February 14, 2023 • 30 mins
The nun, Sister Mary Janina, came up missing in 1907 and most everyone in town was in on the search, including bloodhounds and even a clairvoyant. Father Edward was dead set to find Sister Janina's body.....and he did. Sister Janina’s body was discovered 11 years after her disappearance in a shallow grave in the basement of the church. What happened to Sister Janina and how her body ended up in the basement of the old church is a secret the building would not tell. Her death remains a mystery and whoever knew about it kept their secret. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
This podcast contains adult content. Someof the themes or topics may include information
on murder, kidnapping, torture,dismemberment, maybe some demonic content with information
on positions and paranormal activity. Thispodcast will also include explicit, horrible,
(00:26):
and foul, socially unacceptable, totallyuninhabited adult themes language. So if you're
easily offended, if you're easily triggered, then I highly suggest you turn this
off now, and if not,just keep in mind parental discretion is advised.
(01:00):
Isadore, Michigan, is a smallcommunity in the southern part of Centerville
Township. When I say small,I mean that all of Centerville Township has
a population of one thousand, ninetyfive people, and Isadore is a community
inside that township. It was originallynamed four Corners, but it was renamed
(01:23):
to honor Saint Isidore, the patronsaint of farmers. The intersection today consists
of the church, closed school,a rectory built in nineteen sixty six,
a cemetery, and a couple ofhouses surrounded by farmland on rolling hills.
But when you type Isadore into Google, you'll find it's known as a ghost
(01:46):
town and widely known for the disappearanceand death of Sister Janina. Mary Janina
Josephine Mesik was born in Chicago,Illinois, on February eighteenth, eighteen seventy
three. She was the third childto jan and Joseph Mezick. Her two
older brothers were named Frank and Emil. She was not a very good student
(02:07):
and actually finished last in her class, but she was a motivated woman by
all accounts. She was orphaned atthe age of nine and was raised by
the Felician Sisters of Livonia, Michigan. She later entered the Felician community and
was given the religious name Janina.In August of nineteen oh six, Sister
(02:31):
Mary Janina arrived in Isadore, readyto be the first teacher at a brand
new Holy Rosary schoolhouse. She wasalso to serve as mother superior of the
small convent located in the school.She was a small and very frail woman
who loved to sing and take longwalks in the woods. At the school,
(02:54):
there were two hundred students enrolled,and during winter, many of these
students boarded there. Sister Janina wasnot alone, though she and two other
nuns taught, fed and watched afterthe students. The three of them stayed
in the cubbyhole quarters of the secondfloor of the schoolhouse. Now, along
with the nuns, there was atall and handsome guy by the name of
(03:17):
father Andrew Binovski, and he headedthe parish. His younger sister, Susan,
and a chore boy named Gruba livedthere as well. And Binovsky was
eccentric, especially for someone leading aCatholic parish. He was really into earthly
(03:37):
possessions. He drove a fancy andexpensive buggy and had an unusual fascination with
rare animals. He owned a wholebarrage of odd pets, including a badger,
parrots of fox, and an alligatorthat he just let rome free when
it was cold there. He letthe alligator sleep in the rectory, but
(03:59):
eventually some one who did not likethat idea of a stray alligator roaming around
town poisoned it and it ended updying. So when summer finally came and
the nuns decided to stay in Issodoreinstead of returning to the Felician convent in
Detroit that they all came from,they spent their days getting their chores done
around the schoolhouse and spent their afternoonsnapping. When Sister Janina arrived in Isidore,
(04:27):
she had tuberculosis and she had frequentvisits from doctor Frelich, who had
an office in Maple City. Butduring this summer the doctor reported she had
overcome the disease. Everyone seemed tolove Sister Janina. Her students loved her,
the other nuns loved her, allof the parishioners, and even Father
(04:47):
Andrew, who was not fond ofvery many people at all. There was
one person, though, who wasnot a huge fan, and it was
a housekeeper. And I'm going totry to pronounce this fucking name the best
that I can, Stanislawa Lipzinska.And that was a housekeeper, like I
(05:08):
said in the rectory, and shewas just a hateful woman in general.
So she went by Stella, Okay, so we're going to call her that
from now on. And she hadmigrated to America from Prussia in her early
twenties and was employed by Father Andrewin nineteen hundred. Stella was a short
(05:29):
and very angry little woman. Shewas under five foot tall, right.
She had a ten year old daughternamed Mary as well, and she immediately
disliked Sister Janina. She claimed shewas lazy and picked flowers outside to avoid
her chores. She even disliked FatherAndrew, who had hired her. She
(05:50):
spread rumors about him as well,saying he acted more like a man with
three wives than a devout priest.One of the worst things Stella said about
Janina was that she was sleeping around. She supposedly called her a horror,
saying she was sleeping with Father Andrewand doctor Freylick, and Sister Janina just
(06:11):
ignored these things and avoided confrontation withher. And when you know, when
she would walk by her seer,she would just smile at her and just
keep her usual uppity disposition, youknow, when she was around her.
So by the end of August nineteenoh seven, things were picking up again.
