The term ‘mass murder’ is one that has been in the media quite frequently over the course of the last 15 years or so. But we can take it back to an example that outdates the 24-hour news cycle.
Howard Unruh was born on January 21st, 1921, in Camden, New Jersey. Howard and his younger brother James were raised by their mother, Freda Vollmer, who worked in a soap factory after their parents separated.
Unruh was a shy, quiet student in school, with ambitions of becoming a government employee.
On October 27th, 1942, Unruh enlisted in the U.S Army, where he saw active service in the Rhineland from October 1944 to July 1945. He was a tank soldier who participated in a number of armoured artillery battles in Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, and Germany.
Unruh took to military life very well. He never drank, swore, or ‘chased girls’ like many of his fellow soldiers did. He was remembered by his Section Chief as a quite, smart man who spent a lot of time reading his Bible and writing letters to his mother. Upon his return from the war, he was awarded the European Theater of Operations Medal, the Victory Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal.
He was also known for taking meticulous notes during the course of his time with the Army. He would keep a notebook detailing every single one of his kills, down to the nitty gritty details of the corpses. When he returned from the war, he was known to speak of his kills in minute detail, reminiscing, as if he missed it.
When he returned, he was honourably discharged from the Army, and returned to living with his mother.
He found work as a sheet-metal worker for a short time, and then enrolled in the Temple University School of Pharmacy in Philadelphia. A month after his enrolment, he quit the program, claiming “poor physical condition”.
Unruh took to hanging around the apartment, living off his mother’s income. He decorated the apartment with his medals, read his Bible, and turned the basement into a practice shooting range, where he practiced almost daily.
Around this time, Unruh began feuding with his neighbours. He grew resentful of them, and accused them of making “derogatory remarks about his character”. Unruh was of the opinion that normal, everyday occurrences were acts of aggression against him, wherein he needed to take action.
He grew increasingly paranoid of what his neighbours were saying about him around the Cramer Hill neighbourhood where he lived with his mother. He was sure that everyone was insulting him, and this resulted in an extreme persecution complex. His paranoia may not have been totally unfounded.
Unruh was convinced that all of his neighbours were aware that he was gay. He believed that they were spreading the word that he was “queer” around the neighbourhood as a way of humiliating him, or making him fearful of personal attack. The 1940s were not a kind time to members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
On September 5th, 1949, Unruh drove into Philadelphia with the intention of meeting up with a date at the Family Theater. The Family Theater was a well-known place among the community for men to meet up for dates discretely. However, Unruh was running late, and his date was long gone by the time he got there. Instead, he stuck around and watched a double feature – I Cheated the Law and The Lady Gambles.
Unruh returned home around 2:30 AM or 3:00 AM. When he got to his apartment, he began stewing in a slow, silent rage. He’d installed a gate earlier that day to separate himself from his neighbours. When he returned home, the gate had been removed. Unruh went to bed, and his mind began planning.
James, Unruh’s brother, as well as his father, Samuel, would later go on to say that Unruh’s time in the war had changed him. He went from being quiet, shy, and confident, to moody, nervous, and detached. James also indicated that Unruh’s ongoing feud with his neighbours, especially the pharmacist, Maurice Cohen, had been taking a toll on Unruh’s mental wellbeing.
At around 7:00 AM on September 6th, 1949, Unruh got up and ate breakfast with his mother. During breakfast, he acted as though he was going to hit his mother over the head with an object. She fearfully asked him: “What would you do that for?” before leaving the apartment as quickly as possible to pay a visit to neighbour Carolina Pinner.
Unruh stewed for a little while longer, and then left the apartment around 9:20 AM. He took his Luger Po8, an 8-round magazine, and more ammunition stored in his pockets with him. He left his apartment, and headed out on River Road.
Walking down the road, Unruh walked by a bread delivery truck. He then shoved his firearm through the door, and shot at the driver. He missed. The driver attempted to warn the neighbourhood, but he didn’t make it in time.
Following the incident with the bread truck, Unruh stopped at the shop of shoemaker John Pilarchik. Unruh shit the man and killed him instantly.
Unruh’s next stop was the barber shop, where he shot barber Clark Hoover in the head. Clark have been cutting the hair of six-year-old Orris Smith, whom Unruh shot in the neck. Both were killed instantly.
Next, Unruh targeted he man that had given him the most grief – he went after Maurice Cohen, the pharmacist.
On his way there, Unruh ran into an insurance man. He asked the man to excuse him, but, apparently, the man didn’t move fast enough. Unruh shot and killed him.
Unruh then entered the drug store where Maurice worked, but found no one inside. Exploring deeper into the store, Unruh saw Maurice usher his wife Rose upstairs to their apartment. Maurice then climbed out a window, and onto the porch roof, while Rose hid in a closet, after putting their 12-year-old son Charles in a different closet.
Unruh had no qualms about exploring the apartment. He found Rose, and shot her three times through the door of the closet. Then, he opened the door, and shot her once more in the face. Unruh then spotted 63-year-old Minnie, Maurice’s mother, trying to call the police. He shot her multiple times. He then followed Maurice out the window where he shot him in the back. The force of the shot sent Maurice tumbling down the porch roof. Unruh either never found Charles, decided to spare him, or had no idea he was even there. Charles escaped unscathed.
