1975 — Mar 30, violence/mass murder, James Ruppert shoots relatives, Hamilton, OH– 11

–13 New York Times. “Mass Slayings and Toll: McDonald’s Case Biggest.” 4-25-1987.
–11 Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007, p. 126.
–11 Evening Independent, Massillon OH. “Hamilton slayings ‘strange situation.’” 4-1-1975, 22.
–11 Flowers, R. Barri and H. Loraine Flowers. Murders in the United States. 2001, p. 76.
–11 Krajicek, David J. “The 1975 Easter massacre: Uncle Jimmy Ruppert kills his family.” 2010.
–11 Piqua Daily Call, OH. “Hamilton police…puzzled…speed, accuracy…killings.” 4-2-1975.

Narrative Information

Duwe: “In 1975, James Ruppert committed what was, at the time, the largest familicide in U.S. history when he killed eleven family members. His record was short-lived, however, because George Banks murdered thirteen in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1982.” (Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007, p. 126.)

Flowers: Ruppert “…received a life sentence at the Allen Correctional Institution in Lima. In June 1995, the mass murderer’s parole request was rejected and he was ordered to serve a minimum of 40 more years in prison.” (Flowers, R. Barri and H. Loraine Flowers. Murders in the United States: Crimes, Killers and Victims of the Twentieth Century. 2001, p. 76.)

Newspapers

April 1, Associated Press: “Hamilton (AP) – Police today were bothered as much by the how as by the who and why of the murder of 11 members of the Ruppert family who had gathered for an Easter Sunday dinner. ‘You’d think someone would have attempted to make a break, said Asst. Hamilton Police Chief Gerald Rost, explaining the grotesque spectacle which greeted police when they arrived at Charity Ruppert’s two-story home late Sunday.

“Police found 11 bodies, five in the living room, and the rest lying in the kitchen. All but one woman had been shot in the head. The other woman was shot in the chest. ‘There is a possibility that victims were picked off one by one as they came into the house,’ John Holcomb, Hamilton prosecutor, said. ‘It is a strange situation.’

“Butler County Coroner Garret Boone suggested the 65-year-old Mrs. Ruppert, her son Leonard, his wife Alma and their children might have been the victims of a type of ‘coup de grace.’ ‘It’s unlikely that 11 people would have been shot and killed unless they were held in some way or were in a position where none of them could escape,’ Boone said.

“Police said the family had been dead for up to four hours when they arrived at the house. There was no sign of struggle; only the bodies and spent cartridges from three pistols and a rifle found in the house.

“The police also found James Ruppert, Mrs. Ruppert’s other son. Two years younger than his brother, James lived at his mother’s home. Police said Ruppert called them and was at the house when they arrived. While his relatives were being carried out of the house in blood-stained shrouds, James Ruppert was being charged with aggravated murder in one of the nation’s largest family murder cases.

“Ruppert is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Friday and bond was set Monday at $200,000. Ruppert, who has been frustrating police by his refusal to talk about the case, remained silent again at his arraignment. His lawyers however asked that he be examined by a psychologist and a psychiatrist. Judge John Meser agreed to their request. The lawyers said the request had no bearing on how they would argue their case….

“Leonard was 42, married with eight children, ranging from 3 to 17 years old. He had a job and lived close by Charity Ruppert in a home in Fairfield. James was 40, a bachelor, and lived at his mother’s home. He had been unemployed for several months and listed his occupation as a draftsman….” (Evening Independent, Massillon OH. “Hamilton slayings ‘strange situation.’” 4-1-1975, p. 22.)

April 2: “Hamilton, Ohio (AP) — Police are still trying to determine how the shots which killed Charity Ruppert and family Easter Sunday were able to find their marks so quickly, in so short a time and with so little sign of struggle. Thirty bullet wounds were discovered in nine of the 11 victims found by police when they arrived at the Ruppert home Sunday night. The remaining two
bodies were to be autopsied today.

“Police found the 65-year-old woman; her son Leonard; his wife, Alma, and their eight children, ages 4-17, dead in two rooms. They found no signs of struggle….

“All of the bodies were found in either the living room or the kitchen. All but one had been shot in the head. Mrs. Ruppert’s other son, James, remained in Butler County Jail Monday, charged with 11 counts of aggravated murder….

“The floor of the living room and kitchen were littered with spent shell cases. Thirty-one were sent for laboratory examination.

“ ‘This street is so quiet,’ said Georgia Calia, who lives a few doors down from Mrs. Ruppert’s home. ‘You can hear a car door close on this street. I don’t know why no one heard any shots or knew anything about it.’” (Piqua Daily Call, OH. “Hamilton police still puzzled by speed, accuracy of killings.” 4-2-1975, p. 8.)

April 3, 2010: “ ‘There’s been a shooting.’ A police operator in Hamilton, Ohio, heard Jimmy Ruppert mutter those words on Easter Sunday evening in 1975. Officers hurried to his home on Minor Ave., in a well-worn workingman’s neighborhood in the old river city north of Cincinnati. Ruppert, lean and short, was waiting at the door, still dressed for the holiday in a yellow shirt, white tie and plaid slacks. His clothing was mottled with flecks of blood. Cops stepped past him and could see the degree to which he had understated what he had done.

“This was not a mere shooting. It was a massacre.

