Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Carl Panzram

Episode Date: May 1, 2018

Even as a child, Carl Panzram often found himself in trouble. He spent his teenage years either homeless, on the run, or imprisoned. From robbing former president Taft to setting churches and jails on fire, Panzram was always on the hunt for trouble. But what made the mischievous teenager turn into a serial killer?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels. But you don't need to break any laws to find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify. It's the commerce platform that can help you with literally everything, website design, marketing, shipping, and more.

So start your business today with the best partner, Shopify, and get that. Sign up for your $1.00. per month trial today at Shopify.com slash killers. That's Shopify.com slash killers. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for, like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State Killer, the unit bomber, it's tedious work to find what you're looking for. So if you're hiring, I've got news for you.

You can skip the lengthy investigation and the tiresome process of sorting through hundreds of resumes. Just use ZipRecruiter. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. Because not only does ZipRecruiter have the technology to match you with potential candidates quickly, it also just added a new feature

that pushes candidates who are qualified and interested in your role to the top of the list. They can even tell you why they're interested, making it easier for you to get a sense of who they are. Cut through the standard and get to the standouts with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And now you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash killers.

Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavah Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary.

You in? Must be 21 to enter. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes, dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. No single jail could keep a hold on Carl Panzram. One of the most sadistic and unsympathetic serial killers of the 1910s and 1920s. Throughout his life, Pansram spent time behind bars and prisons

around the United States. He served time under many different aliases. In his own words, Pansram said, quote, In my lifetime, I have murdered 21 human beings. I've committed thousands of burglaries, robberies, larcenies, arsons. And last but not least, I've committed sodomy on more than 1,000 male human beings. For all these things, I am not the least bit, sorry, end quote. In 1928, 36-year-old Pansram was arrested for a burglary and vans. voluntarily confessed to murdering two young boys. He was sentenced to 25 years to life at

Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, a medium security jail in Leavenworth, Kansas. Within his first moments at the prison, Pansram declared to a warden, quote, I am doing a long time, and I am an old crank, and I want to be by myself. I'll kill the first man who bothers me. Leavenworth authorities took the threat seriously, placing Pansram on laundry room duty, where he could work alone. The laundry room foreman was 47-year-old corrections officer Robert Warnke, an unassuming and by the book Army veteran. In a June 1929 letter, Pansram said, quote, I'm still on my same job and like it less each day. I'm getting all set for a change. It won't be long now. End quote. Early in the morning on June 20, 1929, Warnkei arrived in the laundry room and checked supplies.

Pansram snuck up behind Warnke and hit the officer on the top of his skull with a four-foot-long 10-pound iron bar, knocking him to the ground. Some sources say that this single vicious blow is what killed Warnke. Other sources say Panseram continued beating Warnke to death with the iron bar and then chased down other inmates in the room with the weapon. Sadistic, unsympathetic, and uncontainable. That was the essence of Carl Pansram. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to dive into the life of Carl Pansram, a serial killer who admitted to murdering 21 people, along with committing sodomy, arson, and burglary. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Vanessa's not a and psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for the show.

Hi, everyone. We'd like to ask a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory? It seems so simple, but it really helps us out. And don't forget to subscribe while you're there, because a new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast, and on Twitter at Parkast Network. Carl Pansram admitted to murdering a total of 21 people in the 1910s and 1920s. Of those, he raped and murdered 17 during a murder spree in the northeastern United States from 1920 until 1928. He admitted his crimes in a lengthy written confession that reads like an autobiography,

but his claims were initially met with skepticism due to a lack of evidence at the time. He also served many short-term jail sentences in various state prisons under several aliases around the country, from Oregon to Washington, D.C., for such crimes as burglarizing the home of former President William Howard Taft, and robbing several yachts on the East Coast. During his various prison sentences, he often attacked guards and received beatings and severe punishments. The details provided by Pans Ram about his life and his life. crimes are from that written confession to rookie prison guard Henry Lesser at Leavenworth. Let's take a look at how exactly Carl Pansram's childhood influenced a life described by

