Priests and Preachers Who Murdered Members of Their Congregation

The recent releases of the Oscar-winning film Spotlight and the Netflix docu-series My Sister’s Keeper has caused quite a stir of controversy for priests and their congregations.

The films exposed areas of the priests’ personal lives they hoped would remain a secret forever. However, that is not the case for some.

Up Next: Actors Who Have Been Charged With Murder or Manslaughter

While many stay on the straight and narrow, some spiritual leaders decide to commit the ultimate sin – murder. Below is a list of eight men of the cloth that have committed murder and are now serving or have served their time in prison.

Father Gerald Robinson

A Catholic nun was killed in the chapel at Mercy Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, on April 5, 1980. She was strangled and stabbed nine times in the pattern of an inverted cross, PEOPLE reports.

However, that wasn’t all. She was found covered and stabbed an additional 22 times.

One of the first people to arrive on the scene of the crime was Father Gerald Robinson. He presided at the Mass for Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71.

After years past and DNA technology advanced, Robinson was convicted of the nun’s murder 26 years later. 

He died in prison in 2014 with his case awaiting appeal.

Pastor Matt Baker

Pastor Matt Baker was sentenced to 65 years in prison for murdering his wife in 2010. Although Baker’s wife Kari’s death was originally an apparent sleeping-pill overdose, her family found evidence to determine otherwise.

In 2006, the Baptist preacher’s wife’s death stunned his congregation in Waco, Texas. Shortly after, Kari’s family noticed that phone calls were still being made on her phone, but by a recently divorced church member with whom Baker was having an affair with while his wife was still alive.

“Yes, he told me he killed her because of me,” Vanessa Bulls testified in court. Although he maintained his innocence, the jury thought differently.

Rev. Michael Tabb

Seven weeks after Rev. Michael Tabb and his family arrived in Troup, Texas, for his new position at the First United Methodist Church in 2002, his wife Marla, 35, was beaten to death.

Investigators found researched their marriage and found prior physical and verbal altercations, his alcohol abuse and fondness for strip clubs. 

Traces of blood on his shoes and truck helped the jury convict him for her murder and he was sentenced in 2003 to 55 years in prison.

Pastor Scott Harper

On July 4, 2004, Pastor Scott Harper’s family and his friend Thad Reynolds’ family were watching fireworks together in Rome, Georgia. The following day, Harper, a Hollywood Baptist Church youth minister, stabbed Reynolds 19 times when he arrived at work.

Days later, police arrested Harper and Thad’s wife, Michelle, because they believe their alleged affair led to the murder. Michelle was sentenced to 20 years for voluntary manslaughter and burglary. After Harper agreed to testify against her, he was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 in a plea deal that spared both of them from the death penalty.

Father Ryan Erickson

In Hudson, Wisconsin, church leader Dan O’Connell discussed Father Ryan Erickson’s misdeeds with him on February 5, 2002. It was later reported that Erickson was involved with the sexual abuse of a male juvenile and provided alcohol to minors.

He showed up to the meeting with a 9 mm handgun and shot O’Connell and another man.

“I done it and they’re gonna catch me,” Erickson allegedly told a deacon.

He hung himself on December 19, 2004, before being charged or arrested for the crime.

Pastor Tracy Burleson

Pastor Tracy Burleson told police that on the night of May 18, 2010, he and his wife, Pauletta, 56, had an argument. He left to go to the store and returned home to find her shot to death. 

Prosecutors found that Burleson enlisted his son, William, to kill his stepmom in a murder-for-hire plot so they can collect on a $60,000 insurance policy.

Pastor Burleson was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison.

Pastor Edmund Lopes

Pastor Edmund Lopes told congregants that he had been redeemed after killing 28 people as a hit man in the ’80s. A reporter in Washington State wanted to chronicle his redemption story, but found Lopes had been lying. 

He was never a hit man for the mafia, but instead strangled his wife to death in 1970 and later attempted to murder his girlfriend, but she survived.

He served 12 years for those crimes, and was paroled in 1983 and skipped town. He was later jailed for three months in 1992 after the reporter’s accounts helped Illinois officials find him.

Rabbi Fred Neulander

Rabbi Fred Neulander admitted to having an affair with a member of his congregation. But, Neulander explains that his affair doesn’t mean he killed his wife of 29 years.

During his court proceedings, jurors heard from a former counselee of Neulander, Len Jenoff, that the rabbi paid him $30,000 to make his wife’s murder look like a robbery gone wrong.

After two trials, he was finally convicted of the crime in 2003 and is serving 30 years to life in prison.