Neighbors Who See Stabbing Kick Ass
What Wouldn't Jesus Do?: Rev. Gerry Depano Arrested For Raping Boys After 22 Years on the Run
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 9:00 am
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5. John Andel
Before we get to the uber-creepy ways of Gerry Depano, we thought we'd start today's list off with a more palatable -- though, no less bizarre -- tale.
We're not here to argue the finer points of whether or not "demonic possession" is a "real" phenomenon or not. We're just saying that the only thing that possessed Andel last winter was of the Jameson or Jack Daniels variety.
Still, when the 24-year-old began flailing around like a lunatic at a Bible study session at the Church of God in LaGrange, Ohio, he had the room convinced that demons had taken over his body.
On January 20, Andel was sitting on the bible study session when he began kicking and punching a married couple sitting directly in front of him. As Andel continued to wail at the couple, church members grabbed him and held him to the ground as they prayed for his soul.
But once police arrived, they soon discovered that Andel wasn't suffering from any sort of religious phenomenon -- just an alcohol-induced outburst.
Even Andel's mother said that the church members' theory of a demonic possession was "ridiculous." She tried to say that her son was suffering from a seizure, which still didn't explain the fact that the her son smelled like a brewery or how he managed to leave two people bloodied and bruised while also placing a gigantic hole in the wall of the church.
Last week, Andel finally plead no contest to two counts of disorderly conduct. His 30-day jail sentence was suspended and he was ordered to pay $300 in fines.
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4. Danny O'Guin
Beware of the Baptist preacher with a name that screams "Irish-Catholic." He is not to be trusted, at least, not when his name is Danny O'Guin.
Just ask the folks at Parker Road Baptist Church in Florissant, Missouri.
Since 2006, O'Guin, who worked as the church's head pastor, has been taking advantage of his flock's kind generosity by asking members of his congregation to make him personal loans.
In most cases, O'Guin told his congregants that the loans were going to improvements on property he owned out-of-state. He often asked his donors to "keep quiet" about the loans, promising to pay them back in full.
It wasn't until members of the church began inquiring about repayment that they realized O'Guin was really just scamming them for his personal benefit.
O'Guin was supposedly using the money to pay off a series of debts. He'd often send letters to his lenders, promising payment in the near future. And whenever people started to get real antsy, he simply wrote them checks for the wrong amount, hoping the "mistake" could buy him more time.
However, one man wasn't willing to give the pastor the benefit of the doubt any longer. After O'Guin "mistakenly" wrote him a check for $1,125 on a $10,125 loan, the man demanded he rewrite him another check for the correct amount immediately.
O'Guin did. And the check bounced.
That's when the parishioner went to the feds with his complaint, only to realize he was just one of O'Guin's many victims.
Last week, a federal court finally brought numerous fraud charges against the 62-year-old preacher. If convicted, each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, and a total of $250,000 in fines.
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3. Howard Richmond
O'Guin is not the only preacher recently caught with his hand in his congregation's cookie jar.
Take the case of Howard Richmond, the 49-year-old pastor of Life Ministries, a storefront church located in Aurora, Illinois.
For the past 13 months, Aurora police have been busy investigating claims made by doctor who alleged that Richmond had swindled more than $400,000 from him between 2008 and 2009.
The doctor claimed that Richmond had approached him about giving him a loan to help buy the strip mall in which his church was located. Richmond even furnished the doctor with statements that showed he had millions of dollars in a bank account that he claimed he couldn't access because of a complicated business partnership.
Richmond promised to not only pay the doc back once he could gain access to his riches, but also claimed that the man could make a healthy return on his investment.
The doctor happily handed over a check for $11,000. Glad to be of service, he continued making Richmond loans over the following year. Every time he inquired about repayment, Richmond promised he was getting closer to accessing his cash.
Apparently, the doctor wasn't Richmond's only victim. Richmond used the same ruse on two other men, including a dentist who gave him more than $67,000.
It took investigators months to prove that Richmond had no intention of using the money for his church. And while they still don't know where the $470,000 that Richmond took in all went, they're positive it wasn't being used for what he claimed, nor did he plan on any repayment.
On Wednesday, Richmond was arrested at his home and officially charged with three felony counts of theft by deception.
