Howard Unruh dies

Who the fuck was Howard Unruh? The first modern mass murderer.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-howard-barton-unruh20-2009oct20,0,3425297.story

I read about him for the first time while doing microfilm research for the year 1949 not long ago. I was even more shocked to learn he was still alive at 88 despite lifelong institutionalization.

 

First one that we know of.

 

Good.

 

Should have been executed about 59 years ago.

 

Now THERE'S a reporter ... and the guy who included this anecdote in his story won the Pulitzer:

http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/cs/ContentServer/jrn/1175295299201/page/1175295298659/simplepage.htm

 

Nope. Not even close ...

William V. Smith in 1946 .. killed nine people
Loy Yueng, 1928 slaughtered 12 people
Andrew Kehoe, 1927 bombed a school that killed 45 people including himself
Robert Segee 1944 serial arsonist who started the Hartford Circus fire

 

Segee was the main suspect in the circus fire, but it was never proven that he did it. I think that years later, he claimed that he did start it, but his story didn't match up.

The part that gets me about the Unruh killings was the 6-year-old who was killed on the carousel horse while getting a haircut.

 

That part got me too.

I hope Unruh is burning in hell now. He should have been roasting there decades ago.

 

No kidding. 88? Tebow! That is a long time in prison.

That is freaking awesome the reporter called his apartment and Unruh answered.

Crazy fucker.

 

Those questions definitely fall into the category of it never hurts to ask. Geez, some reporters could learn from that.

 

Bump...

Saw this on CNN.com and thought it was worth mention.
The Lipstick Killer, sent away in 1945, is still kicking.. 63 years behind a prison wall; believed to be the longest incarceration in U.S. History.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/24/illinois.lipstick.murders/index.html

 

And those of you who read "The Devil in the White City" are no doubt familar with Herman W. Mudgett, the infamous "Murder Doctor" who killed at least 27 people (the exact total isn't known) during and after the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago.