46 Facts About Carl Panzram

Charles "Carl" Panzram was an American serial killer, spree killer, mass murderer, rapist, child molester, arsonist, robber, thief and burglar.

In prison confessions and in his autobiography, Panzram confessed to having murdered twenty-one boys and men, only five of which could be corroborated; he is suspected of having killed more than a hundred boys and men in the United States alone, and several more in Portuguese Angola.

Carl Panzram was born on June 28,1891, on a farm near East Grand Forks, Minnesota, the sixth of seven children born to East Prussian immigrants Johann "John" Gottlieb Panzram and Mathilda Elizabeth "Lizzie" Panzram.

Carl Panzram later reflected on his early childhood with the sentiment that he was not liked by other children; by the age of five he claimed that he was a liar and thief, and recalled that he became meaner the older he grew.

Carl Panzram's father abandoned the family when he was seven years old.

Carl Panzram hated the school so much that he decided to burn it down, and did so successfully and without detection on July 7,1905.

In January 1906, Carl Panzram was paroled from Red Wing Training School, where he had been detained after stealing money from his mother's pocketbook.

At age 14, a couple of weeks after his parole and two weeks after attempting to kill a Lutheran cleric with a revolver, Carl Panzram ran away from home to live on the streets.

Carl Panzram later claimed that after a guard punished him, he assaulted and critically injured the man with a wooden board; as punishment, Panzram had to spend some time in solitary confinement.

Later in 1907, after getting drunk in a saloon in Helena, Montana, Carl Panzram enlisted in the United States Army and was assigned to the 6th Infantry at Fort William Henry Harrison.

Carl Panzram later claimed that while he had been a "rotten egg" before imprisonment at the military penitentiary, "any shred of goodness left in him was smashed out" during his time at Fort Leavenworth.

Carl Panzram served prison sentences both under his own name and various aliases in: Fresno, California; Rusk, Texas; The Dalles, Oregon; Harrison, Idaho; Butte, Montana; Montana State Prison; Oregon State Penitentiary; Bridgeport, Connecticut ; Sing Sing Correctional Facility, New York; Clinton Correctional Facility, New York; and Washington, DC, and Leavenworth, Kansas.

Carl Panzram claimed in his autobiography that after escaping from a chain gang sentence at Rusk, Texas, he went to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in the winter of 1910 to try to enlist in the Federales.

Carl Panzram took a train to Del Rio, Texas, and got off in a small town 50 to 100 miles east of El Paso.

Carl Panzram later claimed to have abducted, assaulted and strangled a man about a mile from the town and then stolen $35 from the victim.

Carl Panzram was sentenced to six months in county jail, but escaped after thirty days.

Carl Panzram proceeded to Oregon, where he made a living as a logger.

Carl Panzram admitted years later that once, when hiding in a bordello, his wallet was stolen and he was infected with gonorrhea; he became paranoid.

In 1913, Carl Panzram, going by the alias "Jack Allen", was arrested in The Dalles, Oregon, for highway robbery, assault and sodomy.

Carl Panzram was later arrested in Harrison, Idaho, but again he escaped from county jail.

Carl Panzram was again arrested in Chinook, Montana, and sentenced to one year in prison for burglary, to be served at the Montana State Prison.

Carl Panzram was incarcerated at Deer Lodge for an additional year.

Carl Panzram was released on March 3,1915, with a new suit of clothing, $5 and a ticket to the next town six miles away.

Carl Panzram rode the rails through Washington State, Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota via the Columbia River.

Under the name "Jeff Baldwin", Carl Panzram was sentenced to seven years in prison, to be served at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, where he was taken on June 24,1915.

Carl Panzram was disciplined several times while at Salem, including sixty-one days in solitary confinement, before escaping on September 18,1917.

Carl Panzram began going by the name "John O'Leary" and shaved off his mustache to change his appearance.

Carl Panzram allegedly ended up in New York City, got a Seaman Identification card and sailed on the steamship James S Whitney to Panama.

Still free, Carl Panzram travelled to Peru to work in a copper mine.

In 1920, Carl Panzram committed a robbery in Newport, Rhode Island.

Carl Panzram specifically targeted the mansion out of animus he had been holding against Taft since his incarceration at Fort Leavenworth.

Carl Panzram stole a large amount of jewellery and bonds, as well as Taft's Colt M1911.

Carl Panzram later claimed to have killed ten men in this manner.

Carl Panzram returned the girl to her family demanding his money back on suspicion of the girl not being an actual virgin.

In June 1923, in New Rochelle, New York, Carl Panzram stole a yacht belonging to the local police chief.

Carl Panzram picked up a 15-year-old boy named George Walosin and promised him a job on the boat, but instead sodomized him.

Carl Panzram later conned his lawyer by giving him ownership of a stolen boat in return for bail money.

Carl Panzram then skipped bail, and the boat was confiscated by government agents.

Carl Panzram was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for the break-in.

Carl Panzram was discharged in July 1928, and he allegedly committed another murder that summer in Baltimore, Maryland.

Carl Panzram gave his correct name, although he lied by claiming his age as 41 and that he was from Nevada.

In light of his extensive criminal record, Carl Panzram was sentenced to 25-years-to-life.

On June 20,1929, Carl Panzram beat Warnke to death with an iron bar.

Carl Panzram refused to allow any appeals of his sentence.

Carl Panzram was so astonished by this act of kindness that, after Lesser provided him with writing materials, Carl Panzram wrote a detailed summary of his crimes and nihilistic philosophy while awaiting execution.

Carl Panzram spent the next four decades trying to have this material published.