Who is Arthur Schirmer and what did he do?
Disgraced Pennsylvania pastor Arthur Schirmer, who now stands convicted in the murder cases of his two wives, was a follower of God for most of his work life. He served as the chaplain of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was a Methodist clergyman before the murder of his second wife, Betty Schirmer, in 2008, after which his life slowly started to unfold as he got caught in his own lies.
People who knew Schirmer raised questions about whether he was responsible for Betty's death in a car accident in 2008. Detectives thought he had killed more than once because Jewel Schirmer, his first wife, also died in a strange way.
Oxygen's Dateline: Unforgettable is scheduled to revisit the crimes of former pastor Arthur Schirmer (currently serving lengthy sentences in prison) in an upcoming episode this Tuesday, November 29. The episode, titled Fallen, airs at 8:00 pm ET. The episode's synopsis reads:
"When a pastor loses a second wife in an accident, authorities become suspicious; Dennis Murphy returns to this unforgettable story of evil and betrayal, wondering how far this man of God might have fallen."This article will further elaborate on the subject.
Betty Schirmer's death led to questions surrounding the mysterious death of Arthur Schirmer's first wife
In 2013, Arthur Schirmer, 64, a former Pennsylvania pastor, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in relation to the brutal bludgeoning of his second wife Betty Schirmer in 2008. Arthur later tried to stage a car crash to cover his tracks. He was charged separately with killing his first wife, Jewel Schirmer, in 1999.
The prosecution alleged that Schirmer used a crowbar to strike Betty in the head, placed her in their car, and faked a slow-motion crash to cover up the murder. The former Methodist pastor stated under oath that he and his wife were on their way to the hospital after she woke up with pain in her jaw when he hit a guard rail while swerving to avoid a deer.
Authorities first assumed Betty Schirmer's death in July 2008 was the result of a car crash, but when a man committed suicide in Schirmer's office months after finding the pastor was dating his wife, the church secretary, state police launched a more extensive investigation that ultimately led to him coming under the radar.
Authorities finally came to the conclusion that Betty Schirmer's severe head and brain injuries could not have been caused by the minor accident. They also found her blood on the garage floor of the house she shared with her husband, and that somebody had tried to clean up the mess.
Surprisingly, Betty Schirmer's injuries were the same as those sustained by Arthur Schirmer's first wife eight years earlier, Jewel Schirmer, who died in 1999.
There were uncanny similarities found between the deaths of Arthur Schirmer's two wives
The details surrounding Jewel Schirmer's death were never entirely clear. Her autopsy revealed that she suffered a traumatic brain injury, had a fractured skull, and had impact injuries to her upper body. Arthur alleged that she had fallen down a flight of stairs at the time. Her cause of death was ruled "undetermined."
Arthur Schirmer was found guilty of first-degree murder in Betty's case, receiving a life sentence after being found guilty. He was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in state prison after entering a no-contest plea to third-degree murder in the death of his first wife Jewel.
Dateline: Unforgettable airs in Oxygen this Tuesday, November 29, 2022.
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