A trailblazing once-Catholic nun who then turned one of many first girls sworn in as an FBI particular agent died final week on the age of 83.
Joanne Pierce Misko — who earned the enduring nickname “Nun with a Gun” — died at a hospital in Wheatfield, New York, from a lung an infection, her brother instructed The Washington Put up.
Misko made historical past a number of occasions all through her storied profession, which concerned making the unimaginable leap from a bride of God to a girl of the legislation.
The legislation enforcement pioneer, born in Niagara Falls in 1941, spent 10 years educating at a Catholic college in Buffalo and was a member of the Sisters of Mercy convent — the place she subtly dropped hints her passions could have lied elsewhere.
“She all the time needed to play Clue. That ought to have been a clue,” one instructed WGRZ in 2022.
Misko traded her behavior for a badge in 1970, beginning as a researcher for the drive. Then, simply two years later, she set her sights on a promotion: particular agent.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who enforced Prohibition-era restrictions in opposition to girls within the drive, died in 1972, clearing the way in which for Misko to use — and land the job on the age of 31.
That July, Misko and former Marine Susan Roley had been sworn in as the primary feminine FBI particular brokers in practically a half-century, becoming a member of 43 males on the FBI Academy close to Quantico, Virginia, in line with the Bureau.
“[Misko] and Roley shortly proved their mettle. The boys started to affectionately check with them as ‘The Nun’ and ‘The Marine,’” Uncover Niagra stated of the history-makers. Misko additionally later revealed that the ladies had been issued a handbag along with their weapons and credentials.
Misko’s profession was removed from straightforward — shortly after being sworn in, she was deployed to Wounded Knee, South Dakota, throughout a 71-day standoff between federal brokers and protesters with the American Indian Motion.
She was concerned in a minimum of one of many firefights. She took cowl in an armored personnel service and handed ammunition to her fellow brokers.
Misko was later placed on assignments to pursue fugitives out of St. Louis, the primary of which was a navy deserter, who referred to as up the FBI ” incensed {that a} lady was being despatched out to get him,” she stated throughout an interview with the Bureau in 2012. “You realize, that he wasn’t worthy of a man. He needed to have a girl go after him.”
Misko made historical past but once more within the late Seventies when she turned one of many first feminine supervisors at FBI headquarters in Washington and in 1994 when she retired, she turned the longest-tenured feminine agent in FBI historical past.
Regardless of her wild success, Misko sadly confronted loads of discrimination within the office.
“I by no means had something nasty occur to me,” she as soon as instructed the Buffalo Information. “However you’re all the time going to have just a few pockets of resistance, males who will say, ‘I’m not going to work for a lady.’”
After delivering her badge, Misko sued the bureau for intercourse discrimination over claims she was handed over for promotion in favor of much less certified male colleagues — and she or he lambasted the FBI as an “previous boy’s community.”
The case was settled for an undisclosed sum.
“Submitting that lawsuit was one of many hardest issues I’ve ever finished in my life, as a result of the good majority of my emotions towards the FBI, and the individuals I labored with, are good emotions,” she stated within the Buffalo Information interview. “For essentially the most half, it was an ideal expertise in an incredible legislation enforcement company.”
Her many awards embody the American Police Corridor of Fame, the Silver Star for Bravery and the Lifetime Regulation Enforcement Achievement Award, in recognition of her “need to enhance the place of ladies in legislation enforcement and her excellence in public service,” in line with her obituary.
“I actually didn’t see myself as a pioneer,” she stated within the FBI interview. “It was only a position that I used to be lucky sufficient to turn into part of and I simply was simply finishing up that position of particular agent. So, I didn’t consider it in that regard on the time anyway.”
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