A popular psychology professor at an Illinois college was unveiled as a teenage killer who murdered his family 46 years ago and began an award-winning career after serving just six years for an insanity bid.
The pony-tailed professor, Dr. James St. James, the head of Millikin University's psychology department, was outed by a Texas reporter with the Georgetown Advocate, a newspaper based in the town where St. James fatally shot his parents and 17-year-old sister on Aug. 4, 1967. The then-15-year-old, under his born name James Wolcott, spent six years in a mental institute after being found not guilty of the murders by reason of insanity.
After he was released, at 21, he changed his name and began an academic career in psychology.
"I'm just shocked, absolutely shocked," Lana Hinshaw Klan, a videographer who took one of St. James' classes while enrolled at the small liberal college, told CBS 2 News. "He really is a good guy. I have really fond memories, and I feel sorry for him, because now his life is all turned upside down."
And even the Decator, lll., school of about 2,400 students appears to support the 61-year-old professor. "Millikin University has only recently been made aware of Dr. St. James' past," the school said in a statement. "Given the traumatic experiences of his childhood, Dr. St. James' efforts to rebuild his life and obtain a successful professional career have been remarkable. The University expects Dr. St. James to teach at Millikin this fall."
St. James has been able to hide the gruesome details since the horrific triple murder rocked the sleepy Austin suburb more than four decades ago, when his parents and sister were found murdered in their home. The teenaged James Wolcott used a .22-caliber rifle to fatally shoot his father, Gordon Wolcott, a prominent professor and head of the biology department at Southwestern U, in the living room at about 10 p.m. The armed teen then went into his 17-year-old sister Libby's bedroom, where he killed her with bullets to her chest and head. His mother, Elizabeth, burst out of her bedroom because of the gunblast, but the gun-toting teen quickly shot her twice in the head.
Cops eventually cuffed the the teenaged boy, who admitted that he planned to kill his family during his murder trial. The young James Wolcott claimed that he knew he was suffering from mental illness, which was enhanced by his weeks of huffing airplane glue.
He told investigators that he "hated" his family and believed that they were trying to destroy him. He blamed his mother for chewing her food too loudly and his sister's bad accent as part of a plan to drive him mad. He confessed to a classmate that he was angry at his father for not allowing him to grow his hair or march in a peace rally. He said his father wouldn't let him wear anti-Vietnam war buttons.
Doctors later diagnosed his condition as paranoid schizophrenia. After a six-month trial an all-male jury took just 10 minutes to find the teen not guilty by reason of insanity. He was shipped to Rusk State Hospital, where he served six years. He changed his name after his release, the Georgetown Advocate reported.
With his new identity, James St. James, who has an IQ of at least 134, began a career in academia and started teaching for Millikin University after he scooped up a PhD in 1988, the paper reported. St. James, who won a leadership award in 1997, has declined several requests for comments by multiple news agencies.
Decator's mayor said the convicted killer should step down from his post at the school where he has worked for more than 30 years. "I'd hope the character of this gentleman has been such ... that he in fact will do the right thing; which, for the sake of the university, would be to resign," Mayor Mike McElroy told the Chicago Sun-Times.
But one student, Jerry Grader, told the Chicago Sun-Times that she hopes the professor can continue to teach. "I feel comfortable with him," Grader said. "And I do not see him as a threat to anyone."
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