MASS DISRUPTION IN TWO CHURCHES ON CHRISTMAS EVE BY ONION TOSSING THOMAS VON GOETZ WHO USED HOLY WATER AS A CHASER FOR HIS WHISKY TAKES HIM ON TOUR FROM PSYCH WARD TO SLAMMER

MASS DISRUPTION IN TWO CHURCHES ON CHRISTMAS EVE BY ONION-TOSSING THOMAS VON GOETZ, USED HOLY WATER AS A CHASER FOR HIS WHISKY

By Ken Rossignol
THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY
News and Commentary

Did land use issues factor into Christmas Eve Mayhem?

AVENUE, MD—Christmas Eve was a tale of a St. Mary’s County man making unmerry in two Roman Catholic Churches who, police say, disrupted services with an onion and a bottle of whisky.

Thomas Campbell Bolling Von Goetz, 56, of Maycroft Road in Avenue, Md., was tossed out of Holy Angels Catholic Church shortly after 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve. He waltzed up the aisle to the altar and dropped an onion in the church to spice up Christmas Eve Mass, perhaps thinking he was one of the Three Wise Men, but he was without Frankincense or Myrrh and fresh out of gold.

Parishioners at Holy Angels, perfectly capable of relocating Von Goetz to a permanent residence in the nearby cemetery, exercised religious discretion and kindliness and removed him from the church. Von Goetz was prepared for battle and assaulted his escorts with tangerines, say police.

Later in the evening, Von Goetz appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Mayhem in his second visit that night during Midnight Mass at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Compton. While an occasional attendee at Midnight Mass might have had a nip or two on Christmas Eve before services, Von Goetz allegedly brought a bottle of whisky and poured it into the fount holding the Holy Water.

As Von Goetz allegedly threatened churchgoers with his bottle of booze, parishioners decided to apprehend the Mass disrupter. They grabbed him in a clutch from which he could not escape while Deputies were summoned from their Halls of Christmas Eve Celebration in the Walled City of Leonardtown.

At that time, the law officers assumed control of the Apparition and removed him to the Psych Ward of the St. Mary’s Medstar Hospital to determine whether he was crazy, drunk, or just drugged. After spending Christmas entertaining the staff of Medstar, the Sheriff’s Department reports that Von Goetz was relocated to the hoosegow, where he was being evaluated for bail by District Court Commissioner Jessica Lang.

Charges were placed against Von Goetz by St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Brian Connelly for the following:

• Disorderly Conduct
• Defacing Religious Property
• Religious Crime Against a Group
• Obstructing a Religious Exercise
• Threat of Mass Violence
• Disturbing the Peace
• Second-Degree Assault

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 7, 2025, in the District Court for St. Mary’s. It is unknown if the bailiff will scrutinize him for vegetables and fruit at the courthouse’s front door.

Fracas over trespassing by a child led to the finding of guilt for Carl Von Goetz for the armed assault of Roger Butterfield.

Carl Von Goetz of Oakley, Md., was charged with assaulting Roger Butterfield by threatening him with a rifle and assaulting Butterfield’s eleven-year-old son Robert by threatening to shoot him. Von Goetz countered with charges of trespassing and assault against Butterfield, resulting in Butterfield being found not guilty.

District Court Judge William O. E. Sterling found Von Goetz guilty after hearing the case on June 21, 1973. 

Robert Butterfield testified that he was crabbing in St. Clements Bay when he went onto the Von Goetz property to look at ducks. Von Goetz approached him, carrying a gun, and warned the boy he would shoot him if he arrived again on his land. The elder Butterfield went to the Von Goetz farm to confront the man, who then dinged him in the head with a pot and absconded, returning once more with a rifle, cocked it, and demanded him to hit the road. Von Goetz said in court that he only had the gun to shoot snakes.  Cecilia and Barbara Von Goetz corroborated the version told by their brother in court, and Judge Sterling, in a published account, said he was convinced Von Goetz was guilty and ordered a pre-sentence investigation.

The von Goetz family farm on St. Clements Bay has a long history of tough times dealing with land use issues.

St. Mary’s County Public Hearing minutes from 1997 reveal an appeal by Cecile von Goetz.

Cecile Von Goetz, of Oakley, was taken hostage by a Muslim terrorist siege in 1977 in D.C.

Cecile Von Goetz tricked kidnappers in the District Islamic Center attacked by Hanafil Muslims into releasing her on the pretense of a heart condition.

Illness Fake, Woman Tells Hanafi Court

Alexander, Nunzio Clash Again at Hanafis’ Trial

June 23, 1977

By J. Y. Smith, The Washington Post

Cecile Von Goetz testified yesterday that she lied about having a heart condition to gain her freedom from Hanafi Mushins, who allegedly took her hostage last March at the Islamic Center along Washington’s “Embassy Row.”

Cecile von Goetz, 47, of Oakley, MD, one of the hostages being held at the Islamic Center Mosque by Black Hanafi Muslims, is escorted from the mosque following her release.
(Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

In a sometimes quavering voice, Von Goetz related details of her successful ruse with one hand firmly gripping the microphone in a crowded courtroom and with her eyes sometimes closed.

“I gave them the number of my doctor, and they telephoned,” she told the D.C. Superior Court jury. “I talked to the receptionist, who happens to be my cousin. I said, ‘Do you remember the very serious heart condition the doctor diagnosed for me recently?’ She said she did, and they released me.”

“Do you have a heart condition?” asked Stephen J. O’Brien, a defense attorney.

“No,” said Von Goetz.

O’Brien then asked how long after she had “concocted” her story that she had been released.  MORE

When Carl Von Goetz learned his sister was being held hostage in DC, he could not find anyone to take him to volunteer to take the place of his sister. Father Peter Alliata of Holy Angels Church took Carl Von Goetz, who had no car, to Washington to the Islamic Center, where his sister was being held hostage by Hanafi Muslim terrorists. When he arrived, he learned his sister had been released and taken to a hospital, where she was examined and released.

Cecile Von Goetz eulogized the longtime pastor of Holy Face Church in Great Mills in a 1987 letter.

CORRECTION by National Catholic Reporter on an article written by Cecile Bolling von Goetz in 1966

(Rev.) JOSEPH NEILSON, O.C.D. Little Rock, Ark.

ON OCTOBER 19, 1966, the National Catholic Reporter published an article on Cardinal Julius Doepfner of Munich written by Cecile Bolling von Goetz. The occasion was a visit by Cardinal Doepfner to this country. In the process of editing the original copy for this article, N.C.R. made stylistic alterations and inserted additional material on Cardinal Doepfner’s views and actions. Miss von Goetz has protested these changes and interpolations. The Reporter acknowledges, with regret, that owing to the extent of the changes made, the revised version should not have been published without the author’s prior consent.