True Crime Time For September 5, 2026 | Carl Panzram: The Killer No Prison Could Hold — Part 1

On today’s episode of True Crime Time For, Woody celebrates one of his favorite weekends of the year: LSU football and the opening of dove season in Louisiana. But before heading to the field and getting ready to cheer on the Tigers, he begins the story of one of the most violent and relentlessly criminal figures in American history:

Carl Panzram.

And September 5 carries special significance in Panzram’s story. On September 5, 1930, Panzram was executed by hanging at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.

But Woody isn’t starting at the gallows.

He’s starting at the beginning.

Carl Panzram: A Childhood Already Filled With Trouble

Carl Panzram was born June 28, 1891, near East Grand Forks, Minnesota, into a large family of East Prussian immigrants.

Panzram would later describe himself as a liar and thief from an extraordinarily young age and said that he became increasingly angry and violent as he grew older.

His father eventually abandoned the family. Panzram also suffered a serious childhood infection requiring surgery, although Woody notes that there is no way to know whether that illness or its treatment caused neurological damage.

What is clear is that Panzram began getting into serious trouble very young.

According to the historical account Woody follows, he had repeated contact with juvenile authorities, stole from people around him and eventually landed at a Minnesota reform school.

Panzram later alleged that he was brutally beaten and sexually abused while institutionalized.

He claimed that his treatment inside reform schools and prisons helped extinguish whatever humanity remained in him.

And at one reform school, Panzram later claimed responsibility for setting the institution on fire.

Running Away, Riding the Rails and Repeated Imprisonment

By his teenage years, Panzram was drinking heavily, stealing, burglarizing homes and repeatedly running away.

He traveled extensively by freight train, living the transient life common among young runaways and laborers of that era. Panzram later claimed that while riding the rails he was gang-raped by several men—another experience he would later cite when describing the development of his hatred toward humanity.

His criminal record continued growing.

Panzram was sent to reform institutions in Montana, escaped, committed additional burglaries and robberies and repeatedly moved under aliases.

And aliases became a major part of his life.

Among the names associated with him were Jeff Davis, Jefferson Baldwin, Jack Allen and John O’Leary, along with several other identities he used as he moved from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. San Diego State University’s Panzram archive independently confirms several of those aliases.

In an era without interconnected computerized criminal databases, a man could give authorities a different name in another state and make it significantly more difficult for police to reconstruct his history.

Panzram exploited that weakness repeatedly.

The Army Doesn't Straighten Him Out

In 1907, Panzram enlisted in the United States Army.

It did not last.

He repeatedly refused orders and was convicted of stealing military property. He was sentenced to hard labor at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, where he remained from 1908 until 1910.

The official responsible for approving his sentence was William Howard Taft, who was Secretary of War before becoming the 27th president of the United States.

That connection becomes extremely important later.

Panzram claimed the brutality he experienced at Leavenworth destroyed whatever goodness had remained inside him.

After his release and dishonorable discharge, the criminal behavior resumed almost immediately.

Prison After Prison — And Escape After Escape

Woody follows Panzram across an extraordinary list of prisons, towns and aliases.

California.

Texas.

Oregon.

Idaho.

Montana.

New York.

Connecticut.

Washington, D.C.

Kansas.

Panzram committed robberies and burglaries, served sentences and repeatedly escaped custody.

He also became physically formidable from years of hard labor.

Panzram later openly claimed that sexual violence became part of his crimes and that he assaulted men he robbed.

Again, many of the most extreme crimes attributed to Panzram are known primarily through his own later statements, rather than convictions or independently established victims. His surviving archival papers show how extensively he boasted about murder, rape and robbery after his eventual capture.

Mexico, More Escapes and a Life in Constant Motion

Panzram crossed into Mexico, attempted to join military forces there, deserted, stole weapons and continued moving.

Back in the United States, he cycled through more arrests, aliases, prisons and escapes.

At one point he used Jefferson Davis as an alias.

Later it became Jack Allen, Jeff Davis, Jeff Rhodes, Jeff Baldwin, and eventually John O’Leary.

Woody marvels at how frequently Panzram appears to have escaped custody during a period when fingerprints, centralized records and modern communication between agencies were either primitive or nonexistent.

In 1915, Panzram was incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary, where he continued defying authorities and endured long periods of punishment and solitary confinement.

He escaped again.

