By David Lohr
(Continued)
Similarly, Ed Gingerich's son Daniel, 19, Joe's son Albert, and Atlee's son David, both 20, have all been shunned by the Amish community, in which other members of the congregation deliberately avoid association with them. The severity of this sanction also varies.
The sanctions placed on Daniel and David likely result from two separate incidents that occurred this past summer.
On May 28, the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) charged Daniel with defiant trespass and disorderly conduct, after he was allegedly found inside a residence where Mary was staying, after he had already been informed that he was not allowed on the property.
David was charged with disorderly conduct in June, for attempting to spook a horse and buggy with a flashlight on Frisbeetown Road. The victim in that incident has not been named.
Both men were arrested and placed in the Crawford County Correctional Facility. Their trial dates are pending.
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Edward Gingerich's own troubles with the law date back to March 18, 1993, when, in the presence of Mary and Daniel, ages three and five at the time, beat their mother, Katie, 29, so severely that her brain spilled out on the floor. Afterwards, Gingerich undressed her and used a steak knife to make a seven-inch incision in her lower abdomen. He then reached his hand up inside her body cavity, and removed her lungs, kidneys, stomach, liver, spleen, bladder, uterus, and heart. He stacked the organs in a pile next to her body and stuck the knife into the top of the pile. When he was finished, he threw his Bible into the fireplace and led the children outside, where he was later arrested.
During the spring of 1995, a jury of his peers found Gingerich guilty of "involuntary manslaughter but mentally ill." He was sentenced to a minimum term of two and one-half years and a maximum of five, with credit for time served. Gingerich was denied his first bid for parole in December 1995; however, on March 19, 1998, at the age of thirty-four, after having served his full sentence, he was released from the State Correctional Institution in Cambridge Springs, Pa.
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