Ex Priest Charged with 1960 Texas Murder Has Missouri Ties

KMOX
February 15, 2016

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2016/02/15/ex-priest-charged-with-1960-texas-murder-has-missouri-ties/

Getty Images, photo by James Cotier

An ex priest, John Feit faces murder charges from a 1960 Texas case, and he has ties to St. Louis.

Last week, Feit was charged with killing Irene Garza. Evidence linked him to the case years ago, but the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP’s David Clohessy, says he was moved to St. Louis and Ava Missouri.

Clohessy says “It’s going to be tough for prosecutors to resolve a 56 year old murder case. Every single victim, or witness, or whistleblower, or anybody who was hurt by Father Feit or who might have information about his crimes really needs to come forward. It’s possible that Father Feit might have hurt a woman while he was here in St. Louis.”

Feit also pleaded no contest to assaulting another young woman in Texas, just days before Irene Garza was killed.

A former monk, says Feit confessed to the murder during counseling sessions in the 1960’s, after being sent to an Ava Missouri Monastery, following the murder.

Clohessy wants Archbishop Robert Carlson to make this story public so anyone who may have had contact with John Feit to come forward.