The Pastor's Wife (film)
| The Pastor's Wife | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Norma Bailey |
| Produced by | Jonas Goodman Harvey Kahn |
| Written by | Robert L. Freedman and Diane Fanning |
| Starring | Rose McGowan |
| Distributed by | Lifetime Television |
|
Release date
|
2011 |
|
Running time
|
87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Pastor's Wife is a 2011 biographical television film, starring Rose McGowan as Mary Winkler and based on the true crime book of the same title by author Diane Fanning. It premiered on Saturday, November 5, at 8 pm ET/PT on the Lifetime Network.
Mary Winkler is a housewife and mother of three daughters who is married to Matthew Winkler, a pastor who is admired by many in his community for his friendliness and his views about family values. To many in town the Winklers are seen as a perfect family with Matthew as a perfect husband and wonderful father and Mary as a dutiful wife and mother. However, early one morning at the Winkler's home, a shotgun blast is heard by the Winkler children. Mary takes the children away in the car on a sudden trip, with the children wondering what happened to their father. Concerned neighbors investigate the Winkler home that night, finding Matthew dead in a bedroom with a shotgun wound. Fearing the Winkler family has been kidnapped, the local and state authorities and FBI issues an Amber alert for the Winklers. Eventually a patrol car finds Mary and her children but they also find a shotgun in her car and apprehend Mrs. Winkler. Later the shotgun is identified as the murder weapon. At the station, Mary admits she may have shot her husband, which shocks the community and her parents-in-law. At first Mary refuses to divulge more about the incident and refuses to say anything negative about her husband. But her lawyer convinces her to reveal a darker, hidden side of Matthew.
Mary reveals that Matthew, despite his kind pastor image, was an angry and abusive man who engaged in physical and emotional abuse when she did something that angered him. She had never revealed this to anyone because her religious beliefs led her to silence. Matthew threatened to hurt or kill her to make her keep quiet. Mary also revealed Matthew tried to tax cheat the money she won in a lottery in order to pay their bills by having her put it in an account at another bank under her name. When the bank calls and asks her and her husband to meet them due to suspicions about the money, Mary tells Matthew about it on the night before he is murdered, but Matthew has no intention to follow her to the bank, citing since the account was under her name, it was her problem to deal with it. Mary refuses to reveal more of the abuses she suffered from Matthew to her lawyer, but upon learning her parents-in-law have not given her daughters her letters over what happened, making her eldest believe she murdered their father in cold blood, Mary finally reveals it in order to not lose custody of her daughters.
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