renowned psychologist Dr. Carl Menninger in his 1938 book, Man Against Himself, as, quote, simply one incident after another of revenge, punishment, release, and more revenge, more punishment, more bitterness, end quote. Panseram was born Charles Pansram on June 28, 1891, in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, a town located on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota. He was the youngest child of John and Matilda Elizabeth Bolden Pansram, two immigrants from East Prussia, which is now part of Russia and Poland. John was a violent, tempered veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, working as a farm laborer. Matilda nicknamed Lizzie grew up in a strict German Lutheran family and stayed very religious

into her adulthood. Panseram had five older siblings, John Paul, who was the eldest, born around 1870. August William, Albert, Lewis, Anne Louise were born throughout the 1880s, before Panseram's birth in 1891. Panseram described his family as, quote, hardworking, ignorant, and poor, all except myself. I have been a human animal since I was born, end quote. What Pansram is probably referring to is that he got into trouble at an early age. He said he began stealing and lying at around six years old, but he didn't specify what exactly he stole and lied about at such a young age.

However, according to American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, It's normal for young children to lie and tell tall tales around ages four to five. But the same organization states that theft by a child after age three is not normal for many of the following reasons. Stealing is often an indication that the child wants to impress their friends or that the child is trying to get attention from their parents. As the youngest child of six children, it's likely that Pansram acted out in order to receive attention from his parents. John and Lizzie had a rough marriage, which ended when John left Lizzie and the six children, when Panseram was seven or eight years old, around 1890. Not long after,

Panseram's older brothers left the family too. Albert quit school to help their mother with the farm full time, while Panseram and Louise helped out after school. Panseram mentioned that one of his siblings died, but it's not clear which one. Pansaram's mother and older brother were very strict with the young children. Lizzie carried the pressure of running the farm while suffering from high blood pressure and dizzy spells in her 40s. The economic depression, known as the panic of 1893, affected many U.S. industries until 1900, as well as the Pansram farm. Pansram said, quote, My portion of pay consisted of plenty of work and a sound beating every time I looked cockied

or done anything that displeased anyone who was older or stronger. But right or wrong, I used to get plenty of abuse, end quote. The Pansram brothers took after their father, John, and were described as, quote, big, rough, raw-boned, hot-headed, and roving, end quote. For instance, Pansram's older brother, Albert, was six feet four inches tall and a nightly visitor to the pool rooms in town. At school, Pansram learned to read, but he also misbehaved often and was beaten for becoming, quote, a holy terror in the classroom. After school, he worked on the family farm. At age eight, Panseram was charged with being drunk and disorderly by a judge in the municipal court of East Grand Forks in 1900.

By the time Panzeram was nine years old, he had suffered chronic ear aches, which developed into mastoiditis. It's an infection of the mastoid bone on the skull behind the ear, and is often caused by untreated middle ear infections. The British Journal of Psychiatry published a study in 2008 that established that middle ear illness, such as mastoiditis, as a child, is a risk factor for developing schizophrenia later in life. In the study, doctors found that all 84 patients with schizophrenia had a history of ear disease. Doctors theorized that middle ear infections irritate the left temporal lobe, which is located right above the middle left ear. His family couldn't afford to pay for him to have surgery, so Panseram claimed that his mom operated on his ear on the kitchen table. Some sources have theorized that Panseram had suffered brain damage from the procedure. Back in the late 1800s, so-called kitchen surgeries were common in rural areas.

