WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.680 The first sign that something was terribly wrong inside the 2 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:05.599 Ruppert home was not a scream, a struggle, or a 3 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:09.400 frantic attempt to escape. It was the silence. On Easter Sunday, 4 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:14.400 March thirtieth, nineteen seventy five, a family had gathered in Hamilton, Ohio, 5 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:18.600 expecting an ordinary holiday. Children had been hunting for Easter eggs, 6 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:22.239 food was being prepared. Relatives were together inside a modest 7 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.359 two story house on Minor Avenue, and then, in a 8 00:00:25.399 --> 00:00:28.199 matter of minutes, eleven members of the Ruppert family would 9 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:30.920 be dead. The man responsible was not a stranger who 10 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:33.600 had forced his way inside. He was already there. His 11 00:00:33.719 --> 00:00:36.679 name was James Urban Ruppert. To understand how that Easter 12 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:39.880 afternoon ended in one of the deadliest family massacres in 13 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:43.159 American history, it is necessary to look much further back 14 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:46.320 than the gunshots. The story began with a childhood marked 15 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:50.520 by rejection, humiliation, and resentment. James was born on March 16 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:54.880 twenty ninth, nineteen thirty four, in Hamilton, Ohio, to Leonard 17 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:57.920 and Charity Ruppert. He had an older brother, Leonard Junior, 18 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:01.039 and from the beginning the two boys octionccupied very different 19 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:04.319 places within the family. According to accounts later presented during 20 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:08.079 the legal proceedings, Charity favored Leonard Junior. She viewed him 21 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:12.280 as the brighter and more confident son. James meanwhile, reportedly 22 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:14.719 grew up believing that his mother had never wanted him. 23 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:19.000 He was smaller, quieter, and increasingly isolated. His father did 24 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:22.159 little to create stability. Leonard Senior was known for having 25 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:25.719 a violent temper, and James's childhood was reportedly filled with 26 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:28.840 tension inside the home. Even something as ordinary as the 27 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:32.560 family's chickens became another source of misery. James developed an 28 00:01:32.599 --> 00:01:35.760 allergy to the bird's feathers, yet the chickens remained around 29 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:39.120 the house. Then, when James was twelve, another piece of 30 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:43.560 his childhood disappeared. His father died of tuberculosis. For most children, 31 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:47.000 losing a parent can transform the entire structure of a family. 32 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:49.959 For James, it meant that the older brother he already 33 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.560 resented became even more dominant in his life. Leonard Junior 34 00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:56.319 took on a role of authority, and, according to testimony 35 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.599 later used by the defense, James was subjected to repeated 36 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:03.280 beatings and humiliation. At school, things were not much better. 37 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:07.120 He struggled academically, had few friends, and watched his older 38 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:10.360 brother continue to succeed where he could not. By sixteen, 39 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:12.960 James had reached a point where he no longer believed 40 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:15.919 his circumstances could change. He took sheets from the family 41 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:19.240 home and attempted to hang himself. He survived. It would 42 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:22.280 be his only known suicide attempt, but surviving did not 43 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:26.639 mean that his life improved. Instead, James increasingly withdrew from 44 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:29.560 the world around him. He abandoned his education after two 45 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:32.360 years of college and later trained as a draftsman, but 46 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:35.800 steady employment remained out of reach. His brother's life moved 47 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:39.120 in the opposite direction. Leonard Junior graduated with a degree 48 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:43.159 in electrical engineering and eventually obtained employment with General Electric. 49 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:46.280 He married Alma, a woman who had once been involved 50 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:49.520 with James, and established a home in Fairfield. The family 51 00:02:49.560 --> 00:02:53.159 grew eight children would eventually live under Leonard and Alma's roof. 52 00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:56.680 For James, every success his brother achieved appeared to deepen 53 00:02:56.680 --> 00:02:58.960 the feeling that he had been left behind, and that 54 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:04.719 resentment would eventually become intertwined with something far more dangerous. Alcohol, firearms, 55 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:08.960 financial desperation, and an increasingly unstable relationship with the people 56 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.120 closest to him. By the early nineteen seventies, James was 57 00:03:12.159 --> 00:03:15.280 still largely unemployed and living with his mother. He was 58 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:17.879 forty years old, He had little money, and the woman 59 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:20.680 he believed had rejected him throughout his life was now 60 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:23.159 telling him that even his place in her home was 61 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:27.400 no longer guaranteed. Charity had begun demanding that James contribute rent, 62 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:29.879 telling him that if he could afford to spend money 63 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:32.759 on alcohol, he could afford to contribute to the household. 64 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:36.280 On the surface, it was a practical demand, but to James, 65 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:40.560 already carrying decades of resentment and humiliation, it became another 66 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:43.120 reminder that he had failed where his brother had succeeded. 67 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:46.879 Then came the financial losses. James had reportedly lost much 68 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:49.479 of his money during the stock market decline of nineteen 69 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:53.000 seventy three and nineteen seventy four. Whatever independence he might 70 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:56.479 once have imagined was disappearing. He remained dependent on charity 71 00:03:56.599 --> 00:03:59.960 and at times on Leonard Junior. That dependence was he 72 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:03.080 humiliating for a man who already believed his family saw 73 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:05.599 him as inferior. And there was another part of his 74 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:10.560 life that increasingly occupied his attention. Guns. James owned several firearms, 75 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:13.680 including a point three five seven magnum two point two 76 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:16.360 two caliber handguns and a point two to two rifle. 77 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:20.399 Target shooting became a regular activity. Drinking was another. The 78 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:24.079 two habits increasingly existed side by side, offering him a 79 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:26.720 way to escape the frustration he carried with him. But 80 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:30.720 shortly before the massacre, one detail would become particularly important 81 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:34.959 to investigators. James reportedly asked about buying silencers. There is 82 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.639 no indication in the information available that he actually purchased one, 83 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:41.759 but prosecutors would later point to the inquiry as evidence 84 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:45.079 that he had begun thinking about how gunfire might be concealed. 85 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:48.879 Then came his forty first birthday, March twenty ninth, nineteen 86 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:51.600 seventy five. James spent part of the day near the 87 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:55.240 Great Miami River in Hamilton, shooting at Cannes. At the time, 88 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:57.920 it could have looked like nothing more than another afternoon 89 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:01.319 of target practice, But after the murders, that ordinary looking 90 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:04.680 activity took on a much darker meaning. Was James simply 91 00:05:04.759 --> 00:05:07.480 practicing with his guns as he had done before, or 92 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:09.639 was he preparing for what was about to happen. That 93 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:12.600 question would become central to the case. Later that night, 94 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:16.199 James went to the nineteenth Whole Cocktail Lounge. There he 95 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.560 met Wanda Bishop, a twenty eight year old mother of 96 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:21.360 five who worked at the establishment. James talked to her 97 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:23.759 about his problems. He told her that his mother was 98 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:25.839 threatening to evict him if he could not find a 99 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:28.439 job and pay his share of the rent. According to 100 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:32.079 Wanda's recollection, James was focused on the problem and insisted 101 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.000 that he had to find a way to resolve it. 102 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:36.879 He remained at the lounge until around eleven that night, 103 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:40.480 then he left, but he came back. James continued drinking 104 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:43.680 until the lounge closed at approximately two thirty in the morning. 105 00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:46.360 When Wanda asked him whether he had solved his problem, 106 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:49.519 his answer was simple, not yet. Those words would later 107 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:52.879 become part of the disturbing chain of events surrounding the massacre, 108 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:56.360 because only hours later, James would be inside the same 109 00:05:56.399 --> 00:05:59.560 home where his mother lived, surrounded by the family members 110 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:02.519 with whom his his entire life had become entangled. Easter 111 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:05.839 morning arrived, Charity was not feeling well, so instead of 112 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:08.639 an early Easter lunch, Leonard Junior and his family were 113 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:12.079 invited to the Ruppert home. At six thirty five Minor Avenue. 