Isadore's Secret author shares her research journey

Isadore, Michigan is the kind of small, northern town you would most likely drive through on your way to somewhere else. But for one Michigan woman, this small community held a deep, dark and intriguing secret.

When asked to "reveal" that secret, author Mardi Link already had one successful book under her belt. When Evil Came to Good Hart
recounts a horrific mass murder that took the lives of a Detroit family on vacation in northern Michigan. Link told a rapt audience at Friday's Local History Conference in Dearborn the book did well enough that her publisher asked whether she'd be interested in doing another. She chose a story very close to her Traverse City home.

"I live 15 miles from Isadore," she said. "This was my local history."

The shocking disappearance of Felician nun Sister Mary Junina in August of 1907, the discovery of her body a decade later and the prosecution of the woman convicted of killing her, had not been documented, except in newspaper accounts. And shortly after she started her research, Link discovered a likely explanation.

Despite the fact that the murder in question occurred more than 100 years earlier, residents of the small community refused to talk about it. Most slammed doors in her face.

"One little old lady in a very conservative, black dress said 'The evil eye be upon you if you write this story.'," Link recalled.

The sensitivity stands testament to the effect Sr. Junina's murder had on her small community. Orphaned at the age of 9 in Chicago, she lived the rest of her life in a convent. She took her vows at age 18, Link explained, having graduated 22nd out of a class of 22.

"That, more than anything else, endeared me to her," Link said, smiling.

Sr. Junina requested a mission in the country, because she so disliked city life, and was sent to northern Michigan. She joined two other nuns in educating, feeding, bathing and civilizing 125 children, with just one cookstove.

The parish was led by Father Andrew, a man with a deep love and gift for working with animals, despite his cruelty and harshness with his parishioners. Link richly detailed the priest's life in the book, including his construction of a comfortable lodge for the squirrels and his acquisition of a pet alligator.

On the day of Sr. Junina's disappearance, Fr. Andrew had gone fishing, while the sisters, who were afflicted with tuberculosis, napped. When the other two nuns awoke, Sr. Junina was gone.

"It was as if a hand had come down and plucked her away," Link said. "There was nothing left behind but her prayer book... and rosary."

The bones in the basement

While a search was not immediately launched, Fr. Andrew eventually marshaled troops from around the area, including a camp of lumbermen, to look for Sr. Junina. And as word began to seep into the media about her disappearance, so did rumors and speculation about life in the convent and rectory. Fr. Andrew and Sr. Junina, it was said, were romantically involved.

Salacious publicity prompted the church to move Fr. Andrew to another parish. One of the priests who came after him unwittingly solved the case of Sr. Junina's disappearance, by proposing that Isadore's wooden church be torn down and replaced with a new brick building. In sharing his plans at a prayer retreat, he was asked what he intended to do about the bones in the basement, Link said.

Isadore's Secret: Sin, Murder and Confession in Northern Michigan weaves the complete tale, including the arrest, apparent torture and conviction of Sr. Junina's killer. And an even darker secret came to light, one hidden by the church out of fear that it would shatter the hearts of Isadore's Catholic faithful.

The stories attached to Link's research are just as compelling as the case itself. She shared how one man, who had for years compiled information about the case, bitterly rejected her calls, but eventually provided her with a rich trove of photos. She was surprised to find someone had stolen the transcript of the murder trial, and by a 54-foot-long cache of records on the case stored at Notre Dame University.

One woman showed her a 22-volume set of booklets about the case, written by a Polish reporter. A group of Isadore residents had hired him because they didn't they'd been getting a fair shake in the media. The books contained text, as well as photographs and illustrations, a real find for any historian.

"I asked her where she found them, and she said, 'I bought them on eBay. And I bid against the Felician Motherhouse.'," Link said, pausing for a ripple of laughter. The booklets, she added, contained the only "crime scene photo," an illustration of Sr. Junina being attacked.

Epilogue

After being incarcerated for seven years, Sr. Junina's killer was paroled, under somewhat unusual circumstances, and moved to Wisconsin. Fr. Andrew died in 1964. Link has no idea what happened to Sr. Junina's remains. She may be buried in an Isadore cemetery, Link said, but there's no headstone marking her grave.

The case provided the basis for a Broadway play, The Runner Stumbles. But until now, the facts had never been presented in a factual, researched format. As she uncovered more and more horrifying details of the case, Link said, "Imagine my shock. A hundred years, and nobody had ever told this story."

Order Isadore's Secret: Sin, Murder, and Confession in a Northern Michigan at Amazon.com
Learn more about Mardi Link and her work on her Web site and blog.