Keywords by David Yonke

I spent too much time writing a lenghty blog only to lose it to the gremlins of cyberspace.
I'm not a happy camper. And I don't have time to rewrite it, so here's a Cliff Notes version:
* Check out Sunday's Blade for an article about me and my upcoming Authors! Authors! speech. Reporter Tahree Lane did a wonderful job of telling the story and photography Amy Voigt made me look presentable. I think it all worked out as a pretty good package.
* I don't care too much about the Super Bowl on Sunday but think the Patriots should win easily. I look for a close first half followed by New England pulling away in the end. I root for the Patriots because Tom Brady is a Michigan grad and I'm a Wolverine fan, although I only care about his quarterbacking, not his off-field exploits. He seems pretty boring and vain, from what I've heard.
* Check out the Souper Bowl of Caring, Inc., a project to get everybody who watches the Super Bowl to donate $1 to feed the hungry in their hometowns. The group would bring in $140 million in one day if enough people participated. The website is www.souperbowl.org.
* I'm heading to Chicago to see my daughter to celebrate her birthday -- I can't wait to see Lisa, she's such a wonderful person. I am so blessed.
* Are you ready for Lent? It starts next Wednesday. We can all start reflecting more deeply on the meaning of life and what we can do to be better persons.
That's the short version. Have a good weekend and a delightful groundhog day!
And happy birthday to my lifelong pal, Peter. Hope you have a great one!
Toledo, Ohio
Feb. 1, 2008

This is the story that The Blade ran about me before my lecture last Thursday in Toledo.

Article published February 3, 2008

Reporter wanted to tell Sister Margaret Ann's story
David Yonke's book delves into priest's trial for nun's murder

David Yonke, Blade religion editor, at his desk. He will discuss his book, Sin, Shame, & Secrets, Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theater.

By TAHREE LANE
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A certain amount of romance surrounds the idea of writing a book.

But consider this: You’ve got two months to produce 80,000 words (this article is about 1,400). There are legal proceedings to explain and hundreds of details to triple-check. Not only is the subject matter terribly dark, it’s intensely controversial.

Moreover, you live in the town where the grisly crime occurred: any mistakes, even misrepresentations, and your name is Mud.

Oh, and while writing the book, you’re doing your day job, too. About as romantic as diving into a meat grinder.

‘‘It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,’’ says David Yonke, who wrote nearly round-the-clock, handing his publisher a clean, 228-page true-crime story 57 days after the May 11, 2006, conviction of the Rev. Gerald Robinson for the murder
of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl.

Yonke will discuss the investigation of the 1980 murder that was reopened in 2004 after another nun divulged her own sexual abuse, the trial, and his writing process at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theater. He’s the first speaker of the year in the Authors! Authors! series, presented by The Blade and arranged by the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.

Sin, Shame & Secrets: The Murder of a Nun, the Conviction of a Priest, and Cover-up in the Catholic Church has sold out of its initial run of 5,000 hardcover copies; a newly-released paperback edition may be available at Thursday’s event.
From the beginning

Yonke, 53, is soft-spoken, easy-going, and sports stylish salt-and-pepper hair and beard. A 27-year-veteran of The Blade, he’s been religion editor for seven years and also regularly writes about the local music scene. His was the first of three books to be published on the sensational crime.

He began the undertaking by building a mostly-chronological outline that included a few flashbacks. The opening chapter describes the murder of the petite 71-year-old nun in the sacristy of a chapel at the former Mercy Hospital.

Sister Margaret Ann was strangled from behind, then, barely alive, laid straight out on the floor. A white linen altar cloth was folded and placed over her chest, and she was stabbed 31 times with an unusually shaped instrument, including nine times over her heart in the pattern of an upside-down cross.

Father Robinson was the main suspect in 1980, but when police and prosecutors said there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him, the case was shelved.

Yonke weaves in stories of sexual abuse of children by local priests that began surfacing in 2002. The book details a cover-up by Catholic leaders who not only looked the other way when its priests hurt people but repeatedly lied to and stymied investigators.

