Monsters.
We’ve spoken about countless evil people on this show, many of whom could be labeled as monsters, and rightfully so. From creatures like Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, and Harold Shipman, to beasts like Pedro Lopez, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy, our library of death and depravity is vast indeed. However, in my time following true crime and being a part of this channel, I’ve come to realize that for all the infamous big names out there that everyone knows, there are numerous monsters from the past that are just as evil, but aren’t as well known. And with that said, let’s talk about a particular monster, one that shockingly isn’t talked about as much as others, when he certainly should be.
We find ourselves in Salem, Massachusetts on July 18th, 1922, where we meet 12-year-old George Henry McMahon. He had spent most of the day at a neighbor’s restaurant when the owner asked him to run an errand for him. Being a responsible and neighborly sort, George agreed without hesitation. The owner gave him the money, and off he went, all by himself. Ah, the past, when young kids could walk the streets alone without any supervision and not have a worry in the world.
As George walked to the store, he soon came across a man. The man was large in stature, muscular in build, had a hard face, and dark emotionless eyes. Walking up to the boy, the man gave him a smile and asked what he was doing. Upon hearing that George was heading to the store, the man said he would walk him there for his errand, to which George agreed.
They walked together, and when they arrived at the store, the man even struck up a conversation with the cashier as George got the supplies for the restaurant. Once they were done, the man looked at George and asked if he would take the trolley with him. He assured George that it wouldn’t take long and that he’d be back to the store in no time at all. George, being the trusting boy he was, agreed.
Getting onto the trolley, the man sat with George, smiling and talking with him the whole way…not giving away even the slightest hint of his intent. Soon enough, they reached their destination, a near deserted part of town, away from all prying eyes. Then, just as young George must have been wondering what was happening and questioning his decision to go with this man…he was pinned down by the kind man who had spent most of the day with him.
Then, for the next three hours, the man took his time sodomizing the child, all while he cried out for help that never came. When the man was finally content, he took hold of a rock. Gazing down at the poor, suffering child, the heartless beast brought the rock down hard over and over again, ending George’s life in brutal fashion.
Then, as if it was just another day in the neighborhood, the man grabbed some nearby branches, dragged them over to the lifeless body of George Henry McMahon, and covered him up to be discovered later. As he was walking back into town, he was reportedly seen by several townspeople exiting the deserted section of town…and they thought nothing of it. They went about their business, none the wiser that an innocent young life had just been snuffed out…like a dying candle in the wind.
This is just one of this creature’s crimes, and it’s just a taste of what’s to come. This is the story of a man so cold and unapologetic for his crimes that it’s truly unnerving. He held such contempt for the world and humanity that he believed the only solution was to murder every last person walking the face of the earth. This is the tale of a serial, spree, and mass killer, a rapist and child molester, an arsonist, a robber and burglar on a country wide scale.
He is one of the worst monsters in American history, suspected of having killed over 100 people.
He was never given a catchy nickname like most killers, and throughout his life he used a number of aliases to try and escape the law, but in the end, he will always simply be known…as Carl Panzram.
Making a Monster
Let’s rewind and start from the very beginning. Johann “John” Gottlieb Panzram and Mathilda Elizabeth “Lizzie” Panzram were East Prussian immigrants who owned a large farm near East Grand Forks, Minnesota. They had seven children, the sixth being Charles “Carl” Panzram, born June 28th, 1891. Johann and Elizabeth were very work oriented, as many immigrants are want to be, and they made their children, Carl included, work on the family farm from sunrise to sunset until it became illegal for parents to not send their children to school.
Thank you, truancy laws.
Unfortunately for Carl and his siblings, that didn’t deter Johann and Elizabeth. To make up for not being able to make their children work backbreaking labor all day long, the Panzram parents instead made their children work backbreaking labor all night. Carl later stated that he would get as little as three hours of sleep before having to head to school the next day. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Johann and Elizabeth had a penchant for chaining up their children as punishment and even went so far as to starve them if they disobeyed or they felt the children were not pulling their weight to support the family.
Johann eventually abandoned the family when Carl was only seven years old, leaving in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. This, along with all the previous poor treatment, set him down a dark path, and he jumped head first into it. A year later, Panzram was arrested and sent to juvenile court for being drunk and disorderly at the age of eight in 1899 and again at age of eleven in 1903. It wasn’t long before he began breaking into people’s homes to burglarize them, a sign of things to come.
Eventually Elizabeth had enough and sent her son away to the Minnesota State Training School. Located in Red Wing, along the Mississippi River, this facility was and still is a juvenile reform institution. At the time, the institution housed approximately 300 boys ages 10-20, and was a place meant to instill order and structure to young men. Now it sounds like this should have been the perfect place for Panzram, a place for him to straighten up and fly right.
