Before his execution in 1930, Carl Panzram, who was on death row, blatantly admitted to a string of horrible crimes, such as rape and mass murder.
He ended his scarily long list of horrible things he had done by saying, “For all these things, I am not in the least bit sorry.” Panzram said in his jail confessions and autobiography that he had killed 21 boys and men and sexually abused over 1,000 people. He called himself “rage personified.”
According to some accounts, one of his worst crimes was killing six local guides who were getting ready to take him on a crocodile hunting trip. According to the Daily Star, Panzram killed the men and fed their bodies to the crocodiles, who “devoured their bodies with gusto.” People were too disturbed by the murderer’s detailed accounts of the horrible things he did. Writing about one killing in detail, he said, “His brains were coming out of his ears when I left him, and he will never be any deader.”
The criminal spree by Panzram that lasted almost 30 years is one of the worst in recent memory. Born in Minnesota in 1891 to parents who came from East Prussia, Panzram’s father left him when he was young. He first got in trouble with the law when he was eight years old and was taken to juvenile court for being drunk and acting rudely.
Panzram said that staff members at Reform School tortured and sexually abused students, which is why he burned down the school. He says that after he escaped from a mental hospital, he was raped by a group of “hobos,” who made him a “sadder, sicker, but wiser boy” who was doomed to commit more horrible crimes.
Despite being in and out of jail a lot, his criminal record is full of different crimes, mostly thefts. In prisons, guards beat him, hung him from rafters, and put him in unpleasant solitary confinement where only the odd cockroach provided food.
He fled in 1918 and went on a horrible killing spree along the East Coast, causing a lot of damage. Getting enough money from breaking into the house of former president William Howard Taft to buy a boat he called the Akiska.
By luring American troops on board, he turned the luxury ship into a death trap where they were beaten, killed, and their bodies dumped in the cold ocean. The Akista sank off of Atlantic City, New Jersey, after a series of fatal accidents, ending his terrifying killing spree at sea.
He returned to living as a nomad by sneaking onto a ship, killing six tour guides, and feeding them to hungry alligators. Panzram went back to jail in 1928, though, for another burglary.
Despite being locked up, he still threatened to kill the first person who crossed him, showing that his violent behavior wasn’t going to change. According to what he said, he beat the laundry manager with an iron bar.
All That’s Interesting says that Panzram wrote pages and pages about how horrible his crimes were. These were eventually published in the 1970 book “Panzram: A Journal of Murder.” His autobiography began with a shocking confession: “In my lifetime I have murdered 21 people, committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, and arsons, and last but not least, I have committed sodomy on more than 1,000 male individuals.” Regarding all of these things, I’m not at all sorry. “That doesn’t bother me because I have no conscience.”
A 39-year-old man named Panzram was hanged from the gallows on September 5, 1930. As the executioner tried to cover his head with the black hood, he spat in their face, showing that he was still determined to fight. He ended with just as strong words: “Yes.” “Get going, you Indiana jerk! While you’re messing around, I could kill twelve men” themirror stated.