Journalist and author David Yonke joined George Knapp in the first half of the show to discuss the brutal slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Yonke, who covered the case for the Toledo Blade, shared details of the ritual killing. On the day of her murder Pahl was performing sacristan duties at Mercy Hospital, Yonke said. According to police reports, someone approached her from behind, put a cloth around her neck, and applied enough pressure to snap two bones in her neck. Pahl's unconscious body was placed on the floor, covered with an altar cloth, and stabbed 31 times, including nine times in the shape of an inverted crucifix, Yonke continued. Her forehead was anointed with her own blood and she was sexually assaulted with an object, he added.
"I've become convinced over the years that this was a ritual killing," Yonke said, suggesting the killer was likely also angry with God. The police interviewed over 600 people during the first week of the investigation and their only suspect was Father Gerald Robinson, he explained. Yonke described Robinson as disgruntled misogynist who did not like taking orders from the nuns who owned the hospital. Forces within the Church and Toledo police department conspired to protect Robinson from being arrested, he alleged. Robinson, who presided over Pahl's funeral, finally went to trial 26 years later and was found guilty of the crime, Yonke reported.
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In the latter half of the program, author William Scott discussed his campaign to force police to disclose the true number of people they kill every year, and why bad cops continue to be protected instead of arrested. The issue is especially significant to Scott as his son Eric was killed by Las Vegas police under questionable circumstances and subsequently covered up.
According to Scott, his son had legally carried a concealed weapon into Costco, a situation escalated with store security and the police were called. As the store was being evacuated, the police mistook Eric's phone for a gun and fired several rounds into him. "I could forgive the terrible mistake that took my son's life but I could not forgive the intentional cover-up that followed," Scott said. He shared several instances of police brutality against civilians and noted how this is leading to anger against cops among the citizenry.