However, instead of fixing him, it did the exact opposite. According to Panzram’s later autobiography, the entire time he was housed at the school, he was repeatedly beaten, tortured and raped by staff members. Hell, on his first day there, Panzram claimed that he was taken into an office by a male staff member, where he was stripped, asked about his sexual experiences, and then molested.
During their lessons, Panzram and the other boys were taught about good old fashioned Christian values, and all the while, they were beaten, abused, and raped for the amusement of the guards. There was even a designated room in which they did so, which Panzram and the other children called “the paint shop” because they often left the room “painted” with bruises and blood. Now, none of this is officially confirmed, but one thing is true: Panzram hated the school with a burning passion. So much so that, on the night of July 7, 1905, he created a firebomb and successfully burned down the building that housed “the paint shop” as revenge, all while going completely undetected and checking off another item from the serial killer checklist.
During his time at the school, Panzram claims to have committed his first murder—that of a 12-year-old boy. However, he never disclosed the victim’s name, and there are no official records to verify his claim. Trust me when I say that’ll be a theme going forward and, given his reputation as a skilled liar, it’s likely that this is just another one of his tall tales. Soon enough, he was able to convince the staff that he had been reformed and was no longer a danger to himself or others.
As a result, he was released into the care of his mother at the age of thirteen in January 1906.
As Panzram himself stated later on in his memoirs: “I was reformed all right…I had been taught by Christians how to be a hypocrite and I learned more about stealing, lying, hating, burning, and killing.”
So what is a boy to do when he wants to get away from his abusive mother and stay as far away from hard farm labor as possible? Why, join the clergy of course! He convinced his mother that he wished to become a priest and was sent to the nearby Immanuel Lutheran Church. Did this have any positive change in him?
Of course not, and after only a two week period, he was expelled after attempting to murder his Lutheran cleric teacher with a revolver he somehow got ahold of. He never returned home, jumping onto a train bound for Minnesota, becoming a drifter, going from town to town, hopping on freight trains and spending nights sleeping on the streets or in empty train cars.
At this point, Panzram was already an angry teenager, filled with hate and resentment towards his family, and loathing how his life was turning out. Unfortunately, things only got worse for him. According to Carl, while he was sleeping in an empty train car one night, he was approached by a group of homeless men. They spoke kindly to him, they promised to take care of him, that they would get him a warm place to sleep and good clothes…but they wanted something in return.
They leapt onto Panzram, held him down and took turns molesting him as he kicked and screamed, powerless to stop them.
To quote his autobiography: “I left that box a sadder, sicker, but wiser boy…I made up my mind that I would rob, burn, destroy and kill everywhere I went and everybody I could as long as I lived.”
The Man of Many Names and Crimes
Upon reaching Butte, Montana in the summer of 1906, Panzram, still homeless and without any money, started committing burglaries around the area. He was eventually caught and jailed, and was sentenced to a year at the Montana State Reform School in Miles City. While there, Panzram claimed that he was punished severely by one of the guards.
In response, Panzram grabbed a wooden board and proceeded to beat and brutalize the guard, leaving him in critical condition, before being placed in solitary confinement as punishment. However, Panzram’s time in jail was short-lived as in 1907, he and fellow inmate James “Jimmie” Benson managed to escape.
Normally when people escape jail, they’re caught relatively soon afterwards. Not in this case. Panzram and Benson managed to elude the police and even managed to steal some guns while on the run. This is gonna be another theme with Panzram going forward, effectively avoiding capture and slipping out of jail whenever given the chance.
With that, they wreaked havoc along the U.S.-Canadian border, perpetuating a string of burglaries, robberies, and arsons throughout the Midwest before eventually going their separate ways in Fargo, North Dakota. They particularly targeted churches at Panzram’s insistence, stealing all they could and setting them ablaze after they were done. Was this a way to get back at God for not helping him in his times of need throughout his harsh life? It would seem likely at the very least.
In an excerpt from his confessions later on, Panzram spoke “fondly” about their time together: “I stayed with him for about a month, hoboing our way east, stealing and burning everything we could. I taught him how to set fire to a church after we robbed it. We got very busy on that, robbing and burning a church regular every chance we got.”
Surprisingly, one night when he was 16 and drunk, Panzram enlisted for the US Army, and was assigned to the 6th Infantry at Fort William Henry Harrison. Normally the Army works to instill structure, order, and discipline into their troops. You’d think that, having willingly signed up, that he would at least attempt to follow the rules, to conform and be a good soldier. But of course he didn’t, because nobody could tell Carl Panzram what to do.
Panzram was the furthest thing from a model soldier, disobeying his superiors and being locked up multiple times for his conduct and insubordination.
It all came crashing down soon enough after he broke into the quartermaster’s building, stole approximately $88 worth of clothing, and attempted to go AWOL. Panzram was promptly arrested, thrown into the stockade, court-martialed, and found guilty of three charges of larceny before he was dishonorably discharged and, on April 20th, 1908, sentenced to three years of hard labor in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The order was signed by then-Secretary of War William Howard Taft himself, and Panzram would hold a grudge against Taft in the years to come.
