Number 8 Christopher Gattis A Virginia youth pastor was charged with
triple murder in 2017, following the Thanksgiving slaying of his wife, stepdaughter and the latter’s
boyfriend. The four of them lived together in the same home, in Chester, but 58-year-old pastor
Christopher Gattis didn’t want the couple, named as Candice Kunze and her boyfriend Andrew Buthorn,
staying for long. His reluctance led to multiple arguments between him and the pair,
both in their 30s. The man’s wife, 58-year-old Jeanett, had become so concerned that Gattis,
who worked at Grace Lutheran Church, would violently lash out, that she’d asked his nephew
to hide a gun for fear that he might use it against them. Then, on Thanksgiving night,
as the family was playing a board game, Gattis walked into the kitchen and opened fire on them.
The two women were shot in the house, while Buthorn was gunned down in the front yard.
Following his arrest, Gattis told the police “they all came after me” in spite of the fact that all
three of the victims had died of gunshots to the back. Gattis eventually pleaded guilty to murder
and was sentenced to 58 years in prison. Number 7 Travis Clark
On September the 30th of 2020, a passerby noticed that the lights in the Saints Peter
and Paul Roman Catholic Church, in Pearl River, Louisiana, were still on after hours.
The witness approached the church and saw that the priest, identified as Travis Clark, was half-naked
on the altar having relations with two women clad in corsets and high heels. They were later named
as dominatrices Mindy Lynn Dixon, and Melissa Kamon Cheng, aged 41 and 28, respectively. The
trio were recording the scene with a cell phone and tripod-mounted camera. Law enforcement were
called to the church and arrested Clark along with the two dominatrices on charges of obscenity as
the acts in which they’d engaged had occurred in a “place open to the public view.” Aside from the
recording devices, the police confiscated adult toys and stage lights from the scene. Further
investigation revealed that Dixon had announced the upcoming role-playing rendezvous on social
media. The woman, from Kent, Washington, posted that she was traveling to the New Orleans area to
“defile a house of God with another dominatrix”. Clark was suspended from the archdiocese following
his arrest and a Vatican-headed probe was launched in the aftermath. The trio was bonded
out and their charges were eventually changed to institutional vandalism, a felony, in March
of 2021. If convicted, the trio faced to up to two years in prison, with or without hard labor,
and a fine of not more than $1,000 or both. Number 6 Joseph McLoone
A former pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in
October of 2021 to two charges of mismanaging money. 58-year-old Joseph McLoone’s illegal
activity had started in the late fall of 2011 when, during his first All Souls holiday as pastor
of the church, he begun depositing donations into an account named St. Joseph’s Activity Account. It
was off the parish’s books and hence not subjected to the review of the archdiocese or its financial
council, meaning that McLoone had free reign over monetary contributions from weddings, funerals,
second collections and other sources. Over the course of seven years he stole nearly $100,000 and
used the funds for personal interests. They included luxury accommodations, travel and dining.
Even though he’d officially taken a vow of celibacy, McLoone spent a portion of the funds
on men whom he met through various dating apps and with whom he was having intimate relationships. He
made 10 deposits, in 2018, to an inmate at a New York correctional facility with whom
he’d become acquainted on Grindr. McLoone had made payments totaling $1,720, in previous years,
to other men that he’d connected with on the app. His unchecked spending was eventually
discovered by the authorities and he was arrested in 2019. Following his guilty plea,
he was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay over $30,000 in restitution,
in addition to writing apology letters and performing hundreds of hours of community service.
Number 5 Mariam Mbula
London woman Mariam Mbula was a pastor at the Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church,
also known as SPAC Nation, founded by Tobi Adegboyega, in 2008. In the late 2010s,
the church was praised by the media, law enforcement and local government for helping
young people abandon gangs and turn to faith. The church enjoyed some success by using ex-gang
members to show their churchgoers the consequences of a criminal lifestyle. It attracted younger
members through music, such as its Hope Dealers rap group, and by promoting a “designer esthetic”.
It involved its pastors donning designer clothing and accessories, living in luxurious homes
or driving around in high-end vehicles, some of which had the word “pastor” stylized on
their license plates. SPAC Nation steadily grew in popularity and influence with one of its pastors,
Enrique Uwadiae, listed as one of “London's Most Influential People” by the Evening Standard
in October of 2019. Mbula had also particularly captivated the public through her story about
turning her life around after being jailed for fraud, in her 20s, while she was pregnant. When
the metropolitan police started investigating the church, in November of 2019, they discovered that
SPAC Nation operated “like a cult” by pressuring vulnerable young people into donating everything
they had to the church. They were asked to take out loans, donate blood and make all matter of
personal sacrifices in order to provide “seed” for the church, an internal phrase which meant raising
money for it. "I don’t care what you guys have to do to raise your seed - you’re going to raise it"
church founder Adegboyega was quoted as saying at one point. There were also allegations of
teenagers being pressured into having relations with older church members as well as them being
left vulnerable for exploitation and abuse at the safe houses ran by SPAC Nation. Further
investigation into Mbula revealed that the pastor, then in her early 30s, had at least 13 convictions
for 34 offences, 27 of which were for fraud and dishonesty. She’d been jailed in the UK, Belgium
and Spain while also being accused of heading a criminal gang in Italy which targeted boutiques
through debit card scams. Testimonies from her many victims and a deeper examination of
Mbula’s criminal activity were part of a BBC Three documentary called Catch Her If You Can. As
of June 2022, SPAC Nation was forced to shut down after being found insolvent but the investigation
into its nefarious affairs continued. Number 4 John Bernard Feit
On April the 16th of 1960, Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen Irene Garza disappeared after
last being seen heading to confession at a church in McAllen. Following a massive volunteer search,
the 26-year-old’s body was discovered, five days later, in a canal of the Rio Grande Valley.
