Carl Panzram: The Story of a Lifetime of Abuse and Violence
Carl Panzram’s life, a tale steeped in violence, criminality, and a glaring contempt for society, is one that offers a window into the darker side of the human condition. Born at the turn of the 20th century, Panzram’s story is both tragic and chilling. His life presents a complex narrative of abuse, criminality, and ultimately, a refusal to seek redemption. Understanding his life requires delving into the harsh social realities of early 20th-century America, the flawed penal system, and the psyche of a man whose violent acts were as much a product of his circumstances as of his personal choices.
Early Life: The Seeds of Violence
Carl Panzram was born on 28 June 1891 in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, into a German-American farming family. His childhood, marked by poverty and hardship, was filled with abuse and neglect.
Panzram and his six siblings were made to work on the family farm from a young age until truancy laws came into effect. Panzram's parents, angry about having their children sent to school during the day, forced them to work in the fields throughout the night instead; Panzram later reported he would receive just two hours of sleep before he would have to get up for school. Punishments in the household ranged from being bound by chains to being starved.
His father abandoned the family when Carl was still young, leaving his mother to raise a large family alone. It was an upbringing devoid of affection and filled with brutality, which Panzram would later claim was the foundation for his disdain for humanity.
At the age of 11, Panzram was sent to the Minnesota State Training School, a reform institution for troubled youth. Here, the abuse he suffered escalated. Panzram later wrote in his autobiography that he was repeatedly beaten, tortured and raped by staff members, in a workshop the children dubbed "the paint shop" due to leaving the room "painted" with bruises and blood. Panzram hated the school so much that he decided to burn it down, and did so successfully and without detection on July 7, 1905. This institution, meant to reform him, became a breeding ground for his growing hatred towards authority and humanity. His experiences there would shape much of his future violent behaviour.
A Life of Crime
After escaping the training school, Panzram embarked on a life of crime. A few years later, while still a teenager on the run from home, he was gang-raped by four hobos.
"I cried, I begged and pleaded for mercy, pity, and sympathy," he wrote later, "but nothing I could say or do could sway them from their purpose. I left that box a sadder, sicker, but wiser boy."
He began as a petty thief, committing small-scale burglaries, but his criminal activities soon escalated. In his adolescence, Panzram was arrested multiple times for theft and arson. He drifted across the United States, hopping freight trains, breaking into homes, and robbing people. By his mid-teens, he had already served time in several prisons, each stint only hardening his resolve to wreak havoc on society.
In his autobiography, Panzram wrote that he was "rage personified" and that he would often rape men whom he had robbed. He was noted for his large stature and great physical strength—due to years of hard labour at Leavenworth and other prisons—which aided him in overpowering most men. In his confessions, he admitted to raping men, often as an expression of power and control. He had developed a philosophy of misanthropy, fuelled by years of abuse and mistreatment. For Panzram, violence was not just an act but a response to the cruelty of the world around him.
In the summer of 1911, Panzram, going by the alias "Jefferson Davis", was arrested in Fresno, California, for stealing a bicycle. He was sentenced to six months in county jail, but escaped after thirty days.Panzram later claimed that after his escape, while riding on a boxcar in California, he disarmed an armed man he either called a "railway detective" or a "railway brakeman", whom he then forced to rape a homeless man at gunpoint, before throwing both of them off the train. He proceeded to Oregon, where he made a living as a logger.
In 1913, Panzram, going by the alias "Jack Allen", was arrested in The Dalles, Oregon, for highway robbery, assault and sodomy. He broke out of jail after two months. He was later arrested in Harrison, Idaho, but again he escaped from county jail. He was again arrested in Chinook, Montana, and sentenced to one year in prison for burglary, to be served at the Montana State Prison.