In the early 1900s, Americans spent an average of $5 on medical care, which is $100 today, adjusted for inflation. Health insurance did not exist yet, and surgeons were only starting to perform sterile surgeries. Around this time, hospitals mostly housed patients who were near death or gravely ill. There's no known evidence that Pansram suffered any brain damage from the surgery, but if he did, damage to the temporal lobe can cause trouble with hearing, paying attention, and abrupt and unprovoked aggression. Temporal lobe damage can also affect a person's ability to relearn appropriate behavior. The procedure left a scar behind Panseram's left ear,

and he often experienced a lingering discharge from his inner ear. The incident likely contributed. to Panseram's unhappiness at home. By the time Panseram turned 11 years old in 1903, he decided that he wanted to explore life outside his family. He wrote, quote, I began to realize that there were other people who lived nice, easy lives,

who were not kicked around and worked to death. I decided that I wanted to leave my miserable home, end quote. Young Panseram broke into his neighbor's home and stole the items he considered to be most valuable. apples, cake, and a big pistol. After committing the robbery, 11-year-old Pansaram went to the rail yards

and got onto a freight train headed west. He said that he, quote, intended to be a cowboy and shoot Indians. He was eventually caught by an unknown person on the train, brought home and beaten by his brothers. In 1904, Panseram faced the same East Grand Forks judge who handled his previous drunk and disorderly church. charge. The judge sentenced

Pansram to the Minnesota State Training School, a reform school in Red Wing, Minnesota, which is located about an hour south of Minneapolis. He described the experience saying, quote, right there and then, I began to learn about man's inhumanity

to man. We'll return to our story in just a moment from the Parkast Network. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points.

Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak. And get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. Now, the story continues.

Known colloquially as Red Wing, the Minnesota State Training School housed young men who had received court convictions for crimes other than murder. The Minnesota legislature opened the facility in 1868. The Reform School inspired the Bob Dylan song, Walls of Red Wing, which described the school as, quote, the gates are cast iron and the walls are barbed wire. Former inmate and Metropolitan State University professor,

Monty Butte, described the school's cottages as, quote, medieval fortresses, those jagged, stone buildings were Gothic dungeons. When 12-year-old Carl Panzeram entered the school in 1904, two-thirds of the boys were immigrants who spoke little to no English. Panzeram recalled attending the Minnesota State Training School, along with about 250 other boys, ranging in age from 7 to 21. The school was run by devout Christians,

who assigned students' prayer time, hymns to sing at each meal, and Bible lessons every evening. The juvenile inmates also receive beatings regularly. Panzeram remembered, quote, the method that the good people used in training me was to beat goodness into me and all the badness out of me. The more they beat me and whipped me,

the more I hated them and their damn religion, end quote. Panzeram was whipped and beaten for offenses like failing to properly fold a napkin, filling his hat with sugar in the dining room, and an attempted escape. Red Wing had a place on campus dedicated to the worst of the beatings. Inmates called it the paint shop, because those who visited, left with their bodies painted black and blue with bruises. Pansram said that in the paint shop, authorities stripped inmates naked, tied and bent them

over a wooden block, and whipped them about 25 to 30 times. While at Rudwing, 12-year-old Pansaram worked in the officer's dining room, where he washed dishes and waited tables. He claimed that he played gross pranks on the officers as revenge. Panseram urinated in the officer's soups, coffees, and teas. He masturbated into their ice cream. Eventually, Pansram got caught when he put rat poison in the school manager's rice pudding. He was fired from dining room duty and reassigned to the band. Even after his reassignment, Pansram sought further revenge on the Red Wing authorities, his new plan to burn down the paint shop building.

Pansram said, quote, this I did. I got a long, thick piece of heavy cotton string, wrapped it around and around a long round stick, lit one end of it, and hid in the laundry near some oil-soaked rags. The fire destroyed the entire building, and Panseram was proud that. that the damage totaled over $100,000. Pansram committed arson, a criminal act in which a person willfully sets fire to a structure with malicious intent, according to Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. The journal points out that between 8 and 76 percent of arsonists have a diagnosis of schizophrenia or other disorders, as well as personality disorders.

