•  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

The Rev. Ryan Erickson Case Study

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The Zealot

 

Bishop Raphael M. Fliss of Superior, Wisconsin ordained Erickson a priest on June 4, 2000, at St. Anne’s Church in Somerset. Erickson was the only priest ordained for the diocese that year, the Jubilee Year of the birth of Christ. At his ordination Erickson said that he saw “his ministry as a chance to pass on the values he received as a child”39Julie A. Miller, “Jubilee Celebrations Mark Top Local Church News,” Catholic Herald, December 28, 2000. and was shortly thereafter stationed at St. Patrick’s Church in Hudson, Wisconsin, a town of 6,000 about twenty miles from St. Paul, Minnesota.

 

The Rev. Peter Szleszinski was the pastor there.  Erickson developed a reputation as being “almost…pre-Vatican II.”  One priest described him as “traditionalist, conservative, head strong, and very rigid.”40Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, December 30, 2004. Others thought Erickson manifested “right wing nuttiness.”41Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, February 15, 2005.  This conservatism took the form of a pastiche of popular, pietistic American Catholicism from the 1950s, based on an emotional, Baroque spirituality of rolled eyes, tears, diatribes against non-Catholics, and a heavy emphasis on sexual sin. He wore a cassock and said Mass in Latin; he told people that contraception, abortion, and masturbation were sins.

 

Erickson denounced “lukewarm” Catholics.42Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, January 3, 2005. Children to whom he had spoken would go home and challenge their parents; not all parents were happy with what Erickson was telling the children.43Randy Furst, “The Funeral Home Murders: Police Asked Priest Hard Questions in Hudson’s Slayings,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, January 13, 2005.  Some parishioners at this parish liked Erickson very much. Helen Kasper described him as “the ultimate priest” and noticed that “he was very strict in what he wanted done. He was very faithful to his religion.”44“Parishioners Say Priest Inspired Flock,” Daily Globe, December 21, 2002, p. 2. Erickson associated with conservative families with children. They called him “Pope” and accompanied him on a pilgrimage to Rome. Parents let him stay overnight and wrestle with their boys. One family gave Erickson a 9 mm. semiautomatic pistol.45Kevin Harter, “Priest Role Gave Erickson Cover,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 16, 2005. They knew that Erickson liked guns. He wore a gun under his cassock and even wore it under his vestments at Mass.46Edward J. Defort, “Case Closed,” American Funeral Director, December 2005, p. 56.

 

Erickson, who did not like being around small children and usually avoided the parish school, nonetheless associated with a group of boys. He took them fishing; “the boys would throw the fish on the bank of the lake and Erickson would shoot the fish and make them explode.” He also liked watching R rated violent movies with the boys.47Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, December 14, 2004. A parishioner saw Erickson at a rural retreat center where Erickson was taking some boys swimming and rubbing their backs with mud, which she thought very odd. She also saw Erickson exit the rectory with a young man, who joined in a more than friendly embrace. She thought this was a “G-A-Y moment.”48Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, January 28, 2005.

Erickson became a leader at St. Patrick’s in Christ Renews His Parish, a movement that brings adults together for discussion about the Catholic faith. The adults who participated in that group tended to have children in the parish school. Erickson was in charge of sex education, and lectured the children about the gravity of sexual sins, about abortion (which is not actually a sexual sin) and most of all about masturbation. In an e-mail to the parish, he wrote: “Even Sunday Mass is not safe from the immodest dress of some devils. They come to read, give out Holy Communion, etc….looking like an advertisement. Their immodest dress says to all present: I’m easy. Please go home and masturbate to my beautiful body. The sad thing is that some do.”49Email of Ryan Erickson of November 25, 2003; Bruce Rubenstein, “The Sins of the Father,” City Pages, October 5, 2005. Erickson kept pushing the children to come to confession to him. A deacon who worked with him thought that Erickson stressed confession because he wanted “to herd the weak and vulnerable, particularly women and their children.”50Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, February 10, 2005.

