Posted on 08/02/2013 5:12:17 AM PDT by texanyankee
Administrators at the private Millikin University in Illinois will allow a longtime psychology professor to keep his job after learning that he killed his family in Georgetown in 1967 and was committed to a state mental hospital until 1974.
The professor’s name was James Gordon Wolcott until he changed it to James St. James in Nacogdoches, after his release from the mental facility. He has taught at Millikin since 1986 and is the chairman of the university’s Department of Behavioral Sciences.
“Millikin University has only recently been made aware of Dr. St. James’ past,” says a statement issued by the university Thursday. “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.”
The story of St. James’ past has been widely reported this week in the media. He is now 61 years old and declined to comment when reached by phone Wednesday.
He was 15 years old when he shot and killed his father, Gordon Wolcott; his mother Elizabeth Wolcott and his sister, 17-year-old Elizabeth Wolcott at their Georgetown home on Aug. 5, 1967.
Tried for the death of his father, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1968. He was committed to Rusk State Hospital and released after he was found sane in 1974. The indictments for the murder of his sister and mother were dismissed because it was determined that he was also insane at the time of their deaths, officials have said.
/s
This link provides more in-depth details of this story:
http://wilcoonline.com/what-happened-to-jim-wolcott-lingering-questions-span-four-decades-p820-1.htm
Chairman of the university psychology department - so it all makes sense.....
Makes sense to have a crazy person in charge of a psychology department. He has real insight. Probably teaches “abnormal psych”. ;-)
His background references are glue sniffing.....
“The inmates are running the asylum.”
No longer just a metaphor.
I wonder who this a hole voted for.
The University probably felt sorry for him because he’s an orphan.
Sounds like a perfect candidate for tenure at any University.
Amen!
bump
if they only recently found out, does that mean he withheld this info? did he lie on his paperwork?
If so, why not fire him?
Six years for a triple murder? Now that’s insane.
The inmates are running the universities....
And no one at the University went over his resume?
What did he put down on his resume to cover the 6 years he was in a mental hospital. If he omitted those years or put down something different, he would be terminated in many organizations.
The professor and the psychiatrists who coddled him during his rehab all seem to share the belief that an individual human life has no special value, so why not be a sociopath? To each his own. Sadly, that is the lesson this story teaches, and it sounds as if the students “St. James” teaches are eating it up.
Rusk State Hospital ‘was’ for the serious sick people. Located in Rusk , E.Tx. Dont know if it is still for
those specific types.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight .... He used to be insane but he’s not insane anymore ? How does that happen ?
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