The nuns were busy preparing the buildingfor students, and they had their
(06:32):
work cut out for him, asthe property also had a barn, cemetery
and rectory. The nuns were allsuper excited because of the upcoming visit from
Bishop Richter of Grand Rapids, Michiganto bless the news school. Sister Janina
was in charge of flowers and theywere using artificial ones they stored in the
basement for decoration around the schoolhouse.On Friday, August twenty third, nineteen
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oh seven, all the nuns upstairsfor their afternoon rest, and in the
yard below they could see father Banowski. I'd probably not even pronounce in his
fucking last name rights b I En I A w Ski Binowski, I
don't know. And they saw hissister and Gruba, and they were all
setting out for a fishing trip tonearby Lake Lelanow, which is known as
(07:25):
At that time it was known asCarplake. As they pulled out, they
looked up and saw sister Janina closingher shades, and that was the last
anyone ever saw of her, atleast that's the last publicly admitted sighting of
her. When sisters Angeline and Josephwent to look for sister Janina, all
they found was a swinging rosary hangingfrom the doorknob, and she left her
(07:48):
prayer book open on the window sill. It was said that Sister Janina would
never be seen without her rosary,and they all found the situation extremely out
of the ordinary. They also foundthe back door of the schoolhouse ajar,
and they always kept that locked.They asked Stella and her daughter Mary,
(08:09):
and neither of them had seen Janina, so everyone immediately began searching in all
weekend. It was just never endingsearching. Okay. The main priest and
the other two sisters all searched together, even by candlelight at night, and
father Binowski even went to the motherhouse in Detroit where Janina was sent from,
(08:35):
and everyone there believed that sister Janinawould not leave on her own accord,
but there were no clues to befound. So when the Traverse City
Record Eagle reported about Janina's disappearance thefollowing Monday, they wrote, as the
door swung open, there are ahundred things that might have confronted her.
(08:56):
It might have been a lover ofher younger days, Madden dead is Loss
coming to northern Michigan and taking adesperate chance, kidnapped the woman of his
heart. Now while father Bonowski wasin Detroit, is local authorities finally stepped
in Okay a week later, andthey started searching everywhere too. They even
(09:18):
searched the local lakes and ponds.Unfortunately, much of the area had been
trampled by all the locals trying tohelp so any evidence to be found.
If there wasn't, he was justmixed in with someone else. So when
the father returned, he offered upa five hundred dollar reward for information on
(09:41):
the location of Sister Janina. Ninedays after her disappearance, woman's footprints were
found in the swamp. Some appearedto be old, but some looked new
and fresh. Later that day,more women's prints were found along a road
near the church, and some brownwool was found in a barbed wire fence
(10:01):
nearby. Three days after that,a farmer near the church reported hearing a
woman singing from a swamp near hishome. He also thought he saw a
lantern through the trees. Now thatsame night, a group of men who
were on the road by the swampclaimed they also heard the singing, but
(10:22):
it freaked them out so they didnot follow the sound to investigate. And
two days after that, even moretracks were discovered. There were still no
signs of Sister Janina herself, butrumors began to spread, and people thought
she abandoned the parish, and shethrew away her vows and even stole the
(10:43):
church's money. And these are alllike rumors that are going around it actually
came down to a local paper talkingto the church and confirming that no money
was stolen. A letter postmark fromChicago, sent anonymously to the church,
offered up reasoning for her eving,and one quote from the letter was sister
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married Janina, who disappeared from theconvent was not abducted or murdered. She
was simply tired of her job andslipped quietly away. And the letter was
simply signed a Protestant pup. Soat the same time all of this was
going on, a clairvoyant comes forwardsaying he knew where she was. He
(11:24):
described a house on Glenn Lake wherehe claimed that Janina was being held against
her will. So the sheriff fromEmpire searched the house that fit the description
but found absolutely nothing. A groupof volunteers gathered to create a search team
and comb the woods for Janina.Antrim County Sheriff Bill Kettle brought his bloodhound
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named Tom, and Tom was anexperienced search dog with a lot of success
in past cases, but when giventhe scent of Janina, he kept running
to the church basement and it happenedmultiple times, but was eventually discounted because
they had already searched the basement andfound nothing. The two other sisters who
(12:07):
had worked with Sister Janina, Angelinaand Josephine, they moved away because they
were scared of a serial killer whowould come back and try to kill them
too, because they didn't know whatthe hell was going on. So later
that year, another group searched thewoods, again still finding nothing, and
authorities now believed that she was deceased, so more rumors began to spread,
(12:33):
specifically once about Sister Janina sleeping around. There were suspicions that she was actually
pregnant and the father was either FatherBanowski or doctor Freylick. Both men were
close in her life, and FatherBanowski living in the same building with them
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and doctor Freylick paying you a wholebunch of visits to her kind of made
the rumors fly, and Father Banowskihis reputation was completely ruined and he ended
up having to leave town and transferredto a new parish because of this.
So Stella, the housekeeper, whohated Sister Janina and probably was the source
(13:16):
of some of the rumors, leftthere in nineteen ten after her daughter married
a farmer. When she left,she moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to
be closer to her daughter and sonin law. Angelina and Josephine eventually passed
away due to consumption, which wastuberculosis, and Gruba moved to Canada and
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was never heard from again. Andin Isidore they lit candles in the church
for sister Janina and would relight themevery single year. So in nineteen fourteen,
Stella moved again, this time toManastee, Michigan, and Father Bonowski
had taken up residence at Saint Joseph'sChurch in Manastee, and Stella left Milwaukee
(14:01):
to go be his housekeeper again.Meanwhile, in Isadore, father Leo replaced
Banowski, but only lasted about threeyears after him fathered Jesus Man these fucking
last names after him, Father EdwardPodlashuski served there. When he arrived,
(14:22):
he was warned by several other prieststhat there was a scandal waiting to happen
in this church. They told himit needed to be taken care of before
it was found out, and theonly reason he was told of all this
was because he was planning to teardown the old structure and construct a brand
new church on site. One night, the father decided to search the building
(14:43):
a little bit better, and withhelp from the church saxton, a guy
named Jacob Flees, they were inthe basement and they discovered a shallow grave.
