Pod Insights Criminology The Easter Massacre About this episode While Easter is generally a day of peace with your loved ones, that's not always the case. Fifty years ago, on March 30th, 1975, Easter Sunday was a nightmare for one Ohio family. That Sunday, James Ruppert called the police simply telling the dispatcher there's been a shooting. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the Easter massacre perpetrated by James Ruppert. When the police arrived, they discovered this was more than a shooting, this was a massacre. There was never a doubt that James Ruppert was behind it. The real question was why Ruppert murdered eleven of his family members that day. You can help out the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 354 of the Criminology Podcast. This is Mike Ferguson.
0:43 Speaker 02 And this is Mike Morford.
0:45 Speaker 01 Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, man?
0:47 Speaker 02 I'm doing pretty good. How you doing?
0:49 Speaker 01 I'm doing, you know, pretty well. I overslept this morning. I missed our initial meeting time, but you know, I've got my coffee. I'm ready to go.
1:02 Speaker 02 We should be rested up, so it should go smoothly.
1:05 Speaker 01 Yeah, I got a little bit of extra sleep, you know, sometimes you need it. Let's go ahead and do our Patreon shout outs. We had Amanda Levett, Carla Tate, and Brittany Gurley. So some great new support. We really appreciate it.
1:19 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's some awesome support. Thank you very much. And for anyone else that would like to help support the show, head over to patreon.com/criminology to get started.
1:28 Speaker 01 So you know what, Morf, this year already is flying by and that means we're less than six months away from CrimeCon.
1:39 Speaker 02 Yeah, CrimeCon is your chance to meet and hang out with all your favorite true crime friends and celebs and say hi to us on Podcast Row. It's happening September 5th through the 7th at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado.
1:55 Speaker 01 And Morf and I will be on Podcast Row and of course we'll have a joint criminology TCAT meetup like we do every year. We hope to see you there and if you're going, why not save money on those passes? Use our promo code CRIMINOLOGY to save 10% on your standard badges during checkout at crimecon.com.
2:15 Speaker 01 All right. So now that we have all that out of the way, let's jump into this week's case. You know, with Easter coming up, it's a reminder for those who celebrate that holiday to really cherish your loved ones. And a lot of the time, the holiday brings family get togethers. Families celebrate the holiday in a variety of different ways. Maybe it's an Easter egg hunt in the morning or Easter mass. For a lot of people, it's a special dinner with their loved ones. While Easter is generally a day of peace with your loved ones, that's not always the case. 50 years ago, on March 30th, 1975, Easter Sunday was a nightmare for one family.
2:59 Speaker 02 That Sunday, James Rupert called the police, simply telling the dispatcher, there's been a shooting. When officers arrived at the Rupert home on Minor Avenue in Hamilton, Ohio, James was at the front door waiting for them. His outfit, his Sunday best with a white tie, was covered in blood. Officers went inside the home, surveying the crime scene. This was not just a shooting. The first floor of the home was a bloodbath with 11 victims in various rooms. Hamilton Police Chief George McNally was quoted in a March 1975 AP story as saying it was a bloody mess. One officer who had been on the force for 25 years had trouble sleeping for a week after responding to the crime scene.
3:42 Speaker 02 There were so many victims so close together that investigators had a difficult time moving through the crime scene without stepping on any of them. It was a shocking scene, something they had never expected to be called to, let alone on Easter Sunday.
3:57 Speaker 01 From the very beginning, there was never any question of who killed the 11 people inside the home, but everyone was left to wonder why. James Rupert was taken into custody, leaving everyone to ask, why would someone kill their entire family on what is supposed to be an enjoyable holiday? Even when you look back now at the sequence of events that morning, there is no obvious trigger. There's nothing that explains why he chose that moment or what exactly became the point of no return. But despite the lack of answers, what we know for sure is that James Rupert unleashed a horrific attack on his family.
4:39 Speaker 02 That Easter Sunday, the Rupert family gathered at the home of 65-year-old Charity Rupert, who allowed her son James to live there as an adult. James's older brother, Leonard, brought his wife Alma and their eight children. James had been out at a bar until closing, 2:30 that morning. So he was asleep upstairs when they arrived. It was a typical Easter. There were Easter baskets and an egg hunt for the children in the front yard. It seems like a lot of families have an early dinner on Easter, and the Rupert's were no exception. At around 5:00 PM, Charity, Leonard, and Alma were in the kitchen, starting to get things ready for sloppy Joes, while some of the kids hovered underfoot, and the rest were in the living room. It was also around this time that James woke up.
5:25 Speaker 02 Most accounts of this case state that he immediately loaded four of his guns, a 22-caliber rifle, a .357 Magnum, and two 22-caliber handguns, and then headed down the stairs to commit the massacre.
5:38 Speaker 01 However, other reports note that James was originally heading to the shooting range and wasn't going to spend time with the family on that holiday, but he also wasn't planning to kill them all either. But Leonard greeted him in the kitchen. According to the New York Times, Leonard said, "How's that Volkswagen?" Apparently, that was a fatal mistake. James did not consider this a friendly, innocent question, or even one asked out of genuine concern. To him, Leonard was clearly making fun of his older car, which sometimes had issues. In James's mind, Leonard's car would never break down,
6:19 Speaker 01 because he could afford the best, and he made sure to maintain his vehicles. The perceived teasing was nothing new, but it was the final straw for James.
