Isadore's Secret: Sin, Murder, and Confession in a Northern Michigan Town

The Trial

The Trial Summer, 1919 Confession shall be bitter, inasmuch as the sin, at one time, was thought sweet. On Doomsday our black sins on the one side shall sternly accuse us of our soul-murder; on the other side stands Justice; above us the angry judge. The sinner being thus beset, how shall it then stand with him? There is nothing but that severe sentence—that awful, and above all terrible sentence. —The Nun’s Rule “not guilty.” As scheduled, on the afternoon of July 29, the defendant was brought inside the Leland courthouse and made to stand in front of Judge Mayne. There was not an inch of shoulder space in the gallery. Farmers, farm wives, shopkeepers, and community leaders were squeezed in together with nuns, witnesses, deputies, and priests. For weeks locals had been reading the newspapers and sharing gossip about the tribulations of the suspected murderess, and today would provide many their first opportunity to finally get a glimpse of her. The spectators’ heads turned and leaned in to one another when Stella stood. They first remarked upon her emaciated countenance; she was so thin, they said, that a lock on her cell door would be moot. If she so desired she could turn sideways and slip through the bars. 152 She was small, too, smaller even than they had expected, and looked so weak and haggard. Her dress hung loosely on her bony form as if it had been sewn for someone far stouter, and the once black fabric was faded to a washed-out gray. Her hair was pulled into a chignon so tight it stretched the skin of her face over each eye socket. The frightening prune-faced woman who had once ruled over the domestic affairs of Holy Rosary so completely had shriveled into a harmless raisin. What kind of threat to public safety was this? From his elevated post on the bench, it was Judge Mayne who read the charge, answering their unspoken question. “Stanislawa Lipczynska, late of the City of Manistee, Manistee County, Michigan, you have been charged with feloniously, willfully, and with malice aforethought, killing and murdering one Josephine Mezek, also known as Sister Mary John, and as Sister Mary Janina, of Isadore convent. This charge is contrary to the peace and dignity of the People of the State of Michigan. How do you so plead?” Stella opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Her two attorneys stood on either side of her, looked down at their tiny client and she up at them, but not one of the three spoke an answer to the charge that now hung in the courtroom. After several moments of silence from the officers of the court, and a crescendo of murmuring from the gallery, Judge Mayne was finally forced to answer his own question, and he entered a plea of “not guilty” for the accused. Howard Campbell, Stella’s lead attorney, then found his voice and found it mightily. “We move for a change of venue, Your Honor,” he said. “Because of the nature of the crime for which respondent is accused and because of the size of Leelanau County and its small population, a person accused as such will be unable to secure a fair and impartial trial as the law and constitution of our State contemplate. “As example of this, I submit to the court the following: During the examination of the People’s material witnesses, particularly Jacob Flees, Sister Mary Hillaria, Sister Mary Veronica, and Sister Mary Antonia, the attendance of spectators was heavy, and the testimony of said witnesses apparently pleased said spectators because of the several applauses given by the audience. “And, that the newspaper at Traverse City has been made acThe Trial 153 quainted with our various efforts on behalf of our client, as well as with the results of these, and said failures to accomplish anything for or on her behalf have been spread, at large, through newspaper articles circulated throughout the entire district. Said newspaper articles cannot but have a prejudicial effect against our client and a wholesome effect favorable to the prosecution. “Each and every effort made by respondent’s attorneys for her in Court has been met with failure. Because of the prejudice now existing in Leelanau County, Michigan, deponents herein believe that it will be impossible to secure for our client a fair and impartial trial of the crime for which she is accused, and so we now make...