Howard Unruh

Charges were filed for thirteen counts of "willful and malicious slayings with malice aforethought" and three counts of "atrocious assault and battery." Unruh was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by psychologists and found to be insane, making him immune to criminal prosecution. When he was able to leave Cooper Hospital, Unruh was sent 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. He remained incarcerated there until his death in 2009. Unruh's last public words, made during an interview with a psychologist, were, "I'd have killed a thousand if I had enough bullets."

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

At approximately 7 a.m. on September 6, 1949, Unruh ate a breakfast prepared by his mother, who then left to visit a neighbor, Carolina Pinner. At about 9:20 a.m., armed with his Luger P08 pistol, an eight-round magazine, and more ammunition carried in his pockets, he left his apartment and walked out onto River Road in Camden. Approaching a bread-delivery truck, Unruh shoved his pistol through the door and shot at the driver. He missed his shot by a few inches and the driver unsuccessfully attempted to warn residents.

Unruh enlisted in the United States Army on October 27, 1942, and saw active service as an armor crewman across Europe between October 1944 and July 1945. He was remembered by his section chief, Norman E. Koehn, as a first-class soldier who never drank, swore, or chased girls and spent much time reading his Bible and writing long letters to his mother. It was also cited that Unruh kept meticulous notes on the enemies killed in battles, down to the details of the corpses. He was awarded the European Theater of Operations Medal, the Victory Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal. Unruh was honorably discharged at the end of the war and returned to New Jersey to live with his mother. Both his brother and his father later indicated that Unruh's wartime experiences had changed him, making him moody, nervous, and detached.

Howard Unruh was the son of Samuel Shipley Unruh and Freda E. Vollmer. He had a younger brother, James; they were raised by their mother after their parents separated. Unruh grew up in East Camden, New Jersey, attended Cramer Junior High School and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in January 1939. The Woodrow Wilson High School yearbook from 1939 indicated that he was shy and that his ambition was to become a government employee.

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 February 14, 2018, shooting incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by hiding in a closet like her grandfather did in 1949. Charles Cohen died at the age of 72 on September 4, 2009, and was buried two days later on September 6, 2009 (on the 60th anniversary of the mass murder and just one month before Unruh's death).

Howard Barton Unruh (January 21, 1921 – October 19, 2009) was an American mass murderer who shot and killed thirteen people during a twelve-minute walk through his neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey, on September 6, 1949 in an incident that became known as the Walk of Death. Unruh was found to be criminally insane and died in 2009 after a lengthy illness at the age of 88 following sixty years of confinement.