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As many of you know, Mary Winkler recently appeared on Oprah. To watch the show in its entirety, click here.Oprah was annoyingly sympathetic to Winkler, and seemed to buy her abused wife shtick. My opinion of her claims is as follows: 1) Winkler provided no substantive evidence for her claims--no medical reports, no police reports, no 911 calls, nothing. 2) The defense did put a few people on the stand who testified as to various indirect indications that Winkler might have been abused. A couple of these were of some value. For example, a doctor said Winkler visited her one...

After spending a total of seven months in custody, the Tennessee woman who fatally shot her preacher husband in the back will be released as early as today. Farese said his client will not talk to the news media because she continues to wage a legal battle to win custody of her girls and faces a $2 million civil suit filed by the parents of of her slain husband, Matthew Winkler.

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SELMER, Tenn. - A woman convicted in the shooting death of her preacher husband was moved from a county jail to a mental health facility, officials said Thursday. The judge approved the move for Mary Winkler on Wednesday, said Sue Allison, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. The name and location of the facility were not disclosed. Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her Church of Christ minister husband, Matthew, in the Selmer parsonage where the family lived. She was sentenced June 8 to three years, but she will be eligible...

SELMER, Tenn. (AP) _ Bank tellers testified Saturday that a preacher's wife accused of murdering her husband was in financial trouble and that the bank had caught her trying to deposit bad checks. Prosecutors said the Winklers' bank account at Regions Bank in Selmer was overdrawn by $5,000, and that bank employees called Mary Winkler several times in the days before her husband's death. Diane Hollingsworth, a teller at Regions Bank, said she talked with Mary Winkler on March 21, 2006 _ one day before Matthew Winkler was found shot to death in the church parsonage in this west Tennessee...

A woman and her preacher husband, whom she is accused of murdering after they argued over money, may have been taken in by a common scam that strained their finances and their marriage. "I had gotten a call from the bank and we were having trouble, mostly my fault, bad bookkeeping. He was upset with me about that," Mary Winkler told police, according to a statement read at her bail hearing. "He had really been on me lately, criticizing me for things -- the way I walk, what I eat, everything. It was just building up to a point. I...

SELMER, Tenn. — A woman accused of shooting her preacher husband to death after they argued over money may have been taken in by a remarkably common scam that strained their finances and their marriage. Mary Winkler, who is charged with murder, had gotten tangled up along with her husband in a swindle known as an advance-fee fraud, or the "Nigerian scam," in which victims are told that a sweepstakes prize or some other riches are waiting for them if they send in money to cover the processing expenses, her lawyers say. "They were always kind of living on the...

SELMER, Tennessee (CNN) -- For three months, the 4,500 souls of this God-fearing town have been left to wonder if a demure preacher's wife shot her husband in the back and ran off to the beach with their three girls. ....... Here, third-generation preacher Matthew Winkler, a strapping 31-year-old with a booming voice and charisma to burn, was beginning to make his mark after little more than a year. He had a knack for connecting with younger members, who called him "Wink." On March 22, four church members -- including a doctor and the town undertaker -- let themselves in...

SELMER, Tenn. - Mary Winkler was the quiet, unassuming wife of a small-town, by-the-Bible preacher, seemingly devoted to church and family. But now her husband, Matthew, is dead and she is charged with shooting him in the back with a shotgun. Authorities won't discuss a motive, and church members say they didn't see any indication she was unhappy. But experts say preachers' wives often struggle with depression and isolation, expected to be exemplars of Christian virtue while bearing unique pressures on their private and public lives. Gayle Haggard, author of "A Life Embraced: A Hopeful Guide for the Pastor's Wife,"...

Minister Dan Winkler’s message to the congregation of the Huntingdon Church of Christ Sunday morning centered around such words as love, appreciation, forgiveness and kindness as he told how he and his family had coped with the tragic turn of events over the last few days. This was the first Sunday service after the minister’s son, Brian Matthew Winkler, was slain in his parsonage home in Selmer, on March 21 and his wife, Mary Winkler, charged with first degree murder in the case. Matthew Winkler, the middle son of Dan and Diane Winkler, was minister of Fourth Street Church of...

