Death row serial killer who fed victims to crocodiles made chilling confession about his crimes
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Bettmann / Contributor/Getty / Oregon State Penitentiary
Warning: Contains graphic content
Final words from killers on death row are usually quite haunting, but perhaps none more so than Carl Panzram's.
For nearly 30 years before he was sentenced to death in 1930, Panzram committed a slew of violent crimes including murder, sexual assault, arson, and robbery.
Those who attempted to explain his violent behaviour have often pointed towards his abusive childhood.
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Born in Minnesota to immigrant parents, Panzram's childhood was far from ordinary.
When he was just a young boy his father abandoned the entire family, and it wasn't long after that Panzram committed his first crime of theft at the age of 12.
The crime landed him in a school where he was said to have been subjected to beatings and sexual abuse, and upon being released in his teens, he ran away from home.
While hopping train cars to get from place to place, Panzram was gang-raped, which he said left him 'a sadder, sicker, but wiser boy'.
As for Panzram's crimes, he was caught several times for theft in the following years, but his violence quickly began to escalate.
Heading into the 1920s, the criminal carried out one of the most twisted murder sprees in modern history.
And his most wicked crimes came in 1920 when Panzram bought a yacht with money he'd stolen from former President William Howard Taft.
He began luring in US soldiers before raping them, murdering them and chucking their bodies into the ocean.
The killer later confessed to doing this to at least ten men.
Panzram's final words were perhaps as haunting as you'd expect for a man that killed many innocent people.
Before his life was ended, the killer uttered: "For all these things, I am not in the least bit sorry."
He reportedly added: "Hurry it up, you Hoosier b*stard! I could kill a dozen men while you’re screwing around!”
Panzram is believed to have committed 21 murders, more than 1,000 acts of sexual assault and thousands of arsons and robberies.
While all of the killer's crimes are awful, one of his most horrific came after he killed six local guides in Africa.
They were scheduled to take him crocodile hunting, but Panzram instead killed them and fed them to the animals who, as he described it, 'devoured their bodies with gusto'.
Panzram was ultimately executed aged 39 on September 5, 1930.