Early crimes In the summer of 1906, Panzram was arrested for burglary in
Butte, Montana, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment at Montana State Reform School in
Miles City. He later claimed that after a guard named Bushart punished him, Panzram assaulted and critically injured him with a wooden board. As punishment, Panzram had to spend some time in
solitary confinement. In 1907, Panzram and a safecracker, James Benson, escaped from Montana State Reform School and stole guns in
Terry, Montana. In the coming weeks, Panzram and Benson robbed people, houses and repeatedly broke into stores and burned down buildings, especially churches, in acts of
arson in the towns of
Glendive,
Crane, and
Sidney. In
Fargo, North Dakota, the two men separated. Later in 1907, after getting drunk in a saloon in
Helena, Montana, Panzram enlisted in the
United States Army and was assigned to the 6th Infantry at
Fort William Henry Harrison. Refusing to take orders from officers and being generally insubordinate, he was convicted of
larceny for stealing $88.24 worth of supplies. He served a prison sentence at hard labor in the
United States Disciplinary Barracks at
Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, between 20 April 1908 and August 1910.
U.S. Secretary of War William Howard Taft approved Panzram's sentence. Panzram later claimed that while he had been a "rotten yegg" before imprisonment at the military penitentiary, "any shred of goodness left in him was smashed out" during his time at Fort Leavenworth." and that he would often rape men whom he had robbed. He was noted for his large stature and great physical strength—due to years of
hard labor at Leavenworth and other prisons—which aided him in overpowering most men. The two men later parted ways and Panzram crossed the border into Mexico again, this time to
Agua Prieta, where he joined the Mexican Army's Foreign Legion, known as the Northern Brigade Mexico. During his short service, which lasted about a month, he was disappointed to discover that looting had become widespread throughout the country, and that all the places he visited had been plundered long before. He deserted, stealing weapons and a horse, riding it towards the border until it died of exhaustion. He then began to make his way to California. He claimed that after his escape, while riding on a
boxcar in California, he disarmed a man, a "railway detective" or "railway brakeman" and
forced him to rape a homeless man at gunpoint before throwing them both off the train. Then he proceeded to Oregon, where he made a living as a
logger. , 1913 Panzram admitted years later that once, when hiding in a
bordello, his wallet was stolen, and he was infected with
gonorrhea. He became paranoid, claiming that the law was always on his trail but could never catch him. In 1913, going by the alias "Jack Allen", he was arrested in
The Dalles, Oregon for
highway robbery, assault and
sodomy. He broke out of jail after two months. He was arrested again in Harrison, Idaho under the alias "Jeff Davis", but escaped from county jail. On April 7, 1913, under the alias "Jeff Davis," Panzram was arrested in
Malta, Montana: "A fellow giving his name as Jeff Davis was arrested Monday morning for disorderly conduct and placed in the county jail. During the day information came from
Chinook that he was wanted there for breaking into a dentist's office and stealing a lady's fur lined coat and a tube of gold. A Chinook officer came after Jeff Tuesday. The coat in question was sold in Malta for $5.00 and by the way it looks like the party bought $5.00 worth of experience instead of coat." In Chinook, under the alias "Jefferson Davis", he was sentenced to one year in prison for burglary, to be served at the Montana State Prison. that housed Panzram from 1913 to 1915 On April 27, 1913, Panzram, under his "Jefferson Davis" alias, was admitted to the Montana State Prison at
Deer Lodge, Montana with an occupation listed as "waiter and teamster". He met Jimmie Benson and planned an escape; however, Benson was transferred. Panzram escaped on November 13, 1913. "Jeff Davis who was arrested here some time ago for robbing a dentist office in Chinook and sent up to the pen has made good his get-a-way from that institution. He was a trustee and working on road work." Within a week, he was arrested for burglary in
Three Forks, giving his name as "Jeff Rhoades". He was incarcerated at Deer Lodge for an additional year. By his own account he committed sodomy while imprisoned. Panzram was released on March 3, 1915, with a new suit of clothing, $5.00 and a ticket to the next town six miles away. He rode the rails through
Washington State, Idaho,
Nebraska and
South Dakota via the
Columbia River. On June 1, he burglarized a house in
Astoria, Oregon, where he was soon arrested while attempting to sell some of the stolen items. in 1892 , killed Sept 27, 1915 by Otto Hooker, with Panzram's help. Under the name "Jeff Baldwin", Panzram was sentenced to seven years in prison, to be served at the
Oregon State Penitentiary in
Salem, where he was taken on June 24, 1915. Fifty-year-old
