was happy to have the boys work on his trucks, trackers, and farm machinery. As the summer wore on, Ed spent less and less time at home or time and out of the sawmill

or at Zimmer's. Ed was proud of the fact that he had non-omish friends, and that even these friends considered him a mechanical wizard. And this shitty behavior did not go unnoticed by community elders. Ed is also now starting to avoid church pretending to be sick so he can sneak over to the Zimmer's farm and work on Dick's farming equipment. Maybe watch Dick's TV. He was confiding in Dick.

He didn't know why the Amish limited themselves by doing everything the hard way. He didn't understand what electricity had to do with morality or why they considered non-Amish people evil. He didn't see why Amish people couldn own cars, but could ride in them. If the point was avoiding them, how did that make sense? He didn't fucking get it. Not good. Askin' lots of questions tends to not be super compatible with these brands of religion.

Zimmer listened as Ed told him that he'd been thinking about leaving the community, but didn't know how to go about it. One afternoon, his Ed and Zim were drinking sodas and dicks driveway. Ed asked the dick, if he had a daughter, he could marry. His plan was to leave the Amish, marry Dicks' daughter, build a house on Dicks land, start to saw him out. Just him and Dick and Dicks' daughter, right, friends till the end. Dick said he liked the idea, but one problem, don't have a daughter.

Guys, you're looking to that. So I thought about that a little more. Dammit. And then asked Zimmer if he could have one of his sons instead. And Zimmer was like, what? And then Ed looked him square in the eye. And he just called and he said, why not? About a whole still a hole. A warm body is a warm body.

Am I right? Right. Zimmer couldn't argue with that logic. And he's like, okay, fine. You can take Kenny. And of course, that never happened. Soon after this Ed finds another non-omish confident, he's getting himself deeper in this hot water. He meets a 32 year old private

duty nurse named Debbie Williams, who lived with her husband Hank, about a mile south of Mill Village. Hank was a local carpenter who did business in Somile, Ed met Debbie one afternoon when she came for a truckload of free sawdust that she would use as bedding for her horses. They quickly became friends, started attending local horse auction together. Yee! Young Amish man hanging with a hot older nurse. I don't know if she's hot or not, but I do know that the Amish elders did not like this one bit. Right? They start tugging on their beards more than usual when they talk about it. They scour the Bible passages of her hot passage of scour the Bible for passage about like hot nurses or I don't know Jezebel's so they can warn Ed to avoid letting her

user feminine ways to lure him to damnation. October of 1985 19 year old Ed meets 21 year old Katie Shettler now. Well meets a strong work for a community of around a hundred people. I'm sure they saw each other. Let's say they were introduced more formally to one another now. Kaye was the younger sister of Elmer, right? The guy who's working at the mill. On October of 1905, Elmer and his wife, Salama, or I don't know, I've never seen this name before.

Salami. Elmer and Salami. Oh boy. Salama had a baby girl named Ducilla. Elmer, Salami, Ducilla. Salami didn't have any family. Her name's Elmer Selami, but she's not, she's a minor character in the story.

So fucking, as far as the story since her now, she's Selami. Selami didn't have any family. They could help her with Ducilla and her two-year-old son Samuel. So Elmer asked his 21-year-old sister to drop by the house once they had help. Katie definitely knew how to help take care of kids.

She'd help raise eight of her eleven younger siblings. She was one of fifteen kids in total. My God was an expert at feeding, bathing, watching babies and toddlers. She had even breastfed a lot of her younger siblings as is the Amish way. Ed took notice of the petite young woman. That's ridiculous. I just threw that in the last second. That'd be so fucked up. You have to press feed your younger siblings. I don't know why they just hit me so funny right now. But anyway, that didn't. She's not breastfeeding me. It took notice though of the petite young woman playing in the leaves with two-year-old Samuel. Katie for her part had known Ed's brothers Danny, Atley, and Joe. Little better. All three of them had

girlfriends at another Amish community in Canada though. She's not going to go after them. She didn't know as much about Ed. Only he was a bit of a rebel. Keep your eye on that guy. He hangs out with not Amish people. He likes mechanics. He's a bad boy.

He's like the James Dean. He's a fucking rebel. Yeah, and Ed is not on great terms with her uncle Rudy who is the bishop. Despite their differences, the young devoted Amish woman, the young Amish rebel thinking to leave the community forever, find themselves in similar circumstances. I pressure to get married. That November, Katie's 25 year old sister married a farmer from a nearby settlement in Katie.

Now, was the oldest unmarried child in the family scandal. Her womb is being wasted. Class taking Katie, right? If you're going to kick out another 15 kids, you better find a working young, omniscient dick quick. Her sister Barbara, who was one year younger, had a steady boyfriend. And if Barbara got married before Katie, that was considered a good indication that Katie was destined to be executed or to be an old maid forever. Ed too, feeling right, community pressure has been for a while,

settle down as folks, yelder, they don't like how much he strains with the community. And he did like spending time with Katie, and soon he quickly, you know, becomes basically her boyfriend. But he's not ready to get married. Katie's worst fears are realized in January of 1986, when she learns that Barbara and her boyfriend, oh boy, if they've got engaged. Katie is now almost officially an old maid. She is a year or two away, tops from her post turning into a neglected,

forgotten sadness hole full of cobwebs and dust and broken dreams. Meanwhile, atleast Joe, right, they marry their Canadian girlfriends at fall, heading back to Ontario for ceremonies. Then Joe and his wife, Annie moved to a 120 acre farm along the east side of Frisbee town, or Frisbee town. Frisbee town road. It is Frisbee town. Frisbee town road. That's a fun name for road. In Mill Village, then Elmurn's family moved to New York to run a sawmill there. Seem like everyone's getting married, moving up and out. Then to make matters worse for Ed, Mr. Gingrich gives a sawmill for him and job to his nephew David Scheller Cut the the bishops old is son not to him

Now Ed's gonna have to be more careful to about what he says around the mill But he's still not careful enough for the communities liking like an asshole He keeps interacting with the growing number of non-omish people in the area coming to the mill to buy custom cut lumber Sell to the customers Ed do not talk to them about anything other than fresh wood, tree wood, not man wood. That's one of the worst things you can talk to them about. Ed had been sharing Katie regularly, or sorry, he'd been seen, he's been sharing,

he's been sharing Katie regularly. He's been pimpin' around to locals for quite some time. Now he's been seen her for a year now, still hasn't proposed to her. He's the one that sure he wants to marry her. He also knows that dumping her will put him on the bishops black list, probably forever. He has the side soon, which is worse. Get him married or trying to make it alone in the outside world.

Ed chooses option number one. Under pressure from both their families, Ed and Katie get married December 2nd, 1986. And it's 20. Katie, yee. She is an ancient 22 years old. I can't believe she's still alive. Will her womb still even bear the blessed fruit or has it dried up and turned to dust? Let's use this marriage as an opportunity to learn a little about Amish marriages in general. An Amish couple must take several steps before they may marry. Proper certification of membership must be requested from the church.

All couples that plan to marry have their plans published as they call it and the deacon is responsible for announcing the names of the girls and the men They plan to marry the fathers that announce the date and time of the wedding invite members to attend I basically everyone in the community the betrothed couple does not attend the church service on the Sunday they are published instead. The young woman prepares a meal for her fiance. They enjoy dinner alone at her home. Get in frisky. Frisky. When the girl's family returns from church, the daughter formal introduces her fiance to

her parents. Unlike English engagements, non-omish engagements, the future groom does not give her a diamond because, you know, or any other kind of ring because jewelry prideful and sinful He may give her China plates or I love this so much a clock. Yes a clock Oh Katie what a lucky girl you are and must have saved months for that clock and the cuckoo clock at that How wonderful you'll think of your husband's love and devotion. Every time you hear, kukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukukuk for the hire, no catering, no tuxes to rent, no music, no DJ ride, no fun to be had, nothing. The girl to be married helps her mom prepare for the wedding and feast, which takes place in her parents' home.

During this time, the future husband keeps busy extending personal invitations to member of his church district, takes him with a lot of buggy rides to get to everybody's houses. An homage to bride's wedding attire is always new, she usually makes her own dress and also those of her attendants known as new hawkers Depends on the Dutch translation for side sitters. Look at my beautiful side sitters Katie's dress plain cut mid calf length unadorned. All right, no fancy trim lace or train Mid calf length though. Oh

Hey, I'll lose a fena Unlike English brides who normally only wear their bridal dresses once, an Amish brides wedding dress will become her Sunday church attire after she's married. She gets to keep showing off those sexiest lower calves. Oh man. Rock hard right now.

Nice. Also typically be buried in the same dress when she dies. Ooh, clearly the Amish in general have better eating habits than I do. If I was going to be buried in my wedding soon, especially when I wore it my first wedding, it would be a tight fit. It would look like what's left of the Hulk's clothes when he turns green. Instead of a veil, Katie wore a black prayer covering to differentiate from her daily white cap by strict omission tradition, no one in the bridal party carries flowers to greater risk might read a showy prideful roses.

Oh, that's a that's a great way for the devil to sneak in. Edna's new hawkers, his side sitters, they wore black suits. All coats and vests were fastened with hooks and eyes, but not buttons. Easy. Locking buttons. Are you kidding me? Their shirts were white, shoes and stockings were black, and also wore high-topped black shoes and a black hat with a three and

a half inch brim as per community regulations. No best man or maid of honor because best and honor gross. All new hawkers equal importance. The three hour long service, three hours. Oh my, I began with a congregation singing hymns without instrumental accompaniment, accompaniment. So it probably sounded terrible, while the minister counseled Ed and Katie privately. After Bishop Rudy and the young couple returned to the room, prayer, scripture reading,

and long sermon began. Man, what a fun wedding. Following the sermon, the Bishop asked Katie and Ed to step forward from their seat with the rest of the congregation. And he questions them about their marriage to be. They have like, they read basically Vows similar to how anonymous wedding would have Vows.

The Bishop then blesses the couple, the fathers of the couple give testimony about marriage to the congregation, final prayer, a lot of prayers. Excuse me, ceremony, Drostro close. Levi and Emma Scheller, Katie's parents, then hosted a day long wedding celebration. I use the term celebration very lightly,

attended by friends and relatives from Canada, Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York. The women served dinner while the men set up tables around a U-shape, you know, and a corner of the table is reserved for KED, corner of the table, a reserved for or kid corner of the table, a reserved for Ed, Katie and the bridal party. This is an honored place called the egg, meaning corner. Tables are laden with the roast roast chicken with bread stuffing, mashed potatoes,

gravy, cream celery, coleslaw, applesauce, cherry pie, donuts, fruit salad, tabbiyaka pudding, bread, butter, and jelly. Okay, okay. This, I got, you know, give credit for credit to this part. Sounds awesome. I am into the food part. Sounds like a better meal than I've eaten in most weddings. Katie sat on Ed's left in the corner, mirroring the same way they will always sit as man and wife in the buggy. Single women sit on the same side as Katie, single man on the same side as Ed have to follow the rules everything must be tightly controlled The immediate family members sit at a long table in the kitchen both fathers at the heads Following dinner right the afternoon spent visiting and playing games

Didn't say what games they were playing. I can only imagine how exciting the games the newlyweds first night together I always spent at the bride's home because they must get up early the next morning to help clean the house Don't go thinking you're special because he's got married and Ed and Katie's case they would have to live in her parents' basement until spring when a home would be you know Constructor for them their honeymoon was spent visiting all their new relatives on the weekends throughout the winter That doesn't sound like a honeymoon. Now that Ed was married, Mr. Gingrich offered to pay him $3 an hour

as an employee of the son who's working for free before. Don't spend it all in one place, Ed. Careful with your $3 an hour. Ed and Katie didn't need to worry about room and board. I think I'm gonna live in the basement apartment of Katie's parents' house. March of 1987, when business at the Somile picks up, Atley and Danny Gingrich chip in to construct a one-story chipboard house

for Ed and Katie to live in on their own. And in the spring of 1987, very quickly, Katie gets pregnant. Ed doesn't jump for joy, but doesn't seem sad either. He just says that he hopes the baby is a boy. Fun. So, September 20th, 1987, Ed's elderly wife, Katie. She's 23 now. God!