He was recaptured.

Then he escaped again.

By 1918, using the alias John O’Leary, Panzram left the Pacific Northwest behind.

Panzram Goes International

Panzram then moved into an entirely new phase.

Using maritime work, he traveled internationally.

He made his way through Panama and South America and later traveled to Europe, including Scotland, France and Germany.

Archival materials from San Diego State University likewise document Panzram’s extensive international travel and work aboard ships during this period.

But eventually he returned to the United States.

And in 1920, his story intersected again with William Howard Taft.

Panzram Robs William Howard Taft

In September 1920, Panzram burglarized the New Haven residence of former President William Howard Taft.

According to accounts of the burglary, Panzram stole jewelry, bonds, an inscribed watch and a Colt M1911 .45-caliber handgun belonging to Taft.

For Panzram, it was reportedly personal.

Years earlier, Taft had approved his sentence to Fort Leavenworth while serving as Secretary of War.

Now Panzram had stolen from him.

And according to Panzram’s later account, the stolen money helped finance what came next.

The Yacht Akista

Panzram purchased a small yacht called the Akista.

Then he began cruising around the New York area.

And this is where his own confession becomes especially horrifying.

Panzram claimed that he lured sailors from bars onto the yacht, got them intoxicated, sexually assaulted them and then murdered them with Taft’s stolen .45.

He claimed to have killed 10 men this way and disposed of their bodies around Execution Rocks in Long Island Sound.

There is an important distinction here:

The ten yacht murders are Panzram’s claim. They are not ten individually identified and judicially proven murder victims.

That distinction matters when telling his story.

His own writings are a major reason his alleged body count became so infamous, but Panzram frequently boasted about his crimes and investigators were never able to independently verify every murder he claimed.

According to the account, the yacht killings ended when the Akista ran aground near Atlantic City, New Jersey, allowing two potential victims to escape.

Panzram survived the wreck and was eventually rescued after exposure to the elements.

And that's where Woody stops.

For now.

Because what listeners have heard through 1920 is not remotely the end of Carl Panzram’s story.

Woody will pick it back up Monday as Panzram continues through the next chapter of his criminal life—eventually reaching the crime that finally put him in a prison he could not escape.

Panzram would ultimately claim responsibility for 23 murders and enormous numbers of robberies and sexual assaults. But his documented criminal record and his own self-reported atrocities are not always the same thing, which makes separating fact, confession and boast an important part of telling his story.

And exactly 96 years before this episode’s date, on September 5, 1930, Carl Panzram finally reached the end of the road.

He was hanged at Leavenworth.

Part 2 continues Monday.

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• Carl Panzram
• September 5, 1930 execution
• Panzram's childhood
• Minnesota reform school
• Alleged institutional abuse
• Early burglaries and robberies
• Freight-train life
• Repeated prison escapes
• Carl Panzram aliases
• U.S. Army service
• Fort Leavenworth
• William Howard Taft
• Oregon State Penitentiary
• International travel
• John O’Leary alias
• Taft residence burglary
• Stolen Colt M1911
• Akista yacht
• Execution Rocks
• Panzram's claimed yacht murders
• Proven crimes versus Panzram's confessions
• Part 1 of Carl Panzram story
• September 5 is actually the anniversary of Carl Panzram’s execution. He was hanged at Leavenworth on September 5, 1930.
• Panzram’s story has to be told with a distinction between documented crimes and his own claims. He boasted of 23 murders and enormous numbers of robberies and sexual assaults, but not all of those crimes were independently verified.
• His numerous aliases and repeated escapes show how dramatically different interstate criminal investigation was before modern fingerprint databases, computerized records and instantaneous communication between jurisdictions.
• William Howard Taft really does intersect with the story twice: first through Panzram’s Leavenworth sentence and later when Panzram burglarized Taft’s home and stole a Colt .45 associated with the former president.
• Panzram later claimed he used that stolen pistol to murder 10 sailors aboard or associated with his yacht, the Akista, but that number should be presented as Panzram’s confession, not ten independently proven homicides.
• Woody intentionally stops the story around 1920. The transcript ends with him promising to continue Carl Panzram’s story on Monday, so Episode 269 should be treated as Part 1, not a complete biography.
• Woody also leaves the door open for a breaking update on Justice for Hailey or What Happened to Madison if developments happen before the prerecorded episode airs. 

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