Pod Insights Criminology Howard Unruh About this episode By 1948, Howard Unruh was unemployed and living with his mother, Freda. He had been a decorated soldier in World War II but had trouble adjusting to life when he returned. Unruh is thought to be the first mass shooter and has been called the Father of Mass Murder by the press. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss Howard Unruh. He likely had some form of PTSD after the war, and he was diagnosed with mental health illnesses. Howard began to believe his neighbors were talking about him behind his back and he started a kill list. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 345 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.
0:43 Speaker 02 And this is Mike Morford.
0:45 Speaker 01 Mr. Morford, how you doing, buddy?
0:47 Speaker 02 I'm doing good. How you doing?
0:48 Speaker 01 I'm doing great. We've had a wild swing in weather. It was almost 60 degrees for a couple of days and then we had freezing rain. So it's been kind of a roller coaster up here.
1:00 Speaker 02 That's the Northeast for you. And down here, it's, do I wear shorts or sweatpants when I go to my son's football practice? Cause sometimes it's a little bit chilly, sometimes it's hot.
1:11 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's tough. It's tough for you. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had Sarah Penton, Victoria Summer, Jason LaRoe, and Sidney Waddell. So a lot of great new support and I think some people coming back. We really appreciate that.
1:29 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's always nice to see familiar faces and we can't thank everyone enough for that support. For anyone else that would like to help the show, you can go to patreon.com/criminology.
1:39 Speaker 01 All right, we're jumping right in. You know, in the present day, we hear all too often about mass shootings and sadly, we usually hear about them happening in schools, but they also happen in clubs and movie theaters and casinos. They can happen just about anywhere. And since they tragically happen so often, it's almost something that is part of society. And in particular, here in America, where we have the most guns. Now there have been a lot of laws. Put in place to keep dangerous people from having guns, those who are mentally ill, on drugs, have criminal records, and we can debate for hours and days whether those
2:22 Speaker 01 laws go far enough. But one thing we all know is that they don't always stop mass shooters. Today, there are drills in schools and precautions in place in many public places to help people in an active shooter situation. But that wasn't always the case, especially back in the 1940s, when mass shootings just didn't happen. But one day in September 1949, it did. That's when a man named Howard Unruh went on a shooting spree in Camden, New Jersey, and didn't stop until he had shot 16 people, gaining infamy as the first mass shooter.
3:03 Speaker 01 In fact, he's been called the father of mass murder by the New York Daily News.
3:09 Speaker 02 When Charles Whitman climbed to the top of a tower on the grounds of the University of Texas in 1966 and opened fire, killing 16 people, the news was shocking, almost unheard of. A military veteran shooting helpless civilians in an American city didn't seem possible. But it had happened before in 1949 in Camden, New Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia, when Howard Unruh took to the streets with a gun. I grew up in South Jersey, not far from Camden, and I had never heard of this case. To understand how it happened, we need to go back and look at Howard Unruh's life, leading up to the shootings.
3:48 Speaker 02 Howard Unruh was born on January 20, 1921. His parents, Sam and Frida, divorced early in his life. Frida raised Howard and his younger brother Jim in Camden as a single mother. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1939 and had trouble keeping a steady job after high school. Howard joined the Army in 1942 and was sent overseas to Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium, where he saw battle, serving as a tank gunner. Each time he took a life, he wrote down precise details about the date, time, and sometimes wrote other various notes about the person.
4:28 Speaker 01 According to the New York Times, for his actions in battle, Howard was seen as brave by his peers, who also noted that he was extremely meticulous and also obsessed with the Bible. They also remembered that he never drank or swore. He was also a decorated soldier. He received the European Theater of Operations Medal, the Victory Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal. Howard received an honorable discharge from the military in 1945. Once the war ended and Howard came back to the States, he, like many soldiers, struggled to adjust for multiple
5:06 Speaker 01 reasons. He likely suffered from some form of PTSD, which wasn't even an official diagnosis until 1980, when it was included in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
5:24 Speaker 02 Howard Unruh would also receive a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, though it wasn't until after the mass shootings he committed, in what has been widely called "the walk of death." The symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia are challenging to deal with, and even schizophrenia wasn't very well understood at the time. Trauma from World War II being thrown on top of those symptoms would not have done anything to make life easier. Howard's brother James told the New York Times, "Since he came home from the service, he didn't seem to be the same. He was nervous and never acted like his old self." Howard enrolled in pharmacy school at Philadelphia's Temple University, but he dropped out after only a few months. On top of the PTSD and his mental health, Howard was also struggling
6:09 Speaker 02 with a major secret, that he was gay during a time where it was not only extremely socially stigmatized, it was illegal. So you can imagine him juggling all this at once and trying to fit in and make his way in post-war life.