warden Harry Minto believed in harsh treatment of inmates, including beatings and isolation, among other disciplinary measures. Panzram stated that he swore he "would never do that seven years and I defied the warden and all his officers to make me." Later in 1915, Panzram helped fellow inmate Otto Hooker escape. While attempting to evade recapture, Hooker wounded Jefferson Oregon Town Marshal J.J. Benson and killed Minto on September 27, 1915 with a Benson Pistol. This event marked Panzram's first known involvement in a murder, as an
accessory before the fact. and caught a freight train heading east. Panzram began going by the name "John O'Leary" and shaved off his mustache to change his appearance. Panzram would never return to the
Pacific Northwest. Using Taft's stolen money, Panzram bought a small sailing yacht, the
Akista, and embarked on an eight-year-long murder spree which spanned several countries and involved multiple victims. Sailing south to New York City, at
City Island, Bronx, for three months Panzram lured sailors away from port bars onto the yacht, making them drunk, raping them, and murdering them with Taft's stolen pistol, then dumping their bodies near
Execution Rocks Light in
Long Island Sound. Panzram later claimed to have killed ten men in this manner. The sailor murders ended only after
Akista ran aground and sank near
Atlantic City, New Jersey, during which his last two potential victims escaped to parts unknown. On October 3, 1920 Panzram, aka John O'Leary, captain, along with John Delaney and J. Gilmore had lashed themselves to the yacht's capstan after
Akista foundered and turned over on its side on the Brigantien Shoals at Atlantic City NJ, while trying to make shelter in Absecon Inlet. On October 6, 1920, they were rescued by Captain Henry Brown of a fishing
smack. O'Leary was in hospital from shock and exposure. On October 26, Panzram was arrested in
Stamford, Connecticut, for burglary and possession of a loaded handgun, a .44 revolver. Panzram later claimed after the shipwreck he was cared for by a Dr. Charles McGivern. After serving his Bridgeport CT sentence, Panzram borrowed $100.00 from McGivern. Going to Philadelphia, he took back Taft's .45 pistol, which he had left with McGivern. After being released, he traveled to
Philadelphia, where he was involved in a shootout with police and was arrested on May 16,1921. Panzram had been involved with Strikers who attacked and injured a seaman. Panzram fired at a boarding house proprierter and Philadelphia Police Detective Harry Walker. Panzram was captured when he ran out of bullets. No one was injured by the gunfire. He was held in $1,000 bail in court.
Africa After being convicted of aggravated assault and inciting a riot, Panzram faced a heavy prison sentence, but managed to be released on bail, fleeing to
Norfolk, Virginia. He caught a ship to southern Africa and landed in
Luanda, the capital of colonial
Portuguese Angola. By late 1921, Panzram was foreman of an
oil rig in Angola, which he later burned down out of what he said was "spitefulness." Shortly after, he decided to seek out a
virgin girl.
Return to the US After his return to the U.S., he thought of becoming a professional
hitman using the pistol he obtained in the Congo. In 1922, he had the gun fitted with a silencer by the
Maxim Silent Firearms Co. in
Hartford, Connecticut. But when he test fired it later, he found that the weapon still made a great deal of noise, much to his disappointment. "If that heavy calibered pistol and the silencer had only worked as I thought it would, I would have gone into the murder business on a wholesale scale," he wrote years later. Panzram asserted he raped and killed two small boys, and strangling the other later that year near New Haven. After his murder spree in Salem, Panzram worked as a night watchman in
Yonkers, New York, north of
Manhattan, at the Abeeco Mill factory. In
Providence, Rhode Island, he stole a 38 foot
yawl from a marina and sailed to New Haven, seeking victims to rob and rape, and boats to steal. In New Rochelle, Panzram burglarized the Police Commissioner's yacht moored off Premium Point and stole a .38 caliber handgun from its galley. He picked up a 15-year-old boy named George Walosin and promised him a job on the yawl, but instead sodomized him. On June 27, on the river near
Kingston, New York, Panzram claimed to have picked a man up but, believing the man was going to attempt to rob him, used a
.38 caliber pistol from the New Rochelle bulgary to kill the
John Doe victim, throwing the body into the river. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for the break-in. While in county jail, under his alias of "O'Leary", he confessed to the alias "Jeff Baldwin", and that he was wanted in Oregon for the murder of Minto. Oregon authorities reported that he was still wanted to serve 14 years of his sentence there. When arrested, he attempted to collect the $500 reward for providing information about himself. After first being imprisoned in
Sing Sing Prison, in October, Panzram was imprisoned at
Clinton Prison in
Dannemora as Inmate #75182. While there he tried to escape, and ended up with an injured spine and broken ankles. He also claimed to have struck a guard, who survived but was seriously injured. He was discharged in July 1928. After his last arrest in 1928, he claimed to have committed a murder while burglarizing homes between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and committing a murder in Philadelphia in 1928. ==Final capture==