Easter's normally a fun family affair, with chocolate eggs and rabbits galore... but there have been moments throughout history when the holiday has been soaked in blood. Such was the case with:
Robert George Irwin: The Mad Sculptor
Chronically unemployed alcoholic James Ruppert was living at his mother's home on Minor Avenue when his brother Leonard, a happily married father of eight children and a successful engineer, attended an Easter Sunday gathering at the house with his entire family.
Facing an eviction from the house by his mother and an ongoing personal feud with his brother caused something inside Ruppert to snap. He armed himself with three pistols and a rifle before opening up on the Easter celebration.
Ruppert fired 44 shots in less than five minutes, 40 of which were on target. All 11 family members lay dead when the killing spree was over, and James considered adding himself to the body count. Instead he called the police and waited for them to arrive. He eventually died in jail in 2022 at the age 88.
Strangely, this dark history wasn't enough to discourage prospective buyer Baker - though she might have had a moment of regret after exploring her purchase. Blood from the shooting had dripped through the floor, indelibly staining the floorboards visible from the basement. She's also had to deal with self-styled paranormal investigators and murder-scene tourists showing up hoping for a tour of the house.
The Pazzi ConspiracyOn Easter Sunday in 1478 Florence, members of the ruling Medici family were worshiping at the Cathedral... when the rival Pazzi family struck, murdering Giuliano de’ Medici and wounding his brother Lorenzo.
The Pazzi family were not some unconnected nobodies. They had the backing of Pope Sixtus IV and his nephew Girolamo Riario - both of whom found the Medici family to be obstacles to their ambitions of papal control over Romagna. The archbishop of Pisa also wanted the Medici gone, since they refused to recognize him.
The attack happened at the Easter mass. During the sermon, Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli and Francesco de’Pazzi took their daggers to the backs of the kneeling Medici. Giuliano was slain, but Lorenzo was only wounded - his friends rallied to him, using their bodies to buy him an escape to the sacristy (a small room in the cathedral).
Trying to salvage the situation, the Pazzi conspirators took to the streets with cries of "freedom" but the populace were less than enthusiastic. The Medici were fairly well thought of... and the conspirators soon found themselves hunted through the streets. If the mob didn't get them, the courts sentenced them to death - Leonardo da Vinci even sketched the body of Baroncelli as it hung from a window!
- The Mad Sculptor: Obsession and madness lead to multiple murders.
- The Easter Day Massacre in Hamilton, Ohio: A family Easter gathering goes horribly wrong.
- The Pazzi Conspiracy: Florentine politics turns physical.
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| Robert Irwin turned to sculpting, but ended up a killer... (Elijah Crouch) |
Robert George Irwin: The Mad Sculptor
Robert George Irwin (born Fenelon Arryo Seco Irwin) had an unusual beginning. His father was Benjamin Hardin Irwin, a hardline radical Christian preacher who founded the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church... and was later disgraced by a sex scandal.
Rather than finding religion, the younger Irwin changed his name and learned the sculpting trade... but ended up spending time in and out of insane asylums, having attempted to castrate himself. He also became infatuated with Ethel Gedeon (elder daughter of Mary Gedeon) who owned a house where Irwin rented a room.
On March 28, 1937, Easter Sunday, Irwin made his way to the home of Mary Gedeon and demanded to see Ethel... but after being rebuffed, he used strangulation and stabbing to kill a male lodger, Mary and her younger daughter Veronica. Veronica had been a model and the press showed little restraint in printing racy photographs of the victim alongside the story. The scandalous imagery kept the story in the front pages - but Irwin slipped away before he became a suspect.
A few months later at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, maid Henrietta Koscianski noted a resemblance between ice-supplier Bob Murray and a picture in a detective magazine. After asking Bob if he'd ever heard of Robert Irwin and getting a perfunctory denial, she thought no more of it ... until he failed to show up the next day.
Perhaps sensing that the ongoing media coverage meant authorities were closing in on him, Irwin phoned two newspapers offering to turn himself in for a price, first the Chicago Tribune (who didn't believe him) then the Chicago Herald-Examiner (who did.)
The Herald took him up on the offer, getting a rambling confession and selling a huge number of papers as they released extras. Irate detectives raided the Herald offices, but the wily newspapermen had moved Irwin to the Morrison Hotel. Having got their money's worth, they surrendered him to the Cook County Sheriff's Office the next afternoon.
