This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.
By Colin Deppen | Spotlight PAA sign for the House of Representatives Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg. File photo.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
The work of a Pennsylvania legislator may be defined by bureaucracy and procedure, but lawmaker lives can be a little more colorful in the off-hours.
While the hundreds of legislators in Harrisburg proudly tout their values and communities, they’re often less vocal about their personal hobbies and any extracurricular skills they may possess. Sometimes those hidden talents can be surprising.
The state House boasts an alligator rescuer (Tom Jones), a woodworker (Rick Krajewski), a trained soprano (Liz Hanbidge), a country singer (Shelby Labs), and a former public radio journalist (Elizabeth Fiedler), just to name a few.
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In the state Senate, there’s former MMA fighter Marty Flynn. Following in the footsteps of his grandfathers, Flynn originally was a boxer, serving as sparring partner for Bernard Hopkins as the Philadelphia pugilist trained to fight Félix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya in the 2000s. Flynn later stepped into the octagon “for fun,” he told PA Local. His injuries included “around 40 stitches.”
Asked if politics share any ground with combat sports, he said, “Yes, you know that you have a fight on your hands, the only problem is that in politics it’s dark and there is more than one opponent, and they have knives.”
As for why he stopped fighting, Flynn, now 49, said the answer is simple: “Age.”
In the first installment of what we hope will be a recurring feature about the hidden talents of Pennsylvania lawmakers, PA Local is highlighting a recent conversation with State Sen. Nikil Saval, an accomplished scribe who’s written extensively in some of America’s most prestigious publications.
His piece on “James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance” appeared in the New Yorker in April. Saval has written for the magazine since 2016. The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
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PA Local: When were you first published? What was the piece about?
Saval: The first piece I published was in n+1. I wrote a review of an avant-garde opera about German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin called Shadowtime, by composer Brian Ferneyhough and poet Charles Bernstein. This was in 2005. Shadowtime was premiered in Munich in May 2004, but it had its American premiere in July 2005 at the Lincoln Center Festival. I had just graduated from college and was still living in New York. Eventually I became a co-editor of n+1. When I first came to the Senate, I was serving on its board. Right now, I’m a contributing editor.
Salman Rushdie said “Writers and politicians are natural rivals. Both groups try to make the world in their own images; they fight for the same territory.” Do you agree?
This is a quote that I’ve thought about a lot. I’d say it’s mostly true but not entirely. The sentiment is common and captures something that is true about politics versus the work of artists — which is that politics (and politicians) often have to meet needs of great urgency and act on the exigencies of a particular moment, whereas writers can respond in ways that range more widely, and more deeply. Often freer.
State Sen. Nikil Saval speaking at an event in Philadelphia.
Sometimes writing has met occasions and political moments more readily than the laws and statements of politicians, and sometimes politicians have done the same. There are writers and poets in politics. I think of the poet and theorist Aimé Césaire, who wrote the indelible political poem Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, a vehicle for his notes as he returned to Martinique and his reflections on colonialism. Also Léopold Senghor, a prominent Senegalese poet and theorist of Négritude who became the first president of Senegal.
So, there’s truth to Rushdie’s words but also plenty of counter examples.
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Related, but: Do writers make good lawmakers and, if so, why?
There’s potentially an affinity between writing (and I would also add editing) and lawmaking, which is a professional need to be curious, to ask the right questions, and to be ready to learn quickly about new subjects about which one needs to develop real knowledge and confidence.
The New York Times reported that during your 2020 campaign (at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic), you were asked what word you would choose as a title for a memoir about the bid and you answered “Tired.” I want to ask that same question now that you’ve been in office a while. What would your answer be?
“Tired 2.” A few months after I came into office, my second child was born. My wife and I navigated the pandemic with two very young children, alongside our jobs and other family and community responsibilities, just as so many other households have done during the past few years. My older son is now getting ready to graduate from kindergarten, and my younger son is in pre-K. I am still very tired.
