Notorious Mass Murderer Dies
Howard Unruh Killed 13 People in a 1949 Shooting Spree
Howard Unruh was a very troubled man. On the morning of September 6, 1949, he left his home and went out for what contemporary media dubbed “The Walk of Death.” By the time his neighbourhood stroll was done 12 minutes later he had shot and killed five men, five women, and three children. He left a handful of others wounded.
Designated too mentally ill to face trial, Unruh was confined to a mental hospital for the rest of his life, which ended on October 19, 2009 when he died at the age of 88.
Spree Murderer Harboured Resentment
By a couple of weeks (September 19, 1949) after Unruh’s rampage Time magazine had put together a portrait of a psychotic killer. A veteran of combat during World War II, he returned to live with his mother in her second-floor flat in a working-class area of Camden, New Jersey.
The newsmagazine reported that Unruh collected weapons “and spent hours poring over the Scriptures. He seemed unable to stick to a job...The neighbours in the little business block around his mother’s flat decided he was a ‘religious nut.' " There were also stories of how a homosexual encounter in a movie theatre profoundly troubled him.
He was not a popular man and he brooded over what he perceived as insults from people who lived nearby. They were to become the targets of his violent outburst, as he methodically gunned down the people on a list he had compiled.
Howard Unruh Carries out a Mass Murder
At about 9:20 a.m. he left his mother’s apartment carrying a 9-mm Luger pistol and with his pockets stuffed with ammunition.
His first victim was 27-year-old cobbler John Pilarchik. According to an Associated Press obituary (October 20, 2009) Unruh later told a psychiatrist that after he shot Pilarchik, “He had a funny look on his face, staggered back, and fell to the floor. I realized then he was still alive, so I fired into his head.”
Then, he went to a tailor’s store, where he murdered the owner’s wife and followed this by going into a barber’s shop where he shot the barber as well as 6-year-old Orris Smith who was getting his hair cut as he sat astride a hobby horse.
Calmly, he carried on gunning down the people who were on his hit list and any others who got in his way. Eventually, he returned to his apartment building, which police surrounded. After firing many rounds into the building, the police used tear gas and Unruh emerged to be arrested.
Mass Murderer Never Faced Trial
The Associated Press obituary of Unruh says he was “diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, he confessed to the killings, and was judged mentally competent but never tried.”
According to CNN (October 19, 2009), “Though the case never went to trial, Unruh was considered by some as the first single-episode mass murderer in the United States."
He was put in a secure unit for the criminally insane at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. From time to time, Unruh’s case came up for review but the result was always the same – continued incarceration in the mental institution.
What do you think about this article?
More in Politics & Society
Latest Articles