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00:00Easter Sunday in 1975 started off as a normal Easter holiday for the Ruppert family, but soon
00:13turned into a nightmare that is now dubbed as the deadliest family massacre in American history.
00:19Stay tuned as we uncover how a seemingly harmless man managed to murder 11 members of his family.
00:26James Urban Ruppert was born on March 29, 1934, to his mother Charity and father Leonard Ruppert.
00:35He, along with his older brother, Leonard Jr., grew up in Hamilton, Ohio.
00:39However, their small family was far from normal, as Leonard Sr., who was known to have a violent temper,
00:45made his children's childhood traumatic.
00:48To make matters worse, Charity picked her favorites when the boys were still young,
00:52always favoring her brighter and more confident older child, Leonard, over her younger son.
01:00James grew up in a hostile environment, and was often told by his mother that she wished
01:05he was never born since she wanted a daughter in his place.
01:09As expected from a child who grew up without parental affection, this negatively impacted
01:15Ruppert's self-confidence, and he grew up to become a loner.
01:19His parents' carelessness constantly cost him, including his father's insistence on keeping
01:25chickens around their house, causing him to develop an allergy to the feathers.
01:30Despite his allergy, his parents showed little to no concern for his well-being as they continued
01:36to keep the chickens around.
01:38When Ruppert turned 12 in 1947, his father became deathly ill and soon died of tuberculosis.
01:47However, his days of torment were far from over as his older brother quickly took over their
01:52father's role and went out of his way to harass his younger brother.
01:57As a result, Ruppert's performance in school was severely lacking as compared to his brother.
02:02With no friends to offer him any support, Ruppert found himself dealing with everything on his own
02:09as charity continued to ignore his existence.
02:12The constant bullying at home and school got so bad that at the age of 16, Ruppert decided
02:18to end things once and for all.
02:21He took sheets from his home and tried to hang himself.
02:23However, he failed to succeed in his suicidal attempt.
02:26This marked an important event in Ruppert's life as he stopped making any effort towards improving
02:32his life and accepted his fate as the inferior son.
02:37This became Ruppert's first and only suicide attempt.
02:41Not surprisingly, Ruppert grew to hate both his brother and mother.
02:45By the time he reached college, he stood at 5 feet 6 inches and only weighed 135 pounds.
02:52He spent two years in college before giving up on it as well, while his brother once again
02:58surpassed him and graduated with a degree in electrical engineering.
03:03It helped that Leonard Jr. had his mother's full support.
03:07His resentment towards his brother grew to a dangerous level when Leonard Jr. married one
03:13of Ruppert's former girlfriends named Alma, a girl that he never lost feelings for.
03:18This would later be cited as a motive for his rampage.
03:23Ruppert began to feel as if the entire world was against him and resigned himself to an unremarkable
03:29life, accepting defeat.
03:31He trained to become a draftsman, but remained unemployed for the majority of his life, leaving
03:37him with no choice but to continue living with his mother, often borrowing money from her
03:43and Leonard Jr.
03:44While his brother not only managed to get a job with General Electric, he also bought a
03:50house in Fairfield, where he lived with Alma and their eight children, 17-year-old Leonard
03:55III, 16-year-old Michael, 15-year-old Thomas, 13-year-old Carol, 12-year-old Anne, 11-years-old
04:04David, 9-year-old Teresa, and 4-year-old John.
04:08Perhaps because he was so frustrated with his life, Ruppert developed an affinity for
04:14guns.
04:15Among his collection, he had a .357 Magnum, two .22 handguns, and a .22 rifle.
04:23Two things became ritual for Ruppert, drinking and target practicing.
04:27Ruppert had turned to drinking to deal with the toxic environment at home, as well as to
04:32numb his feelings of inferiority.
04:35As he got older and remained unemployed, Charity, tired of his drinking, threatened to evict him
04:41unless he paid rent.
04:44However, since he had lost all of his money during the stock market crash of 1973 to 1974,
04:51Ruppert had no way to pay his portion of the rent.
04:54Although Charity intended for this threat to motivate him to get his life back on track,
04:59she unknowingly pushed him towards his breaking point.
