Pig Meat's Murder Madness Profile

Carl Panzram (1891 - 1930)

Carl Panzram (Aka: Jeff Rhoades; John O'Leary) was one of the most fucked in the head serial killers of the 20th Century. He despised society and everything it stood for. He killed a total of twenty humans, sodomising some of them before "Reforming" them by means of death. He made plans to wreck trains and poison water supplies to get back at society.

Panzram was born on a farm near Warren, Minnesoda, the son of an immigrant Prussian farmer who left the family when Carl was just a wee boy. His mother was left to fend for the family and had little time for her children.

Carl's first encounter with the law came when he was only 8 years old, he was brought before the juvenile court on a drunk and disorderly charge. Carl envied more well-to-do boys at school and, when he burgled a neighbours house, the courts decided to send him to the Red Wing of the Minnesota State Training School, where he was sadistically beaten when they failed to control him. In 1905 Carl set fire to the school warehouse which contained blankets and clothing. He later said: "That night the whole place burned down at a cost of over $100,000. Nice eh?"

Released in January 1906, Panzram set out on his full time criminal career. On 29th March 1906, he hitched a ride on a west bound freight train in North Dakota, where he was Sodomised by four railway bums. From then on, he frequently inflicted sodomy - at gunpoint - on people he disliked. He later said" I have murdered twenty-one human beings. I have committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arson, and last but not least I have committed sodomy on more than 1,000 male human beings."

He carried out a string of robberies and assaults before ending up in the Montana State Reformatory. Panzram escaped with fellow inmate James Benson and for the next few months robbed and burned down several Montana churches. In Helena, Montana he joined the army to learn a trade of killing, but was court-marshalled on 20th April 1907 for insubordination and was sentenced to three years in Fort Leavenworth for pilfering government property.

Panzram received a discharge in 1910 and went to join Pascaul Orozco, who served under Venustiano Carranza in the Mexican rebellion. He soon returned to California and the Pacific Northwest, travelling between the two committing robberies, assaults, and acts of sodomy.

He was arrested in Montana on a burglary charge and sentenced to a year in the Montana State Prison. He was out eight months later by means of escape. Panzram was arrested a year later using the alias of "Jeff Rhoades" and given two years for burglary, receiving his parole in 1914. We was only out for a short time when he was arrested again in Ore., for burglary and was sent to Salem for seven years. An additional seven was added on for attempting to lead a prison insurrection. He made his own tools and escaped in May 1918. He went to a hotel in Md. and robbed it of $1,200, then continued onto New York where he signed on board a merchant vessel bound for South America, but jumped ship in Peru to work in a copper mine. Panzram then worked as a foreman in an oil company and senselessly set fire to one of their oil rigs. A $500 reward was put on his head but Panzram snuck back to the good old U.S. undetected.
In 1920 he made two big halls; one was $7,000 worth of jewellery from a shop and the other was $40,000 in jewels and liberty bonds from the residence of former president William Howard Taft. With the money he purchased a yacht under the name of "John O'Leary". He hired ten sailors to refit the boat. As soon as they had finished, Panzram invited them to spend the night in the cabin to celebrate. "When they were asleep I would get my .45 Colt Army Automatic and blow their brains out," he said. He then weighted the bodies and dumped them in the water.

He was arrested again for burglary, serving six months. He then was imprisoned for inciting a riot during a labor dispute. After posting bond he fled the country and sailed to Europe on a steamer. Afterwards he continued onto Africa, where he got a job with the same oil company he had earlier worked for.

While in Africa he murdered a 12-year-old. "First I committed sodomy on him and then I killed him", he said. Panzram decided to go crocodile hunting and hired six black porters to guide him. He decided the crocodiles were too good to kill and instead shot his porters in the back and threw their bodies to the crocs "for fun."

Returning to the US of A in 1922 Panzram sodamised and killed another 12-year-old boy in Mass. "...I tried a little sodomy on him first... I left him laying there with his brains coming out of his ears," he said. While working as a night watchman for a Yacht club he stole a boat and then killed a would-be robber who climbed aboard in the middle of the night. He was imprisoned again for attempted robbery and was sentenced to five years jail in Sing Sing. The guards were unable to keep him in line and he was transferred to Clinton Prison a place for hard-core criminals. Panzram was released for the last time in 1928. He committed eleven burglaries and one murder before he was captured on 16th August 1928.

While waiting for his trial the guards discovered a loosened bar in his cell, Panzram received a brutal beating and was suspended from the ceiling by his wrists. A guard named Henry Lesser was shocked, and sent Panzram a dollar by a "trusty." At first Panzram thought it was a joke; when he realised that it was a gesture of sympathy, his eyes filled with tears. He told Lesser that if he could get him a pencil and paper, he would write him his life story.

Lesser: What's your racket ?
Panzram: (Smiling) I reform people.
Lesser: How?
Panzram: By killing them, I'm the man who goes around doing good.

At his trial, Panzram glared at the jurors, chiding them with a deadly threat. "If I live I'll execute some more of you!" Judge Walter McCoy sentenced him to twenty-five years in Leavenworth. "Visit me!", Panzram shot back. In jail Panzram warned the deputy warden: "I'll kill the first man who bothers me." On 20th June 1929 Carl killed a civilian employee named Robert G. Warnke who worked in the prison laundry with an iron bar.

Panzram was sentenced to death by means of hanging by the neck until dead. When the Society for the Abolishment of Capital Punishment tried to intervene on his behalf, Panzram told them to forget it. "Hanging would be a real pleasure and a big relief, the only thanks you or your kind will ever get from me for your efforts on my behalf is that I wish you all had one neck and I had my hands on it... I believe the only way to reform people is to kill 'em... My motto is: `Rob `em all, rape `em all and kill `em all!'" His last epitaph was signed "Copper John II" in memory of a statue he had seen outside Auburn Prison in New York. Panzram, was executed on 5th September 1930.

Carl Panzram's biography "Killer" has been out of print for quite some time, but Joe Coleman a performance artist, cartoonist, and most of all a Panzram fan is re-issuing the book with a forward by himself, lookout for it.