Harvey Carignan

Case record: Harvey Carignan

Harvey Louis Carignan (born May 18, 1927) was an American serial killer serving a life sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater for the murders of two women.

He had previously been convicted for a 1949 rape and murder he committed while stationed in the U.S. Army in Anchorage, Alaska, and he was paroled for that crime in 1960.

Timeline

• May 18, 1927 — Harvey Louis Carignan was born.
• July 31, 1949 — While stationed at Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Carignan raped and killed 57-year-old Laura Showatler.
• August 10, 1949 — Carignan attempted to rape Dorcas Callen; she escaped.
• September 17, 1949 — Carignan was brought to the U.S. Marshal for the murder of Laura Showatler; he provided officials with a written confession and his confession to the murder was oral.
• 1950 — Carignan was charged and convicted of first degree murder; he was sentenced to death by hanging.
• 1951 — The Supreme Court overruled Carignan’s death sentence due to officers’ violations of the McNabb rule.
• April 2, 1960 — Carignan was paroled.
• June 28, 1973 — Marlys Townsend was assaulted at a bus stop in Minneapolis.
• July 27, 1972 — Virginia Piper disappeared.
• August 10, 1974 — Eileen Hunley disappeared.
• April 14, 1972 — Carignan married Alice Johnson.
• May 1, 1973 — Kathy Sue Miller (age fifteen) answered Carignan’s want ad for employees at a service station that he was leasing; he sexually assaulted and killed her.
• June 28, 1973 — Marlys Townsend was assaulted at a bus stop in Minneapolis; she woke in Carignan’s vehicle and escaped after he tried to make her masturbate him.
• September 9, 1973 — Carignan picked up Jerri Billings, a thirteen-year-old hitchhiker, in Minneapolis.
• September 8, 1974 — Carignan picked up June Lynch (sixteen) and Lisa King (seventeen) while they were hitchhiking in Minneapolis.
• September 14, 1974 — Carignan picked up Gwen Burton from a Sears parking lot.
• September 18, 1974 — Harvey picked up Sally Versoi and Diane Flynn.
• Two days later — Kathy Shultz did not return on schedule from her college classes.
• Next day — Kathy Shultz’s body was found by hunters in a cornfield forty miles from Minneapolis.

Background

Carignan was born on May 18, 1927.

His mother was not married and was not married when he was born. When he was three or four, his mother married and had a second son.

When Carignan was at the age of six, he was undersized and had a twitch in his face. He was also a chronic bed wetter and had an imaginary friend named Paul.

When Carignan was eight, he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Cavalier, ND, which lasted a short time, and he was sent back home.

When he turned ten, he was sent to live with his grandmother in Williams, ND, then sent to live with another aunt before going back home to his mother.

Carignan was still suffering from bedwetting and started stealing.

At age eleven, he was sent to reform school in Mandan, ND for seven years.

During his time at reform school, he was diagnosed with childhood Chorea, a nervous disorder marked by muscular twitching of arms, legs and face. Carignan claimed that female employees sexually abused him.

When Carignan left the reform school at age eighteen, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.

The offence

Carignan raped and killed women, using want ads to lure young female victims.

He used a claw hammer to rape and bludgeon his victims, earning him the nickname “Harv the Hammer.” A quote from Carignan stated:

“An instrument of God, one who was acting under His personal instructions. Murder, rape and mutilation are all part of a Grand Plan. God is a figure with a large hood and you can't see his face.”

The narrative attributed to Carignan said he described himself as acting under orders from God and that, under so-called orders from God, he killed at least 5 and maybe as many as 18 women.

Laura Showatler (Anchorage, Alaska)

On July 31, 1949, while stationed at Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Carignan raped and killed 57-year-old Laura Showatler. She died from several blows to the head.

Carignan was later brought to the U.S. Marshal for the murder of Laura Showatler on September 17, 1949. He provided officials with a written confession, but there was no mention of a murder in the confession. His confession to the murder was oral.

Dorcas Callen (attempted rape)

Less than two months after the Laura Showatler killing, Carignan attempted to rape Dorcas Callen, but she escaped. Dorcas Callen told police that she had been approached by an intoxicated soldier at around 7 a.m. Callen and another eyewitness, John Keith, identified Carignan in a line-up.

Marlys Townsend (Minneapolis)

On June 28, 1973, Marlys Townsend was assaulted at a bus stop in Minneapolis. She was clubbed unconscious from behind. When she woke, she was in Carignan’s car and was still groggy from the blow. When he tried to make her masturbate him, she found strength enough to save herself by leaping from the speeding vehicle.

Jewry Billings (Minneapolis)

On September 9, Jewry Billings, age thirteen, was hitching rides in Minneapolis to reach her boyfriend’s house when Carignan pulled up and offered her a ride. Inside the car, he threatened Jewry with a hammer and forced her to fellate him while he rammed the hammer’s handle in and out of her vagina. After he finished, Carignan released her.

Jewry kept the incident a secret for several months.

Lisa King and June Lynch (Minneapolis)

On September 8, 1974, Carignan picked up Lisa King and June Lynch, both sixteen, while they were hitchhiking in Minneapolis. He offered money if the girls would help him fetch another car that had been stranded in a rural area.

Once out of town, he stopped the car and started beating June about the head and face. Lisa ran for help, but Carignan sped away and left June bleeding on the roadside.

Eileen Hunley (disappearance)

Carignan dated Eileen Hunley, a woman described as “a woman of the church.” She informed friends of her intent to terminate the relationship, but Eileen Hunley disappeared on August 10.