05:03As the threat of eviction loomed over his head, Ruppert began to approach his breaking point.
05:09While purchasing ammunition one day, he inquired about silencers, but did not end up going through
05:15with the purchase.
05:16On March 29, 1975, Ruppert turned 41.
05:21On his birthday, he was seen at the Great Miami River in Hamilton shooting cans, and this
05:26became pivotal in helping the prosecution build their case against him.
05:31It can be argued that he was possibly preparing for one of the deadliest nights in Hamilton,
05:36Ohio.
05:38That night, Ruppert stumbled into a bar called the 19th Hole Cocktail Lounge.
05:44He met 28-year-old mother of five, Wanda Bishop, who worked at the cocktail lounge, and confessed
05:51that his mother was threatening to evict him if he failed to find a job to pay for his portion
05:56of the rent.
05:58Charity had told him that if he could afford to pay for his drinks, he could pay her rent
06:02as well.
06:03Wanda recalled that Ruppert insisted that he had to find a way to solve the problem.
06:09Ruppert stayed in the cocktail lounge until 11 p.m. before leaving, but soon returned and
06:15continued drinking until the lounge closed at 2.30 a.m.
06:19When Wanda asked him if he had managed to resolve his problem, Ruppert replied, no, not yet.
06:26The next morning, Charity, who was not feeling well, called Leonard Jr. and his family for
06:31Easter dinner instead of an early lunch at their house, 635 Minor Avenue.
06:37Once Leonard Jr. and Alma arrived, their children participated in an Easter egg hunt outside,
06:43while Ruppert slept in late, nursing a hangover from the previous night.
06:48By the time he got up at 4 p.m., everyone had moved inside to continue the celebration,
06:53while Charity prepared sloppy Joes for the family, and Alma helped put them together.
07:00Ruppert stayed with the family for a short while before returning upstairs to retrieve a .357 Magnum,
07:07.222 handguns, and a rifle.
07:09He intended to head to a shooting range to spend his day, but as he was leaving, his brother asked
07:15him, how's the Volkswagen?
07:18Ruppert took this as an insult, as Leonard Jr.'s comments reminded him of his own failure
07:23to lead a successful life like his brother.
07:26Instead of leaving for the shooting range as planned, Ruppert made a split-second decision
07:31that not only altered the trajectory of his life forever, but also robbed 11 people of their lives.
07:37At 6 p.m., Charity, Leonard, Alma, their son David, and daughters Tessa and Carol, who were in the
07:45kitchen, became Ruppert's first victims as he fired off several shots in rapid succession,
07:51hitting all of them in the chest, except for his mother, whom he shot in the head as she jumped at
07:57him to try and prevent him from killing anyone else. He then moved to the living room where he shot his
08:02niece, Anne, Leonard III, Michael, and John. After his initial shots, Ruppert went around and shot
08:09everyone several more times to make sure that they were dead.
08:12After the initial shooting, and if people were moaning and groaning still, he shot them in the head.
08:21The entire ordeal took less than five minutes, with Ruppert only stopping in the middle to reload.
08:27All in all, he fired 44 shots out of which 40 hit the victims. After making sure that everyone was
08:36dead, Ruppert sat with his family's dead bodies for three hours, contemplating suicide, but decided
08:43that since it was a mortal sin, he did not want it to be his last act. After three hours, he decided to
08:49make a 911 call. He told the 911 dispatcher that there has been a shooting.
08:55As his relatives took their last breaths around him, Ruppert sat on the couch. He waited there for
09:01three to four hours before he called police to tell them someone's been shot.
09:07When officers arrived at the scene a few minutes later, Ruppert greeted them at the front door.
09:12At first glance, the officers did not suspect that anything sinister was waiting for them beyond the
09:17front door, since Ruppert with his short stature and thick black framed glasses did not fit into
09:23the usual description of a murderer. As the officers entered the house, they were in for the shock of
09:29a lifetime. One of the responding officers also reported that he had never seen anything like the
09:35crime scene before him and that he had to rush to the side to throw up. There was so much blood on the
09:41floors that it had seeped through the wooden floorboards and was dripping into the basement.