The church’s goal of protecting its image at all costs was abetted by several Catholic members of the Toledo police force who were friends with church officials or simply couldn’t face the possibility that a priest could be capable of such evil, the book asserts.

Adjusting his work schedule, Yonke wrote the book in the quiet den of his Sylvania home from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. four or five days a week, driving downtown to produce The Blade’s Saturday religion section in two or three 10-hour days. His wife, Janet Yonke, brought him meals and kept the household running.

When he got frazzled, he’d pick up his guitar for half an hour, then return to the task. Given some of the grisly material, particularly allegations of brutal rapes and satanic activities by groups that included priests, he sometimes couldn’t sleep.

“I did have a lot of people praying for me,” he says.
The process

Yonke admired the flow of the The Da Vinci Code, which he’d read twice. “Words have a certain pacing and rhythm, and as I was writing it, I tried to keep in mind how Dan Brown paced his book.”

He selected action verbs, deleted adjectives and adverbs, and limited the 62 chapters to about four pages each. “I purposely tried to keep the chapters short and make them so you’d want to turn to the next chapter. I just know when it’s a good place to leave it and come back.”

Helping sort out tricky passages was attorney Beth Karas, the Court TV correspondent who covered the trial, with whom Yonke had struck up a friendship. “I was on the phone with her for hours.”

His reporting began in April, 2004, with Father Robinson’s arrest and continued through the oft-postponed trial for 25 months. Yonke’s ability to research, however, was hamstrung when Judge Thomas Osowik imposed a gag order barring everyone involved in the case from speaking to the media.

He did have one ace in the hole: 300 pages from the 1980 police investigation, given to him by Dave Davison, a retired Toledo police officer who felt strongly enough about Father Robinson’s guilt and the police-church collusion to use a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the documents.

Had Yonke had the luxury of more time, he says he’d polish the writing a bit, eliminate some redundancies, and reconsider some of dialog he created, particularly for the killer in the act. Dialog is never fabricated in news stories, but in a nonfiction book such as this, adding reasonable dialog is an acceptable literary tool for authors who become expert in the case at hand.

“I was just trying to make it a good read,” he explains. “I didn’t want it to be a lot of statistics and data. Recreating dialog has to be organic. Nobody knows exactly what wording was going on. But it’s an important part of any book or any narrative. The standard, I guess, is to make it as credible as you can.”

Love of newspapers

Yonke grew up on Long Island, the third of five boys and a girl. His father ran a television sales and repair shop, his mother was a homemaker. He no longer practices the Catholicism of his childhood, which was far from rigid: his parents dropped the kids off at church on Sundays but did not attend themselves.

Like many journalists, he liked to write as a kid. “I have clips from third grade when I wrote for the school newspaper, the Bulldog’s Bark.”

He soon took heat for writing a piece predicting a bad upcoming season for the sixth-grade basketball team.

In high school, he played baseball, basketball, and played guitar in a garage band. He headed for Duke University in North Carolina in 1972.

“I majored in psychology but felt I wanted to work at a newspaper. My friends said ‘don’t do it. You work crummy hours and you don’t get paid much,’” he says. “But I did what I wanted to do. I really love working for a newspaper.”

Following graduation he landed a job at the Tampa Tribune, editing articles and laying out pages for five years. Through friends, he met Janet Culver, who had shed Toledo for Florida’s sunshine. One night, bringing her home from a date, they were robbed at gunpoint; the thief, his hand shaking, held a silver automatic pistol against Janet’s head.

“That really got me started looking for spiritual answers,” Yonke says. Deeply spiritual, he found fulfillment in conservative Protestantism.

He and Janet married in 1980. On a 1981 trip to Toledo, he took a resume to The Blade and was offered a job on the spot.

He and Janet were expecting their first child and he could make a better living at The Blade than at the Florida paper. He worked as a copy editor for nine years, an assistant city editor for two, and pop music writer for nine.

The Yonkes have raised three daughters aged 20, 24, and 26. Outside of work, he golfs, enjoys Formula One racing, serves on the boards of a local nonprofit and his church, walks his dog a mile a day, and reads (favorite authors include Philip K. Dick, Dean Koonz, and John Updike).

