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The more things change, the more they remain the same
Plowing through some of the detritus from the old-book shop I ran for a decade starting in 1993, I ran across a poem that I'd clipped out of the paper and stuck on the shop wall.
Evocative as the poem is, I could not recall the murder that inspired it, but thanks to the miracle of web searching, I recovered this article, which I am reproducing here in the hope that someone still remembers. Emphasis added.
BALTIMORE -- Violent crime, so commonplace on the streets of urban America, crossed a sacred line recently in a small convent in Baltimore. In its wake, a nun is dead, a city is shocked, and women religious working in big cities throughout the country are refusing to be afraid.
Sister MaryAnn Glinka, superior of the Franciscan Sisters of Baltimore, was discovered dead in the early morning of March 19 in the front hallway of her convent. Her hands and feet were bound. She had been strangled and reportedly sexually assaulted.
In Baltimore, with a numbing record of 335 murders committed last year, the death of the 51-year-old nun was a wake-up call. "This crime strikes at the heart of so many values in our community we do hold sacred," said Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, who prayed with the nuns at the convent. "Certain crimes carry with them very heavy symbolism."
Several days after her death, about 300 people gathered for a candlelight vigil. Through silence and prayer, they tried to make sense of it all. "Is anyone safe?" someone whispered as the group, with candles held high, processed slowly up to the motherhouse.
Apparently, Glinka had interrupted a burglary in progress. Cash and credit cards were missing and several rooms had been ransacked. According to police, the intruder entered through the library, where a broken door and window were discovered.
Less than two days later, a suspect, Melvin Lorenzo Jones, 34, was arrested and held without bail. He had a previous arrest record that included a manslaughter conviction. Several years ago, he had done some painting work at the convent.
Sister MaryAnn's murder inspired this poem:
More than fourteen years have passed, and what has changed? The dispassionate Mr. Schmoke has been replaced by the blatherskite O'Malley, who won election on a promise to reduce the annual murder rate to a mere 175 victims. A promise he never came near fulfilling, even assuming that 175 murders are acceptable as the "cost of doing business."
O'Malley has now weaseled his way to the Governor's mansion, in part on a platform that opposes the death penalty, disarms the common citizen, and grants full legal rights to illegal invaders from other countries.
Along the way, we saw a horrific murder-by-decapitation of three children, the offspring of one illegal alien killed by another. Mr. O'Malley actually showed up at the crime scene for a photo-op, in what remains perhaps the most craven act of his political career.
O'Malley has been replaced at City Hall by the unimpressive Sheila Dixon, who appears to have won actual election to the office, in part on a platform that promises to hire more police officers, even as the city prosecutor's office remains unable to punish as many as ten percent of those now arrested. After a statistically insignificant dip in the number of murders under O'Malley, that number has begun rising again, promising to top 300 victims this year, even as emergency trauma care has improved significantly and the number of city residents continues a slow downward spiral.
Can there be TWO "Melvin Lorenzo Joneses" in this city, of approximately the same age? Last year, a convicted sex offender bearing that name assaulted and murdered eleven-year-old Irvin J. Harris.
The ages of the two Joneses don't quite match, as reported by the paper. Glinka's killer was reportedly 34 years old in 1993; Irvin Harris' murderer is reported to be 53. The difference between 1993 and 2007 is fourteen years, so if both reported ages are correct, an incredible coincidence has occurred. Sister Glinka's killer was sentenced to "life" in prison in 1993, and may have been eligible for parole by now. When he killed Glinka, Jones had been released only months earlier from a NC prison, having served out a term for manslaughter.
I am still attempting to connect the dots here, and will update this report as I learn more. God knows, I would not want to accuse one murderer/rapist of the crimes that should be attributed to another.