He was released in 1910, but the damage was done. Afterwards, Panzram stated that if there was any goodness left in him regardless of his actions or attitude, all of that died within the walls of Fort Leavenworth.
Every single time this man has gotten into trouble, and further thrown his life into disarray, it was of his own making. Sure, he had a pretty terrible start and his family life didn’t help, but he had multiple chances to get his life together and become a decent person…he just didn’t take it. He could have been a successful farmer like his siblings, he could have been a successful member of the clergy, he could have been a successful part of the military…and he pissed it all away, all because of his unyielding hurt, malice, and hatred.
By the time he was released from Fort Leavenworth, Panzram was a large man, muscular and imposing, sporting a bushy Roosevelt-like mustache. The monster was free, and was ready to do anything he pleased, trampling anyone who dared stand in his way. Returning to his drifter lifestyle, Panzram traveled through Kansas, Texas, Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho and Utah, all in which he committed crime after crime. He robbed people, he assaulted people, he committed multiple acts of arson, and, most heinous of all, he committed numerous acts of rape.
Panzram stated that he mostly targeted men for his robberies, and afterwards, he’d force the victim down and rape them. He was bigger than them, stronger than them, and in his mind, that made them no more than his prey. He was made to feel small and weak numerous times when he was younger, his innocence taken away, and now that he was strong, he was gonna make others feel that same exact pain. At times he described himself as “rage personified,” and that sounds fairly accurate.
In describing himself and his views, Panzram was quoted in his memoirs as stating: “I don’t believe in man, God nor Devil. I hate the whole damned human race, including myself. I preyed upon the weak, the harmless and the unsuspecting. This lesson I was taught by others: might makes right.”
With that, Panzram’s life became a revolving door of crime, jail, escape, and repeat. Whether it was in Rusk, Texas; Fresno, California; The Dalles, Oregon; Harrison, Idaho; Chinook, Montana; he simply couldn’t help himself. He would go on a crime spree, hurting and stealing from people, he’d end up arrested, and he’d either escape outright or would be given a short enough sentence that he’d just end up released and back on the streets.
He was even once arrested after he was caught trying to sell some of the goods he’d stolen. And on top of that, while on the run in Mexico after escaping a chain gang in Texas, he tried to enlist in the Federales, or the Mexican Federal Army, because his attempt at American military life went so well.
In 1911, Panzram would make his way to California. While there, he claimed to have been on a boxcar when he came upon someone he referred to as a “railway detective” or a “railway brakeman.” The man was armed and, before he could react, Panzram overpowered him and took his gun. Then, gun in hand, he forced the man to rape a homeless man on the same boxcar, the vehicle being so loud and crowded that it went unseen by the other passengers.
That evil deed done, Panzram then proceeded to throw them both off the train before simply sitting back and enjoying the rest of his ride.
I made mention at the start that he went by a number of aliases, and it’s here that we run into them. For almost his entire life, Carl Panzram seemed to be trying to escape who he really was, trying to become someone else. Nearly every time he was arrested, he gave the police a different name, and communication between authorities in the past wasn’t the best, so it was difficult to tie all of his crimes together.
Whether it was as Jefferson Davis, Jack Allen, Jefferson Rhodes, Jefferson “Jesse” Baldwin, Carl Baldwin, Henry Panzram, John King, John O’Leary, or Cooper John II, it was all Carl Panzram, and it would all come together in a spider-web of crime in the end.
In 1915, Panzram was arrested for burglarizing a house and sentenced to seven years in prison, to be served at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Oregon. Arriving there on June 24th, 1915, Panzram made quick enemies with the superintendent of the prison, Warden Harry Minto, a man who believed in harsh treatment of his inmates, including beatings and isolation, among other disciplinary measures.
Panzram made his unwillingness to comply quite clear, stating: “I swore I would never do that seven years and I defied the warden and all his officers to make me. The Warden swore I would do every damned day or he would kill me.”
While imprisoned, Panzram befriended fellow inmate Otto Hooker and helped him escape from the prison. In doing so, Hooker murdered Minto while evading recapture. This officially marked Panzram’s first known involvement in a murder, albeit as an accessory before the fact.
Panzram himself managed to escape on September 18th, 1917, but he was soon recaptured after two shootouts with police, during which he almost killed Chief Deputy Sheriff Joseph Frum. Less than a year later, on May 12th, 1918, Panzram had somehow managed to get his hands on a hacksaw and was able to saw through the bars of his cell. He changed his name again to John O’Leary, shaved his distinctive mustache, and caught a freight train heading east, never to return to the American Northwest.
Hoist the Sails
Finding himself in New York, Panzram applied for and received a Seaman’s Identification Card, allowing him to join a steamship, namely the James S. Whitney, and sail down to Panama. Yes, not only is Panzram an American monster, but an international monster as well.
While there, he got together with an intoxicated sailor and convinced him to steal a small boat with him. During the attempted boat-jacking, the sailor ended up murdering everyone on board the boat, for which he was imprisoned, all while Panzram got away scot free. While aboard the steamship, he traveled all over the world, from London, England to Glasgow, Scotland, from Paris, France to Hamburg, Germany.
There’s no information I could find to indicate he committed any substantial crimes in those locations, though it wouldn’t surprise me. Eventually though, he disembarked from the James S. Whitney, continuing his crime spree back on the mainland US.
Panzram next traveled to New Haven, Connecticut, and broke into a large mansion to burglarize it. But not just any mansion, oh no, this was William H. Taft’s Mansion. That’s right, the home of the 27th President of the United States and the Secretary of War that Panzram had held a grudge against for all those years.
Taft thankfully wasn’t at home at the time and nobody was hurt, but Panzram got away with a large amount of jewelry and bonds, as well as Taft’s Colt M1911 .45-caliber handgun. He hadn’t known who had owned the mansion until he saw the name on the bonds he had pilfered. I can practically feel the vindictive smile curling on his lips at his good fortune.
Panzram went on to fence most of the items he stole from the mansion once he reached Manhattan, but one thing he kept was the handgun. He would put it to bad use soon enough. With the money he gained, he purchased his own boat, a yacht he named the Akista. Cruising along the East River, eventually making a stop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, he took notice of the number of sailors making their way inland, disembarking their work vessels and heading to the local taverns to unwind from their long days at sea.
It was here that Panzram hatched a plan, a plan to once more line his pockets…and spill more blood.
Panzram was careful when selecting his victims, never targeting more than one or two at a time. He would meet with the local seamen, acting harmless and nonchalant. He’d speak with them, allow them to let their guard down, and then say that he could use a deckhand or two to help him take care of his new yacht. Seeing this as an easy payday, the sailors would accept, being led back to the Akista.
Once on board, the men would work with Panzram for a day or two, taking care of the yacht as the job implied, unaware of Panzram’s true intentions.
Then, one night, Panzram would produce alcohol for the men, allowing them to drink as much as they wanted. After drunkenly heading to bed, the men would pass out…and never wake again. With each and every man he brought aboard the Akista, Carl Panzram walked into their room as they slept, produced Taft’s .45 handgun, placed it to their heads, and blew them away without any hesitation. He robbed them of their possessions, tied rocks to their bodies, and dumped them near Execution Rocks Lighthouse in Long Island Sound.
Panzram claimed to have killed a total of 10 men in this manner over the course of three months. Unfortunately, the names of these victims have been lost to time and the sea.
Soon enough though, the locals of the Lower East Side started becoming suspicious. Numerous sailors had gone missing over the weeks, each last seen boarding the yacht belonging to Carl Panzram. All I can say is, it took them long enough. Sensing this, he knew that he had to leave and set up shop elsewhere.
After luring two men onto the boat, he set sail down the coast of New Jersey towards Long Island Beach. However, his luck aboard his beloved yacht had come to an end. Panzram was caught in a terrible storm near Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the winds sent the Akista crashing against the jagged rocks, smashing the boat to pieces, the remains sinking down to the bottom of the sea. Panzram was thrown from the yacht and managed to make it to shore, and thankfully so did his two would-be victims, who managed to escape ashore, free from Panzram’s clutches.
This Time for Africa
After being arrested for burglary in Stamford, Connecticut on October 26th, 1920, and serving 6 months in jail, Panzram took to the seas once again. Stowing aboard a ship, he traveled across the Atlantic and found himself in central Africa. Specifically he landed in the city of Luanda, the capital city of Angola, a Portuguese colony at the time on the West Coast of Africa. Now this seemed like it might be a chance for a fresh start, right?
An entire ocean between him and anyone who might be hunting him, this was the chance Panzram needed to set his life straight…a chance he once again didn’t take.
While in Angola, he got a job as a foreman on an oil rig with Sinclair Oil Company. This didn’t last long though, and after he was let go from his job, he burnt down the whole oil rig out of pure spite. Panzram then approached a poverty stricken family in Angola, and offered them 80 eschudas, or $8.00 USD, for, as he put it, a virgin girl. Now…in a just world, they would have turned the degenerate down flat…but that’s not the reality we live in.
The family handed over their 12-year-old girl, no qualms or hesitation. Panzram then brought her to a nearby shack for the night and proceeded to rape her all night long.
Then, suspecting that the girl wasn’t actually a virgin, he returned her to her family the next day and demanded his money back. Instead, the family handed over their 8-year-old for his pleasure. Yes, you read that right. Once more with no questions or misgivings, these people just handed their younger daughter to this man so they could keep the money.