It was dug into a dirt floor, and Father pad lash Shusky assumed
he would find the missing none there. Well, he wasn't wrong. They
did find her, but she wasnot alone. When she was buried.
(15:07):
They also found the skeleton of anunborn child. Now Here is where things
get really messed up. You wouldthink they would be happy and excited to
share this news, but instead therisk of causing a scandal was on a
higher level of importance for these guys, Father Podolashwski and Flees. Instead of
(15:33):
reporting their findings to the authorities,they decided to move the bodies and rebury
them in the church cemetery. Andthey both agreed to keep this thing a
huge secret. As we all know, two people who have a huge secret
usually do not keep it a secretfor very long, and this was the
(15:54):
case with Father Podolashusky, and heconfided in his housekeeper, a woman named
Martha Miller. Martha told her father, who in turn told lelan Owl County
Sheriff John Canukin this immediately relaunched theinvestigation. Doctor Frelich, who was Sister
Janina's doctor, received her bones andconducted what he could of an autopsy.
(16:19):
He determined that death was a homicideafter realizing her skull was fractured, and
he believes she was also buried alive, which means she suffocated you in that
shallow grave. The investigation led themto her Catholic diocese sister Janina came from,
and while they were there they ledpolice to Father Binowski, which then
(16:45):
led them to the housekeeper at thetime, which was that Stella woman,
and the church asked the sheriff tokeep the pregnancy a secret. It's apparently
more important to the diocese to keepa scandal under wraps than discover the secret
behind Sister Janina's death and her life. In April of nineteen nineteen, Kinakan
(17:07):
obtained warrants for both Father Bianowski andStella Lipzinska and he was convinced one of
them had killed Janina. He reallythought it was the priest who killed her
to keep the pregnancy a secret,but when the sheriff confronted him, he
was very forthcoming with information and heconvinced him that he was actually innocent,
(17:30):
and then witnesses told Kinnakan that Stellawas the one who killed the nun.
It was no secret about her crueltytowards sister Janina, and it was rumored
that she had even assaulted her inthe past. So Stella denied all the
claims, saying she would never strikea nun. The sheriff ended up placing
her under arrest and jailed her inTraverse City. Father Bianowski posted her bail
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and hired a defense attorney for her. The sheriff also interviewed sisters Angelina and
Josephine, and this was before theyhad passed away. They both stated they
were terrified of Stella during their timeat Isador. They both confirmed that Stella
hated sister Janina for no reason andthat Janina was also afraid of Stella.
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Now. Unfortunately for Stella, herfreedom was short lived because her bail was
revoked by the court, and whileshe was incarcerated, a sheriff hired a
private detective, Mary Tyleca, togo undercover and pose as another inmate to
get a confession from Stella. Shortlyafter she started the undercover work, she
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was noticing that Stella was acting insane. She would roll around on the floor
and refuse to eat, so shewas sent to ann Arbor for a psychiatric
evaluation, but after a few weeksit was concluded that she was only acting
insane and she was able to standtrial. She was sent back to northern
(19:03):
Michigan, where Mary Tylica went backto work and she was Polish speaking,
so she was able to speak toStella in her native language, and according
to Tylica, she in fact gota confession. Now, according to the
undercover detective, Stella told a Milwaukeepriest named Father Noick her confession, and
(19:25):
she says the events went down likethis. On the night sister Janina went
missing, Stella had followed her downinto the basement, and when they went
to retrieve the artificial flowers, shestunned her. Then went to the garden
and picked up a spade and beatJanina over the head until she died.