6:24 Speaker 01 So more if we have Howard Unruh, serving in World War II, being a pretty decorated soldier, but coming back and having a hard time adjusting to civilian life. And like I said, I don't think that was all that uncommon. I was watching a documentary about World War II the other day on Netflix. And I think for most of us who have not been in the military or not been in war, it's almost unimaginable what a lot of those people went through. You know, we talk about PTSD today and a lot more is known about it.
7:09 Speaker 01 And it's well known that a lot of soldiers struggle with that. But think about how many people served in World War II and how little, if anything, was known about the type of mental strain and mental health issues that were caused by, you know, what they went through.
7:31 Speaker 02 And I think that was also a time where a lot of things weren't diagnosed. And people would often say, well, he's just a little weird or don't pay any attention to him. You know, he's harmless if they had anything that that made them out of the ordinary. But it was also a time when a lot of people held stuff in and didn't complain. They were just expected to deal with whatever issues they were dealing with and do it quietly. So it's probably really hard on veterans coming back from the war, especially.
8:07 Speaker 01 And then you talked about the fact that Howard was gay in the 1940s, not only socially stigmatized, but illegal. So he really was, like you said, dealing with a lot of things as he was trying to cope with life after the war and, you know, getting back to civilian life.
8:30 Speaker 02 And then on top of that, the schizophrenia that he was later diagnosed with, you've got all that going on. You can see how all of that would just weigh on him and make his life difficult.
8:40 Speaker 01 By December of 1948, 27-year-old Howard was living with his mother Freda again. He was also unemployed and relied on Frida to take care of him. He started collecting weapons, mostly memorabilia from the war, including pistols, machetes, and Nazi bayonets. He hung them on the walls. In the basement of the home, he set up a shooting range in his basement for target practice. Howard was an expert marksman. While in the military, he earned the rank of sharpshooter. But the basement was very shallow. He had to lay down or crouch on his knees to use his target range, but he didn't care.
9:22 Speaker 01 Most of the time that he didn't spend shooting in his basement, he was reading the Bible. According to CamdenHistory.com, the pastor of the Lutheran church Howard attended would later explain. He came to services regularly before the war. After the war, he came mornings and evenings regularly for about a year. About three months ago, he stopped entirely. And anyone who's seen, you know, movies about World War II, a lot of them feature Americans kind of bringing home or looking for German pistols or things like that to bring home with them. I think that was very common.
10:07 Speaker 01 What is not common is to make a shooting range in your house. First of all, you would think the noise would be prohibitive. But the other thing is that the ventilation would be terrible. I mean, to properly make an indoor shooting range, the ventilation system is quite extensive. I mean, you know, that, that, that stuff is not healthy for you to breathe in.
10:37 Speaker 02 Yeah, I've heard of people having shooting ranges in their backyard and things like that, but not in their house. So that seems like something that should have maybe raised red flags. Most of Howard's neighbors weren't very fond of him. They thought he was odd and some found him to be a nuisance. Even when Howard couldn't see the neighbors, he could hear them talking about him. It's not clear whether he could actually hear them in a nearby yard, or if he believed he heard them as a result of his schizophrenia. A common theme over the years was that he believed others could read his thoughts. His next door neighbors, the Coens, who both owned and lived above the corner drugstore, River Road Pharmacy, ended up in a squabble with him over their gate. Howard regularly used their gate because
11:20 Speaker 02 it was the most convenient one to use from his own apartment to get to the street. The Coens didn't like that he used it, mostly because they said he kept leaving it open. He also came and went at odd hours in the night. They asked him not to use it, which irritated him. So he decided to build his own gate that he could use. Long before this gate issue, he had also been confronted by Rose Cohen, who told him to turn down his music. Even Charles Cohen, just 12 years old, had gotten on Howard's nerves for practicing his trumpet loudly. Howard also apparently had a handwritten list of neighbors who had slated him. According to the New York Times, some of the names had retail, short for retaliate,
12:01 Speaker 02 written next to them. Howard would later tell police of his neighbors, I had been thinking about killing them for some time.
12:08 Speaker 01 So Howard has a shooting range in his house, but he's irritated by a 12 year old kid playing his trumpet next door. I don't know how you make sense of that, but I'm really getting a clear picture in my mind here of Howard Unruh. And it's almost a caricature of things that, you know, you've seen in, in movies, the loner, sitting in his basement or his room, making a list of people who have done him wrong, who he's going to get back at.
12:50 Speaker 02 And the squabble part, sometimes neighbors don't get along. Sometimes they, you know, it's over things like loud music, or their yard looks messy, or, you know, there's arguments over whose property line ends where. So that part's not all that surprising. But what's not normal is that he's got this list of people, you know, his neighbors that he's got on this list that he wants to, you know, retaliate against, as he put it, you know, later admitting that he wanted to kill them. So obviously, this was more than just a neighborly squabbles going on.
13:29 Speaker 01 And you just wonder how much of this had to do with his mental health issues, the thought that people were talking about him. Well, maybe some of them were, but was he hearing them? Or did he believe he heard them? Or did he just believe they were talking about him? On the evening of September 5th, 1949, Howard headed to Philadelphia to see a double feature at the Family Theater, a movie theater that was open 24 hours a day and was apparently a well-known hookup spot. He was looking forward to meeting a man there. A bit of traffic caused him to be late. And when he arrived at the theater, the man he was supposed
14:13 Speaker 01 to meet had already left. Alone, Howard apparently watched the double feature. I cheated the law and the lady gambles, not just once, but three times. He didn't get home until after 3:00 in the morning. When he got home, the gate he had just built had been removed or badly damaged. Reports on exactly what happened vary, but what is clear was that the gate issue caused Howard to reach his boiling point. That coupled with the fact that he felt he was stood up by his date the night before. Howard and this man named Van had met just three weeks earlier, but it deeply offended
14:55 Speaker 01 Howard when he showed up and Van wasn't waiting for him. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, when Howard was questioned by a psychiatrist after a shooting spree, the psychiatrist said, this is the one point in the whole interview when he showed any emotion.
15:13 Speaker 02 On September 6th, 1949, after days of stewing over being stood up and his gate being messed up presumably by his neighbors, Howard decided it was time to finally retaliate. That morning, his mom Frida woke him up after only a few hours of sleep. She made him fried eggs for breakfast. They ate together, but he reportedly ended up threatening her with a wrench, which he held over his head like he was going to bludgeon her. So she fled to a neighbor's house. She knew something was wrong with him that morning before breakfast, just from the way he looked. There was something wrong with his eyes. They looked dark. Although he had been different since returning from the war, this was the first time his mom was afraid of him.
15:56 Speaker 01 And moms know when something is wrong, you know, something's going on. And I think Frida knew. Now she knew that he hadn't been the same since coming back from the war, but you know, I'm sure that could be said about most soldiers who went over there. What did they have to do? What did they see? And how did that affect them when they came back? But she wasn't afraid of him until this morning. And you know, you can picture Howard kind of raising this wrench above his head as though he's going to strike his mother. That's a terrible scene.
16:41 Speaker 01 And I can only imagine what she must have been thinking. But what really struck me was her talking about his eyes. You've heard people talk about killers' eyes before, like there was something there. She said they looked dark. Now, I don't know if that's a real thing, like people's eyes can really look different when they're about ready to, you know, do something heinous, but you hear it a lot, Morph.
17:12 Speaker 02 And I think nobody would know him better than his mom. I'm sure being that he had, you know, been different since coming home. She was probably treating him maybe a little differently, maybe a little more cautiously and trying to work with him, knowing that he had been to war. But the fact she was now afraid of him and now is even getting threatened by him. I mean, it's, that's a major turning point. I think that's when she knew in her heart that, you know, something was wrong so much so that she fled the scene.
17:45 Speaker 01 Later that morning, Howard walked out the door with his nine millimeter Luger P08 pistol, which he purchased at M and H Sporting Goods in Philadelphia. He waited until nine 30 to start his rampage so that the stores on the street would all be open. Howard left with 33 rounds of ammunition. Frida had just finished talking to her friends, the panners, about how worried she was about Howard when they heard the shots. She'd been heading home, but ran right back to their house, crying her son's name. She wanted to call the police, but understanding what was happening and that it was her son who was responsible, she fainted.
18:29 Speaker 01 Meanwhile, a bread delivery man was parked on the street. Howard fired at him, but the man was very lucky. Howard's shot didn't hit him. According to Camdenhistory.com, the man later said, "He missed me by inches." When the delivery man saw the gun, he thought he was being robbed. So he jumped up and ran to the back of the truck, causing Howard to miss. The delivery man saw two children playing outside near his truck, and he hurried them inside of it to protect them. You know, there's probably a goal weight in your head, and getting there on your own is the hard part. Weight loss by HERS offers access to a range of FDA-approved GLP-1 medications,
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20:18 Speaker 02 Howard then walked down the street, past the delivery truck, back in the direction of his home to the shoe repair shop. The cobbler, 27-year-old John Pillarchik, was sitting down at his bench when Howard entered the store. Howard walked right up to John, and as he tried to stand up, Howard shot him in the stomach, then again in the head. A young boy who was in the shop at the time saw what happened, but was able to survive by hiding behind a counter. Howard either didn't see him or wasn't interested in chasing him. After shooting John, the cobbler, Howard walked out of the shoe shop.
