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Howard Unruh

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Howard Unruh
Born
Howard Barton Unruh

(1921-01-21)January 21, 1921
Camden, New Jersey
DiedOctober 19, 2009(2009-10-19) (aged 88)
Trenton, New Jersey
Occupation(s)US Army (1942–1945); honorable discharge
Criminal penaltyCommitment to an asylum after being found criminally insane[1]
Details
DateSeptember 6, 1949
Location(s)Camden, New Jersey,
United States
Killed13
Injured3
WeaponsLuger P08 pistol[2][3]

Howard Barton Unruh (January 21, 1921 – October 19, 2009) was an American mass murderer[4] (sometimes classified as a spree killer)[5] who shot and killed 13 people (including three children) during a 12-minute walk through his neighborhood on September 6, 1949, in Camden, New Jersey, when he was 28 years old.[6] The incident became known as the "Walk of Death". Unruh was found to be criminally insane, and died in 2009 after a lengthy illness at the age of 88, following 60 years of confinement.[1]

Background and Possible Motives for Killings

Unruh was the son of Samuel Shipley Unruh and Freda E. Vollmer. He had a younger brother, James; they were raised by their mother after the parents separated. Unruh grew up in East Camden, attended Cramer Junior High School, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in January 1939.[7] The Woodrow Wilson High School yearbook from 1939 indicated that he was shy and that his ambition was to become a government employee.[8]

He enlisted in the Army on October 27 1942, and from October 1944 to July 1945 saw active service in the Rhineland.[9] He was awarded the European Theater of Operations Medal, the Victory Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal. He was remembered by his Section Chief, Norman E. Koehn, as a first-class soldier who never drank, swore, or chased girls, a smart but quiet man who spent much time reading his bible and writing long letters to his mother.[10] But his hobby was guns, and his marksmanship, noted Koehn, was deadly. He was honorably discharged at the end of the war, after which he returned to New Jersey to live with his mother.

He briefly found work as a sheet-metal worker before enrolling at Temple University in Philadelphia in their School of Pharmacy, but quit after a month citing "poor physical condition" as the reason, after which, supported by his mother's income working in a soap factory, he hung about the house, decorating it with his medals, reading his bible, and practicing his shooting in the basement, which he turned into a practice range.[11] It was around this time that his relations with his neighbors began to deteriorate, and his resentment grew over what he regarded as "derogatory remarks made about my character". The evening prior to the killings, he went to a movie theater in Philadelphia, where he sat through several shows before returning home about 3 a.m. It was the following morning that he decided to kill.[12] Both his brother, James, and his father Samuel, indicated that Howard's wartime experiences had changed him, making him moody, nervous and detached, although James also pointed to the ongoing feud his brother had been having with his neighbor, the pharmacist Maurice Cohen, as a possible trigger for the killing spree.[13] For several months he had been engaged in a dispute with Cohen relating to use of the pharmacist's backyard as a means of egress to his apartment. As well as Cohen, he also planned to kill John Pilarchik, a local shoemaker, Clark Hoover, a local barber, and Thomas Zegrino, a local tailor.

Walk of Death

At about 7 a.m. he ate a breakfast of cereal and bacon and eggs prepared by his mother.[14] Later that morning, about 9:20, armed with his Luger pistol, and additional ammunition in his pockets, he left his apartment and walked out onto River Road.

He first stopped at the shop of shoemaker John Pilarchik, whom he shot and killed instantly.[15] He next visited the barber shop of Clark Hoover, who was cutting the hair of a six-year old boy. He shot Hoover in the head and the boy in the neck, killing both instantly. He then ran to the River Road pharmacy, intending to kill Maurice Cohen. Outside he encountered James Hutton, an insurance man. Unruh asked him to excuse him, but Hutton didn't move fast enough for the gunman's liking, so he shot and killed him. Entering the drugstore he found it empty, so he went to the rear of the premises and then upstairs to Cohen's apartment. There he found Cohen and his son attempting to climb out of a window. He shot and killed Cohen. The boy managed to escape. He then walked into a bedroom where he shot and killed Cohen's mother, Minnie. Then he went back onto River Road where he walked in the middle of the road causing a sedan to slow for fear of hitting him.[16] Unruh walked up to the car and shot the driver, Alvin Day, killing him instantly and causing the car to careen onto the sidewalk. He then visited the tailor shop of Thomas Zegrino, the only one of Unruh's intended targets who would survive his murder spree. Zegrino was absent, but his wife Hilda was there and was shot and killed by the gunman. He then went to a foodstore but found the door locked. He shot through the door but failed to injure anyone. Finding a car waiting at the intersection, he walked up to it and shot everyone inside, Helen Wilson, her son John, and mother Emma Matlack. The two women died instantly. The boy died later in hospital. He then shot at someone through an apartment window, claiming he didn't know who it was or whether he hit them. It was 2-year old Thomas Hutchinson who was killed instantly. His caregiver Irene Rice, witnessing this, collapsed and was treated for severe shock. As another car came down the street he shot at the occupants, Charles Peterson and James Crawford. They survived and managed to escape to a nearby tavern, the same one Roxy de Marco had found refuge in. Another witness, William McNeely, saw a man run out of the tavern and shoot at the gunman, but he apparently missed and then ran back inside.[17] In fact he had succeeded in shooting Unruh in the leg, a fact which police would only discover at the end of a lengthy interview with the gunman. He then shot at several other people across the street but missed. Finding a woman and her son, Madeline and Armand Harris outside their home hanging out blankets to dry, he shot at them. Both were injured but survived.

