Ratzmann Talked of Suicide Years Ago

By STEVE SCHULTZE
Posted: March 16, 2005

Terry Ratzmann told fellow church members he was depressed and suicidal a decade ago, had purchased a handgun and slept with it under his pillow, a local spokesman for the Living Church of God said Wednesday.

"I submit it's a miracle this guy lasted as long as he did," the spokesman, Thomas Geiger, said in an interview. Ratzmann is the computer technician who opened fire on his congregation last weekend at a Brookfield hotel, killing seven, wounding four and taking his own life.

Geiger said he was uncertain how long that deep depression lasted but said it eventually subsided and that Ratzmann sold that gun. Asked what type of help Ratzmann got when he disclosed his suicidal feelings, Geiger said church members provided "as much support and encouragement" as possible.

"We hovered over him very closely at the time," said Geiger, whose 15-year-old nephew was among those killed Saturday. "The brethren were stabilizers for the man."

The church doesn't restrict members from getting psychiatric help but "normally tries to minister to its own," Geiger said. "If somebody is troubled, the first thing you do is go to the minister."

Although Ratzmann, 44, went through what Geiger called a "bout" of suicidal depression, he said church members generally felt that Ratzmann's tendency toward depression wasn't that serious....

Other developments

• Ratzmann's desire to be buried at the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove will not be fulfilled, WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) reported Wednesday night. A federal provision prohibits anyone who has committed a capital offense or the equivalent from being buried at the cemetery, according to WTMJ.

A private funeral service will be held for Ratzmann, according to Alstadt-Tyborski McLeod Funeral Service. No other details were released.

• Jonathan Gregory - the surviving son of the Living Church of God pastor killed Saturday - posted an Internet letter to church members thanking them for support. Randy Gregory, the pastor, was killed along with another son, 16-year-old James Gregory. The family lives in Gurnee, Ill.

Gregory writes that his mother, Marjean Gregory, who was wounded during the shootings, was "making a miraculous recovery." An operating room nurse initially reported that she had died, Gregory wrote. A bullet pierced a lung and her lower abdomen, and she remains on a ventilator, according to her son.

• A woman featured in some photos taken at Devils Lake State Park on a Web site of Ratzmann's e-mailed local news media to say she was a former co-worker of Ratzmann's and had "a non-dating casual friendship" with him.

"It has been quite heart-wrenching to hear of a friend being reduced to such hopelessness," the woman, who didn't identify herself by name, wrote.

Church members have said Ratzmann, who was 44, was frustrated deeply by his inability to find a wife.

• The location for a funeral service for Bart Oliver has changed and now will be held at Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha at 7 p.m. Friday.