The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free

3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars | 16,857 ratings

Price: 2.49

Last update: 09-06-2024


About this item

The #1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author Gregg Olsen solves a murder among the Amish and reveals the conspiracy to keep it a secret in a heartbreaking and horrifying true-crime story.

In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner’s report: natural causes. Ida’s husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed.

What really happened to Ida? The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli’s shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli’s subsequent cross-country journey of death—including that of his own son—have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman?

The questions haunted Gregg Olsen and Ida’s brother Daniel Gingerich for decades. At Daniel’s urging, Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli’s crimes first exposed in Olsen’s Abandoned Prayers, one of which has remained a mystery until now. With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth—about Ida’s murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for forty-five years.


From the Publisher

the amish wife

Top reviews from the United States

katrig
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Cold Case of Lies and Deception
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2024
The Amish Wife by Greg Olsen is a well-researched and a very engaging book. In Greg Olsen’s 1990 book, Abandoned Prayers, which I highly recommend you read Olsen reported on a series of grisly murders allegedly committed by Eli Stutzman. Eli was a former member of an Amish community in Ohio and was also gay. Eli wife Ida died suspiciously when she perished during a barn fire. The coroner's report said natural causes and Ida's husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when Eli eventually rejected his faith and took his son Danny with him, murder followed which sadly including his young son Danny who was found in a field dead.
Greg Olsen first reported on Elis crimes in Abandoned Prayers, and this has remained a mystery until now. The questions have haunted Gregg and Ida's brother Daniel Gingerich for decades and at Daniel's urging, Greg Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli's crimes.
With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth about Ida's murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that were kept hidden for forty-five years.
I am a huge fan of Gregg Olsen and I truly admire Gregg for chasing down a 30 year + old murder and to prove that Ida was murdered and not a tragic accident. It was so sad to read the lack of cooperation received from those Olsen wished to interview once again which originally left the killer Eli with all his lies and deception, he fed people to be able to run free to commit his horrific crimes for years after. If you love true crime and cold cases this book is defiantly for you and a great read.
clowncathy
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting story plot
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2024
The book dragged a little and became a little confusing but overall a good nook but a sad and tragic real life case with a determined crime writer seeking to find the truth
Taylor Stukes
3.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2024
Long Story Short: Gregg Olsen revisits the subject of his 1990 book Abandoned Prayers after receiving a box of letters written by and about Eli Stutzman, a former Amishman who was convicted of murder in 1985. This new information sends Olsen on a quest to discover the truth about the untimely death of Stutzman's wife, Ida, in 1977 - long since believed to have occurred under suspicious circumstances.

This story is so twisted and complicated it's hard to believe it's real. To say it was "jaw dropping" would be cliche, but there are certainly some heavy, sometimes devastating revelations. Olsen's four-season-long search for answers, beginning in the summer of 2022, is presented almost like a diary. As each season plays out, so do the interviews, dead ends, mishaps, and discoveries, with many conversations directly quoted. This is charming, but not flawless. Discussions are repetitive and the main topics meander through the narrative. This, coupled with the repeating names of many people involved (which is no fault of the author), is confusing at times. That said, Olsen is very thorough and I like his approach of not pretending he has all the answers. Though Ida's death is technically not a cold case, the book reminded me of the true crime podcast Your Own Backyard.

Content Warning: discussions of child sexual abuse, suicide, and (obviously) murder.
langleyd
5.0 out of 5 stars A different kind of thriller
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2024
Gregg Olsen is well known for his true crime stories that will fascinate the reader more than any fictional thriller can. His impressive back library includes so many true crime stories that an Olsen binge would take more than a month. He is also the author of a couple of fictional series that are great reads too. But his true crime books are always a must buy/read for me.

THE AMISH WIFE is the second book Olsen has written centered around the complicated life and crimes of Eli Stutzman. The crimes in this book actually predate the crimes he will commit in the mid to late 1980s, documented in Olsen's 2007 publication, ABANDONED PRAYERS. Amish communities enjoy a reputation for living a slower, peaceful life style that leaves the evil and turmoil of the "english" outside the community's boundaries. But Olsen will dig for the truth in the death of a young wife and mother only to learn that her husband, Eli Stutzman, was not the man the community expected him to be. No one asked the right questions of the right people so he was never suspected of murder, allowing him to continue the horrendous behavior that would lead to his son's death and more. ABANDONED PRAYERS picks up the story as the child's body is discovered. One man with no conscience who would ultimately result in some of the worst crimes to be committed against the Amish people in Ohio. An excellent read.
Tricia Nault
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2023
The quote I'm leaving below says a lot about why I didn't like this book. The author says motive is not important which goes against what most people think. He also says his book is about the conspiracy and cover up. Then why is the book called The Amish Wife? I didn't read the previous book, and maybe it would have helped. But this book does not want to make me go back and read it. This book was disjointed and full of the author's interviews and research that goes nowhere. It would have made a better book if he had just written it as a novel based on the true story and added his new material for the climax of the story. If my review seems uninspired and ho-hum, it's only a reflection of what I just finished reading.

From author's conversation with his wife late in the book: '“Does your list say what the motive was?” “Motives aren’t necessary to prove a case. They help a jury understand things that are often impossible to truly comprehend. Motive here? Ida was going to tell the bishop something about her husband. He had a car? A camera? She caught him having sex with a man? Maybe Eli tried something with one of her brothers sooner than I thought? She found something in the mail? We don’t have to know the real reason. Any of those could be true.” I study the bullet list. It really isn’t about the why or how she was killed that matters to me most. “You know,” I say, “I can’t really know what happened that night. Not for sure.”'

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