The Easter Sunday Massacre

On Easter Sunday 1975, James Urban Ruppert shot and killed his 11 closest relatives in what was then the largest family mass murder in the United States. The killings, which took the lives of eight children ages 4 to 17, sent shock waves through Ruppert’s hometown of Hamilton, Ohio. Ruppert claimed that his insanity and belief in a conspiracy against him, coupled with his brother’s off-hand comment, “How’s your Volkswagen running, Jim?,” sent him into an uncontrollable, murderous rage. John F. Holcomb, the tough-as-nails Butler County Prosecuting Attorney, had a different theory. He believed Ruppert masterminded the bloodbath to inherit his family’s money. The Easter Sunday Massacre provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Ruppert case, straight from the prosecutor’s diary and from those closest to the tragedy.