6:32 Speaker 01 James had always been in Leonard's shadow. Born first, Leonard was named after their father, not James. With Leonard as the perfect son, their mother had no need for another. And frequently told James that she wished he had been a girl. No matter what he did, he could never measure up to Leonard because he couldn't be the firstborn son and he wasn't born a girl. He felt like an outsider. So more if we, we know the end result, there's going to be a massacre. We know that we're going to get into all the details, but it's the, you know, impetus
7:12 Speaker 01 for this massacre that is really intriguing. You have this, what seems to be a longstanding, I don't even want to call it a rivalry between brothers. It seems as though James felt inferior to his brother. And he also felt as though his parents didn't want him.
7:41 Speaker 02 It seems like there was definitely some friction there, not always getting along. And I get it siblings don't always get along. Sometimes they tease each other, but this seems like it was really something deep. And at least as James perceived that it was very hurtful and a thorn in his side all these years.
8:01 Speaker 01 So I think that's going to be an important thing, right? As we continue through the story, you know, what exactly was the, the family dynamic? And how did James perceive, you know, the other members of the family? How did he feel as though he was treated? I mean, I think all of that's going to be important.
8:24 Speaker 02 When James was 12 years old, their father Leonard senior passed away from tuberculosis. Their childhood came to an abrupt end, but 14 year old Leonard junior became the man of the house. It was obviously a tough time for the entire Rupert family. James felt taunted and picked on growing up. When he was 16, he briefly ran away from home and attempted to take his own life by hanging himself with a sheet. For whatever reason, the attempt was not successful, and he went back home. After two years of college, James dropped out. He did some work as a draftsman, which is a type of engineering technician that specializes in drawing very detailed designs and schematics. But he had trouble finding steady work and had been laid
9:07 Speaker 02 off from his most recent job, where he only received on-call work as needed. Leonard effortlessly earned his electrical engineering degree in college and quickly went on to land a very good job. On top of it all, James felt that Leonard was a handsome one, too, and that he himself wasn't.
9:25 Speaker 01 So now we have even more information to work with, right? James felt unwanted, unloved, but it really seemed as though he was constantly comparing himself to Leonard. Leonard was better looking. Leonard had a better job, was more successful. And now, one day after James's 41st birthday, the feelings that he had had in his twenties were all still there. Leonard had a great job as an electrical engineer, at General Electric. While charity was upset with having to give money to James, Leonard helped support his
10:05 Speaker 01 single mother, even though he had a large family to support. Leonard was proud to have given his mother lots of grandchildren to dote on. He owned a home in Fairfield, and James lived with their mother rent-free. James was unemployed and had been for months. In October of 1974, he had been fired from his on-call job with production design services in Dayton, Ohio. And more, if this is a story that's, you know, very close to me. I live in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. You know, Hamilton is not that far to the south of me.
10:43 Speaker 02 Have you ever heard of this case before we did it?
10:47 Speaker 01 Yeah, I had heard of it. Obviously, it's a very large massacre. Now, it was a long time ago. I was a toddler when this all happened, but you know, these are the types of cases that kind of are still talked about as time goes on because of the magnitude of the crime.
11:11 Speaker 02 And it's always a little bit interesting when it's a case that's close to you, or you have some knowledge of it, or it happened in your town. It just makes the case hit home a little bit more.
11:23 Speaker 01 Yeah, it does. There's no doubt about that. And we hear that from listeners all the time.
11:28 Speaker 02 James had never married and had no children. There wasn't just resentment brewing up because James stayed single his whole life. He probably felt that Leonard was living the life he was supposed to have. Leonard's wife Alma Rupert started off as friends with both James and Leonard Jr. In fact, she met them both at the same dance. In 1981, Alma's mother Edna told the Cincinnati Post that they were both nice boys and Alma enjoyed them. She said they'd bring her home before midnight. Some reports state that Alma and James briefly dated before she ended up with Leonard, and also that Alma was the only girlfriend James ever had. According to Edna, choosing between them wasn't a hard decision because she had fallen in love with Leonard.
12:12 Speaker 02 In his mind, James should have been with Alma. He should have had the big, beautiful family. He should have been the one with the great job in the engineering field. He should have had a reliable car that no one could laugh at. It was James that deserved to be successful, independent, and ultimately happy.
12:30 Speaker 01 So more insight, right, into the family dynamic, but especially
12:36 Speaker 01 The dynamic between these two brothers, there was a lot of jealousy on the part of James. And that extended to Leonard's wife, who James knew way back when, maybe even dated and felt as though she should have been his wife. I mean, basically more if he felt as though Leonard was living the life he was supposed to have.
13:05 Speaker 02 And if he still had feelings for Alma and all these years and had to see them having child after child, knowing that could have been his family, it was probably just all weighing on him and you know, bringing him to this point where he couldn't take anymore.