114 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:15.560 Leonard arrived with Alma and their eight children. For the children, 115 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:18.439 the day began like a holiday should. They went outside 116 00:06:18.439 --> 00:06:22.079 for an Easter egg hunt, while the adults remained nearby. Inside, 117 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:25.319 Charity prepared sloppy Joes, and Almah helped with the meal. 118 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:28.360 Nothing about the gathering suggested that the family was about 119 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.720 to become the scene of a mass killing. James meanwhile, 120 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.759 was asleep. He had spent much of the previous night drinking, 121 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:37.000 and by the time he finally woke around four in 122 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:40.639 the afternoon, the Easter celebration was already underway. The family 123 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:43.839 had moved inside. For a brief moment, James was simply 124 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:46.680 another member of the gathering. Then he went upstairs, and 125 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.120 when he came back down he was carrying the guns 126 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:52.079 that would change everything. He had apparently intended to leave 127 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:55.079 the house and go to a shooting range. The firearms 128 00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:57.319 were with him, and for the moment that may have 129 00:06:57.360 --> 00:06:59.920 been all he intended to do. Then Leonard Junior asked 130 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:03.680 him a seemingly ordinary question house the Volkswagen. On any 131 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:06.720 other day, it might have been nothing more than casual conversation, 132 00:07:07.160 --> 00:07:09.439 but James did not hear it that way. To him. 133 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:12.399 The question became another reminder of the difference between the 134 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:16.680 two brothers. Leonard had a career, a wife, children, a home, 135 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:19.639 and the appearance of a successful life. James had spent 136 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:23.199 years struggling to establish even the smallest measure of independence. 137 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:26.639 Whatever James felt in that moment, something changed. He did 138 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:29.839 not leave for the shooting range. Instead, according to the 139 00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:32.800 account presented in court, he turned his attention toward the 140 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:36.160 people inside the house. At approximately six in the evening, 141 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:40.480 the violence began. Charity, Leonard, Junior, Alma, and several of 142 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:42.959 the children were in the kitchen when James opened fire. 143 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:45.920 The first shot struck the family with almost no warning. 144 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:49.360 There was little opportunity for anyone to understand what was happening. 145 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:53.160 Charity attempted to move toward James, apparently trying to stop 146 00:07:53.240 --> 00:07:56.040 him from shooting anyone else. She was killed as well. 147 00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:59.040 James then moved into the living room. More family members 148 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:05.199 were there, three Michael Thomas, Carol, David, Teresa John. One 149 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:08.000 by one, they were shot. The attack lasted only a 150 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:12.079 few minutes. Investigators would later determine that James fired forty 151 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:15.560 four rounds with approximately forty striking members of his family. 152 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:17.720 The sheer speed of the attack was one of the 153 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:20.720 details that would make the case so difficult to comprehend. 154 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.959 There had been no prolonged confrontation, no warning that the 155 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.720 family understood in time, no chance for most of them 156 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:29.720 to escape. The people inside the house had gathered for Easter. 157 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:32.639 Within minutes, eleven of them were dead, and then the 158 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:36.480 shooting stopped. James remained inside the house. He was surrounded 159 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.399 by the consequences of what he had done for several hours. 160 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:43.000 He did not immediately flee. Instead, according to the account 161 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:45.600 presented in the case, he sat among the bodies and 162 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:49.200 contemplated taking his own life, but he ultimately decided against 163 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:52.600 suicide because he believed it would be immortal sin. Eventually, 164 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:55.679 after spending roughly three to four hours inside the house, 165 00:08:55.960 --> 00:08:59.120 James picked up the telephone and called emergency services. His 166 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.960 words were brief, there had been a shooting. When officers 167 00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:04.639 arrived at the house, James was waiting for them. He 168 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:07.440 went to the front door. The officers initially had little 169 00:09:07.480 --> 00:09:10.120 reason to expect what they were about to see. James 170 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:12.600 was a short bespectacled man who had been known in 171 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:16.080 the community as quiet and helpful. Nothing about his appearance 172 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:19.720 immediately suggested the scale of the violence waiting inside. Then 173 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:23.679 the officers entered, the reality became impossible to ignore. The 174 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:26.840 crime scene was unlike anything some of them had encountered before. 