20:54 Speaker 01 So, you know, this is the beginning of the rampage, and there's obviously going to be a lot more to come, but I don't think there's any doubt more of that. You said earlier Howard had reached his boiling point. There was obviously something and probably a number of things that culminated in him just being enraged to the point where he would threaten his mother and then he would make the decision to grab his pistol and start walking down the street systematically shooting at people.
21:38 Speaker 01 It's a very scary thought.
21:41 Speaker 02 And I think for people in the street that had never. Heard about something like this happening because as we mentioned it, it didn't happen. There weren't mass shootings at that point. They, they had to catch them off guard hearing these gunshots going off in the middle of, of the town here.
21:59 Speaker 01 Well, let's be clear. I mean, there were mass shootings, but they were usually like gangster related, right? There were fights between gangsters and other gangsters. People weren't used to what I would refer to as a regular citizen, just deciding to walk down the street and start shooting people. You know, Howard Unruh wasn't part of the Capone gang or, or you know, anything like that. Howard next headed to the tailor shop. The tailor, Thomas Zagreeno, wasn't there, but his wife, 28 year old Helga was.
22:42 Speaker 01 They'd been married for just three weeks at this point. Thomas was just running an errand that morning and it altered the course of his life in a major way. He lived, his wife didn't. As Howard entered the shop, Helga saw the gun in his hand and screamed so loud that it was heard from across the street. There was no time for anyone to try to intervene and help her. Howard shot Helga and once again went right back out onto the street.
23:13 Speaker 02 From there, Howard walked down the road to the barber shop. Inside, six-year-old Oris Smith was getting his haircut. His first day of first grade was the next day. This shop had a chair just for kids that was a carousel horse mounted to the floor they could sit on instead of sitting in a boring old barber's chair. His mother, 42-year-old Catherine Smith, was sitting in the waiting area, watching the barber, Clark Hoover, do his work. When Howard entered the barber shop, she and Clark both looked up at his imposing figure. He walked right up the six-year-old Oris and shot him in the chest before shooting Clark. He coldly walked past Catherine as he left the shop, sparing her life.
23:55 Speaker 01 As Howard walked down the street toward the tavern, Catherine carried her son Oris's body outside of the barber shop. According to the New York Times, she yelled in anguish, "My boy is dead. I know he's dead." Dominic Latella, owner of the restaurant across the street from the barber shop, jumped into action. He ordered his wife Dora to lock the door of the restaurant after he left and to protect their six-year-old daughter Eleanor. Dominic hopped into his car and drove to Catherine, who was still holding Oris. He got them both into the car and locked the doors. Then he raced to nearby Cooper Hospital to try and save the boy.
24:38 Speaker 01 Unfortunately, it was too late and Oris died from his injury. And one thing that stands out is you have a frantic and very tragic situation unfolding, right? With Howard on route, walking down the street, walking into shops, shooting people. But you also have a couple of acts of heroism. You have the delivery driver pulling kids into his vehicle to try to shield them from the shooting. You have this guy Dominic, who, you know, could have stayed locked up in his restaurant,
25:22 Speaker 01 but he doesn't. He tells his wife to lock the door after him and he heads right out to try and help Catherine and her son Oris. I mean, this is some real bravery we're talking about.
25:37 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's amazing when you see these kinds of horrible, tragic, violent things happening. It, and some people rise up and, you know, sort of become heroes and with their bravery. And I think that's what we saw here. And one thing that's pretty clear to this point is that Howard wasn't looking for any one type of victim. He seemed to be shooting everybody, men, women, and now a child. So I don't think anybody was safe that he came across.
26:12 Speaker 01 Which is somewhat confusing to me because you know, we did talk about the fact that Howard had this list, right? He's got this list of people who had wronged him, had slighted him in some way, and he was going to retaliate against them. Well, obviously, you know, these people that that he's shooting indiscriminately, they couldn't have been on that list. Not all of them for sure. It's almost as if he decided to abandon that idea of getting back at the people on his list and just start shooting whoever he saw.
26:55 Speaker 02 Howard next turned his attention to the tavern. The tavern doors were locked. Frank Engel, the tavern keeper, had heard the commotion and tried to secure the tavern. Everyone inside tried to get as far away from the front door as possible. Howard fired a few rounds through the door, but no one was hit. Frank, the tavern keeper, ran upstairs to his apartment to grab his gun in order to protect himself and his patrons. You should probably point out that this tavern was probably more of a diner as opposed to a bar, which many people think of when they hear tavern. After all, it's just nine in the morning. So it doesn't seem like a bar type tavern would be filled with customers at that hour.