13:25 Speaker 01 Well, one thing's for certain. I mean, I am getting the picture that he's incredibly jealous of his brother. And my assumption is, is that the, you know, the more things that went wrong in his life, the more that he would look at his brother's seemingly perfect life and be upset about it.
13:48 Speaker 02 It seems like instead of trying to better himself, better his situation, get a better job, get a better car, go out and meet somebody, have his own family, he just spent his time wallowing in unhappy he was and how jealous he was of Leonard.
14:05 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think you're on to something there. You know, let's face it, there are some people who, you know, look at the negative more so than the positive. And, you know, James seems to have been, you know, one of those individuals. There are also people who want to blame, you know, everyone else for their problems or shortcomings. Well, let's face it, there's just, there are some people like that and James seems to be one of those people. Despite having to borrow money from Leonard or his mother, James spent most of his time at the bar. His family wasn't judging him for not having his life together, but they were sick of providing for his every need when he wouldn't even try
14:48 Speaker 01 to improve his situation. Instead of using the money he borrowed to make repairs to his car, purchase something more reliable, buy tools for a trade, or even better work clothes, anything to show that he was putting in the effort, he spent most of it on alcohol and lost whatever was left when the stock market crashed in 1973.
15:12 Speaker 02 Early on Saturday, the day before the murders, which was his 41st birthday, James was seen doing some target practice, using his 22 caliber rifle and his 22 caliber handgun. He was shooting tin cans on the edge of the great Miami River. This was likely after his breakfast with Leonard that day. He had asked his brother to borrow a thousand dollars. On top of everything else he had already owed him, and Leonard refused to loan him the money. Later that night, James vented to the bartender at the 19th hole cocktail lounge about what he called his problem. About two weeks earlier, Charity had given him an ultimatum. Stop drinking and get a job or find another place to live for free. According to K I R O seven dot com,
15:57 Speaker 02 she told him that if he could drink seven days a week, he could help pay the rent. This wasn't the first time Charity had become frustrated with James and told him he needed to get his act together or get out of her house, but she had never actually kicked him out.
16:12 Speaker 01 James left the bar around 11pm, but ended up going back and staying until 2:30 when the bar closed. After he returned, he spoke with the bartender a bit more and said that he hadn't taken care of his problem yet. He likely knew that his family would be visiting on Easter. Maybe while he was drinking, he was thinking about whether or not he would kill them all. Maybe he was only thinking about when he would do it, or perhaps he wasn't thinking about his family at all. We just know that at some point before Easter evening, he chose what he saw as a solution to his problems.
16:49 Speaker 02 At 6:00 PM on the dot, when the bells from a nearby church were ringing, James made his move. He killed his brother Leonard first. He shot him seven times with shots to the head and chest. Next, he took aim at Alma, his sister-in-law. She was shot once in the heart. The kids in the living room would have all heard the shots ring out and would likely have been frightened. James's mother Charity actually ran towards him, trying to stop him. He shot her in the chest and the head before moving on to the children. 11-year-old David, 9-year-old Teresa, and 13-year-old Carol were all shot in the kitchen. As he entered the living room, his oldest nephew, 17-year-old Leonard III, tried to
17:31 Speaker 02 stop him, but James shot him too, seven times. The rest of the children were still in the living room. He shot them one by one: 12-year-old Ann, 16-year-old Michael, 15-year-old Thomas, and finally, 4-year-old John. In all, James fired between 35 and 44 times. Reports soon after the murders as to the total number of shots fired varied wildly. In a matter of a couple of moments, James had murdered 11 of his family members in cold blood.
18:00 Speaker 01 So Morpheus, as we finally get to the details of the massacre, I mean, obviously, this is tough to go through. But I also think you have to analyze what this guy did. We talked about James telling others that he had a problem he had to take care of. I think that problem being that his mom was going to kick him out of the house, and his solution to that problem is to kill everyone. And to me, the fact that he waited until so many
18:40 Speaker 01 family members were gathered in one place, you know, on Easter, is telling. This isn't a man who just wanted to kill his mother because she was going to kick him out of the house. He wanted to kill everyone who he thought He had a problem with his mother, his brother, he was mad at his sister-in-law. But then there's so many children. And, and what's the reason for killing all of them? Because they were the offspring of, you know, these two people that he was upset with. You know, he envied his brother. He was mad that Alma had chosen his brother.
19:25 Speaker 01 I mean, it's hard to get into the mind of someone who was capable of doing all of this.
19:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, and this isn't a case where he snapped in the heat of the moment and killed one person. He had to take aim on his family members over and over and over again, firing and firing, going from one to the next and never along the way, you know, voice of reason coming over him, saying, I have to stop this. I shouldn't be doing this. That just never happened. He just kept going and going until everyone was dead. And it must have been horrifying, especially for the kids, seeing their adults all dead and knowing they were next and not being able to do anything about it.
