Rockford Professor "May have killed sons, then himself" Say Police

[Zillamaster55]

[url=https://nypost.com/2018/03/04/professor-may-have-killed-his-sons-then-himself-cops/]Source #1 (New York Post)[/url]

[url=http://www.rrstar.com/news/20180303/sheriffs-department-investigates-double-murder-suicide-at-home-of-rvc-professor-ps-ruckman-jr]Source #2 (Local)[/url]
[quote=New York Post]
A prominent political science professor and his two sons were found shot dead in their bedrooms in an apparent murder-suicide, cops said.

Winnebago County Sheriff’s deputies went to the two-story Illinois home of P.S Ruckman Jr., 58, Saturday morning after his ex-wife, Heidi Ruckman, requested a welfare check, the Rockford Register Star reported.

“[She] hadn’t heard from them for a couple of days and it was her weekend for custody of the kids,” said Deputy Chief Mike Schultz.

Cops said they found the bodies of 14-year-old Christopher Ruckman and 12-year-old John Ruckman in separate bedrooms, dead from gunshot wounds.

The dad, who was a political science professor at Rock Valley College and instructor at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, was also found dead from a gunshot wound in a different room.

Although the investigation is still ongoing, detectives believe the dad killed the boys and then himself, WIFR reported.[/quote]

[t]http://www.daily-chronicle.com/_internal/cimg!0/jct6gda2s4msaknjleq9zinwe8hcjdp[/t]

I had this guy for Political Science last semester. He seemed really cheery and was a lot of fun, though was a bit of a hardass in regards to papers/tests. This is absolutely fucking nuts.

[EmperorScorpious]

[quote]Ruckman and his wife, a civil defense attorney, filed for divorce in July 2017. The former couple had last appeared in court in early November to discuss changes to their parenting plan.[/quote]

My guess is the guy had severe depression and it unfortunately got the better of him.

[Zillamaster55]

[url=http://www.journalstandard.com/news/20180307/final-messages-from-ps-ruckman-jr-include-cryptic-social-media-posts-emails-of-his-lifes-work]Update[/url]

[quote]ROCKFORD — Four days before police discovered the bodies of P.S. Ruckman Jr. and his two sons in their home, Ruckman emailed his life’s work on presidential pardons to a law professor and a reporter — a move some believe speaks to Ruckman’s state of mind hours before the killings.

Ruckman, a 58-year-old Rock Valley College professor who police think shot and killed his sons, ages 12 and 14, before turning the gun on himself, also left behind a series of dark and somber messages and images on his Facebook page on the afternoon of Feb. 28 and in the early morning hours of March 1.

Ruckman posted 18th century poetry and 19th century art and music — all of which convey feelings of loss, grief, pain, betrayal, destruction and death. At 12:57 a.m. March 1, he wrote, “The only thing permanent is change” along with an image of sheet music for “Tod und Verklärung,” a classical symphonic composition by Richard Strauss about a dying man.

These are just some of the details emerging in a flurry of news reports and social media posts as many in the Rockford community continue to grieve the deaths of Christopher and Jack Ruckman and offer support to their mother, Heidi. The Ruckmans divorced in August.

The emails, containing Ruckman’s one-of-its-kind data set on presidential pardons and clemencies from George Washington to Donald Trump, were sent Feb. 28 between 3:30 and 4 p.m., said Gregory Korte, a USA Today White House correspondent.

There were 10 emails in all, Korte said. Only the first one contained a message: “[B]Would want you to have this and use freely.”
[/B]
Winnebago County Coroner Bill Hintz said Wednesday that because pathology reports are not yet complete, the best estimated time of death of Ruckman’s sons is the evening of Feb. 28. The Ruckmans were found dead Saturday in their home in unincorporated Winnebago County south of Cherry Valley.

Korte, who has interviewed Ruckman dozens of times in recent years, said he was “surprised and maybe a little bit concerned” when the emails arrived. He had asked for Ruckman’s data in the past, he said, and Ruckman had declined, saying he was working on a book[/quote]

He specialized in pardons and stuff and we discussed that a lot in class.

[EmperorScorpious]

It really sucks that depression is easy to detect in hindsight.