(19:47):
She dug a hole under the church, dragged the body to the hole,
and placed her inside. As shetried to bury her, the head kept
popping up no matter how much dirtshe put on top. She then took
the backside of the spade and beather over the head three times with all
her might. So the murder ofthis nun ended up being a national story,
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and in Chicago it was especially hugebecause stories ran and grand rapids pressed
to Chicago Tribune. When court finallystarted, there were all kinds of spectators
that filled into the courthouse. Itwas only a hundred seat courthouse, and
it was like overflowing with people.The courtroom scene was extremely dramatic, and
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the prosecutor used the confession as evidence. Tylka said that Stella confessed to the
father for absolution, but unfortunately FatherNowick was deceased at the time and could
not corroborate the story. Stella claimedthat she only confessed because tay Lika beat
her and coerced her into the confession. She claimed that while in jail,
(20:57):
she said that she was led toa room with bones and a skull lit
only by two candles, and thatthe sheriff had manipulated wires to work the
skull and make it appear to bespeaking, and it said, quote unquote,
you killed me. You killed me, and then he thrust the skull
(21:17):
into her face. She claimed thatthen she was hit over the head with
a water ladle by a Taylka,and that they locked her in a box
with the bones, and the detectiveobviously denied all these claims. So in
the courtroom, doctor Freylick and anassistant took out a box which contained the
remains of sister Janina and her baby. They slowly reassembled the skeletons for dramatic
(21:44):
effect and to win over the sympathyof the jury. The assistant doctor actually
took the skull and held it infront of Stella's face, to which she
did not even react at all.Doctor Freylick testified that Janina bled to death
from blunt trauma to the skull,and that she died a slow and painful
death. Another local doctor backed upFralick's testimony, but then a third doctor,
(22:11):
who was a pathologist from Chicago,was adamant that the fracture occurred after
death. The defense also was goingto compare doctor Fralick's handwriting to the Protestant
pup letter and accused him of beingthe author, but the judge ended up
ruling this inadmissible. Now, awoman named Mary Gatsky, who lived in
(22:34):
a farmhouse across the street from HolyRosary testified that Stella would come over and
gossip about the sisters, and thereis a quote from her testimony where she
stated she said the priest was notepriest, he was no more than a
man with three wives. She calledJanina a slut then quote. And then
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another neighbor by the name of missusJacob Flees testified as well, and she
said that on the day of thedisappearance, Stella had told her that sister
Janina was such a light character,and she allowed father Bonowski and doctor Frelick
into her room, even though theywere not allowed to do this even on
(23:18):
her deathbed. So the defense raiseda lot of great questions surrounding the confession,
such as why was the body notfound during the extensive searches. The
body would smell horrible. It wasAugust, and she was barely buried under
eighteen inches of dirt. And Grubaeven slept in the basement at the time
(23:40):
and was never alarmed by any kindof smell whatsoever. And the defense brought
up the footprints in the swamp andthe sightings as well. And even with
the defense's points and the absolutely stupidclaim of the coercion at the jail.
On October twenty fifth, nineteen,Stella was convicted and given a life sentence
(24:03):
at the Detroit House of Correction.In the newspaper The Record Eagle, the
courtroom scene was described as with thebrown robed nuns and tears, the large
audience fairly grasping at the horrible details. The courtroom presented a dramatic picture as
has never before been seen in northernMichigan. The Michigan Supreme Court reviewed the
(24:30):
case and upheld the conviction, butin nineteen twenty seven, Michigan Governor Alex
Grosbeck pardoned Stella. It is notknown why the pardon happened, and Stella
ended up being hired as a housekeeperby the Fallician Order of the Nuns in
Milwaukee, which is the same typeof nuns that raised Janina. And Stella
(24:56):
ended up dying at the age ofninety two in nineteen sixty one. So
in nineteen twenty two, the renovationof Holy Rosary was complete, and they
all hoped this was the beginning ofa new era and Isidore and they could
put the tragedy behind him, youknow, And for many years it seemed
(25:18):
that may have been the case.As Sister Janina's bones disappeared after the hearing
and no one knew what happened tothem. No one talked about the poor
nun and her unborn child either untilnineteen seventy nine when a Polish attorney from
Detroit, a guy named Harry Millistan, started looking into the case and he
(25:40):
wrote a book that put forth thistheory, called The Errant Nun, and
it was written under a pen nameof Natsalem. This was the author's last
name spelled backward okay. Basically histheory is this is that she was pregnant
and had a botched abortion and wasburied near by, and later a handyman
(26:02):
found the body and moved them tothe church basement. So natalism does not
believe the father was Father Binowski.The Catholic Church backs up this claim,
and they have apparently said they knowwho it actually was, but were unable
to tell because the secret was revealedin confession. An anonymous source from the
(26:25):
church has claimed it was church hearsaythat Stella was innocent. So in Isidore,
the case is never spoken of andthe ones who lived during this tragedy
have all since passed away. Sowhen all them passed away. All the
knowledge that the townsfolk had also wentwith them, and it seems like it
(26:47):
was a very close knit parish.The fact that Stella's daughter married a local
man and their extremely religious beliefs alsokept everyone quiet. So there is a
rumor of documents that contained more informationand more clues, and there are unpublished
writings of a Detroit reporter who didcover the trial. Natsalem claimed in the
(27:10):
book that he was able to readthese, but it's never been proven if
they even exist at all. Innineteen sixty five, a young man named
Milan Stitt decided to write a playabout the story that his wife had told
him. She grew up in theIsidore area and heard that a priest of
Holy Rosary was tried for killing anun and the story was a little off,
(27:33):
but Stitt was actually glad he heardthe wrong version first, because he
said the original tale would not haveinspired him so much. So after he
wrote this entire screenplay, he decidedhe wanted to visit the actual town and
the Holy Rosary, and it wasa pretty crazy moment for him. He
(27:53):
said, for metaphoric reasons, Ihad always imagined that the church sat on
the hill overlooking the town. Whenyou see that it actually did was quite
a shock. So the real kickerfor him, though, was that when
he walked into the rectory he sawthat the wallpaper was the exact same as
(28:15):
what he described in a screenplay.He also was looking through transcripts of the
trial and he found a testimony thatwas word for word one that he had
made up for a character in theplay. And the play was a huge
hit too. It's called The RunnerStables, and in nineteen seventy nine the
(28:36):
play actually went to Broadway. Andanother weird connection was that the costume designer's
grandfather was a member of the juryof Stella's trial. So the play ended
being a made for TV movie starringDick Van Dyke, and apparently it sparked
the topic of Isadore again. JackieBudd, who grew up in the parish,
(29:00):
said the movie was kind of acatalyst that opened up talk about the
murder. Before that, it wasnever mentioned. Now, sister Janina's remains
are still not located and the HolyRosary wrote her out of the history books
completely. The father was never discovered, and apparently the killer was either set
(29:22):
free, or was never found tobegin with, so it seems that,
unfortunately, she will forever be themissing nun.