20:10 Speaker 01 Yeah, horrifying to see, you know, your, your grandmother, your parents be shot or hear, hear the shots. But then also, you know, think about the fact that a lot of these kids witnessed their brother or sister being killed just before they were killed. I mean, it's a, it's a really tough scene. There's no doubt about it, but I want to go back to the point that you made because I think it's a very interesting one. This wasn't a situation where James got into an argument and snapped. There was a lot of premeditation here. He had been thinking about what he called his problem and how he was going to take care of that.
20:55 Speaker 01 We know that from conversations he had with, you know, people at the bar. And your point that he had so many chances to stop and he just never did. He kept going all the way down to when he shot and killed four-year-old John. I mean, you know, Morf, what could a four-year-old have done to this man in his four years on earth? Nothing.
21:25 Speaker 02 And it almost makes it seem like he, you know, maybe he did it because he didn't want the children to live without their parents. But as you said, maybe he did it because he viewed them as the offspring of his parents and of their parents, and they didn't deserve to live. So he wanted to eliminate all of them.
21:47 Speaker 01 Yeah, I kind of lean towards the latter there in that he just had so much animosity and hatred towards his brother, his sister-in-law, that, you know, annihilating not only them, but their entire family, along with his mom, was somehow in his mind what, you know, he needed to do. It's hard to make sense of. You know, there's probably a goal weight in your head and getting there on your own is the hard part. Weight loss by Hers offers access to a range of FDA-approved GLP-1 medications, including the Wegovy pill and the Wegovy pen, plus support along the way.
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23:10 Speaker 01 Hair, menopause, and more. Individual results may vary and stopping treatment may result in weight regain. Weight loss by hers is not available in all 50 states. Wegovy is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wegovy clinical study information and restrictions. Visit for hers.com. After the murders and not sure what to do, James waited. He sat on the couch, surrounded by his dead family members for three hours. He apparently wrestled with the thought of taking his own life. What stopped him was his belief that suicide is a mortal sin, which is a very serious sin that you must repent for before death,
23:55 Speaker 01 or you'll be damned to hell for eternity. Murder is also a mortal sin, but after committing the massacre, he was still alive to ask God for forgiveness. If he tried to take his own life and succeeded, there would be no time for repentance. As the act of suicide, the mortal sin would be immediately followed by his death. At around 9:30 with no other real options, he called the police to report his crime.
24:23 Speaker 02 Officers responding to the home immediately saw two bodies in the living room while speaking with James at the front door. One of the guns was resting on the arm of the couch. The rest were on the coffee table. James was arrested and taken into custody without incident. He refused to cooperate with the investigation and wouldn't answer any questions asked of him. He planned to plead not guilty by reason of mental illness. Just before 1:00 AM, neighbors were gathered on the lawn next door to watch as authorities began to remove the bodies from the home. It took nearly an hour to take all 11 victims out of the crime scene. According to Fox 19.com, one neighbor relayed that as they removed four-year-old John's body from the home, everybody gasped because they could see his little sneakers.
25:08 Speaker 01 And I can only imagine what that was like for neighbors, you know, we went through the crime scene, but to see body after body be removed from a home, you know, neighbors are going to be standing, you know, out in their front lawn, wondering what's going on. And then to see that it's going to be very shocking.
25:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, this kind of thing just doesn't happen in most neighborhoods often, or if at all. So this was something that probably shocked these, these neighbors.
25:43 Speaker 01 In the aftermath of the shooting, two things seemed odd to police. First, not a single neighbor reported hearing any gunshots. Second, not a single family member was able to escape the home without being killed. It's unknown whether James had purchased or used any silencers, but he did ask about them in February when he was buying ammunition. It's possible he felt a silencer would be unnecessary because of his plan to use the cover of the church bells. As far as none of the family members making it out of the home alive, one early theory was that James had been waiting inside the home, killing
26:25 Speaker 01 each family member one by one. As they entered the home, they came to believe that it all happened so suddenly that the three adult family members were killed first and the young family members were probably in fear. Four-year-old John still had his hands over his ears when authorities walked through the crime scene. He had been startled by so many loud noises. Butler County Prosecutor Michael Moser would tell the Journal News in 2022 that the children were literally climbing the walls, adding that their fingernails were broken off in the walls. Forty-seven years after the murders, what he saw that
27:09 Speaker 01 day was still vivid in Moser's memory. He said, "I can still see it as clearly as I can see my wife's picture here in my office."
27:19 Speaker 02 Denise Hardy, who was an intern with the Hamilton Police Department in 1975, told the Journal News that she remembered that the next morning, behind bars, James was very perky and smiling and upbeat, unconcerned. Denise Hardy was never sure whether it was just a lack of remorse or if there was something else going on. She tried to explain his demeanor by saying, maybe he knew and didn't care, but he carried himself as if he did not have any idea what was going on around him or that he was headed toward an entire life in prison. Because he wasn't smirking or cocky or anything like that, like he planned something and got away with it. He was not appreciating what he had done.
28:00 Speaker 01 Let's just break that down for a minute. Very perky and smiling and upbeat, unconcerned. Now, is that because he didn't appreciate what he had done? Or was that because he had done exactly what he had been planning to do? And he had solved what he had called his problem? As though all of these concerns that he had that had been building were now just wiped away with the killing of his entire family and extended family?