He’s talking to a filmmaker about the possibility of a documentary film or a television movie based on the book.

“It was just the feeling that the story needed to be told. I was really motivated for Sister Margaret Ann and all the people who have been abused,” he says. “I think it’s time for some changes to be made. They talk about transparency and openness. And I think it is time for transparency and openness.”

David Yonke will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday for the Authors! Authors! series in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theater, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd. Tickets are $10, $8 for students. Information: 419-259-5266.

Contact Tahree Lane at: tlane@theblade.com or 419-724-6075.

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Article published February 8, 2008

Story of nun's murder by priest draws 550

Author David Yonke, center, speaks with Gary and Connie Murphy of Perrysburg Township at a reception before the speech. (THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER)

By RYAN E. SMITH
BLADE STAFF WRITER

David Yonke always wanted to write a book - just not this one, not one about a Roman Catholic priest convicted in the gruesome killing a nun. But something of the journalist inside him led him forward.

"Somebody has to tell the truth. Somebody has to tell the unpleasant stories," he told an audience of about 550 people last night at an "Authors! Authors!" speech in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theater.

The series is presented by The Blade and is arranged by the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.

Mr. Yonke, 53, has written Sin, Shame & Secrets: The Murder of a Nun, the Conviction of a Priest, and Cover-up in the Catholic Church, a 228-page true-crime story about the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in Toledo. Gerald Robinson, a priest, was found guilty of killing her in 2006.

Mr. Yonke, who grew up Catholic and is now an Evangelical Christian, began the evening by saying that the book is not anti-Catholic by any means.

"This book is a factual story about one of the most amazing cases that ever happened in the United States, certainly in Toledo history," he said

"As far as I can tell it's the only time a priest has ever been convicted of killing a nun."

The controversial nature of the subject matter and concern from some family and friends were enough for there to be extra security last night, according to Rhonda Sewell, library spokesman. There were no disturbances during the speech.

Mr. Yonke, who is The Blade's religion editor, traced the route he took in producing the book and described some of the obstacles he faced, especially a gag order preventing everyone involved with the case from talking with the media.

Mr. Yonke also brought up some of the more unsettling aspects of the case, such as allegations that the slaying was a ritual murder.

Sister Margaret Ann, 71, had been strangled nearly to death, then stabbed 31 times - some of the wounds forming the shape of an inverted cross - in the sacristy of the former Mercy Hospital on Holy Saturday, 1980.

Her body was found with her undergarments pulled down around an ankle and her habit pulled up to her chest.

In answering a question from the audience, Mr. Yonke said he personally became convinced that there were too many satanic elements involved for there not to be truth in that theory.

Writing the book was a difficult journey, he said, but he felt that it was a story that needed to be told.

"This was a book that I felt had to be written. I wrote it, but the next book I'm working on is a novel," he said, "and there's no priests or nuns in the whole book."

The next speaker in the Authors! Authors! series will be longtime humanitarian and activist Marian Wright Edelman on April 16 at 7 p.m. in the same location, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd.

Contact Ryan E. Smith at: ryansmith@theblade.com or 419-724-6103.