This podcast contains adult content. Someof the themes or topics may include information
on murder, kidnapping, torture,dismemberment, maybe some demonic content with information
on positions and paranormal activity. Thispodcast will also include explicit, horrible,
(00:26):
and foul, socially unacceptable, totallyuninhabited adult themes language. So if you're
easily offended, if you're easily triggered, then I highly suggest you turn this
off now, and if not,just keep in mind parental discretion is advised.
(01:00):
Isadore, Michigan, is a smallcommunity in the southern part of Centerville
Township. When I say small,I mean that all of Centerville Township has
a population of one thousand, ninetyfive people, and Isadore is a community
inside that township. It was originallynamed four Corners, but it was renamed
(01:23):
to honor Saint Isidore, the patronsaint of farmers. The intersection today consists
of the church, closed school,a rectory built in nineteen sixty six,
a cemetery, and a couple ofhouses surrounded by farmland on rolling hills.
But when you type Isadore into Google, you'll find it's known as a ghost
(01:46):
town and widely known for the disappearanceand death of Sister Janina. Mary Janina
Josephine Mesik was born in Chicago,Illinois, on February eighteenth, eighteen seventy
three. She was the third childto jan and Joseph Mezick. Her two
older brothers were named Frank and Emil. She was not a very good student
(02:07):
and actually finished last in her class, but she was a motivated woman by
all accounts. She was orphaned atthe age of nine and was raised by
the Felician Sisters of Livonia, Michigan. She later entered the Felician community and
was given the religious name Janina.In August of nineteen oh six, Sister
(02:31):
Mary Janina arrived in Isadore, readyto be the first teacher at a brand
new Holy Rosary schoolhouse. She wasalso to serve as mother superior of the
small convent located in the school.She was a small and very frail woman
who loved to sing and take longwalks in the woods. At the school,
(02:54):
there were two hundred students enrolled,and during winter, many of these
students boarded there. Sister Janina wasnot alone, though she and two other
nuns taught, fed and watched afterthe students. The three of them stayed
in the cubbyhole quarters of the secondfloor of the schoolhouse. Now, along
with the nuns, there was atall and handsome guy by the name of
(03:17):
father Andrew Binovski, and he headedthe parish. His younger sister, Susan,
and a chore boy named Gruba livedthere as well. And Binovsky was
eccentric, especially for someone leading aCatholic parish. He was really into earthly
(03:37):
possessions. He drove a fancy andexpensive buggy and had an unusual fascination with
rare animals. He owned a wholebarrage of odd pets, including a badger,
parrots of fox, and an alligatorthat he just let rome free when
it was cold there. He letthe alligator sleep in the rectory, but
(03:59):
eventually some one who did not likethat idea of a stray alligator roaming around
town poisoned it and it ended updying. So when summer finally came and
the nuns decided to stay in Issodoreinstead of returning to the Felician convent in
Detroit that they all came from,they spent their days getting their chores done
around the schoolhouse and spent their afternoonsnapping. When Sister Janina arrived in Isidore,
(04:27):
she had tuberculosis and she had frequentvisits from doctor Frelich, who had
an office in Maple City. Butduring this summer the doctor reported she had
overcome the disease. Everyone seemed tolove Sister Janina. Her students loved her,
the other nuns loved her, allof the parishioners, and even Father
(04:47):
Andrew, who was not fond ofvery many people at all. There was
one person, though, who wasnot a huge fan, and it was
a housekeeper. And I'm going totry to pronounce this fucking name the best
that I can, Stanislawa Lipzinska.And that was a housekeeper, like I
(05:08):
said in the rectory, and shewas just a hateful woman in general.
So she went by Stella, Okay, so we're going to call her that
from now on. And she hadmigrated to America from Prussia in her early
twenties and was employed by Father Andrewin nineteen hundred. Stella was a short
(05:29):
and very angry little woman. Shewas under five foot tall, right.
She had a ten year old daughternamed Mary as well, and she immediately
disliked Sister Janina. She claimed shewas lazy and picked flowers outside to avoid
her chores. She even disliked FatherAndrew, who had hired her. She
(05:50):
spread rumors about him as well,saying he acted more like a man with
three wives than a devout priest.One of the worst things Stella said about
Janina was that she was sleeping around. She supposedly called her a horror,
saying she was sleeping with Father Andrewand doctor Freylick, and Sister Janina just
(06:11):
ignored these things and avoided confrontation withher. And when you know, when
she would walk by her seer,she would just smile at her and just
keep her usual uppity disposition, youknow, when she was around her.
So by the end of August nineteenoh seven, things were picking up again.