28:37 Speaker 02 It seems pretty clear from what she was saying that there's, there was no remorse on his part and, you know, it wasn't a case of him coming to a senses and saying, oh, my God, what have I done? There was none of that. He was just sort of a matter of fact and not really engaged in what had happened.
28:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, if anything, I was taking her statements to mean that, you know, he was happy, that it was maybe all behind him, which is a hard thing to think about. News of the murderers was shocking and made national headlines. The family had one funeral with all 11 caskets lined up in a row. At Sacred Heart Catholic Church, they were all buried in Arlington Memorial Gardens in Cincinnati, Ohio. The community had lost an entire family. Hamilton Police Chief George McNally told the New York Times, "This kind of murder usually has a motive like sex, greed, or jealousy. We can't find any of those things here.
29:41 Speaker 01 Some aspects of this case just leave us puzzled." Despite it being clear that James was the one to kill his mother Charity and brother Leonard, James was still eligible to inherit both of their estates, since there was no other next of kin. But the key was, he would only inherit anything if he was found not guilty, which everyone agreed was quite unlikely. But it was a substantial inheritance to be hopeful for. He stood to receive about $300,000, which would today be close to 2 million. Well, first of all, that is a boatload of money. But I really want to kind of dissect the police chief's quote to the New York Times,
30:25 Speaker 01 that they really couldn't find a motive. Now, we've talked about a lot of things that would be considered motives for James to have done, you know, what he did. Maybe at the point that he was talking to the New York Times, they didn't know about all that stuff yet? That's the only thing I can think of. Because, you know, when you, when you talk about greed, well, there was a lot of money. And there's no doubt that he was jealous of his brother.
30:55 Speaker 02 I think in this case, it's hard to pick just one motive, because there's so much we laid out so far. And now you've got this money on top of it. But the odd thing is, if the money's part of it, he didn't think too clearly about how he'd be spending it from behind bars.
31:12 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, I don't think James was thinking too clearly about a lot of things.
31:19 Speaker 02 Prosecutors argued that financial gain was part of the motive. Not only did James not want to pay his brother back for all the loans and stay in his mother's home without having to pay rent or find employment. He wanted everything they had left to give him. According to the New York Daily News, prosecutor John Holcomb called James a disgraceful little coward. Rather than face a jury, he opted to be tried by a panel of three judges. In July 1975, two out of the three judges found James guilty of all of the murders. He was given 11 consecutive sentences of life in prison. He was surprised when the verdict wasn't unanimous because the whole reason he chose to go with a panel of judges instead of facing a jury
32:02 Speaker 02 was because he had been told that all three judges would have to agree with each other. Suddenly, only two judges were deciding his fate. After appealing due to the supposed judicial error, James was granted a second trial.
32:15 Speaker 01 And I have to ask the question, you know, what was going on with this third judge? I mean, it couldn't have been that James didn't commit the acts. I think that was clear. That wasn't in dispute. And we don't have all the the facts, but maybe it had something to do with his mental state.
32:38 Speaker 02 He never denied doing it. His whole defense was that he wasn't mentally well when when it happened.
32:45 Speaker 01 A motion to dismiss the case on the grounds of double jeopardy was rejected. It might have been a different decision. If the original verdict had been not guilty, then it just would look like the state was desperately trying to throw an innocent person in prison. Despite the fact that they had already been told he wasn't guilty. James was able to get the trial moved 125 miles away to Findlay in Hancock County. It was there that he would risk a trial by jury, thinking he'd have a more impartial juror pool. It would be years between the original verdict and his new trial due to delays in various motions.
33:28 Speaker 02 A year after the murders, the Rupert home was still exactly as it had been left. There was still a pan of meat on the stove for sloppy Joes. Everything still usable was sold at an auction before the house was thoroughly cleaned. The carpet was also replaced. The first family to move in after this reportedly unaware of what happened there, moved out after claiming to hear strange voices.
33:51 Speaker 01 And I think this comes up in a lot of true crime cases. You know, when you have a murder that occurs inside a home and then later that home is sold. You know, that's always a topic of conversation. Well, here you have a whole family, 11 people killed inside one house. Some of them small children in this fact wasn't disclosed to buyers. That is shocking to me.
34:25 Speaker 02 And that's the biggest investment you're ever going to make is a home. So to not have full disclosure of what happened there just seems like a huge overstep. And maybe the laws back then aren't the same as they are now, but a lot of places now, it's required to have this information upfront for a family to decide whether it is something they can deal with or not. Me personally, I don't know how you feel, but I wouldn't want to live in a house like that as and especially as these people that bought it started claiming they heard voices in the house. That would definitely be a hard no for me.
35:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, I'm right with you. And I do think the laws have changed over time about, you know, what disclosures have to be made. I mean, this almost sounds like it was an Amityville horror type situation. Now I'm sure there are a lot of people, or let me say some people who may think, well, I can get such a great deal on this home because of the stigma that surrounds it that they're willing to roll the dice, but I'm with you more. If I mean, that's, that's just not something I would be willing to, uh, to take on. You know, I kind of view my home as. The safe place, right? The, the place where I can relax.
