Easter Sunday Massacre

James Ruppert died from natural causes on June 4, 2022 while incarcerated at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. Ruppert was 88 at the time of his death.

On June 4, 2022 at the age of 88, Ruppert died from natural causes while incarcerated at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, a unit of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The night before the murders, James went out as he did nearly every night. At the 19th Hole Cocktail Lounge he talked with an employee, 28-year-old Wanda Bishop. 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”. According to Bishop, Ruppert stated that his mother had complained that if he could afford to buy beer seven nights a week, he could afford to pay the rent. Ruppert left the bar at 11:00 p.m. that night and later returned. When Bishop asked him if he had solved the problem, he replied, "No, not yet." James stayed at the bar until it closed at 2:30 a.m.

In 2015 the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution parole board released a statement: "The board has determined that the inmate is not suitable for release at this time. The inmate has not completed any recommended programming and does not appear to be willing to do so. The inmate’s record notes negative institutional conduct. The inmate took the lives of multiple victims. There has been strong community objections to his release … the release of this inmate would not be in the best interest of justice."

On June 1995, at the age of 61, Ruppert was granted a hearing before the state Parole Board, but his release was denied. He received subsequent parole board hearings in 2005 (age 71) and April 2015 (age 81) all of which he was denied release.

Ruppert was tried and found guilty on two counts of aggravated murder, but not guilty on the other nine counts by reason of insanity. He received two life sentences, to be served consecutively at Allen Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio, and the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. On July 25, 1982, a 3-judge panel found Ruppert guilty of aggravated murder on a separate case involving his mother and brother. But shortly afterward, he was found not guilty on other 9 counts of murder by reason of insanity. He was moved to Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, OH in 2019 because of his declining health.

On appeal, a new trial was granted in 1982. Defense attorney Hugh D. Holbrock, convinced his client was insane, personally funded the hiring of expert psychiatrists and psychologists from all over the country.

On July 23, 1982, another three-judge panel found Ruppert guilty on two counts first degree murder (his mother and brother), but found him not guilty on the other nine counts of murder, by reason of insanity. He received one life sentence for each count, to be served consecutively.

On July 30, 1982, at the age of 48, Ruppert was incarcerated with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC), at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. His assigned inmate number was A169321.

The Easter Sunday Massacre occurred on Easter Sunday, March 30, 1975, when James Urban Ruppert fatally shot eleven members of his own family in his mother's house at 635 Minor Avenue in Hamilton, Ohio.

By 1975, Ruppert was envious of his older brother's successful job and family. 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. In contrast, his older brother, Leonard Jr., had earned a degree in electrical engineering, had married one of the few girlfriends James had ever had, owned his own home in the city of Fairfield, and had eight children. 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.

A month before the massacre, James inquired about silencers for his weapons while purchasing ammunition. His behavior deteriorated caused by a deep depression as he neared the breaking point. On March 29, 1975 (his 41st birthday), witnesses had seen him engaging in target practice shooting tin cans with his .22 pistol and .22 rifle along the banks of the Great Miami River in Hamilton.

On Easter Sunday, March 30, 1975, Ruppert's brother Leonard Jr. and his wife, Alma, brought their eight children ranging in age from 4 to 17 for Easter dinner at their house located at 635 Minor Avenue. Ruppert stayed upstairs, sleeping off a night of drinking, while the other family members participated in an Easter egg hunt on the front lawn.

The original trial was held in Hamilton, Ohio in June 1975. The three-judge panel found Ruppert guilty on 11 counts of murder and sentenced him to life in prison on July 3rd. A mistrial was declared because the three judge panel did not know if the ruling had to be unanimous or majority rule. 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 in July 23rd 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. In July 1975, Ruppert received 11 consecutive life sentences.

Because 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.

James Urban Ruppert (March 29, 1934 – June 4, 2022) was reported to have had a troubled life. 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. Leonard died in 1947 when James and his brother Leonard Jr. were aged 12 and 14 respectively.