27:34 Speaker 01 After leaving the tavern, Howard headed back the way he had come. First, he fired toward the window of 3208 River Road. Two-year-old Tommy Hamilton, who'd been looking out the window, was shot in the head. He died instantly. Howard then tried to get into the restaurant. Across the street from the barber shop, Dora Latella and her six-year-old daughter were inside alone. They were hiding behind the counter. Unable to open the locked doors, Howard fired through the door. He also kicked out the glass in the lower pane of the front door before he turned his attention back to the street. A car was coming. The driver,
28:18 Speaker 01 Alvin Day, had no idea that he was driving into the middle of a rampage. As Alvin drove past, Howard fired just one time, aiming at the driver through the window. The car crossed to the wrong side of the road and hit the curb.
28:35 Speaker 02 Frank Engel, the tavern keeper, had by this point retrieved his gun, a 38 caliber pistol, and he shot at Howard from his elevated vantage point in the upstairs window of his apartment, but he missed. Howard was completely unfazed as bullets whizzed by him. He walked out of Frank's line of fire, heading to the drugstore on the corner. Frank would later tell the New York Times, "I could have killed him then. I could have put a half dozen shots into him. I don't know why I didn't do it. I wish I had."
29:06 Speaker 01 And I think Frank Engel is an interesting character in the story in that, you know, he goes to get his gun. He wants to obviously protect himself, protect his patrons, but he has an opportunity. He sees Howard, he does fire one shot, but then he tells the paper, he could have fired a bunch more, but he didn't. And it seems as though he felt some guilt over that. Because obviously, if he had and had stopped Howard, what's to come would not have happened. But that's a tough situation to be in.
29:47 Speaker 02 And you can understand why that would eat at him, just wondering the rest of his life if he could have saved some people. And unfortunately for him, it's not like he had a rifle, which probably would have been a lot more accurate from up inside his apartment, as opposed to a 38 caliber that he was shooting down to the street. So unfortunately, that's all he had.
30:09 Speaker 01 Maurice Cohen, the druggist at the corner store who was Howard's neighbor, had heard gunshots and screaming. So he went outside trying to make sense of the situation. He saw Howard heading toward him, gun in hand, and ran back inside. He ran straight upstairs to his apartment, where his 63-year-old mother, his wife, and his teenage son were trapped like sitting ducks. James J. Hutton, a customer at the corner store, went outside to see what was going on. He had heard the shots, but until he heard screaming and saw Maurice Cohen run past him, he thought it was just a car backfiring. In fact, many people that day heard the shots,
30:54 Speaker 01 but ignored them at first because they didn't realize what was actually happening. James Hutton ran into Howard in the doorway of the corner store. Howard politely said to James, excuse me, sir. When he wasn't satisfied with James's response, Howard shot James twice before heading up the stairs to the Cohen's apartment. According to the New York Times, Howard would later explain why he killed James Hutton, saying, "That man didn't act fast enough. He didn't get out of my way."
31:28 Speaker 02 The Cohen family was panicking as Howard made his way to them. Minnie Cohen, Maurice's mother, ran into a bedroom to try to call police. Rose Cohen, Maurice's wife, grabbed their 12-year-old son, Charles, and pushed him into a closet, urging him to hide there and stay silent. She closed him inside and then ran to another closet, closing the door behind her as Howard walked in. Maurice Cohen jumped out the window onto the roof in a desperate attempt at escape. Howard shot him through the window as he was running away. He was shot in the back and he ended up falling off the roof onto the street below. Without opening the door the closet Rose was hiding in, he fired through it, killing her. Hearing her slump against the door,
32:11 Speaker 02 he opened it and fired another round into her head, even though she was lying motionless on the floor. Howard then went into the bedroom where Minnie was frantically trying to call for help. He shot her multiple times before heading back downstairs. 12-year-old Charles was the only survivor in the apartment. Luckily, Howard never found him in the closet.
32:31 Speaker 01 So I said earlier, Morf, that, you know, it seemed strange that Howard was shooting indiscriminately at people who weren't on his list. Obviously, the Cohen's were on the list. They were his neighbors. He seemed to have a beef with them. You just wonder if getting to the Cohen's and doing them harm was his ultimate goal. It just seems like he didn't start out there. He didn't go there first. But it seems to me that was part of the plan. He was going to make his way to the Cohen's. And he did.
33:15 Speaker 02 And we don't know what he was thinking, but it does seem odd that he wouldn't start there and then work out to the rest of the town. But for whatever reason, he decided to come back. And maybe in his mind, he figured he was going to save them for last. But as we're about to find out, they wouldn't be his last victims.
