Detectives, Historians Solve Murder by Priest from 1894

Local 12
February 23, 2012

http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Detectives-Historians-Solve-Murder-By-Priest-From/Zt24-WuX5EmKeJiET1kIZg.cspx

[with video]

An Irish family is thanking Cincinnati Police for helping them find peace more than a hundred years after the murder of one of their ancestors. A priest murdered Mary "Mollie" Gilmartin on a Cincinnati street in 1894. The Gilmartin family never knew the details of the murder, until Cincinnati detectives and local historians recently got involved. Local 12's Deborah Dixon tells us how the Gilmartin family finally got their answers.

The Cincinnati Enquirer headlines screamed "Ghastly.. Father O'Grady Kills.. Pursued the Girl He Had Sworn to Cherish. The girl was Mollie Gilmartin. She was sent to live with relatives here in on Chestnut Street. And near the home is where 20 year old Mollie was killed on April 25th 1894.

She was trying to start a new life without Father Dominick O'Grady, the priest from her hometown parish who left the church to marry Mollie. Her brother, a priest in Chicago, intervened and sent her to Cincinnati to live with family.

That April morning as Mollie walked to her clerking job at Pulvermachers Galvanic Belt Company on East Sixth Street. She saw a glimpse of Father O'Grady and tried to make her way back home. What happened next are in police and newspaper reports. "The lifeless body sank to the ground, face powder burned, auburn hair singed by the flame."

People on the residential street moved to hang the Father. It was police officer Robert Kelly's beat. "Heard gunshots, ran to gunfire, discovered the crowd chasing Mr O'Grady.

O'Grady was taken to Central Station, now City Hall. That's where he drank a vial of poison he had in his pocket but he survived. "This was quite a sensational event at the time."

So sensational the letters between O'Grady and Mary were published in the newspaper. But O'Grady needed Mary to write a different kind of letter. He needed her to write a letter saying nothing happened. "Wipe the slate clean. She would not do that. She still loved him."

Her funeral drew a huge crowd of Irish immigrants. "It was out of respect for this young girl murdered.. even the New York Times reported Father O'Grady's trial. He was found insane."

The Times says the verdict was unanimous...all agreed the prisoner was demented. He was sent to Longview Asylum but walked away four years later. O'Grady was eventually forgiven by the Pope and became a priest again. "I think justice needed to be served here and it wasn't."

Mollie Gilmartin is buried in the Irish part of St. Joseph Cemetery. It was an unmarked grave until a relative came over and installed a headstone last year. On the 117th anniversary of her murder there was a memorial service in Ireland. A letter to Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig said, "At long last the Gilmartin family of Ireland learned what happened. And it helped the family to know there were people who cared about Mollie while she was in Cincinnati."