“Ruppert shared the big house with his mother, Charity, 65. His life was a mess on that day in 1975, two weeks before his 41st birthday. Unable or unwilling to hold a job, he depended on his mom and brother, Leonard, for walking-around money. He spent too many nights at a local bar, the 19th Hole, drinking too many beers. His mother, widowed while her sons were adolescents, finally had had enough of lay-about Jimmy. She ordered him to get his act together or get out.

“Ruppert had always been paranoid, and the pressure made him even more irrational. He imagined that his mother and brother were whispering about him to the FBI — for example, that he was a homosexual or a communist. He also worried that Leonard had booby-trapped his old Volkswagen. Ruppert resented that he lived in the shadow of his brother, who had a college degree, a good job and a big family. He and his wife, Alma, had eight children, seven of them born in virtually consecutive years.

“On the day before Easter, Jimmy lost himself in his favorite pastime. He toted his collection of guns to the banks of the Great Miami River for target practice.

“He showed up later at the 19th Hole. During a long night of drinking, a bartender friend asked him whether he had resolved the problems he was having with his mother. ‘Not yet,’ he replied. He stumbled home at 3 a.m. and slept off a hangover on Easter morning.

“He was finally roused by the commotion when his brother arrived at 4 p.m. and eight kids piled out of the family van: Leonard 3rd, 17; Michael, 16; Tommy, 14; Carol, 13; Ann, 12; David, 11; Theresa, 9, and John, 4. At around 5 p.m., Ruppert ambled downstairs to say hello. His mother was at the stove, making a snack of Sloppy Joes. (Her grandchildren had already eaten a more formal Easter dinner with Alma’s parents.) At some point, Leonard asked his brother a simple question. ‘How’s that Volkswagen?’ Jimmy Ruppert glared at his brother, then stomped ominously back up to his room.

“By 6 p.m., all eight children were inside. The adults and several kids were gathered in the kitchen, and the others were clustered in the living-room. Jimmy Ruppert descended the stairs again, carrying four guns. He stepped into the kitchen with a .357 Magnum pistol in one hand and a .22 in the other, and he began firing. Leonard was first to fall, followed by sister-in-law Alma and mother Charity. Amid screams and chaos, the three children in the kitchen, Ann, David and Theresa, were next mercilessly gunned down. Ruppert moved to the living room, where he was confronted at the door by the oldest nephew, Leonard 3rd, whose life ended in a barrage of several shots. Uncle Jimmy then sat on the sofa and, one by one, plinked shots at the remaining four children: Michael, Tommy, Carol and little John. Ruppert got up and walked from one victim to the next, firing coup de grace bullets into them – 35 rounds in all. His sick work complete, he then lounged in the house for three hours before phoning police to report ‘a shooting.’ His rampage rated a spot in the American crime annals as the deadliest shooting ever inside a private home.

“Knees buckled as the cops and rescuers arrived at the disturbing scene, with candy and gaily colored baskets scattered amid the bodies. At a heartbreaking funeral, the 11 caskets were lined end to end in the aisle of the Rupperts’ Catholic church.

“Ruppert pleaded insanity, and shrinks prodded his tender psyche. Prosecutors fought hard for a felony conviction since he stood to inherit $300,000 if found not guilty for any reason, including insanity. A three-judge panel convicted him of the 11 murders and sentenced him to life in prison. (The death penalty was not an option in America in 1975.) He won a new trial on appeal, and in 1982 a second panel of judges convicted him of the murders of his mother and brother but acquitted him, based on insanity, for the other murders. The sentence was the same: life.

“He remains in prison 35 years later, at age 75. He was denied parole in 1995 and 2005. His next hearing is scheduled for 2015….” (Krajicek, David J. “The 1975 Easter massacre: Uncle Jimmy Ruppert kills his family.” New York Daily News, 4-3-2010.)

Wikipedia: “As of October 2021, Ruppert remains incarcerated in the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus Ohio, a unit of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. In June 1995, at the age of 61, he was granted a hearing before the state Parole Board, but his release was denied. He received another hearing in April 2015, at which release was again denied. Ruppert’s next hearing is set for February 2025, when he will be 90.” (Wikipedia. “James Ruppert.” 11-17-2021 edit.)

Sources

Duwe, Grant. Mass Murder in the United States: A History. McFarland, 2007.

Evening Independent, Massillon OH. “Hamilton slayings ‘strange situation.’” 4-1-1975, p. 22. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com

Flowers, R. Barri and H. Loraine Flowers. Murders in the United States: Crimes, Killers and Victims of the Twentieth Century. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2001. Partially Google digitized: http://books.google.com/books?id=gh6q_-Vzc0YC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Krajicek, David J. “The 1975 Easter massacre: Uncle Jimmy Ruppert kills his family.” New York Daily News, 4-3-2010. Accessed 12-5-2021 at: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/1975-easter-massacre-uncle-jimmy-ruppert-kills-family-article-1.162824

Piqua Daily Call, OH. “Hamilton police still puzzled by speed, accuracy of killings.” 4-2-1975, p. 8. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=81991070&sterm=ruppert

New York Times. “Mass Slayings and Toll: McDonald’s Case Biggest.” 4-25-1987. Accessed 3-1-2013: http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/25/us/mass-slayings-and-toll-mcdonald-s-case-biggest.html

Wikipedia. “James Ruppert.” 11-17-2021 edit.) Accessed 12-5-2021 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ruppert