Following the demise of the Cohens, Unruh went back out onto River Road, walking in the middle of the street. A sedan had to slow down, for fear of hitting the man. Unruh thank the driver by walking up to the car, and shooting the driver Alvin Day. Alvin was killed instantly.
Next, Unruh targeted the tailor, Thomas Zegrino, and headed to his shop. Thomas wasn’t there at the time – the only one of Unruh’s targets to escape – but Unruh shot his wife, and killed her instantly.
Unruh then went to the foodstore, where he fired through the shot when he found the door unlocked. He didn’t hit a single person. Turning around, Unruh walked towards a car that was waiting at the intersection, and began firing. Helen Wilson and her mother Emma Matlack were killed instantly, while Helen’s son John died later in hospital.
Unruh then saw movement through an apartment window, took aim, and fired. The shot killed 2-year-old Thomas Hamilton instantly. Irene Rice, the child’s caregiver, collapsed, and was treated for severe shock.
Unruh then saw another car coming down the street, and shot at the occupants of the cat. Charles Peterson and James Crawford escaped the shooting, and took refuge in a nearby tavern, along with Roxy de Marco.
William McNeely then witnessed Frank Engel run out of the tavern to shoot at Unruh. Frank believed he’d missed, and he ran back inside to barricade himself, and everyone else who was inside.
Furious, Unruh fired at several people across the street, but he missed. He then saw Madeline Harris, along with her young son, Armand, hanging blankets outside to dry beside their home. Unruh shot at them. They were injured, but they survived.
As police sirens drew nearer, Unruh returned to his own apartment, and barricaded himself inside. Police then surrounded the building.
A gunfight soon broke out. During this time, Philip Buxton, a journalist for the Camden Evening Courier took a chance. He found Unruh’s phone number in the phone book, and he called him. Buxton described Unruh’s voice as “strong and clear”. The following is a transcript of the conversation they had:
Buxton: Is this Howard?
Unruh: Yes… what’s the last name of the party you want?
Buxton: Unruh.
Unruh: (Pause) What’s the last name of the party you want?
Buxton: Unruh. I’m a friend, and I want to know what they’re doing to you.
Unruh: They’re not doing a damned thing to me, but I’m doing plenty to them.
Buxton: (In a soothing, reassuring voice) How many have you killed?
Unruh: I don’t know yet, because I haven’t counted them… (pause) but it looks like a pretty good score
Buxton: Why are you killing people?
Unruh: I don’t know. I can’t answer that yet. I’m too busy
(Gunfire in the background)
Unruh: I’ll have to talk to you later … a couple of friends are coming to get me.
Police then threw two tear gas bombs into the apartment. The second ignited, filling the room with gas. Two officers then went up to the apartment and shouted at Unruh to come out. He replied: “I give up. Don’t shoot.”
Howard Unruh then came out of his apartment, where he collapsed at the feel of officers. He was then handcuffed. As police investigated the apartment, the found what they described to be “an arsenal of weapons, guns, knives, bullet-making equipment, and more than 700 rounds”.
While in police custody, Unruh geve them a detailed, meticulous description of his actions. As he was being interviewed by Camden County prosecutor Mitchell Cohen, the discovered something that Unruh had neglected to mention.
As he’d been sitting in interrogation, Unruh was steadily dripping a pool of blood on his chair. Police then discovered that he had a bullet wound in his thigh. He’d been hit by Frank Engel, who’d shot at him outside of the tavern. Unruh was then taken to Cooper Hospital for treatment. The same hospital where John wilson lay dying from the wound inflicted on him by Unruh.
Howard Unruh was charged with thirteen count of “willful and malicious slayings with malice aforethought”. And three counts of “atrocious assault and battery”. But he wouldn’t see a day in the courtroom.
Something during his interrogation had caused prosecutor Mitchell Cohen to suspect that Unruh may have an unsettled mind. He suggested that Unruh be evaluated by a team of psychiatrists. They eventually diagnosed Unruh with paranoid schizophrenia. At the time, he was found to be “insane”, making him unable to stand trial.
When he was released from Cooper Hopsital, Howard Unruh was sent to New Jersey Hospital for the Insane – now the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. He remained incarcerated there until his death in 2009.
Howard Unruh’s last public words in an interview were: “I’d have killed a thousand if I had enough bullets.”
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Sources:
The Story of the First Mass Murder in U.S. History – Patrick Sauer – Smithsonian Magazine
Veteran Kills 12 in Mad Rampage on Camden Street – Meyer Berger – The New York Times
Walk of Death: The Story of Howard Unruh and American History’s First Mass Shooting – Katie Serena & John Kuroski – All That’s Interesting
How the Philadelphia area’s worst mass killer skirted justice – Joseph A. Gambardello – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Once Upon a Crime podcast – Episode 034: Murder Methods – Mass Murder: Howard Unruh and the Walk of Death
Howard Unruh Wikipedia page
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