I survived my Authors! Authors! appearance. I know I worried about it too much and spent too much time preparing for the lecture, but I am extremely pleased how everything worked out in the end.
I posted two blog entries featuring The Blade's coverage of my talk (see the 2 previous entries).
I've spoken many times about my book, including 500 or so at a Rotary Club meeting, but this one was different and I felt pressure to deliver on many fronts.
I realized that the people who were coming this night were coming specifically to hear me talk, and they paid their $10 to see me, not to attend a luncheon meeting that coincidentally featured my talk.
I spent about 20 hours preparing for a one-hour talk. I typed out almost an entire speech, word for word, then refined it, then pared it down, then outlined it, then revised the outline numerous times... And then, during the talk itself, I found that the pacing was not going right so I ended up scrapping parts of it and just winging it at time.
Which was good, because I definitely wanted to avoid doing the boring "read-from-the-printed-page" kind of speech that puts everyone to sleep. I made a point to just talk freely with some improvisation and a few jokes.
I also spent a lot of time getting a PowerPoint presentation ready for the talk. I never really use PowerPoint and although it's fairly easy to do at the basic level, I kept it simple and didn't try to do anything fancy.
But I am sure the photos added a lot to the talk
So I may have been overprepared, but it was not a waste of time. You never know what kind of questions are going to be asked from the audience and I am always looking to know more about this amazing topic.
A typical Authors! Authors! event draws 250 to 300 people, so I was thrilled to have nearly 600 for mine (The Blade said 550 but library officials said there were 600).
The biggest crowds in the series' 14 year history of the series were 1,450 for Nicholas Sparks and 1,600 for the author of The Kite Runner (can't remember his name), but I didn't expect to match up with those literary stars. Not yet anyway!
My worst-case scenario nightmare was either having an ice storm hit Toledo that night, or just general apathy about the topic and seeing only my family and close friends in the audience. I was thrilled by the actual turnout -- and so were the library folks, who paid me a decent stipend for the speech. I wanted to make sure I earned my keep for this event, and did not want the library to lose any money.
So I'm very glad how everything worked out. It was really a highlight that I will never forget. Afterward, my family and I went out to celebrate at ... Waffle House. (We went to Bob Evans but it was closed, so we went across the street to the elegant five-star Waffle House. OK, a crazy choice but it was fun.)
Now I can breathe a sigh of relief and get working on promoting the paperback, which comes out on Friday. Hey Larry King and Oprah, are you there?? Hello??
I'll be able to get back into the blogosphere now that I am no longer preoccupied with getting ready for the speech.
Toledo, Ohio
Feb. 9, 2008

Thanks to Jon Stainbrook for this photo of me speaking at the Authors! Authors! lecture Feb. 7.

I am still getting so many positive comments about my talk, I can only say thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy schedule to attend the lecture.
It was a great evening in every way. I was so worried and then everything just fell into place so perfectly, I cannot forget to give God the credit. It was beyond my abilities or control.
One law-enforcement officer familiar with the case just shook his head and said he was amazed at how high the level of interest is even today.
Obviously, this is not your typical murder mystery.

I'll be back later to post more...
Toledo, Ohio
Feb. 11, 2008

I've been getting a lot of new information about Fr. Gerald Robinson since my talk last week. It seems to go in spurts -- nothing for a while and then a lot in a short period of time.
One of the more interesting tidbits I've heard this week is from someone who knew Robinson when he was a child. This person said Fr. Jerry had an altar in his basement when he was a kid ... No word on whether there were any animal sacrifices.
She also said she was not surprised that he was convicted of murdering a nun. She said he had a mean and dangerous side to him that most people never see.
This person also said the priest's mother often scolded him not to talk about women the way he did. That jibes with what one of his cousins once told me. She said Fr. Robinson's mother used to slap his wrist and tell him not to talk about women that way -- not just when he was a teenager, but even when he was in his 40s and 50s and 60s.
* * *
I had an hourlong discussion yesterday with a couple of filmmakers about turning the book into a movie. It is still in the preliminary discussion stages, but everyone seems to think this would make a great movie. I am rewriting my "movie treatment" based on our talk yesterday and I think it is really starting to flow.
* * *

8-year-old Christine, a Ugandan orphan who has been with Watoto for 3 years. She was one of the three girls who stayed at my home. She wants to be a teacher someday.

We had three Ugandan orphans from the Watoto Children's Choir stay at our home Sunday and Monday. What amazing children! I'm going to write a column for Saturday's religion pages about these wonderful kids who were abandoned but now have lives filled with hope and love and a bright future.
* * *

Sanctus Real's new disc, "We Need Each Other," comes out today, the band's fourth for Sparrow Records. This disc is so great, I can't praise it enough. The Toledo group keeps growing as artists and musicians. It's clear that the new CD is a big artistic step forward, now all they need is a little break... They deserve everything they've got, they work so hard and are such humble and sincere guys.