Pansram does not mention if he was caught or how he was punished at Red Wing for the fire. After the fire, Panzeram took advice from some older boys at the school, and he decided to change his approach to the authorities at Red Wing in late 1905. He said, quote, They told me to act like I was a very good boy. Tell everybody how much I love Jesus and how I wanted to go home and be a good boy, go to school, and learn to be a preacher.

I'd done just as they suggested, and I'm damned if it didn't work out, just as slick as hot grease through a tin horn. Pansram was right. His new persona did work. By January 1906, he was paroled at age 14 and sent home to live with his mother and brother, Albert. Reflecting on his two years at Red Wing,

Pansram said, quote, from the treatment I received while there and the lessons I learned from it, I had fully decided when I left there just how I would live my life. I made up my mind that I would work. rob, burn, destroy and kill everywhere I went, and everyone I could as long as I lived. When 14-year-old Carl Panzram arrived home in East Grand Forks, his mother, Lizzie, and older

brother Albert put him to work on the farm to, quote, earn his keep. In the early 1900s, it was common for teenagers to work instead of attending school. Only 11% of teens between the ages of 14 and 17 were in rural. old in U.S. high schools in 1900. Even fewer graduated. By 1910, Americans only attended an average of about eight years of school. Pansaram didn't want to work on the farm anymore, so he came up with a new scheme. He would avoid work by going to school to become a preacher. His family soon sent him to a German Lutheran school, where he learned German from the minister in the church basement. Lutheran schools in the 1900s emphasized learning German because that was the language used to conduct Lutheran church services.

The subjects taught in Lutheran schools included Bible history, church hymns, psalms, geography, church history, penmanship, and singing. A couple of months after he started school, the other kids teased Pansram, giving him the nickname Reform School. He began beating up his classmates, so the German preacher whipped Pansram as punishment. During one whipping, Pansram tried to fight back, but he admitted that the preacher was, quote, too much for me, so he won that time. Pansram had a new idea, inspired by the inscription on cult rifles in the 1900s. Quote, be not afraid of any man, no matter what is size, when danger threatens, call on me, and I will equalize.

end quote. He found a fellow child who had an old-fashioned heavy caliber cult pistol. I got it, Panzeram wrote, not specifying how he obtained the pistol. Panzeram then stole one of his brother's vests, put the pistol in his vest pocket, and went to school. Children were commonly armed in the 1900s. About 10 people died in school shootings that occurred from 1902 until 1912. The shootings mostly transpired among teenage boys who had minor disagreements with each other and teachers. Pansram stated that the school's preacher was the subject of his wrath, but it's unclear if Pansram's intention was to shoot and kill this preacher or merely scare him.

At school, Panseram arrived and warned the preacher that this time he was armed. The preacher grabbed his whip and ordered young Panseram to leave his seat to receive his punishment. Panseram thought the preacher wanted to punish him for bluffing and making an empty threat, so Pansram refused to get up. The preacher tried to pull Panseram out of his seat, but the boy held on to the chair and desk with his hands and feet. The preacher whipped Panseram on his head and shoulders during the struggle. The preacher yanked at Panseram's vest.

The buttons came off. The pistol dropped to the floor. The preacher fell back. His mouth was agape. He said, quote, mine got, a gun, a gun, end quote. Pansaram grabbed the gun and pointed it at the preacher's head. Panseram pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

Panseram pulled the trigger again. The pistol did not fire. After one more try, Panseram went home. On the way back to his family's farm, Panseram didn't think he would be in trouble. He thought what he did was heroic. and his family would celebrate. While Pansram was on his way home, the school called his house

and detailed the boy's actions. When he arrived home, Pansram's brother, Albert, hit him alongside the head and began choking Pansram, demanding to know where he'd hidden the gun. Pansram told Albert a location, and Albert ran off.