35:46 Speaker 01 I think I would have a very hard time relaxing inside of a home where I knew 11 people were killed.
35:53 Speaker 02 And, and not everybody believes in ghosts and not everybody that would move in there would believe in ghosts, but they might still be bothered by the energy, you know, just of what happened there. That some people believe homes can hold on to energy and negative energy at that. So, you know, either way, the, I think it makes sense that the family should have been told what, what kind of house they were moved into.
36:17 Speaker 01 Sadly, at 4:30 in the morning on Easter Sunday, 1978, Alma Rupert's father, Frank Algier, took his own life. He was 72 when he shot himself in the head. Alma's mother, Edna, considers Frank another victim of James Rupert. 4:30 AM is the exact time they learned that their daughter, son-in-law, and eight grandchildren had been killed and Frank was the one who had picked up the phone that morning. It had weighed on him every day since. Like so many tragedies, one small thing changed the course of the lives of the Rupert family. Before they were killed, Leonard and Alma made sure that both sets of their parents
37:02 Speaker 01 were able to see the children as much as possible. They had a system worked out to efficiently split the time. On most holidays, the family would attend mass with charity, have lunch and then go see Edna and Frank. Easter 1975 was the first time they reversed their schedule, having lunch with Alma's parents and then heading to charity's house for dinner. If they hadn't changed the way they usually did things, would they have left before James woke up at four in the afternoon? Or by the time he would have started shooting? Would the Easter Sunday massacre have been avoided because James was still upstairs, sleeping off his drinks from earlier that morning and the night before?
37:48 Speaker 01 So there's two things that that kind of strike me here more. And the first is, you know, what happened to Frank? And I think we've talked about it before, but you know, it's kind of like the this spider web of people who are affected. Now, he was very close to the family, right? He was Alma's father, but that web kind of spans out. And these things affect so many people, but obviously it affected him greatly. And he couldn't live with it. And then the the second is, you know, this idea that one little thing, one change in the day,
38:34 Speaker 01 a different decision could potentially have resulted in a different outcome. And I think, you know, it's hard to do when you start playing that kind of what if game. But obviously there are things that occur in all of our lives. Decisions that we make that could change the course of our lives. Now, we don't know that at the time.
39:02 Speaker 02 Edna even recalled Alma telling her that she didn't want to go to see Charity that day because she knew James would be there. And things were awkward because Leonard had just turned him down for a loan. And the eviction threat was looming. And sadly, Edna told Alma that they had to go because Charity deserved to see her grandchildren and Leonard deserved to see his mother. Edna told the Cincinnati Post, to my dying day, I will regret saying that. So I think it's clear that she had a little bit of guilt, even though it wasn't her fault. What happened that had she not maybe forced them or urged them to go, that they might still be alive?
39:41 Speaker 01 Yeah, and this idea of regret, you know, it pops up in in so many different true crime cases. And obviously, there's no way that Edna could have known what was going to happen. But you also can't stop that regret. And I assume no matter how much you tell yourself that, well, this really isn't my fault. It's going to weigh on you because you did say the words, but there's no way you could have known. What was going to happen that day?
40:15 Speaker 02 And it's sad to think about her having, after all this, losing her daughter, her grandchildren, and her husband, to have that guilt weighing on her all that time. It's really sad.
40:27 Speaker 01 Yeah, it is, but it's just, again, what goes along with these types of crimes? You have the victims who are killed, and that is, you know, beyond sad. But you also have a lot of other victims who didn't die, weren't even involved in the actual shooting, but have to live with what happened. And like in the case of Edna, have to live with the fact that she told her daughter that they should go visit Leonard's mother, even though there's nothing wrong with saying that.
41:08 Speaker 02 Yeah, she might have had that same guilt or similar kind of guilt if, you know, if she asked her daughter run an errand and she was killed in a car accident running that errand, but it was, in this case, it just happened to be, you know, the murders of her family.
41:25 Speaker 01 The second trial for James Rupert finally began in 1982, seven years after the murders. His attorney, Hugh Holbrock, was so convinced that James was insane at the time of the murders, that he actually funded the defense, hiring experts and doctors with money out of his own pocket. At this trial, two psychiatrists testified about James's mental state. They explained that James was paranoid and had been suffering from delusions of persecution. The jury was not swayed, and James was again found guilty, but he was only found guilty of the murders of Charity and Leonard Jr.
42:06 Speaker 01 He was found not guilty by reason of mental illness of the other nine murders. During that trial, a juror had a heart attack and passed away. Alma Rupert's mother, Edna, blamed James for the juror's death, telling the Cincinnati Inquirer, "Those pictures must have got to him."
42:27 Speaker 02 According to the New York Times, James's attorney Hugh Holbrook has argued that the words "thou shall not kill" is as applicable to the state as it is to any individual. "There are 11 dead, the most horrible thing that has happened in the United States of America in a long time," he told the judges, adding, "Do not make this a worse crime by adding a 12th person." It's unclear why Holbrook was so concerned about the death penalty, because the massacre occurred during a period of time in the United States that had no option for the death penalty. The moratorium lasted four years, from 1972 to 1976. Even if it had been a unanimous decision by all three judges or all 12 jurors, James
43:11 Speaker 02 would have been ineligible for the death penalty because the crime occurred in 1975 and capital punishment was not administered. After being found guilty again, though of only two of the murders this time, James was given two consecutive sentences of life in prison.