He then proceeded to do the exact same thing, taking the child to the same shack to rape that night. He brought her back the next morning, once more complaining that he did not think she was a virgin either. It’s not known if he ended up taking his money back, but at least it seemed that the family didn’t have more daughters for him to violate…disheartening to say the least…
Regardless, it seems that old Carl wasn’t satisfied. It isn’t specified exactly when, but some time after leaving the family, Panzram came upon an 11-year-old boy. We sadly don’t know the name of the child, but he was abducted in broad daylight, taken into the brush and raped viciously. Then, his needs satiated, Panzram grabbed a nearby rock, and smashed the boy’s head in, killing him and leaving him there to be discovered later.
After the boy’s body was found, many of the locals suspected that Panzram was involved. He already had a reputation as a nasty and violent man, however they had no evidence linking him directly to the murder at the time, so he wasn’t investigated further.
Panzram then moved to Lobito Bay, staying in a nearby fishing village. While there, Panzram walked into a local bar and came upon a group of six men. He informed them that he wished to go out crocodile hunting and he wanted their help on his expedition.
The men agreed and the seven of them exited the bar together and got in a fishing boat, the whole affair being witnessed by multiple people both in the bar and in town. They traveled down the river and soon the crocodiles appeared, curious about the interlopers in their territory. As the six men reached for their hunting gear, six bangs rang out.
All the men collapsed in the boat, and Panzram stood over them all, gun in hand. Then, as if for good measure, he shot them all once more in the back of the head before tossing them overboard, watching as the surrounding crocs devoured them all. There was no reason, there was no motive, he simply wanted to kill, so he did.
Recounting the incident in his memoirs, he stated: “To some of average intelligence, killing six at once seems an almost impossible feat. It was very much easier for me to kill those six niggers than it was for me to kill only one of the young boys I killed later and some of them were only 11 or 12 years old.”
Now Panzram knew he couldn’t return to the village after this. As stated before, numerous people had witnessed him hire the six men and leave the docks with them, and if he came back alone, their suspicions would have skyrocketed. So he sailed north to the Golden Coast, where he robbed a number of local farmers.
Saving up the money from each robbery, he bought his way onto a ship to the Canary Islands before stowing away on a ship bound for Lisbon, Portugal. This wasn’t a reprieve though. As mentioned before, Angola at the time was a province of Portugal.
His multitude of crimes had caught up with him and people had taken notice. Enough suspicion and circumstance had occurred that it made it all the way to the top, and Panzram was officially being hunted for all the crimes he had perpetrated while in Africa. So he remained hidden and, seizing the opportunity, Panzram snuck aboard another ship headed out to sea.
Return to America
By the summer of 1922, Carl Panzram was back on American soil. He returned to drifting and in doing so, eventually made his way to Salem, Massachusetts. Outside of his normal stints of burglary and robbery, he hadn’t killed again yet…but that soon changed. It’s at that point that he would run into young George Henry McMahon, and commit the heinous crime that we opened this story off with. Poor George was just the latest in a string of villainy, but he was far from the last.
A year went by and Panzram once again found himself near New Haven, Connecticut. Searching around for someone to rob, he spotted a young boy begging for money by the side of the road. Sadly you all know where this is going. After he pulled a knife on the child, he forced him into the nearby woods and proceeded to repeatedly sodomize the boy before taking the belt off the boy’s pants and strangling him with it.
And afterwards…? Well let’s just say the sick freak decided to add necrophilia to his long list of crimes against humanity. He then left the boy’s body to be taken care of by the local wildlife. We don’t know the child’s name, nor do we know the circumstances that led him to begging on the street, but he was a child, he was innocent, and he didn’t deserve any of that, none of them did.
In June 1923, Panzram came upon a yacht in New Rochelle, New York, one that coincidentally was owned by the local chief of police. He stole it of course, and he took to the water once again. Shortly afterwards while sailing through Yonkers, New York, he picked up 15-year-old George Walosin and proceeded to sodomize him, but instead of killing George when he was finished, he kept him alive and on board to help him manage the boat, along with satisfying his depraved needs.
Afterwards, Panzram picked up a man while on the river near Kingston, New York. According to him, the man attempted to rob him, so in return, Panzram took the .38 caliber pistol he found on the yacht and killed his passenger, disposing of the body into the river. Once again, we don’t know the name of this unfortunate individual, however we do know he existed due to what happened after the fact.
Upon reaching Newburgh, New York, George Walosin, having seen the murder of the newest passenger days before and being subjected to Panzram’s repeated sexual assault, made a break for it. As soon as he had the chance, George dove overboard and swam to shore, successfully avoiding Panzram and making his way back to Yonkers. He headed straight to the police, reported all that had happened to him, and an alert went out across all of New York for one “Captain John O’Leary”.
Panzram was arrested on June 29th in Nyack, New York. Was this the end of his reign of terror? Of course not, because people of the past were easily gullible. After a failed escape attempt on July 9th, he tricked his own lawyer into taking ownership of the stolen yacht in exchange for bail. Panzram was released, he skipped out on bail, the stolen boat was confiscated, and the monster was once more in the wind.
