Arrested and Incarcerated Three Times and Still a Serial Killer

Harvey Louis Carignan has been known by many different names; some called him The Want-Ad Killer, others Harv the Hammer. What isn't disputed is the terrible murders he committed over several years.

Carignan started killing in July 1949 and despite several life sentences, one of which included a sentence of death by hanging, he carried on killing until September 1974.

Early Life

There is little information about Carignan's early life; he was born in Fargo, North Dakota, on 18th May 1927 to an unmarried mother. Carignan was small for his age, had a twitch and was a constant bed wetter.

His mother, who was twenty years old when she had him, would soon marry his stepfather when Carignan was four-years-old. Shortly after the marriage, she gave birth to a second son, who she doted on. So it was not long until Carignan found himself going to live with relatives.

He stayed with various relatives, including two aunties and his grandmother. Finally, at ten, he was sent back to his mother. As he was still a bed wetter, he was not a welcome member of the household; a year later, he would move out again.

This time Carignan was sent to reform school for some petty theft charges. It was here he remained until eighteen. Although Carignan has since stated that the female staff at the centre sexually assaulted him, this has never been proven.

When Carignan left the reform school, he enlisted in the army, where his crimes turned more severe.

Army Crimes

On 17th September 1949, Carignan was brought to the U.S Marshall for the murder of Laura Showalter. Showalter met Carignan at Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on 31st July 1949.

She was fifty-seven when he raped and killed her. She died from several blows to her head with a weapon that could have been a hammer.

When placed in front of the Marshall, he provided officials with a written confession but failed to mention the murder. Still, he was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to hang.

In 1951, the Supreme Court overruled this death sentence, stating that the officers had violated the McNabb rule in obtaining the confession. As a result, he was transferred to Alcatraz to complete his sentence.

Eight years later, in 1960, he was paroled and released back into society.

Continued Crimes

Carignan's time in prison had done nothing to deter him from criminal life. He carried out various crimes, including burglary, assault and attempted rape.

He was arrested and convicted again; his sentence was four years, which he served in Leavenworth. He was paroled in March 1964.

In November 1964, he was again arrested for burglary in Washington and sentenced to fifteen years in prison; he was paroled four years later in 1968. However, he would return to serve one more year when he violated his parole.

In 1968, he married Sheila Moran; they were divorced in 1970.

Third Conviction

In October 1972, nineteen-year-old Leslie Laura Brock was found dead in Washington; several blows to the head had killed her. At least one witness said they had seen Brock get into a truck belonging to Carignan.

In 1972, Carignan married Alice Johnson; she was the mother of two children, a boy and a girl. Within a couple of months, her son moved out of the house and in with his biological father as he could not deal with the beatings Carignan regularly gave him.

After this, several victims went missing and the numbers continued to rise. In 1973, he rented a service station and put advertisements up for employees. Kathy Sue Miller, who was fifteen, answered one of those adverts. She was assaulted and killed.

Her body was discovered on an Indian Reservation a few months after disappearing. She was wrapped in plastic and beaten to death with a hammer.

At the same time as Carignan was dumping Miller's body, he received a speeding ticket in the area, which put him in the vicinity of the crime with previous convictions that had a similar method of killing. He was arrested and released on a lack of evidence.

In June 1973, he attacked Mary Townsend and demanded sexual favours from her in return for her release. He was also arrested for assaulting Johnson; she subsequently divorced him.

In 1974, he was known to date Eileen Huntley; when she broke up with him, she disappeared. Five weeks later, her body was discovered; she had been hit by a hammer several times.

On 14th September 1974, he abducted Gwen Burton, who he assaulted and attacked with a hammer. He dumped her body in a nearby field, but miraculously she survived and could crawl to the roadside for help.

He continued to capture and pick up many women and assault them; some escaped and others he killed. He killed at least five women; the total could be as high as eighteen. Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer on how many he sexually assaulted and survived.

Capture

When the police from the various states started to correspond, they found a large number of survivors. These were more than willing to pick Carignan out of a lineup.

When police arrested him on 24th September 1974, they found a map with red circles to indicate isolated areas across the US and Canada; some of the circles responded to the locations of attacks and missing people.

In February 1975, Carignan stood trial for the attempted murder and aggravated sodomy of Gwen Burton. He stated that he was pleading not guilty for reasons of insanity. He said that god had told him to kill the women.

The jury was not convinced and found him guilty; he was sentenced to the maximum term of forty years and sent to the Minnesota Correctional Facility. With a forty-year sentence. Other murder prosecutions followed and the sentences were added onto each other.

In 2015, Carignan applied for parole and was turned down. The next hearing will be held in 2022, when he will be ninety-five years old.