Toledo, Ohio
Feb. 12, 2008

I wrote two articles this week about people saying they were abused as children by Glen Shrimplin, a former Toledo Catholic deacon and dentist who is now 73 years old and living in Florida.
Since those articles ran, I've gotten several calls from people saying they, too, were abused by Dr. Shrimplin.
One woman said she was a young girl when he abused her in the dentist chair. She said he also was grabbing his assistant while working on her teeth and one time accidentally drilled into his own finger, he was so distracted.
A man who called said his grandfather had told the parish priest, Fr. Joseph O'Brien, numerous times as far back as 1969 that Dr. Shrimplin was a child abuser. He said his grandfather warned him about Dr. Shrimplin when the caller was going to the dentist's house for a party. The caller said that when he went into the bathroom, the dentist walked in behind him and started grabbing him, then put a tennis ball inside the boy's pants and said he wanted to try to find it. The kid ran out and called his grandfather who came to pick him up.
This caller said there was another dentist who confronted Shrimplin and called him "the tooth fairy" to his face.
Another caller said he was a high school student at a spiritual retreat in Carey, Ohio, when Dr. Shrimplin molested him, telling him that "we all wear masks" and trying to get the boy to "take his mask off."
One woman called to say she was always suspicious of him because he would never let her in the room when he worked on her children's teeth.
It is always so sad to hear about such cases. This dentist appears to have had numerous victims. I've heard of at least 14 but judging from the calls I got this week, it appears there were many, many more people who were victimized.
Many of these people are still hurting. The one woman who was molested as a child said she is 50 years old and her teeth are in terrible shape but she is scared to death to go to a dentist.
These kinds of cases make me wish they would revise the statute of limitations law. This was not a one-time lapse of judgment; it appears to be the case of a serial predator. He should be facing justice, not skating because of outdated, ineffective statute of limitations laws.
* * *
P.S. My book comes out in paperback today. Hip hip hooray!

Toledo, Ohio
Feb. 15, 2008.

It's a funny thing, how music can touch your heart and mind. There is no shortage of talented musicians and songwriters, but only a handful really seem to play music that moves me.
One of these artists is Brian VanderArk. He was, or still is, I guess, the lead singer and main songwriter for the Verve Pipe, a band out of Kalamazoo/East Lansing, Michigan, whose career I covered, as a music critic, before they hit it big. The group went on to sign with RCA and sold more than 3 million albums, and its CD, "Villains," is, in my opinion, the best album of the 1990s. They are technically still together but only do a few shows a year. Meanwhile, Brian tours as a solo artist and comes to Toledo every once in a while.
He was in town yesterday for a concert at Mickey Finn's Pub and prior to that he attended private party in Toledo. I had the memorable pleasure of sitting in a living room in Old Orchard and watching him play guitar and sing.

Brian VanderArk performing in a Toledo living room for some of his younger fans, 2/16/08m

Getting to see such a great artist in an intimate setting is a wonderful experience. I'd much prefer this kind of show to a big event... the big concerts are great but there's nothing like sitting around in a living room listening to a real artist.
And I am amazed at Brian's talents as a songwriter. His lyrics are deep in meaning and poetic, he really captures life's moments with a worthy voice and insight. His vocals are perfect for his songs. And although he doesn't play lead guitar he's a very deft rhythm player who can fire off fillers and leads when he wants.
His acoustic version of "Photograph" knocked me out.
Below is a photo of Brian from his website... click here to go to it yourself, he's really worth checking out.

I also enjoyed chatting with him. I remember when the Verve Pipe was just getting started and it was fun to hang out with them before and after the show. Then when they hit it big it got crazy all around them but the band still had their heads on straight. Now that things have slowed down, business-wise, it was nice to hang out and talk in a low-key setting. Brian is a great guy and I hope his solo career really takes off. If I ever have a chance, in my dreams, I would have him do the music to a movie. His songs are very atmospheric and mood-setting.
* * *
The NASCAR season starts today. I don't watch every race but the Daytona 500 is one of the few I do try to catch. And when I get a chance, I like to go up to the Michigan International Speedway for a race. There are few things in life more exciting that seeing, and feeling, 30+ of those high-powered machines moving as one tight unit around the track, shaking the earth as they zoom past.
I like F1 racing much better but I'm not a snob about it. NASCAR drivers are very skillful and deserve respect. Sure, they don't race on the intricate tracks with all kinds of twists, turns, and braking as F1 drivers, but then they're flying along bumper to bumper and side to side at 200 mph, and that's a pretty impressive feat.
Toledo, Ohio
Feb. 17, 2008

