The Martyrdom of

Thomas Merton


Book reviews and comments

Island Catholic News Review

with introduction by Patrick Jamison


A Modern Thomas a Becket

by Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy


A Labyrinthine Tale of Murder and Deceit

by Sabina Clarke

Irish Edition


Murder of Anti-Vietnam War Monk Thomas Merton

by Phillip F. Nelson

Covert Action Magazine


Was Thomas Merton Assassinated?

by Joyce Rothermel

Thomas Merton Center -Pittsburgh


Profiles in Catholicism Review

by Eileen Quinn Knight


"The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation" - Solidly Convincing

by Matthew Fox - Island Catholic News


Irish Edition

Review by Sabina Clarke


Who Killed Thomas Merton?

by

Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy


Cistercium Review of The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton

by

Francisco Raphael de Pascual, O.C.S.O.


Irish American News Review

by

Sabina Clarke


Catholic Worker Book Review


The Merton Journal Review

by

Andrew Walker


Profoundly Grateful for this Courageous and Intelligent Work

by

Anthony Donovan


Speaking the Unspeakabe: The Assassination and Martyrdom of Thomas Merton

by

Edward Curtin


The Mysterious Death of Thomas Merton

by

Phillip F. Nelson


The Truth at Last

by

Matthew Fox


Bearing Witness to Thomas Merton

by

John Shuck


Thomas Merton: He Wasn't Electrocuted and He Didn't Take a Shower

by

Patrick Jamieson


The Shocking Death of Thomas Merton

by James G. Bruen, Jr.

Culture Wars Magazine


Unassailable !

-Brother Matthew Nyland O.S.B.

This is a marvelous book and very well researched,  

-Sister Inez Marie Salfer, P.C.P.A.

I found your book fascinating and troubling.  Your meticulous and extensive research brings out the many contradictions, changing statements, suspicious behavior and confusion surrounding his death and the “investigation” following it… The possibility of murder and a cover-up had never occurred to me, but is a totally believable conclusion after reading your book.   

-Sister Mary Paul, O.P.

I am sure that your contribution to our symposium is going to reveal the hidden truth on Merton's death. Let us hope it will be successful.

-Father Bernard Sawicki, O.S.B.,

Coordinator Monastic Institute at the Pontifical Atheneum, Sant' Anselmo, Rome




Turley and Martin provide detail after detail refuting the false information that has been disseminated for five decades.

- Matthew Fox

Rome now has the beginnings of Father Merton's cause for sainthood.

Rev. Donald Brice, Archdiocese of Washington, DC


"Turley and Martin doggedly track down documents, past interviews, witnesses, written accounts, and anything else they can obtain relevant to the circumstances of Merton's death while trying to unravel the errors, confusion, and contradictions...[Merton biographers Michael] Mott and [John Howard] Griffin...receive much of the authors' venom, and deservedly so."

- Culture Wars, December 2018


In a paper presented this summer in Rome at the Thomas Merton Symposium, David Martin and Hugh Turley presented the findings of their book, The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation, which discloses photographic evidence and picks holes in the accidental electrocution story.  - The Irish Times December 3, 2018

A brave and interesting book that gathers a subtle journalistic investigation about...the death of Thomas Merton..."   -Francisco Raphael de Pascual, OCSO


Until the publication of this provocative book there has never been an investigation into the strange circumstances surrounding the death of Thomas Merton. 

-Sabina Clarke

It is time to begin to not only recognize the value of Fr. Louis, Thomas Merton’s depth of search but his clear rightful station of martyrdom.  - Anthony Donovan