Who or what do you like to read the most?
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My favorite novelist is Henry James, but I love to read everything. The best books I’ve read this year so far are Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, and Revolutionary Spring by Christopher Clark.
I also love reading magazines — in particular, the London Review of Books, Lux, n+1, and The Wire.
Is it tricky writing in-depth pieces like the one on James C. Scott while serving as an elected? How do you balance the two?
Yes! But I find that it’s important, from time-to-time, to step back from what is immediate and pressing and take a longer view, as James C. Scott did so well. The experience of immersing oneself in a great political thinker’s body of work — and through that work, the deep past and enormous transformation in political and social life that have occurred over millennia — helps put the work of everyday politics in necessary perspective.
Spotlight PA’s Stephen Caruso contributed reporting to this article.
Bones and skulls visible in the back seat of a car near an abandoned cemetery on Philadelphia’s outskirts led police to a basement filled with body parts, which authorities say were hoarded by a man now accused of stealing about 100 sets of human remains.
Officers say a Tuesday night arrest culminated a monthslong investigation into break-ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery, where at least 26 mausoleums and vaults had been forced open since early November.
Investigators later searched the Ephrata home and storage unit of Jonathan Christ Gerlach, 34, and reported finding more than 100 human skulls, long bones, mummified hands and feet, two decomposing torsos and other skeletal items.
“They were in various states. Some of them were hanging, as it were. Some of them were pieced together, some were just skulls on a shelf,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said.
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Most were in the basement, authorities said, and they also recovered jewelry believed to be linked to the graves. In one case, a pacemaker was still attached.
Police say Gerlach targeted mausoleums and underground vaults at the 1855 cemetery. It’s considered the country’s largest abandoned burial ground, according to Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery, which helps maintain the 160-acre landmark in Yeadon that’s home to an estimated 150,000 grave sites.
Police had been looking into the string of burglaries when an investigator checked Gerlach’s vehicle plates and found he had been near Yeadon repeatedly during the period when the burglaries occurred. Police say the break-ins centered on sealed vaults and mausoleums containing older burials, which had been smashed open or had stonework damaged to reach the remains inside.
He was arrested as he walked back toward his car with a crowbar, police said, and a burlap bag in which officers found the mummified remains of two small children, three skulls and other bones.
Gerlach told investigators he took about 30 sets of human remains and showed them the graves he stole from, police said.
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“Given the enormity of what we are looking at and the sheer, utter lack of reasonable explanation, it’s difficult to say right now, at this juncture, exactly what took place. We’re trying to figure it out,” Rouse told reporters.
Gerlach was charged with 100 counts each of abuse of a corpse and receiving stolen property, along with multiple counts of desecrating a public monument, desecrating a venerated object, desecrating a historic burial place, burglary, trespassing and theft.
He is jailed on $1 million bond. No lawyer was listed in court records. A message seeking comment was texted to a cellphone linked to him.
A sports field at Ridley Municipal Park in Delaware County has been shut down after police say off-road vehicles tore up the grass following a mid-December snowstorm, causing thousands of dollars in damage and threatening spring sports for hundreds of local children.
Ridley Township police say the field is now unsafe and unplayable after individuals illegally drove all-terrain vehicles and a dune buggy across the grass, leaving deep ruts and torn-up turf.
“The issue that we’re having is the field is unplayable now,” Sgt. Mark McKinney, of the Ridley Township Police Department, said.
Police believe the damage happened when the suspects were “joy riding” on the field after snowfall, performing donuts that dug deep grooves into the ground.
“We believe they were joy riding. They did some donuts in the grass, and it dug up some big ruts into the grass, which causes a problem for when the kids have to go back out on the field in the spring,” McKinney said.
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Investigators are asking for the public’s help identifying three individuals seen on surveillance video riding ATVs and a dune buggy through Ridley Township streets. Detectives believe they are responsible for an estimated $5,000 to $10,000 in damage to the park field.
