Carl Panzram
| Carl Panzram | |
|---|---|
Carl Panzram under the alias "Jefferson Baldwin" in 1915
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|
| Born |
Charles Panzram June 28, 1891 East Grand Forks, Minnesota |
| Died | September 5, 1930 (aged 39) Leavenworth, Kansas |
| Other names | Carl Baldwin Jeff Davis Jefferson Davis Jefferson Rhodes Jeff Rhodes Jack Allen Jefferson Baldwin John King John O'Leary Cooper John Teddy Bedard |
| Criminal penalty | Death by Hanging |
| Killings | |
| Victims | 5–22 |
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Span of killings
|
1915 (as accessory), 1920–June 20, 1929 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Kansas |
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Date apprehended
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1928 Arrests/prison terms: 1903–1905; 1908–1910; 1911; 1913–1915–1918; 1923; 1923–1928; 1928–1930 |
Carl Panzram (June 28, 1891 – September 5, 1930) was a serial killer, rapist, arsonist and burglar. In jailhouse confessions and his autobiography, he claimed that he had committed 21 murders—most of which could not be corroborated—and over 1,000 sodomies of boys and men. After a series of imprisonments and escapes, he was executed in 1930 for the murder of a prison employee at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
Born in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, the son of East Prussian immigrants Johann "John" and Matilda Panzram, he was raised on his family's farm with five siblings. In 1903, at the age of 12, he stole some cake, apples, and a revolver from a neighbor's home. Soon after, his parents sent him to the Minnesota State Training School. While there, he was repeatedly beaten and tortured by staff members in what attendees dubbed "The Painting House", because children would leave "painted" with bruises and blood. Panzram hated this place of torture so much that he decided to burn it down, and did so without detection.
In late 1905, he was released from the school. By his teens, he was an alcoholic and was repeatedly in trouble with the authorities, often for burglary and theft. He ran away from home at the age of 14. He often traveled via train cars; he later claimed that on one train he was gang raped by a group of hobos.
In 1907, at the age of 15, after getting drunk in a saloon in Montana, Panzram enlisted in the United States Army. Shortly thereafter, rebellious against any authority, he was convicted of larceny and served a prison sentence from 1908 to 1910 at Fort Leavenworth's United States Disciplinary Barracks. Secretary of War (and future President) William Howard Taft approved the sentence. Panzram later claimed that any goodness left in him was smashed out during his Leavenworth imprisonment.
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