33:36 Speaker 01 After leaving the Cohen's apartment, Howard walked up to a car that was stopped at a red light on River Road. The people inside were completely unaware of the chaos that had gone on just moments before they drove through the area. Howard fired through the windshield, hitting all three of the unsuspecting passengers inside. Forty-three-year-old Helen Matlak Wilson, who was driving the car, and her 66-year-old mother, Emma Matlak, were killed. Helen's 12-year-old son, John, who was in the backseat, was severely injured by a bullet that lodged in his neck just under his jaw. He was eventually taken to the hospital, but it was too late. He was
34:20 Speaker 01 the last of the victims of Howard's killing spree that would die as a result of their injury.
34:28 Speaker 02 Howard next headed to American Stores Company, a grocery store. The clerk, Earl Horner, knew what was happening because terrified people had run into the store when Howard's rampage first began. Earl locked the doors and everyone inside took cover, cowering down behind the counter and shelves. Howard walked up to the locked door and tried to open it. The door wouldn't budge. Howard fired two rounds through the locked door. Luckily, none of the people inside were hit. And since he was unable to get inside, Howard decided to move on. Earl Horner later told the New York Times, "He just stood there, stony-faced and grim, and rattled the knob before he started to fire. Then he turned away."
35:11 Speaker 01 As Howard changed his focus, three teenage boys got out of their car to look at the body of James Hutton, still on the ground outside the drugstore. They had no idea what was happening on the street. They were just driving and saw something obviously wrong. Howard aimed at 18-year-old Charlie Peterson and fired multiple shots, hitting him in the legs. The two friends that were with him took off running. Just around the corner on 30 Second Street, Howard made his way into the home of Madeline Harry. The 36-year-old was alone with her 16-year-old son, Armand. He shot them both. They were injured, but they survived, likely due to
35:55 Speaker 01 the fact that Howard ran out of ammunition and couldn't finish them off.
36:01 Speaker 02 Finally, the gunshots stopped. Now there was only silence. Howard's reign of terror had lasted less than 15 minutes. Hearing sirens getting closer, Howard calmly walked back to his mother's apartment. He went upstairs to his room, locked himself in, and waited. There were more bullets in his room. When officers arrived and lined the street in front of the apartment, he fired out the window. This was a very new situation for authorities at the time. In 1949, mass shootings weren't a regular occurrence. There was really no sense of crowd control protocol. The number varies, but all reports indicate that a large number of residents living nearby gathered on the street below Howard's room,
36:42 Speaker 02 and some of them had to dodge the bullets Howard sent their way. If some of the upper numbers given are accurate, the civilian presence was massive. Despite the residents close to them, police officers shot at the building.
36:55 Speaker 01 So you said, Morf, you know, there wasn't maybe a lot of protocol. Today, obviously, police would cordon off the area. They would keep civilians away in that situation. But I'm surprised that so many people would show up at... This guy's apartment or below this guy's apartment who is firing shots out the window. That seems like the last place you would want to be.
37:24 Speaker 02 Yeah, it must have been human nature of a bunch of looky loos. And I remember some of the cases we talked about, especially during the early 1900s or even earlier, there would be crime scenes where the neighbors were allowed to walk through and basically get a look for themselves what happened. So just definitely a different time. As you mentioned today, they would hoard off the neighborhood and get people as far away. Maybe have a bullhorn telling people to stay inside their house and lock their doors.
37:57 Speaker 01 Well, and the other thing is I don't know that the authorities would start firing back in that situation.
38:06 Speaker 02 And they definitely would have probably a SWAT team out on the roofs nearby as well.
38:11 Speaker 01 So while all this is going on, Philip Buxton, an assistant city editor at the Camden Evening Courier, decided to think outside the box. Knowing the suspect's name, he looked up the name unruled in the phone book and found a number that corresponded with the apartment that police were surrounding. Knowing that Howard was inside, Buxton took a chance. He called the number. Howard answered. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Buxton asked him how many people he had killed so far. And Howard nonchalantly replied, I don't know yet. I haven't counted them, but it looks like a pretty good score.
38:56 Speaker 01 While being shot at by police, Howard continued to speak with Buxton. He was asked why he killed the people, why he was doing what he was doing. According to the Washington Post, Howard said, I can't answer that yet. I'm too busy.
39:14 Speaker 02 A few officers had made their way to the roof that Maurice Cohen fell from. They used their position to throw tear gas canisters into Howard's room. The first one didn't seem to go off, or if it did, it didn't affect him at all. According to the Washington Post, Howard ended the call with the reporter by saying, "I'll have to talk to you later. A couple of friends are coming to get me." Officers threw another canister. Within five minutes, Howard surrendered. According to CamdenHistory.com, he yelled, "Okay, I give up. I'm coming down." He came out of the apartment with his hands up. According to the New York Times, as Howard was being handcuffed, one of the officers was in disbelief, saying, "What's the matter with you?