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2. David Collins
While David Collins isn't the sort of "bad clergyman" we usually include on this list -- his crimes are very much tied to his life as a churchgoer. In fact, it was at his local church where Collins murdered a 14-month-old girl.
On September 3, 2009, Collins wasn't too pleased when his pastor at Thy Kingdom Come in Wheaton, Minnesota asked him to donate his washer and dryer to a couple that had just moved into their first home with their 14-month-old daughter, who'd just taken her first steps earlier that day.
Collins responded to his pastor's request to help out Sherry Hankins and her new husband, Claude Hankins, with some tough talk that quickly turned into a fist fight between Claude and himself.
Shortly after receiving a nasty black eye, Collins was ordered off church property by the pastor. But he had no intention of letting the beef go.
After walking to a friend's house nearby, Collins returned to Thy Kingdom Come with a wooden bat, which he began swinging at Claude, who blocked his blows with collapsible chairs from the church.
Sherry Hankins said that Collins threatened to kill her husband -- and the look of rage in his eye had her convinced he was serious. In an attempt to save her husband's life, Sherry also began picking up chairs and using them to try and corral Collins back outside.
But as Sherry tried to defend her husband, another churchgoer screamed out to her that her 14-month-old baby girl had been hit by one of Collins vicious swings.
Sherry immediately dropped the chair in her hands and ran to her daughter, who had been struck in the head.
As Sherry cradled the little girl in her arms, witnesses said they could hear the infant faintly crying, claiming her sobs sounded like an injured kitten's meows.
The Hankins quickly jumped in their car and rushed the child to the hospital, but it was too late. She was already dead, her skull cracked by Collins' blow.
Collins was arrested and charged with the girl's murder as well as the attempted murder of Claude.
Last week, the prosecution rested its case in Collins' murder trial. While he has admitted to accidentally murdering the Hankins' child, Collins is trying to fight charges that he intended to murder Claude.
The 51-year-old is already looking at 12 to 20 years for the unintentional murder of the Hankins' baby girl. However, he's now hoping to evade an additional 25 years in the slammer by arguing that he never intended to murder Claude, but give him a good beating.
The judge presiding over the case has yet to make a ruling.
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1. Gerry Depano
In July 1988, a 9-year-old boy told his father that Gerry Depano had been raping him every night for months.
But rather than run straight to police, the boy's father figured he'd give Depano a chance to explain himself, first.
After all, Depano was extremely close to their family. While serving as a part-time minister and playground aide at the religious school where they sent their children, Depano had also moved in with them and become a part of their family.
Later that night, however, when the boy's father approached Depano about his son's allegations, he soon realized it was all a ruse. Depano had only moved into their Seattle home so that he could be closer to his son -- only one of Depano's victims. For nearly two years, Depano had been grooming little boys at the school. He raped at least two of them, including the 9-year-old who told investigators that the assaults happened almost nightly.
Unfortunately, by the time the boy's father had called police, Depano was well on his way to the Philippines, where he often traveled to do missionary work.
For the next 22 years, the families of Depano's victims had no clue as to the sexual predator's whereabouts.
But a quick Internet search shows that Depano never gave up on his "missionary work" -- nor his manipulative ways.
While hiding out in the Philippines, Depano continued to work as a minister for the God Is Alive Christian Ministries.
The Ministries' website claims that when Depano first started attending Bible study sessions at the church, he was "the worst of 'em all" -- "a drug user and pusher, a medium/spiritist, and a mind reader." That was in 1981, when Depano was still living in Washington while making trips to the Philippines.
The site claims that Depano didn't finally "surrender himself to God" until he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Apparently, one night, he planned to take his own life, when God "intervened." "He repented and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior," the website says. The website also claims that Depano was miraculously cured of his brain tumor.
For the next two decades, Depano served as the head pastor of the God is Alive Christian Ministries, as well as the President of its Board of Directors.
Then, this year, Depano decided to return to the United States. He was living in a church in New York city, when a US Marshal's Service team responsible for tracking down fugitive sex offenders finally found him.
On May 4, they arrested the 50-year-old.
Today, Depano is finally sitting in the King County Jail, where he has been charged with three counts of rape and two counts of indecent liberties.
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