175 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:29.799 Blood had spread across the floors, and, according to an 176 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:33.039 officer's later account, it had seeped through the wooden floorboards 177 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:36.200 into the basement. There was little evidence of a prolonged struggle. 178 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:39.639 One overturned trash and was among the few obvious signs 179 00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:42.960 of disruption. That absence of a major struggle was significant. 180 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:45.559 It suggested that the family had not been prepared for 181 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:48.519 an attack from someone they knew. The police secured the house, 182 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:53.200 words spread rapidly through Hamilton. Neighbors gathered outside, struggling to 183 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:56.519 understand how a family that had appeared ordinary and close 184 00:09:56.639 --> 00:09:59.159 could have been destroyed inside its own home. Then the 185 00:09:59.159 --> 00:10:03.519 stretchers began coming out, one after another, eleven victims, eleven 186 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:06.279 members of the same family, and behind the police tape 187 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:09.639 stood the man responsible already in custody. But the question 188 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:12.960 that investigators could not immediately answer was perhaps the most 189 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:15.840 important one. Of all why. James had admitted that he 190 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:18.919 had killed his family, but he was not offering investigators 191 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:22.159 a clear explanation, and before long, the question of why 192 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:25.240 would become inseparable from another question that would define the 193 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:28.360 case for decades. Was James Ruppert insane when he pulled 194 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:30.919 the trigger? Or had he planned the massacre long before 195 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.799 anyone realized what he was capable of? The answer would 196 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:37.000 not come easily because James Ruppert was not simply facing 197 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:40.159 eleven murder charges. He was facing a legal battle over 198 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:43.320 what had been happening inside his mind before, during, and 199 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:46.720 after the shooting. Investigators knew what had happened inside the house. 200 00:10:47.159 --> 00:10:49.759 They knew James had used his firearms to kill eleven 201 00:10:49.799 --> 00:10:52.159 members of his family. They knew he had remained at 202 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:55.120 the scene for hours and eventually called the police himself, 203 00:10:55.399 --> 00:10:58.200 But the motive was far less certain. James was largely 204 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:02.279 uncooperative during the early question. Rather than providing investigators with 205 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.399 a straightforward explanation, he made it clear that his defense 206 00:11:05.399 --> 00:11:09.320 would center on insanity. That decision immediately changed the direction 207 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:12.240 of the case. If James had been legally insane when 208 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:15.399 he committed the murders, the prosecution would have to overcome 209 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:18.399 the argument that he could not fully understand or control 210 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:21.279 his actions. If he had been sane and had deliberately 211 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:24.159 planned the killings, then the case looked very different. The 212 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:27.519 prosecution believed there was a financial motive. Leonard Junior had 213 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:31.279 accumulated property and assets, and James's mother also had assets 214 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:35.000 of her own. Prosecutors estimated the potential inheritance at roughly 215 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:38.600 three hundred thousand dollars. Their theory was that James understood 216 00:11:38.600 --> 00:11:41.279 that his brother and mother stood between him and that money, 217 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:45.480 but the defense offered a completely different explanation. James's attorney, 218 00:11:45.639 --> 00:11:49.159 Hugh D. Halbrock, argued that his client's behavior was the 219 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:53.840 product of severe psychological disturbance. Halbrock became deeply involved in 220 00:11:53.879 --> 00:11:57.000 the case and reportedly personally helped fund the hiring of 221 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:01.159 psychiatrists and psychologists who would testify on James's behalf. Among 222 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.480 the defense experts were psychiatrists who believed James suffered from 223 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:08.240 paranoia and delusions of persecution. They connected those problems to 224 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:12.360 his childhood. For years, James had reportedly experienced rejection from 225 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:14.840 his mother and abuse from his older brother. He had 226 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:20.039 struggled socially, academically, financially, and professionally. His defense team argued 227 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:24.639 that these experiences had gradually damaged his ability to function normally. Then, 228 00:12:24.919 --> 00:12:28.279 on Easter Sunday, something inside him had finally broken. One 229 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:31.120 of the most prominent experts associated with the defense was 230 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:36.000 Harvard psychiatrist doctor Lester Grinspoon. Grinspoon offered a disturbing possibility. 