Panzram then made his way to Larchmont, New York, where he attempted to rob a train station on August 26th, 1923. He was in the process of rummaging through a number of bags and suitcases when he was caught and apprehended by a nearby police officer. Identifying himself as John O’Leary, he was charged with four counts of burglary and remanded to the county jail pending grand jury action, bail set at $5000.
He attempted to cut a deal with the DA to get a lighter sentence and pled guilty, but the DA reneged on the deal, forcing Panzram to serve the full five years at the Clinton Correctional Facility located in the Village of Dannemora, New York. At the time, Clinton Correctional was considered to be one of the most brutal prisons in the nation, and the staff saw the inmates as nothing more than animals, and Panzram was no different. He attempted to escape by climbing one of the high outer walls, only to fall 30 feet, break both of his legs and ankles, and badly injuring his spine.
Did the staff take him to get treated? No chance in hell, as according to Panzram: “I was dumped into a cell without any medical attention or surgical attention whatsoever. My broken bones were not set. My ankles and legs were not put into a cast…The doctor never came near me and no one else was allowed to do anything for me. At the end of 14 months of constant agony, I was taken to the hospital where I was operated on for my rupture and one of my testicles was cut off.”
After this, Panzram got his hands on another inmate, sodomizing him, for which he was thrown into solitary confinement for the remainder of his sentence, an entire two years and four months, and with barely any recognition from the guards. Eventually Panzram was released in July 1928.
The Madman’s End
Now in constant pain from his previous injuries, Panzram started plotting evil on a much grander scale. He wanted to hurt as many people as he possibly could, he wanted to watch scores of innocents die before his eyes, and he started plotting. One of his ideas? To obliterate the whole population of a city by poisoning the water supply with arsenic.
Another idea? Stealing a British warship docked in the New York City harbor so he could start another war between America and Britain. Yeah, delusional doesn’t even begin to cover the insanity he would think up. He simply didn’t care anymore, he just wanted to watch everyone around him die painful deaths.
After his release, Panzram moved to Philadelphia where he continued his crime spree until he was finally arrested in Baltimore, Maryland on August 30th, 1928 for a burglary he had committed ten days prior. This arrest was significant as it was the first time in years that Panzram gave his real name. While in custody, Panzram made several comments about the killings of children. Why he decided to finally confess is anyone’s guess, but he made a full-blown confession to the murder in Salem, the one in Connecticut, the death of a 14-year-old newsboy in Philadelphia (which was later confirmed), and the murder of a boy in Charlestown, Massachusetts (which they couldn’t confirm).
In a letter to the DA of Salem, he wrote the following: “I made a full confession of this murder of McMahon…You send a number of witnesses from Salem to identify me, which they done. I do not change my former confession in any way. I committed that murder. I alone am guilty…I not only committed that murder but 21 besides and I assure you here and now that if I ever get free and have the opportunity I shall sure knock off another 22.”
When Panzram was searched, many papers were found on him as he had begun writing his autobiography while on the road and in prison, in which he went into detail about his many crimes. He was soon sent to trial where he acted as his own defense, which is never a good idea if you actually plan on walking free. It didn’t go well for him and, thanks to his extensive criminal record coming to light, Panzram was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison (finally) at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
Soon after arriving though, Panzram made his intentions to the warden very clear: “I’ll kill the first man that bothers me.”
With those words, Panzram was assigned to laundry duty and was not allowed to be in general population. He was able to work alone and in peace, but he still required supervision. Robert Warnke was that supervision. A foreman at the prison, he was known for bullying and harassing the prisoners under him, including Panzram.
Despite Panzram’s repeated warnings to leave him alone, Warnke continued to pester and belittle him, letting his power over the violent serial killer go to his head. On June 20th, 1929, Panzram had finally had enough. He grabbed an iron bar and cornered Warnke, beating him to death in front of numerous other inmates. The other inmates, terrified out of their minds, tried to escape from the scene, and Panzram started swinging at them as well.
Panzram was subdued and charged with the murder of Robert Warnke, going on trial on April 14th, 1930, where he once again acted as his own defense. Because it worked so well the first time, right Carl? After a large number of witness testimony and evidence presented, Carl Panzram was found guilty. As for his sentence, he was finally given a punishment befitting a monster such as him: death by hanging.
Panzram though…he was overjoyed. It seemed that in the end, he got exactly what he wanted, and he was witnessed laughing like a lunatic as he was taken from the courtroom after he was condemned.
He was placed on death row and whenever the option to appeal the sentence was proposed, he outright refused. At that time, a number of human rights groups protesting the death penalty reached out to him, hoping to intervene and spare his life, but Panzram wasn’t having any of it. He was enraged with their interference and threatened to murder everyone and anyone who attempted to stop his execution should he get free.
