A man who murdered his wife in a St. Louis County Courthouse shooting spree more than 20 years ago has died.
Kenneth Baumruk, 75, was the oldest of Missouri’s inmates under a death sentence. The Department of Corrections says he died late Halloween night of apparent natural causes at the Potosi Correctional Center.
Baumruk carried two handguns in a briefcase he took with him to divorce proceedings in the courthouse in Clayton May 5, 1992. He took them out and first shot his wife Mary in the neck and later in the head, killing her.
Baumruk also shot both his attorney and his wife’s, a bailiff and a security officer before police in the courthouse shot him nine times, including two head wounds.
Baumruk had at one time been ruled incompetent to stand trial due to those head wounds. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2001 but that was thrown out, only to see him again found guilty and sentenced to death in 2007. Appeals of that ruling had been unsuccessful.
The shootings led to the doubling of security and the installation of metal detectors at that courthouse.
Baumruk’s death leaves 37 men condemned to die in Missouri.
Missouri is next scheduled to execute Leon Taylor on November 19 for the murder of a convenience store attendant in 1994, and then the execution of Paul Goodwin December 10 for murdering his neighbor with a hammer in 1998.