She’d been beaten, abused while unconscious and strangled to death. The ensuing investigation was
complicated by the fact that most of the evidence from her body had been washed away in the canal.
Father John Bernard Feit, aged 27, eventually became a suspect in Garza’s violent killing as
he’d been the last person to have seen her, while taking her confession. Fellow priests had noticed
scratch marks on his arms after midnight mass and also noted the irregularity of him taking the
young woman’s confession in the church rectory. Other attendees claimed that his confession line
had moved slowly on the night, as he’d been in and out of the sanctuary. Feit blamed his absence on
breaking his glasses and explained the scratches by claiming he’d forgotten his keys and had to
climb to the second floor of his house. McAllen police deemed that he’d passed the polygraph
but the results were later deemed inconclusive. Feit subsequently confessed to the killing while
at a monastery in Missouri, but a monk named Dale Tacheny initially didn’t disclose the information.
In the 1970s, Feit left the priesthood and moved to Arizona, got married and had three children.
The investigation into Garza’s death stagnated for decades but was reopened
in 2014. A reexamination of the evidence led to 83-year-old Feit’s arrest in Scottsdale, Arizona,
in February of 2016. Tacheny testified against him in the trial that followed and the former priest,
who at the time suffered from kidney and bladder cancer, was ultimately convicted of
Garza’s murder. Prosecutors asked for a 57-year sentence, symbolic of how much time had passed
since her death. Feit was eventually given life in prison and, on February the 12th of 2020,
passed away from natural causes. Number 3 Kenneth Allen Keith
Kentucky couple Michael and Angela Hockensmith, both in their 30s, were gunned down at their pawn
shop in Danville, on the morning of September the 20th of 2013. Killed alongside them was
60-year-old gold dealer Daniel Smith, a regular at the ABC Gold, Games and More business they
co-owned. The couple’s children were inside the store but they were unharmed and called 911 after
the intruder had fled. The Hockensmiths’ son witnessed the shooting and described the gunman
as being heavyset and wearing a fake beard. Within a few days, police established 48-year-old Kenneth
Allen Keith, a pastor at a local church, as a person of interest in the triple murder.
Keith used to own part of the pawnshop and Michael was his store manager before the couple became
partners with the other co-owner. The pastor operated another gold business and reportedly held
a grudge against the Hockensmiths for choosing to sell to Smith over him. Keith’s alibi of having
gone to the Veterans Affairs hospital at the time of the murders was swiftly dismantled
while a briefcase carrying roughly $40,000, taken from Smith during the incident, was also traced
back to him. His search history included how to attach fake beards, how to bury money with GPS
coordinates and background checks on the victims. Keith initially maintained his innocence but,
a few months before his trial in August of 2017, pleaded guilty to the triple murder
for which he was sentenced to life in prison. Today's topic was requested by Butterfly39.
If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about subscribe & let us know in the
comments section below. Number 2 James Flanders
In October of 2011, Florida woman Marie Carlson was reported missing after she’d
sent loved ones a mysterious message claiming she was leaving Fort Walton Beach. Her car was
subsequently located at the airport, but there was no indication that she’d boarded a flight.
Prior to her disappearance, 37-year-old Carlson had had a newborn daughter with James Flanders.
She was in a polygamous relationship with the man, a pastor at Calvary Emerald Coast Church, and his
wife, Tanya. The trio had been living together and, upon learning about the secret arrangement,
law enforcement interviewed Flanders as a person of interest. He claimed to have left the house
on the evening of October the 17th, maintaining that Carlson was already gone by the time he’d
returned. Tanya had reportedly been out with the newborn around the same period. Flanders’ story
was regarded as suspicious because Carlson still had money in her bank account and her belongings
were in the home. There was no body, however, and the evidence was insufficient for charges to be
brought against the pastor. Roughly three months after Carlson’s disappearance, he moved to Arizona
with Tanya and the baby, subsequently filing for termination of the mother’s parental rights.
A break in the case came after it had gained national attention from being featured on the
television show “Cold Justice” in April of 2015. Carlson was arrested and brought back to Florida
on second-degree murder charges. He eventually confessed to killing Carlson, which he claimed was
an accident, in favor of the lighter manslaughter charge. Flanders maintained that he’d been arguing
with her over how to raise their daughter but, as tensions escalated, he bear-hugged the woman
and didn’t let go until she stopped breathing. Flanders led the police to the body, which he’d
buried in his backyard. In July of 2016, he was given the maximum prison sentence of 15 years.
Number 1 Clarence Smith, Jr. In 2020, an investigation into a charity
operation headed by a Chicago minister revealed that he’d grossly misused funds meant to fuel
a food program for underprivileged children and adults. 45-year-old Reverend Clarence Smith Jr,
of The New Life Impact Church, was a sponsor of the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
Court documents indicated that the church’s role was to provide nutritious snacks
and meals to children, the elderly and those with disabilities, for which the organization would be
reimbursed by the state of Illinois. Investigators found that, starting from October of 2015,
Smith had begun over-reporting the number of people his church had helped,
billing the state for $1 million, which was paid in two checks the following year. The reverend
deposited the money into the church’s account and then wrote checks or withdrew cash for expenses
that had nothing to do with the food program or other charity endeavors. They included $142,000
which Smith used to buy a 2015 Bentley Flying Spur luxury sedan for himself. He then tried to cover
up his illicit spending by telling the Illinois Board of Education that the records of the
people his church had presumably helped had been destroyed in a flood. As of the latest information
available on the matter, Smith pleaded not guilty to four counts of fraud in US District Court.
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