In chilling detail, an associate UCI professor charged with setting a series of small fires also sent emails outlining his desire to shoot 200 high school students, murder a vice principal and sexually assault a counselor with a machine gun as he pulled the weapon's trigger, according to court records.
In the emails, Rainer Klaus Reinscheid, 48, of Irvine, seemed fixated on exacting violent revenge against students and administrators at University High School, where his 14-year-old son, Claas, attended school before hanging himself in March.
“I have dreams about going to Uni High and setting the place on fire, burning down every single building and then killing myself in the same place where Claas died," he allegedly wrote in an April 28 email to himself. "I am thinking about getting a dozen machine guns, then going to the school and shooting down that [expletive] vice-principal, then the principal and the stupid counselor lady, but I will stick the gun inside her [vagina] before I pull the trigger, she deserves it. Then I will shoot at least 200 students before killing myself.”
Reinscheid is being held at the Orange County Jail, awaiting arraignment on arson charges. In court papers, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Andrew Katz asked a judge not to allow Reinscheid out on bail, citing evidence that the professor would flee to his native Germany.
Reinscheid’s emails to himself and his wife, Wendy Reinscheid, were entered as evidence in the motion to deny bail.
In one graphic diatribe, he writes about forcing the school’s assistant principal to hang himself just as his own son did when he committed suicide.
“I will find this vice-principal and find out where he lives, then I will wait for him and kill him. I will force him to tie a rope around his neck and if he is too coward, i will do it for him, in front of his wife and children. I will make him cry and beg, but I will not give him a chance, just like he did to Claas,” Reinscheid wrote to his wife. “I will make him die, slowly, surely. I know you agree that he deserves it. Next I will set fire to Uni High and try to burn down as much as I can, there should nothing be left that gives them a reason to continue their miserable school that goes over dead bodies, only to save their scores.”
In addition to the threats, Reinscheid’s emails paint a picture of man distraught over his son’s death, lamenting mistakes as a father and husband while declaring his love for his wife.
Claas hanged himself in Mason Park Preserve in March after a disciplinary action at University High School.
“Plans”
In the first alleged email, sent to his wife at 1:11 a.m. April 26 with the subject line “plans,” Reinscheid talks about how this is “the right moment” to end his life to set his wife “free from my misery.”
That’s when he tells her he plans to kill the high school’s vice principal before burning down the school.
“I will try my best to accomplish a fire storm that destroys every building,” he writes.
After telling his wife he will commit suicide in the same manner and location as his son, he urges hi to go to Muenster, Germany, after he’s gone, to “live in that nice apartment” and send their two children to “the schools that we selected.”
He tells her to “use all the money that I left behind” to give the children a better life, and says that, even after his death, she’ll feel him in the “warm beams” of the sun on her skin and face.
“Love and Time”
In his second alleged email, sent three minutes later, he tells his wife, whom he repeatedly calls “my darling,” that "she should go on with her life after he’s gone and to tell his son ‘Daddy was so sad when Claas passed away, he was just eaten away by his sadness and stopped breathing.’”
He adds, "I thank you for all the love that you gave me and the wonderful moments that we shared. I will keep all of them in my very best memories. But I have also failed you and disappointed you more than once. Now I will be with Claas and when your time has come, I will also be with you. We will all be together and do a better job."
He closes by saying his wife will understand what he’s doing and that he loves her.
“A Good Plan”
Reinscheid’s most chilling email is a 2 a.m. April 28 note to himself.
At the time of writing, Reinscheid said he was taking modafinil, a drug usually used to halt narcolepsy, and that he’s “legally drunk, working on my second bottle of wine.”
He talks about his desire to have sex with the female students at the school and allegedly details his plan to kill 200 students.
He also talks about how he would rape and kill a woman in front of students.
In closing, he writes, “I will give myself a wonderful ending and be with Claas very soon. I like this plan, finally a good idea.“
No Bail
In Tuesday filings, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Andrew Katz urged the court to deny bail because "the overall disturbing nature of the e-mails demonstrating potential mental instability of the defendant and a demonstrated intent to commit acts of mass murder, arson, rape, and suicide combined with an intent and ability to flee to Germany."
Katz also says that one of the reasons no bail should be granted is that “the defendant is a German national and has indicated his intent to flee the jurisdiction.”
According to a police report written by Irvine Police Department investigator Barry Miller, when Reinscheid was arrested on July 27, he was in possession of document that gave power of attorney for his finances and children to his wife.
Katz called it a "newly signed and dated will."
The police report also states that Reinscheid’s wife, Wendy, told police her husband had been suffering from deep depression and sadness since his son committed suicide in March 2012.