Hearing police sirens in the distance, Unruh returned to his apartment, which was soon surrounded by police. A gunfight ensued [18] during which journalist Philip Buxton of the Camden Evening Courier, located Unruh's number in the local telephone directory and called it. Unruh answered in what he described as "a strong, clear voice", and had the following conversation with Buxton.

"Is this Howard?"
"Yes ... what's the last name of the party you want?"
"Unruh."
(Pause) "What's the last name of the party you want?"
"Unruh. I'm a friend, and I want to know what they're doing to you."
"They're not doing a damned thing to me, but I'm doing plenty to them."
(In a soothing, reassuring voice) "How many have you killed?"
"I don't know yet, because I haven't counted them ... (pause) but it looks like a pretty good score."
"Why are you killing people?"
"I don't know. I can't answer that yet, I'm too busy."
(At that point Buxton heard Unruh move away from the phone as gunfire was heard in the background)
"I'll have to talk to you later ... a couple of friends are coming to get me" ... (voice trails off).[19]

The gunfight ended when police threw two tear gas canisters into the apartment, the second of which ignited, filling the room with gas.[20] Two armed officers, Charles Hance and Edward Joslin, went up to the first floor of the building and shouted "Come down with your hands up", to which Unruh replied "I give up. Don't shoot." He emerged from the room and stumbled down the stairs falling at the feet of the two officers. Detectives found an apartment filled with what was described as an arsenal of weapons, guns, knives, bullet-making equipment and more than 700 bullets. In a drawer were several marksmanship medals, and in the basement was Unruh's target range. On a table was a Bible opened to Matthew Chapter 24. Police also found books relating to sex hygiene.[21]

Arrest and incarceration

Under police interrogation Unruh gave a meticulous account of his actions, which was later released by Camden County prosecutor Mitchell Cohen. Only at the end of this interrogation did police discover that he had a bullet wound in his left thigh. He was subsequently taken to Cooper Hospital for treatment, while his 13th victim, John Wilson, lay dying in the same hospital.[22]

Charges were filed for 13 counts of "willful and malicious slayings with malice aforethought" and three counts of "atrocious assault and battery". He was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by psychologists, and found to be insane, making him immune to criminal prosecution. When he was able to leave Cooper Hospital, Unruh was sent to the New Jersey Hospital for the Insane (now Trenton Psychiatric Hospital), to be installed into a bed in a private cell in the maximum-security Vroom Building.[8] Unruh's last public words, made during an interview with a psychologist, were, "I'd have killed a thousand if I had enough bullets."[23]

Victims

Unruh killed 13 and injured three. Those killed, and their ages, are listed below:

  • John Joseph Pilarchik, 27
  • Orris Martin Smith, 6
  • Clark Hoover, 33
  • James Hutton, 45
  • Rose Cohen, 38
  • Minnie Cohen, 63
  • Dr. Maurice J. Cohen, 39
  • Alvin Day, 24
  • Thomas Hamilton, 2
  • Helga Kautzach Zegrino, 28
  • Helen Wilson, 37
  • Emma Matlack, 68
  • John Wilson, 9

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Camden mass murderer Howard Unruh dies at 88". philly.com. 2009-10-20. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  2. ^ Berger, Meyer (September 7, 1949). "Veteran Kills 12 in Mad Rampage on Camden Street". The New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2018. Howard B. Unruh, 28 years old, a mild, soft-spoken veteran of many armored artillery battles in Italy, France, Austria, Belgium and Germany, killed twelve persons with a war souvenir Luger pistol in his home block in East Camden this morning. He wounded four others.
  3. ^ Sauer, Patrick (October 14, 2015). "The Story of the First Mass Murder in U.S. History". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution. He went into his apartment, uncased his German Luger P08, a 9mm pistol he'd purchased at a sporting goods store in Philadelphia for $37.50, and secured it with two clips and 33 loose cartridges.
  4. ^ "All about mass murderer Howard Unruh" by Katherine Ramsland[dead link]
  5. ^ Sexual homicide: Patterns and Motives; by Robert Ressler, et al., Free Press, 1995.
  6. ^ Suspect in historic mass murder dies at 88
  7. ^ Howard Unruh, dvrbs.com.
  8. ^ a b Ramsland, Katherine. Rampage in Camden, truTV.com.[dead link]
  9. ^ "13th Victim of Massacre Dies". Racine Journal Times. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  10. ^ "'A First Class Soldier', His Sergeant Reports". Wisconsin State Journal. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  11. ^ "Test Sanity of Veteran Who Killed 13 Persons". Mt Vernon Register News. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  12. ^ "Blame Illusion, not War Service, for killing spree by veteran". Racine Journal TImes. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  13. ^ "Unruh's Father notes his Son's Changed Mind". Indiana Evening Gazette. September 13, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  14. ^ "13th Victim of Massacre Dies". Racine Journal Times. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  15. ^ "Blame Illusion, Not War Service, for Killing Spree by Veteran". Racine Journal Times. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  16. ^ De Marco, Roxy (September 7, 1949). "I Can Still See Blood and Dead Kids". Lowell Sun. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  17. ^ "12 Slain by Mad Camden Gunman". Chester Times. September 6, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  18. ^ De Marco, Roxy (September 7, 1949). "I Can Still See Blood and Dead Kids". Lowell Sun. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  19. ^ Evans, Orrin C. (September 6, 1949). "Ex-Times Reporter Talks to Besieged Killer on Phone". Chester Times. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  20. ^ "13th Victim of Massacre Dies". Racine Journal Times. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  21. ^ "Wanted Revenge, Killer of 12 Says". Wisconsin State Journal. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  22. ^ "13th Victim of Massacre Dies". Racine Journal Times. September 7, 1949. Retrieved 9 May 2018.[dead link]
  23. ^ Nash, Jay. History of World Crime. (p. 965)
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