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 a one-block span of his neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey, on September 6, 1949. 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.
Diagnosed as being legally insane and thus immune to criminal prosecution, Unruh was committed at the New Jersey State Hospital. He died at this facility in 2009 at the age of 88 following over 60 years of confinement.
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, and are widely regarded as the first example of a mass shooting by a lone gunman to occur in America following World War II.
Early life and adolescence
Howard Barton Unruh was born in East Camden, New Jersey on January 21, 1921, the first of two children born to Samuel Shipley and Freda Eichel ( Vollmer) Unruh. He had one younger brother, James Frederick (b. November 22, 1923).
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 both study and abide by Biblical scriptures. 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.
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. Unruh typically achieved B grades, and his classmates respected his intelligence—nicknaming him "How". His overall scholastic record was above average, and he graduated from high school in January 1939.
Further education and conscription
Between 1939 and 1942, Unruh resided with his mother and younger brother at 3202 River Road, Cramer Hill, East Camden. The apartment itself was upon a cul-de-sac, with a kitchen door opening to a yard at the rear of the property being the only direct entrance. Aside from a middle-aged couple named Elias and Caroline Pinner—with whom Unruh became acquainted via his mother—he seldom socialized with any individual outside his immediate family, and spent much of his free time in his bedroom, basement, or reading the Bible. Following his graduation from Woodrow Wilson High School, Unruh worked in at least two local menial professions as he reportedly pondered which career path he should pursue. 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.
Military service
right|147px|thumb|Unruh, pictured shortly after his 1942 conscription into the [[United States Army]]
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, tank gunner between October 1944 and July 1945 in campaigns including the Battle of the Bulge and the Western Allied invasion of Germany. writing letters to his mother and/or Mrs. Caroline Pinner, 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 had served alongside, he was "worth having on your side in a fight".
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.
Honorable discharge
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 found employment within a printing firm. Unruh held this position for seven months before finding alternate employment as a sheet-metal worker. He later resigned from this position to resume his earlier plans to become a pharmacist.
Postwar life
Both Unruh's father and brother later remarked that his wartime experiences had markedly changed his persona: although still devoutly religious and an ardent reader of the Bible, he was markedly sullen, nervous, suspicious, and detached. Several individuals who lived or worked close to the Unruh family home gradually began to view Howard as something of a "religious nut"; however, neither he nor they made any effort to socialize or otherwise become acquainted beyond occasional perfunctory conversations.
Throughout his military service, Unruh had developed a fixation with firearms, weaponry and military strategies. He gradually converted his bedroom into something of 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. In the years following Unruh's return from active duty, he legally purchased a number of weapons including a semi-automatic Luger P08 pistol.
By mid-1947, Unruh was seldom employed, and largely supported his hobby via the income his mother made in her employment as a packer at a local soap factory.
To achieve his career goal of becoming a pharmacist, Unruh completed a high school science refresher course in 1947 before enrolling at the Temple University School of Pharmacy in Philadelphia in the fall of 1948. Unruh neglected to present his credentials from the Veterans Administration upon enrollment, which would have seen him entitled to free tuition, stationery and a monthly allowance of $75 (). His attendance record became increasingly sporadic, and he abandoned his studies after three months.
Unruh ceased attending church in the spring of 1948, although he continued to read the Bible. The same year, his younger brother married a young woman named Evelyn Armbrecht and relocated to the borough of Haddon Heights.
Social isolation
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 resentful conviction he was the target of ongoing and increasing public slandering and a victim of general injustice. 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". By the summer of 1949, this list included close to 200 incidents of real or perceived slights—over 180 accompanied by a reference to retaliation.
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 the Cohens' back yard via a gate as a more direct means to access his apartment. 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. Other individuals Unruh had listed included the local shoemaker, John Pilarchik, whom Unruh blamed for causing water seepage into his basement following the construction of Pilarchik's business premises in the summer of 1949, and a boy whom he knew only as "a kid named Sorg" who had sold Christmas trees outside his apartment the previous December and who had tapped into the Unruhs' electricity supply.
September 1949
In early September 1949, Unruh installed a high wooden fence and a large security gate at the bottom of his back yard, affording him direct access to 32nd Street. Both his father and Elias Pinner assisted in the construction of this gate and fence, believing the fence may calm Unruh's increasingly agitated and somewhat paranoid temperament. 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 before returning home at approximately 3 a.m.
The first individual Unruh encountered was a 33-year-old delivery driver named Roxy DiMarco, whose vehicle was parked one block from his home. 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.
224px|thumb|Interior of 3210 River Road, pictured following the murders of Clark Hoover and Orris Smith
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 child's shoe. Unruh shot and killed Pilarchik—whom he had known for over a decade—from a distance of less than three feet. According to another patron in the premises, Unruh approached Hoover and calmly stated "I've got something for you, Clarkie" 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. He then exited the barbershop as Smith's mother and sister screamed.
After finding the front door of a tavern locked and unsuccessfully attempting to shoot his way into the premises, Unruh approached the pharmacy operated by his neighbor and primary target, Maurice Cohen. En route, the owner of the tavern, Frank Engel, fired one shot at Unruh from a second-story window with a .38 caliber revolver. He succeeded in wounding Unruh in the upper left leg, causing him to briefly stumble to the sidewalk, although Unruh paid little or no attention to the wound and did not return fire at Engel.
As Unruh 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 and the insurance agent greeted him before observing that he was armed, Unruh 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.
From within the drugstore, Maurice Cohen observed Unruh fatally shoot Hutton. He ran upstairs into the stock room to warn his 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.
Maurice Cohen had climbed onto the pitched 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.
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. Unruh fatally shot Day once in the head at point-blank range. 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. After firing through the locked front door of a grocery store, Unruh approached a blue Chevrolet coupé 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 in the neck; he died of his injuries at Cooper University Hospital the following day.
136px|thumb|Helga Zegrino
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. 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 one of few of Unruh's intended targets whom he failed to kill.
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, Marguerite Rice, collapsed upon witnessing the shooting; the resultant shock and hysteria would see her briefly hospitalized.
Unruh then observed 36-year-old Madaline Harrie and her 16-year-old son, Armond, seeking refuge in the kitchen of their home. He kicked open the back door of the premises and wounded Madaline once 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 final three in his possession, he was unable to fatally shoot either family member. He then returned to his residence to obtain further ammunition.
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. The first officer on the scene was Detective William E. Kelly Sr. A standoff ensued, 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. In what Buxton later described as "a strong, clear voice", Unruh answered the telephone. He and Buxton had the following brief conversation:
<blockquote><poem>
"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." He offered no resistance and maintained a calm demeanor as he was handcuffed by Sergeant Earl Wright.
Investigators later determined that Unruh had fired a total of thirty-three rounds prior to surrendering to authorities—each of which had been fired from his Luger P08 pistol. A search of his apartment revealed his extensive collection of firearms and other military paraphernalia, including over seven hundred rounds of ammunition of varying calibers. Also discovered was a Bible opened to chapter twenty-four of Matthew 24, and several books relating to sexual hygiene. 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."
At the conclusion of this initial two-hour interrogation, police discovered that Unruh had received a single bullet wound in his upper left thigh. He was subsequently taken—under armed guard—to Cooper Hospital to receive treatment. At the time of these indictments, Unruh had been released from hospital and was undergoing formal psychological evaluations, although county prosecutor Mitchell Cohen announced on this date his intention to prepare motions for trial if Unruh was ruled sane.
Psychological assessments
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 declared Unruh legally insane, classifying him as "a case of dementia praecox, mixed type, with pronounced catatonic and paranoid coloring". This panel also determined that Unruh had nurtured a persecution complex for at least two years prior to his murder spree. As such, under New Jersey law, he was unable to be brought to trial upon any of the outstanding criminal indictments pertaining to his murder spree.