CHARLES SCHMID

Charles Schmid

Charles Schmid’s horrific crimes made him one of the most famous American criminals of the 60s. He was profiled in a Life Magazine article called “The Pied Piper of Tucson” and his story was the basis for a famous Joyce Carol Oates short story and Jack Ketchum’s “The Lost.” It’s also been adapted for film at least four times: The Todd Killings, Smooth Talk, Dead Beat, andThe Lost. But while Schmid’s crimes secured his notoriety, he didn’t live long to enjoy it—as you may have guessed from the title of this list.

In 1964, Scmid was a wealthy, popular, and charismatic 22-year-old living in Tucson, Arizona. A short man, he wore cowboy boots padded with newspaper and crushed beer cans to make himself look taller. He also wore pancake make up, painted a mole on his face, and used a clothespin to stretch his lip in order to look like Elvis. While his appearance may sound bizarre, Schmid had a magnetic personality to match his outrageous style and had many girlfriends, including some who would go to any length for him.

On May 31, 1964, Schmid, one of his girlfriends, and one of his friends lured 15-year-old Alleen Rowe to the desert. There, Schmid raped her and beat her to death with a jagged rock before the three buried her. Schmid’s motive was simply that he wanted to kill someone to see what it felt like. His friend and his girlfriend kept the secret, but Schmid eventually revealed the crime to another girlfriend, Gretchen Fritz. When Fritz used the information to blackmail him, threatening to go to the police if he left her, Schmid strangled the 15-year-old to death and then did the same thing to her 13-year-old sister, Wendy. Schmid then got another friend, Richie Bruns, to help him dispose of the bodies. By this point, Schmid was suspected of involvement in the killings by both the police and the Tucson Mafia, but no proof could be found until Richie, paranoid that his girlfriend would be next, confessed to his role in the crimes. At his trial, which was the subject of massive media attention, Schmid was sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison.

Over the next five years, Schmid made three escape attempts, failing each time. Despite this—and not having his cowboy boots to make him look taller—he remained arrogant and frequently annoyed his fellow prisoners. On March 20, 1970, Schmid was stabbed 20 times and viciously beaten by two other inmates. He lost an eye and a kidney, dying 10 days later. Schmid’s criminal acts may have made him a celebrity of sorts, but many people feel he met a suitable end for murdering three inncocent girls.