Writing to them, he stated: “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…I have no desire whatever to reform myself. My only desire is to reform people who try to reform me and I believe that the only way to reform people is to kill ‘em!”
As he awaited his execution, Panzram was shown a small act of kindness that seemed to resonate with him more than anything else. An officer named Henry Philip Lesser gave him money for cigarettes, and the two formed a genuine friendship. One day, Panzram asked Lesser for writing materials.
He continued to write, documenting his life and crimes, and once again stated that he had no remorse for his terrible actions: “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.”
Finally, the day arrived. On September 5th, 1930, at 5:55 am, Panzram was taken from his cell and led to the gallows. As he climbed the 13 steps, the noose waiting for him, he cursed his mother for bringing him into the world and when they attempted to place the black hood over his head, Panzram spat in his executioner’s face.
When asked for his final words, Panzram didn’t hesitate: “Hurry up, you Hoosier bastard, I could kill ten men while you’re fooling around!”
Hood and noose affixed, the time had finally come. At 6:03 am, the trap door underneath him fell open and Panzram dropped, his life ending with a resounding crack. He was left swinging there for several minutes before he was cut down. Carl Panzram, aged only 39, was pronounced dead at 6:18 am.
With no one willing to claim his body, he was buried in the Leavenworth Penitentiary Cemetery. The only indication of where he was laid to rest? A stone embedded in the earth overtop his remains, marked only with his prison number: 31614.
Wrap Up
And that, as they say, is that. As stated before, sometimes monsters seem to simply slip through the crack, both during investigations as well as in history. Carl Panzram is one such monster.
He cut a swath of murder and mayhem all over the USA, and it seemed that nothing and nobody could stop him. He was sent to prison on many occasions, but almost each and every time, he was either released back into the world to commit more crimes, or he managed to escape with near relative ease. There was no grand pursuit of him, no hero officers or individuals of note that hunted him down.
He simply got caught in another robbery and, almost as if he was simply sick of his life on the outside, he confessed to murders that no one had known he’d committed, and it all snowballed from there. Just the story of an evil terrible man doing evil terrible things. To this day, even when all is said and done, his name is hardly mentioned even when talking about big name criminals, and maybe that’s a good thing.
Normally in this section, I list out the names of the victims of the villain of our piece, but today…that’s exceedingly hard to do. Only a few names were identified as victims of Panzram, and there have been a vast number of others who were either never identified or may not have existed in the first place. So here we remember those we can: George Henry McMahon, George Walosin, Robert Warnke.
And here…we think of those lost and forgotten. I think of all the men he raped, I think of all the sailors he killed on his yacht, I think of the two young girls he molested in Africa, as well as the 6 men he gunned down in that boat…I think of the little beggar boy he violated and murdered in cold blood. We remember them now…when he never bothered to.
As for those papers Panzram wrote his autobiography on and all the letters he wrote? Well Henry Lesser kept them all for safekeeping and for a long time, he attempted to get them published in an official book. He was turned down multiple times over, as people felt a bit uneasy about giving publicity to the words of a monster. However, in 1970, a biography was indeed published. Co-written by Thomas E. Gaddis and James O. Long, Killer: A Journal of Murder hit the shelves, and they confirmed that they had gotten in touch with Lesser, using Panzram’s own memoirs to create their manuscript. A film was even made and released in 1996 under the same title. Panzram was played by actor James Woods, known for roles in movies such as Nixon, Chaplin, and Hercules. Then, in 1980, Lesser donated all of Panzram’s memoirs and papers to San Diego State University, where they are housed to this day in the Malcolm A. Love Library.
Carl Panzram was a monster, pure evil in its truest form. He killed, he raped and sodomized, he robbed and burgled, he did everything in his power to make the world and people around him an utter misery. He was convicted of killing five people, he confessed to 21, but he’s suspected of having well over 100 victims to his name, many of whom we will never know about. Was he born bad?
Was he corrupted by the events of his early life? In my opinion, it was a bit of both. He wasn’t going to be happy until he saw the whole of humanity dead at his feet, and even then, I don’t think the darkness would have let him rest. His rage was all consuming, and the world paid the price for it.
And with that, I leave you with a movie quote most of you should recognize, and I believe it encompasses the man perfectly.
“Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men…just want to watch the world burn.”
Rot in Hell, Carl Panzram.
Key Takeaways
- Carl Panzram was a prolific American serial killer active in the early 20th century, confessing to 21 murders but suspected of over 100 victims.
- Panzram endured severe childhood abuse, including forced labor, starvation, and molestation at reform school, which he cited as formative to his hatred of humanity.
- He used numerous aliases throughout his criminal career, making it difficult for authorities to connect his widespread crimes across multiple states and countries.
- Panzram’s known crimes included murder, rape, arson, robbery, and child molestation spanning the United States, Africa, and at sea.
