Name James James | Role Professor | |
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.
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Background
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.
Education
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 at Urbana-Champaign. He joined the faculty of Milliken University, a small private university in Decatur, Illinois.
Discovery
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."
Awards
Millikin University Teaching Excellence and Leadership Award - 1997