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From Mass Killer to Professor of Psychology: James St. James

James St. James is a professor of Psychology at Millikin University and the head chair of Millikin University’s Department of Behavioral Sciences. His position at the university came under a great deal of controversy in 2013, when it was discovered that he had murdered his parents and sister in 1967 when he was 15.

Born James Gordon Wolcott, he murdered his parents and sister in on 4 August 1967 at their Georgetown, Texas home when he was 15. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Texas jury. Court records cited by a Texas newspaper indicated that the then-15-year-old sniffed airplane glue before the shooting and had paranoid schizophrenia. He shot his family with a.22 caliber rifle. He was held in a state mental hospital until 1974 when he was released.

Changing his name to James St. James, he graduated from college and received a master’s in Texas. He earned a doctorate in psychology at the University of Illinois. He joined the faculty of Millikin University, a small private university in Decatur, Illinois.

In July 2013, a reporter from The Georgetown Advocate connected the dots and figured out what James had done in his past. The news created a great deal of controversy. The mayor of Millikin University’s hometown of Decatur called for his resignation, as did many others. Republican Congressman Rodney Davis, a Millikin alumnus, told the Chicago Sun-Times that “I’m a parent of a 16-year-old daughter who’ll have to choose a school in a few years. If my daughter said she wanted to be a psych major at Millikin, I hate to say, I’d have some concern.“ The university, however, has decided to stand by him and they did not fire him. In a statement, the university said, “Given the traumatic experiences of his childhood, Dr. St. James’ efforts to rebuild his life and obtain a successful professional career have been remarkable.”