43:27 Speaker 01 To many people, the verdict here is surprising. In essence, the jury believed that James was guilty when he committed the first two murders and was sane. But by the third murder, just seconds later, and the remaining murders, James was insane. There were clearly elements here of premeditation. Some people think that James knew full well what he was doing each time he pulled the trigger and that he was always in control. Many people feel that James got off without having to be responsible for nine of the 11 murders. Either way, he would never be a free man again.
44:09 Speaker 01 James Rupert was denied parole in 1995, when he was 61, and again in 2005, when he was 71. Each time he became eligible, there was an outpouring of outraged opinions from the public. And more if I too thought that this verdict was surprising, he was not mentally ill when he killed.
44:34 Speaker 01 Leonard and charity, but then was mentally ill when he committed the, the nine murders after that. I just thought it was very strange. You, you would think it would be an all or nothing proposition.
44:50 Speaker 02 Yeah, I don't know that I've ever heard a case like this where somebody is, you know, in, in a space of minutes, committing these crimes all over a space of minutes, has a change in their mental state during the murders and not, you know, before or after. If, if these had been spaced out for months or something like that, maybe you could say, okay, he got his mental illness grew and then he did this again. But we're talking over, you know, minutes here. So it's, it's kind of strange.
45:23 Speaker 01 And I don't know, maybe if that was, you know, some compromise by the, the jury, that people were struggling to come to a unanimous decision and, and that was a, a compromise that they made in the jury room. I don't, I don't know. I can't explain it.
45:42 Speaker 02 Edna Algier passed away in 2004 at the age of 92. Even after losing eight grandchildren, she was survived by 16 grandchildren and had another 13 great grandchildren. 10 years later in 2014, blood stains from the massacre were still visible on the wood underneath the floorboards in, in the home. It had pulled so thick after the murders that it dripped down into the basement. The floors have been cleaned, carpets have been replaced, but the blood remains on the side of the boards, making up the first story subflooring. Apparently it was just left there.
46:17 Speaker 01 And that makes it, you know, even more eerie, I think for, for people who moved in afterwards.
46:25 Speaker 02 That's one thing we don't really talk about is what happens to a crime scene after the police leave and they take the tape away. They don't come back with a set of janitors and say, okay, let us get this cleaned up. That's on the, the homeowners or whoever, you know, is responsible for the home. We mentioned earlier that even a year later, food that they had been ready to eat on Easter was still on the counter. So just whoever took that house over, didn't make any efforts to, to really clean it thoroughly, it seems.
46:58 Speaker 01 The family that moved into the former Rupert home in 2008 had no idea about the massacre when they were closing on the house. According to WCPO.com, real estate agents in the state have no responsibility to disclose what is classified as a psychological stigma. Cinnamon Baker, the new owner, explained to WCPO.com that it didn't bother her, all houses had a pass. But as Baker explained, this one just happened to have a history everyone knew. Cinnamon Baker said, if I stop and think about it, sure, it's creepy and scary,
47:37 Speaker 01 but it doesn't make me feel any less safe being here. Today, the home is blurred on Google Maps and over the years, many people stopped outside to gawk at the house of horrors.
47:51 Speaker 02 Dennis Snyder, who owned the home before he sold it to Cinnamon Baker, was irritated by the stigma. Before Cinnamon bought it, he was having a very difficult time selling it because neighbors were very vocal about what had happened inside. It kept turning buyers away. Dennis Snyder told WCPO.com that in his mind, it's just a building, that something happened and to me, it doesn't matter. I don't believe in the cult and all that hogwash.
48:18 Speaker 01 Could there be some kind of dark energy haunting the neighborhood? In June 1996, a year after James Rupert had been denied parole for the first time, another murder shocked Minor Avenue and it happened in the duplex diagonally across the street from the Rupert home, where Tina Mott lived with her boyfriend, Timothy Bradford and their young child. After slitting the throat of his girlfriend, Bradford used multiple weapons, including 19 different knives, a meat cleaver, pliers and a hacksaw to dismember her body in the upstairs bathroom. Some of her remains were flushed down the toilet while others were collected in garbage
49:03 Speaker 01 bags. Bradford left the trash bags in a field near the sewage Treatment plan and threw her skull without a jaw or any teeth into a lake. Bradford received a 25 year sentence for voluntary manslaughter. And in December of 2023, he was released from prison without supervision. Since he completed his full 25 year sentence, there were no measures like parole that could be taken. Tina Ma was reportedly well aware of the Easter Sunday massacre that had taken place just steps from her own front door. Only two decades earlier. It wasn't enough to scare her off. If it had been, maybe she'd still be alive.
49:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's surprising that this guy that murdered his girlfriend right across the street. Only got 25 years for what he did because the brutality and the depravity of it. It just seems so heinous that to get 25 years for is seems like a very light sentence.
