James Filiaggi was born May 15, 1965, in Lorain, Ohio.

Filiaggi is evasive when asked about his childhood, which he describes as a "typical" upbringing in a loving Italian-American family. His parents, he says, pushed their four children to excel.

Even so, by the time he was a teen, he had earned a reputation for getting into fights and drinking. He sought treatment for alcohol abuse when he was 16.

He graduated from high school and was admitted to Ohio University, where he says he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in accounting, business law and management information systems.

During his college years, Filiaggi says, he channeled his anger management issues through boxing and rugby, but his temper still managed to get him in trouble.

He was arrested twice for public intoxication and disorderly conduct during his college years. After he graduated, he was arrested three times between 1990 and 1993 for assault and resisting arrest in altercations with police. In one instance, he was acquitted of one count of felonious assault. The other charge was dismissed.

He joined the Army in 1983, before he started college, and at one point, came within days of being sent to Iraq.

Filiaggi says it was the prospect of deployment that led him to marry his girlfriend, Lisa, who he met in a bar while he was home from school.

He never went to Iraq, but the relationship continued while Filiaggi was away at school and after he graduated and returned to Lorain.

The couple had two daughters, but eventually, the marriage "went south," according to Filiaggi, due to his wife's issues with cocaine abuse.

After they obtained a divorce, Filiaggi and his ex-wife became entangled in a messy custody dispute which he would later blame for his unraveling mental state.

"I wish I would've talked to my fiancée or my parents or somebody, you know, let them know how I was feeling. Bottling all that up was a huge mistake," Filiaggi said. "It left me swimming in a sea of depression and I could only see one door, one out, when there was obviously more."

He finally reached his breaking point the night of Jan. 24, 1994, when he killed his ex-wife.

His crime: A deadly confrontation