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Panzram A Journal of Murder

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PANZRAM: A Journal of Murder by Thomas E. Gaddis and James O. Long


In his time Carl Panzram murdered twenty-one human beings and committed just about every kind of impulsive psychopathic crime imaginable. Others have killed more - doubtless done as much damage - but because he wrote with such lucid unrepentance about his life and acts, Panzram stands out, leaving behind as eloquent a testimony as any criminal who put pen to paper.

I am 36 years old and have been a criminal all my life. I have 11 felony convictions against me. I have served 20 years of my life in jails, reform schools and prisons. I know why I am a criminal. Others may have different theories as to my life but I have no theory about it. I know the facts. If any man was a habitual criminal, I was one. In my life I have broken every law that was ever made by both man and God.

Sadistically punished at the reform schools he attended after his family broke up around 1899, he hit the road at fourteen, riding boxcars, robbing and setting fire to churches, and escaping whenever he could from jail. His descriptions of the tortures he experienced in prison at the hands of the warders are like something out of the Inquisition's annals. Travelling on steamers to Mexico, the Belgian Congo, and Europe, he became a proficient and remorseless murderer, despatching boys and young men (often his lovers) with rocks and pistols. Later on in captivity Panzram was to be very clear about who and why he became so wild.

If someone had a young tiger cub in a cage and then mistreated it until it got savage and bloodthirsty and then turned it loose to prey on the rest of the world, to go anywhere and kill anyone it wanted to, then there would be a hell of a roar from those in danger of the mad tiger. Everyone would believe that to be the wrong thing to do. But if some people do the same thing to other people, then the world is shocked, surprised, offended [...] They done it to me and then don't like it when I give them the same does they gave me [...] If you are going to go on teaching others as you have taught me, then you must suffer the same as I.

So while he would never admit it, decrying his religious schooling at length, Panzram's indoctrination at the hands of the reform school priests had burned an indelible philosophy straight from the Old Testament on the young Carl, one of righteous vengeance. Panzram sets out his life and crimes, brilliant stories of terrible deeds. He writes of his ideas of the roots of crime and institutional corruption, the scope of American crime, demolishes all fiction-romanticised ideas about criminals, and compiles the best glossary of criminal argot I've read.

Had it not been for a meeting in 1928 with Henry Lesser, the life of Panzram would have been forgotten after his execution in 1930. For the next two years Lesser, a prison guard with a modernist reforming ethos, worked at making Panzram his friend, encouraging his writing and, despite Panzram's firm position that it was impossible, working to nurture some kind of conscience back into the convict's dark soul. It was to be of no use for Panzram who argued with a terrible finality (that must have been crushing for Lesser) that he was a unchangeable product of the cruelties inflicted against him. Lesser's efforts on his behalf though meant that Panzram's book (of which lengthy sections feature here) was eventually published thirty years after his death and brought to public attention the horrors of the unreformed system.

A most timely book that should be read by anyone interested in extremes of the mind or life inside the American penal system in the first half of the 20th century.

I've always wondered what made people like this do such awful and disgusting things as described in this book. I now have a better understanding after reading it. Not all criminals are made by bad parenting skills or savage prison systems but in this case it can't be mistaken what lead this man into what he would eventually become. Everything about Carl Panzram's story is a tragedy. His days as a child, adulthood, his confessed murders,the sickening natures of these murders and even his own death (which he gladly welcomed with open arms) will make anyone thankful they were not subject to these conditions.

Carl Panzam, a Minnesota farm boy grew up in incredible poverty on a worn out dirt farm near the town of Warren. he had no toys except for a shovel and hoe, never had a birthday, subject to vicious beatings at the hands of family members. he was sent to the 'reform' school, a type of institution little better that a prison where spendingtax money on stone construction and heating systems and cafeteria meals were immensely, more important that helping troubled boys so that they can become usefull honest citizens. There Panzram, was subjected to vicious beatings administered by the local cracker staff because he was 'recalcitrant' in his english studies.He was probably, deslexic and had a great deal of difficulty with his studies. it was a thoroughly mean horrible place to grow up in. his experiences in this place, (just being in a place like this would stygmatise a person for life) and the tortures imposed on him in his adult life spent mostly in prison, he was probably molested by a reform achool staff member, help turn him into an utter unredeemable monster. he was remarkably, frank about his evil selfand his unredeemableness and about his sole goal in life to murder as many as possible, men, women, and even children. a classic example of how the state and its minions, are supposed to reform criminals into usefull citizensbut, in fact turn them into frankensteins.A must for people seriously interestedin criminalogy and a very unusual book.

Written in 1928, and first published in 1970, the autobiography of Carl Panzram by himself is quite a read. In this book, you will have the whole Panzram text (including many letters from him, later in the book), but you will also have a lot of text by the authors, who give you a context, explanations that Panzram doesn't provide, and overall, clarifications on the whole thing, which are most welcome. Just know that perhaps over a half of this book is not written by Panzram himself.