In his confession, Pansram did not specify where he said he'd hidden the gun or if he was lying to get his brother to stop beating him. him. Pansram said, quote, I told him and he went out the back door to look for it. I went out the front door to look for another one to shoot him with. Carl Panseram didn't find a gun, but he found what he thought was freedom. At age 14, around 1905, he ran away for a second time. Quote, I started out as a hobo,

Panseram said. He figured out how to ride freight and passenger trains without paying a fare or getting caught. Sometimes he'd even ride freight trains by holding onto the rods underneath the cars. Pansram said he, quote, hoboed my way to the Pacific coast and all over the west, sleeping in boxcars, barns, sheds, haystacks, or almost anywhere at all, end quote. He begged for food, often stole items, and occasionally worked, but he did not specify what kind of jobs he did. The following is a graphic description of events of a violent and sexual nature. Listener discretion is advised. While riding on a train one night, Pans Ram felt lonely.

So he tried to befriend four burly bums in a lumber car. They acted friendly toward the teenager and followed Pansram to the warm and clean box he had found. The men began telling Pansram that he was a nice boy and promised him riches, such as silk underwear, and diamonds as big as baseballs. That is, if Pans Ram had sex with them. He said no, but then the men sexually assaulted him. Pans Ram said, quote, I cried, begged, and pleaded for mercy, pity, and sympathy,

but nothing I could say or do could sway them from their purpose. I left that box car a sadder, sicker, but wiser boy than I was when I entered it, end quote. But this was not the last time that Panseram was raped. While spending time in an unspecified small town in the West, Pansram entered a livery horse table to approach a group of men and beg for some food. He used his usual story on them, in which he talked about his love for Jesus and how far he had traveled.

The story often resulted in Panseram receiving food from people, but this time the boy was given beer and whiskey. Pansram said, quote, they offered me a little drink and then a bigger one. And it wasn't before long until I was so drunk that I didn't know my own name. And soon after, I didn't know anything at all. But I sure knew something when I woke up, end quote. Unfortunately, Panzeram's experience with sexual assault as a homeless youth is fairly common, even today.

According to a study by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 11% of young males, reported being sexually victimized at least once while on the street. And their perpetrator was a stranger, 56% of the time. If a young man is well-groomed, the risk of him getting sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant increased by 65%. Pansram said that these sexual assaults completely changed his outlook at age 14. Pansram believed that, quote, force and might make right. I learned to look with suspicion and hatred on everybody.

As the years went on, that idea persisted in my mind above all others. Despite his early negative experiences, Pansram said he later enjoyed whiskey and sex with other men. He wrote, Those were the days when I was learning the lessons that life teaches us all. And they made me what I am today. Our story will continue in a moment after a brief message. Now, our story continues. Carl Pansram continued to travel around the country via train.

In Butte, Montana, he was arrested for petty larceny and burglary at age 14 in 1905. He was held in the county jail for a month before being sent to the Montana State Reform School in Miles City. Panseram worked in the shoe shop and the fields. He tried to escape, but was caught and punished. Panseram did not. specify how he was punished. Pansram disliked the guards, but he greatly disliked one in particular, Bouchard, a former prize fighter from Boston.

Pansram said that he, quote, made it his special duty to make life miserable for me. He kept nagging me until I finally decided to murder him. He obtained a two-foot-long oak wood board with three to four pounds of iron attached to the end. With the board in hand, Panseram approached Bouchard, as the guard got his booth shine by one of the inmates. Panseram quietly came up behind Bouchard. Panseram hit Bouchard with the Occoad board on the top of the guard's head. The impact injured the guard, but did not kill him. After that, authorities punished Panseram with several beatings and considered sending the inmate to the state prison in Deer Lodge.

but at age 15, Panseram was too young. Instead, he said that the reform school authorities continued to beat him. Pansram claimed that the Montana State Reform School circumcised his penis as punishment for masturbating frequently. After a year at the school in 1907, 15-year-old Pansram became friends with Jimmy Benson, who he described as a pretty smart little boy. Together, they came up with a plan to escape. Benson escaped the school first to distract the guards, and Pansram ran away once the guards were occupied by the first chase. The two boys met at a water tank, located 40 miles away in nearby Terry Montana.