Ashland attorney Steve Farese, who heads Mary Winkler's legal defense team in Selmer, Tenn., says he and her other attorneys want a psychiatric evaluation for their client. Tennessee authorities claim Winkler has confessed to killing her husband, a Church of Christ minister, in their Selmer residence last week. The couple's three children reportedly were in the house at the time of the slaying. Winkler apparently fled with her children to southern Alabama, where she was arrested late last week. They have been placed in the custody of their maternal grandparents. Farese, in a telephone interview after an arraignment in Selmer...

Mother of 3 who admitted killing husband ‘sorry for everything,’ friend says SELMER, Tenn. - The preacher’s wife charged with murder in the death of her husband wanted his congregation to know “she was sorry for everything she has done,” said a friend who visited her in jail Sunday. Church member Pam Killingsworth visited Mary Winkler after Sunday services and said the preacher’s wife gave no indication why her husband of 10 years was shot. “She just said she was sorry and for me to write a note to the church saying that she was sorry for everything she had...

Tenn. Pastor Found Slain; Amber Alert Issued for Family Thursday , March 23, 2006 SELMER, Tenn. — A church minister was found shot to death in his parsonage, and authorities were searching for his missing wife and three young daughters Thursday. It wasn't immediately clear if the woman and children were abducted or if they were involved in the crime and fled. Church members went searching for pastor Matthew Winkler late Wednesday when he didn't show up for an evening service at Fourth Street Church of Christ, police said. They used a key to enter the parsonage and found him...

SELMER, Tenn. — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation issued a statewide Amber Alert this morning after a West Tennessee minister was found shot to death and his family missing. The children, ranging in age from 1 to 8, are missing from Selmer, about 80 miles east of Memphis in McNairy County. <A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://adsremote.scripps.com/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=2028632&AdID=2035647&TargetID=2011448&Targets=2011020,2003385,2011361,2011448,2017830,2011669,2011703,2013366,2017874&RawValues=&Redirect=http:%2f%2fwww.advertisersite.com"><IMG SRC="http://images.scripps.com/1x1.gif" WIDTH=336 HEIGHT=280 BORDER=0></A> Their father, Matthew Winkler, 31, was found dead in a bedroom of the parsonage of Fourth Street Church of Christ, where he was the minister, Selmer Police Chief Neal Burks said. The missing children were identified as Breanna Winkler, age 1; Mary...

The wife of a minister found dead in the church parsonage has confessed to shooting him and fleeing to Alabama, where she was found the following night with their three young daughters, authorities said Friday. Mary Winkler told investigators she shot her husband on Wednesday, Selmer Police investigator Roger Rickman said.

Slain Minister's Wife to Be Charged With Murder Friday, March 24, 2006 MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The wife of a Tennessee pastor found shot dead in his house Wednesday will face first-degree murder charges, authorities announced Friday. Mary Winklerwas found Thursday night with the couple's three daughters in Orange Beach, Ala., about 400 miles south of their home in Selmer. Investigators with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said she was interviewed during the night and the charges were being prepared. "We've interviewed her and she was cooperative," said Jennifer Johnson of the TBI, adding that once a warrant with the charges...

The wife of a charismatic Tennessee minister found slain in his parsonage was a suspect in his death, authorities said, after she and the couple's three daughters were found in Alabama following a daylong search. Matthew Winkler, a popular minister known at the local Church of Christ, was found shot to death in his parsonage bedroom by church members searching for him after he failed to show up for a Wednesday evening service. Late Thursday, authorities said they considered his wife, 32-year-old Mary Winkler, a suspect. She and the three girls — Breanna, 1; Mary Alice, 6; and Patricia, 8...

SELMER, Tenn. — Police searched Thursday for the missing wife and three young children of a church minister who was found shot to death in his parsonage.