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

This story is absolutely bonkers & I was initially excited to dive in… unfortunately, I believe a different author may have been better suited to delivering the facts in a way that made it read more like a novel vs. a set of dry facts.The story of a young nun who goes missing & is allegedly murdered in the early 1900s by the convent/rectory shared housekeeper is straight up one of the most perfectly insane, Catholic Church horror stories you want it to be—especially if you went to Catholic school. How in the world does someone make this a dry, occasionally boring subject?! I don’t know, but this author manages it.On one hand it has everything you’d expect, right down to a coverup, a couple pregnancies and every stereotypical nutty thing Catholic school & the various scandals of the past few years have highlighted. On the other, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself asking questions about the logistics of how the nun was killed and if it was really possible for it to have been the person who confessed to the crime.Why do I struggle with that? Well, she’s between 4’8”-4’10” depending on what you read. Yes, blunt force trauma would work to kill a person, but given the extent of the searches, I cannot fathom how someone so small not only killed her, but also managed to apparently bury a body—especially when the entire town is claiming to have heard singing while searching & hi, at minimum, if she died, wouldn’t the decaying remains have begun to smell absolutely terrible when the weather was hot? Somehow people ignored it? Or at least I’m not seeing comments on this.I listened to her give an interview on a podcast & let me just say the podcast was far more interesting than the book. Simply put, I’d listen to that rather than spend the money. This book had so much potential, but it was a let down.

Just finished "Isadore's Secret" and loved it. I visited Isadore while on a bike tour of Leelanau County several summers ago. I don't recall how I knew about the infamous murder case but I had a copy of the Michigan Supreme Court decision with me and made a point of visiting Holy Rosary Church. There was a summer festival at the church that weekend and my wife and I got a church tour by one of its members. I recall he was very proud of the imported stain glass windows, which were stunning. The supreme court decision merely affirmed lower court decisions rejecting Lipczynksa's (pronounced Lip-chin-ska) claim that her jailhouse confession had been forcefully coerced. What is interesting to me is that under today's law the critical evidence leading to her conviction would have been excluded before trial. While it is not illegal to use jail-mate snitches, or even to plant one as was done here, it became illegal when the sheriff wrongfully banned Lipczynska's lawyers from visiting her. This was presumably done to keep her isolated while the confession was extracted by her planted jail mate. Other evidence admitted at the trial would also not be admissible. Through various witnesses it was implied that it was during a Catholic confession that Lipczynska had first given the details of murdering the nun and where the body was buried. Not only was this testimony inadmissible hearsay and highly prejudicial, it also was the product a violation of Lipczynska's confessional privilege. Basically, the only admissible evidence would have been that (1) based on some unspecified information the nun's body was discovered in church basement, (2) the nun was the victim of a homicide, (3) Lipczynska disliked the nun, and (4) Lipczynska had the opportunity to commit the crime. Furthermore, under today's law the fact that the nun was pregnant when she was murdered was exculpatory evidence, as far as Lipczynska was concerned, and it should have been disclosed at trial because it established that someone else had a motive to commit the crime. Even though Father Andrew had an alibi, he had a motive and arguably could have had someone else commit the crime on his behalf. Nonetheless, I believe it is clear that Lipczynska committed the crime and that justice was done. Under today's law, however, this case might not have even made it to trial. You be the judge of which law provides the best justice.

I normally do not care for True Crime, but read it in 2 days. I was fascinated by the Catholic Church and how it was protected at that time. I also loved the investigation and historically how they looked at the crime. I gave it to my neighbor to read - she being only child to a sheriff and her mom being a matron of the local jail in the 40's and 50's. It took her 4 days to read it, and she kept pointing out things that I didn't even think about. Worth the historical look at the church and police departments.

Years ago I saw the play The Runner Stumbles. It was play that had me on the edge of my seat. I heard about Isadore’s Secret, about the same murder, and had to read the book. Loved it. Some might not care for the factual, documentary style of the book, but I felt the style kept the story from being too sensational. I have spent many a summer’s day in the vicinity of Isadore, now I will have to go back and look at the location with different eyes. This is a case where the truth needed no embellishment.

My father was born in Isadore/Cedar and though we did not live there, we made and make many trips to his hometown to visit family there. Four of his Aunts were Felician nuns, as well as his younger sister. My mother told me the story about Sr. Janina many years ago, however many details were omitted. It is definitely true that residents and our relatives still refer to this event as "the tragedy" and really don't want to talk about it. I was delighted to see this book was published and read it in one sitting. I found Ms. Link's attention to detail in publishing facts of this story to be impeccable. Being so familiar with the area, I actually felt transported in time while reading it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.