Authorities Say Minister's Wife Confesses

[superconnected]

SELMER, Tenn. - The wife of a slain minister confessed to shooting him at their church parsonage, then fleeing to Alabama, where she was found the following night with their three young daughters, authorities said Friday.

Mary Winkler told investigators she shot her husband on Wednesday, Selmer Police investigator Roger Rickman said.

Rickman declined to discuss a motive for the shooting but said Winkler had been "very cooperative." She was charged Friday in Tennessee with first-degree murder, and police in Alabama said she agreed to waive extradition. Rickman expected her to be returned to Selmer during the weekend.

"To my knowledge, the children saw nothing," Rickman said. He said he wasn't sure if they knew what had happened to their father.

more ... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060324/ap_on_re_us/pastor_slain

[Ezlivin]

1. Time to send in the faith healers

Couldn't Benny Hinn or one of his ilk restore this dead man his life?

[Divine Discontent]

6. seems sorta negative

without knowing the story. it's a very sad story. as of yet, my suspicions are not warranted of what happened, but I certainly would mock him being dead when his body is a day past his last breath. I have a sense of humor, and I understand your joke, just maybe coulda waited a couple days? if this happened to my old pastor I would certainly call your remark extremely insensitive being so soon after his murder.

[Ezlivin]

15. Perhaps my response is because I'm an ex-Fundamentalist minister

who was surrounded by all sorts of fantastic claims.

Did you know that Jan Crouch of PTL claimed that she had raised a chicken from the dead? Or that her husband, Paul Crouch, had an interesting discussion of the dead being raised in front of their televisions?

It's sad that this minister was murdered by his wife, but the only reason that this murder gets the airplay that it does it that he was "good" man with a "good" family.

People are always amazed when "good" people go bad, as if their talisman failed.

[Divine Discontent]

38. lol... I can't stand the Crouch's. I'm so happy for you that you

are OUT of that type of lifestyle choice! I am a very unaccepted Christian (if you follow the tagline), and you definitely have your head on your shoulders if you're discussing the Crouch's with me. Many blessings to you as we try and take back this country from these monsters.

[rooboy]

39. Man, we HAVE to get the audio of that Benny Hinn exchange!!!

Mike Malloy, Stephanie Miller and Sam Seder could do wonders with that material! :)

[0007]

7. No doubt about! Benny Hinn's is top shelve

Perhaps this lady caught Benny with her husband?

[gauguin57]

2. OK, stop me from thinking it ...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/24/minister.slain/index.html

"Wilburn Ash, an elder at the Fourth Street Church, said Winkler was hired there in February 2005, according to the AP. He preached straight-by-the-Bible sermons, the AP reported, delighting congregants.

"Church members described Mary Winkler as a quiet, unassuming woman, the AP reported. She was a substitute teacher at the elementary school. ..."

HMMMM ... "straight-by-the-Bible" -- could this guy have been a "spare-the-rod..." kind of guy?

Creepy story.

[kurth]

26. Wives, submit to your own husbands, etc.

Betcha she submitted plenty before she got pissed off.

[Mythsaje]

3. And everyone is left thinking "huh?" n/t

[superconnected]

4. Wonder where she got the gun.

I just can't imagine a minister owning one. Maybe they do. Who knows...

[Divine Discontent]

29. true.. where'd the gun come from

sadly, a lot of these middle america and southern pastors probably have guns..


http://www.msnbc.com (on the far right)

she doesn't look like a woman in this, sorry.

[bleedingheart]

5. Okay here are the guesses (in no particular order)

1. Abusive marriage
2. Adultery on either part
3. Abusive towards kids
4. Insurance scam
5. Mental illness on her part

[superconnected]

8. insurance scam?

Does that happen often enough to be on the list?

Wouldn't she have married higher than a minister if she was in it for the money?

[bleedingheart]

10. I put that there because it is typically one of the reasons for

murdering a spouse...

[Mikimouse]

12. You left out one...

God told her to kill him because he was evil incarnate.

[bleedingheart]

18. yeah...forgot that one...

[ugarte]

13. The Devil made her do it...the Satan defense...nt

[EC]

20. My guess would be #3

look at the eyes of those kids, they look haunted...

[bmbmd]

25. Brain tumor. Temporal lobe seizure. Self-defense.

Medication reaction. Alien abduction. No use speculating.

[Lars39]

9. Are they posing in front of a funeral arrangement?

How weird.

[Imagine My Surprise]

14. Good catch!

I was wondering what was so weird about that photo.

