Teenager who killed his family became a psychology professor
06 August, 2013
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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, th NY Daily News reports.
And even the Decator, lll., school of about 2,400 students appears to support the 61-year-old esteemed 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.”
But a city councilman, Jerry Dawson, said the bespectacled professor should have told the school about his blood-stained past.
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 at Southwestern — 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 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 and after a six-month trial an all-male jury found the teen not guilty by reason of insanity.
He was shipped to Rusk State Hospital, where he served six years before he was cut loose.
He changed his name after he was released by a jury, who took just 10 minutes to declare him sane, 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.
But Decator’s mayor said the convicted killer should step down from his post at the school where he’s worked for more than 30 years.