And I didn't say that she was using a walker, but she had to have been close. She's practically ready for the nursing home. She gives birth. Her ancient womb kicks out her and Ed's first child, a son named Daniel, named after his, of course, paternal grandfather and paternal grandmother. Grandparents, Danny and Danny have a grandson named Danny and a son named Danny. This is so stupid and funny to me. To imagine so many Danny's in one family. They do have a lot I mean Ed does have a son named Daniel father named Daniel and a brother named Daniel

After Katie spends the night in a birthing clinic friend comes back to drive her Ed and Daniel home for the next couple of weeks Katie's younger sister's Clara Levina Come by and help her take care of her new baby. And she needs help. All is not well in the gingrich home now. Ed is feeling off. Possibly this gets it for any just starting to show up a bit. Remember highly stressful situations can trigger it. Or just having a very normal internal struggle that someone would have when they don't want

to be Amish. And now they have an Amish child. Now they're connected further to a community that they've always really kind of wanted to leave. The pressure from Katie for him to be a good Amish man and father, Wayne on him, heavily, he's feeling increasing like he wants to be in the modern world. And now a wife and son are holding him back.

He hates spending time in the tiny house with Katie and the baby. We'll find any excuse not to hang around either one of them. All this doesn't tell her when he's coming home late now. When he does finally show up late, she has no idea where he goes. He'll demand a hot meal, right, since his is long grown cold. This situation so terrible for both Ed and Katie, right? Familiar or community pressure to get married. So fucking stupid, right at this point.

The planet does not need the human race to keep breeding. At the rate we've been breeding so far. We can slow down, we can slow way down. I personally don't give a shit if either one of my kids ever gets married or not. I don't care if they have kids, I'll love them the same either way. They're never going to feel that kind of pressure from me. I want them to be happy, feel fulfilled, pay their own way in the world unless of course something happens physically or psychologically The prevents them from doing so and dad and Lindsey will happily step in as I'm sure their mom and stepdad will And that's it I'd be happy work hard as long as you're able don't make life needlessly harder for those around you enjoy your ride in our amusement park of a world

Don't make the ride harder for others help them if and when you can and that's pretty much it No need to overcomplicate it all. Add a bunch of completely arbitrary, uh, stressful, uh, rules and pressure. Overall, I always just such an irrational species. Ed might be the quote unquote crazy subject of today's episode, but also the situation. He was pressured into crazy humanity. Overall, pretty fucking crazy. Uh, when Katie refused to warm up his food at night, Ed complains bitterly to his friends and his wife is lazy

He also tells Katie when she complains about him not coming home enough that it's not her business where he goes Right when he comes home. She has no right to ask This marriage doomed from the start Even the sawmill he starts coming and going as he pleases now as well when he's there He mostly hangs around a non-omish friends, you know, customers coming there. Then, even though the sawmill still needs him, he decides to open up his own machine shop, which gives him the ability to spend long stretches of time with non-omish friends, right? Driving around in the area, searching for motors, mechanical parts,

around this time, Ed and his wife and his son, to move out of their tiny house, into a little bit, you know, larger gray from the barn that you know his brother's help build Bigger and better place does not make them any happier by the summer of 88 Ed and Katie have been married for less than two years They are now barely speaking now Katie starting to wonder for husband isn't just a shithead But also six somehow toward the end of July Ed seems to be losing his appetite He loses weight and he starts complaining about being dizzy a lot of the time. Start spending his afternoon taking long naps, which he had never done before, and increasing lack of motivation also can be an early symptom of schizophrenia.

And just fatigue. Katie wants to talk to Mr. Gingrich about it, but Ed forbids her. And many of the community, even though they can see that Ed's not doing well, he's sunken eyes, waxy skin, they think he simply faking being sick, like he had faked, you know, being sick for so many years to get out of church. So now Katie tries to get Ed to see a doctor, kind of, an homage approved doctor, so not really a doctor. This is ridiculous. But also maybe one of my favorite parts of the tale. I don't want this to have happened because of what happens at the end, tragedy-wise,

but this is just so weird and interesting. I don't want this to have happened because of what happens at the end tragedy wise, but this is just so weird and interesting. August of 1988, the advice for parents Katie gets ed to see a doctor, he was a term doctor so loosely, named Merritt W. Torell, chiropractor who practices out of a tiny one story house off route 1915 miles south of the Amish settlement, long as Buggy Rhyde to get there. Must have gotten some non-Amish friends to drive them down there in one of the one of the devil's hot rots. Dr. Troll had a sign outside his door that said drug less therapy, which was exactly what he practiced. Standing five foot five and cowboy boots, the eccentric 65 year old lunatic tried

to cure his patients in a very interesting way. A way that the omniscience liked because it did not involve invasive machinery, heavy procedures of modern medicine, also a way that did not fucking work at all ever. Ed and Katie, enter Dr. Trell's office through what at one time had been the front door of a residence, the former living room had converted into a waiting room, and a receptionist behind a tiny desk sits in what used to be the hallway. You know, greets him as they enter. It all sounds very promising so far. After a brief wait, Ed is directed down a hallway to an examination room. The only piece of furniture in the room, large leather lounge chair, where Ed is instructed to sit. Ed sits down in the chair. Dr. Torell appears from behind a curtain. And feeds a slip of paper that Ed had previously

written on. So he did have to do one thing before he said, here's a right on this piece of paper. And then this doctor feeds this piece of paper into a little instrument, the size of a fax machine, little piece of like homemade machinery. This mystery machine was somehow, according to this quote unquote, doctor, supposed to determine Ed's illness by scanning his handwriting. How did people come up with this shit? Sounds like Dr. Rell also suffering from schizophrenia.

Right? Untreated. This guy's a fucking quack. After this paper is fed through his stupid snaggle machine. I just picture it doing nothing. I just picture like he puts this piece of paper into this like fake machine that maybe the one mechanical thing he does is just pulls a piece of paper like through what looks like a scanner. And then he behind the curtain just goes, bebo, bebo, bebo, bebo, bebo, bebo, bebo, just

makes like a little kind of like weird robot noises. And then he's like, let me look at the results. And it's just nothing. It's like the paper is exactly me look at the results. And it's just nothing. It's like the papers exactly the same in their side. So he says that a series of numbers and codes are displayed and then Dr. Rell interprets these numbers and codes for diagnosis and treatment. Just good God.

Beep, boop, beep, boop. Looks like you need your toes pulled. In the edge case, the machine reveals that all he needs is a toe pulling and foot rub and bottle of black strap molasses. What is happening right now? How did this dip shit get a business license? Well, all right, Eddie. The results of my penmanship, diagnostic, drawn 5,000 are in.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Good news. All your stuff and from it's stiff toes and tight feet. That's way tired. Who can sleep with stiff toes and tight feet that's way tired who can sleep with stiff toes big ding dong so we're gonna knock all this out today little to po, little heel rub, guzzle some black strap molasses at home tonight by the boom by the bang your right is rain healthy and happy following this just fucking mind-nominally idiotic treatment Ed walks back into the reception area where he pays $25 for the visit.

He's given a jar of black strap molasses for purifying his blood and he's sent on his way cured. Black strap molasses, by the way, is a byproduct of sugar production. Sugar production starts with boiling sugar cane juice to crystallize the sugar, which is in filter to separate it from the juice, and this leaves a thick brown liquid called molasses. And it can be boiled two more times to create what's called black strapped molasses, thicker and darker than regular molasses. It has a real bitter taste. Because it's boiled three times, it is more nutrient dense than other types of molasses.

And still today it's a popular remedy for like anemia or arthritis, stress, pms, symptoms, blood sugar spikes more. Are any of these claims backed up by science? Actually, yes. It is a great supplement, right? Owens, per ounce, black strapped molasses contains more iron than eggs, more calcium than milk, more potassium than any other food. Provides 18 amino acids, right? It has so much iron, it can help with anemia, PMS,

even help with women having trouble with hair loss in some cases. It can also help with constipation, what it definitely cannot help with is schizophrenia. Ed goes for follow-up visits. In August, September, December of 1988, despite having much looser toes and softer feet, and probably higher blood sugar, he just seems to be getting worse and worse. What the frick? By Thanksgiving of 1988, Katie that her wit sent. She's pregnant again. Ed is moodier than ever. He's still sleeping too much. Still has no interest in being either her husband or a father. March 21st, 1989, just four days after her 25th birthday, Katie gives birth to their second child. A boy also named Danny, another Danny. No, his name is Enoz, and Ed could care less.

He's spending most of his time away from home. Later that year, December 3rd, 1989, saw Mill that Ed has been working at, burns down, Ed bummed out now, not having a sawmill that cuts down his opportunities to interact with non-omish people, he gets permission to rebuild it. It's not that he enjoys to do.

Luckily he does have his, you know, a machine shop. And the monthly number to the actual construction of the mill, Ed is, you know, traveling to Western Pennsylvania and search for some ill parts, equipment ideas, information, also still has the machine shop. He actually ends up getting to interact more with the outside world than ever before, which makes him happy. When he's doing this, interestingly,

he's no longer tired and dizzy. He's free of some skin problems. He was also having, he's burst with energy. Makes me wonder if he had just left the omission, started in his life when he was 18 or so. If he would have been so much less stressed, I think definitely, so much happier, also than definitely, would the onset of schizophrenia ever even been triggered? No guarantee it would. It's a pretty mysterious condition. More family stress lingering for Ed in the background at this time. Katie quickly becomes pregnant with their third child. So they are, they're not talking much, but they are having sex. Do some time towards the end of March 1990. Constructing the new Somal means

that Katie, you're soon to be three children. We'll have to wait until March for their new house to be built while Ed travels around working on his, you know, passion project. March 13th, 1994 days before her 26th birthday, Katie gives birth to the couple's third and last child, a girl, also named Danny. Danny, Danny, and Danny, named after Ed's mom. No. The girl's name Mary, after Ed's mom Mary, seems a little prideful, but you know, what happens?

Try not to judge. April of that year, Ed starts building the sawmill with all the supplies he's collected. Mill opens in May. Once the mechanical parts are all set up, Ed not really interested and stick around working there anymore. He had his fun and now he's going to spend more time in the machine shop. The community gives him a pass on this because he is the only one who kind of live in there that knows how to fix his shit. The combination of Ed's well-designed equipments and the hard work of other employees do produce a good deal of business that summer at the mill. Ed's feeling so good. He doesn't go down to Cambridge Springs to see Dr. Troll for six months. His toes are looser than ever.

His feet not too tight. His blood purified with all that black strap molasses. If anything, Ed is feeling too good. Now he wants to buy a truck and a phone like an asshole. He's sick of constantly relying on nearby non-Omish neighbors for rights. He's also seen other Amish men use fork lifts, back hose, bulldozers to clear a lot for building their homes. He understands why he can't have a truck.

Right, if he only uses it for utility, it's gonna be good for the community. Sad, right? Sad that the devil clearly has, he's causing him. His wife Cady and his dad shut down his request. Both are afraid that with wild ideas like these floating around won't be long for Bishop Schettler shuts down the mill entirely for the safety of the community.

Later that summer, August 1990, Ed now meets non-omishman Dave Lindsay at the sawmill. And Bishop Schettler will now regret not doing the right thing earlier Shutting the mill down when he had a chance the devil has now entered the settlement David come to the sawmill with a truckload of logs to sell one day at offered to give him a guided tour explaining in detail Everything worked Dave clearly impressed The two young men become fast friends both want to become business owners and gain some measure of independence in the world But Dave is not Amish. He's a devout evangelical Christian. Remember of the Bible Believers Baptist Church in Cory, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles away. And he is also crazy.

He's convinced that he has been called upon by God directly to rescue Amish men, women and children from what he calls the bishops cult. Great! When one crazy set of religious beliefs slams into another and a schizophrenic is squished in the middle. That will be caught in the middle of a theological battle that will not soothe his troubled mind, it will agitated greatly. They believe that homage people were no better in God's eyes than random heathens and the far-flung regions of the world doomed to eternal damnation unless someone brought Jesus, real Jesus, not omniscees, into their lives and showed them the path to salvation. To him, it was tragic that the omnis were following their religious leaders down a road to literal hell. Oh boy, the story that has been repeated over and over for thousands of years, leading to so much

needed this tragedy. My skydady is the real one. I'm going to devote my life to pushing the belief in him on everyone around me, everyone else is wrong. David essentially sees himself as a behind the lines operative in a holy war. He is one of God's chosen warriors. How many people base a lot of their identity on that kind of belief? Life isn't working out too well for me overall. My ego isn't getting stroked enough for my liking in the secular world, so how would I become

one of God's chosen warriors? I'm one of the stars of a cool action movie now. Freak yeah, right? Ha ha hell yeah. Oh no, I didn't hit the button the way I wanted to. I wanted to hit that button so hard, but I was afraid I was too enthusiastic. I knock over my button holder. Anyway, maybe that was funnier. A few days after their first meeting, Dave pulls into the Gingrich Mill. This time he's brought to his Bible. And he asked Ed if he can tell him about Jesus and Ed, even though he's heard a lot about Jesus

growing up on him, he's like, yeah, sure. Dave zeroes in on many of the things Ed has already been questioning. That homage visit bishops don't actually have all the answers, right, that they keep their followers in the dark from God's love and wisdom, and thinks about how his desires have consubin thwarted by the bishop.

