#8 Mrs. Emily Strutynsky, a Ukrainian school teacher, walked into St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, pulled a gun from her dress, and killed Rev. Father Basil Stetsuk on October 7, 1923. She claimed she had to kill the priest because he was “such a bad leader of the Ukrainians”. Strutynsky’s husband, Rev. Nicholas Strutynsky, was the former priest of the church and had been driven away to a church in Pennsylvania. Strutynsky spent four years at the Kankakee State Hospital, Department of the Criminally Insane, before she slipped away on July 9, 1927 and jumped into the river.

A Look at Female Criminals of the Early 1900s

#8 Mrs. Emily Strutynsky, a Ukrainian school teacher, walked into St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, pulled a gun from her dress, and killed Rev. Father Basil Stetsuk on October 7, 1923. She claimed she had to kill the priest because he was “such a bad leader of the Ukrainians”. Strutynsky’s husband, Rev. Nicholas Strutynsky, was the former priest of the church and had been driven away to a church in Pennsylvania. Strutynsky spent four years at the Kankakee State Hospital, Department of the Criminally Insane, before she slipped away on July 9, 1927 and jumped into the river.

Places & People