•  CASE STUDIES
   by Leon Podles
• Philip Anthony Magaldi
• Peter Kramer
• Donald Matthew Osgood
• Canon N.
• Clive Lynn
• Edward Donelan
  
•  MURDER CASE STUDIES
   by Leon Podles
• Joseph J. Pilger
• Michael Mack
• John Patrick Kerrigan
• Alfred J. Kunz
• Reynaldo Rivera
• Irene Garza
• Patrick Ryan
• John J. Geoghan
• Ryan Erickson

Rev. Patrick Ryan

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by Leon J. Podles

Published by the Crossland Foundation, February 19, 2008
Updated April 1, 2008
© Copyright, Crossland Foundation, 2008

 

James Harry Reyos grew up on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in New Mexico. The youngest of six children, he was a good student and was inducted into the National Honor Society. He went to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where he began drinking. In 1977 his father was injured, and Reyos returned home to help on the family ranch near Chama. Reyos later went back to college at Eastern New Mexico State University, but his drinking caused him to fail. He told bizarre stories while he was drinking, and possibly even hallucinated; in 1980 he was banned from the dorm.1Jim Henderson, “‘I Didn’t Do This,” Houston Chronicle, December 17, 2001; Howard Swindle, “Shadows of a Doubt,” Dallas Morning News, July 4, 1993.

Patrick “Paddy” Ryan, a native of Doon, Ireland, in 1949 entered St. Patrick’s College, the Pallotine seminary at Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, where he was a classmate of William Hanly.2“Authorities Probing Death of Missing Catholic Priest,” The Paris [Texas] Herald, December 28, 1981, p. 7. The superior of Irish province of the Pallottines, who attended the funeral,3“Priest Slain,” The Galveston Daily News, December 28, 1981, p. 6-A. was also named William Hanly,4In “Irish Priest Wanted for Terrorism Is Dismissed” (Washington Post, January 13, 1990), the superior of the Irish Province of the Pallotines is identified as Rev. William Hanly. but it was not made clear that they were the same person. Ryan became a missionary in East Africa for twelve years, but in 1979 showed up in the Amarillo diocese and for the first time was listed in the directory of Catholic priests in the United States. Bishop Matthiesen appointed Ryan pastor of St. William’s Church in Denver City, Texas. Ryan was well liked in the parish; the parishioners called him “saintly” and “Christ-like.”5Priest Slain,” The Galveston Daily News, December 28, 1981, p. 6-A. Matthiesen somehow couldn’t remember how Ryan ever came to be in Texas,6“When asked how it was that Ryan ended up in West Texas,  Matthiesen said he couldn’t remember” (Jordan Smith, “Who Killed Father Ryan?” Austin Chronicle, June 17, 2005). but Matthiesen had a diocese that was starved for priests, and he frequently took priests from the Jemez Springs Center of the Servants of the Paraclete.7Leon J. Podles, Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (Baltimore: Crossland Press, 2008) pp. 325-326. That Center treated priests with alcoholism and sexual misconduct issues.

 

On December 6, 1981, Ryan, age 49 (or 51 in some versions), wearing casual clothes, picked up a hitchhiker, James Reyos, 25-years-old, who was hitchhiking from Lubbock to Hobbs.  By this time Reyos was an alcoholic. He had been arrested 30 times for public intoxication and five times for drunken driving, but never for any violence.8Jordan Smith, “Who Killed Father Ryan?” Austin Chronicle, June 17, 2005.  He had just lost a job as a roustabout with Mobil because of his drinking. Ryan, introducing himself as John, took Reyos to a Tip’s Inn and began drinking with him. Reyos was a homosexual, but as an Apache he had trouble admitting this to himself.9Reyos later said, “During all that time, I always denied my homosexuality, and I didn’t want it to come out in the open (Howard Swindle, “Shadows of a Doubt,” Dallas Morning News, July 4, 1993). Ryan, however, must have picked up some signals or indications of Reyos’ orientation.

 

Ryan loaned Reyos some money, and was in other ways, Reyos said, “kind and considerate.”10“Defendant Denies He Killed Priest,” Galveston Daily News, June 9, 1983, p. D-1. They saw each other only a few times until December 20th, when Ryan asked Reyos to come over to the rectory with a family photo album that Reyos had mentioned. Ryan appeared interested in the Apaches.

 

They began drinking beer and switched to orange juice and vodka. Then, Reyos said of Ryan,

 

 

Reyos, disgusted with Ryan’s behavior, hurriedly left the rectory and left his backpack behind.

 

The next day, December 21st, Reyos got a check from his father for $750, his quarterly share of royalties from the reservation. He needed a ride to Hobbs, where his pickup truck was being held by a bail bondsman in connection with a charge against Reyos of driving with a suspended license. Although he was embarrassed by the night before, Reyos needed help and went back to the rectory to ask Ryan for a favor. Ryan immediately apologized for his actions. On the way to Hobbs with Reyos, Ryan picked up another hitchhiker, a black man about 45 years old.

 

 

 

 

Footnotes

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