The nuns were busy preparing the buildingfor students, and they had their
(06:32):
work cut out for him, asthe property also had a barn, cemetery
and rectory. The nuns were allsuper excited because of the upcoming visit from
Bishop Richter of Grand Rapids, Michiganto bless the news school. Sister Janina
was in charge of flowers and theywere using artificial ones they stored in the
basement for decoration around the schoolhouse.On Friday, August twenty third, nineteen
(06:58):
oh seven, all the nuns upstairsfor their afternoon rest, and in the
yard below they could see father Banowski. I'd probably not even pronounce in his
fucking last name rights b I En I A w Ski Binowski, I
don't know. And they saw hissister and Gruba, and they were all
setting out for a fishing trip tonearby Lake Lelanow, which is known as
(07:25):
At that time it was known asCarplake. As they pulled out, they
looked up and saw sister Janina closingher shades, and that was the last
anyone ever saw of her, atleast that's the last publicly admitted sighting of
her. When sisters Angeline and Josephwent to look for sister Janina, all
they found was a swinging rosary hangingfrom the doorknob, and she left her
(07:48):
prayer book open on the window sill. It was said that Sister Janina would
never be seen without her rosary,and they all found the situation extremely out
of the ordinary. They also foundthe back door of the schoolhouse ajar,
and they always kept that locked.They asked Stella and her daughter Mary,
(08:09):
and neither of them had seen Janina, so everyone immediately began searching in all
weekend. It was just never endingsearching. Okay. The main priest and
the other two sisters all searched together, even by candlelight at night, and
father Binowski even went to the motherhouse in Detroit where Janina was sent from,
(08:35):
and everyone there believed that sister Janinawould not leave on her own accord,
but there were no clues to befound. So when the Traverse City
Record Eagle reported about Janina's disappearance thefollowing Monday, they wrote, as the
door swung open, there are ahundred things that might have confronted her.
(08:56):
It might have been a lover ofher younger days, Madden dead is Loss
coming to northern Michigan and taking adesperate chance, kidnapped the woman of his
heart. Now while father Bonowski wasin Detroit, is local authorities finally stepped
in Okay a week later, andthey started searching everywhere too. They even
(09:18):
searched the local lakes and ponds.Unfortunately, much of the area had been
trampled by all the locals trying tohelp so any evidence to be found.
If there wasn't, he was justmixed in with someone else. So when
the father returned, he offered upa five hundred dollar reward for information on
(09:41):
the location of Sister Janina. Ninedays after her disappearance, woman's footprints were
found in the swamp. Some appearedto be old, but some looked new
and fresh. Later that day,more women's prints were found along a road
near the church, and some brownwool was found in a barbed wire fence
(10:01):
nearby. Three days after that,a farmer near the church reported hearing a
woman singing from a swamp near hishome. He also thought he saw a
lantern through the trees. Now thatsame night, a group of men who
were on the road by the swampclaimed they also heard the singing, but
(10:22):
it freaked them out so they didnot follow the sound to investigate. And
two days after that, even moretracks were discovered. There were still no
signs of Sister Janina herself, butrumors began to spread, and people thought
she abandoned the parish, and shethrew away her vows and even stole the
(10:43):
church's money. And these are alllike rumors that are going around it actually
came down to a local paper talkingto the church and confirming that no money
was stolen. A letter postmark fromChicago, sent anonymously to the church,
offered up reasoning for her eving,and one quote from the letter was sister
(11:03):
married Janina, who disappeared from theconvent was not abducted or murdered. She
was simply tired of her job andslipped quietly away. And the letter was
simply signed a Protestant pup. Soat the same time all of this was
going on, a clairvoyant comes forwardsaying he knew where she was. He
(11:24):
described a house on Glenn Lake wherehe claimed that Janina was being held against
her will. So the sheriff fromEmpire searched the house that fit the description
but found absolutely nothing. A groupof volunteers gathered to create a search team
and comb the woods for Janina.Antrim County Sheriff Bill Kettle brought his bloodhound
(11:46):
named Tom, and Tom was anexperienced search dog with a lot of success
in past cases, but when giventhe scent of Janina, he kept running
to the church basement and it happenedmultiple times, but was eventually discounted because
they had already searched the basement andfound nothing. The two other sisters who
(12:07):
had worked with Sister Janina, Angelinaand Josephine, they moved away because they
were scared of a serial killer whowould come back and try to kill them
too, because they didn't know whatthe hell was going on. So later
that year, another group searched thewoods, again still finding nothing, and
authorities now believed that she was deceased, so more rumors began to spread,
(12:33):
specifically once about Sister Janina sleeping around. There were suspicions that she was actually
pregnant and the father was either FatherBanowski or doctor Freylick. Both men were
close in her life, and FatherBanowski living in the same building with them
(12:54):
and doctor Freylick paying you a wholebunch of visits to her kind of made
the rumors fly, and Father Banowskihis reputation was completely ruined and he ended
up having to leave town and transferredto a new parish because of this.
So Stella, the housekeeper, whohated Sister Janina and probably was the source
(13:16):
of some of the rumors, leftthere in nineteen ten after her daughter married
a farmer. When she left,she moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to
be closer to her daughter and sonin law. Angelina and Josephine eventually passed
away due to consumption, which wastuberculosis, and Gruba moved to Canada and
(13:37):
was never heard from again. Andin Isidore they lit candles in the church
for sister Janina and would relight themevery single year. So in nineteen fourteen,
Stella moved again, this time toManastee, Michigan, and Father Bonowski
had taken up residence at Saint Joseph'sChurch in Manastee, and Stella left Milwaukee
(14:01):
to go be his housekeeper again.Meanwhile, in Isadore, father Leo replaced
Banowski, but only lasted about threeyears after him fathered Jesus Man these fucking
last names after him, Father EdwardPodlashuski served there. When he arrived,
(14:22):
he was warned by several other prieststhat there was a scandal waiting to happen
in this church. They told himit needed to be taken care of before
it was found out, and theonly reason he was told of all this
was because he was planning to teardown the old structure and construct a brand
new church on site. One night, the father decided to search the building
(14:43):
a little bit better, and withhelp from the church saxton, a guy
named Jacob Flees, they were inthe basement and they discovered a shallow grave.
