PART I
When Bergholz Changed
1
WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION
I stared at the courtroom door in front of me and took a deep breath, trying to figure out how things had gotten to this point. I was only an Amish kid working construction and selling horses on the side. I didnāt know anything about trials or courtrooms or hate crimes. I didnāt know anything about perjury or federal statutes or juries. I definitely didnāt know anything about being a witness for the prosecution.
But on that day, thatās exactly what I was.
I walked into the courtroom. I wondered when Iād be asked about the camera. I wondered how much the lawyers had heard about Sam and his relationships with the women in our community. I heard a few whispers as I walked down the aisle, and then everyone grew silent as I took the stand.
I had been called there to testify against my grandfather, Samuel Mullet, as well as the other men and women in our Amish community who had been involved in the things that had happened during the previous year.
My knees felt like jelly. The bailiff swore me in. I was glad to sit down, even if it was in the witness stand. The judge was to my left, and he spoke first. He was matter-of-fact and firm.
āAll right. Iām advising you that your testimony is being compelled, pursuant to federal statute Title 18. Sections 600(2) and 600(3), and that as a result, no testimony that you give in response to questions can be used against you in any future criminal proceeding.ā
He paused and shuffled through some papers in front of him.
āHowever, should you testify falsely in any manner, the statements could be used and you could be prosecuted for perjury. Do you understand this?ā
I tried to keep my voice even, but it had a life of its own.
āYes,ā I said.
āAll right,ā the judge stated. āDo you have any questions about this, sir?ā
āNo,ā I said.
āOkay. Thank you,ā the judge said.
Both the prosecution and the defense wanted to use me for their own purposes, and I had met with them in the months and weeks leading up to the trial. āDonāt say more than you have to,ā Samās attorney had stressed to me during pretrial meetings. āIf you can answer with only a yes or no, do it. Try to get the attorney to phrase the question so you can answer simply yes or no. Otherwise, just say āI donāt know.āā
The prosecuting attorney stood up and walked around to the front of her table. My grandmother (Samās wife) and all the spouses of the defendants sat in chairs on the left side of the courtroom. Amish people from other communities sat on the right. There were reporters and a lot of people I didnāt know. The room was full and quiet. I wasnāt sure where to look. I cleared my throat and took a deep breath.
āGood morning,ā the attorney said to me. āPlease state your name and spell your last name for the record.ā
āJohnny Mast,ā I said. āM-A-S-T.ā
āMr. Mast, where do you live?ā
āBergholz, Ohio.ā
When I said the name of our town out loud, I thought about all the things that had been written about us in the newspapers. The Bergholz Beard Cutters.
All sixteen defendants, including my grandfather, sat at different tables in front of me, a little to the left. Iām sure they were nervous about what I would say and how my words would affect them. Some of them faced years and years in prison. The menās hair was flat against their heads from the hats they wore that morning on the way to the courthouse. They stared blankly at the table or the wall at first, but at the sound of my voice they looked up at me.
āAnd where specifically in Bergholz, Ohio, do you live?ā
āIām at my parentsā place.ā
āAre you related to defendant Sam Mullet, Senior?ā
āYes.ā
āAnd how is that?ā
I took a deep breath.
āHeās my grandfather.ā
I glanced over at Sam and he returned my gaze with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. He grinned and nodded. He had been nothing but supportive to me in the days leading up to my testimony, even though I was supposed to testify against him. He encouraged me to tell the truth and to remember the advice his lawyer gave me. I couldnāt help but give a small smile back before looking away. I knew I probably shouldnāt look at him. I couldnāt believe I had to testify against him. He had done a lot of strange things, a lot of things I didnāt understand. But he was still my grandfather.
āAnd so Samuel Mulletās sons are your uncles?ā
āYes.ā
āAnd defendant Linda Shrock is your aunt?ā
āYes.ā
I settled into the game of questions and answers. Questions and answers, and every so often objections by the other attorneys. Yes and no and I donāt know and more objections.
āHow old are you, Mr. Mast?ā
āTwenty-two.ā
āHave you been baptized into the Amish church in Bergholz?ā
āYes.ā
āWas there a time when members of the Bergholz community cut each otherās hair and beards?ā
I paused. I saw images in my mind that made me wince. Images Iād rather forget: Holding my own fatherās hair in my hands and cutting off pieces with a pair of scissors. Watching six or seven men wander down toward Samās barn, chunks of their hair shaved off, their beards cut straight across with sharp scissors. I remember seeing those disheveled men, skinny from not having eaten, their weird hair and their hats that no longer fit quite right, and thinking they looked like demons.
āYes.ā
āWhen did that first start happening?ā
āProbably about three years ago.ā
āAnd what was your understanding of what the reason for it was?ā
āBecause they werenāt living their life the way they knew they should, and they wanted to turn their life around.ā
It made me nervous when I gave long answers. I was scared of the words coming out of my mouth, scared that they would somehow implicate Sam or the others.
āSo it was a symbol of a new start?ā
āYes.ā
āDid you ever have your hair or beard cut during this time?ā
āNo.ā
āWere you present when others had their hair or beards cut?ā
āYes.ā
Again I pictured my own father, and I heard Samās voice. Cāmon, Johnny, cut off some of your dadās hair. Youāre mad at him too, arenāt you?