[Imagine My Surprise]

11. Described as "perfect wife, perfect mother" --

I'm thinking she was not.

[ugarte]

16. The pressure to be perfect can be a heavy load...nt

[Debau2005]

17. Something is wrong here!

I don't mean to insult anyone's memory "yet." But you gotta wonder...was he abusive to her, or the children?

[LisaL]

22. You gotta wonder-WTF it must be his fault that he is dead?

[Debau2005]

24. That is not what I said

Perhaps I did not phrase it properly! As a child of an abusive father, I sometimes take the position that something abusive has happened in the family. If it turns out that it was a straight, no reason homicide, I will be the first to apologize. But from my experiences, there are usually underlying issues.

[progressivebydesign]

48. I think the poster was opining that there may have been abuse.

"perfect" families rarely are busted apart by a murder. I think the poster was using their own experience to relate to what might have happened. Rarely does a woman shoot her husband like that, without a reason. As statistics show, it's usually mental illness or abused wife syndrome. We'll know soon enough.

My first thought was abuse, only because I get a bit cynical when I read of a "perfect family" with a "charismatic" husband who charms everyone. It may very well be that he was really a wonderful man, and the wife snapped because of some type of mental illness or postpartum depression. But.. as when a woman disapears, the husband or boyfriend is ALWAYS the first suspect.. it's because that is statistically persuasive that she was killed by a loved one.

[Blaze Diem]

19. Guess she couldn't take it One More Day..

..we'll find out eventually what "it"was.

..Should be interesting how the christianreich handles this one...

[DURHAM D]

21. Look at the middle child - not the face of an innocent/happy

6 year old. Makes me feel sad for all of them.

[LisaL]

23. The child looks like a normal child.

There is nothing on the picture to indicate otherwise.

[atreides1]

27. We should all wait and see what comes out

Besides, what you think looks normal may not apply to what someone else thinks.

There is nothing in the picture to indicate that things are normal either.

[pnwmom]

37. Actually, I thought both older girls looked grim. Dimples, in people who

have them, have a way of exaggerating whatever smile there is (and occur even when the person is frowning). Cover up the dimples and you'll notice that the oldest girl has a sad little smile.

[ConcernedCanuk]

28. She shot him in their BEDROOM? - - deserves some pondering . .

.
.
.

From another Article:

The wife of a popular preacher has confessed to shooting her husband in the bedroom of their parsonage in Selmer, Tenn. and will be brought back to the small city to face first-degree murder charges, officials said.

/snip/

Matthew Winkler had been the minister at the Fourth Street church for about 13 months. He and his family became key parts of the community in the city of about 4,600 in southwest Tennessee near Memphis. It is a rural area near the Mississippi border with horse and cattle ranches.

MORE

and they had just recently moved there I gather

So that raises more questions in my mind

Why did they move?

And from where?

I know from personal experience that moving for a family with children is quite a serious decision -

Us kids in my family lost all our friends by moving 50 miles away when I was 14, with 3 younger siblings.

[sarcasmo]

30. The usual quote. They were a good Christian Family.

I guess this means she will get a free pass just like the women who was a good Christian but happened to Molest a teenage boy.

[oldcoot]

31. Why did the article mention her height and weight?

According to the article "Mary Winkler, who stands 5-foot-3 and weighs 120 pounds, was led into the hearing but did not respond to questions from reporters." I would like to know what relevance her height and weight has on the case. I would also like to know if the author would mention the a male murder suspect's height and weight.

[Warren Stupidity]

33. Perhaps because she is a very small woman.

He looks enormous compared to the rest of the people in that picture. I am actually surprised that she is even 5'3". I understand your point - but don't you think there is something odd about that family portrait?

[oldcoot]

36. The photo is strange

Others have commented about the one child's facial expression or have wondered if the photograph was taken at a funeral. However, one strange photograph is not complete evidence of something sinister.

[LisaL]

41. I don't think I am smiling on any pictures of myself as a child.

And both of my parents are very much alive. That photo says absolutely nothing, and whoever says otherwise, is reading into it based on the fact that she murdered her husband.

[noiretextatique]

50. aren't you making an assumption?

it might have been self-defense. the police say the know the motive, but haven't released it yet...do you know something they don't?

[Megahurtz]

32. Her husband probably ordered her off birth control

and told her he wanted more babies.:sarcasm:

[Cha]

34. "A good Christian family" is so open

to interpretation these days. Like Gandhi said.."I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ".