231 00:12:36.279 --> 00:12:39.080 He suggested that James's actions might not have been driven 232 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:42.600 by a carefully calculated motive at all. Instead, he believed 233 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:45.559 James could have been acting during a severe psychotic episode, 234 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:49.000 and according to the account presented at trial, Grinspoon went 235 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:52.120 even further, if more people had been present inside the house, 236 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.480 he suggested James might have killed them too. That argument 237 00:12:55.559 --> 00:12:58.480 was important because it challenged the prosecution's theory of a 238 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:01.639 targeted family murder for fire financial gain. If James had 239 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:04.679 carefully planned the killings to obtain an inheritance, why had 240 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:07.120 he waited until Easter, Why had he remained at the 241 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:10.440 crime scene afterward, Why had he eventually called the police himself, 242 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:12.960 and why had his life shown such a long history 243 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:16.720 of psychological problems. The prosecution had its own answers. They 244 00:13:16.759 --> 00:13:19.639 pointed to James's behavior before the massacre. He had been 245 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:23.159 practicing with his guns. He had reportedly asked about silencers, 246 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:25.799 He had been drinking heavily, he had spoken about the 247 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:28.600 problem of being forced to pay rent, and then on 248 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:31.600 the afternoon of the killings, he had taken several firearms 249 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:35.440 with him before suddenly turning back toward his family. To prosecutors, 250 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:38.480 these were not random details. They were pieces of a plan. 251 00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:41.080 The fact that the shooting occurred around the time church 252 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:44.919 bells were ringing also became significant. Prosecutors argued that the 253 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:47.480 bells could have helped conceal the sound of gunfire from 254 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:50.480 people outside. And there was another possibility that made the 255 00:13:50.519 --> 00:13:53.919 case even more complicated. Perhaps James had considered what would 256 00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:56.919 happen after the killings. The prosecution believed he might have 257 00:13:56.960 --> 00:13:59.799 intended to use an insanity defense, be committed to a 258 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:03.879 state mental institution, eventually be declared sane, and then gain 259 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:07.039 access to the inheritance. It was a theory, but theories 260 00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:09.879 would not decide the case. The courtroom would, and when 261 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:12.639 the first trial began, James Ruppert admitted that he had 262 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:15.360 killed his family. What he disputed was whether he should 263 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:18.480 be held legally responsible for those deaths. The first trial 264 00:14:18.519 --> 00:14:20.720 became a battle over a question that could not be 265 00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:24.279 answered simply by counting bullets or examining the crime scene. 266 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:27.399 James Ruppert had killed eleven people. There was little dispute 267 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:30.279 about that. The question was whether the man who committed 268 00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:32.679 those killings understood what he was doing and could be 269 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:36.279 held legally responsible for it. James pleaded not guilty by 270 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:40.799 reason of insanity. His defense presented psychiatric testimony describing a 271 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:45.039 man whose entire life had been shaped by rejection, failure, humiliation, 272 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.480 and resentment. They argued that his troubled childhood was not 273 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:52.159 simply background information. It was central to understanding the mental 274 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:55.320 state they believed had driven him to violence. According to 275 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:58.279 the defense experts, years of abuse from his older brother 276 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:02.120 had contributed to paranoia and delusions of persecution. James had 277 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:04.559 come to believe that people around him were responsible for 278 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:07.720 the misery of his life. His mother represented another source 279 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:11.320 of resentment. She had reportedly favored Leonard Junior and had 280 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:14.399 threatened to evict James if he could not contribute financially. 281 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:19.639 By Easter Sunday, James was unemployed, drinking, financially unstable, and 282 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:21.919 still living with his mother at the age of forty one. 283 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:25.159 The defense argued that these pressures had accumulated until he 284 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:28.600 suffered what they described as a psychotic rage. The prosecution 285 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:32.759 rejected that explanation. Their argument was much more calculated. James 286 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:35.919 had guns, he had practiced shooting, he had reportedly asked 287 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:39.279 about silencers, he had talked about his financial problems, and 288 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:42.200 when the opportunity came, he had retrieved his weapons and 289 00:15:42.279 --> 00:15:46.240 killed everyone inside the house. Prosecutors argued that these actions 290 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:50.399 demonstrated planning rather than uncontrollable madness. They also focused on 291 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:53.879 what happened after the shooting. James did not immediately kill himself. 