A trailblazing once-Catholic nun who then became one of the first women sworn in as an FBI special agent died last week at the age of 83.
Joanne Pierce Misko — who earned the iconic nickname “Nun with a Gun” — died at a hospital in Wheatfield, New York, from a lung infection, her brother told The Washington Post.
Misko made history multiple times throughout her storied career, which involved making the incredible leap from a bride of God to a woman of the law.
The law enforcement pioneer, born in Niagara Falls in 1941, spent 10 years teaching at a Catholic school in Buffalo and was a member of the Sisters of Mercy convent — where she subtly dropped hints her passions may have lied elsewhere.
“She always wanted to play Clue. That should have been a clue,” one told WGRZ in 2022.
Misko traded her habit for a badge in 1970, starting as a researcher for the force. Then, just two years later, she set her sights on a promotion: special agent.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who enforced Prohibition-era restrictions against women in the force, died in 1972, clearing the way for Misko to apply — and land the job at the age of 31.
That July, Misko and former Marine Susan Roley were sworn in as the first female FBI special agents in nearly a half-century, joining 43 men at the FBI Academy near Quantico, Virginia, according to the Bureau.
“[Misko] and Roley quickly proved their mettle. The men began to affectionately refer to them as ‘The Nun’ and ‘The Marine,’” Discover Niagra said of the history-makers. Misko also later revealed that the women were issued a purse in addition to their guns and credentials.
Misko’s career was far from easy — shortly after being sworn in, she was deployed to Wounded Knee, South Dakota, during a 71-day standoff between federal agents and protesters with the American Indian Movement.
She was involved in at least one of the firefights. She took cover in an armored personnel carrier and passed ammunition to her fellow agents.
Misko was later put on assignments to pursue fugitives out of St. Louis, the first of which was a military deserter, who called up the FBI ” incensed that a woman was being sent out to get him,” she said during an interview with the Bureau in 2012. “You know, that he wasn’t worthy of a guy. He had to have a woman go after him.”
Misko made history yet again in the late 1970s when she became one of the first female supervisors at FBI headquarters in Washington and in 1994 when she retired, she became the longest-tenured female agent in FBI history.
Despite her wild success, Misko unfortunately faced plenty of discrimination in the workplace.
“I never had anything nasty happen to me,” she once told the Buffalo News. “But you’re always going to have a few pockets of resistance, men who will say, ‘I’m not going to work for a woman.’”
After turning in her badge, Misko sued the bureau for sex discrimination over claims she was passed over for promotion in favor of less qualified male colleagues — and she lambasted the FBI as an “old boy’s network.”
The case was settled for an undisclosed sum.
“Filing that lawsuit was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, because the great majority of my feelings toward the FBI, and the people I worked with, are good feelings,” she said in the Buffalo News interview. “For the most part, it was a great experience in a tremendous law enforcement agency.”
Her many awards include the American Police Hall of Fame, the Silver Star for Bravery and the Lifetime Law Enforcement Achievement Award, in recognition of her “desire to improve the position of women in law enforcement and her excellence in public service,” according to her obituary.
“I honestly didn’t see myself as a pioneer,” she said in the FBI interview. “It was just a role that I was fortunate enough to become a part of and I just was just carrying out that role of special agent. So, I didn’t think of it in that regard at the time anyway.”