It was dug into a dirt floor, and Father pad lash Shusky assumed
he would find the missing none there. Well, he wasn't wrong. They
did find her, but she wasnot alone. When she was buried.
(15:07):
They also found the skeleton of anunborn child. Now Here is where things
get really messed up. You wouldthink they would be happy and excited to
share this news, but instead therisk of causing a scandal was on a
higher level of importance for these guys, Father Podolashwski and Flees. Instead of
(15:33):
reporting their findings to the authorities,they decided to move the bodies and rebury
them in the church cemetery. Andthey both agreed to keep this thing a
huge secret. As we all know, two people who have a huge secret
usually do not keep it a secretfor very long, and this was the
(15:54):
case with Father Podolashusky, and heconfided in his housekeeper, a woman named
Martha Miller. Martha told her father, who in turn told lelan Owl County
Sheriff John Canukin this immediately relaunched theinvestigation. Doctor Frelich, who was Sister
Janina's doctor, received her bones andconducted what he could of an autopsy.
(16:19):
He determined that death was a homicideafter realizing her skull was fractured, and
he believes she was also buried alive, which means she suffocated you in that
shallow grave. The investigation led themto her Catholic diocese sister Janina came from,
and while they were there they ledpolice to Father Binowski, which then
(16:45):
led them to the housekeeper at thetime, which was that Stella woman,
and the church asked the sheriff tokeep the pregnancy a secret. It's apparently
more important to the diocese to keepa scandal under wraps than discover the secret
behind Sister Janina's death and her life. In April of nineteen nineteen, Kinakan
(17:07):
obtained warrants for both Father Bianowski andStella Lipzinska and he was convinced one of
them had killed Janina. He reallythought it was the priest who killed her
to keep the pregnancy a secret,but when the sheriff confronted him, he
was very forthcoming with information and heconvinced him that he was actually innocent,
(17:30):
and then witnesses told Kinnakan that Stellawas the one who killed the nun.
It was no secret about her crueltytowards sister Janina, and it was rumored
that she had even assaulted her inthe past. So Stella denied all the
claims, saying she would never strikea nun. The sheriff ended up placing
her under arrest and jailed her inTraverse City. Father Bianowski posted her bail
(17:56):
and hired a defense attorney for her. The sheriff also interviewed sisters Angelina and
Josephine, and this was before theyhad passed away. They both stated they
were terrified of Stella during their timeat Isador. They both confirmed that Stella
hated sister Janina for no reason andthat Janina was also afraid of Stella.
(18:21):
Now. Unfortunately for Stella, herfreedom was short lived because her bail was
revoked by the court, and whileshe was incarcerated, a sheriff hired a
private detective, Mary Tyleca, togo undercover and pose as another inmate to
get a confession from Stella. Shortlyafter she started the undercover work, she
(18:42):
was noticing that Stella was acting insane. She would roll around on the floor
and refuse to eat, so shewas sent to ann Arbor for a psychiatric
evaluation, but after a few weeksit was concluded that she was only acting
insane and she was able to standtrial. She was sent back to northern
(19:03):
Michigan, where Mary Tylica went backto work and she was Polish speaking,
so she was able to speak toStella in her native language, and according
to Tylica, she in fact gota confession. Now, according to the
undercover detective, Stella told a Milwaukeepriest named Father Noick her confession, and
(19:25):
she says the events went down likethis. On the night sister Janina went
missing, Stella had followed her downinto the basement, and when they went
to retrieve the artificial flowers, shestunned her. Then went to the garden
and picked up a spade and beatJanina over the head until she died.
(19:47):
She dug a hole under the church, dragged the body to the hole,
and placed her inside. As shetried to bury her, the head kept
popping up no matter how much dirtshe put on top. She then took
the backside of the spade and beather over the head three times with all
her might. So the murder ofthis nun ended up being a national story,
(20:10):
and in Chicago it was especially hugebecause stories ran and grand rapids pressed
to Chicago Tribune. When court finallystarted, there were all kinds of spectators
that filled into the courthouse. Itwas only a hundred seat courthouse, and
it was like overflowing with people.The courtroom scene was extremely dramatic, and
(20:33):
the prosecutor used the confession as evidence. Tylka said that Stella confessed to the
father for absolution, but unfortunately FatherNowick was deceased at the time and could
not corroborate the story. Stella claimedthat she only confessed because tay Lika beat
her and coerced her into the confession. She claimed that while in jail,
(20:57):
she said that she was led toa room with bones and a skull lit
only by two candles, and thatthe sheriff had manipulated wires to work the
skull and make it appear to bespeaking, and it said, quote unquote,
you killed me. You killed me, and then he thrust the skull
(21:17):
into her face. She claimed thatthen she was hit over the head with
a water ladle by a Taylka,and that they locked her in a box
with the bones, and the detectiveobviously denied all these claims. So in
the courtroom, doctor Freylick and anassistant took out a box which contained the
remains of sister Janina and her baby. They slowly reassembled the skeletons for dramatic
(21:44):
effect and to win over the sympathyof the jury. The assistant doctor actually
took the skull and held it infront of Stella's face, to which she
did not even react at all.Doctor Freylick testified that Janina bled to death
from blunt trauma to the skull,and that she died a slow and painful
death. Another local doctor backed upFralick's testimony, but then a third doctor,
(22:11):
who was a pathologist from Chicago,was adamant that the fracture occurred after
death. The defense also was goingto compare doctor Fralick's handwriting to the Protestant
pup letter and accused him of beingthe author, but the judge ended up
ruling this inadmissible. Now, awoman named Mary Gatsky, who lived in
(22:34):
a farmhouse across the street from HolyRosary testified that Stella would come over and
gossip about the sisters, and thereis a quote from her testimony where she
stated she said the priest was notepriest, he was no more than a
man with three wives. She calledJanina a slut then quote. And then
(22:57):
another neighbor by the name of missusJacob Flees testified as well, and she
said that on the day of thedisappearance, Stella had told her that sister
Janina was such a light character,and she allowed father Bonowski and doctor Frelick
into her room, even though theywere not allowed to do this even on
(23:18):
her deathbed. So the defense raiseda lot of great questions surrounding the confession,
such as why was the body notfound during the extensive searches. The
body would smell horrible. It wasAugust, and she was barely buried under
eighteen inches of dirt. And Grubaeven slept in the basement at the time
(23:40):
and was never alarmed by any kindof smell whatsoever. And the defense brought
up the footprints in the swamp andthe sightings as well. And even with
the defense's points and the absolutely stupidclaim of the coercion at the jail.
