Amish Criminals: Drunk Drivers and Child Molesters
by A look at five Amish crimes. From Child Molesters and Murderers to drunk drivers, the Amish communities have criminals too.
Andy Swartzentruver is an old fashioned ultra conservative Amish man who uses an outhouse. When the town of Barr Township discovered the two outhouses at the Amish school were not up to city code because the two outhouses violated the towns sewage egulations. The judge told Andy Swartzentruver too make the necessary changes to get the outhouse to city code. The amish did some minor changes to the outhouses but a month later in court the judge ruled that Andy Swartzentruver was in contempt of court for not bringing the outhouses up to city code.
Andy Swartzentruver requested that he keep his hair and clothes. The warden stated that Andy Swartzentruver would issued a dark blue jail jumpsuit instead of the orange colored jail jumpsuits worn by the rest of the prisoners. SOURCE
Image via Wikipedia
Edward Gingerich
Edward Gingerich murdered his wife in 1993 in front of his children. In the entire history of the Amish this was the first murder by a member of the Amish. He was mentally instable and stomped and beat his wife to death. After he beat her to death he took a knife and cut her abdomen open. He reached inside of her body and pulled out all of the vital organs. All of this occurring in front of their children. The complete story on the Edward Gingerich murders can be read online. Edward Gingerich was released from prison in 1998.
Jake Byler
Jake Byler was a 75 year old widower. Jake Byler began to solicit sex from a prostitue. The prostitute and her male friend convinced Jake Byler that somebody had installed hidden cameras in his house and they could get the pictures “removed off the internet” if he paid them cash. Jake Byler was scammed out of at least $67,000 .
Abner Stoltzfus and Abner King Stoltzfu
Abner Stoltzfus and Abner King Stoltzfu are not related but they were arrested for the same crime. These two Amish Man were arrested in 1998 for selling cocaine and meth to Amish youth groups who were in the phase of Amish life known as “RumSpringa”.
The cocaine and meth was bought from an outlaw motorcycle gang.
Jacob Weaver
Child rapist Jacob Weaver was sentenced to 8 years in prison and classified as a “sexual predator” after he pleaded guilty to raping a young girl over multiple years.
Image via Wikipedia
Steven David Hostetler
Steven David Hostetler was arrested for driving his Amish buggy while drunk. He had drove his horse pulled buggy into the carnival. Drank 12 beers and then police spotted him driving down the road in the buggy with no lighting. He was pulled over for suspicion of driving drunk. The police asked Steven David Hostetler if he was Amish and he replied that he was “bad Amish”.
We should not judge the Amish based on the crimes of these individual Amish Men. As with any group there will always be those individuals who will commit a crime but that is no reason to paint the entire Amish Communities in a negative light.
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Post CommentAthlyn Green
On March 25, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Very interesting article. I like your cautionary note at the end– a good reminder.
Brittany Ikeler
On April 15, 2009 at 9:45 am
first of all the crimes were all different someone that had gotten a dui should not be compared to a murderer of a child rapist but you definatley need to get your facts straight before posting an article like this. In the dui case he was not at a carnival. i know steven hostetler very well. The only reason he did not have his lights on was to try to save energy so he could ouse his lights when he was out of town and really needed them.
fossa
On May 1, 2009 at 3:14 am
I never compared being a rapist to a drunk driver.
Steven Hostetler WAS at the CARNIVAL that night according to court documents.
ACa
On January 19, 2011 at 10:18 pm
You call a man who hasn’t brought up his outhouse to city standards a criminal? What is wrong with you??