Gone to Hell: True Crimes of America's Clergy

by Randall Radic

Theft, extortion, embezzlement, mafia ties, drunk driving and even murder – these are the true stories of priests gone bad. It’s a dark and windy Easter in Toledo, Ohio when Sister Margaret is found murdered in the chapel, the victim of a Satanic ritual. Twenty years later her murderer is revealed to be the parish priest Father Gerald. Monsignor Skehan and Father Guinan embezzled 8.1 million dollars from their affluent Palm Beach, Florida, church, Guinan fleeing to Ireland and leaving Skehan to face the music. Father Fink of Texas crashed his car into a restaurant while driving drunk, injuring ten people. The civil lawsuits that ensued featured innovative – and shady – defense tactics. Radic dramatically retells these stories and many others, drawing on his personal trials as a pastor convicted of embezzlement, forgery, and fraud.

Genres: Crime, History

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Judi · Rating 3 out of 5]

After chapter 2 the book became boring. Every chapter presents the story of a Catholic priest who commits a crime involving his church. The first 5 stories cover embezzlement, a.k.a priestly entitlements which canon law somewhat permits. These 5 priests stole from collection plates, private donations or in one case, sweet-talked a parishoner into giving him money, property and finally, her estate. I wasnt wanting to read about horrific crimes or anything like that, just found it monotonous. The final story, where the priest murders a nun and it is discovered that he is really a satanist...well it came across as fiction to me, which is totally on the author, who I thought wrote like he was writing "gumshoe" works of fiction.