Howard Unruh

Howard Barton Unruh (January 21, 1921 – October 19, 2009) was an American mass murderer who shot and killed thirteen people and injured three others during a twelve-minute walk through his neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey, on September 6, 1949.^[3] The incident, which became known as the "Walk of Death" and the "Camden shootings", ended after Unruh surrendered to police after running out of ammunition.^{[4][5][note 1]}

Diagnosed as being legally insane and thus immune to criminal prosecution, Unruh was committed at the New Jersey State Hospital.^[6] He died at this facility in 2009 at the age of 88 following over 60 years of confinement.^[7]

The "Camden shootings" remained the deadliest mass shooting to occur in the United States (in terms of number of fatalities) until the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting,^[8] and are widely regarded as the first example of a mass shooting by a lone gunman to occur in America following World War II.^[9]

Howard Barton Unruh was born in East Camden, New Jersey on January 21, 1921, the first of two children born to born to Samuel Shipley and Freda Eichel (née Vollmer) Unruh. He had one younger brother, James Frederick (b. November 22, 1923).^[10]

The Unruh household was middle class, and both parents held strong work ethics. Unruh's parents were devout Lutherans; both insisted their children visit church every Sunday and study and abide by Biblical scriptures.^[11] The couple separated when Unruh was a child; the separation was on amicable terms, with Unruh's mother retaining custody of both children and both sons remaining on friendly terms with their father.^[12]

Unruh was a quiet, taciturn child, and viewed by his peers as something of a loner. He attended Cramer Junior High School before progressing to Woodrow Wilson High School in 1935. Here, he was again viewed as a loner who seldom interacted with, particularly, his female classmates, although he did participate in non-athletic extracurricular activities.^[13] His classmates respected his intelligence, and nicknamed him "How". Unruh's scholastic record was above average, and he graduated from high school in January 1939.^[14]

Between 1939 and 1942, Unruh resided at home with his mother and younger brother at 3202 River Road, Cramer Hill, East Camden as he reportedly pondered which career he should pursue.^[15] He seldom socialized, and spent much of his free time in his bedroom, basement, or reading the Bible. By 1941, Unruh had decided to pursue a career as a pharmacist;^{[note 2]} he was preparing to study for this career when America entered World War II following the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was drafted into the United States Army the following year.^{[17][note 3]}

Unruh's military service began on October 27, 1942. His military record was exemplary, and he saw active service across Europe as a sharpshooter and, later,^[17] tank gunner between October 1944 and July 1945 in campaigns including the Battle of the Bulge and the Western Allied invasion of Germany.^[10][19][1] Although fellow soldiers spent many of their off-duty hours drinking, gambling or chasing women, Unruh—a teetotaler who refrained from using profane language—preferred to spend his free time reading his Bible, writing letters to his mother, or either cleaning his rifle or taking the weapon apart, then reassembling it. Nonetheless, his comrades respected his marksmanship skills and bravery under fire, with one fellow soldier later remarking that, although Unruh was not "the most sociable" of men, he was "worth having on your side in a fight".^[20][21]

Throughout his military service, Unruh kept a diary in which he meticulously listed the enemy soldiers he had killed by location, date, and hour—also adding the appearance and positioning of the body if possible.^[18]

On November 30, 1945, Unruh was honorably discharged from the military, having been awarded several military distinctions for exemplary conduct and bravery under fire, including the European Theater of Operations Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal. He returned to New Jersey to live with his mother and brother and briefly found employment as a sheet-metal worker before resuming his plans to become a pharmacist.^[22]

Both Unruh's father and brother later remarked that his wartime experiences had markedly changed his persona: he was markedly sullen, nervous, suspicious, and detached. Although still devoutly religious and an ardent reader of the Bible, Unruh had also developed a fixation with firearms and weaponry,^[23] and in the years following his return from active duty, he legally purchased a number of weapons including a semi-automatic Luger P08 pistol.^[24] Unruh converted his bedroom into a shrine to war and weaponry; he also converted the family basement into a private shooting range, which he adorned with his general service medals and where he practiced his marksmanship skills on an almost daily basis.^[25][26] Unruh was seldom employed, and largely supported his hobby via his mother's employment income.^[27] Reportedly, although several individuals who lived or worked close to the Unruh family home gradually began to view Howard as something of a "religious nut", neither he nor they made efforts to socialize or otherwise become acquainted beyond occasional perfunctory conversations.^[28]

To achieve his career goal of becoming a pharmacist, Unruh completed a high school science refresher course in 1946 before enrolling at the Temple University School of Pharmacy in Philadelphia. His attendance record became increasingly sporadic,^[20] and he abandoned his studies after three months.^[22][14]