09:45There was no sign of struggle inside the house except for an overturned trash can,
09:50indicating that because the family had not expected this, they did not have enough time to react.
09:56As the Hamilton Police Department was made aware of the shocking discovery,
10:00they immediately covered the area with police tape as people began to gather around. The small community
10:06that had known the Ruppert family as a loving family was taken by surprise at the tragedy,
10:12and was even more horrified to find that the helpful and modest man they had known their whole lives
10:17was behind the murders. The first body to leave the house was of little John, with his sneaker peeking
10:24out of the sheet drawn over him. Dread began to fill everyone as one by one. Eleven stretchers were
10:30brought out of the house, all carrying the now dead members of the Ruppert family.
10:35Ruppert's site was in two rooms of a modest two-story Hamilton home where James Ruppert lived with his
10:41mother. In two rooms, eleven bodies, including Ruppert's mother, Ruppert's brother, his brother's wife,
10:48and their eight children, the oldest seventeen, the youngest, a four-year-old boy. Ruppert was arrested on
10:55the counts of eleven aggravated homicides. Despite being known as a demure but helpful man, Ruppert
11:02remained uncooperative with the officers and refused to answer any of their questions. Investigators
11:09struggled to find a motive since the suspect in custody refused to say anything. During the initial
11:15questioning, it was made clear by Ruppert that he planned on pleading insanity. The prosecutors
11:21believed that Ruppert planned on taking advantage of the $300,000 worth of inheritance left by both
11:27his brother and mother in the form of their properties and assets. By pleading guilty, he would
11:34serve time at a court-appointed facility before being released and getting hold of the inheritance.
11:40This case led to two high-profile trials. During the initial trial, Ruppert admitted to killing his
11:47family but pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. Ruppert was represented by Hugh D. Holbrock,
11:53who became so dedicated to the case that he even personally funded the hiring of psychiatrists and
11:59psychologists from all over the country to testify in favor of Ruppert's insanity plea.
12:05Two psychiatrists who were brought on by his defense team concluded that Ruppert suffered from
12:10paranoia and delusions of persecution that were brought on by the beatings he had endured during
12:16his early life at the hands of his brother. This is why, they argued, he had been unable to control
12:23his actions at the time of the crime. Havard University psychiatrist Dr. Lester Grinspoon supplied
12:30his expert opinion claiming that if more people were present in the house, Ruppert might have killed
12:36them as well, pushing the narrative that Ruppert did not have a solid motive other than insanity.
12:41After the slaughter, James Ruppert changed his clothes and called the cops. He was charged and
12:48tried for 11 murders. His attorneys said he killed during a psychotic rage. They said he was insane.
12:54Along those same lines, doctor, isn't it true that you have no way of telling the court
13:03what Mr. Ruppert's ability to rationally discuss the case with his attorneys,
13:09to rationally assist in the preparation of a defense would be if he were not under the effect
13:14of either a major tranquilizer such as Thorazine or Trilofant at this time. Isn't that right?
13:21I have no specific way of telling that other than to say that during the course of my examination with
13:26him, he was able at that time and under that condition with that dosage of medication to rationally
13:33confer with me and talk to me about what had happened.
13:36At the same time, the prosecution argued that Ruppert planned to misuse the insanity plea
13:42to inherit the $300,000 inheritance.
13:46He murdered his family to collect his brother's $300,000 or so in life insurance. That's what I
13:52think. That's what I think the evidence showed and that's what I believe.
13:55Instead of having his case presented in front of a jury, Ruppert decided to have his case tried in
14:01front of three judges. However, he was incorrectly told that all three of the judges would have to
14:08agree unanimously on a decision. Two out of the three judges found Ruppert sane and convicted him on 11
14:15counts of aggravated murder. He was sentenced to serve 11 consecutive life sentences. During 1975,
14:23the United States had banned the death penalty, saving Ruppert from being given a death sentence.
14:29The third Hamilton County judge, Fred Kramer, however, found Ruppert insane.
14:37Between the years 1977 and 1978, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled that there had been a mistrial since the
14:44judges did not know whether they needed to unanimously agree on a decision or have a majority rule.