Pansram and Benson traveled together for about a month and learned many things from each other. Benson taught Pansram how to perform stick-up robberies and robbing poor boxes and churches. Pansram taught Benson how to set fire to a church. Panzeram wrote, quote, We got very busy on that, robbing and burning a church regular, every chance we got, end quote. And just like other teenage boys their age,

Panseram and Benson played pranks. They poured sand and gravel into the train's axle box. In North Dakota, they cut holes in the floors of trains carrying loose wheat, which caused the wheat to pour out as the train. traveled. It's true that Pansram and Benson were rebellious teenage boys at this point, but psychologists have found that pranks are played for amusement to feel powerful and to gain attention or a reaction from someone. Pranks that cause a certain amount of shock can feed a person's ego and help the person feel like they achieved something. Psychologists told Vice Magazine that

young men have more of a tendency to play pranks than young women, noting that pranks help boys assert their masculinity and indicate that they have a dominant position above other males. Panzeram and Benson's mischief earned them two revolvers, two suits, $150 in cash, and assorted jewelry from various burglaries. They parted ways in Fargo, North Dakota. Benson went back to his family's home in Butte, Montana, and Panzeram went home to East Grand Forks, Minnesota. He only stayed about two days at his family's farm before running away again. On December 28, 1906, 16-year-old Pansaram hopped off a train to find something to eat in Helena, Montana. He went to a saloon and listened to a pitch from an army recruiter.

Panseram admired the soldiers, sergeant stripes, military hat, and tales of adventure. So he lied about his age and signed up for the military. Later that day, the Army shipped Pansram and a wagonload of underage recruits to join the 6th Infantry Regiment. He met many other runaways and escaped reform school inmates among his fellow recruits. In 1906, the legal age for enlisting in the Army was 21, but recruiters had trouble attracting new recruits during peacetime in rural areas, such as Helena. The recruiters overlooked the youthful appearance of the underage boys. For Pansram, the military offered many things he didn't have as he lived as a homeless teen, including money, protection, and shelter. He may have also wanted to try something new.

Research has found that the people from low-income backgrounds often enlist in military service to get away from unstable home lives. Some criminologists have said that joining the military often acts as a settling influence for criminals, who may cease their criminal activities either permanently or only. Only just while they're in active service, unfortunately, neither was true for Pansram. It only took an hour for him to get into trouble and sent to the A company's commander, First Lieutenant George England. Pansram refused to work. England was a West Point educated career officer who showed some patience when dealing with the teen. The lieutenant informed Pansram that much was expected of him as a new recruit,

and disobeying orders would result in specific. punishments. England gave Pansram a copy of the book Articles of War, which contains the rules and punishments of military conduct. Pansram wasn't a fan of the book, and he may have done something lewd with it. It's unclear what kind of disrespectful action he did with the book, but as a punishment, England had Pansram locked in the guardhouse for a week. Two days later, the guardhouse commander reported Pansram for, quote, fighting and impertinence. He remained in the guardhouse for an extended sentence of 30 days and was merely fed bread and water. At some point during the sentence, Panseram promised England that he learned his lesson,

and he was ready to become a good, obedient soldier. England sent Panseram back to the A Company. That promise didn't last very long. On April 8, 1907, guards caught Panseram as he attempted to walk out of the post with several stolen goods in tow. two army overcoats, a civilian suit, and a pocketful of gold collar buttons. He intended to sell the items in Helena. On April 20, 1907, 16-year-old Panseram was found guilty at his general court-martial by a tribunal of four officers at Fort William Henry Harrison in Helena.

