Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers

by Donald B. Kraybill

On the night of September 6, 2011, terror called at the Amish home of the Millers. Answering a late-night knock from what appeared to be an Amish neighbor, Mrs. Miller opened the door to her five estranged adult sons, a daughter, and their spouses. It wasn’t a friendly visit. Within moments, the men, wearing headlamps, had pulled their frightened father out of bed, pinned him into a chair, and—ignoring his tearful protests—sheared his hair and beard, leaving him razor-burned and dripping with blood. The women then turned on Mrs. Miller, yanking her prayer cap from her head and shredding it before cutting off her waist-long hair. About twenty minutes later, the attackers fled into the darkness, taking their parents’ hair as a trophy for their community.

Four similar beard-cutting attacks followed, disfiguring nine victims and generating a tsunami of media coverage. While pundits and late-night talk shows made light of the attacks and poked fun at the Amish way of life, FBI investigators gathered evidence about troubling activities in a maverick Amish community near Bergholz, Ohio—and the volatile behavior of its leader, Bishop Samuel Mullet.

Ten men and six women from the Bergholz community were arrested and found guilty a year later of 87 felony charges involving conspiracy, lying, and obstructing justice. In a precedent-setting decision, all of the defendants, including Bishop Mullet and his two ministers, were convicted of federal hate crimes. It was the first time since the 2009 passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that assailants had been found guilty for religiously motivated hate crimes within the same faith community.

Renegade Amish goes behind the scenes to tell the full story of the Bergholz barbers: the attacks, the investigation, the trial, and the aftermath. In a riveting narrative reminiscent of a true crime classic, scholar Donald B. Kraybill weaves a dark and troubling story in which a series of violent Amish-on-Amish attacks shattered the peace of these traditionally nonviolent people, compelling some of them to install locks on their doors and arm themselves with pepper spray.

The country’s foremost authority on Amish society, Kraybill spent six months assisting federal prosecutors with the case against the Bergholz defendants and served as an expert witness during the trial. Informed by trial transcripts and his interviews of ex-Bergholz Amish, relatives of Bishop Mullet, victims of the attacks, Amish leaders, and the jury foreman, Renegade Amish delves into the factors that transformed the Bergholz Amish from a typical Amish community into one embracing revenge and retaliation.

Kraybill gives voice to the terror and pain experienced by the victims, along with the deep shame that accompanied their disfigurement—a factor that figured prominently in the decision to apply the federal hate crime law. Built on Kraybill’s deep knowledge of Amish life and his contacts within many Amish communities, Renegade Amish highlights one of the strangest and most publicized sagas in contemporary Amish history.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, History, Religion, Crime, Amish, Audiobook

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 21, 2014

Reviews

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first learned about the Bergholz barbers from a Snap Judgment episode (S9 Ep32: Bad Hair Cut) and was immediately fascinated by this story. This book is a very factual accounting of the Bergholz community, the beard cutting incidents, aftermath and trial. It is interesting, not only because this was an Amish crime against other Amish, but because the men and women were charged under the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act (although this conviction was later overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th District). I found it an intriguing but rather "dry" read.

[☼Bookish in Virginia☼ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've pondered what to write about this book and considered a number of approaches, but have finally decided to just tell you why I read this book and what I thought was interesting.

When this case was first in the news I found it a mystery. What on earth, I thought, could precipitate more than one Amish person to become so systematically violent. Amish and anti-violence are two concepts that are associated in my mind. Not Amish and terror, and Amish and violence. So as you might imagine, I was drawn to Donald Kraybill's book. Could he explain what happened. Could he shine some light on how a peaceful community, filled with well indoctrinated individuals, could cast aside their beliefs and descend into nightmarish behavior.

The answer is YES. The author systematically uses police reports, court records and interviews to show that one Amish community became the victim of a strong cult leader. A strong patriarchal figure who abused his power in a way that is reminiscent of Charles Manson and Jim Jones.

And to me there is something intrinsically interesting in how the corrupt thinking of one strong personality can spread like a contagion. So I found this book un-put-downable.
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The strength of the RENEGADE AMISH is it's objectivity. The author deals with facts and little speculation. What you'll find as a reader is an academic approach to the subject which I appreciate in that it would be all too easy to be salacious.

The weakness of the book is that it doesn't touch enough on the individuals involved. You learn about the participants but on a cold, removed level. A good portion of the participants --perpetrators and victims-- motivation remains obscure and if the author had some deeper understanding of the psychology involved he doesn't share it.

An interesting read, but the academic approach limits the insights you might gain as to how perfectly nice people can descend into madness. What you will understand perfectly is why beard cutting was chosen, in addition to the sequence of events. I feel all ready for the trials that are soon to come to court. It will be interesting to see how justice is done.