292 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:57.759 He remained alive. He considered suicide and rejected it because 293 00:15:57.799 --> 00:16:00.440 of his religious belief that suicide was a more sin. 294 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:04.159 Then he eventually called the police. To the prosecution, those 295 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:08.600 actions demonstrated awareness. To the defense, they could be interpreted differently. 296 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:12.000 The fact that James had contemplated suicide after the killings 297 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:14.799 did not necessarily prove that he had been mentally healthy 298 00:16:14.919 --> 00:16:17.960 when he committed them. A severely disturbed person could still 299 00:16:18.039 --> 00:16:22.559 understand certain consequences while being incapable of controlling a particular act, 300 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:27.039 that distinction would become crucial. James's legal team ultimately decided 301 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:30.240 against having the case heard by a conventional jury. Instead, 302 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.720 the case was presented before three judges, but a critical 303 00:16:33.720 --> 00:16:37.799 misunderstanding occurred. James was reportedly told that all three judges 304 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:40.600 would have to agree unanimously before he could be convicted. 305 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:43.720 That was not how the decision was ultimately treated. Two 306 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:46.799 of the three judges found James legally sane and convicted 307 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:49.919 him on eleven counts of aggravated murder. The sentence was 308 00:16:49.960 --> 00:16:54.080 eleven consecutive life terms. The third judge, Hamilton County Judge 309 00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:58.279 Fred Kramer, disagreed he believed James was insane. That disagreement 310 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:01.200 would later become one of the reasons legal process had 311 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:03.960 to begin again. There was another reason James avoided the 312 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.319 death penalty. In nineteen seventy five, the death penalty in 313 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:11.359 the United States was under a nationwide constitutional prohibition following 314 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:15.240 the Supreme Court's decision in Furman versus Georgia. James therefore 315 00:17:15.240 --> 00:17:18.680 received life sentences rather than execution, but the legal story 316 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:21.880 was far from over. Between nineteen seventy seven and nineteen 317 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:24.839 seventy eight, the Supreme Court of Ohio determined that the 318 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:28.079 first trial had been compromised by the judge's uncertainty over 319 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:32.000 whether unanimity was required. The result was a mistrial. James 320 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:34.519 would receive another opportunity to argue that he had been 321 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:38.160 legally insane, and this time prosecutors were prepared to build 322 00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:41.000 their case around the details that had surrounded the massacre 323 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:44.200 before the first shot was ever fired. They would call witnesses, 324 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:47.160 they would introduce evidence, and they would attempt to show 325 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:49.880 that the Easter Sunday killings were not an explosion of 326 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.839 uncontrollable madness, but the culmination of decisions James had been 327 00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:56.920 making long before his family sat down together that afternoon. 328 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:00.880 The prosecution would eventually present twenty nine witnesses and roughly 329 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:03.920 two hundred exhibits. Among the evidence was the story of 330 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.079 the birthday shooting near the Great Miami River, the late 331 00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:11.240 night conversation with Wanda Bishop, the reported inquiry about silencers, 332 00:18:11.559 --> 00:18:14.440 the firearms, the rent dispute, and the timing of the 333 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:18.839 attack itself. Piece by piece, prosecutors attempted to turn James's 334 00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:22.440 troubled history from evidence of insanity into evidence of motive. 335 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:25.680 But if that strategy worked. One question would remain what 336 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:28.880 happened inside James's mind during those few minutes when an 337 00:18:28.920 --> 00:18:32.640 Easter celebration became a massacre. The prosecution's challenge was to 338 00:18:32.680 --> 00:18:35.480 show that the events of Easter Sunday were not isolated 339 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:38.240 from everything that had happened before them. They argued that 340 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:41.359 James had been moving toward violence, even if the people 341 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:44.799 around him could not recognize the signs. The inquiry about 342 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:47.920 silencers became one of the most important pieces of that argument. 