Howard Unruh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Howard Barton Unruh (1921-01-21)January 21, 1921 |
| Died | October 19, 2009(2009-10-19) (aged 88) |
| Occupation(s) | Sheet-metal worker, formerUnited States Army armor crewman |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Motive | Inconclusive (possiblypost-traumatic and/or a personalfeud with one of the victims) |
| Convictions | N/A; foundnot guilty of all charges byreason of insanity |
| Criminal charge | First-degree murder (x13) Assault andbattery (x3) |
| Penalty | Involuntary commitment |
| Details | |
| Date | September 6, 1949 (1949-09-06) |
| Locations | Camden, New Jersey, US |
| Killed | 13 |
| Injured | 3 (2 from gunfire) |
| Weapons | Luger P08[1][2] |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
| Rank | .svg) Private first class |
| Unit | Battery C, 342nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | European Theater of Operations Medal World War II Victory Medal Good Conduct Medal |
Howard Barton Unruh (January 21, 1921 – October 19, 2009) was an Americanmass murderer[note 1][3][4] who shot and killed thirteen people during a twelve-minute walk through his neighborhood inCamden, New Jersey, on September 6, 1949[5] in an incident that became known as theWalk of Death. Unruh was foundcriminally insane and died in 2009 after a lengthy illness at the age of 88 following 60 years of confinement.[6]
The shooting remains the deadliest mass shooting in New Jersey history, and is one of the first examples of amass shooting in post-World War II U.S. history.
Howard 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 their parentsseparated. Unruh grew up inEast Camden, New Jersey, attendedCramer Junior High School andWoodrow Wilson High School, graduating in January 1939.[7] His high school's yearbook from 1939 indicated that he was shy and that his ambition was to become a government employee.[8]
Unruh enlisted in theUnited States Army on October 27, 1942, and saw active service as an armor crewman across Europe between October 1944 and July 1945.[9][1] He was remembered by his section chief Norman E. Koehn as a first-class soldier who never drank, swore, or chased girls and spent much time reading his Bible and writing long letters to his mother.[10] It was also cited that Unruh kept meticulous notes on the enemies killed in battles, down to the details of the corpses. He was awarded theEuropean Theater of Operations Medal, theVictory Medal, and theGood Conduct Medal.
Unruh washonorably discharged at the end of the war and returned to New Jersey to live with his mother. Both his brother and his father later indicated that Unruh's wartime experiences had changed him, making him moody, nervous, and detached. Unruh briefly found work as a sheet-metal worker before enrolling at theTemple UniversitySchool of Pharmacy inPhiladelphia, but after a month, he quit school, citing "poor physical condition". Supported by his mother's income working in a soap factory, he spent time at their house, decorating it with his medals, reading his Bible, and practicing his shooting in the basement, which he had turned into apractice range.[11]
It was around this time that Unruh's relations with his neighbors began to deteriorate and his resentment grew over what he regarded as "derogatory remarks made about my character". His brother James pointed to an ongoingfeud between Unruh and his neighbor, pharmacist Maurice Cohen, over Unruh's trespassing through Cohen's backyard as a means to access his apartment.[12] Prior to the killings, Unruh went to a movie theater in Philadelphia and sat through several shows before returning home around 3 a.m. He had been having a weeks-long affair with another man, and they were to go to the theater on a date. Unruh was delayed in traffic, and by the time he arrived, the man had left.[2] Upon his return home, he discovered that a gate he had installed that day had been removed.[3]
At approximately 7 a.m. on September 6, 1949, Unruh ate a breakfast prepared by his mother, who then left to visit a neighbor, Carolina Pinner. At about 9:20 a.m., armed with hisLuger P08pistol, an eight-roundmagazine, and more ammunition carried in his pockets, he left his apartment and walked out onto River Road in Camden.[9][13] Approaching a bread-delivery truck, Unruh shoved his pistol through the door and shot at the driver. He missed his shot by a few inches; the driver unsuccessfully attempted to warn residents.[3]
Unruh visited the shop of one of his neighbors, shoemaker John Pilarchik, whom he shot and killed instantly.[13] He next visited the barbershop of another neighbor, Clark Hoover, who was cutting the hair of six-year-old Orris Smith. He shot Hoover in the head and Smith in the neck, both fatally. Running to Cohen's pharmacy, Unruh encountered insurance man James Hutton and killed him when he didn't move out of his way.[3]
Unruh proceeded to the rear of the pharmacy and saw Cohen and his wife Rose running up the stairs into their apartment. Once in the apartment, Cohen climbed through a window and onto the porch roof, while Rose hid herself and their son, 12-year-old Charles, in separate closets. However, Unruh discovered the closet Rose was hiding in and shot three times through the door before opening it and firing once more into her face. Walking across the apartment, he spotted Cohen's mother Minnie, age 63, trying to call the police, and shot her several times. He then followed Cohen onto a porch roof and shot him in the back, causing him to fall to the pavement below. Charles, still hiding in the second closet, managed to escape undetected.