Irwin pled guilty to avoid the electric chair after being deemed sane by judicial authorities who examined him. Once sentenced, he was declared to be "definitely insane" by state psychiatrists and spent the rest of his life in prison hospitals. He died of cancer in 1975 at around 68 years of age.
Rather than finding religion, the younger Irwin changed his name and learned the sculpting trade... but ended up spending time in and out of insane asylums, having attempted to castrate himself. He also became infatuated with Ethel Gedeon (elder daughter of Mary Gedeon) who owned a house where Irwin rented a room.
On March 28, 1937, Easter Sunday, Irwin made his way to the home of Mary Gedeon and demanded to see Ethel... but after being rebuffed, he used strangulation and stabbing to kill a male lodger, Mary and her younger daughter Veronica. Veronica had been a model and the press showed little restraint in printing racy photographs of the victim alongside the story. The scandalous imagery kept the story in the front pages - but Irwin slipped away before he became a suspect.
A few months later at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland, maid Henrietta Koscianski noted a resemblance between ice-supplier Bob Murray and a picture in a detective magazine. After asking Bob if he'd ever heard of Robert Irwin and getting a perfunctory denial, she thought no more of it ... until he failed to show up the next day.
Perhaps sensing that the ongoing media coverage meant authorities were closing in on him, Irwin phoned two newspapers offering to turn himself in for a price, first the Chicago Tribune (who didn't believe him) then the Chicago Herald-Examiner (who did.)
The Herald took him up on the offer, getting a rambling confession and selling a huge number of papers as they released extras. Irate detectives raided the Herald offices, but the wily newspapermen had moved Irwin to the Morrison Hotel. Having got their money's worth, they surrendered him to the Cook County Sheriff's Office the next afternoon.
Irwin pled guilty to avoid the electric chair after being deemed sane by judicial authorities who examined him. Once sentenced, he was declared to be "definitely insane" by state psychiatrists and spent the rest of his life in prison hospitals. He died of cancer in 1975 at around 68 years of age.
The Easter Day Massacre in Hamilton, Ohio
Could you live in a house that was the site of a mass shooting? That was the question faced by Cinnamon Baker, a woman who purchased 635 Minor Avenue in Hamilton, Ohio. Baker had been looking to purchase the house in 2008, when a co-worker asked her about James Ruppert. A few internet searches later, she was exposed to the full horror of what happened at the house on Easter Sunday, March 30, 1975.Chronically unemployed alcoholic James Ruppert was living at his mother's home on Minor Avenue when his brother Leonard, a happily married father of eight children and a successful engineer, attended an Easter Sunday gathering at the house with his entire family.
Facing an eviction from the house by his mother and an ongoing personal feud with his brother caused something inside Ruppert to snap. He armed himself with three pistols and a rifle before opening up on the Easter celebration.
Ruppert fired 44 shots in less than five minutes, 40 of which were on target. All 11 family members lay dead when the killing spree was over, and James considered adding himself to the body count. Instead he called the police and waited for them to arrive. He eventually died in jail in 2022 at the age 88.
Strangely, this dark history wasn't enough to discourage prospective buyer Baker - though she might have had a moment of regret after exploring her purchase. Blood from the shooting had dripped through the floor, indelibly staining the floorboards visible from the basement. She's also had to deal with self-styled paranormal investigators and murder-scene tourists showing up hoping for a tour of the house.
 |
| Florence saw its share of intrigue... (Jonathan Körner) |
The Pazzi ConspiracyOn Easter Sunday in 1478 Florence, members of the ruling Medici family were worshiping at the Cathedral... when the rival Pazzi family struck, murdering Giuliano de’ Medici and wounding his brother Lorenzo.
The Pazzi family were not some unconnected nobodies. They had the backing of Pope Sixtus IV and his nephew Girolamo Riario - both of whom found the Medici family to be obstacles to their ambitions of papal control over Romagna. The archbishop of Pisa also wanted the Medici gone, since they refused to recognize him.
The attack happened at the Easter mass. During the sermon, Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli and Francesco de’Pazzi took their daggers to the backs of the kneeling Medici. Giuliano was slain, but Lorenzo was only wounded - his friends rallied to him, using their bodies to buy him an escape to the sacristy (a small room in the cathedral).
Trying to salvage the situation, the Pazzi conspirators took to the streets with cries of "freedom" but the populace were less than enthusiastic. The Medici were fairly well thought of... and the conspirators soon found themselves hunted through the streets. If the mob didn't get them, the courts sentenced them to death - Leonardo da Vinci even sketched the body of Baroncelli as it hung from a window!
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