Carl Panzram

By his own admission Carl Panzram was one of the most vicious and unrepentant criminals that ever existed for over 30 years.

Early Life
Panzram was born on June 28, 1891, in East Grand Forks, Minnesota the son of Johann Gottlieb Panzram 1843-1926 and Matilda. He had five other siblings who grew up to be respectable lawabiding people; however Carl was "different" -he felt odd from a young age: by the age of five or six he was a liar and thief and claimed to become meaner the older he grew.

Crime Spree 1899-1930
1899 Panzram in Juvenile Court for being drunk and disorderly −   − 1903 Panzram in County Jail for being drunk and incorrigible; October 11, 1903 Panzram sent to Minnesota State Training School, Red Wing Minnesota for incorrigibility − July 7, 1905 Panzram burned down the State Training School warehouse −   − 1905 Panzram tried to shoot a teacher; plot miscarried and he was thrown out of school. January 1906 "Henry Panzram" reported to be paroled from Red Wing after stealing money from his mothers pocketbook −   − Fled his mothers Minnesota farm to become a hobo on the rails −   − 1906 Panzram claimed to have been gang raped by hobos on a train; that spring he is arrested in Butte, Montana for burglary and sentenced to one year Montana State Reform School, Miles City Montana 1907 Panzram escapes from Montana State Reform School and assumes alias of Jefferson Baldwin. Robbing and committing arsons in towns of Glendive; Crane; Sidney Montana −   − December 1907 while getting drunk in a Helena Montana saloon Panzram joined the US Army Co A 6th US Infantry Regiment. Totally rebellious against any authority, he was court-martialed in April 1908 for larceny of US Government property and sentenced to US Military Leavenworth Prison Kansas for 3 years at hard labor-sentence confirmed by Secretary of War, William Howard Taft. Panzram later claims that while before his imprisonment he had been a pretty rotten yegg, the only result of his sentence was to drive any goodness out of him. Released in August 1910 and dishonorable discharged, Panzram resumed his career as a thief, stealing anything from bicycles to yachts, and was caught and imprisoned multiple times. Winter, 1910 Panzram alleged in his 1929 autobiography that after serving a short sentence at Rusk Texas, he claimed to have gone to Juarez, Mexico to try to enlist in the Federal Mexican Army; he then left on a train for Del Rio, Texas and got off in a small town 50 to 100 miles east of El Paso, Texas where about a mile south of that town he alleged to have abducted, assaulted, kicked and strangled a man and then stole $35.00 from the victim. −   − Summer 1911 Panzram aka "Jefferson Davis" arrested Fresno California for stealing a bicycle; sentenced to 6 months in county jail. Escaped after 30 days 1913 Panzram aka "Jack Allen" arrested The Dalles, Oregon for highway robbery, assault and sodomy; broke out of jail after 2–3 months; on the run aka "Jeff Davis" is arrested Harrison, Idaho; escapes from County jail. Aka "Jefferson Davis" arrested Chinook, Montana; sentenced to Montana State Prison for 1 year for burglary. −   − April 27, 1913 Panzram aka "Jefferson Davis" admitted to State Prison, Deer Lodge Montana; escapes November 13, 1913. Within a week arrested as "Jeff Rhoades" in Three Forks, Montana for burglary and returned to Deer Lodge for an additional year. −   − March 3, 1915 Panzram released from Montana State Prison −   − June 1, 1915, Panzram aka "Jefferson Baldwin" arrested Astoria, Oregon for burglary; sentenced to Oregon State Prison, Salem Oregon Inmate # 7390 for seven years. In his prison record he falsely gave his age as 30 and his place of birth as Alabama. The one true bit of autobiography he did give was his occupation "thief" September 27, 1915, Panzram was an accessory in the killing of Oregon State Penitentiary Warden Harry Minto. −   − September 18, 1917, Panzram escaped from Prison but recaptured −   − May 12, 1918, Panzram escapes from prison and assumes alias of "John O' Leary". $50.00 was offered for his recapture. −   − August 1920 Panzram burglarized the home of William Howard Taft  home in New Haven, Connecticut. He stole a large amount of jewellery and bonds, as well as Taft's Colt M1911 .45 caliber handgun. He then began a murder spree that spanned eight years and multiple countries. −   − Summer 1920: With the money stolen from Taft he bought a yacht, the Akiska. He lured sailors away from New York City bars, got them drunk, raped and shot them with Taft's pistol, then dumped their bodies near Execution Rocks Light in Long Island Sound. He claimed to have killed ten in all. He was stopped only when he was shipwrecked in a storm near Atlantic City, New Jersey; his last two almost victims escaped to parts unknown. −   − October 26, 1920 Panzram aka "John O' Leary"  arrested Stamford CT for burglary and possession of a loaded handgun; −   − 1921 Panzram serves 6 months in jail in Bridgeport CT. 1921 Panzram is foreman of an Oil rig in Angola, Africa [he later burned the rig down out of shear meaness]. In the village of Luanda Panzram raped and killed a young boy; he also claims in village of Lobito to have hired 6 men as rowers in a boat; he then sadistly killed them with a German Luger pistol and threw their bodies to the crocodiles. −   − Summer 1922 After returning to the U.S., Panzram asserted that he raped and killed two small boys, beating George Henry McMahon to death with a rock on July 18, 1922 in Salem, Massachusetts and strangling the other in either the summer of 1922 or summer of 1923 near New Haven. {Police of New London CT announced they were unable to confirm Panzrams confession of a murder near there, but in August 1923 a "John Doe" murder victium was found near New Haven CT. The Connecticut Bridgeport Telegram published reports on the decomposed unknown victim remains being found on August 10 (p. 1) and August 11, 1923 (p. 10). Another report of the murdered man appeared in the CT Newspaper "The Day" Allegedly the