- He was executed by hanging in 1930 after beating a prison foreman to death, welcoming his death sentence and showing no remorse for his crimes.
Dana Ortiz covers prosecutorial mechanics, evidentiary procedure, and how investigations unwind decades after the original case file went cold.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Carl Panzram and what crimes was he known for?
Carl Panzram was a serial, spree, and mass killer, as well as a rapist, child molester, arsonist, robber, and burglar who operated on a country-wide scale in the United States and internationally. He was suspected of having killed over 100 people, was convicted of killing five, and confessed to 21 murders. He was never given a catchy nickname like most killers and used numerous aliases throughout his life to escape the law.
What happened to George Henry McMahon in Salem, Massachusetts on July 18, 1922?
George Henry McMahon, a 12-year-old boy, was approached by Carl Panzram while running an errand. Panzram befriended him, took him on a trolley to a deserted part of town, sodomized him for three hours, then killed him by repeatedly striking him with a rock. Panzram then covered the body with branches and walked away.
What was Carl Panzram’s childhood like?
Carl Panzram was born June 28, 1891 to East Prussian immigrant parents Johann and Mathilda Panzram, who owned a farm near East Grand Forks, Minnesota. He was the sixth of seven children. His parents made their children work grueling hours on the family farm, chaining them up as punishment and starving them for disobedience. His father abandoned the family when Carl was seven. Panzram was first arrested at age eight for being drunk and disorderly.
What happened to Panzram at the Minnesota State Training School?
At the Minnesota State Training School in Red Wing, Panzram claimed he was repeatedly beaten, tortured, and raped by staff members. On his first day, he alleged a male staff member stripped him, questioned him about sexual experiences, and molested him. The boys called a designated abuse room ‘the paint shop’ because they left it ‘painted’ with bruises and blood. Panzram hated the school so much that on July 7, 1905, he firebombed and burned down the building housing ‘the paint shop.‘
How did Panzram murder sailors on his yacht, the Akista?
Panzram would lure sailors by offering them work as deckhands on his yacht. After they worked for a day or two, he would provide alcohol for them to drink until they passed out. He would then enter their rooms while they slept, shoot them in the head with William H. Taft’s stolen Colt M1911 .45-caliber handgun, rob them, tie rocks to their bodies, and dump them near Execution Rocks Lighthouse in Long Island Sound. He claimed to have killed 10 men this way over three months.
What crimes did Panzram commit in Africa?
In Angola, Panzram worked briefly as an oil rig foreman before burning down the rig when fired. He paid a poverty-stricken family for a 12-year-old girl, raped her, then exchanged her for their 8-year-old daughter when he suspected she wasn’t a virgin. He also raped and murdered an 11-year-old boy with a rock, and later lured six men onto a fishing boat under the pretense of crocodile hunting, shot them all, and fed them to crocodiles.
How was Carl Panzram finally captured and what was his sentence?
Panzram was arrested in Baltimore, Maryland on August 30, 1928 for a burglary committed ten days prior. It was the first time in years he gave his real name. While in custody, he confessed to multiple murders including George Henry McMahon in Salem, a murder in Connecticut, a 14-year-old newsboy in Philadelphia, and a boy in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He was sentenced to 25-years-to-life at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
While there, he murdered fellow inmate Robert Warnke with an iron bar and was sentenced to death by hanging.
What were Carl Panzram’s final words?
When asked for his final words before his execution by hanging on September 5, 1930, Panzram said: ‘Hurry up, you Hoosier bastard, I could kill ten men while you’re fooling around!’ He also spat in his executioner’s face when they attempted to place the black hood over his head.
What happened to Panzram’s autobiography and writings?
Panzram wrote his autobiography and numerous letters while on the road and in prison. Prison officer Henry Philip Lesser befriended him and kept all his papers safe. Lesser attempted for years to get them published but was repeatedly turned down. In 1970, a biography titled ‘Killer: A Journal of Murder’ was published, co-written by Thomas E.
Gaddis and James O. Long using Panzram’s memoirs. In 1980, Lesser donated all of Panzram’s papers to San Diego State University, where they are housed in the Malcolm A. Love Library.
A 1996 film of the same name starred James Woods as Panzram.
What injuries did Panzram sustain during an escape attempt at Clinton Correctional Facility?
On August 26, 1923, Panzram was arrested for attempting to rob a train station in Larchmont, New York and sentenced to five years at Clinton Correctional Facility. During an escape attempt, he climbed one of the high outer walls, fell 30 feet, broke both his legs and ankles, and badly injured his spine. According to Panzram, he received no medical attention, his broken bones were not set, and after 14 months of agony, he was operated on for a rupture and one of his testicles was removed. He was then thrown into solitary confinement for the remaining two years and four months of his sentence.
Sources
- Original Casual Criminalist video: Carl Panzram: Murderous Monster and Rage Incarnate
- Hero image source by Crisco 1492 / openverse, by-sa.
