Carl Panzram (June 28, 1891-September 5, 1930) was an American serial killer.
While imprisoned, Panzram wrote an articulate autobiography about his life and his descent into crime. Many of the claims he made in it are unverified.
Early life
Born Charles Panzram in Minnesota in 1891, the son of Prussian immigrants, John and Matilda, Panzram was raised on his family's farm and logged his first arrest at the age of eight for being drunk and disorderly. By his teens he was an alcoholic and was repeatedly in trouble with the authorities, usually for burglary and theft. He ran away from home at the age of 14 and claims to have beengang raped by a group of hobos, one of many claimed incidents that added to his hatred and rage for what he saw as an uncaring world where 'might is right'.
In adulthood, Panzram was a prolific thief, but he was frequently caught and imprisoned. Utterly defiant, Panzram would get into trouble by attacking guards and refusing their orders, which led to his being subjected to beating and punishments. He often escaped from prisons, once getting revenge on William H. Taft, whom Panzram believed was responsible for jailing him. In August of 1920, Panzram robbed Taft's New Haven home, stealing a large amount of jewelry and bonds, as well as Taft's .45 caliber automatic handgun, which Panzram then used in several murders.
In his autobiography, Panzram wrote that he was 'rage personified', and he would often rape men whom he robbed, not because he was necessarily homosexual but because it was his method of dominating and humiliating people. He also engaged in vandalism and arson, at one point considering an ambitious plot to scuttle a British warship docked in New York harbor in order to provoke a war between Britain and the USA.
Murder spree
In 1920, at the age of 29, Panzram took the final step in his life of crime by graduating to murder. He lured sailors in New York away from bars, got them drunk, shot them and dumped their remains into the river. After tiring of that, Panzram went to Africa where he raped and killed an 11-year-old boy. In his confession to this murder, he wrote: "His brains were coming out of his ears when I left him and he will never be any deader." A few days later he hired six men to go hunting crocodiles with him. Once in the swamps, however, Panzram shot all six men to death, hacked them up and fed them to the crocodiles.
Back in America, Panzram shot a man dead for trying to rob him. He also raped and killed two small boys, beating one to death with a rock and strangling the other with a belt.
Imprisonment and confession
In 1928, Panzram was arrested for burglary and held in Washington, D.C.. During his interrogation and jailtime he voluntarily confessed to killing two boys. At this time, he was befriended by a young, liberal-minded prison guard named Henry Lesser (1902-1983) who had just been hired that year. Lesser gave Panzram some writing materials which the prisoner used to write his autobiography, detailing his crimes and his nihilistic philosophy:
- "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." - Carl Panzram
In light of his extensive criminal record, he was handed a 25-year sentence which was to be served at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. "I'll kill the first man that bothers me," Panzram told the warden, and sure enough, a few months later he killed Robert Warnke Officer Down, foreman of the prison laundry in Leavenworth, battering him to death with an iron bar. To his evident delight, Panzram was sentenced to death. He refused to appeal, even threatening to kill human rights groups that attempted to appeal on his behalf.
Carl Panzram was hung on September 5, 1930. When asked by the executioner if he had any last words, Panzram barked, "Hurry it up, you Hoosier bastard! I could kill 10 men while you're fooling around!"
Aftermath
- Lesser pressed for the manuscript to be published for forty years, and it finally was in 1970. It has gone through a number of reprints, the latest being in 2002. The 1996 movie Killer: A Journal Of Murder was based on Panzram's final years, with [ames Woods as Panzram and Robert Sean Leonard as Lesser.
- Carl Panzram is the subject of the World Famous Crawlspace Brothers' dark murder ballad, Just Born Bad [1]
- Henry Lesser donated the Carl Panzram papers (archival material) to the University of San Diego in 1980 (OCLC: 31924012).
Notes
- Stevens Point Journal, Oct. 8, 1928, "Burglar at Taft's Admits Two Murders"
- Social Security Death Index : Henry Lesser, born 8 Nov 1902, died Oct 1983, SSN issued from DC, last residence and benefit to Los Angeles, CA
- California Death Index: Henry Philip Lesser born 8 Nov 1902 Massachusetts, died 27 Oct 1983 Los Angeles County
References
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