Panzram’s criminal career took him across the globe. He travelled to Africa, where he claimed to have killed several men during a gold theft expedition in Angola. By late 1921, Panzram was foreman of an oil rig, which he later burned down out of what he said was "spitefulness." Shortly after, he decided to seek out a virgin girl. Panzram paid a resident Angola family 80 escudos (US$8) and, in exchange, was given a 12-year-old girl, whom he raped in his shack that night. He returned the girl to her family demanding his money back on suspicion of the girl not being an actual virgin. The family then gave Panzram an 8-year-old girl, whom he also raped in his shack, but who was eventually taken back to the family because he suspected that she too was not a virgin. He then claimed that he raped and killed an Angolan boy estimated to be eleven or twelve years old. 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." He also claimed that he hired a boat with six rowers, shot the rowers with a Luger pistol and threw their bodies to the crocodiles. His criminal activities were varied and widespread, with no apparent regard for any particular ideology other than a personal vendetta against society.
The Cycle of Imprisonment and Escape
Panzram’s criminal history was interspersed with numerous arrests and prison sentences. However, imprisonment did little to reform him. In fact, he viewed the penal system as a crucible for his hatred and violence. He frequently escaped from prison, often leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. For Panzram, incarceration was simply another chapter in his war against society.
On August 30, 1928, Panzram was arrested in Baltimore for a Washington, D.C. burglary – stealing a radio and jewelry from the home of a dentist on August 20. Three men were also arrested as accomplices and most of the jewelry was recovered. Panzram gave his correct name, although he lied by claiming his age as 41 and that he was from Nevada. During his interrogation, he confessed to killing three young boys earlier that month – one in Salem, one in Connecticut, and a 14-year-old newsboy in Philadelphia. Panzram's confession to killing a boy at Pier 28 on League island near Philadelphia in August 1928 was confirmed.. During his trial, he showed no remorse, famously stating, “I’ll kill again.” His indifference to his fate and his eagerness to accept the death penalty epitomised his nihilistic outlook on life.
In light of his extensive criminal record, Panzram was sentenced to 25-years-to-life. Upon arriving at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, identified as inmate #31614, he warned the warden: "I'll kill the first man that bothers me". Because he was considered too psychotic he was assigned to work alone in the prison laundry room, where the foreman, Robert Warnke, was known to bully and harass other prisoners under him. Warnke soon antagonised Panzram, despite the latter repeatedly warning him to back off. On June 20, 1929, Panzram beat Warnke to death with an iron bar. He was convicted and sentenced to death. He refused to allow any appeals of his sentence. In response to offers from death penalty opponents and human rights activists to intervene, he 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."
While on death row, Panzram was befriended by an officer named Henry Philip Lesser, who would give him money to buy cigarettes. Panzram was so astonished by this act of kindness that, after Lesser provided him with writing materials, Panzram wrote a detailed summary of his crimes and while awaiting execution. Panzram explicitly denied having any remorse for any of his actions and began his journal with the statement that:
"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. I have no conscience so that does not worry me."
Confessions and Legacy
What sets Panzram apart from many other criminals of his time is the extensive documentation of his confessions. While on death row, he wrote a detailed autobiography, assisted by a sympathetic prison guard named Henry Lesser. In these writings, Panzram expressed a complete lack of remorse for his actions. He claimed to have committed 21 murders and over 1,000 rapes, although some of his confessions may have been exaggerated. Nonetheless, his autobiography paints a picture of a man consumed by hatred, with no interest in seeking redemption.
Panzram’s writings offer a rare insight into the mind of a violent criminal. His reflections on the American penal system were particularly scathing. He argued that prisons did not rehabilitate criminals but instead exacerbated their violent tendencies. His life is often cited as evidence of the failures of the early 20th-century prison system, which relied heavily on punishment rather than rehabilitation.
On 5 September 1930, Carl Panzram was executed by hanging at Leavenworth. His last words, “Hurry it up, you Hoosier bastard! I could kill a dozen men while you’re screwing around,” were a final testament to the rage that defined his life.
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