At the beginning of 2007, I set out with one "resolution": To read the Bible straight through in a year. Well, I didn't do it in a year but a year and 6 weeks. Today I finished the Good Book from cover to cover.
It was a most remarkable thing, something that was a real blessing to me in more ways than I can describe here. But there is certainly something very special about reading the Bible straight through. I even read all the Old Testament names in the "begat" chapters, making sure I didn't skip a single word.
The version I read was "The One Year Chronological Bible: New Living Translation."
I had a very nice daily routine, reading about 15 to 30 minutes every morning. I'd get a cup of coffee, turn on the TV to the HD Theater channel and its "Sunrise Earth" program -- with low or no sound, the show is one hour of uninterrupted footage of the sunrise from different parts of the world. No narration or commercials, only ambient sound.
Each morning I'd wonder, where are we going to read the Bible today? One day it would be an Alaskan plains, the next day a park in China, the next day an Amazon rain forest.
My dog(s) would sit beside me or at my feet as I read. When we watched my daughter's dog, Lulu, she always climbed onto my legs and stretched out there while I read.
This has become such a blessed time of day that I want to continue the morning routine in some fashion. I'm not sure whether I'll start the Bible again, or read other inspirational works. But I'm glad to have kept a resolution and I know it was a blessing in many ways. Even if it did take me a little longer than planned.
I encourage anyone out there who is thinking about doing this to go ahead and give it a try. After a few weeks you'll know if it's something you really want to follow through with. And you don't have to wait for Jan. 1, you can start any day of the year.
Sylvania, Ohio
Feb. 18, 2007

Hello from St. Meinrad, Indiana, and the Archabbey of St. Meinrad. I am here to write an article about the monks of St. Meinrad and the Toledoans who are serving here.
It is a most remarkable place... Hard to describe in a way because it is such a big topic. But I will be writing about it for the March 9 paper.
Today, St. Meinrad was hit with an ice storm. Everything is covered with a few inches of ice. I am so glad I did not have to drive anywhere. I just went out to check on my car and it is covered with about an inch thick coating of ice. I don't know if I could open the car doors without breaking the handles. It's supposed to warm up tomorrow and melt the ice, so I'm hoping the weather forecasters are right.
I stood outside a moment ago and the entire abbey is quiet except for the occasional crack of a tree limb breaking under the weight of the ice. You hear the groan of the limb, the c-rrrr-ack of the branch, and then hear it fall to the ground. About 500 houses in Evansville, Ind., lost power due to ice causing the power lines to snap.
It's an eerie sight. But my visit to this place has been amazing. I'm looking forward to writing the articles about St. Meinrad. I've never seen anything like it. Tonight I had the rare pleasure of dining in the monks' refectory.
They eat in silence, as a reader reads for the entire meal. Afterward, the monks chat briefly and then observe an evening of silence.
I do feel a holy presence here, unlike anything I've experienced before.
I just wanted to check in with you and let you know where I am and why I have not been blogging. I'll be back home tomorrow night and will catch up further.
Thanks and God bless from the holy ground of St. Meinrad Archabbey.
St. Meinrad, Ind.
Feb. 21, 2008

I have a desk calendar of New Yorker cartoons and will be posting some of the funnier ones as they come up on the calendar. There's a certain style and sophistication to the New Yorker humor and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do...

I'm back on WBGU-FM (88.1)'s "Dead Air" show from 8 to 10 p.m. tonight to talk about the book. I was on shortly after the book came out in hardcover and the hosts had asked for a return engagement. With the paperback's release, it was time to head back to BGSU.
You can tune in on the web if you can't get it over the air.
Click here to get to the online webcast.
Be sure to email or call in during the show!
Sylvania, Ohio
Feb. 24, 2008

A view of St. Meinrad Church