The attorney kept firing questions at me. I concentrated, tried hard to keep my answers short.
āWas Sam Mullet, Senior, aware of the practice of beard cutting within the community?ā
āYes.ā
āAnd did some of the beard cuttings actually take place in his presence?ā
āYes.ā
āWhat was your understanding of what Sam Mullet, Senior, thought of these beard cuttings in terms of their ability to help people turn their lives around?ā
Samās defense lawyer called out, and it startled me.
āObjection!ā
āSustained,ā said the judge, nodding.
The prosecution paused, then asked the question in a different way.
āDid you ever discuss these beard cuttings with Sam Mullet, Senior?ā
āCould you ask that question again?ā I asked.
āYes. Did you ever discuss the use of beard and hair cuttings within the community with Sam Mullet, Senior?ā
āYes.ā
āAnd what did he say about the use of beard and hair cuttings when you discussed it with him?ā
āHe didnāt know if it would be the right thing to do or not. He wasnāt sure.ā
The attorney turned around and looked at papers on her desk, then turned toward me again.
āDid there come a time you heard members of the Bergholz community talking about cutting the head and beard hair of Amish people who lived outside of the community?ā
I paused. This was exactly why we were all there. I remembered the Millers, the Hershbergers, the Shrocks. I remembered being handed a trash bag full of hair and being told to burn it out back. I remembered the sound of shouts. I remembered the sound of a manās roar, a man who was trying to defend himself.
āYes,ā I said.
2
THE MOVE TO BERGHOLZ
I fell in love with horses long before we moved to Bergholz, back when I was only five or six years old and my dad took me to the Mount Hope horse auction. He was in the market for a team of workhorses, and I was excited when he asked me to go along. We got there and I looked around in awe. There were horses everywhere, some moving and restless, others standing still as statues. They were different colors, different temperaments, and I wanted to pet them all. There, at my first horse auction, I was filled with this desire to own horses, and lots of them.
Dad bought two workhorses on that particular morning: nice ones. Our driver hauled them home for us. The Amish travel mostly by horse and buggy, but if they need to go somewhere too far for that, they hire a non-Amish person to drive them around. Itās a common thing, and some drivers make a full-time living just driving Amish folks from here to there.
I remember the first time we hooked the horses to the big old box wagon before heading out to the woods to get firewood. I was standing in the box, and Dad let me drive our new horses. I felt like a million dollars, even though the horses were tame and probably could have done it on their own. When I felt the horsesā energy come through the reins, I knew I was a horse man.
I know everyone says tractors are better, and of course I agree that theyāre faster. But I always found something peaceful about being up there behind the horses, the sound of the wagon creaking through the field, the horsesā tails swishing away the flies. Itās quiet when youāre out in a field driving horses. It feels like thereās nothing else in the world.
Not too long after my dad bought those workhorses, I got my first pony. We bought it from my uncle. When my dad brought it out of the trailer, my brother Floyd held it by the lead rope. The pony came out and stood there quietly, eating grass. But it must have stepped over the lead rope, because when my brother pulled the rope taut, it tightened up under the pony and startled it. That crazy ponyāit ran off and got away from us. We couldnāt catch it. We ended up chasing it all over the neighborhood, through fields and peopleās yards. It was taller than me and ornery as anything. I was scared half to death of that sucker, and even though I was chasing it, I secretly hoped my brother would be the one to catch it.
Iāve always felt a connection between me and my dad and my horses, probably ever since he took me to that horse auction when I was little. I miss having horses. I miss Bergholz the way it was when we first arrived.
It would be nice to see my dad again, to be able to have a regular conversation. But what happened in Bergholz ruined all of that.
I was eleven years old when we moved to Bergholz, Ohio. We had been living in a community about 120 miles west of there, but I wasnāt sad to be leaving that place. I donāt think any of us in the family were. It never felt as if that first community accepted our family. For some reason I felt that we were looked down on, pushed out to the side, and I didnāt have any close friends there. Sometimes Iād play with other boys, but as soon as someone else showed up, I was alone again.
When we moved to Bergholz, everything changed for me.
The town of Bergholz still looks almost the same as it did the first time we approached it in a moving truck, driving on those back country roads. I liked the mountains, the way the land rose and fell with lots of hills and valleys. There are more houses now than there were when we moved there, mostly because of all the gas wells going in. But even now there are roads in Bergholz that will take you to places way back in, miles from any other houses.
My grandfather, Sam Mullet, had started the Bergholz Amish community six or seven years before we moved there. He and my grandmother bought a farm about three miles outside of town, and a few familiesāmostly his children, my aunts and uncles, and their familiesāfollowed them. Thereās a little old dirt road that goes back to his place, lined for a little ways with a wooden fence that my brother Edward and I built.
The community started their own church, as Amish communities do when they start up in a new area, and Sam became our bishop. It made sense at the time. Who else would lead the new community? Most of the men there were Samās sons or sons-in-law. Sam had bought the first piece of land. The whole community had been Samās idea.
Bergholz was a whole new world for me. I was suddenly surrounded by tons of cousins who became my best friends. I attended our Amish school with thirty o...