343 00:18:48.279 --> 00:18:51.279 Prosecutors did not claim that asking about a silencer by 344 00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:55.400 itself proved murder. Instead, they presented it alongside the other 345 00:18:55.480 --> 00:19:00.000 circumstances surrounding the massacre. James had been practicing with his firearms, 346 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:02.480 he had been drinking heavily. He had been complaining about 347 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:05.680 his financial situation. He had been facing the possibility of 348 00:19:05.720 --> 00:19:09.039 losing his home, and, according to the prosecution, he had 349 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:11.400 spoken about his mother as a problem that needed to 350 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:14.240 be resolved. Then came the timing of the shooting. It 351 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:16.920 happened while the family was gathered together and while church 352 00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:19.839 bells were ringing for Easter. The prosecution argued that this 353 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:22.559 was significant because the bells could mask the sound of 354 00:19:22.599 --> 00:19:26.440 gunfire from anyone outside the home. If that interpretation was correct, 355 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:30.039 then the attack was not simply a spontaneous explosion of anger. 356 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:33.359 It suggested that James had thought about circumstances that could 357 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:37.640 reduce the chance of immediate discovery. The defense rejected that interpretation. 358 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.799 For them, these same details could be explained through the 359 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:44.319 behavior of a deeply disturbed man whose thinking had become 360 00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:48.640 detached from reality. The competing explanations created two very different 361 00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:51.880 pictures of James Ruppert. In one, he was a resentful 362 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:55.079 man who had reached a breaking point and deliberately eliminated 363 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:58.079 the family members he blamed for his failures. In the other, 364 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:02.519 he was a psychologically damaged man whose lifelong resentment, paranoia, 365 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:07.240 and perceived persecution finally erupted into uncontrollable violence. There was 366 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:09.720 no question that his childhood had been troubled, but a 367 00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:13.680 troubled childhood does not automatically establish legal insanity. That was 368 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:16.319 the difficult line that judges and lawyers had to confront. 369 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:20.200 The prosecution also advanced its theory about the inheritance. They 370 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:23.000 argued that James knew his mother and brother had assets 371 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:26.200 worth approximately three hundred thousand dollars and that their deaths 372 00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:30.000 could eventually leave him with financial benefits. The defense disputed 373 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:33.200 the idea that money was the true explanation. If James 374 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:36.640 had been motivated primarily by inheritance, the defense could ask 375 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:40.000 why would he kill everyone, including the children, why would 376 00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:42.079 he remain at the scene afterward, and why would he 377 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:45.000 call the police himself. The prosecution had an answer to 378 00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:47.880 at least part of that argument. They suggested that James 379 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:50.519 may have intended to use his mental state as part 380 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:53.640 of an insanity strategy. According to their theory, he could 381 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:57.119 be sent to a state mental hospital, eventually be declared sane, 382 00:20:57.400 --> 00:20:59.799 and then emerge in a position to inherit the property 383 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:03.079 in assets. It was an extraordinary theory, but the case 384 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:06.759 itself had already become extraordinary. The second trial once again 385 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:10.400 ended with James being convicted and sentenced to eleven consecutive 386 00:21:10.440 --> 00:21:14.160 life terms. For prosecutors, it was confirmation that the evidence 387 00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:18.440 supported deliberate responsibility For the defense. However, the fight was 388 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:22.319 not finished. Appeals continued, and in nineteen eighty two, another 389 00:21:22.359 --> 00:21:26.359 trial would produce a dramatically different result. This time, James's 390 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:29.480 defense succeeded in persuading the jury that insanity played a 391 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:32.599 decisive role in the killings. He was found guilty of 392 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:35.720 two counts of first degree murder involving his mother and 393 00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:38.759 his brother, but on the remaining nine murder counts he 394 00:21:38.839 --> 00:21:41.839 was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The verdict 395 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:44.880 did not erase what had happened, eleven people were still dead, 396 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:48.480 but legally it created a complicated outcome in which James 397 00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:50.880 was held criminally responsible for the deaths of the two 398 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:54.079 adults while being considered legally insane in the deaths of 399 00:21:54.119 --> 00:21:57.359 the nine children. The case had now produced conflicting judgments 400 00:21:57.359 --> 00:22:00.000 about the same man and the same massacre, and while 401 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.039