Unruh then walked into the middle of River Road and fired at an approaching sedan,[14] killing the driver, Alvin Day, and causing the car to careen onto the sidewalk. He then visited the shop of tailor Thomas Zegrino; he was not there, but his wife Helga was, and Unruh shot and killed her. Thomas Zegrino was the only one of Unruh's intended targets to survive the rampage.
After firing through the locked front door of a grocery store, Unruh approached a car waiting at the intersection and shot the occupants: Helen Wilson, her son John, and mother Emma Matlack. The two women died instantly, while the boy died later atCooper Hospital. Unruh then fired through an apartment window, killing two-year-old Thomas Hamilton. The child's caregiver, Irene Rice, collapsed upon witnessing the shooting and was treated for severeshock. Unruh later claimed that he did not know whom he saw in the window or whether he hit them. Unruh next fired upon another car coming down the street. Its occupants, Charles Peterson and James Crawford, escaped to a nearby tavern and survived.
Witness William McNeely saw Frank Engel run out of the tavern and shoot at Unruh, but he apparently missed and then ran back inside.[15] In fact, he had succeeded in shooting Unruh in the leg, as police discovered only at the end of a lengthy interview with Unruh. Unruh fired at several other people across the street, missing them. He then found Madeline Harris and her son Armand outside their home hanging out blankets to dry and shot at them; both were injured but survived.[16]
Hearing police sirens in the distance, Unruh returned to his apartment, which was soon surrounded by police. The first officer on the scene was Detective William E. Kelly Sr. A gunfight ensued,[14] during which journalist Philip Buxton of the CamdenEvening Courier found Unruh's number in the local telephone directory and dialed it. Unruh answered in what was 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).[15]
The gunfight ended when police threw twotear gas bombs into the apartment, the second of which went off, filling the room with gas.[9] Two armed officers, Patrolman Charles Hance and Captain Everett 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." Unruh emerged from the room and stumbled down the stairs, fell at the feet of the officers, and was handcuffed by Sergeant Earl Wright.
It was later determined that the shooter fired a total of 33 rounds during his rampage.[17] Detectives found an apartment filled with what was described as an arsenal of weapons, guns, knives, bullet-making equipment, and more than 700 rounds. In a drawer were several marksmanship medals, and in the basement was Unruh's target range. On a table was a Bible opened toMatthew, Chapter 24. Police also found books relating to sexual hygiene.[10]
Under police interrogation, Unruh gave a meticulous account of his actions, which was later released byCamden Countyprosecutor Mitchell Cohen (no relation to Maurice Cohen). Only at the end of this interrogation did police discover that Unruh had a bullet wound in his left thigh. He was subsequently taken to Cooper Hospital for treatment, where his thirteenth victim, John Wilson, was already dying.[9]
Charges were filed for thirteen counts of "willful and malicious slayings with malice aforethought" and three counts of "atrocious assault and battery". Unruh was eventually diagnosed withparanoid schizophrenia by psychologists and found to beinsane, 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 (nowTrenton Psychiatric Hospital), to be held in a private cell in the maximum-security Vroom Building.[8] He remained incarcerated there until his death in 2009. Unruh's last public words, made during an interview with a psychologist, were, "I'd have killed a thousand if I had enough bullets."[18]
Unruh killed 13 and injured three. Those killed, and their ages, were:
Meyer Berger ofThe New York Times won the 1950Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for his 4,000-word story on the killings.[19] Maurice and Rose Cohen's son Charles, then aged 12, survived the murder of his family by hiding in a closet. Charles H. Cohen (January 31, 1937 – September 4, 2009) was the maternal grandfather of Carly Novell, who survived theshooting incident of February 14, 2018, atMarjory Stoneman Douglas High School inParkland, Florida, by hiding in a closet like her grandfather did in 1949.[20]
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.
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.