EDINBURG (TX)
CBS/AP
December 5, 2017
[Note: See also http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2004_11_21_Egerton_StexasDA_John_Feit_8.htm]
EDINBURG, Texas — A former monk has testified that an ex-priest accused of killing a Texas woman in 1960 confessed to him three years after the killing. Dale Tacheny testified Monday in the murder trial of John Feit, now 85, who is accused of suffocating Irene Garza after she went to confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen.
An autopsy determined the teacher and former beauty queen was beaten, raped while unconscious and asphyxiated. “48 Hours” investigated the case in the 2014 episode, “The Last Confession.”
While police had interviewed hundreds of people in connection with Garza’s murder, Feit was their focus. He was the last person to see Garza. However, no charges were filed against Feit at the time. He eventually left McAllen, and the case went cold amid what many believed was a cover-up by the church.
Tacheny said Feit confessed to him in 1963, after the church sent Feit to a Missouri monastery where Tacheny worked. The former Trappist monk said Feit expressed no remorse during the confession.
Tacheny said he didn’t initially report the crime because it “was not my place to make a judgment.” The 88-year-old said he instead tried to counsel Feit to change his behavior toward women. But in 2002, Tacheny went to police in San Antonio and reported what Feit allegedly told him decades earlier.
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