 

Some conservative parents liked this emphasis on the straight and narrow. Others were put off both by Erickson’s emphasis on sexual sins and by his bizarre behavior. He would break into weeping during sermons or hold up the Host for minutes at the elevation of the Mass and cry and cry. Jean Richie, a parishioner, was at first stunned and then put off. She confronted him in the sacristy and told the sobbing Erickson, “Aren’t you overdoing it a bit? Can’t you quit crying?” He stopped immediately.51Howard Sinker, Richard Meryhew, Randy Furst, and Paul Levy, “‘Father Ryan’ Cloaked Himself in Many Faces,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 11, 2005.

 

Erickson liked being in control. He found a monsignor’s outfit and started wearing it.52Bruce Rubenstein, “The Sins of the Father,” City Pages, October 5, 2005. When the pastor Szleszinski became mysteriously ill and Howard Sinker, Richard Meryhew, Randy Furst, and Paul Levy, “‘Father Ryan’ Cloaked Himself in Many Faces,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, December 11, 2005.was admitted to a hospital, Erickson said that Szleszinski was sick “because he has an evil demon in him” and expressed the hope that if Szleszinski died, he would be made pastor.53Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Voluntary Statement of Michael Martell Swanby, February 10, 2004. In Erickson’s copy of Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine, he had underlined “Pride,” “an inordinate desire for status, for praise and reputation among others.”54Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, December 16, 2004.

 

Those parishioners who did not like Erickson complained to Bishop Fliss about his antics. Erickson e-mailed his supporters about the “continuing nonsense of gossip, rumors, hate, wrath, and pure evil” from those who were “a festering sore on the Mystical Body of Christ.” Fliss apparently thought that Erickson suffered from immature zeal, and advised Erickson to “Lower the bar.” Erickson lamented that “they think I am too strong and forceful when I preach. They want me to be a little less passionate about the Divine Master.”55Matt C. Abbott, “Late Priest’s E-mails Show Dissension, Sorrow,” Renew America, January 9, 2005. Erickson had taken a loaded gun to this meeting with Fliss.56Hudson Police Department, Supplemental Report Form, Case J-02 0477, Interview with Camilla “Cammy” J. Westerdahl, April 6, 2005. Fliss sent Erickson for yet another psychological evaluation to Dr. Nicholas Griffith.57Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Homicide Assessment.

 

Erickson sent a stream of e-mails to his supporters. He exalted the priesthood:

and the Mass:

He came down hard on all he regards as heretics:

Erickson lamented those who had left the Church:

because

He liked sentimental poetry:

Erickson wrote to his supporters of the blood of St. Januarius, the blessing of throats in St. Blaise day, the Guardian Angels, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the rosary, the scapular, the Seven Sorrows. He liberally quotes saints - St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Josemaría Escrivá, St. Francis de Sales - and writers such as Fulton Sheen and Dietrich von Hildebrand.

 

He gave spiritual direction, especially to teenage boys. After Erickson’s death police discovered in his office sheets entitled “Spiritual Direction, Who Am I?” which had been filled out by a sixteen-year-old boy. Asked to list three things that make you nervous, the boy wrote “Sinful People, Heresy, Apostasy.” When asked to list “good events,” he listed “your class, confession” and “bad events,” “Stop going to mass; stop going to confession, masturbation.”63Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, January 13, 2005.

 

Erickson was a racist. An employee of St Patrick’s told the police that Erickson “didn’t like colored people.”64Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, April 6, 2005. After his death police found these lyrics in Erickson’s handwriting (the spelling and underlining is in the original) in purple ink on a white paper bag: 

Just for a trophy, when they get back home.65Hudson Police Department, Supplemental Report Form, Case J-02 0477, December 16, 2004.