In approximately 1947, Unruh enrolled in a Bible study class, where he became reacquainted with, and later began dating, a pious young woman whom he had known prior to his overseas military deployment.^[29] This woman would prove to be Unruh's only known girlfriend. The two dated for several months before Unruh terminated the relationship—in part so that he could devote more of his free time and money to his weaponry collection and marksmanship practice.^[20] He would later confess that, shortly after terminating this relationship, he began frequenting a Philadelphia cinema known locally as a homosexual pick-up venue on a weekly basis to engage in furtive sexual encounters with men.^[30]

Unruh ceased attending church in the spring of 1948, although he continued to read the Bible.^[31] The same year, his younger brother married a young woman named Evelyn Armbrecht and relocated to the borough of Haddon Heights.^[32]

By the late 1940s, Unruh's relations with his neighbors—and members of the public in general—had begun to deteriorate, largely due to Unruh's conviction he was the target of ongoing and increasing public slandering.^[33] As such, he began compiling a list of perceived injustices in which he recorded the names of neighbors and members of the public, the real or imagined grievance, and either the notation "retal"—for "retaliation"—or the initials "D. N. D. R.", for "Do Not Delay Retaliation".^{[34][note 4]}

One family referenced on this list scores of times was the Cohen family—Unruh's neighbors. Many of these diary entries regarding the Cohen family referenced 41-year-old pharmacist Maurice Cohen, with whom Unruh had an ongoing feud sourcing from Unruh's habit of trespassing through Cohen's backyard as a means to access his apartment.^[36] Other entries referenced Rose Cohen asking Unruh to turn the volume of his wireless down, and 12-year-old Charles Cohen frequently playing his bugle too loud.^[37]

In early September 1949, Unruh installed a high wooden fence and a large security gate at the bottom of his back yard. His father assisted in the construction of this gate and fence, believing the fence may calm his son's agitated and somewhat paranoid temperament.^[27] On the evening of September 5, Unruh visited the 24-hour movie theater in Philadelphia he had frequented for approximately two years; he twice watched the movies I Cheated the Law and The Lady Gambles^[29] before returning home at approximately 3 a.m.^[2] Upon returning home, Unruh discovered that the security gate he had recently installed for the specific purposes of keeping his neighbors off the family property and obscuring his vision of the outside world had been stolen.^[38] He later informed investigators that, externally, he had remained calm; he entered his property, removed his shoes and lay on his bed fully clothed and staring at the ceiling as he plotted his revenge.^[27]

On the morning of September 6, 1949, Unruh dressed in a brown worsted suit before entering the family kitchen for a breakfast of cereal and eggs his mother had prepared. He sat at the breakfast table but simply stared at his mother with a menacing expression on his face for several moments before abruptly standing, then running back into his bedroom.^[27] Unruh then threatened his mother—who, alarmed at his state of agitation, had followed him into his bedroom—with a large wrench, causing her to flee to a neighbor's home, where she fainted.^[18][14] He then loaded the magazine of his Luger P08 pistol with ammunition before pocketing a second, loaded eight-round clip, numerous spare rounds of ammunition, a hunting knife, and a tear gas pen with six shells.^{[note 5]} He then left the family home at approximately 9:17 a.m., exiting via the gap in the fence where his gate had been stolen.^[40][41]

The first individual Unruh encountered was a 33-year-old delivery driver named Roxy DiMarco, whose vehicle was parked one block from his home.^[42] DiMarco threw himself backwards from his seat as Unruh fired once through the window of his truck in the direction of his chest. The shot missed DiMarco by inches. According to DiMarco, Unruh simply shrugged and walked away. DiMarco then ushered two children into his truck before driving from the scene and attempting to warn residents of the danger.^[43]

Unruh then walked into a nearby shoe repair shop, where he observed the owner, 27-year-old John Joseph Pilarchik, nailing the heel onto a shoe. Unruh shot and killed Pilarchik—whom he had known for over a decade—from a distance of less than three feet.^[44][41] He then entered the adjacent barber's shop at 3210 River Road, where he observed the owner, Clark Hoover, cutting the hair of six-year-old Orris Martin Smith, who was sat on a novelty carousel horse as Smith's mother, Edwina, and 11-year-old sister, Norma, watched. According to another patron in the premises, Unruh approached Hoover and calmly stated "I've got something for you, Clarkie"^[45] as Hoover—observing the firearm—attempted to shield Smith with his body. Unruh then fatally shot Smith once in the head before shooting Hoover in the head and body.^[46] He then exited the barbershop as Smith's mother and sister screamed.^[47]

After finding the front door of a tavern locked and unsuccessfully attempting to shoot his way into the premises,^{[48][note 6]} Unruh approached the pharmacy operated by his neighbor and primary target Maurice Cohen. As he approached the door to the Cohen drugstore, he encountered the Unruh family insurance agent, 46-year-old James Winfield Hutton, exiting the premises. Although Unruh had no grudge against Hutton, he fatally shot him in the head and chest; he later informed investigators his reason for doing so was because Hutton "didn't get out of [his] way" fast enough.^[18]