Secretary of War William Howard Taft reviewed the court proceedings and sentenced Panseram to three years at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Courts marshal are the trial process of the U.S. military, and it greatly differs from the more well-known civilian court in the United States. Military personnel stand trial in a court martial for violations of the military criminal code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Pansram stood trial in the general courts martial, which evaluates serious offenses that are equivalent to felonies. On May 20th, 1907, a shackled 16-year-old Pansram boarded a train headed from Fort Harrison to Fort Leavenworth. He wrote the following about his first days at prison. Quote, I wasn't there long before I tried to escape, but luck was against me.

The next thing I'd done there was to burn up the prison shops, end quote. He claimed that the authorities didn't know that he started the fire. Pansram said that he set the shop aflame by, placing a candle inside a one-gallon can filled with oil-soaked rags. During the rest of Pansram's 37 months at Fort Leavenworth, he worked in the nearby rock quarry with about 300 other inmates. Pansram said that he often got into trouble, and he received many punishments. At one point, Pansram was shackled to a 50-pound iron ball for six months as a punishment.

He was ordered to wear it all the time, even as he slept. Pansram said that the punishment turned him into, quote, 190 pounds of concentrated, hell-fired, man-inspired, meanness. Writing years later, renowned psychiatrist Dr. Carl Menninger determined that Pansram's crimes were the result of an overwhelming sense of hate that he developed during his childhood, as well as his time in reform schools and in prison. The doctor wrote, quote,

he was a remarkable man in his fierceness, in his restless mental activity and his great embitteredness. I have always carried him in mind as the product of our prison system. Pans Ram was released from Fort Leavenworth in 1910 at age 20 and described himself then as, quote, rage personified. When I left there, all the good that may have been in me had been kicked and beaten out of me long before, end quote. He managed to convince the authorities that prison had changed him for the better, and he pledged to be a good person. Pansaram left Fort Leavenworth with $5, a suit of clothes, and a ticket to Denver, Colorado.

He said, quote, all that I had in my mind at that time was a strong determination to raise plenty of hell with anyone and everybody in every way I could, and every time and every place I could, end quote. And 20-year-old Pansram did just that. He arrived in Denver in 1910 and got a job as a mule skinner. Pansram worked there for a few weeks before his boss fired him.

He used his pay from the job to buy a gun and get drunk in the city's red light district that night. The next day, Panseram woke up in an alley. His gun was gone along with his money, coat, hat, and shoes. He realized he had bumped. on his head. One week later, he found out he had contracted gonorrhea. Pansram said, quote, I began to suspect that the ladies were very good things to leave alone. I have followed that policy pretty closely ever since, end quote. Panseram decided to leave Denver, and he robbed churches as he headed eastward. He stopped at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson and got a job as a

rider for Colonel Dickie's Circle D Wild West Show. About one week later, Pansram got fired for constantly fighting everyone, including the horses and cows. After militia soldiers caught him stealing from them, Pansram left Kansas and ended up at Missouri's state fair in Sedalia. He spotted Colonel Dickie's Circle D Wild West show there. Pansram alluded to setting fire to some of their tents, but did not explicitly admit it. Quote, they had the misfortune to lose their horse tent and cook tent by some scoundrel touching a match to them. I left there right away quick. Unlike Colonel Dickie's Circle D Wild West Show, Pansram's story does not go up in flames, at least not yet.

Next week, we'll investigate Carl Pansram's progression from robbery and arson to rape and murder, as well as as as many other incarcerations in several different states. under several different aliases. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. If you want to listen to any previous episodes of serial killers, you can find them on Apple Podcasts, Tune-in, Google Play, Stitcher, and Spotify, or on our website, parcast.com, spelled p-ar-c-c-st-t.com. If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review

or tell us what you think on social media. We're on Facebook and Instagram as at Parcast, Twitter at Parcast Network. It seems simple, but it really helps our show. Join us next Monday as we continue delving into the twisted psyche of Carl Pansram. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler. It is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network.

It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Carrie Murphy, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro and Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admire. Serial Killers is written by Mallory Cara and stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag, and there was a full of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something.

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcast this year, but they're They're not Crime Beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.