Repairing the field will not be quick or simple, police said.
“It’s not just something that you can just go out there and patch right away,” McKinney said. “It’s something that’s going to take time.”
The repair process involves laying new soil, rolling the field and growing new grass — a timeline that could disrupt the upcoming sports season.
“You can’t have the kids on there while the grass is growing or the grass won’t grow,” McKinney said. “So it’s set up quite a bit of a dilemma for us.”
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The damage is especially personal for McKinney, who also serves as a coach for Ridley Youth Lacrosse. Fellow coach Matt Flynn said the damaged field is their primary game field, with the season scheduled to begin in less than two months.
“Right now, the field would be unplayable because any kid would turn their ankle in the ruts,” Flynn said.
Flynn added that the situation is frustrating after months of work maintaining the field.
“It’s more disappointment because we work so hard to get that field into good shape, and now we just have to start again and do more work, and then find other fields to play on during the season,” he said.
Township officials are currently gathering repair estimates, but the field will remain closed until it is safe for play.
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Police say the suspects could face charges including trespassing and criminal mischief. Anyone who recognizes the individuals seen in the surveillance footage is urged to contact Ridley Township police detectives.
A Pennsylvania man has been arrested and is facing more than 500 charges after he was accused of stealing human skulls and “numerous” skeletal remains from an abandoned cemetery on Philadelphia’s outskirts, according to police.
Bones and skulls visible in the back seat of a car near the cemetery led police to the home and storage unit of Jonathan Gerlach, 34, after police had been looking into a string of burglaries.
Investigators checked Gerlach’s licence plates and found that he had been near the cemetery repeatedly during the period when the burglaries occurred.
Officers say the Jan. 6 arrest culminated a months-long investigation into break-ins at Mount Moriah Cemetery, where at least 26 mausoleums and vaults had been forced open since early November.
After searching Gerlach’s home and storage unit, investigators reported finding more than 100 human skulls, long bones, mummified hands and feet, two decomposing torsos and other skeletal items.
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“They were in various states. Some of them were hanging, as it were. Some of them were pieced together, some were just skulls on a shelf,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said.
Most of the findings were in Gerlach’s basement, authorities said. They also recovered jewelry believed to be linked to the graves, and a pacemaker that was still attached.
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“Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life in that home. It is truly, in the most literal sense of the word, horrific. I grieve for those who are upset by this, who are going through this, who are trying to figure out if it is, in fact, one of their loved ones,” Rouse added.
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Police say Gerlach targeted mausoleums and underground vaults at the cemetery, which was established in 1855. Gerlach was arrested as he walked back toward his car with a crowbar, police said.
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He also had a burlap bag in which officers found the mummified remains of two small children, three skulls and other bones.
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Gerlach then told investigators that he took around 30 sets of human remains and showed them the graves he stole from, police said.
Police believe the remains were also taken from other cemeteries in the region. They are investigating the Human Bones and Skull Selling Group on Facebook, where Gerlach was reportedly tagged and pictured holding a skull.
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He was charged with 100 counts each of abuse of a corpse and receiving stolen property, along with multiple counts of desecrating a public monument, desecrating a venerated object, desecrating a historic burial place, burglary, trespassing and theft.
Mount Moriah Cemetery released a statement on its Instagram Stories following Gerlach’s arrest, thanking Delaware County District Attorney’s Office, the Yeadon Police Department and the Philadelphia Police Department for “their hard work and dedication to this case.”
“Our team has been working alongside all parties involved and will continue to do so throughout the remainder of the investigation. Please direct any specific questions regarding this case to the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office,” it said.
“Mount Moriah is the largest abandoned cemetery in the United States. Its historic grounds are cared for by a dedicated group of approximately 12 volunteers who show up week in and week out to preserve this space.”
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Gerlach is being held on $1-million bail, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 20.
