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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Wed Sep 10, 2014, 06:55 PM Sep 2014

Ex-pastor gets 20-40 years in 1st wife's death

Source: Associated Press

Ex-pastor gets 20-40 years in 1st wife's death
| September 10, 2014 | Updated: September 10, 2014 4:25pm

LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — A former pastor already serving life without parole for bludgeoning his second wife to death in 2008 was sentenced Wednesday to 20 to 40 years in the 1999 death of his first wife.

Arthur "A.B." Schirmer was sentenced in Lebanon County after pleading no contest in June to third-degree murder.

Schirmer, 66, a former Methodist clergyman, had long claimed he was out for a run on April 23, 1999, when he returned home to find the body of 50-year-old Jewel Schirmer, his wife of 31 years, in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement steps. Although she had suffered a fractured skull as well as injuries to her face, body, arms and legs, the coroner made no determination as to whether her death was an accident or a homicide, and the case was closed.

Authorities reopened the investigation after Schirmer was charged in Monroe County with using a crowbar to kill his second wife, Betty, in 2008, and staging a car accident in an effort to conceal the crime. Schirmer was convicted of first-degree murder in that case and is serving life without parole.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Ex-Pa-pastor-to-be-sentenced-in-1st-wife-s-death-5745979.php

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Ex-pastor gets 20-40 years in 1st wife's death (Original Post) Judi Lynn Sep 2014 OP
For some reason, this image instantly popped into my head RufusTFirefly Sep 2014 #1
Wow. Great film. I just saw that last month for the first time! C Moon Sep 2014 #2
What is the name of the movie? Quantess Sep 2014 #3
The Night of the Hunter C Moon Sep 2014 #5
"Night of the Hunter" -- the only film legendary actor Charles Laughton directed. n/t RufusTFirefly Sep 2014 #6
Excellent. A truly haunting movie! (SPOILERS FOLLOW) RufusTFirefly Sep 2014 #4
Wow. Interesting. Now I want to see it again. C Moon Sep 2014 #7
I watch it every year Tom Ripley Sep 2014 #8

RufusTFirefly

(8,812 posts)
4. Excellent. A truly haunting movie! (SPOILERS FOLLOW)
Wed Sep 10, 2014, 08:25 PM
Sep 2014

My theory is that the film is told from the perspective of the children, which is why some of the action is unusually exaggerated. (I'm thinking of the incident in the cellar especially, but there is evidence throughout that the story is seen through a child's eyes.)

C Moon

(12,188 posts)
7. Wow. Interesting. Now I want to see it again.
Wed Sep 10, 2014, 08:27 PM
Sep 2014

I LOVED that creepy song when the kids were on the water. :O

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