The Cold War, the Catholic Church, and The Disappearance of Catholic Priest Henry Borynski
Jan 25, 2019 5:55:57 GMT
Post by hi224 on Jan 25, 2019 5:55:57 GMT
interesting:
This is a fascinating case which unfortunately does not get a lot of attention. It is quite difficult to get any new information - all the sources available seem to be a few newspaper articles from the time. The events of this disappearance sound like something straight out of a Cold War spy novel. This is also my first ever case write-up, so I hope you enjoy!
Bradford is an industrial city in West Yorkshire, England. I can speak fairly accurately about the place as I lived there for a few years. It has a large Eastern European community, especially of Poles; there is even a Catholic Church where Masses are performed entirely in Polish. The city received a large number of Eastern Europeans fleeing Communism; approximately 6,000 were living there at the time of Borynski's disappearance. In the Cathedral, there is a plaque from the 1980s dedicated to the countries still under the grip of the Soviet Bloc. It is evidently a city with a strong Eastern European community.
In 1952, Henry Borynski (born 1911) was appointed as chaplain to the Polish community in Bradford. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any further information about his background.
He replaced a Canon named Boleslaw Martynellis, who had spent 18 months in a Soviet concentration camp in Siberia during World War II. Martynellis was a Lithuanian, and this meant he was somewhat unpopular with the his majority Polish congregation; it is reported that he was at "loggerheads" with Borynski. Martynellis refused requests to step down and performed Masses for the small Lithuanian community.
Borynski was one of many chaplains who had protested in October 1952 about the activities of Soviet agents in the area; it is reported that agents had approached Eastern European families and attempted to persuade them to return to their native countries.
In July 1953, Borynski received two phone calls. The first caller was apparently speaking on behalf of Martynellis; when Borynski visited him, Martynellis denied arranging the calls. The second came from a man speaking Polish; Borynski's housekeeper reported him speaking in short sentences, and seeming more agitated than usual. He spoke quietly, and with a hand over the mouthpiece. He quickly left his house - explaining nothing to his housekeeper other than that he had to go - with a hat, coat, and ten shillings. His wallet and personal papers were left at the house.
That is the last anyone ever saw of him.
A month after the disappearance, Martynellis collapsed at his home. He had apparently been visited by two men who had ordered him to keep quiet. Two years later, he died of a heart attack.
It gets interesting. John Heenan was the Bishop of a neighbouring city and made a cardinal in 1965. He advised the Police to exclude Martynellis as a suspect from the investigation, and called all claims of Martynellis' involvement "absurd".
So what are the theories?
In 1962 a KGB assassin claimed he had killed Borynski by using cyanide poison. This claim is very weak considering that all the available evidence suggests that the assassin spent most of his time in Eastern Europe and was trained in using cyanide in 1957. Also, one has to ask what interest the KGB would take in a minor Polish priest in a small city in the North of England - he was hardly a leading figure in resistance movements and there was nothing spectacular about his actions.
Martynellis may have killed him in order to keep his job; the evidence suggests the two did not get on well. The only difficulty with this theory is that he was presiding over a minority Lithuanian community amidst a large Polish one who disliked him; would it really be worth going to the effort of murder to keep his job? Then again, Martynellis had previously refused to leave Bradford.
Others have suggested that an over-zealous member of the Lithuanian community killed Bornyski in an effort to reinstate Martynellis.
Whatever the reason, no body has ever been found and the disappearance remains utterly baffling. I really wish there was more information available.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Henry_Borynski.
This is a fascinating case which unfortunately does not get a lot of attention. It is quite difficult to get any new information - all the sources available seem to be a few newspaper articles from the time. The events of this disappearance sound like something straight out of a Cold War spy novel. This is also my first ever case write-up, so I hope you enjoy!
Bradford is an industrial city in West Yorkshire, England. I can speak fairly accurately about the place as I lived there for a few years. It has a large Eastern European community, especially of Poles; there is even a Catholic Church where Masses are performed entirely in Polish. The city received a large number of Eastern Europeans fleeing Communism; approximately 6,000 were living there at the time of Borynski's disappearance. In the Cathedral, there is a plaque from the 1980s dedicated to the countries still under the grip of the Soviet Bloc. It is evidently a city with a strong Eastern European community.
In 1952, Henry Borynski (born 1911) was appointed as chaplain to the Polish community in Bradford. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any further information about his background.
He replaced a Canon named Boleslaw Martynellis, who had spent 18 months in a Soviet concentration camp in Siberia during World War II. Martynellis was a Lithuanian, and this meant he was somewhat unpopular with the his majority Polish congregation; it is reported that he was at "loggerheads" with Borynski. Martynellis refused requests to step down and performed Masses for the small Lithuanian community.
Borynski was one of many chaplains who had protested in October 1952 about the activities of Soviet agents in the area; it is reported that agents had approached Eastern European families and attempted to persuade them to return to their native countries.
In July 1953, Borynski received two phone calls. The first caller was apparently speaking on behalf of Martynellis; when Borynski visited him, Martynellis denied arranging the calls. The second came from a man speaking Polish; Borynski's housekeeper reported him speaking in short sentences, and seeming more agitated than usual. He spoke quietly, and with a hand over the mouthpiece. He quickly left his house - explaining nothing to his housekeeper other than that he had to go - with a hat, coat, and ten shillings. His wallet and personal papers were left at the house.
That is the last anyone ever saw of him.
A month after the disappearance, Martynellis collapsed at his home. He had apparently been visited by two men who had ordered him to keep quiet. Two years later, he died of a heart attack.
It gets interesting. John Heenan was the Bishop of a neighbouring city and made a cardinal in 1965. He advised the Police to exclude Martynellis as a suspect from the investigation, and called all claims of Martynellis' involvement "absurd".
So what are the theories?
In 1962 a KGB assassin claimed he had killed Borynski by using cyanide poison. This claim is very weak considering that all the available evidence suggests that the assassin spent most of his time in Eastern Europe and was trained in using cyanide in 1957. Also, one has to ask what interest the KGB would take in a minor Polish priest in a small city in the North of England - he was hardly a leading figure in resistance movements and there was nothing spectacular about his actions.
Martynellis may have killed him in order to keep his job; the evidence suggests the two did not get on well. The only difficulty with this theory is that he was presiding over a minority Lithuanian community amidst a large Polish one who disliked him; would it really be worth going to the effort of murder to keep his job? Then again, Martynellis had previously refused to leave Bradford.
Others have suggested that an over-zealous member of the Lithuanian community killed Bornyski in an effort to reinstate Martynellis.
Whatever the reason, no body has ever been found and the disappearance remains utterly baffling. I really wish there was more information available.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Henry_Borynski.