In his 1990 true crime classic, Abandoned Prayers, Olsen delivered “a riveting and deeply disturbing chronicle” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) of “Little Boy Blue”—nine-year-old Danny, found dead in a Nebraska cornfield, whose errant father, former Amish man Eli Stutzman, had a racked up a wild history of sexual profligacy, pornography, and drugs. Years before, Stutzman’s pregnant wife, Ida, had died under bizarre and suspicious circumstances. Yet Eli, shrouded by the encircling privacy of the Amish and small-town law enforcement negligence, was never charged, or even an official suspect in her death.
Gregg Olsen has long been haunted by Ida Stutzman’s shady death and the role Eli must have played in it. In THE AMISH WIFE: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free (Thomas and Mercer; January 1, 2024), Olsen returns to the Ohio Amish community where the young woman perished in a barn fire, her death deemed “natural causes.” Eli would sell up and leave town soon after, launched on the sexual odyssey that would eventually lead to Danny’s death, as well as Eli’s conviction for his roommate’s murder.
Determined to discover the truth and seek justice for Ida—and urged on by Ida’s brother—Olsen reopens the door into Eli Stutzman’s dark life of debauchery and deception. He revisits many of the witnesses that he first met and interviewed when researching Abandoned Prayers, as well as numerous new voices, discovering many facts and suspicions long held secret by the pious, closed-mouth Amish community. Olson tracks down Ida and Eli’s relatives and friends, as well as Eli’s lovers and sex partners. He finds that many in this world where families and associations are inextricably intertwined have quietly believed that Eli killed Ida, yet few are willing to publicly judge.
Returning to the investigation around Ida’s death, Olsen pokes holes in the medical postmortem. Perhaps most significantly, he delves into the questionable work of Sheriff Jim Frost, a charismatic, opportunistic lawman who lived a closeted homosexual life and may have, for a time, been Eli Stutzman’s lover. How much did Jim Frost cover up, either intentionally or subconsciously, to shield the truth about Eli and their shared sexuality at a time when small town life for gay men was confining and even dangerous? How complicit does that make Frost in the numerous deaths Eli left in his wake? Did the conspiracy of silence among the members of the Amish community indirectly allow Ida’s and the other deaths to occur?
Leaving no stone unturned and unfolding with one chilling revelation after another, THE AMISH WIFE is vintage reportage from the writer New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother calls, “one of today’s true-crime masters."