14:51Ruppert was granted another trial that was determined to be held in Findlay, Ohio,
14:56since it was deemed that he could not receive a fair trial in the city of Hamilton.
15:01On July the 23rd, 1975, the new trial began where Ruppert and his defense team once again argued for the
15:10insanity plea. However, the prosecution led by John Holcomb brought forward 29 witnesses and presented
15:18200 exhibits in court, successfully building a different line of reasoning. He argued that his
15:24inquiry into the silencers, practicing his shooting, and talking about his mother as a problem that needed
15:30to be resolved, were all pointing towards the fact that this mass murder was a carefully plotted crime,
15:38especially given the fact that the shooting had been carried out at a time when the church bells had
15:43begun ringing, hence drowning out the noise from the gunshots, preventing anyone from calling the
15:49authorities. He went on to say that Ruppert planned on aiming for the insanity plea because that would ensure
15:55that he would be sent to the Lima, a state mental hospital where he would eventually be declared sane.
16:03This would allow him to easily inherit the $300,000 worth of inheritance left behind by Leonard and
16:09Charity, which he would not be able to do if he was convicted of murder. Based on the prosecution's
16:16convincing argument, Ruppert was once again sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences. A few years later,
16:24in 1982, on appeal, Ruppert was granted another trial, where his defense attorney was able to convince the
16:31jury to grant him an insanity plea. Ruppert was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for his
16:38brother and mother, but found not guilty for the remaining nine counts of murder by reason of insanity.
16:45The only family member to attend the trial was Alma's mother, Edna Allgaier. She blamed Ruppert for 13
16:55deaths, including her husband, who took his own life three years after the incident on Easter Day,
17:00as well as a juror who collapsed during the trial and died of a heart attack. When Edna passed away,
17:07her headstone proclaimed that she was preceded by eight grandchildren. At the age of 48, Ruppert was
17:13incarcerated by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction at the Franklin Medical Center in
17:19Columbus. Thirteen years later, at the age of 61, Ruppert was granted another parole hearing by the state
17:26parole board, but was denied release. He was granted two more parole hearings, one in 2005 and another one in
17:332015. During all of these parole hearings, he was denied release. During his last hearing in 2015, the Allen
17:43Oakwood Correctional Institutional Parole Board released a statement that indicated that Ruppert was not
17:49suitable for release due to his negative institutional conduct, as well as a strong community objection to
17:55his release. Seven years later, Ruppert died at the age of 88 of natural causes, having spent 47 years in
18:03prison. A man who shot and killed 11 family members on Easter 1975 has died. James Ruppert died over
18:11the weekend at Franklin Medical Center in Columbus at the age of 88. The Hamilton Journal News says that
18:16he died of natural causes. The Ruppert family was buried in Arlington Memorial Garden in Cincinnati, Ohio.
18:24A year after the heinous mass murder, the house was opened up to the public. The Ruppert family's
18:30belongings were auctioned off, and the hardwood floors were covered with a carpet in places where
18:35bloodstains were harder to remove. The house was rented to a family who was unaware of the house's
18:42history. As soon as they found out, they moved out, complaining of hearing strange voices and other
18:49unexplained noises. To this day, the house remains occupied. Even today, the Easter Sunday massacre is
18:57remembered as one of the deadliest family massacres in America. A book called The Easter Sunday Massacre,
19:04A Prosecutor's Diary, The True Story of Mass Murderer James Ruppert. Written by the lead
19:10prosecutor John's daughter-in-law, Karen Holcomb was published with the help of his notes left behind
19:16after his death. Karen Holcomb first became familiar with this case in the 1990s when she was a reporter for
19:22the Journal News. She didn't know at the time that her coverage would lead to her marrying the
19:27prosecutor's son and decades later taking her late father-in-law's words and crafting them into a book
19:33that details the trauma left behind after this tragedy. What did you think of the case? Do you think
19:40Ruppert was eligible for the insanity plea? Or do you think that this was an elaborate plan that he had come
19:46up with after deciding that he was finally done accepting the abuse he had endured his entire life?
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