CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. – A legal memorandum brief filed by defense attorneys for Richard Allen who is accused of murdering Abigail Williams and Liberty German has drawn strong responses from Heathen leaders.
The 136-page filing is unusual as it includes the type of information that would normally be presented at trial, not in a filing requesting that a search warrant and any evidence collected as a result be deemed illegal.
Carroll County courthouse in Delphi [Public Domain]
In the memorandum, the defense team alleges that the law enforcement team investigating the case ignored leads that point to members of a group are Odinists who the defense believes committed the crimes as some sort of ritual sacrifice.
The filing also alleges that law enforcement deliberately withheld crucial information from the judge when seeking the search warrant that was executed last year on Allen’s home, and has continued to withhold information gathered that should have been included in the discovery files released to the defense.
The idea that members of a Pagan cult committed the murders as a ritual sacrifice has incensed Heathens.
Heathen Against Hate
Robert Schreiwer issued the following statement on his personal Facebook page:
Dear fellow inclusive Heathens:
This article referring to a ritualistic human sacrifice in an Odinist context could result in the public conflating the “a pagan Norse religion” with any or all of the Heathen denominations.
Let me be clear: Odinism is not my religion. It is, quite literally, an toxic, henotheistic (nearly to the point of dismissing the other deities completely), racist construct established in the prison system by Danish Nazi, Else Christensen. It is the most rapidly growing religion in the US prison system, where the Norse god, Odin, is used by racists in attempt to advance the causes of white supremacy.
This act, though, goes beyond even the actions of the most ardent Odinist racists whom I have ever encountered. This argument is being laid out by the defense, so the claim might well be spurious.
Heathenry consists of many diverse traditions that are related primarily through roots or relationships with the Germanic deities. This includes traditions based in Norse, Anglo-Saxon, German, and, in the case of Urglaawe (my religion), Pennsylvania Dutch cultures.
On behalf of Urglaawe, please allow me to soundly condemn the crimes that are cited in this article. I mean, ritual human sacrifice? Really? I almost thought I was reading an April Fool’s Day issue of “The Onion” when I saw it, but, no. Sadly, extremism ever inching forward is the evolution of some of the fringe, alt-right groups in our society, and the defense blaming the murders on Odinists is an indicator that a jury might believe it based on the existing reputation of Odinism.
It is imperative that the rest of us stand firm in our faiths and work to educate the public about what Heathenry is and is not.
The Troth also issued an extended statement on their website late yesterday evening titled, “The Troth responds to ‘Odinist Ritual’ defense in Indiana murder case.” The statement begins with:
We are appalled that in the year 2023, Pagans have to go on the record to condemn human sacrifice. It is condemned. Resoundingly condemned. Hasn’t been done in thousands of years and no one is yearning for the halcyon days of human sacrifice. It was wrong then, it is wrong now, it will remain wrong.
But, somehow, here we are again.
In this year, with the events at Charlottesville and January 6th burned in our country’s memory, we would still have to come out once again and say that white nationalism in all its forms is wrong. It is genocidal. It is the very ideology that motivated the Holocaust and to this day provides the animating force behind many of the terror attacks we see on the news–from the massacre of children at Utøya, the merciless killing of Muslims in Christchurch, Sikhs in Oak Creek, Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue and African-American Christians in Charleston. And that’s to say nothing of the hundreds of anti-semitic, racist, Islamophobic, transphobic, homophobic and xenophobic threats, grave desecrations, vandalisms and arsons that take place every single year.
And yet, here we are again.
We are here because after a horrific murder in 2017, the defendant’s attorneys in that murder came up with the idea that the victims were “sacrificed” in some kind of Odinist ritual. The details are so macabre as to seem like a work of pure fiction. But that is the defense as it stands. And it is yet to be seen whether or not this motion has any merits in a court of law. A judge will hear this motion and make a ruling on it. It will be in the official court records of the case.
That’s only the immediate reason why we are here.
The statement also includes a reaction by Lauren Crow, president and CEO of The Troth:
The “Odinism defense” employed by Richard Allen’s attorneys further proves that White Nationalism and bigotry are deadly poisons regardless of their theological framework.
Hate destroys the safety, peace, and stability of everyone and everything it touches. Those who feel this is a zero-sum game, where only their ideas, viewpoints, and beliefs can exist, are directly responsible for increased violence against religious, gender, sexual, and racial minorities.
Sadly, in this case, their hate could interfere with pursuing justice for Abigail and Liberty’s families.
The statement continues with a focus on past sensational and eye-popping headlines that have led to panic when it comes to Pagan practices.
This isn’t the first time Pagans around the world have had to weather a storm generated by sensational headlines. While some (like the Satanic Panic of the 80’s) were surely a bugbear created by a desperate media, the headlines about white nationalist groups claiming Paganism is a seemingly endless drum beat.
It feels hopeless. Everything they do to destroy communities makes the front page. The humble work we do to help communities barely makes the variety section. But there is hope in this: there is hope in our collective feeling “that’s enough.”
Earlier this month a coalition of UK Pagans stood up to Folkish organizing. They stood up to the bullying, the cries of censorship, and they said “that’s enough.” No more. No further. And thousands of Pagans worldwide joined them. Worldwide unity of purpose to draw the line simply and clearly and say, altogether:
That’s enough.
Never again. Never again a Holocaust. Never again another white supremacist massacre. Never again another attack on the peace of a community by Folkish organizing. Never again another sensational headline made plausible by white nationalist rhetoric in our spaces.
Let’s never be here again.
The statement then offers options for action that can be taken to help educate and guide both members of the Heathen community and others seeking guidance and help.
We want to end here on what you can do. You, the Heathen who is tired of seeing this and who wants to make a difference. You can. You can do it today, in fact.
In-Reach Programs are in desperate need of volunteers for everything from answering the letters we get, the emails from overwhelmed chaplains who just want to do their best to serve the people in their care, and the in-person visitations to help conduct rituals, connect people to the outside world and give a sense of stability and comfort to inmates who want to do the right thing and want a Heathenry free from white nationalism.
If you feel so motivated but don’t know where to start please contact The Troth’s In-Reach Coordinator on the Contact Page.
Whether the filing in the Delphi murders case has any real impact on the case or results in the search warrant and the evidence collected being invalidated remains to be seen. What is clear is that segments of the inclusive Heathen community have no intention of allowing such claims to go unchallenged.
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