Killer Howard Unruh Dies At 88

Having read about Howard Unruh when I was a kid, his name still is not one that is easily forgotten. The articles and books that speak of him give the sort of picture of a man who lost sight of just about everything. It's unimaginable how anyone could shoot a child. I remember reading that their was a boy sitting in the barber chair who was shot and the shoe repairman's wife was killed and the person who stopped at a red light was shot. It was unbelievable to read, being I was just a kid myself. My twin brother and I have often wondered what happened to Howard Unruh and if he could or would ever be considered sane. How such a disturbed man could hold children accountable for his condition is inconcievable. The story of Mr.List gives us the same impression. It just doesn't seem fair somehow to think that God would not intervene somehow, seeing that Unruh and List read the Bible so much. Crazy or not, it seems unfair that he died after everybody else did. It should not have been so. I'm sure there are many out there who wonder what he cost the taxpayers, being that Unruh lived to be 88 years old. Fifty years of taxpayers money to feed a freak. Better to have used it for bird seed.

I've been fascinated by Howard Unruh ever since I heard about him less than a year age. It seems very few people outside of New Jersey, where he committed his mass murder on September 6, 1949, ever heard of him, and many younger New Jersey residents may not have heard of him.  Yes, old Howie has left this earth as of October 19, 2009, after spending over 60 years incarcerated in New Jersey state mental hospitals.  That must be a record.  How he made it all those years under those conditions is truly miraculous.  I'm 64 years old, and when I think of all the things that occur in the lifetime of a person 60+ years old and then think old Howie spent practically a whole lifetime in a cell in a mental institution, it is truly unbelievable.  What was God's purpose in keeping Howard Unruh alive all those years?  We'll never know, just as we may never know what his feelings were on that infamous day of September 6, 1949, but I think old Howie would have done the same thing all over again if he could go back to that day, because I believe he thought he was right, and I believe that his targeted victims are not as innocent as the driven snow.