BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News [Buffalo NY]
January 27, 2023
By Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck
This is the seventh installment in an 18-part serial on the unsolved 1966 murder of Buffalo Diocese Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor. Read the rest of the series.
Buffalo homicide detectives took a special interest in a young reporter for the Catholic Diocese newspaper after his boss was murdered.
A day after Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor’s body was found floating in Scajaquada Creek on March 13, 1966, detectives interviewed Robert Armbruster.
He told them he was physically attracted to the priest, but had fantasized about taking an ax to his head, according to 56-year-old police reports obtained by The Buffalo News.
“He admits that he has had homosexual inclinations toward the monsignor and has had occasions when he pictured himself hitting the monsignor over the head with an ax,” stated a March 14, 1966, police report, which has never been publicly revealed until now.
No charges were ever filed against Armbruster or anyone else in the homicide of O’Connor, who was editor of the diocese’s newspaper, The Magnificat.
But he and several others emerged as suspects. Until now, that has remained a secret hidden by time and what some familiar with the case believe was a cover-up.
A Freedom of Information request filed by The Buffalo News with Buffalo Police recently flung open the case files buried in a secure warehouse, revealing all kinds of details, including the names of suspects.
But questions still remain – chiefly, who murdered the monsignor?
Was it Armbruster, an uneasy, 24-year-old New Jersey native, whom O’Connor had hired a year earlier and took under his wing, going so far as to secure him a room at an Eggertsville boarding house?
Armbruster, according to homicide files, considered O’Connor as not only his editor at the weekly diocesan newspaper, but as a father figure and friend.
They went out to dinner, sometimes worked or socialized at O’Connor’s home office and living quarters in a Buffalo convent, and, in one case, spent a night with other priests and acquaintances at a cabin in Java.
Armbruster’s statements to police and statements from others also revealed conflicting stories of when he first found out about O’Connor’s death.
He told detectives he initially learned of it on the 6 o’clock television news, about five hours after the monsignor’s body was found in the creek, according to a police report.
But the pastor of a Catholic parish in Arcade told police Armbruster had unexpectedly stopped by his rectory at about 4:45 p.m. on March 13. During the visit, Rev. James N. Connelly Jr. said he received a phone call from a fellow priest informing him of the monsignor’s death.
When the call ended, Connelly said he told Armbruster the monsignor was dead. Connelly vividly recalled the young man’s reaction.
“Bob went to pieces, shaking and wringing his hands and pacing back and forth, he said, ‘Now at a time like this, at this happening, you regret any differences that may have taken place,’ ” Connelly told detectives, adding that he was unsuccessful in trying to calm Armbruster.
Another statement given by a man who also lived at the boarding house said he was present when Armbruster received a phone call, apparently from a priest, informing him O’Connor was dead.
“The call concluded with Armbruster saying, ‘Thank you, father, for telling me.’ After the call ended, Armbruster asked [the boarder] if he knew that O’Connor was dead. [The boarder] says Armbruster appears shocked,” the report stated.
It is impossible now to explain these contradictions. Armbruster died several years ago.
But police records leave no doubt he was a suspect.
On March 17, 1966, Chief of Detectives Ralph Degenhart sent a letter asking the New York State Police to search its files for a “mug shot, record, prints and/or any pertinent information on Robert Armbruster, DOB 10/17/1941.”
That and queries to other law enforcement agencies came up empty, according to a review of the O’Connor homicide files. The FBI, in fact, determined Armbruster’s fingerprints did not match prints taken from O’Connor’s car.
The scrutiny, however, rattled Armbruster.
To his relatives and a fellow reporter at the Catholic newspaper, he made it clear he was unhappy detectives were targeting him.
Armbruster fled Buffalo within a matter of days after the murder.
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Coming Saturday: Detectives chased tips around the clock after murder
Catch up on the series: Who killed the monsignor? Exploring the murder of Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor, its investigation and its legacy
How we reported this series
Watchdog reporter Lou Michel filed a Freedom of Information Law request in January 2022 for Buffalo Police records on the unsolved 1966 murder of Buffalo Diocese Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor. He and reporter Dan Herbeck were given access to the Police Department’s box of approximately 100 reports on the case. In addition, they interviewed more than 120 people, including retired police officers who worked on the case, people who talked with the Buffalo Police homicide chief who oversaw the investigation, and relatives and acquaintances of O’Connor and of three diocese employees who were once suspects.