Connecticut victim was aged 16, and was the son or nephew of a New York policeman. Panzram later wrote that he had also contemplated mass killings and other acts of mayhem, such as poisoning a city's water supply with arsenic, or scuttling a British warship in New York Harbor to provoke a war between the U.S. and Great Britain. − After his murder spree in Salem Mass, PAnzram had gotten job as a nightwatchman at Abeeco Mill factory at Yonkers New York where he made a [sexual] aquintence with a 15 year old boy named George Walosin;in New Providence Rhode Island he stole a yawl and sailed to New Haven Connecticut for victiums to rob and rape and boats to rob. In June 1923 in New Rochelle New York he stole a yacht that belonged to the Police Chief of New Rochelle; he picked up Walosin and promised him a job on the boat; {he sodimzed him). On June 27, 1923 on the river near Kingston, New York, Panzram claimed to have used a .38 calibre pistol from the stolen yacht to kill a man who tried to rob him while on the yacht; Panzram threw the body into the river. On June 28, 1923 Panzram and Walosin docked at Poughkeepsie New York; Panzram stole $1,000 worth of fishing nets; at Newburgh New York Walosin [who had witnessed the murder] jumped overboard and swam to shore; he reported to the police at Yonkers New York he had been sexually assulated by Panzram; an alert went out for "Captain John O'Leary"; on June 29, 1923,  Panzram aka "John O'Leary"  arrested Nyak, New York July 9, 1923, Panzram tired to escape from jail; later conned his lawyer by giving him ownership of a stolen boat in return for bail money; Panzram skips bail and the boat is confiscated by the police −   − August 26, 1923, Panzram aka "John O' Leary" arrested Larchmont, New York after breaking into train depot, sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. While in County jail confessed to being "Jeff Baldwin" wanted In Oregon −   − August 29, 1923 Sill under the alias of "O' Leary" Panzram is cleared as a suspect in stabbing death in July 1923 of Miss Dorothy Kaufman of Greenberg New York. −   − October 1923 Panzram imprisoned at Clinton Prison, Dannemora New York July 1928 Panzram discharged from Clinton Prison −   − Summer 1928 alleged to have committed a murder in Baltimore, Maryland −   − July 26, 1928 Panzram kills Alexander Uszacke[? or [Lusszzock[?]  age 14 in Philadelphia,Pa. −   − August 12, 1928 Panzram arrested Washington D.C. − September 2, 1928 Panzram Inmate #33379 mugshot Washington DC − − November 3, 1928 Panzram starts his autobiography −   − November 12, 1928, Panzram tried for burglary found guilty and sentenced to a total of 25 years in Prison −   − February 1, 1929, Panzram Inmate # 31614 to serve his sentence at Leavenworth Prison Kansas −   − June 20, 1929, Panzram kills Leavenworth Prison employee Robert Warnke with an iron bar After being sentenced to death for killing Warnke,in response to offers from death penalty opponents and human rights activists to intervene, Panzram wrote, "The only thanks you and your kind will ever get from me for your efforts on my behalf is that I wish you all had one neck and that I had my hands on it." After being sentenced to death for killing Warnke,in response to offers from death penalty opponents and human rights activists to intervene, Panzram wrote, "The only thanks you and your kind will ever get from me for your efforts on my behalf is that I wish you all had one neck and that I had my hands on it." − On September 5, 1930, Panzram was hanged for murder at Leavenworth prison. When asked if had any last words, he snapped back "Hurry It up you Hoosier Bastard. I could kill ten men while you're fooling around!". He was buried in the prison graveyard marked only by his prison number. + On September 5, 1930, Panzram was hanged for murder at Leavenworth prison. When asked if had any last words, he snapped back "Hurry it up you Hoosier Bastard. I could kill ten men while you're fooling around!". He was buried in the prison graveyard marked only by his prison number. − ==Autobiography== During his last imprisonment a prison guard Henry Lesser gave Panzram a dollar to buy cigarettes; Panzram was so surprised by this one act of kindness that in return he wrote his autobiography—making it quite clear that he did not repent at all of the robberies, murders, arsons, and rapes which he had committed-writing a detailed summary of his crimes and nihilistic philosophy. It began with a straightforward statement: During his last imprisonment a prison guard Henry Lesser gave Panzram a dollar to buy cigarettes; Panzram was so surprised by this one act of kindness that in return he wrote his autobiography—making it quite clear that he did not repent at all of the robberies, murders, arsons, and rapes which he had committed-writing a detailed summary of his crimes and nihilistic philosophy. It began with a straightforward statement: In my lifetime I have murdered 21 human beings, I have committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arsons and, last but not least, I have committed sodomy on more than 1,000 male human beings. For all these things I am not in the least bit sorry.

In 1938, Karl Menninger wrote Man Against Himself, including writing about Panzram using the pen name of "John Smith", with Panzram Prison Number # 31614. Lesser preserved Panzram's letters and autobiographical manuscript, then spent the next four decades in search of a publisher willing to print the material. Finally, in 1970, it was released under the title Killer: A Journal of Murder. In 1996, the book formed the basis of a film of the same name, starring James Woods as Panzram and Robert Sean Leonard as Lesser. In 1980, Lesser donated Panzram's material to San Diego State University, where they are housed, as the "Carl Panzram papers", in the Malcolm A. Love Library.[6] In 2012 filmmaker John Borowski released a documentary entitled Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance.

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