39:56 Speaker 02 You a psycho?" And Howard replied, "I'm no psycho. I have a good mind."
40:01 Speaker 01 Howard was rushed to the police station where he was questioned. He explained that the neighbors had been gossiping about him. He felt persecuted for not having a job, for living with his mother, and for being interested in men. According to the New York Times, Howard told the police, "They've been making derogatory remarks about my character." He was also upset that they were thinking of him as a homosexual, apparently. There was no sign of remorse or guilt on Howard's part for what he had done. In fact, it was just the opposite. According to NorthJersey.com, he almost bragged and justified what he did, saying,
40:44 Speaker 01 "The neighbors had been picking on me for months. And when I came home last night and found my gate had been taken, I decided to shoot all of them so that I would get the right one. I am glad I done it." Howard wasn't sure exactly who took his gate, but he was sure it was one of the neighbors, and they were all on his list anyway. Despite being spurred by his hatred of the neighbors, he was clear that his spree only ended because he ran out of ammunition. According to LA Times, Howard said, "I would have killed a thousand if I'd had bullets enough."
41:25 Speaker 01 And I think, you know, Howard's statement is pretty chilling. If he'd had more bullets, he could have killed thousands. I'm not sure he's wrong. I mean, you think about this guy going out with 33 bullets and the carnage that he was able to inflict. He was obviously a very good marksman. He shot a lot of people and it didn't seem as though he missed very much.
41:54 Speaker 02 And he did all of that with a probably an inexpensive, really basic type of handgun as opposed to, you know, what we have today, an assault rifle, an AR-15 with special ammo. So for what he did with the basic ammo and gun is, is pretty frightening. In a way, Howard's shooting and many of his victims were semi-random. But at the same time, he was clearly targeting the neighbors on his list. It may have been an issue of wanting to preserve ammunition, but it seemed that he would have been willing to let victim James Hutton live if he had gotten out of his way fast enough. Howard said he only shot him because he didn't move quickly.
42:38 Speaker 02 Howard admitted to detectives that he was aiming very precisely as he shot his victims. First, he aimed for their chest and then he went for a headshot. According to New York Times, he told detectives and psychiatrists that the Coens and other neighbors talked about him.
42:54 Speaker 01 So obviously he was going after, you know, some of the people who were on his list. But, you know, like I said earlier, not everyone was on that list. I don't think the delivery driver could have been on that list. So it seems to me that it was kind of a, a mix of.
43:16 Speaker 01 Some shooting indiscriminately and trying to shoot some people very deliberately.
43:25 Speaker 02 To me, the list is sort of a flimsy excuse to just shoot some people because what could have a six-year-old boy sitting in a chair getting a haircut or the two-year-old looking out a window, what could they have done to Howard to wrong him or harm him? You know, it's clear that they had done nothing and they were innocent as well as everyone else. So I think that list is is just a crutch for him to make an excuse to to do this stuff.
43:59 Speaker 01 Yeah, I would have to agree with you on that. But there's no doubt that I think the Coens were probably at the top of his list. He was determined to get to the Coens. After Howard's nearly two-hour interrogation, when Howard stood up, investigators noticed the blood stain on the chair. Howard never once mentioned being injured, but it turns out that he had been shot in the thigh. Once this was discovered, he was taken to nearby Cooper Hospital in Camden, the same hospital that his victims were rushed to. The same surgeons and medical staff that attended to his dying victims would have also likely
44:43 Speaker 01 had to help Howard. Despite undergoing surgery, the bullet remained lodged in his lip.
44:49 Speaker 02 Howard Unruh was charged with 13 counts of first-degree murder and three counts of atrocious assault and battery. Just 17 days after the murders, Howard told a psychiatrist that he didn't want to stay in the hospital. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he told the psychiatrist, "To be declared insane and remain in this building the rest of my life, while I would rather have the chair." This case never made it to trial because Howard was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. He was housed at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, formerly called New Jersey Hospital for the Insane. He was given a private cell in the maximum-security room building, and according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he was ordered
45:29 Speaker 02 to stay there permanently or until restored to his right mind or until a further order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
45:37 Speaker 01 Howard Unruh stayed in the hospital for decades, but shockingly, all charges against him were dropped in 1980 because a judge found that his constitutional right to a speedy trial had been violated. It had been 31 years since he had been charged and a trial after so long would apparently violate Howard's rights. By this point in 1980, he was 61 years old. That same year, one of his psychiatric reports was released to the public. According to the report, he was not doing well. According to the New York Times, one psychiatrist wrote
46:18 Speaker 01 in the report, "Over the years, his mental condition has deteriorated greatly. His physical condition has also deteriorated and he has aged far beyond what would be expected merely by the number of years that have passed." Just one year before, in 1979, the Trenton Hospitals administrator Harvey Musikoff was worried about Howard's deteriorating health, writing, "I think if we don't transfer him, he'll die shortly." But despite the concerns of hospital staff, Howard remained where he was.