Carla Panzram spent most of his life in institutions, reform schools or prisons, and he developed a philosophy of hate that would justify, to him, a life devoted to robbing, raping, killing, burning, and destroying everyone and everything. His ideal plan was to kill the whole human race, no less.

The book is undoubtedly an important item from a historical perspective, and sociological and psychological ones, but make sure not to easily fall into recycling this text for this or that ideology. Panzram clearly excuses himself, albeit in a vague and incoherent way, all of he does, because he has been hurt himself. He says it explicitly when he explains that he wants to take revenge on everyone, for things done to him, and it doesn't matter if those he takes revenge on never did anything to him; it was enough that they were the same kind of person who mistreated him.

From a literary perspective, Panzram wrote in a prose style that Hemingway would give world-wide fame. The very first Panzram words in this book are quite excellent.

If you expect extremely gruesome details of murders and rapes, you won't have them. Panzram made no bones about those things, and so, in a way, you get the feeling he doesn't care much about it, not enough to dwell on it a lot, which is what another serial killer would do. And this is exactly the thing that makes Panzram an unlikely candidate to be a "serial killer", even though he did kill 21 people, which is more than many famous serial killers. Panzram doesn't act out of psychopathy and antisocial feelings in the same manner as a regular killer does. The line is fine, and perhaps it isn't there at all.

Another thing you will find in this volume is an excellent inside account of American institutions in the early 20th century. That is priceless, and few actually know the sort of torture used in those establishments back then. Remember that electo-torture scene in "Lethal Weapon"? With the sponge and Mel Gibson? Well that thing was used on Panzram, and known as the "humming bird".

The book has a tendency to say that society produced Panzram through the way he was mistreated, but don't buy that too easily. Indeed, the fact is that everyone in the establishments Panzram was in was treated the same, and Panzram was the only one to develop a philosophy of hate and act on it the way he did. It's no excuse. Panzram truly is Milton's Satan when he devotes his sorry life to causing as much damage and harm as he can, until self-destruction.

"Panzram" suffers from some typographical errors. For instance, and for unknown reasons, "he" often becomes "be" in the text. You'll easily correct the mistake, if you notice it at all, but it's there, and it's more frequent than you'd think. While Panzram's spelling was edited by the authors, they sometimes leave out a lot of mistakes, for unknown reasons once again. Panzram will write "tho" and "thru" and "its" instead of "it's" in some texts, and in others he will have a perfect spelling.

This book should not be thought as a liberal's wet dream when it comes to criminality. Panzram was very much his own man throughout his life, making his own decisions, and explaining them himself with extreme clarity. He could have chosen a different path, many times over. He stuck to his plan of hate, and got what he had coming to him. Indeed, he has been out of prison a lot, through escapes, and earlier in his life legally, and he never once tried to lead an honest life. Yes, life is unfair, but if you can't accept it, you'll never make it. Panzram is the typical case of the person who truly thinks the world owes them. No man can live a good life with that philosophy. No matter how bad the world treats you, it will never owe you jack, and by "the world", I don't mean "people", I mean life in general.

If your wondering what a person filled with hate does or a person who hates everbody is like you'll enjoy this book. Panzram came from nothing and it filled him with rage against everbody but Henry Lesser (the man he wrote his memoir for). Filled with murder, arson, sodomy and burglary by the Devil himself. You get to read his memoir with the author filling in the history and blanks for you. The chapters are just short enough to take a break from the book, although I read it in two days. I've read crime, death scene books, WWII books and never come across a book so engrossing. A different kind of book for those who enjoy crime and serial killers. It's a good find.

This is quite a disturbing piece of work.So much hate and anger filled
in one man is hopefully not something we will see every day.
It is difficult to review this book, so my only opinion is that you
should read this.Now.

Excellent read. Panzram is frightening and fascinating. Despite the horrors inflicted by him, the reader cannot help but feel some sympathy for the monster and anger at the society that produced him.

This is an amazing book. If you have any interest in our prison system or the abuse of the America society towards children this book will amaze you as well.
This is a true story of a man whom was abused during his life time and all he wanted to do is kill people and die him self.
He wanted to tell his story but did not trust anyone to tell his story to. He was befriended by one of the new guards at Leavenworth prison in Kansas.
This guard one was one of the one persons in Panzrams life that he trusted.
The whole book is written from true events penned by Panzram his self.

I really had no expectation when I opened this book, but was very surprised by what I read. Panzram, while being a remorseless killer, was obviously very in tune with himself and the world around him and by the end I was almost rooting for the Feds to not execute him.

Really well written book and if you want something that will give you an insight into a killers mind this is a great one to read.

Originally titled Killer: A Journal of Murder; had been out of print for many years; and is *the* classic of all first-person American prison narratives. Offers penetrating insights into both the pathology of a mass murderer and a penal system that has changed little since the turn of the century. Gaddis's and Long's footnoting--which doesn't drag on the narrative drive at all--provides crucial information concerning time, place and Panzram's evolving relationship with Lesser, the guard/aspiring writer who became Panzram's implied reader and without whom these accounts never would have been penciled. Panzram's darkness is bottomless, but at times, between the lines, one can hear the pounding of a wounded all-too human heart.