[oneold1-4u]

35. Ponder you may

Whatever the truth is in this one case will be known.
It of course is also a fact that whether known about or not, there are as many bad preachers among protestant churches as bad priests in the RCC! The abusers of women and children believe they can find their "secret closet" security behind the "cloth of religion", and many do!

[rooboy]

40. Satan did this.

I know that some of you will say that it wasn't satan, but that's just satan tricking you. And I know that she might say it wasn't satan, but that's just satan trying to lie his way out of it because he's a liar. And the court-appointed psychologist might say that she was suffering from some sort of disorder, but that's just satan making it look like she has a disorder.

And here endeth the lesson in fundy psychology.

[PassingFair]

42. You mean Satin? ......... n/t

[mbee]

43. There may be more to this than meets the eye - For instance I heard

on my local news here in MD that she took his lunch to him most every day at the church. I thought that was kind of odd. I could see once in a while, but every day? Something isn't right with this!

[High Plains]

44. Why does anybody give a rat's ass about this story?

Seriously.

[electron_blue]

45. I'm guessing this hits a little too close to home for a lot of people

[MODemocrat]

46. How pititul that she would rob her beautiful girls of both parents

It seems that children always pay the ultimate price for their parents' mistakes. Wonder what she was thinking, or what made her go berserk? They look like the perfect family, all of them are so nice looking. The middle girl looks just like my Granddaughter, Joanna when she was about that age. I wonder when the authorities will release her reason for shooting him? Probably protecting her defense at this time. :cry: :cry: :hug: :hug: I'm so sad for those preceious babies.

[progressivebydesign]

47. I was struck by the expresson of the middle girl...

I always look for a crack in the "perfect family" when I look at photos like these. The little girl, off from the family a bit... intense and unhappy expression. Something was wrong inside the family, whether it was from the Mom or the Dad, there is something there. You can sense it.

[sendero]

49. What I always find..

.. interesting and "amusing" for lack of a better word is the total shock of friends and relatives, especially when "Christians" are involved. I can't count how many times a "good Christian boy" has killed his girlfriend to everyone's utter shock.

How many times the neighbors talk about "what a nice Christian man" the whore killer was.

How the parishioners just know that Mary Winkler would never do such a thing.

What does it mean? I dunno, perhaps it means that people form impressions of other people based on the flimsiest veneers, and are hence surprised when the real person "speaks". Perhaps it means that some actually think a "Christian" is any less likely to commit a heinous crime than anyone else.

I also find it interesting that nobody is discussing a motive. In garden-variety murder cases, the police are all too happy to talk about one. Perhaps Ms. Winkler is mum. Or maybe the police don't want to talk about it.

[noiretextatique]

51. the police claim they know what the motive was

but they aren't talking about it yet.

[sendero]

52. Thanks...

... I scanned several articles but didn't see that. I wonder why? I could make a solid guess, and I bet most folks here could too.

[mvd]

53. I wonder if abuse was involved?

Some people will flip out when abused instead of taking lawful steps. Whatever it was, it's a tragic story.

[noiretextatique]

54. perhaps i am cynical

but i definitely suspect abuse. and it is tragic, especially for the kids.

[rocktivity]

55. The American Taliban must be disappointed

that it wasn't some liberal fanantic "activist" trying to launch a war on Christianity.

:headbang:
rocknation

[marlakay]

56. They charged her with first degree murder

Which leads me to believe the police don't think it was a last minute thing.

And why did the children go to his parents and not hers? Because of his death?? If it was her choice why didn't she pick her parents? Which makes me wonder about her former life...

Aaahhh...the mystery of it all...

My first marriage while belonging to a church that told me to submit to my husband, opened my eyes to a lot of what could have happened to her. If you asked anyone who knew me back then they would have described me as happy, sweet, friendly...and never said anything that was really going on in my house. You know...dirty laundry.

Truth was I was very unhappy and trying very hard to be the perfect christian wife and inside I hated it. I never did divorce over it either, it wasn't until he left the church and started taking drugs that I wanted my kids to have a clean life and then I made him leave.

Being a pastors wife she would have felt it even stronger. Who could she have talked to? She wouldn't want to say anything bad about him that the church would find out about. And I know if she was to go to a christian counselor or pastor (different one) they would have told her to pray or wait upon the lord he will give you strength. I know, thats why I stayed in a bad situation too long, because of the church telling me to stay even when I should have left. By the time I left he was into heavy drugs and I never should have let it get that far.

Today, I don't let anyone tell me what to do...I guess thats what happens. And although I believe in God I don't go to church because I personally believe while it helps some people it criples others.