{“ We let a W olf in…”}


Drumheller’s third wife — and his stepfather but that the visits to them were often physically violent, even in his teen- age years. “I had so many fights with him. … he punched me in the


face,” said Karas, now working at a resort hotel in Hawaii. Jones, now living in southern Virginia, described the end


of her mother’s marriage to Drumheller: “He packed up his stuff one day while my mother was at work and left a note. … I haven’t seen him since.” Drumheller declined interview requests for two months


before finally agreeing to talk in October. He said he had accepted personal responsibility for the death of David Breitweiser and had been forgiven by God for it. He declined further comment on the killing. He declined to comment on the fraud conviction and the inspector general’s testimony. He said the incidents of abuse recounted by his son and step- son were “outright, blatant lies, unconscionable to even hear” and were fabricated by vindictive ex-wives. “If you tell a child a story repeatedly, it’s only a matter of


time before they start to believe it,” he said. One of Drumheller’s ex-wives could not be found, and two


others did not return phone calls. The only one who would talk, briefly, was wife No. 4, Juanita Bowers. An adminis- trative assistant in a medical business, Bowers said she met Drumheller at a Richmond bowling alley in 2000. She said they married in 2001, separated in 2003 and she divorced him in 2005. Bowers summed up her reason: “He never told the truth about anything,” she said.


house at its center, a farmers market and Jess’ Lunch, which locals swear serves the best hot dogs in the hemisphere. The Harrisonburg Church of Christ sits a mile or so from the city square, just off South Main Street, between the railroad tracks and an elementary school. Churches, particularly small-town ones, are their own self-


H


contained communities, replete with clans and cliques and power struggles, and the record shows that the 106-year-old Harrisonburg Church of Christ has not been an exception. Pastors tend not to last long; and there are reports of


members being kicked out as far back as the 1970s. Just prior to Drumheller’s arrival, some parishioners had been chafing at the way Rexrode and Thomas seemed to run the place as if it were their personal property, said member Mike Harlow. The previous pastor, John Doughty, had anointed the two men as elders in 2006, a position of great authority in the Church of Christ. But in 2008, Thomas and Rexrode fired Doughty, saying he didn’t keep office hours and his sermons were poorly prepared. Doughty left to start a new assembly across town but wrote an angry letter back to the congre- gation, saying the elders were guilty of “heresy” and were


14 THe WasHingTon PosT Magazine | December 19, 2010


arrisonburg is a quiet town about a two-hour drive southwest from Washington. It’s home to about 45,000 people and two universi- ties, James Madison and Eastern Mennonite. There’s a city square with an old brick court-


Robert Thomas was one of the two elders who hired Bill Drumheller as minister of the Harrisonburg church and became embroiled in controversy.


“impostors” as elders. So, when he first took the pulpit in January 2009,


Drumheller appeared a breath of fresh air to some in the church, which has perhaps 100 members, although an exact number is not kept. Shane Rickel, Rexrode’s son-in-law, said he often complimented Drumheller on his sermons. “I enjoyed him, and enjoyed playing golf with him,” said


Rickel, a home builder. When relationships began to fray in June, those who were suspicious of the elders quickly sided


“I was so near to Peter Drumheller, who saiD his father, Bill, B


You’d just have to r


PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID DEAL


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