 

The Abuse

 

When Erikson was stationed at St. Patrick’s Church in Hudson, he visited St. Agnes High School and ran into Thomas Smith, the teenage boy he had met at St. Anne’s in Somerset, Wisconsin. He invited Smith to visit him in Hudson. Later Smith got into some minor trouble with the law and was supposed to be doing community service under Erickson’s supervision. Erickson gave Smith, who was then about sixteen years old, beer and 180-proof Jagermeister. He played drinking games with the boy, and the boy would lose and have to take a shot. Smith estimated he drank a twelve-pack on Friday nights and the equivalent in hard liquor on Saturday nights. Over two years Smith drank around 1200 beers and 1200 shots. At times he vomited and Erickson told him “all the college kids are going to laugh at you. You need to hold your liquor better.” Smith undressed and took a shower while Erickson watched. Smith sometimes passed out on the bed and knew nothing until the next morning.66Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, March 4, 2005.

While they were drinking, Smith and Erickson would lie on a bed as Smith confessed to masturbation, which Erickson regarded as a mortal sin although he said he did it. Erickson told Smith that “he was in orgys [sic] and would always get drunk.”67Hudson Police Department, Supplemental Report Form, Case J-02 0477, December 15, 2004.

They both wore boxers, and somehow Erickson’s hand would end up on Smith’ genitals. Erickson tried to get him to intertwine legs. Smith could remember about ten of these sexual incidents, which he thought never went as far as anal or oral intercourse, but he was frequently so drunk that he would wake up in the morning not knowing what had happened the night before. Edward Jones, a friend of Smith, noticed the change and big mood swings in Smith. Smith later became an alcoholic and found it troubling to be physically close to his girlfriend.68Hudson Police Department, Supplemental Report Form, Case J-02 0477, March 4, 2005. See also Kevin Harter, “Judge: Priest Was Funeral Home Killer,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 4, 2005. Erickson did not like Smith having a girlfriend; he tried to persuade Smith that he “would make a good priest.”69Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, March 4, 2005.

Jones was at some of these drinking sessions at the rectory, starting when he was fourteen years old. By the time he was seventeen he had “figured out that Erickson was ‘grooming’ him for more than being a good Christian.” Adam’s parents did not know about the alcohol. Erickson explained to Adam that he “just wanted it to be their ‘thing’”70Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, December 15, 2004. Jones wondered why Erickson had so many guns around, including a Beretta in his bedroom dresser drawer.71Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Supplemental Report Form, December 15, 2004. Jones also saw Erickson pointing a BB gun out of the rectory window and pretending to shoot people whom he disliked.72 Ellen O’Brien also witnessed Erickson “demonstrate holding a long gun and shoot at parishioners whom he did not like as they exited St. Patrick’s Church parking lot” (Hudson Police Department, Case J-02 0477, Homicide Assessment).

When Smith went to college he took a psychology class in which he heard a description of how abusers groom their victims; he realized that was what Erickson had done to him. In March 2003 Smith reported to the Bismarck, North Dakota, police that Erickson had given him alcohol.73“Case Closed; Erickson Blamed,” Hudson Star-Observer, October 6, 2005. They sent the report to the Hudson police on April 8, 2003, but since it seemingly concerned only giving alcohol to minors, it sat unnoticed in the Hudson police files for a year.74Randy Furst, “Inside the Hudson Murder Case,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 9, 2005.

In a letter addressed to Father Ryan, a writer apologized for having “chickened out on the ‘AND’ part of what we were talking about.”  The writer protested that “I make mistakes and mess things up but I will NOT commit a mortal sin. I will NOT break my marriage vows. I will never cross that line. Therefore, that means we can be spiritually intimate and know that it will never, ever be any more than that.”75Hudson Police Department, Supplemental Report Form, Case J-02 0477, December 16, 2004, Evidence item #19. From the context it is clear what Erickson had proposed to the writer.

 

 

 

Footnotes

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