50:10 Speaker 01 Well, and I was shocked that it was voluntary manslaughter. And not murder, given, you know, what we said happened. But we don't have all the details of the case, but you know, that's, it was very gruesome, obviously.
50:26 Speaker 02 In 2015, James Rupert was denied parole for a third time. According to the Journal News, the parole board noted that the 81 year old James had not completed any recommended programming. And at the time, he did not appear to be willing to do so. They also revealed that his record noted negative institutional conduct. James Rupert died at the age of 88 at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Franklin Medical Center. In Columbus, Ohio, in June, 2022. It was apparently from natural causes as he had been moved from the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima. To Franklin Medical Center in 2019, due to the poor state of his health. He outlived his victim by 47 years.
51:11 Speaker 02 Butler County Sheriff Specialist Mike Grimes, who's a detective on the case in 1975, told the. Journal News, it's a relief for taxpayers. They don't have to pay for him anymore. His next parole hearing was set for April of this year, 2025. He would have been 91. The annihilation of the Rupert family is still the deadliest mass shooting in the state of Ohio. And even today, it still doesn't make sense how someone could do something so terrible to 11 members of their family on an Easter Sunday.
51:42 Speaker 01 That's an interesting take by that guy, Mike Grimes. You know, it's a relief for taxpayers. They don't have to pay for him anymore. And I'm not sure more if that a lot of people wouldn't share that same sentiment. You know, to me, anyone who could do what James Rupert did is not someone that I would want out, you know, walking the streets. And so I, I think when he does finally die, I don't know that many people would have shed a tear for him.
52:21 Speaker 02 Yeah, he probably didn't have too many supporters and had no family left as far as we know. And let's say we're distant. So, you know, he lived a lonely life behind bars. You know, he had time to think about what he did all those years ago. But according to his last parole hearing, when he was denied, it didn't sound like he had done what was expected of him to show remorse, to try and show that he had changed since committing those murders.
52:52 Speaker 01 Well, I just wonder, you know, if he made the decision, you know, I'm in my seventies, I'm in my eighties. I'm not going through any of this programming, as they called it. They're never going to let me out anyway. I'm sure a lot of prisoners, you know, probably have that same type of thought.
53:09 Speaker 02 And he may have thought that at his age, he was better off staying right where he was. And what did he have to go out to if he was released? He had no family, no support system, no money, no anything. So maybe he just figured after all that time, he'd be better in prison.
53:26 Speaker 01 But as you know, we wrapped this one up. The fact that this is still the deadliest mass shooting in the state of Ohio, and it occurred, what, 50 years ago? I mean, that tells you something. This was a, an unbelievable tragedy on a pretty epic scale. And then I think the fact that it occurred on Easter Sunday, you know, I'm sure that was just one of the reasons why this made, you know, the headlines, it garnered national attention, the number of people killed, plus the timing.
54:08 Speaker 02 It is a bit surprising that this was the largest mass shooting still in Ohio, because there's been some high profile ones. I remember how many people were killed in the Roden family Pike County shootings. I think a family of eight, if I'm not mistaken. So for this to still outrank some of those other high profile cases, it just tells you how heinous this was and how, how rare it is.
54:35 Speaker 01 But I go back to, you know, the reasons behind it. And James is about to be evicted, right? His mom has had enough of him living rent free, drinking every night, not getting a job. So you have that. And then you have what seemed to be envy on the part of James towards his brother and maybe even Alma as well. And then this kind of side note that James maybe once dated Alma. There was a lot that went into this thing. But the bottom
55:15 Speaker 01 line is that James didn't seem like a guy who really wanted to get his life together. He was happy to kind of drink late into the night, sleep late in the day. All these people around him, especially his brother, they were flourishing. You know, they, they had a great life. They had a great family. And I think he was very jealous of that. He felt as though that should have been his life. And maybe even that Alma should have been his wife. And they should have shared that life together.
55:55 Speaker 02 And this case is very reminiscent to me of a lot of cases in which somebody kills their family. You know, a lot of times it's, it's a younger person that's maybe in college and failing out of college and their, their parents are giving them ultimatums where they don't want their parents to know. And instead of trying to better their situation, they decide the best outcome is to, to kill their family. You know, it's like a common thread in a lot of the cases we discussed that of, of family murders, it seems.
56:27 Speaker 01 But in every one, right? It's hard to kind of understand the mindset that you have what you perceive as this problem, or maybe it is a real problem. I think oftentimes one that you created and, and one that you're perpetuating, but your solution to the problem is not to get your butt in gear and better yourself. It's to kill family either because they're harping on you, or you're hoping to get their money so that you can continue to live your life the way
57:09 Speaker 01 you want to. It's just impossible to understand. But that's it for our episode on the Easter massacre and James Rupert. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a rating, leave a review. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the criminology podcast really helps us out.
57:32 Speaker 02 If you want to find us on social media, run X with the handle at criminology pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com/criminologypodcast and you can join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.
57:49 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike
57:58 Speaker 02 And Morph.
57:59 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
58:01 Speaker 02 Take care, everyone.
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