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635 Minor Avenue House is located in Hamilton, Ohio, USA. It is an old terraced house, built sometime before the 1930's and was home to the Ruppert family. In the 1930's, Leonard and Charity Ruppert gave birth to two sons, Leonard Jr. and James. While older by two years, Leonard Jr. left home and went on to become successful. James never did move out and was never successful. Both of James's parents regarded James as lazy and favoured Leonard Jr. This made James envious of his brother and it is this envy that would eventually develop into a paranoid madness and murder.
Background[]
On Easter Sunday, March 30, 1975, James, 41, was still living with his mother's house at 635 Minor Avenue. James's father had died in 1947. James had gotten drunk the previous night and was lounging in his room, trying to get over a hangover. James's mother was so frustrated at James's inability to hold down a steady job and with his excessive drinking that she had started legal action to get him evicted. On Easter morning, James's older and more successful brother, Leonard Jr., his wife Alma, and their eight children (ranging in age from 4 to 17) came to spend the day.
Having his brother around only aggravated his already deep depression. While James slept upstairs, his family enjoyed an Easter egg hunt in the front yard. When they were finished their hunt, they came back into the house. The kids were relaxing in the living room while Charity and Leonard kept Alma company in the kitchen while she was preparing sloppy joe sandwiches. At 4:00 PM, James loaded a .357 Magnum, two .22 caliber handguns and a rifle and descended the staircase. He entered the kitchen and shot his brother, then his sister-in-law, finally shooting his mother as she attempted to stop him. He then went into the living room and and systematically shot all his nieces and nephews. It only took him five minutes to murder them all. This was the worst mass murder that the USA had seen at this time. It shocked the entire country and came to be known as the “Easter Sunday Massacre”.
James sat in the living room surrounded by the bodies of the people he had killed. Virtually the entire first floor of the house was covered in a pool of blood, so much so that it was seeping down into the basement. After three hours of doing nothing, James finally called the police to report the shootings. James was arrested and evaluated by a number of psychologists. It was revealed that James had developed Paranoid Personality disorder, and had a massive persecution complex. He was under the delusion that his family, the police, and even the FBI were part of a conspiracy to ruin his life. The murders surprised the town of Hamilton because James Ruppert was seen as gentle and nebbishy (a person who is pitifully inept, ineffective, shy, dull, etc.)
In Court, James tried pleading insanity but this failed. His plan was to declare insanity, be sent to an institute for a few years and eventually be declared sane so that he would walk out with the $300,000 inheritance from his mother and brother. Instead, he was found guilty of all eleven murders and was sentenced to life in jail which means he the inheritance was forfeited. After two appeals and two new trials, James Rupport was found guilty of first degree murder for his brother and sister-in-law and was found not guilty on the other nine counts of murder by reason of insanity. He is currently serving two consecutive life sentences in the Allen Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio.
A year after the murders, the house was opened up to the public and all of its contents were auctioned off. You can still see signs of the blood in the basement where it seeped through. The first family who moved in there were not told of the murders but they left soon after because they thought they could hear voices and other noises. Other families have moved in and out but none have stayed. The House is said to be haunted and is abandoned to this day.. Update: As of November 2014, the house is occupied, and the current tenant reports nothing unusual about it.
Ann Ruppert[]
The fifth child of Leonard Ruppert and Alma Ruppert. She was twelve when she was shot in the family living room by her uncle, James Ruppert.
Alma Ruppert[]
The wife of Leonard Ruppert and James Ruppert's sister-in-law, and mother to eight children. She was 38 at the time she was shot, and was preparing sandwiches in the kitchen while talking to her husband and her mother-in-law when she was shot by her brother-in-law, James Ruppert. Also, Alma briefly dated James before becoming attracted to Leonard.
Carol Ruppert[]
The fourth child of Leonard Ruppert and Alma Ruppert. She was thirteen when she was shot in the family living room by her uncle, James Ruppert. She nearly escaped by trying to reach the door but was shot with her hand still reaching for the door.
Charity Ruppert[]
The mother of James Ruppert and Leonard Ruppert, Jr. and one of the main targets of the shooting. Charity had always favoured Leonard and had told James that he was disappointed in him (because she really had wanted a girl). Charity had also grown impatient at the fact that James was now forty and still had not moved out of her house, so she was preparing to evict him. This caused James a lot of 'distress' that fueled his paranoia and persecution complex.
Charity Ruppert was 65 at the time of the shooting and was shot by her son James as she sat in the kitchen and talked to her other son, Leonard, and her daughter-in-law, Alma Ruppert.
David Ruppert[]
The sixth child of Leonard Ruppert and Alma Ruppert. He was eleven when he was shot in the family living room by his uncle, James Ruppert.
John Ruppert[]
The last child of Leonard Ruppert and Alma Ruppert. He was four when he was shot in the family living room by his uncle, James Ruppert.
Leonard Ruppert Jr.[]
Leonard Ruppert Jr. was the older brother of James Ruppert by two years and one of the main targets of the shooting. Leonard was hard working, successful, and had always been favoured by both his father and his mother. Leonard, however, liked his brother but James still believed that Leonard was out to 'get him' and was envious of Leonard and his success (especially of his having eight kids with Alma, who was only one of two women James ever dated) and his presence in the house intensified James's paranoia
Leonard Ruppert Jr. was 42 when he was shot by his brother. He was sitting in the kitchen talking to his mother and his wife.
Leonard Ruppert III[]
The first child of Leonard Ruppert and Alma Ruppert. He was seventeen when he was shot in the family living room by his uncle, James Ruppert.
Michael Ruppert[]
The second child of Leonard Ruppert and Alma Ruppert. He was sixteen when he was shot in the family living room by his uncle, James Ruppert.
Teresa Ruppert[]
The seventh child of Leonard Ruppert and Alma Ruppert. She was nine when she was shot in the family living room by her uncle, James Ruppert.
Thomas Ruppert[]
The third child of Leonard Ruppert and Alma Ruppert. He was fifteen when he was shot in the family living room by his uncle, James Ruppert.