From within the drugstore, Maurice Cohen observed Unruh fatally shoot Hutton. He ran upstairs into the stock room to warn this family as Unruh chased him. In the stock room, Unruh observed Cohen's 38-year-old wife, Rose, attempting to hide in a storage cupboard; he shot twice through the cupboard door, causing her to fall out of the closet to the floor. Unruh then fatally shot her through the head. He then entered an adjoining office, where he observed Maurice Cohen's 63-year-old mother, Minnie, attempting to phone the police. She was then fatally shot in the head and chest.^[50][37]

Maurice Cohen had climbed onto the porch roof of the family drugstore in an effort to escape. Unruh overheard his efforts. In response, he leaned out of a window and shot Cohen once in the back, causing him to fall to the sidewalk; he then took careful aim and killed the pharmacist with a shot to the back of the head. The Cohens' 12-year-old son, Charles—who had also hidden in a closet—was unharmed.^[51]

Unruh then exited the pharmacy. He encountered a 24-year-old man named Alvin Milton Day, who had stopped his car to attempt to assist James Hutton.^[52] Unruh fatally shot Day once in the head at point-blank range.^[53] Another individual who had stopped his car to assist James Hutton, 18-year-old Charles Petersen, was shot in both legs, but survived his injuries.^[54][55] After firing through the locked front door of a grocery store, Unruh approached a sedan waiting at an intersection stop light. He fired through the open drivers-side window, killing the driver, Helen Wilson, and her elderly mother, 69-year-old Emma Matlack. Wilson's 10-year-old son, John, was fatally wounded; he died of his injuries at Cooper University Hospital the following day.^[56][57]

Unruh then entered the business premises of another individual whom he believed had slighted him: tailor Thomas Zegrino. Although Thomas Zegrino was not present in the building, Unruh encountered his wife of two months, 29-year-old Helga Matilde Zegrino, in the kitchen at the rear of the premises.^[54] The young woman burst into tears, sank to her knees and pleaded for her life, saying: "Oh my God, please don't!" before she was shot twice. Thomas Zegrino was the only one of Unruh's intended targets whom he failed to kill.^[58]

After exiting the tailor's, Unruh observed a toddler staring at him through the ground floor window of 3208 River Road. He fired once, instantly killing two-year-old Thomas Hamilton with a shot between the eyes. The child's caregiver, Irene Rice, collapsed upon witnessing the shooting and was treated for severe shock.^{[18][note 7]}

Unruh then observed 36-year-old Madaline Harrie and her 16-year-old son, Armond,^[59][60] seeking refuge in the kitchen of their home. Unruh kicked open the back door of the premises, then wounded Madaline in the left shoulder before shooting Armond in both arms, then striking the teenager over the head with the grip of his pistol. As the bullets Unruh fired into the Harries were the last in his possession, he was unable to fatally shoot either family member.^[61] He then returned to his residence to obtain further ammunition.^[62]

Moments after Unruh entered his apartment, numerous armed police officers began to converge upon and around River Road, forcing Unruh to barricade himself within his mother's residence as he reloaded his Luger.^[63] The first officer on the scene was Detective William E. Kelly Sr. A standoff ensued,^[57] during which journalist Philip Buxton of the Camden Courier-Post—having heard Unruh's identity reported over police radio—retrieved Unruh's number from a local telephone directory and dialed it.^[64] In what Buxton later described as "a strong, clear voice", Unruh answered the telephone. He and Buxton had the following brief conversation:

"Hello,"
"Is this Howard?"
"Yes ... what's the last name of the party you want?"
"Unruh."
"Who are you and what do you want?"
"Unruh. I'm a friend, and I want to know what they're doing to you."
"Well, they haven't done anything to me, yet, but I'm doing plenty to them."
(In a soothing, reassuring voice) "How many have you killed?"
"I don't know yet—I haven't counted them ... but it looks like a pretty good score."
"Why are you killing people?"
"I don't know. I can't answer that yet, I'm too busy ... I'll have to talk to you later."^[49]

Although police fired several rounds into Unruh's apartment, he was not wounded in this exchange of gunfire. He surrendered shortly after 10 a.m. after police fired two tear gas canisters into the apartment, the second of which detonated, filling the room with gas.^[40] Two armed officers, Patrolman Charles Hance and Captain Everett Joslin, then ascended to the first floor of the building and shouted, "Come down with your hands up!" to which Unruh replied, "I give up. Don't shoot." Unruh emerged from the room and stumbled down the stairs, falling at the feet of the officers, and was handcuffed by Sergeant Earl Wright. He offered no resistance and maintained a calm demeanor.^[14]

