Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance

This documentary delving into the warped mind of Carl Panzram is fascinating and disturbing.

Learning about this man's early life and what shaped his murderous and demonic journey through his tortured life and those he prayed on.

I have difficulty believing that this scantily education man wrote his "memoirs" and they are not the work of a third party, namely his prison guard. The language used seems far to erudite. There are also references that don't quite add up to my mind.

This is put forward as fact without any true investigative work or fact finding. It would make an interesting piece of work to take this perspective instead of blindly accepting "his" writings as fact.

The true story of lifelong criminal and serial killer, Carl Panzram who wrote his autobiography for a jail guard in 1928.

Unless you happen to be interested in serial killers, you probably never heard of Carl Panzram. He does not rank as high in public consciousness as Dahmer, Gacy, Zodiac... and yet, he is no less fascinating. I am quite happy that someone took the time to make a documentary on this enigmatic figure.

I am even more happy that a prison guard encouraged Panzram to write his memoir and that San Diego State University decided it was worth keeping. This does not seem like the sort of material that you would typically find in a university's special collections, but it has a value to any number of people for different reasons.

I just finished Ryan Green's book on Panzram and this film is a perfect companion piece to it. Carl was a vicious rapist and murderer who left behind a surprisingly well written journal of his many misdeeds. With little formal education, he was a natural born killer and writer. I am not fond of reenactments but they are well done in this case. The story is an amazing one and I highly recommend this documentary.

Is it really Carl Panzram's fault that he was born into a family of poverty, alcoholism, abuse and neglect? Carl Panzram was the type of man that the world would have been a much better place not running into him. He knew only one way to survive and that was to brutalize and rape his victims. His pain threshold and abnormal strength were well documented as were his very long list of crimes.

Like a bad car accident that you cannot turn your head away from while driving by, I had to watch this documentary and I am glad I did. I wouldn't want to ever be 1,000 miles near Carl Panzram but in some weird way I still empathize with the life that Carl Panzram was subjected to living in and out of multiple hardcore prisons.

I give this documentary a credible 8 out of 10 IMDb rating.

The female "expert' in this film is pathetic. She parrots typical and expected rubbish without any reason to do so. All of her statements and why she said them have been proven to be incorrect. I hope she doesn't practice anymore as she is dangerous.

Very disappointed in a documentary for allowing such garbage to be put on TV.

The reinactments are also a bit sad. But don't go for too lone so they are bearable.

Some good information if you haven't heard of this person before. Just ignore the rubbish from the female "expert".

Quite disappointed to see someone who should know better spouting such damaging and incorrect information.