[Jamie Jones Hullinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit repetitive but a solid review of the situation. More like a long essay. Interesting and a quick read.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre series of incidents and the ensuing trial which happened close to where I grew up. I'd somehow never heard of this, though, so it was an interesting read!

[Andy Dorsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping enough read that I finished it in 48 hours. I appreciate that the author's objective recounting of the tale is interspersed with pertinent background information, philosophical and legal questions, and his own personal experience of being an expert witness at the trial. Although the question of what constitutes a religiously-motivated hate crime has the farthest-reaching impact for our society, I actually found the most interesting question to be, "At what point can a person no longer be considered Amish?"

[Leigh Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting. It was written by a man who had been a expert witness in the trial so he tells the story, then tells about the convictions, and the trial. He explains why things happened the way they did, and also explained Amish life very well. It is a quick read and does not bog down. It is mind blowing that one man can have that much control over a group of people.

[Nancy Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, great book

[Bernie Tomasso · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative study of the Amish culture

[Paige Hardesty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a textbook so is sometimes hard to push through, but the content is very interesting

[Ruth Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read but I would have liked more on the actual events and trials. What made them break off from mainstream Amish and more on what is happening with everyone now.

[Elam Zook · Rating 1 out of 5]

Krabill does the ultimate hack job here. It isn't that he doesn't know his subject, but that he is so brazen in promoting his agenda. Kraybill's agenda is to promote Amish culture. The conventional Amish narrative is ninety five percent his creation. The issues emanating from Bergholz threaten the carefully crafted image Kraybill has created. The Amish are like a product to him. Not unlike a fortune five hundred company's media spokesperson, Kraybill's job is to protect his product.
In this book, whenever he is referring to the Bergholz Amish there is no innuendo he abstains from. No biased, unsubstantiated and prejudiced hearsay he doesn't trot out. But aside from that, he uses reason and logic based on conventional mores to describe the flaws and foibles of the Bergholz Amish. What is so revealing in this is that, in all of his other works on the Amish, he never does that. Moral relativism rules the day when he is writing about the "good" Amish. He even literally uses the term "good Amish" in the book.
What makes his work so dangerous is, when it comes to the "good" Amish, there is no contradiction he won't obscure or obfuscate. The "good" Amish forgive at Nickel Mines, but they also write the judge in the beard cutting case asking him to give Sam Mullet a life sentence, and to Kraybill, this presents no conflict. I specifically asked him how he reconciles this dichotomy at a public meeting and he didn't engage the question at all.
Kraybill's bias makes it impossible to engage Amish issues. All of the issues related to the Bergholz beard cutting incidents are inextricably Amish issues. Sam's power as bishop. His followers gullible acquiescence. The quest for a pure church. The us against them mentality. The ignorance and superstition that both enabled the malaise at Bergholz and hampers a solution, these issues didn't exclusively arise at Bergholz, but are inherently issues in the larger Amish culture as well.
The terror Kraybill portrays the Amish experiencing wasn't exclusively about physically being harmed. This is evidenced in the teenaged girl running onto the scene of the crime and making demands of the perpetrators. If the perps would've been wreaking true terror on the community that girl would've more likely been quaking in fear at the furtherest corner of her closet.
The terror, shame and embarrassment wasn't exclusively about having ones hair shorn, but the understanding that these incidents revealed something was terribly wrong in the Amish world. What made the beard cutting incidents so terrifying was that they arose out of the fertile soil of the Amish communities most revered ideals. A strong authoritarian leader. A docile subservient laity. An emphasis on "holding back" and adhering to the old ways. Moving to an isolated rural local and trying to get things right this time. These ideals are sacred in the Amish world. At least they were prior to the beard cutting incidents.
The Amish tend to see the non Amish world as being where the danger lies. At Bergholz the danger arose from a strong exemplar of their most cherished ideals. That is what the terror, shame, and embarrassment were about. And to make it all worse, the Amish were at a loss to address the issues at Bergholz. Bergholz was their Achilles Heel. The disease was arising out of what they think of as the antidote.
This is where Kraybill got his cue. The Amish needed to be saved. From themselves. But scapegoating the bad Amish may not be the solution. Cutting out the cancer may not cure the patient. Just like the war on drugs didn't deter drug use, a heavy handed prosecution of the Bergholz barbers may just entrench the malaise at Bergholz. Using the government to fix or solve this intrinsically Amish problem, may be a far greater deviation from Amish norms and of much greater consequence to the rest of the Amish, than anything that happened at Bergholz.
Kraybill though, isn't plagued with doubts on where to draw the line at Bergholz. He knows who the good Amish are and who the bad ones are. He actually does his job well. He would make a very good corporate media spokesperson. I just don't think his efforts are serving the Amish well.

[Bookwoman67 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weirdly fascinating.

[Jalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reasons I liked this book
1. It was a very interesting, true (yet almost unbelievable) story, of how some "Amish" people took revenge on other Amish by cutting their beards and shaving their heads, and ended up in jail for it.
2. The author did a good job of stating the facts in an understandable way. I liked how he shared the details of what happened and then let the reader form his own opinion from those facts.
3. As someone familiar with the Amish lifestyle, I think the author painted a very accurate picture of what the Amish believe and their way of living. I also like how he explained that the Amish who did the beard-cutting weren't actually Amish or even Christians anymore - they were actually a cult.

Reasons I didn't like it
1. The one thing that would have helped me enjoy this book more is if it had gotten a little more personal with the characters. While it was a good thorough overview of everything that happened, I really didn't feel that involved with any of the characters. However there were times that I felt sorry for the victims and angry with the leader of the Bergholz barbers. I just would have liked it better if there would have been more emotion mixed with the facts. But I am not a big fan of nonfiction and I still enjoyed this book.

Recommended for:
-anyone who likes a bizarre true story
-anyone who wants to learn more about the Amish
-and of course anyone interested in the Bergholz barbers case

[Bunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received via Edelweiss in exchange for a fair review.

I do not, at all, remember this. A horrible crime, committed against an Amish community by another community. Older children attacking their parents. This is a truly awful event that doesn't even feel real, it's so horrifying.

This author could have used with a heavy handed editor, and possibly even a gentle ghost writer. The story itself is compelling enough, but this book is repetitive and poorly constructed. It doesn't need that much work. The bare facts are all you need to keep the attention going.

I really do think this is a great, quick read. Especially how the The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Act came into play. I would love to have read more about that by someone who...well. Did it better than this author.

Good, quick read.

[Vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very interesting. Having followed the story in the press, I thought I knew pretty much everything about it. The book, however, made some interesting points that I had not considered...the reason the case was tried in the manner that it was, was not because of who the perpetrators were but rather, who the victims were. Many viewed this as an internal "amish on amish" attack, but when subtracting out the fact of who the perpetrators were, it really becomes a case of an attack on people because of their religious beliefs...a protected right of every American. The perpetrators did what they did to try to shame the victims into returning to the community and repenting for leaving/disagreeing with the leader of the community. If this was not prosecuted, then it would be considered okay for a group of Jewish people to attack someone and forcibly circumcise him or a group of Catholic people to hold someone down and force Holy Communion down their throat. Thought provoking read. Don Kraybill did an excellent job of writing this book, making certain that every part was well documented and not just heresy.

[Gene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outrageous reality television shows aside, it's not often you hear the words "Amish" and "violence" in the same sentence. Yet two years ago in rural Ohio there was an amazing spree of Amish on Amish violence, when a small Amish splinter group delivered swift physically and mentally painful retribution and retaliation to the larger, mainstream Amish group for putting their noses where they didn't belong.

Part true crime story, part legal procedural and partly a tale of the First Amendment, RENEGADE AMISH will keep you glued to your seat and flipping pages trying to figure out what it means to be Amish and what it means not to be Amish and who did what to whom and why.

[Melanie Springer Mock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kraybill had interesting material to work with, but/and makes this into a fascinating read. Well researched and well written, I understood better the "Renegade Amish" about which Kraybill is writing, but also more about Amish faith and praxis. If someone wanted to learn more about the Amish in general, I would recommend this book. It also serves as a great antidote to the Amish Romances saturating Christian book markets.

[Silea · Rating 4 out of 5]

But for a very dry chapter on the legal basis for using the hate-crimes statute and expected outcome of the pending appeal, this is a well-written and engaging book. I knew very little about the attacks (other than that they'd occurred) and nothing of the aftermath before reading, and now i feel pretty solidly informed.

[R.W. Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A case study in cult worship stemming from one of the most unlikely theological inspirations. Kraybill is probably the most knowledgeable and prolific scholar of Amish culture out there, and as usual is able to elucidate the most opaque mysteries of the faith. This is a great book for anyone interested in how a community built around peace can get so invested in the hate that lives in all of us.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find this a fascinating topic, and I am willing to accept that the author is a leading authority on Amish life. However, I really wish he would have teamed up with someone who knew how to write a book. The narrative skips back and forth and between families so much that I gave up trying to figure out what happened to who when.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating story about Amish scandal, this book should have had the subtitle, BEARDGATE. Well-researched and even-handed, "Renegade Amish" shows how even the most pious can become corrupted by power.

[Laura Chambers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sad story proving that anybody can get caught up in a spiral of sin and corruption. I kind of hurried through the end of the book, because the story part was over.

I wonder how a story like this would play out in fiction.

[Wanda Nolt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story of an Amish community that allowed a bishop control their lives resulting in a group of people out of control and believed they were doing the will of God. Instead they ended up in federal prison.

[Chris Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty disturbing

[Wasayf · Rating 5 out of 5]

F