Butchers & Cannibals by Nigel Blundell

Author:Nigel Blundell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027130
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781848847378
Publisher: Wharncliffe
Published: 2011-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

Carl Panzram

Insane Hatred of International Killer

He hid behind many names but American monster Carl Panzram eventually had nowhere else to hide – with his own death being justice for a terrifying killing spree. He confessed to 21 murders, though his tally was almost certainly higher in his chilling catalogue of evil between 1915 and 1929. It was a reign of terror that Panzram proudly documented in his autobiography, in which he confessed to being ‘rage personified’.

Born Charles Panzram on June 28, 1891, he was the son of Prussian immigrants Johann and Matilda who owned a farm in Warren, Minnesota. His life was destined never to be normal. His father left home when Panzram was seven years of age. Young Charles worked long hours on the farm with his brothers, who beat him for no reason. Panzram would later blame his cruel upbringing for his adult years of bloodlust. He said: Everybody thought it was all right to deceive me, lie to me and kick me around whenever they felt like it, and they felt like it pretty regular. The older I got, the meaner I got.’

He was just eight years old when he had his first run-ins with the police for minor offences, and only 12 when he burned down one of the many reform schools he had been sent to. This was the Minnesota State Training School, a particularly unsettling place where the authorities combined physical and sexual abuse with hysterical Christian teachings. Panzram managed to secure early parole by feigning a change of character and convincing the board he was a reformed boy. But all he had learned was ‘how to be a hypocrite and more about stealing, lying, burning and killing’.

His teenage years continued with burglary and theft. By the time Panzram left home at the age of 14, he was already an alcoholic and sleeping rough. It was during this time he claimed that he had been gang-raped by a group of men who had enticed him into their car with the promise of ‘nice things and a warm place to sleep’. The experience changed Panzram who, although not a homosexual, began to rape the men he robbed.

Panzram’s stealing continued into adulthood and he became a prolific thief who was regularly arrested and imprisoned. His refusal to adhere to the rules often ended with attacks on the prison guards – who in turn, subjected him to beatings. During one short spell of freedom in 1907, he joined the US Army but not long after was court-martialled for the theft of government property. He served three years at Fort Leavenworth’s United States Disciplinary Barracks and was freed in 1910.

The sentence hardened Panzram even more, with him declaring: ‘I was the spirit of meanness personified. Well I was a pretty rotten egg before I went there but when I left, all the good that may have been in me had been kicked and beaten out of me.’ His return to civilian life meant a return to crime, too, with repeated robberies.

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