Moments after Unruh was handcuffed, Detective Vincent Connelly questioned his motives as he was frisked Unruh, asking: "What's the matter with you? Are you a psycho?" to which Unruh replied: "I'm no psycho. I have a good mind."^[65][66]

Investigators later determined that Unruh had fired a total of 33 rounds during his rampage.^[67] Detectives found an apartment filled with what was described as an arsenal of weapons, guns, knives, bullet-making equipment, and more than 700 rounds. In a drawer were several marksmanship medals, and in the basement was Unruh's target range. On a table was a Bible opened to Matthew, Chapter 24. Police also found books relating to sexual hygiene.^[21]

Under police interrogation, Unruh provided a meticulous account of his crimes and his justification for his actions, which was later released to the public by Camden County prosecutor Mitchell Cohen (no relation to Maurice Cohen). He expressed no regret or remorse for his actions and stated he would "do the same thing again" if given the opportunity, adding "only this time I would get the Sorg boy, the restaurant man, the tailor and the man and wife in the apartment house."^{[68][note 8]} Only at the end of Unruh's first interrogation did police discover that he had received a bullet wound in his upper left thigh.^[70] He was subsequently taken to Cooper Hospital for treatment, where one of the individuals he had wounded, John Wilson, would succumb to his injuries on September 7.^[40]

On September 22, a grand jury formally indicted Unruh on thirteen counts of murder and three counts of assault and battery with intent to kill. At the time of these indictments, Unruh had been released from hospital and had been undergoing psychological evaluations, although county prosecutor Mitchell Cohen announced his intentions to prepare motions for trial if Unruh was ruled sane.^[71][72]

Upon his release from Cooper Hospital, Unruh was extensively assessed by a panel of eminent psychiatrists. These assessments were conducted over the course of several weeks. On October 7, the panel unanimously ruled him legally insane, classifying him as "a case of dementia praecox, mixed type, with pronounced catatonic and paranoid coloring".^[9] As such, under New Jersey law, he was unable to to be brought to trial upon any of the outstanding criminal indictments pertaining to his murder spree, with the Camden County prosecutor instead instigating legal proceedings for Unruh's committal to an institution for the criminally insane the following day.^[71]

Unruh was transferred to the New Jersey Hospital for the Insane (now Trenton Psychiatric Hospital), to be held in a private cell in the maximum-security Vroom Building.^[16] The sole individual Unruh agreed to correspond with or receive visits from was his mother, who maintained frequent contact with her son until her death in June 1985.^[48]

Unruh remained incarcerated at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital until his death in 2009. Although he reportedly developed remorse for his crimes in the decades prior to his death,^[37] one of Unruh's last public statements prior to his committal, spoken during an interview with a psychologist, was: "I'd have killed a thousand if I'd had bullets enough."^[66]

Meyer Berger of The New York Times won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for his 4,000-word story on the killings.^[73]

Maurice and Rose Cohen's son Charles, then aged 12, survived the murder of his family by hiding in a closet. Charles H. Cohen (January 31, 1937 – September 4, 2009) was the maternal grandfather of Carly Novell, who survived the shooting incident of February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by hiding in a closet like her grandfather did in 1949.^[74] Charles Cohen spent much of his adult life trying to assure that Unruh would stay confined until he died, and Cohen's story was the subject of an ABC Nightline feature in February 2001. Ironically, Charles Cohen died just one month before Unruh did. And he was buried on the 60th anniversary date of the killings. ^[75][76]

• Green, Ellen (2022). Murder in the Neighborhood: The True Story of America's First Recorded Mass Shooting. London: Thread Books. ISBN 978-1-800-19807-4.
• Lloyd, Georgina (1993) [1986]. One Was Not Enough: True Stories of Multiple Murderers. New York: Bantam Books. pp. 20–28. ISBN 978-0-553-17605-6.
• Pender, Patrick (1994). "Crazed Veteran Slaughters Thirteen". Real-Life Crimes (84). London, England: Eaglemoss Publications Ltd.: 1844–1849. ISBN 978-1-856-29970-1.
• Wilson, Colin (1993). Murder in the 1940s. New York City: Caroll & Graf Publishers Inc. pp. 243–256. ISBN 978-0-881-84962-2.

• "Howard Unruh and the Walk of Death" (2017). Hosted by Esther Ludlow. Released as part of the Once Upon A Crime podcast series.^[77]

• September 6, 1949 Courier-Post news article pertaining to the Camden shootings
• September 19, 1949 Time article pertaining to Howard Unruh
• 12 Minutes of Murder: A contemporary Life magazine article focusing on Unruh's crimes
• A Portrait of the Jersey Mass Killer as an Old Man: A 1982 New York Times news article focusing on Unruh
• Philadelphia Inquirer news article commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the Camden shootings
• 2009 New York Times news article detailing Unruh's death
• Howard Unruh – 1939 Woodrow Wilson High School yearbook entry Archived March 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine