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,