CONCORD, N.H. — A man who spent more than half his life in prison for his role in the 2001 stabbing of two married Dartmouth College professors as part of a scheme to rob and kill people before fleeing abroad will receive his first chance at parole.
James Parker was 16 when he was part of a conspiracy with his best friend that resulted in the deaths of Half and Susanne Zantop in Hanover, New Hampshire. Now barely in his 40s, he is scheduled for a state parole board hearing Thursday, years after pleading guilty to accessory to second-degree murder.
Parker has nearly served the minimum term of his prison sentence of 25 years to life.
“I’m sorry,” Parker said through tears during a brief hearing in 2002. “I can’t say much more than that. I’m just really sorry.”
Years later, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in prison and created paintings that are displayed in the building, according to a 2018 motion filed by his attorney. He has participated in theater, music and sports activities and helped develop educational guides for prisoners. Parker received earned time credit for his sentence and is living in a transitional housing unit, which is usually the last placement for a resident before being released from prison, a Department of Corrections spokesperson said.
Parker requested a reduced sentence in 2018, with his performance praised by corrections staff at the time. By law, he was eligible because he had served two-thirds of his term, but he withdrew the petition in 2019 after the Zantops’ two daughters objected.
“The Zantops were not killed in self-defense or in the heat of battle,” prosecutors said in the appeal. “Instead, their deaths were the result of months of detailed criminal planning, including the purchase of weapons and failed attempts to rob and murder others.”
Parker’s attorney, Cathy Green, said Parker remains deeply remorseful for his actions.
“He has spent his time in prison very constructively, with dedication not only to his own rehabilitation, but also to improving prison for others,” she said in a recent statement.
Parker and then 17-year-old Robert Tulloch, bored with their lives in nearby Chelsea, Vermont, wanted to move to Australia and estimated they would need $10,000 for the trip. Ultimately, they decided that they would knock on homeowners’ doors under the pretense of conducting an investigation into environmental issues, then tie up their victims and steal their credit card and ATM information. They planned to have their prisoners provide the PIN numbers before killing them.
For about six months, they had tried to enter four other homes in Vermont and New Hampshire, but were turned away or found no one home.
Parker, who cooperated with prosecutors, said they chose the Zantop house on the morning of January 27, 2001, because it looked expensive and was surrounded by trees. Half Zantop let them in. Parker told police that the interview lasted at least 10 minutes before Tulloch stabbed Zantop and then ordered him to attack Susanne Zantop. Tulloch also stabbed her.
They fled with Half Zantop’s wallet, which contained approximately $340 and a list of numbers, but then realized they had left sheaths for their knives at the house. They tried to go back, but saw that there was a police officer in the driveway. Fingerprints on a knife sheath and a bloody boot print linked them to the crime, but after being questioned by police they fled and hitchhiked west. They were arrested weeks later at a truck stop in Indiana.
In his interviews with police, Parker said he and Tulloch developed a different sense of morality.
“We thought, you know, what everyone did was stupid. It’s like going to school and wasting half your life on an education you’ll never use,” he had said at the time.
Parker agreed to testify against Tulloch, who planned to use an insanity defense at his trial. But Tulloch abruptly changed his mind and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He received the mandatory life sentence without parole.
Now 40, Tulloch is scheduled for a hearing on his criminal case in June. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 2012 that it is unconstitutional to sentence juvenile offenders to mandatory life in prison without parole, and the state Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that Tulloch and four other men who received such sentences for murders they committed as teenagers committed should be sentenced again. convicted.
Susanne Zantop, 55, and Half Zantop, 62, were born in Germany. She was head of Dartmouth’s German studies department. He taught earth sciences. The professors were respected in their fields and loved by colleagues and students, many of whom had been extended an open invitation to their home, a few miles from Dartmouth’s campus.
A memorial garden on campus in their name features trees, perennial flowers and ferns. The college also holds an annual Zantop lecture in honor of Susanne Zantop on comparative literature.
“There is no explanation in the entire world that can express the absolute horror, disbelief, pain, grief and anger that my sister, my family and friends have experienced since the murders,” said Veronika Zantop, a daughter of the victims and a psychiatrist. lives in the Seattle area, he had said before Tulloch’s sentencing.
“Rather than focus on the inhumanity, the monstrosity and the sheer stupidity of their brutal and senseless deaths, I try to console myself by trying to perpetuate the essence of my parents.”
She did not respond to requests for comment before Parker’s parole board hearing.