A former Catholic priest recently pleaded not guilty to murdering a beauty queen, who was also a teacher, in 1960. Using a walker and looking frail, 83-year-old John Feit appeared in Hidalgo County court earlier this month, after being accused of having suffocated and beaten to death 25-year-old Irene Garza 55 years ago. Feit was only 27 years old at the time.
State District Judge Luis Singleterry set Feit’s bond at $1 million before sending him back to custody to await his trial that could see him spend his remaining years behind bars.
Beginning March, he was sent back to Texas from Phoenix, where he had been jailed since his arrest in February this year, after prosecutors said that they had discovered new evidence against Feit. Even though the nature of the evidence has not been disclosed as yet, Feit has been long suspected of having killed Garza in 1960. According to some witnesses, Feit killed Garza impulsively after hearing her confess at a church in McAllen.
Garza, who was a second grade teacher at the time of her death, had earlier been crowned Miss South Texas. She was last seen alive while walking to Sacred Heart Catholic Church to meet with Feit, a day before Easter more than half a century ago. Five days later, her dead body was discovered face-down, wrapped in burlap, in a nearby canal. An autopsy suggested that she had been raped while unconscious before being suffocated to death.
Feit, who remains the prime suspect in Garza’s murder almost 56 years ago, said that the murder charge against him made no sense and he felt puzzled since the incident had taken place as long ago as in 1960. He said the last time he saw Garza was in the church’s rectory after he had already heard her confess. However, when the police interviewed him after Garza’s sudden disappearance, Feit is believed to have failed a series of lie detector tests.
According to Garza’s family, the church along with the police, orchestrated a cover-up since he was, at the time, a member of the clergy. Reportedly, they sent him away to a monastery right after he had killed Garza.
Garza's cousin, Lynda De La Vina, who was nine-years-old at the time, said, “We were accusing a priest that - in those days priests were infallible,” while another, Noemi Sigler, who was 10 then, said, “It was impossible for a priest to do such a deed. I mean, if you thought of it, that would be sacrilegious. … I don't know whether it was out of respect for the church or anger or fear, I have no idea. Shortly after the killing, the church transferred Feit far away to a monastery. He would be moved to other locations over time, and about three years after the killing, the church transferred Feit to Our Lady of Assumption monastery in Ava, Missouri.”
Sigler also recorded a conversation with former priest, Joseph O’Brien, at Sacred Heart, who claimed that Feit had confessed to him after killing Garza and before being sent away from the area because he was deemed “dangerous”.
Dale Tacheny, a monk at the monastery later attended by Feit, came forward 40 years after the incident because, according to media reports, the burden of guilt had become overwhelming by then.
In the 1970s, Feit returned to a regular family life, getting married and bearing children of his own. He also continued to serve as a volunteer at his church.
Ricardo Rodriguez, district attorney, told the media that he had presented his case to a grand jury, after which they voted to have Feit indicted.
“We had kept it quiet as much as we could — we sealed the indictment,” he said.
Feit’s trial comes almost 12 years after the first case against him was reopened in 2004 but a grand jury failed to have him indicted at that point.
Only 24 days before Garza’s murder, Feit had been arrested for violently attacking Maria America Guerra at another church property approximately 10 miles from McAllen. In that case, Feit pleaded no contest to misdemeanor aggravated assault, with the judge eventually finding him guilty and fining him $550 without any prison time.
Photo Credits: Worldnow.com