46:58 Speaker 02 Frida, Howard's mother, passed away in 1985. She visited her son often until her death. In 1993, Howard was finally transferred to the geriatric ward in a different wing of the hospital. During his time in the hospital, Howard stayed out of trouble. He collected stamps at one point, watched a lot of TV, walked in circles, and took a lot of naps. According to the LA Times, during one of Howard's wellness hearings, he admitted, "I committed a horrible crime." Harry Rozell, a hospital volunteer who had known Howard for 16 years, told the LA Times of Howard, "He realizes what he did was 100% wrong.
47:38 Speaker 02 He's sorry he did it." Howard Unruh died on October 19, 2009. At the time of his death, the 88-year-old was living at a nursing home in Trenton, New Jersey.
47:49 Speaker 01 On February 14th, 2018, almost exactly seven years ago, Nicholas Cruz walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle. He killed 17 people and injured 17 more. One of the survivors, Carly Novell, was a senior at the high school. She recalls getting into a closet during the shooting, hiding for about two hours. She believes this is why she survived the shooting, making her the second person in her family to survive a mass shooting by hiding in a closet.
48:31 Speaker 01 Incredibly, her grandfather, Charles Cohen, did the same when Howard Unruh killed his parents in 1949. This was just proof that this kind of violence can come full circle and has evolved and expanded over the last seven decades since Howard Unruh went on his deadly walk. As we mentioned early on in this episode, now killers like Howard Unruh are more common. They definitely carry more lethal weapons and ammo. We can only be thankful that in 1949, he didn't have access to those kinds of arms. And I think, Morph, as we wrap this one up,
49:17 Speaker 01 that's a very true statement. Now, I think Howard Unruh was an incredible marksman. You know, we said that in the military, he earned sharpshooter status. With some of the weapons we have today and the ammo we have today, he could have killed a lot more people than he did.
49:36 Speaker 02 Yeah, by his own admission, he said he would have killed 1,000 people if he could have.
49:41 Speaker 01 And it's just incredible, the connection between, you know, Howard's mass shooting and the, the mass shooting that happened in Parkland, the fact that Carly's grandfather was Charles Cohen and they both survived these mass shootings. But I really wanna, you know, kind of end this episode talking about, you know, what all led up to Howard's rampage. And I think we laid it out pretty well. I think he had PTSD from the war. He obviously was diagnosed with mental
50:25 Speaker 01 health issues. I think all of that led to him being paranoid, thinking that people were, you know, talking about him. He was being persecuted. And maybe some of that stuff was true. But Howard Unruh definitely took it to a level that you really hadn't been seen up until this time.
50:51 Speaker 02 And I wonder if there's anything that could have been done to prevent him from carrying out all of this, you know, had he gotten help, you know, the VA is there to help veterans coming back from war. But back then, they just didn't have the resources, the knowledge that we have today. Maybe some of the programs weren't available to him. And, you know, I wonder if, if someone would have recognized or realized that he was dangerous and, and needed help if this all could have been prevented.
51:23 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, we still struggle with, you know, dealing with mental health today. Obviously, we're much more advanced and we're better at it. But you can only imagine what it was like in the 1940s. First of all, they didn't even recognize a lot of the things that we do today. And I'm sure they didn't have a lot of programs and a lot of ways to really help some of these people who were struggling. The other thing that I thought was pretty interesting was that, you know, Howard Unruh was never actually convicted of any of the murders he committed. Now, he was
52:07 Speaker 01 Held in mental health facilities for many, many years, but was never convicted. And I just wonder, you know, how that played with the, the families and the surviving family members of his victim.
52:24 Speaker 02 And just the overall victims too, just very sad people that were just going on about their, their day, had no clue what was about to happen. You had young children, one two year old looking out his window, another six year, six year old was getting his haircut so he could start school the next day. We mentioned one victim was, you know, a newly wed. So just very tragic, the amount of victims in this case and from all walks of life, it seemed.
52:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, well, that is going to happen when you fire a gun indiscriminately. You're going to kill people from all walks of life, all different ages. You know, whether you believe it or not, he said he was sorry for what he did. He knew what he did was wrong. It's just an unbelievable tragedy though, what happened that day. But that's it for our episode on Howard Unruh. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five star rating, leave a review. Also keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.
53:39 Speaker 02 If you want to find us on social media, run X with the handle at criminology pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com/criminologypodcast and you can join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.
53:55 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike.
54:05 Speaker 02 And morph.
54:05 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
54:07 Speaker 02 Take care everyone.
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