Mary Stachowicz

Mary Stachowicz (née Frank; born 1951) was a Polish American translator, Catholic and mother of four, who on November 13, 2002 was murdered by homosexual Nicholas Gutierrez in Chicago, Illinois.

Murder

Stachowicz was described by all who knew her as a kind, caring, and warm-hearted person who always tried to help others. She had two part-time jobs, one as a secretary and one as a Polish–English translator at the Sikorski Funeral Home, Avondalewhere 19-year-old Gutierrez worked as a janitor.

Area 5 Cmdr. Lee Epplen of the Chicago Police after questioning the accused, stated that Gutierrez had talked about his homosexual lifestyle to Mrs Stachowicz who had been concerned about his welfare and had asked him why he chose to live that way. Gutierrez told police he became enraged, said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Nancy Galassini during a bond hearing. Gutierrez stated that she asked him "Why do you sleep with boys, not girls?". He became furious and savagely attacked her. He punched, kicked and stabbed her multiple times. When she was unconscious he placed a plastic garbage bag over her head and strangled her. At some point he sexually assaulted her too.

Gutierrez took the body to his home where he concealed it in a crawlspace under the floor. When Mrs Stachowicz was reported missing, a vigil was held at her place of work, which Gutierrez attended but said nothing. The police questioned everybody who had worked with her or met her on her last day alive and searched their homes. On finding the body in Gutierrez's flat, they charged him with murder and sexual assault. He confessed to the crime yet the trial dragged on for five years.

The defense attorney Crystal Marchigiani, tried to suggest that Mrs. Stachowicz had done something to provoke the attack, or that Gutierrez was the victim of previous family violence, none of which the court believed. Everybody who knew Mrs Stachowicz agreed that she had been a gentle, mild and sweet person. Chicago Sun-Times. Later his defense attorney claimed that it was Gutierrez who had been physically attacked by Stachowicz, and that, "She could not leave him alone." The court rejected this. In response to the charge of sexually assaulting Gutierrez's defense demanded proof that the victim had been alive at the time of the rape. This was tantamount to admitting rape of a person dead or alive. Gutierrez was sentenced to life in prison on July 2, 2007. His defense attorney asked the judge to account for his alleged "childhood history of physical abuse", but Stachowicz' son was convinced that Gutierrez should receive the death penalty.

Court and Media bias in favor of homosexuals

Gutierrez's vicious unprovoked crime would have got the death penalty but because he was homosexual he only got life imprisonment. The trial took five years because the defence kept arguing that he was in some way the real victim. Many newspapers and websites refused to report that he was a homosexual. Those that did so, slanted the reportage in such a way as to suggest that he must have been provoked or must have had some history of victimization, for which no evidence could ever be shown.

Aftermath

Stachowicz' murder is rightly regarded by conservatives as a hate crime. There is evidence that Gutierrez knew Mrs Stachowicz was a Catholic and hated her for that reason. She may have offered to pray for him, which would have been typical of her. Groups such as Concerned Women for America have complained about the comparative lack of media attention given to the case which they believe meets the definition of a hate crime against Christians and heterosexuals.

Conservative writer Rod Dreher has written about her death, arguing that it should receive the same level of media attention as the death of Matthew Shepard.

Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, an auxiliary bishop of Chicago who knew Stachowicz personally, called her a "martyr for the faith". On the fifth anniversary of her death, Catholic journalist Phil Lawler called for the opening of a formal beatification process.