Students ‘creeped out,’ curious about Millikin prof who killed family
BY KIM JANSSEN Federal Courts Reporter August 26, 2013 6:08PM
James St. James is a psychology professor and chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Millikin University in Downstate Decatur.
Updated: August 27, 2013 2:16AM
DECATUR — The classroom was buzzing with nervous first-day chatter when the pony-tailed and bearded 61-year-old professor walked in.
That’s when the room fell into a “chilling” silence, Millikin University freshman Alex Arocha recalled Monday afternoon after Professor James St. James taught his first class since he was unmasked this summer as a teenage killer.
“He wrote his name on the board and said, ‘You probably all know the name unless you’ve spent the summer in Africa,’ or something like that,” said Arocha, 18, of Downstate Harristown.
“He giggled a little bit — it was like a joke,” she added.
But after the awkward start, the 50-minute class — Introduction to Psychology — was soon in full swing. And as the Decatur college campus sprang back to life Monday, St. James, his students and colleagues seemed to be taking the shocking revelations about St. James’ past in stride.
Revealed earlier this summer to have changed his name after he gunned down his mother, father and sister in his Texas hometown as a 15-year-old boy in 1967, St. James has received the backing of the Millikin community at every step.
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