Illinois authorities found the body of P.S. Ruckman Jr. (above) and his two young sons at their home in Rockford last week
A college professor and a journalist say they received emails from an expert on presidential pardons just days before his body and the bodies of his two sons were found in an apparent murder-suicide.
USA Today White House correspondent Gregory Korte and St. Thomas Law School professor Mark Osler said they received emails containing the life’s work of 58-year-old political science professor P.S. Ruckman Jr. several days before police found the bodies, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Winnebago County sheriff’s deputies found Ruckman and his sons, 14-year-old Christopher Ruckman and 12-year-old John Ruckman, shot dead at a Rockford-area home last Saturday.
Korte and Osler say the email contained a massive data set with the note: ‘Would want you to have this and use freely.’
Korte posted a lengthy series of tweets on Tuesday about the correspondence he received from Ruckman, whom he had known as a source for his articles.
‘Six days ago, a source of mine unexpectedly emailed me a treasure trove of data,’ Korte tweeted on Tuesday.
‘So far as I know, it was the last thing he did before committing murder-suicide.
‘P.S. Ruckman Jr., who went by the twitter handle @pardonpower, was a leading expert on the presidential pardon power and clemency in general.
‘One of the things that made him such an authority was that he had painstakingly assembled, through countless hours of work at the National Archives, a comprehensive database of every pardon, commutation, respite and reprieve ever granted back to George Washington.
St. Thomas Law School professor Mark Osler (left) and USA Today White House correspondent Gregory Korte said they received emails containing the life’s work of Ruckman several days before police found the bodies
Winnebago County sheriff’s deputies found Ruckman and his sons, Christopher Ruckman (left), 14, and John Ruckman (right), 12, shot dead at a Rockford-area home Saturday. Their mother, Ruckman’s ex-wife Heidi (center), called police after not hearing from them for days
Ruckman told associates he was proud of his two sons, sending images of them on social media
Ruckman sent a reporter a YouTube video showing his son, Chris, playing the national anthem on guitar at a high school basketball game
‘That data helped give me historical context for a number of stories I wrote about President Obama’s use of his clemency power, for which I received the Gerald R Ford Presidential Foundation Award for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency last year.
‘It was a great data set, and many times I asked if he wouldn’t mind sharing it. But he said he was working on a book about the history of pardons and didn’t want to release the data until that project was complete.
‘I kept in touch from time to time. Last year, when President Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio and people argued that it was unprecedented to pardon someone for contempt of court, Ruckman sent me a list of dozens of people pardoned for contempt back to President John Adams.
‘Still, I was a little surprised last Wednesday, when he emailed me the entire database – in separate spreadsheets for each presidential administration, more than 30,000 records in all. “Would want you to have this and use freely,” he wrote.
USA Today White House correspondent Gregory Korte posted a lengthy series of tweets on Tuesday about the correspondence he received from Ruckman, whom he had known as a source for his articles
‘I emailed him back right away, saying I was on deadline but would call him later. When he didn’t call me back by Monday, I got worried. I checked his web site and Twitter feed. Then I googled him.’
After Korte read online that Ruckman had been suspected in a murder-suicide, he tweeted: ‘I called the Winnebago County Sheriff, in case the emails help to establish his intent, or the timeline. Obviously, there are a lot of questions left unanswered, and the investigation continues.
‘I never met him in person, and can’t presume to know what went so terribly wrong. I do know he was proud of his sons. Last year, he sent me a YouTube video of his 7th grader playing the National Anthem on guitar at a high school basketball game.
‘I also got the impression that his passion for the subject of pardons was rooted in fundamental Christian values of redemption and forgiveness. Tonight I’m struggling to reconcile those ideals with such an unpardonable act.
‘I’m not sure what I’ll do with the data. He did important work, which now seems tainted. I do pray that God has mercy on his soul, and especially on the souls of his innocent sons.’
Days before he was found dead with his sons, Ruckman changed his Facebook profile photo to an image of sheet music from Richard Wagner’s opera Götterdämmerung, a work which was inspired by the destruction of the Norse gods
Osler, a professor at St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis, told the Tribune he also received the same set of data with the identical note.
He said he had a professional relationship with Ruckman, whom he invited to speak at his school.
They had also collaborated on an article.
Osler said Ruckman would send him pictures and video of his children on social media.
‘He seemed to be really proud of his kids’ accomplishments,’ he said.
Cops were sent to Ruckman’s house after his ex-wife, Heidi, got concerned that she hadn’t heard from them in a few days
Osler said he noticed that Ruckman changed his Facebook profile photo to an image of sheet music from Richard Wagner’s opera Götterdämmerung, a work which was inspired by the destruction of the Norse gods.
‘I think it was a way of casting what he was doing on a grand scale, in kind of a twisted way,’ Osler said.
Ruckman was a professor at Rock Valley College and an instructor at Northern Illinois University.
Cops were sent to the house after his estranged wife, Heidi, got concerned that she hadn’t heard from them in a few days.
The two-story home is located 4600 block of Chandan Woods Drive and near the intersection of Linden and South Perryville roads (pictured)
They divorced in August and have since been sharing custody of the children.
Police arrived at around 7.10am last Saturday morning to perform a welfare check.
They found the man and two boys in separate bedrooms with gunshot wounds.
Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Chief Mike Schultz confirmed that Mrs Ruckman, who works as attorney in Chicago, was the person who requested the welfare check.
Ruckman was a professor at Rock Valley College and an instructor at Northern Illinois University. He is also an expert on presidential pardons and author of two books: ‘Pardon Me, Mr. President: Adventures in Crime, Politics and Mercy’ and ‘The Pardon Power in the 21st Century
Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Chief Mike Schultz (pictured) said that the welfare check was requested by Heidi Ruckman
‘(She) hadn’t heard from them for a couple days and it was her weekend for custody of the kids,’ Schultz told the Standard.
Ruckman was a professor at Rock Valley College and an instructor at Northern Illinois University.
He was also an expert on presidential pardons and author of two books: ‘Pardon Me, Mr. President: Adventures in Crime, Politics and Mercy’ and ‘The Pardon Power in the 21st Century’.
Ruckman was also a much sought after source for numerous publications, including The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and The Associated Press.
He appeared on major networks, including BBC, PBS and MSNBC.
Winnebago County court documents show that the Ruckmans filed for divorce in July 2017.