And also likes Dave's vision of guaranteed salvation. He finds a refreshing to hear about how Jesus loves him. We'll save him. The minute he accepts Jesus as his Lord and Savior, not as opposed to hearing that God is gonna punish him if he doesn't do his chores. He likes Dave's vision of a loving God, a lot more than the angry God that he's come to know.

Week later Dave comes back again. They pick up their conversation where they'd left it off by that fall. You know, they're meeting once a week and Ed's machine job. Sometimes Dave also brings along Lazar Lamajic, a 65 year old Serbian immigrant, also born again Christian who is also there to help convince Ed to convert. A lot of pressure he's getting now. By October the idea that the homage don't have all the answers is firmly stuck in Ed's mind. Now he starts to think again about leaving. Now he believes God will not punish him for doing so.

But what about his wife and now three children? Well Katie, less happy with him than ever. She's not looking forward to another winner spent in a tiny house with three kids. Mary, seven months old. Eno's not yet two, Danny's three. I've etiquette his promise to build him a better house. She and the kids will be there now, but he doesn't seem to care. Most evenings, he's still coming home late for dinner and expecting Katie, exhausted from a long day of looking after two toddlers and a baby to put another meal on the table.

And his health has taken another dip. And she has no interest in leaving the Amish community. The stress of wanting to leave is Wayne on Ed Heveley. He's always complaining about an earache now. It seems to be itchy all the time. At night, agitated by not being able to turn his thoughts off, not feeling well physically, he's having a hard time sleeping. His toes probably stiff as fuck, probably not drinking nearly enough blackstrap molasses.

I bet if he was visiting, you know, that esteemed doctor, Tarell, he'd be fine. By January of 1991, Ed is splitting his time between the machine shop and the sawmill with Dave, Lindsay, and Lejar, LeMajic making regular visits. Ed is busy converting two large motors from electric to diesel and carousine power,

a project that required a lot of skill, inventiveness. It was way more interesting to him than building a house for his family. In February, he spent several thousand dollars on a surface grinder, one tonn bridge port drill press, heavy grinder. Now is the equipment to grind, cut, drip virtually anything, which means he can manufacture any party needs for the sawmill, the machine shop, or a customer. Overcoming the technological limitations of the Amish, you know it made Ed a determined and innovative mechanic. And he was proud of the fact that right under the Bishop's nose, he had built a state-of-the-art machine shop that didn't technically go against any Amish rules.

Meanwhile, things at home, getting worse and worse. March of 1991, Katie asked Ed to plow up a patch of ground behind the house to expand a vegetable garden. Finally, after a lot of nagging, Ed finds a free time to do it. But when Katie sees Ed starting to, uh, uh, startin' up the horse and plow, she runs over to stop him. He had just plowed through a row of her peas. And when she told him that he did that, he starts to laugh at her.

As though her distress, you know, was just funny to him. Filled with rage, Katie now walks up to, uh,, hits him across the chest with a handle of her hoe. Not good, right? They're crossing some lines here. Ed then yanks the tool out of her hand, throws on the ground, back hands her across the face, which knocks her to the ground, then makes no effort to help her up as she scrambles up.

So really dangerous line, been crossed with these two, right? Physical violence towards each other. Ed now also starts hanging around with his old pal Debbie Williams, again, right? Physical violence towards each other. Ed now also starts hanging around with his old pal Debbie Williams again, right? Going to her horse auctions, often not returning before midnight. Huh. What else were they doing? Nothing's ever been confirmed, were they having an affair? I have to think there's a good chance they were. On the night he comes home late, he comes home late, Ed and Katie, you know, often fight all night or late into the night waking up the kids They're not having sex anymore because Ed says the last thing he wants is another child or was it because he was fucking Debbie now

Katie is miserable. She's been raised to believe that a family with children in the in the double digits The best thing you can do with your life Of course she's been raised to think this members having lots of of kids is the only way the homage community is able to keep growing. On August 18th, 1991, Katie decides to make another effort of being a good wife. Throws a party for Ed's 26th birthday. It's a Sunday. When Katie Ed and kids get home from church,

friends and family gather to watch Ed get his presents, a bone handled honey night from a hardware store in Waterford. Katie made Ed a chocolate birthday cake with candles, everybody sings happy birthday, as Katie kisses out on the cheek, she thinks that there's a chance that maybe things can improve between them. And things did get better for a little bit. September of 1991 Ed begins laying the foundation for he and Katie's new house. He's finally building it. The building of the new house moves along even though Ed recruits other Amish men

to help with the house more than he actually works on himself. Something unheard of in the Amish community, something very frowned upon, had things he's above it, or his mental illness is progressing. Ed didn't even want to help with the painting, saying the fumes would give him a headache. So Katie is left to paint most of the house herself. One afternoon, a community member is shocked and disturbed as he had picked up Katie out of a chair by her hair, yankered her feet, right? Tell her to get back to painting. Jesus. Without a word, he releases her after that walks into the kitchen to pump

himself a glass of water. Now, what does Ed do into her when people are not watching? November, the unhappy couple moves into their new house. And then Katie will on Christmas 1991 tell her sister-in-law, Andy Gich Joe's wife that Ed has been beating her Breaking her promise to Katie not to tell anyone and any any tells her husband Joe and then Joe tells he and Ed's dad But he does nothing to intervene the Amish way Meanwhile at a celebration at the Shettler House Katie's parents Emma and Levi can tell something's wrong between Ed and their daughter But they don't want to come between a man and his wife. That was considered inappropriate. Instead, Katie's mom offers her daughter some of her quote-unquote nerve pills, which was annex. Emma tells her that without those pills, she wasn't sure she could have managed all the demands of family and community life.

She tells her to take the pills and give herself a break. Hmm, questionable. I'm pretty sure pills do not keep your husband from beating you. I'm not sure how that was really supposed to help. Katie, a true believer in Dr. L and his brand of drugless therapy declines. She says she would try and drink some black strap molasses to deal with it all, seriously. Holy shit. I am positive that black strap molasses does not alleviate symptoms of domestic violence. By February of 1992, things are looking increasingly bleak now for Ed and Katie.

Ed is despondent, depressed, hates his home life. Barely spends an hour a day at home when he's not sleeping, sticking in the machine shop most of the time. Katie keeps asking him, you know, what's wrong? What is she doing wrong? He refuses to talk about what's bothering him. With winter and full swing during a cold snap, the kids' beds are moved into Ed and Katie's room, the only bedroom with a heating stove. And sometimes they will now wake up to

hear their parents screaming at each other. Sometimes worse. One night, the shouting wakes up little barely three year old Eno's who sees his dad slap his mom in the face. His mom then punches his dad in the face. Then he just watches his dad throw his mom to the floor. In the morning, the kids find her sleeping on a cot in a freezing living room. So what a shit show. Ed not doing well at all. This isn't just about him being an abusive, unhappy asshole. Dude is mentally ill.

Now his paranoia gets a frenzy of really starts to manifest itself. Skin never feels right. Itchy all the time. He loses appetite. His hair is always tingling. Sometimes he says his brain feels like it's on fire or going to explode out of his head. He sometimes randomly feels as if he's seen a blinding light being pointed at his eyes. He says that the chemical solvents he'd been used in the machine shop or making him feel dizzyer than ever. His evangelical friend Dave Lindsay

still incessantly preaching at him. And now it is beginning to see visions. One night he jumps at a bed, starts walking around the room, talking to himself in a strange, high-pitched voice. Sleepy and disoriented, Katie asks him what's going on. Ed declares that he has just received an important vision from God. He is now convinced that the bishop and Katie are against him. They're in league with the devil. They will stop it, nothing to assure his soul's damn nation.

He starts ranting about killing the bishop, Katie's uncle, and freeing himself. And had Katie been raised in the outside world, I would like to think that at this point, she would be scared enough to contact local authorities who could come over and conduct a mental health evaluation, maybe put Ed in a psychiatric ward on an involuntary 72-hour hold. But because she is Amish, nothing happens. Ed doesn't express his vision to anyone else, just Katie, and she doesn't tell anyone else initially. To the Amish community, Ed just now has some kind of strange sickness that makes him jittery and strange.

Usually, whenever someone in an Amish settlement, a quote, takes sick, the extended community offers their support, visuals. At the bedside or commonplace, household and farm chores are taken care of. If necessary, money is sent for family expenses. Once word gets out, often through, you know, of visuals at the bedside or commonplace. Household and farm chores are taken care of. If necessary, money is sent for family expenses. Once word gets out, often through either just a word of mouth

or sometimes the Amish national newspaper called the budget. But the nature of Ed's illness, puzzling to his community. As one neighbor said, we knew something just wasn't right with Ed, but we couldn't put our hand on it. Of course, he couldn't. Right, they are preposterously uneducated. None of them have more than an eighth grade

education, not even a good one, an Amish eighth grade education. They don't know fuck all about mental illness. How could they? The Amish around Ed couldn't tell if he was losing his faith, if he was sick or if it was something else. One night in late March of 1992, a Sunday, the Shettler family gathers Levi's house to try in their way to help Ed. Everyone's present, including Bishop Rudy Shettler, that night Ed and everyone's presence horrifies Katie by telling Levi that an unnamed friend and spiritual advisor had opened his eyes to the true nature of God in Jesus Christ. The only way he would be saved, Ed said, was if he left the community.

They asked him if he's thinking about leaving. Ed insists that he has had a vision from God and he needs to, this kicks off a screaming match ends with everybody storming out. The homage not skilled in conflict resolution. Now, if this botched intervention of sorts, shit really hits the fan. March 23rd 1992 a Monday, that morning Katie can't get Ed out of bed, no matter how hard she tries. He's laying on his back in a, in a fugue state of sorts. Every so often he'll spit up with a ceiling. He's been doing this for an hour saying that the patterns the spit is making on the ceiling is some kind of message. Right. This is active phase psychosis. He's having a full on

psychotic break right now. Katie's scared. How could she not be? She sends a children to her, to his parents house, gets Bishop Rudy to come over company by Ed's brothers Dan at Lee and Joe perfect four guys who collectively know less about mental illness than the average non-amish junior high kid All these men as they're staring at him Ed suddenly announces that his heart is literally tearing loose from his body And he rolls off the bed Everyone stares in horror is Ed flops around on the floor Normal people would I'd like to think, Call 911 at this point. But these weirdos don't have phones,

or basic human logic abilities. This is also wildly unnecessary. Instead of Call 911, the Gingrich brothers hold ed down, afraid that he might hurt himself. Someone floats going to a doctor or something, maybe they should do, but Bishop Rudy's like, get out of here! It's dumb idea.

Not on my wise watch, he insisted ed is just clearly been taken over by say, and they just, all they need to do is pray for him. And this wouldn't even bother me. If they also took him to a psychiatric center, right, cover all your bases, pray all you want, right? Fine, but don't immediately jump to only, right, the demon base. Even Catholic exorcists insist that someone seemingly afflicted with some sort of

paranormal, you know, demonic torment first have a psychiatric evaluation. So these guys start praying, asking God to cast the demons out of it. As their chorus of voices rises, praying, Satan away, ed sits up, Bishop Rudy helps him to his feet, walks him to a cot, where Katie covers his feet, legs and torso with the quilt. He looks like himself again for the most part, but he is not. He is just keeping quiet for the moments about the hornets buzzing around inside his mind. By noon, Ed's acting strange again. After taking an app, he wakes up with a start,

starts crawling around at all forts, like he's an animal. Nothing to see here, just a 25 year old father of three who's gone feral. Guys come back over, they start praying again. The sounds of the prayer are drowned out by Ed's brain barking and howling. He stops every so often to a spit, to rear back his head and scream or howl. Then he crawls under a cot, won't come back out. When Bishop Rudy finally bends down to look, he's down to sleep down there.

