Easter Sunday Massacre
James Ruppert died from natural causes on June 4, 2022, while incarcerated at the Franklin Medical Center.
His mother, Charity, had told him that she would have preferred to have a daughter as her second child; his father, Leonard, also had a violent temper and held little affection for his two sons.
[7] Ruppert himself had dropped out of college after two years, then trained as a draftsman, although by 1975, he was unemployed, was unmarried, and was still living at home with his mother.
[8] Charity was frustrated with James' inability to hold a steady job and his constant drinking; she had threatened to evict him from her home on more than one occasion.
James also owed his mother and brother money, having lost much of what little cash he had in the 1973–1974 stock market crash.
On March 29, 1975 (his 41st birthday), witnesses had seen him engaging in target practice shooting tin cans with his .22-caliber pistol and .22-caliber rifle along the banks of the Great Miami River in Hamilton.
She would later state that James told her he was frustrated with his mother's demands on him and his impending eviction and that "he needed to solve the problem".
[10] Ruppert stayed upstairs, sleeping off a night of drinking, while the other family members participated in an Easter egg hunt on the front lawn.
One by one, James shot his remaining niece and nephews: Ann, 12, Leonard III, 17, Michael, 16, Thomas, 15, and John, 4.
County prosecutor John Holcomb viewed the crime scene and stated that there was so much blood on the first floor, it was dripping through the floorboards into the basement.
The three-judge panel found Ruppert guilty on 11 counts of murder and sentenced him to life in prison on July 3.
It was decided that the retrial would be held in Findlay, Ohio, 125 miles north, because it was believed he could not receive a fair trial in the city of Hamilton.
The second trial began on July 23, 1975, and prosecutors revealed evidence involving the witnesses who had seen Ruppert engaging in target practice, asking about silencers for his gun collection and admitting that his mother's expectations were a problem that he needed to solve.
Defense attorney Hugh D. Holbrock, convinced his client was insane, personally funded the hiring of expert psychiatrists and psychologists from all over the country.
Capital punishment had been suspended in the United States from 1972 to 1976 as a result of the Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia; the mass murders on Minor Avenue had occurred in 1975 and Ruppert could not receive the death penalty for his crimes.
[18] In June 1995, at the age of 61, Ruppert was granted a hearing before the state Parole Board, but his release was denied.