On October twenty fifth, nineteen,Stella was convicted and given a life sentence
(24:03):
at the Detroit House of Correction.In the newspaper The Record Eagle, the
courtroom scene was described as with thebrown robed nuns and tears, the large
audience fairly grasping at the horrible details. The courtroom presented a dramatic picture as
has never before been seen in northernMichigan. The Michigan Supreme Court reviewed the
(24:30):
case and upheld the conviction, butin nineteen twenty seven, Michigan Governor Alex
Grosbeck pardoned Stella. It is notknown why the pardon happened, and Stella
ended up being hired as a housekeeperby the Fallician Order of the Nuns in
Milwaukee, which is the same typeof nuns that raised Janina. And Stella
(24:56):
ended up dying at the age ofninety two in nineteen sixty one. So
in nineteen twenty two, the renovationof Holy Rosary was complete, and they
all hoped this was the beginning ofa new era and Isidore and they could
put the tragedy behind him, youknow, And for many years it seemed
(25:18):
that may have been the case.As Sister Janina's bones disappeared after the hearing
and no one knew what happened tothem. No one talked about the poor
nun and her unborn child either untilnineteen seventy nine when a Polish attorney from
Detroit, a guy named Harry Millistan, started looking into the case and he
(25:40):
wrote a book that put forth thistheory, called The Errant Nun, and
it was written under a pen nameof Natsalem. This was the author's last
name spelled backward okay. Basically histheory is this is that she was pregnant
and had a botched abortion and wasburied near by, and later a handyman
(26:02):
found the body and moved them tothe church basement. So natalism does not
believe the father was Father Binowski.The Catholic Church backs up this claim,
and they have apparently said they knowwho it actually was, but were unable
to tell because the secret was revealedin confession. An anonymous source from the
(26:25):
church has claimed it was church hearsaythat Stella was innocent. So in Isidore,
the case is never spoken of andthe ones who lived during this tragedy
have all since passed away. Sowhen all them passed away. All the
knowledge that the townsfolk had also wentwith them, and it seems like it
(26:47):
was a very close knit parish.The fact that Stella's daughter married a local
man and their extremely religious beliefs alsokept everyone quiet. So there is a
rumor of documents that contained more informationand more clues, and there are unpublished
writings of a Detroit reporter who didcover the trial. Natsalem claimed in the
(27:10):
book that he was able to readthese, but it's never been proven if
they even exist at all. Innineteen sixty five, a young man named
Milan Stitt decided to write a playabout the story that his wife had told
him. She grew up in theIsidore area and heard that a priest of
Holy Rosary was tried for killing anun and the story was a little off,
(27:33):
but Stitt was actually glad he heardthe wrong version first, because he
said the original tale would not haveinspired him so much. So after he
wrote this entire screenplay, he decidedhe wanted to visit the actual town and
the Holy Rosary, and it wasa pretty crazy moment for him. He
(27:53):
said, for metaphoric reasons, Ihad always imagined that the church sat on
the hill overlooking the town. Whenyou see that it actually did was quite
a shock. So the real kickerfor him, though, was that when
he walked into the rectory he sawthat the wallpaper was the exact same as
(28:15):
what he described in a screenplay.He also was looking through transcripts of the
trial and he found a testimony thatwas word for word one that he had
made up for a character in theplay. And the play was a huge
hit too. It's called The RunnerStables, and in nineteen seventy nine the
(28:36):
play actually went to Broadway. Andanother weird connection was that the costume designer's
grandfather was a member of the juryof Stella's trial. So the play ended
being a made for TV movie starringDick Van Dyke, and apparently it sparked
the topic of Isadore again. JackieBudd, who grew up in the parish,
(29:00):
said the movie was kind of acatalyst that opened up talk about the
murder. Before that, it wasnever mentioned. Now, sister Janina's remains
are still not located and the HolyRosary wrote her out of the history books
completely. The father was never discovered, and apparently the killer was either set
(29:22):
free, or was never found tobegin with, so it seems that,
unfortunately, she will forever be themissing nun.
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