September 6, 1949, 75 years ago: The "Walk of Death" occurs in Camden, the largest city in southern New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. It is regarded as the 1st mass shooting in American history.
Born in Camden in 1921, Howard Unruh was a moralist and a mama's boy. Serving in World War II changed him, leading to a description of him as "moody, nervous and detached." In 1949, he began arguing with his neighbors.
At 9:20 AM on September 6, he took a Lugar P08 pistol and some ammunition, walked onto River Road, into the shop of his neighbor, shoemaker John Pilarchik, and killed him. He then went to the barbershop of another neighbor, Clark Hoover, killing both him and Orris Smith, the 6-year-old boy whose hair he was cutting. He ran toward the pharmacy of another neighbor, Maurice Cohen. Before he could get there, he saw insurance man James Hutton blocking his path. A man truly in the wrong place at the wrong time, Hutton was killed, even though Unruh had never even met him before.
The Cohen family tried to escape. But Maurice's wife Rose and 12-year-old son Charles hid in closest, and Unruh found Rose, and killed her. Then he killed Cohen's mother, Minnie, because she was on the phone with the police. He followed Maurice onto a porch roof, and shot him. Charles got away unharmed, the only surviving member of the family.
Unruh walked back to River Road, saw a car coming, and shot the driver, Alvin Day. He went after another neighbor at his store, tailor Thomas Zegrino. He wasn't there, making him the only intended victim to survive. But his wife Helga was there, and Unruh killed her.
He ran back to River Road, saw a car waiting at an intersection, and shot everybody in it: Helen Wilson, her son John, and her mother, Emma Matlack. All 3 died. He then fired through an apartment window, killing 2-year-old Thomas Hamilton. Total victims: 13.
A man named Frank Engel saw Unruh from a tavern window, ran out, and shot him in the leg. Trying to get away, Unruh shot at Madeline Harris and her son Armand, outside their home. Both were wounded, but survived.
Unruh went back to his apartment building, which was quickly surrounded by the police. They lobbed tear gas bombs into the apartment. He came out and gave up. The police found a list of his intended victims, an arsenal of weapons, and a Bible opened to the 24th Chapter of The Gospel of Matthew.
Unruh was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, making him immune to criminal prosecution. He was taken to Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, and remained there until his death on October 19, 2009 -- 60 years after his crime. In his last interview with a psychologist, he showed no remorse, saying, "I'd have killed a thousand if I had enough bullets."
He even outlived Charles Cohen, 12 at the time of the shooting. He died on September 4, 2009, at the age of 72. His funeral was 2 days later, on the 60th Anniversary of the crime. In the intervening years, mass shootings started out rare, then became common in the 1980s, and got out of control early in the 21st Century.
On February 14, 2018, there was a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people died. Carly Novell survived the mass shooting, by hiding in a closet. Just like her grandfather: Charles Cohen.
As Mark Twain once put it, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes."
No comments:
Post a Comment