Emma Sheller now tries to convince Ed's brothers that Ed needs a doctor, a real one. Someone who can describe him, uh, some medicine that might help him. Luckily, Amishmen do not have to listen to Amish women and often don't. So they shoot down her stupid lady idea. And they wisely, when he's feeling better, agreed to take him back to Dr. Taitos. Dr. Blackstrapped molasses. Fuck yeah, bro. As the day progresses, Ed vastly,lates back and forth between sleeping and complaining about body parts,

maybe falling off, detaching, rolling around inside of him, being a dog. When the women get him to the table to eat something, finally, he leaps up, says that his heart has now jumped from one side of his chest to the other. He's clearly not doing well mentally. Then he goes to lie down again, but just as suddenly gets back up, scrambles on his hands and knees, right, to hide into a, hide under a desk now. Emma finally intervenes more forcefully, tells Ed to take some of her Xanax to her surprise instead of taking two, he takes 15 of them, just knocks him out cold. And no one worries about him overdosing and goes to get a doctor because these

people are idiots. And I know that's mean, but also this is what fucking happens when you consistently turn your back on formal education. You get stupid. The next day, March 24th, Ed wakes up complaining of a vision he's had of Danny, Atley, and Joe flying around the sky with a bunch of angels and he starts spitting up again, right? He's spitting again, you know, finding another vision to interpret or message. His wife, Katie, father dandy finally decided that's enough right that they uh...

go to a neighbor's house have the neighbor called ambulance first good decision anyone has made the story uh... when the game reaches inform ed that he's going to the hospital now he takes off for the door tries to escape his brothers atleast joe have to wrestle him to the floor soon the orange and white mill village volunteer fire department ambulance is in front of the house ect dug Doug Peters climbs out of the emergency vehicle

as assistant fire chief Andy McLaughlin pulls up in his black Chevy Blazer. The approach to house carrying a medical kit body board and an ambulance caught equipped with drop legs and wheels. Inside the men are still struggling to keep Ed pinned down. To everyone's surprise Katie throws a right hand punch at her husband in the middle of all this hits him in the face knocks him onto his back when he tried to get up one point pretty sad these two are getting so good at hitting each other of the volunteers the surprise that he and Amish wife punch out her husband and had to have been they don't say anything presently they're a little focused on the guy are now running around on his hands and knees barking like a dog Ed kicks thrashes squirms as his brothers try to carry him to the ambulance.

Takes four Amish men, plus three volunteers to subdue him, bring him to Hammett Medical Center in Erie, now known as UPMC Hammett, a 446 bed hospital in medical facility. And the ambulance on Route 19, Ed tells anyone who will listen that his heart has torn loose and that he's drowning in his own blood. Then when they get into the hospital,

the doctor asks Ed if he can walk on his own blood. Then when he came to the hospital and the doctor asked Ed if he can walk on his own, he calms way down, and just replies normally, sure. Now 11 o'clock in the Tuesday morning, Katie and Mr. Gingrich fill out admittance forms, writing down trouble with nerves as Ed's reason for being admitted. Something like that, yeah, sure.

Then incredibly when Ed speaks to a psychiatrist, he seems totally fine. Katie shocked. Reminds her of how Ed always seemed to objected and sat around the house, but would snap back to his old self when he was talking to his non-omisch friends in the sawmill. Dr. Ask Katie, if it's possible that Ed was just joking around

with everything he was doing, she doesn't think so. But Ed seems fine, so they have to release him. But then when he starts to walk away, he immediately turns on Katie, says that he knows she's trying to get rid of him so that she can marry his brother, Danny, whom he knows she has been having in a fair with. Katie shocked. She's never heard these accusations before.

Psychotic again. Now Ed ends up getting admitted to the hospital psychiatric court. While this wasn't incredibly shocking to the community, other old order Amish have had members of their community treated for mental health problems in the past. The way it happened blew everyone away. Ed had gone berserk in the presence of his family. He was strapped to a cot against his will carried off to the land of the non-Amish. They wondered why had he gone berserk?

Was it because he was associated with non-Amish friends, particularly Dave Lindsay? Did that open up the door to the devil? That's what Bishop Rudy thought in his wisdom. He thought that once Ed got back, he needed to separate himself from the evangelists, evangelicals, and commit fully to Amish life, associating only with the Amish, then he'd be okay. Bishop Rudy thought that there was nothing wrong with him, that God, family, and lots of physical labor couldn't cure. Amen. Levi and Emma Schettler believed that Ed had simply cracked under the strain of being Amish, a way of life he'd hated

for years. But that meant there wasn't a cure except for Ed to leave the community, his wife and his children. Something Levi and Emma could not advocate for publicly unless they wanted to risk being shunned. Following day, March 25th, Ed is moved to a private room where visitors can see him as soon as the anti-psychotic anti-depressant and the side effect inhibitors drug cocktail he is now on shows proof of working to the doctors all the signs point strongly to paranoid schizophrenia that afternoon Katie Emma Mr. Gingrich visit Ed are told he is a paranoid schizophrenic and they're like we know we know Bishop Rudy's got this. He's gonna pray the way.

Don't keep more about it. I don't know what they say. I doubt they really understood what they were being told. Ed greets his family members with a wide sleepy smile. Katie hopes that things will finally now work out between them. They need to get back to fucking. She wants at least seven more kids.

Come on! Stop barking like a dog long enough to put another kid in my belly. Ed says he doesn't remember anything about the last few days. The last thing he can recall was feeling weird in the machine shop. After the family leaves, Ed has another visitor, Dave Lindsey. Great. The devil magnet. Dave and Ed speak for a while, but Dave suggesting that Ed just had a bad reaction to some of the chemical fumes in the machine shop. But Ed doesn't want to talk about that. He wants to talk about a specific passage in the Bible that promises guaranteed salvation. Friday, April 3, 1992. Ed is discharged from the hospital. He is not cured, gets a friend who doesn't work that way, but he's not psychotic at the moment. He is complaining

to his doctors that the drugs they prescribed him made him feel tired and stupid. He has weekly appointments set up with the psychiatrist and Erie, to whom Ed will again complain about the side effects of his medications when he goes once or twice The psychiatrist explains them that's gonna take a month maybe longer to figure out the right drug combination and dosage level Ed has no interest in figuring this shit out He doesn't have a lot of faith right in Western medicine He doesn't like how he can't work for more than an hour without needing to go home and take a nap He's struggling through long days feeling worn out foggy while visitors are coming his house, offering well wishes for his recovery. He doesn't like it. Just 25

days later, April 28th, Ed decides no more drugs. After talking over with his wife, Katie, who does not like pills, she suggests that he go back to Dr. Torell, have his toes pulled on. The two agree that he's not going to take his medicine anymore. Neither one of them know what the fuck they're doing. Ed perks up initially when he gets out the drugs, but very soon it becomes anxious and hostile. So it's having nasty headaches. It's like his head is going to explode again.

Several times Katie finds him standing in the middle of a room, literally pulling on his hair, sometimes pulling it out, screaming that it's on fire. Probably should have forced him to go back to the hospital again at this point, You know, work on having him committed, but that doesn't happen. Katie doesn't know what to do. She knows that if she tells you what what's going on now, they're going to try and get Ed to go back on the drugs. She doesn't want to do that, but Ed's constant talk of God and the devil locked in combat. His organs mysteriously disappearing or moving. Him complaining about people listing in on his thoughts. This is all scary in her because it's fucking terrifying.

It's hearing things. He claims that God is speaking to him and his brother Dan's voice and that Satan is speaking to him in a woman's voice telling him that Katie is preventing him from achieving salvation. He's having visions of God surrounded by angels warning Ed against listing to the devil.

At night, he's prowling around the house, talking to himself, singing, trying to read his Bible. It's something out of a horror movie. If you're watching this as a movie, you're worried that something really bad is going to happen to Katie, and something really bad is going to happen to Katie. May 2nd, 1992, a Saturday night, Ed announces to Katie, they're going to shoot himself. To prevent this, Katie goes up, went, went, finds, you know, Ed's 22, 22 rifle, his 410 and 12 gauge shotguns, wraps all three weapons up in a blanket, hides

them in the shed. He now does not shoot himself, but his behavior gets more extreme. He's speaking gibberish in a high squeaky voice oftentimes. He's doing shit like hanging his arms out of windows upstairs, telling everybody's going to jump. He's opening all the windows of the house, even though it's 40 fucking degrees outside. I feel so sad for their kids. They're watching all this.

I feel sad for him. Dude need a real help One day Ed's leaving out the window again when Katie tries to push him out of the way, right? He let's go causing them both to fall on their backs with Katie on top of him Katie gets our ed gets up throws a punch that misses Katie's face but connects with the window spraying them both with charge of glass As Katie then sweeps up the glass, Ed goes to another window, climbs out onto the roof and jumps. Luckily, it's only 10 feet off the ground, so he doesn't hurt himself.

He does land on a pile of dirt and then throws his arms, skyward in a V like an Olympic gymnast. Something that's really funny about that to me, right, that part of it. Nailed it, just arms up, nailed it. I pictured him bowing to imaginary judges and then they give him perfect tense, and he runs off.

He sprints for the road. Some family members take off in a buggy after him. This is so ridiculous. They managed to catch up to him, hollum inside. But then Ed is able to fight them off. He ends up tearing one side of the canvas buggy off as he escapes again. He eventually does go back to the house, so this chick

goes on for days. He'll fall asleep for a little while, out hard like a baby, then he'll wake up, start running around, sometimes run out of the house, just doing wild shit, smashing his fists or windows, lying on the floor and talking to himself, crawling around on the hands and knees, again barking like a dog, screaming about the devil, screaming about God, screaming about his heart not being in the right spot. His mother-in-law, Emma, the smartest homage character in this saga by far, decides she is going to help again. This time, they send in her son-in-law to the Jones Memorial

Health Center in Jamestown, New York, a actual mental health clinic. Instead of calling the paramedic, the family decides to do it by themselves. They tie Ed's limbs up with rope while he's asleep, and then they have a neighbor drive them all to Jamestown. At the hospital, Ed tells the doctor that he's not mentally ill. He just has a bad case of liver cancer. Why does he say that? Because he's out of his fucking mind. He's in the middle of a full-blown psychotic episode, right?

Completely detached from reality. He denied visitors for the first week. They do obviously admit him for, you know, being very mentally ill. Then on the eighth day, Katie, there are three children and Emma visited him. Ed responds, cool and aloof. Katie sees with dismay, he looks thin and pale, drive flaky skin. She finds out he's getting released in two days after 10 days in the hospital. So May 15th he's released. He's only out of the hospital for four days before he decides again to stop taking his medicine. Awesome, with Katie's full support. Sweet. Why take medicine when you can just have your handwriting

analyzed to find out how many fucking toe pulls you need. May 21st, 1992, Ed goes to Cambridge Springs to see Dr. Trel. Thank God this quack is dead now. He died back in 2006. Before dying though, this son of a bitch ran his bat shit crazy practice for 55 years. Found his obituary.

Ed gets his toes pulled, gets his feet rubbed, and gets prescribed more black strap molasses here after having his handwriting, more analyzed again. And he feels great now. He feels great and never suffers from paranoia, delusions, or hallucinations again. Woo, hail, Nimrod, hail, Dr. Titos. Now, this does nothing for him.

You know, he just becomes like he was before this happened again. You know, Ed, Lucid for the time being, tries to talk to Katie about divorce, saying it won't be wrong if they do it the Christian way. But Katie doesn't want it. And then they continue to limp along for months. Luckily, because of the way his schizophrenia works,

he's not in a state of active phase psychosis for a while. It goes dormant, a couple of months before his next full blown episode. He's also not mentally well, he's not feeling well. Untreated schizophrenia is such a brutal affliction, you know, he's still, you know, too tired to work in the machine shop, unhappy at home, too jittery to socialize. He continues to see Dr. Torell, who is now saying, how the fuck did this idiot stay in business for half a century? Now he's saying that he's determined that the real source of Ed's ailments is his right foot and ankle.

During one visit, he literally gives Ed's ankle a good heart twist, pulls hard on one of his toes, pronounces him cured. You're cured. It was your ankle. Sorry, I didn't get it. It was your ankle before. I thought it was just your toes. But the ankle was also a problem. I hate this guy. If I lived near where he's buried,

I might have been tempted to take a break to do my research on this episode who go piss on his grave. It is of course not cute. Let's get ahead a few months, 1993 now. That February, cooped up in the house with the kids due to the snow. Ed now starts seeing a giant rabbit,

peering into the house through a window, and looking at him. Can you imagine? Ed, are you okay, honey? Are you doing okay? Yeah, no, I'm good, I just, I just, I just was that giant rabbit with steps staring at me.

I don't like being staring at my giant rabbits. Dr. Taitos, probably twisted the wrong angle. Ed spends most of that winter closed up in his bedroom where he naps, obsessively reads his Bible, sometimes goes on weird rants, cool. Katie's left to mind the children, to her household chores, care for her very sick husband. He becomes so sick, he eventually loses faith

in Dr. Taitos. He won't even see Dr. Taitos anymore. He won't even drink black strapped molasses. When Katie tries him to get him to drink it, Ed accuses her of trying to kill him with poison. March 15th, 1993, Monday morning. Ed's dad and brother Dan come over to help Katie paint an upstairs bedroom.

Ed actually pitches in for a little while, but then he says, you know, he can't continue. He's got a headache. He's dizzy. It's always the same thing. He goes to bed. Around five, the men and Katie finish up the bedroom. Mr headache. He's dizzy. It's always the same thing. He goes to bed around five. The men and Katie finished off the bedroom. Mr. Gingrich passes up Ed's bedroom to say goodbye.

Seize Ed busy reading the Bible watches him launch into a wild hide disjointed babbling gibberish. Sherman. Mr. Gingrich now really finally starts to understand that Ed maybe does have a severe mental problem that might only be cured by modern medicine. He has his son. if Ed has any objection to being examined by a doctor again, real doctor.

Ed said he doesn't, but he doesn't want to be stuck in a hospital again. Not even, Mr. Gingrich calls Adley, Joe, and Dan, right? His three closest brothers come to the house, talk about what should be done with Ed. And brother Joe comes up with a great idea. This is fucking solid. He says, what if they just held Ed down

and forced him to drink Whipple? Time to chuck away the mental health illness with some Whipple Power Brain Edition. Feel a little fragile, you fucking cry baby. Feelin' sad, anxious. Tartar scene giant rabbits lookin' in your windows. Weren't about your heartbone out of your chest? Close your crazy eyes and pounds of whipple power

Brain addition made with DMT LSD shrooms bleach gasoline coconut milk MTT oil fish oil motor oil greasy forehead oil dingo blava stem cells Adderall wipple power brain addition is guaranteed to drastically change the way you feel think for better or for worse How the fuck did I know? All I know is you're a huge pussy if you don't give it a shot. Fuck you, fuck your family, and drink with them. Powered by addition, now available to following flavors, root beer, black strap molasses,

and does anyone else see the goddamn scrambles? Uh, no. That is not what Brother Joe's idea is, unfortunately. His idea though is equally ridiculous. He has just heard about an Amish faith healer named Jacob Troyer. Who? How cool is this? Can heal people by looking into their eyeballs? This is even better than toe pulling and foot rubbing and ankle twisting.

The ultimate non-invasive medical procedure, sterotherapy, get gazed back into health. Don't even have to keep drinking that black strap molasses. Right? This is a lower calorie treatment. The plan is now to get Katie to agree to this and take ed to see this fucking witch doctor, ASAP. This sometimes feels like a fairly brother or, or, or, you know, three-studious movie. So many complete idiots in the story. The, the homage really do live as they intend to like its late 17th century in some of the worst possible ways. Mr. Gingrich, to his credit, doesn't love this

plan, but he also does know what to say when his son's point out that Ed went to a hospital twice, and he's still not well. His son's strongly believed that modern medicine is a sham. In the end, Mr. Gingrich agrees to go see the guy who stares at people to figure out how to cure them. Toe, Polandet and Starrin. How can you think that these treatments might work, but not trust Western medicine? 10th, the next morning, Tuesday, March 16th, Atley and Dan go over the machine shop where they find Ed in the smoky half lit foul smell and shack sitting on a crate, reading his Bible.

They ask him what's going on and he replies that he has just realized that his illness is no big deal, right? It's just God's way way of forcing to choose between life to vote in Jesus or an eternity in hell No faith healer needed bros. I'm good. All part of God's plan now if you excuse me I need to bark like a dog and spit the ceiling until I sort this mess completely out Then after a few moments at launched into an angry tie raid Cuses brothers are trying to poison him with Katie via the black strap molasses. The brothers now convince Ed is actively suicidal. He's a concy talk about death.

It resolved to figure out something quickly. March 17th, 1993. A Wednesday in Katie's birthday. Also, a day of snowstorm lands. Instead of staying inside, celebrating his wife and children, Ed in the middle of another psychotic episode now sits in the freezing machine shop, reading his Bible. The brothers really want to take him to see Jacob Troyer, but the snow is coming down too hard.

Dan Gingrich calls Sid Workman to come over to help. Sid was 52-year-old service representative for an electric engine firm, also a neighbor and friend of the Gingriches. He had dinner with Katie, and Ed in the past. They had dinner with him in his place. Ed had cut lumber for Sid and in the summer, Sid had brought the Gingrich's ice. He knew that about a year before, Ed had developed some serious mental health problems.

He knew that Ed had been taken from his home to a psychiatric unit of an eerie. Sid had even driven Ed's wife, Katie, and several of Ed's siblings to visit Ed a few weeks later after he'd been taking that other mental health facility in Jamestown. What he didn't know was that Ed had stopped taking his medication after each hospitalization. When he said a ride to the machine job, he could tell his friend not doing well.

His eyes seemed classy, kind of spacey, he'd say. Sid suggested he should see a doctor and then goes inside to talk it over with Ed and Katie. Ed, you know, sorry, goes over to talk about with Katie and Katie's, oh my gosh, Ed's dad, Dan. And then Ed comes into join the conversation. Ed confesses that he is thinking about suicide. Knowing that the old order Amish don't have cars, sit offers to drive Ed wherever he needs

to go. The family then names a doctor, they say. And Punxatani, where that little gofer pops up or whatever he's called. Now I didn't write that my notes, but I know that punk's tiny fill is the ground ground rock. There we go. So they're going to go see Jacob Troyer. So they're not going to go see a doctor, a con man.

They're going to see someone who may also be mentally ill. Darkness is approaching. Pucksatani is almost a hundred miles southeast, but Sid offers a drive anyways right away. He's a hell of a neighbor, a good friend. Goes home to change, comes back and he's Chevy Lumina, Ed Katie, four other family members pile in for hours they drive over snowy roads, Ed sits in the back seat, moaning,

while Dan, his dad, massages his feet. So that's cool, I'm sure that helps. It was not until about 10.30 pm that they reached the doctors. Sid is now crushed to find out that Jacob is not a doctor. He's an omniscient herbalist and an eye reader. He's an eye reader, doctor eye reader. All of the family members went into doctor staring contest house. Doctor not a doctor, stares for a while into Ed's eyes.

Finds out what he needs. He has a couple small bottles of herbs that are going to knock that shit right out. And all it costs is $340. Sits pretty upset that they didn't go to a real doctor, not being amish. Pretty easy for him to see that this Jacob person is full shit. And of course, is now cured. The steering plus the herbs did with the toe pulling would not. He's back.

He's mad. He wasted so much time on ankle twisting. No, on the way home, Ed is lethargic and quiet. Katie tells Sid that she'll you know bake him some bread to pay for the trip. He's not worried about the bread He's worried about it. But the time they make a back home is 2 30 in the morning Thursday March 18th. Everyone's exhausted as Katie disappears into the house Sid has no idea this will be the last time he'll ever see her alive According to court testimony Edward passed the night calmly then woke up feeling terrible again and thinking crazy. Weird that their herbs didn't work. The family decides to bring him to a real doctor again, Dr. Taitos, which I was kidding. That afternoon, Ed's

old friend Richard Zimmer, Dick Zimmer, 2.0, old Dickie Zim, picks up Ed, Katie, one of their kids, another neighbor, and his club cat pickup for their afternoon quack appointment. Ed is not doing well at all. He keeps saying he has to find himself. I gotta find myself. another neighbor in his club cap pickup for their afternoon quack appointment. Ed is not doing well at all. He keeps saying he has to find himself. I gotta find myself. He's complaining about hearing voices, not being able to sleep. Again, he says he's thinking to suicide. When they arrive at Dr. Tito's, Ed goes in first. Dr. Tito's would later testifying Corset Ed said he was suffering from sleeplessness, anger, and sweats.

And Dr. Tito's would testify at Gingrich's trial saying, I manipulated him. I adjusted his head. I'm sure that helped a ton. Also, hoping there were some eye rolls in court when that idiot said that. He and Dr. Staring Contest can both go get fucked. Dr. Taito's explain later outside the courtroom

that this time he administered a scalp massage and gave Ed liver pills, whatever those are After Ed is treated but not really treated Zimmer goes in and tells the chiropractor that you know He's not feeling good either. He's curious about what's this guy about? He says Dr. Taito's told him he was getting an infection Manipulated just one of his toes sending him out told him to come back in a month And he was built 50 bucks and then he got furious. Storming out, he talks with Ed about how they should see real doctors, someone who could actually help

with their problems instead of that fucking idiot. Ed doesn't want to go though. On the way home, the women in the car start talking about a wedding dinner that evening for Noah and Levina Hurtzler, Katie plans to drive herself to the dinner of the family buggy. On the way, she'll stop and pick up her sister-in-law and a Gingrich. It's decided that Ed not go to the wedding celebration. You know, he'slaw and a Gingrich. It's a sign that Ed not go to the wedding celebration. You know, he's, uh, he's not feeling well. It's great that one of his brothers will stay home with him while others in the family attend the wedding. But before his brother at least can make it over to watch Ed while Katie is getting ready to go to the wedding, tragedy strikes.

That afternoon, Ed wakes up from his nap. It's almost time for Katie to go. She's washing dishes, singing to herself. Ed is sobbing in the other room. She doesn't stop singing. This kind of shit is part for the course now. But suddenly the crying stops. House grows quiet. Few moments later, Katie turns around. She's ed towering over her with rage in his eyes.

Without uttering a word, he slams a fist in the middle of her face, smashes her mouth and nose, knocks her prayer cap into the sink. Her legs give out, she collapses to the floor. Little just turned three-year-old Mary, standing in the kitchen behind her dead cap into the sink. Her legs give out, she collapses to the floor. Little just turned three-year-old Mary standing in the kitchen behind her dead begins to cry as her dead punches her mom over and over again in the face. Katie yells for her oldest son Daniel before she loses consciousness to run for help to tell his uncle Dan. Daniel six years old runs to his uncle's house, coalesce in barefoot, half mile away. When he gets there, he says,

come over quick, dad's sick. This is so fucking sad. Dan immediately runs to his brother's house. As he approaches the house, also three year old Enos, a days away from turning four, comes out into the porch, his face is red, he's crying, terrified, Dan goes inside,

as his eyes adjust to the dark interior, he sees Katie, he's stretched out on her back between Ed's knees, as he straddles her chest, and is still punching her face. She's already dead. She's battered beyond recognition. Dan screams for Ed to get off her, tackles him, but when they both clamber to their feet,

Dan realizes now if he doesn't get out of the house, Ed is going to kill him too. He turns, he flees to a neighbor's house to find a telephone. Ed with a mind that could not be more detached from reality at this point does not run after his brother. Instead he goes outside, puts on his knee high barn boots then he goes back into the kitchen refines e nos and marry standing frozen next to the mother's corpse a little irritated that uh... you know their uncle just fucking left them

there for this pretty fucked up uh... adding to the tragedy i hope these kids were too young for them to remember this a few years later while e nos and marry blankly watch on ed start stom stomping on Katie's face, crushes her skull completely. Then he rips off her clothing, kids still watching. He opens up her belly with a kitchen knife. Through a seven inch gash, he removes her heart, lungs, spleen, liver, kidneys, ovaries,

intestines, stacks them in an e-pile beside the corpse. Then he sticks his knife into that pile, picks up his Bible, drops it into the flames of the wood burning stove, then takes Enos's hand, puts little Mary on his shoulders, tells him you can take him down to Grandpa's house. I fucking got. Obviously poor Katie, but also poor Enos, poor Mary. Poor everyone involved. On his way down, he sees Ron Alexander, a Somile customer who's gotten his car stuck in the snow. Ed just you know puts the children on the snow bank, takes some time to help Ron get the vehicle back on the road like nothing's happened nothing's wrong and I don't know if this guy just does

notice all the fucking blood at him but as Ron pulls away Dick Zimmer comes up in his truck, offers Ed and the kids a lift Ed says now I'm gonna want to walk. Now the Mill Village ambulance crew pulls up. They see Ed walking up the road with two of his kids. Momentarily they think things are going to be okay. Maybe he changed shirts, didn't say in the sources, but obviously he's not allowing people with the way he's looked as far as blood. Assistant Fire Chief Andrew McLaughlin is told to go up

and check out the house, seen as that he'd been there roughly a year earlier. That was the time that Ed had gone berserk. How I'm like a dog, cackling, spitting, fighting like hell, as his brothers and the ambulance crew wrestled him into into restraints. This day, McLaughlin has ridden in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital in Erie and listen, or that day, excuse me, McLaughlin had written in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital in Erie and had listened, you know, to Ed

whisper that his heart was loose, that he was drowning inside and he's hoping things things are not worse than that now. Obviously things are way f**king worse. When he sees Ed, calm and quiet with his kids, Enoch and Mary, next to him, he initially breathes sigh relief. Surely things couldn't be that bad, though he couldn't tell why Ed was talking about how his people would understand everything. What McLaughlin found as he stepped up to the on the small porch and pushed open the front door to the Spartan Amish house that cold afternoon March 18th 1993 was a scene from a fucking nightmare. The naked body of Katie, one day past her 29th birthday, laying face up on the floor her skull completely obliterated her internal organs laying on the floor in a pile beside her along with a small, you know, curved parry knife. Nearby lay a pile of omnisquemines closed.

Stun McLaughlin radios back to the, to an EMT to keep a close watch on Ed. The kids send police over right away. Ed is taken into custody the moment they arrive. The arrest affidavit notes Edward Gingrich was advised of his rights and he admitted he had killed Katie. Back at the police station, Ed is advised of his Miranda rights and signs the waiver form God willing Okay After his initial unrecorded session in the interrogation room the detectives drive Ed to Cambridge Springs where he is officially arraigned

Meanwhile several omnis bois who had heard what happened arrive at the Hurtzler wedding dinner They summoned Katie's father Katie's parents expecting her to arrive shortly. She is someone Katie's father Katie's parents expecting her to arrive shortly. She is told as told of his daughter's murder a stunned Levi gasp walks slowly to his wife and only says Ed's not being nice to Katie. We have to go understatement of the fucking century. I'm sure this wasn't trying to alarm her. On front of everyone by one o'clock in the morning in Cambridge Springs detectives in the interrogation room of place to tape recorder in front of Ed. The record is turned on. One of the investigators begins speaking.

Ed, you know what a tape recorder is? Uh-huh. Ed replies, I explained to you and I read you the forum that says you have the right to remain silent and whatnot. You remember that? Do you understand? Ed stares the investigator momentarily before shaking his head. No, you do not.

The investigator asks, you understand this stuff. You say can be held against you about what went on today. Do you understand that? How do you mean, Ed asks? Well, things that you say could be held against you in a court of law, you understand that. Yeah, and religion, Ed responds, law and religion. And you have the right to an attorney,

you understand what an attorney is. Yeah. So you understand that. Yeah, it says, but in our religion, we will, but in our religion, we will not have done that. Investigator replies, we have to go by the law, and the law says I have to tell you this. Do you understand?

No, says that. You have the right to an attorney, do you understand that? Yeah, it says, adding, yeah, what I'm thinking, my mind is confused, I'm going to tell you that right now, but the reason we don't use the number, the social security number because of the beat, the beat somewhere, the computer. In fact, we can track our minds, we can feel it. That is obviously confused, having a hard time focusing, you know, his mind, his interrogation

continues. The investigators try to get him back onto the proper conversation, they ask him why he killed Katie. And he says, for some reason, I think we can still savor. No, we cannot savor. Katie is dead and you know Katie is dead, the investigator replies. Then bizarrely, Ed says, yeah, I know, why did I kill her?

I felt it was a gain, a gain for who? A gain for us people, Edward Plyce. All the people? Yeah, not just my religion. He says, then they may enter for a while on theeskator Ask, Ed Point Blank, while Ed removed all of Katie's organs from the top down. Ed asks, you know how we the human being were made? And Veskator replies, yes, from the top down? That's right. And says, I had it in my mind that if I worked

from the top down, then he pauses, I'm so lost, I don't know what to say. Fuck this dude needed so much help. His mind is shattered. The remainder of the interrogation lasted for approximately an hour during which Ed tries his best to describe the murder and his problems prior to the murder. Most of his statements are incomprehensible gibberish. Then Ed is taken to the Crawford County jail around two in the morning, placed in a holding cell. Following an autopsy, Katie remains, her remains are delivered to Ed's father's house. A normally an Amish wake is held at the deceased residence, but the community assigned the Dan Gingrich's house would be the best

place to gather. While the men saw it to the digging of Katie's grave, her mom and sister took it upon themselves to wash and prepare her body. Rather than dress her in her wedding gown, Katie's body is wrapped in black linen and placed in a pine coffin. Coffin then bridged across two chairs for the viewing, not open casket thank god. And then she would be buried the next day, March 20th. As preparations for Katie's funeral are taking place,

Ed is moved from the jail to a state mental hospital in North Worn, Pennsylvania for a psychiatric evaluation. During the move, Ed starts thinking that the officers are taking him to the woods to kill him and argues with them before finally agreeing to cooperate. Just under two days after Katie's death, March 20th, 1993, Amish mourners from Amish mourners from Ontario, each in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Indiana begin to arrive at Dan Gingrich's farm. Over 200 friends and family members gathered to offer their condolences and pay their respects. The sermon led by Bishop Schettler lasts for approximately 45 minutes. There were no flowers. The tone was hopeful yet full of admonition for the living. There was no eulogy, no personal eye statements of respect

or praise for Katie. Following the sermon, Katie's casket is loaded into an Amish buggy, transported to an Amish cemetery down the road from the Gingrich farm. After her coffin is lowered into the ground by felt straps a hymn is spoken but not sung prior to filling in the burial hole by hand in the end fresh dirt and a simple tombstone marker grave. Following the burial everyone gathers for a funeral dinner. October 2nd 1993 Ed's attorneys at a routine pre-trial discovery hearing announced to the court that surprising to no one listening to this, they're planning on using

excuse me, the insanity defense. In January, Dr. Lawson F. Bernstein, Jr., a professor of psychiatry from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, is hired by the defense. Following his review of Ed's confession and a one-on-one interview with the defendant, Dr. Bernstein determines that Ed lacked the mental capacity to appreciate the nature of his act and therefore could not discern right from wrong. As the defense team worked to build their insanity defense, the prosecution was busy seeking experts of their own. In February, the prosecution sent the psychiatric reports to Dr. Philip J. Reznik, professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. And they don't get the

at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. And they don't get the letter from him that they were hoping for. In March, letter to the prosecution, Dr. Resnick writes the following, it is my opinion that the authors of the reports had a reasonable basis for concluding that Mr. Gingrich was severely ill and did not know the wrongfulness

of his killing his wife at the time of the homicide. Yeah, this is not a bullshit in Sanity Play, obviously. He was on another planet when he killed Katie. of the homicide. Yeah, this is not a bullshit insanity plea, obviously. He was on another planet when he killed Katie. With the trial date approaching, the prosecution offered the defense of plea bargain that'll accept a plea of mentally ill, but guilty of murder in the third degree

in exchange for a sentence of 10 years. That would then be eligible for parole after serving just five years behind bars. Nonetheless, the defense felt that the prosecution could lose their case at trial and actually decline this offer. Defense were unaware when they did this that there would be a major snag in their defense plans.

Ed's attorneys had taken it for granted that his family would be willing to stand behind him and testify on his behalf. And the prosecution had done the same, thinking they would have willing witnesses to use against Ed. However, the homage community treated both the defense and the prosecution with hostility, every member refused to testify unless subpoenaed. Edit quickly became apparent had been shunned. Fuck an homage.

On the morning of March 24th, 1994, the Crawford County Courthouse in Medieval Pennsylvania, the trial of Edward Gingrich begins. Head prosecutor Douglas Ferguson opens with a brief address consisting of the events, leading up to Katie's death death and Ed's ultimate arrest. He stressed the jury that Ed was not legally insane at the time of the murder, fuck he wasn't, and should not be excused for his actions. I mean, what he did was horrible, but God, he was beyond insane. Donald E. Lewis appointed by the court to represent Ed, one of the most successful criminal

defense attorneys in the region of the time, wasted little time getting directly to the point as he took to the lectern. He told the jury, we are about to hear testimony that will stay with us forever. I am honored to be able to represent Edward Gingrich to protect his rights during this traumatic time in his life. Together we will search for the truth because that is what a trial is about, a search for the truth. Following Lewis' opening speech, the court declared a ten-minute recess so the prosecution could prepare. As a jury filed back into the courtroom, they were greeted by the prosecution's first exhibit, a childlike drawing depicting

Katie's corpse, uh, produced specifically, for the jury. Some jury members will later say that it seemed like this trivialized Katie's death and may have indirectly led to ed not getting a harsher sentence. The prosecution's first witness, Dr. Carl E. Williams, a forensic pathologist from L. Wood City, Pennsylvania, even though Dr. Williams had not performed Katie's autopsy, he's called to testify to the reports. Dr. who performed the autopsy, Dr. Tukashi Imajo had since left the county to work in another state. The fact that the prosecution did not bother to bring in Dr. Amajo was yet another disturbing blunder.

This air and combination with the childlike drawing suggested that the prosecution placed little importance on their evidence. Following Dr. Williams' explanation of the autopsy report, old Dr. fucking dipshit titos, Dr. Rell wearing a blue suit of five gallon sets in the hat, cowboy boots, is called to the stand and to be in question about the day of Katie's murder. Dr. Rell said nothing to help or hurt the case because he was an absolute fucking moron who should have had his business shut down permanently and not been ever allowed to sell literally anything to literally anyone ever again.

Katie's mother, Emma Scheller, is subpoenaed by the court. The next to testify on behalf of the prosecution. It began to cry, she made her way to the stand. Ed's brother, Danny Gingrich, also subpoenaed. The next witness called by the prosecution. During Danny's testimony, he chronicled the events that took place the day of Katie's death. He was asked to read the statement he had given to the state police on the night of Katie's

murder. On cross examination, the defense questioned Dan about his brother's mental problems and their trip to see Dr. Staring contest, aka Jacob Troyer, following Danny's testimony, the prosecution called an English Somal customer, right at Non-Amish, to testify to Ed's state of mind and two Pennsylvania state police troopers to recount the events following Ed's ultimate arrest and confession. With our testimony complete, prosecutor Ferguson announced that the state had arrested its case. Defense attorney Don Lewis cannot believe what he was hearing.

The prosecution did not bother to produce one psychiatrist to testify to Ed Sanity, probably because he couldn't find one. Or a toxicologist to debunk the theory that Ed might have been driven insane from the fumes in the workshop or any of the mill village paramedics to describe the horrid crime scene. Maybe the prosecution didn't want him to be found guilty. The jury was left with very little knowledge of who Katie Gingrich was, or how she had suffered.

The basis for Ed's defense relied heavily on proving that he was severely mentally ill when he committed his crime, and that was pretty easy to do. Lewis relied on testimony from Dr. Bernstein, that professor of psychiatry from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who'd interviewed Ed, and Dr. John J. Spikes, a toxicologist from Philadelphia. Dr. Spikes testified that the gunk fumes, as they're called, could've caused organic brain syndrome, right, when he's working in his machine shop, which could have explained the murder. Organic brain syndrome is a state of diffuse cerebral dysfunction, associated with the disturbance and consciousness, cognition, mood, effect, and behavior in the absence of drugs, infection or a metabolic cause. Whether it was a gung fumes or paranoid schizophrenia or some combination of the two, the defense argued Ed was not even close to being in a rational state of mind when he did what he did.

Following close and arguments, the judge explained the difference between degrees of murder, explain the legal definition of insanity, the jury then released for deliberations, two days later, March 26, little more than a year after Katie's death, a Crawford County common, please, jury in Medvill found Gingrich guilty of involuntary manslaughter, but mentally ill during the murder of Katie. With this charge,

a method ed would still be required to serve time in jail, but that he would also receive psychiatric treatment while in prison. After the verdict is read, the judge set the sentencing for May 2, 1994 in a German court. Alternately, alternatively, if he had not been found guilty by reason of insanity,

he would have have, he would have have, Jesus Christ, he would have served no jail time at all. Instead, he would have been sent to a mental institution until he was deemed safe enough to be released back in this society. Meanwhile, more than 50 members of the Brown Hill Amish community signed a petition advocating keeping Gingrich in a mental hospital forever. So now they're advocating. He'd be put into a mental hospital,

get the kind of treatment they don't believe in once Katie's dead, once it's too late. The sentencing hearing for Edward Gingrich held a little over a month later, May 2, 1994. Following the presentation of a psychiatric evaluation, the prosecution shocked everyone present by handing Bishop Schettler's petition to the judge. The defense had presumed the hearing would be routine or not prepared for Ed's own people to take such a strong stance against him now. Upon reviewing the information presented to him, listing the statements from both sides, the judge asked Ed if he had anything to say on his behalf. He just stood up and said, all I can say is, I'm sorry, to all the community that this has happened,

and then just returned to his seat. Following Ed's brief statement to the court, he sent to a minimum term of two and a half, two and one-half years, and a maximum of five years with credit for time served since his May 19th, 1993 incarceration year earlier. So he's gonna be eligible for parole starting late 1995. Feels too light for me, but I'm not a psychiatrist. I don't know how long doctors would need to really stabilize someone who is such a violence, gets a frenic.

We get our head sent in May 9th, 1994, Katie's father Levi gets up from dinner, tells everyone that he wishes he could see his daughter, goes to bed and never wakes up. Dude died of a broken heart. Another sad detail of the story. A few days later, he's buried next to Katie. November of 1994, just a year away

from being possibly released, Ed claims to have received a visit from God, where he's been granted forgiveness for his crimes. And he wrote about his experience soon after it occurred. So he's doing great. He wrote, it makes me feel like singing and shooting for joy. I do not shout because of my surroundings, but I do sing something I have not felt like or done

in the last perilous few years. So maybe he should have been committed to a psychiatric institution for life. Ed Gingrich denied his first bid for parole in December of 1995. Good call. Little over two years later, March 19, 1998, at the age of 34, Ed is released from the state correctional institution

in Mercer, Pennsylvania. While Ed was incarcerated, his three children that he had shared with Katie had gone to live with his parents. Now that he's out, he wants to see him. Mmm, I don't think so, dude. And say it or not, you can't exactly take back stomping their mom's head fucking flat in front of them. How about go away forever, leave an address with your parents, and if they ever really want to see you, they can find you. Ed's former community does not want to see him. Some of the families had even moved away to other

settlements because they were afraid of his return. Ed's parents did not want to see him. Ed trying to prove he's different now. He moved into an Amish mental health hospital Which to me feels like it couldn't have been a hospital located in Michigan where you continue to receive ongoing treatment that probably wasn't treatment While trying to rejoin the community slowly Hopefully that community that treatment he received there was more than you know, topoli and black strap molasses and staring Then Ed moved to a different Amish facility in Indiana, which probably also wasn't very good to receive more, probably not good treatment. 2007, he decides it's time to move back to Crawford County. He rents a house to the Brown Hill Amish community. Most of those who

live there shunned him. Of course he did. He was taking medication now and would regularly check him with a nurse and a psychiatrist, a real psychiatrist, a nurse. No more tole pulling. Dr. Taito said recently died. Thank God. Ed is trying to get better. Stay well. His two sons who are now teenagers do decide to reconcile with him. They start having visits with their father.

His daughter Mary has no interest in seeing or speaking to him. So he decides to force her to see him. April of 2007, just a few months after he'd moved back into the community, Ed Kiddnaf's marry from a buggy she's riding on. Everyone is terrified. He'd snapped again, and he was going to kill her. Thankfully, she's found a few days later unharmed. Physically at least, Ed is charged with kidnapping since the six months probation and find $500. Then in February 2008, he's charged with another crime, illegally possessing and using a firearm while deer hunting. Yeah, why? Yeah, of course. I mean, yeah, he's not supposed to carry a gun, right? Jesus Christ. Ed pleads guilty to a misdemeanor charge in October of that same year, in a sense to serve three

months in Crawford County jail. And then no one in the Amish community will hear anything about Ed until January of 2011 when he has found dead an aborn from an apparent suicide by hanging. He'd hung himself in Cambridge Springs on the property where he'd been living with one of the attorneys who had represented him. George Shrek for the past six months. George's wife Stephanie discovered King Rich's body, along with a message written in dust on top of a bucket that just read, forgive me please.

So sad. The community that shunned him, then held a ceremony after his death to honor him. He was buried in the local cemetery. Right next to Katie, the wife he had brutally murdered. Why did they do that? Would Katie have wanted that? I doubt it. Katie's family want that. That is daughter Mary want that. I doubt it. Now everyone has to see the grave of the man who had brutally killed Katie whenever they visit her grave.

Yet another decision by the Amish, I find very questionable. With Ed Gingrich now dead and buried, let's hop on out of this timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back, Mary. You've made it back, Mary. You've made it back, Mary.

Before we wrap up talking about Ed Gingrich, let's lighten things up a bit with two more ads. I know normally I don't have, you know, two kind of disslating the show, but I think you're going to want to hear them. Time suck is brought to you today by Dr. Taitos. Hey there, Buckaroo. Question. Now tie to your toes? If you're feeling sick, tired, unhappy, paranoid, anxious, and consummated, if you have

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That was fun. I like it. The Amish Killer. That's how Ed is known across the internet, but maybe not a very fair description. While he certainly was an Amish killer, like that name evokes someone roaming Amish communities looking for people to hunt down, also obscures the truth of Ed and Katie's story. The Ed never really wanted to be Amish that he formulated multiple escape plans. I've never got up to courage to leave fearing excommunication. The name of the Amish killer also didn't expose how Katie and Ed were socially pressured to get married in 1986,

societally pressured by their community. And as soon after Ed started exhibiting symptoms of a serious mental illness, an illness that the Brown Hill Amish community simply thought could be cured by prayer, hard work, maybe some toe pulls, some herbs, being stared at, blackstrapped molasses. The moniker doesn't address how even when Ed got psychiatric help, he was still surrounded by people who believed more in Dr. Taito's bullshit than actual medication, which he was encouraged to stop taking. The name doesn't speak to how this crime was totally preventable. If Ed wouldn't have had to choose between his community and his lifestyle, between one kind of religion and another, between being omniscient and sick, or living in the modern

world and being healthy, but with no support, sure seems like he would have left his faith and then he would have had been, had been in all likelihood likelihood much more receptive to seeking out and getting proper treatment. He also would not have felt so much of the stress that seemed to have triggered some of his kids' affrontic symptoms. What a brutal murder. Ed not getting treatment led to. On March 18th 1993, well, Ed and Katie's two younger children looked on. Ed not only killed his wife, he disemboweled her.

He literally stomped on Katie's head, right? And tell it was completely destroyed. Left to remain a pile of organs. He actually thought in his fractured mind that she was a tool of the devil being used to keep him from his salvation. And then speaking house severely mentally ill, he was, he was Arley seemed to believe as he later said an interrogation or alluded to that he believes she could still be saved. Ed Gingrich's mind had deteriorated into confusing funhouse of mirrors, not reflecting

reality, right? A place full of angels and devils and mistrust and fear, a place not help by the influence of his community and people like evangelical Dave Lindsay pumping more fear into his fearful mind. And his mind continued to function poorly in prison after months and months of treatment when he received a vision from God. He still struggled when he got out when he kidnapped the daughter who didn't want to see him. He struggled right up until the end when he took his own life January 14th 2011.

And then the community that has shunned him for so long after the murder of Katie now accepted him back one last time. Ed Gingrich wasn't Amish Killer, but his story has so much more to it than that nickname reveals. What a cautionary tale. Do not allow any mental illness you might be struggling with to go and treat it. Exactly. Don't think you can pray away or folk remedy away. Serious mental illness. It doesn't work like that.

If you think you or someone you might know could be struggling with schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, anything where you don't just feel right in your head or they don't seem right in theirs. The least you can do is call. If you live in the US, the substance abuse and mental health services administration hotline, 1-800-273-TALK, 1-800-273-8255. SAMHSA is a branch of the US Department of Health and Human Services outside Outside the US, please just do an internet search for mental health crisis hotline. If for some reason that doesn't get you what you're looking for, you can also just dial up emergency services, which is 911 in the US.

Do not sleep on mental illness. It doesn't go away. And as we were reminded today, untreated mental illness can get very, very ugly with dramatic consequences. Let's head now to our takeaways where we will revisit some of what we learned today and also learn something new. Number one on the night of March 18, 1993, Ed Gingrich brutally murdered his wife, Katie Gingrich at their house as two of their young children stood by watching

While their oldest son ran away to get help but help would not arrive in time Ed in the midst of a complete psychotic break from reality thinking his wife was a tool to devil Sent to prevent his salvation. He quickly pummeled Katie to death with his fists stomped on her with heavy work boots Stripped her naked disemboweled her on the kitchen floor Number two Ed clearly suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and would be diagnosed with it during his first hospital stay. Ed fit the progression of the disorder perfectly. First, becoming withdrawn and angry, irritated and nervous before progressing finally to

full on psychosis where he believed he was seeing visions of God and the devil that his family was trying to poison him. The correct treatment for paranoid schizophrenia is psychotherapy combined with heavy anti-psychotics. Ed bailed on that. Wednesday with Dr. Taito's, right? His fucking ankle twisting, foot rubbing, black strap molasses bullshit. Snake oil does not treat schizophrenia.

Scientifically studied medication and treatment does. Number three, societal pressure to conform with the omniscience of life harmed both Ed and those around him, with the pressure that made him get married to Katie in the first place. His desires continually ignored by his community, which led to a lot of unnecessary stress, which quite possibly helped trigger the onset of his schizophrenia and increased the severity of its symptoms. I think the story also illustrates how important it is to live the life that works for you, not the life you might be told to live by those around you.

You only get one shot down here for sure. Don't waste it living a life that isn't authentic to who you really are. Number four, Ed Gingrich died by suicide. January of 2011, after writing one last plea for forgiveness. Losing his community, even though he wanted to leave it for most of his young life, took an enormous toll on him. If only the homage could have just let him be who he wanted to be when he was young, instead they waited for him to die before accepting him back into their community.

Number five, new info, Ed Gingrich may have been the first man to have been convicted for murder as an Amish person, but he's not the only Amish killer out there. And his tale, not the only bizarre Amish true crime story, either. Born on September 20th, 1950, Eli Stutzman was raised in an Amish community in Apple Creek, Ohio. People who knew Eli described him as quiet, withdrawn. The first of many suspicious deaths occurring around Eli happened in 1977. His wife, Ida, died in the barn fire. She was pregnant at the time. They already had a 10- old son, Danny. Somebody, Danny's the story. Eli claimed that I had to went into the barn to save some milking equipment and collapse there and died.

Others think he set the fire to cover up killing her. Soon after that, Eli went against Amish tradition by shaving his beard, using electricity in his home. This led him to being shunned, then leaving the Amish faith completely. In 1982, Eli and his son, Danny moved to Colorado. Christmas Eve in 1905, authorities come across the frozen body of an unidentified boy

in a ditch in Chester, Nebraska. The cause of death remained inconclusive. The boy not identified after an initial investigation was dubbed Little Boy Blue. And then when readers died, just published a story in 1987 about this case, it reached the whole nation, bringing in a whole bunch of tips.

Chief among them was from a woman in Wyoming who thought she knew who the boy was. She said her family had cared for him a few months before his father picked him up just days before the child was found dead. The boy her family cared for was Danny Stutzman, Eli's son. Eli had left his son with his with his family in the summer of 1905 before coming back in December of that year. The body was indeed confirmed to be Danny through a Danny's body through a palm print. Eli was arrested in 1987 in Azale, Texas. He claimed that he and his son have been driving for Wyoming to Ohio to spend time with

family when Danny fell really sick and died. Eli said he panicked left the body in the ditch for God to take care of him. Fuck out of here. Kind of dead. If he hasn't done something terrible isn't severely mentally alone himself. Just tosses or young son's dead body and fucking ditch terrible. Eli then after this, sorry, scatter my notes there, he drove to Selina, Kansas to meet a boyfriend. He by this time come out of the closet was openly homosexual with no evidence

pointing to Eli killing Danny, even though there was so much suspicion, he was only convicted of a banding their body and failing to report a death sentence to 18 months in prison. Then while serving the sentence, Eli becomes a prime suspect in another probable murder. The death of Glenn Pritchett, whose body was also found in a ditch in Austin, Texas, in May 1905. He'd been shot in the head. Glenn had lived with Eli and Danny right before his death. In this case, Eli went on trial in Austin after serving his sentence in Nebraska and he

was convicted of murder now. He'd served almost 13 years before being released on parole. And before he got out, digging further back into his past, authority suspected him in the death of at least two other men. In late 1985, two murders that occurred in Durango, Colorado, when he was known to be there, the victims, Dennis Sleeter, David Tyler, authorities said the men all knew each other. We're all drug users who used together and we're all open the gate. Both of these victims had spent time with Eli right before they turned up dead.

And a person matching Eli's description was seen near where Dennis' body was found. But never charged in these cases due to lack of evidence. After being paroled in 2005, Eli lived in Fort Worth, Texas. Then on January 31, 2007, he was found dead in his apartment of an apparent suicide at the age of 56. He had slid his left wrist.

What's he technically an Amish serial killer? Did he kill three men? He was linked to. All thought to be romantically linked to him, right? And his wife and unborn child and his son. Maybe Eli Stewart's been as the guy who really should be known as the Amish killer. The Amish normally very peaceful, but sometimes, you know, they get some murderous, bad apples, just like every other group of people here on earth, unfortunately.

The Amish Killer Ed Gingrich has been sucked. Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for helping again this week. Thanks to Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsey Cummins. Thanks to Reverend Dr. Joe Paisley for production. Thanks to Bitelixer for upkeep on the TimeSuck app, Logan Art Warlock Keith for creating merch at BadMagicMarch.com and for running socials with Lizzy and Chantras Hernandez. Thanks to Sophie Evans for leading the research this week. Thanks to the all-seeing eyes moderating the Coltly Curious Private Facebook page

and thanks again to BeefStake and the Mod Squad running Discord. More and more people talking lately about how much they're loving the Discord community. So good on all you Discord meat sacks thanks for being you. You can easily link to TimeSuck's Discord community via the TimeSuck app. Next week on TimeSuck, I'm having a hard time getting my brain out of this week, man, it's just that his illness just being untreated for so long, the way progress so disturbing. This one's going to stick with me for a while. Next week on time suck, we talk airlines. How do planes get where they should be on time? How do they choose what snacks to give out on flights? Where are the snacks made? What are the different prices for in-flight Wi-Fi

across different airlines and how they determine those prices? JK, can you imagine how fucking boring all that would be? No, we're going gonna talk about an airline, a very unusual one. Air America, we're gonna talk about the CIA, drug smuggling, covert operations, the real story, not the critically pan films during Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. Air America, just about as far as you can get from a modern commercial airline, Air America was a CIA secret airline, and much of Southeast Asia, following the end of World War II through Vietnam, while it seemed to the outside world like it was simply offering civilian flights Air America pilots were actually transporting food weapons Personnel to the front line to the fight against the spread of communism and

Perhaps delivering some opium to during the CIA's secret war in Laos Air America aided or actually traded hundreds of thousands of dollars opium cultivated by the mung people at least hundreds of thousands of dollars of opium cultivated by the mung people. At least hundreds of thousands, if not much more. According to CIA's official byline, this was because the lay ocean economy depended on opium as its cash crop. So they were just helping out in order to prevent economic ruin and make it easier for them and their allies to fight the communist rebels. Possibly true. According to others, the CIA actively made money on the opium trade.

Air America's history, long and fascinating. So many top secret missions, covert operations, pretty shady stuff, so shady that when Air America employees tried to get their pensions after the Vietnam War ended, CIA turned around and said that those employees didn't need pensions because Air America didn't exist. Crazy is that. All that and more next week on TimeSuck. I've already started the research. It is fascinating shit.

Been too long since we delved into some of the CIA's covert antics. And right now, let's head on over to this week's TimeSucker updates. Updates, get your time sucker updates. Got some good updates on death from our recent Kavorkin in the right-die episode. This episode hit close to home for compassionate sucker Rick Dyer's, Dyer's, Dyer's, D-Y, Elia. Not Dick, Dyer's, Rick Dyer's, Rick not Dick, writes.

Hey, Dan, I just want to thank you for your last episode on Dr. Kaye and Dr. Assistant in and the Assistant to a side. I appreciate how you approach all possibly controversial subjects from all sides and viewpoints. I try. Don't always do it. I don't think. That being said, the subject hit close to home for me and may have affected my allergies

a few times. In May of 2018, my father passed away from lung cancer. I'm sorry to hear that. Once it's cancer got to a point where doctors told him that they were out of ideas and then he was beyond medical care. Him and I had long talks about what he wanted me to do when the time came. If he was needlessly suffering, he wanted me to know,

he wanted me to do whatever I could to end his suffering. When the time came and he was hospitalized, he had lost everything that made him the dad I knew. And for almost a week, he said, I'm sorry, for almost a week, he laid in a hospital bed, simply saying, I'm done and please let me go. It was insanely difficult, but with help from the medical staff,

we were able to end his suffering. It wasn't a doctor assisted to a side, but I was glad that I was able to help ease unnecessary suffering. Thanks again for all you do. Your loyal sucker, Rick, feel free to use any of his info on the pod. Thanks for writing in Rick.

Can't imagine how hard it was for you to do what you did. Sorry again, if I was your father, I would have been so proud of you for helping me in a very very tough time. So grateful. No one should have to spend their final moments in unbearable pain if they don't want to. So glad your father was able to pass in peace and hail Nimrod. Now for someone who works with a dine, who would like to clear up some hospice misconceptions. Sweet sucker, angel sucker. Miranda's stalker, writes, someone who works with a dine who would like to clear up some hospice misconceptions. Sweet sucker, angel sucker.

Miranda's stalker, right? Thanks for educating everyone about hospice. I'm a visiting hospice nurse and it is a common misconception that we kill people or that it's a death sentence. The death sentence is the disease. We come in to help keep the patient comfortable in their home when possible and support both the patient and their family. Another thing that is commonly believed

is that morphine makes people die faster, not true. It reduces the body's use of oxygen which helps settle down shortness of breath, also called dyspnea. Anyway, thanks again for the hospice shout out, three out of five stars, wouldn't change a thing. I will thank you for what you do Miranda. And thanks for educating us.

What an incredibly tough job you have. I can't imagine how emotionally tough it is and I bet you, but you make it look easy. Giving comfort to the dying, pretty damn noble profession. So good on you. So thankful that people like you do what you do. So three out of five stars for you as well. Now another death related message from an anonymous nurse and from someone

who's depending on the right to die, debate changed after they started working in healthcare. Tough ass sack rights. Hello, suck master, bad magic crew. I'm only a little bit into this week's episode on Dr. Kavorkin, but I had to send some of my thoughts in. I'm a nurse. I started out in a nursing home, worked there for several years before moving on. I've taken care of hospice patients, patients with ALS, dementia,

honey tens disease, Parkinson's disease, patient's dying of cancer, and some that just die without any advance warning. I've seen the fear the doctor of working was talking about in his 60 minutes interview. And the anguish of families watching their loved ones decline physically and mentally, watching their personalities change to someone they don't know, watching parents forget their children, spouses not recognize each other. And I personally understand how many of these families feel, wanting some small amount of control back. My wife was recently diagnosed with Huntington's disease. It is a neuro-degenerative disorder that will eventually lead to some level of cognitive impairment, movement dysfunction, and eventually death. At this time, there's no cure for it,

only medication to help with some of the motor symptoms. While she doesn't have any real symptoms yet, we both know what is coming. It's impossible to describe the feeling of absolute helplessness, knowing what will eventually happen. I don't want to lose my wife, however, should she decide in the future that she wants to end her suffering, I will stand beside her. It would be an absolute hell, but I think it would be easier than watching her slowly decline into a shell of herself to have her not remember me in our life. For now, we're trying to live life to the fullest and joy every moment

that we have with each other. I understand that many people are against physician-assisted suicide wondering how we would regulate it, how to keep it from being abused or misused, worrying about death committees. Remember that from when Obamacare was first introduced? These are all valid points. But on the flip side is the cost and suffering of people who are terminally ill, who only have extreme pain to look forward to. I think those people should be allowed in out. Currently, if you go to your doctor and tell them you're suicidal, you're putting a mental

work or admitted to the hospital. And, guarded to make sure you can't do anything. Psychologists come and interview you, medications are started or stopped, and you can't even pee and peace. For fear, you'll try to kill yourself on the toilet. But for those select few who have reached the end of a comfortable existence and only have pain and suffering left, I think they should be allowed to make that decision to have a painless peaceful death. I'll admit I was against it before I started working in healthcare.

But seeing suffering first hand can really change your perspective. I apologize for the length and ramble-ness of the email if this makes it on the show, please leave my name off. Love everything you guys do. It's an ice escape from reality, especially the reality we're living in right now. Hail, Nimrod. He keep you all in his blessing. Excuse me. And keep on sucking your loyal anonymous bad magician.

Well anonymous nurse, sorry, you are dealing with something so fucking heavy right now. Sounds like you're handling your wife's illness about as good as anyone can. It can. Sounds like you both are. I appreciate you explaining how your viewpoint changed. Once you got into healthcare, I think oftentimes our feelings about something change when an issue becomes personal or real for us. That's why it's so important to try and put yourself and other people's shoes when

thinking about all kinds of stuff. Social issues, laws, all manner of different circumstances. Think what if it was me in that situation? What if it was someone I love? Would my opinion remain the same? What is actually fair and ethical here? Thanks for your thoughts, Meatzak. I hope we can continue to be a nice escape for you to return to.

And one more, one of the members of the Colt the Curious almost ended up living in the former home of last week's serial killer. Robert Yates, I'm sure more Yates updates are coming. I'm recording this right after that came out. Spoke hands sack, Noah Hollister writes, this is a crazy connection. Hey, you mush mouth mother, Ed Canterboys, fucker. Finally, the Robert hates suck. Been waiting for this one. I grew up about two minutes away from the spray track over by Liberty Park. Oh wow. I know exactly this. I wasn't high school at LC when they caught that crazy fucker.

Anyways after he was caught and everything was over and done with his house up on the hill went up for sale. And my stepfather was adamant that we had to buy it. It was listed for a great price. I bet it was. And so we went up and checked it out knowing full well whose house it was. Everything was going just fine until the realtor had to disclose that there was a body buried next to the bedroom window.

That's my mother checked out. Step that, try to convince her to just go for it anyway. It's not there anymore, but the stigma that came with it was just too much for my mom. Sorry not sorry for the long email. Wouldn't change the thing about the podcast, three out of five stars. Crazy connection Noah. Hope your stepdad wanted it because it was listed

as a great price and not because Yates had lived there. That'd be super creepy. If a body haven't been buried right outside the bedroom window was like a huge selling point for him. It's like, come on, it's sexy. What? No, nothing. I mean, it's a good price.

I just looked up the real estate estimate for that house. You might not want to tell your stepdad that it is more than tripled in value since he chose or wasn't allowed to buy it. Thanks for the messages, everyone. Hail Nimrod and appreciate you sending in great updates each and every week. Thanks, time suckers. I Magic Productions podcast Meat Sacks. Please don't try and treat schizophrenia with topoly or staring this week. Please don't try and cure fucking anything that way, except for maybe a jammed toe or an eyelash just falling into your eye.

Mostly this week, just, you know, the business is usual. Just keep on sucking. And magic productions. It's in my chest. Oh, I mean it's a it's pneumonia I can tell by your hand writing. Okay. So all I got to do is one quick twist of your You're thinking too. You're gonna be all better. You're gonna be all better. All right? Don't even think about it. Don't even think about it. Yeah. That's a different cough. That's just a...

What's this one? That's a metapause. Oh. What's that which one is that? That is I have to hold this one and flick that one. Oh. Boom! I don't know already.

Thanks, Doc. Yeah! Boom! I'm already here! Yeah! Thanks, Doc! Yeah!