When she was found in Sherbourne County five weeks later, she was described as a rotting corpse. Her skull was imploded by the force of savage hammer blows.

The narrative added that she had been raped with a tree branch.

Gwen Burton (Sears parking lot; surviving assault)

An engine failure on September 14 almost cost Gwen Burton her life. When Carignan appeared to offer her a ride, she was unaware the trip would turn into an “endless nightmare.”

Once alone, Carignan ripped her clothing, choked her into semi-consciousness, and raped her with the handle of his hammer. He then slammed her across the skull with brutal force before dumping her in a field to die.

Miraculously, she survived and crawled until reaching a local highway, where a passing motorist arrived in time to save her life.

Carignan was later tried for attempted murder (of Gwen Burton) in March 1975 and the jury found him guilty.

Sally Versoi and Diane Flynn (assaults; escaped)

On September 18, the day Eileen Hunley’s body was recovered, Carignan picked up Sally Versoi and Diane Flynn. He used the ruse about fetching a car and then made lewd propositions. He assaulted both girls when they failed to respond.

They escaped when Carignan ran short of fuel and was forced to stop at a rural service station.

In another section describing the same events, Carignan forced them to perform oral sex and would beat them if they did not follow his commands. The two girls escaped when Carignan stopped for fuel.

Kathy Schultz (missing; body found)

Two days later after a missing persons bulletin was issued by police, eighteen-year-old Kathy Schultz did not return on schedule from her college classes.

Her corpse was found next day, by hunters, in a corn field forty miles from Minneapolis. Her skull had been destroyed by crushing hammer blows.

Investigation

Detectives in Seattle were aware of Carignan’s record and hounded him with such intensity that he departed from their city shortly after Kathy Miller’s body was retrieved.

A speeding ticket from Solano County, California, on June 20 placed Carignan in the vicinity where half a dozen women had been murdered in the past two years, but there was nothing solid to connect him with those crimes.

A search of Carignan’s possessions turned up maps with some 181 red circles drawn in isolated areas of the United States and Canada. Some circles yielded nothing and indicated points where Carignan had applied for jobs or purchased vehicles. Others seemed to link him with unsolved homicides and other crimes involving women.

One circle marked the point where Laura Brock had disappeared near Coupeville, Washington.

Another circle, at Medora, North Dakota, coincided with discovery of a murdered girl in April 1973.

Another circle was drawn around the intersection in Vancouver where a woman, waiting for the city bus, had been assaulted from behind and beaten with a hammer.

Police in Minneapolis were talking to their counterparts in Washington by now, and within days survivors started picking Carignan out of lineups as the man who had abducted and assaulted them throughout the past two years.

Arrest and custody

In 1950, Carignan was charged and convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to death by hanging.

In April 2, 1960, Carignan was paroled.

Four months later, he was arrested in Minnesota for burglary, assault, and attempted rape. He was convicted and sentenced to two and one half years in a Minnesota State prison and another 2,086 days in federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.

He was released on parole on March 2, 1964 and moved to Seattle, where he was arrested on November 22, 1964, for second-degree burglary. He was sentenced to fifteen years in the Washington State prison in Walla Walla.

He was paroled in 1968.

A year later he was arrested for parole violation and suspicion of robbery and was sent back to Walla Walla for a year.

He was arrested for assaulting of his wife, Alice, who decided to leave him.

In February of 1975, Carignan was tried on the attempted murder and aggravated sodomy in Gwen Burton’s case.

Trial

In March 1975, Carignan was tried for attempted murder (of Gwen Burton). An ill-conceived insanity defense involving messages from God did not impress the jury.

In February of 1975, Carignan pled not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that God told him to kill those women.

The jury was not convinced by the insanity plea and found him guilty.

Carignan received the maximum of forty years in prison.

Sentencing

Carignan was sentenced to death by hanging for a first degree murder conviction following his 1950 charge and conviction.

The Supreme Court overruled his death sentence in 1951 due to officers’ violations of the McNabb rule.

In March 1975, Carignan was sentenced to a maximum of forty years in prison for attempted murder (of Gwen Burton).

Since no criminal in Minnesota may be sentenced to a term exceeding forty years, the other trials and sentences were described as formalities and were stated as 30 years for the assault on Jewry Billings; 40 years for Eileen Hunley’s murder; and 40 years for killing Kathy Schultz.

Appeals

The Supreme Court ruled that Carignan’s confession was unlawfully elicited by an overzealous police officer who assured Carignan that he would not be executed if he confessed. The Supreme Court overruled Carignan’s death sentence in 1951 due to the officers’ violations of the McNabb rule.

Outcome

Carignan’s death sentence was reversed in 1951.

He was paroled in 1960.

In 1975, he received maximum forty-year sentence in Minnesota.

Aftermath and current status

Carignan was described as still serving time at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater in Bayport, Minnesota.

In one passage, Carignan was described as turning eighty-one on May 18, 2008.

The inmate records at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater showed the spelling of his first name as Harvy (no E).

Other details

Carignan married Sheila Moran a year after moving to Seattle and living with her and her daughter.

He married Alice Johnson on April 14, 1972 and moved in with her and her two children, Billy (11) and Georgia (14).

Two months later, Billy moved out to live with his real father due to the beatings he had been receiving from Carignan.

Virginia Piper disappeared on July 27, 1972.

Carignan’s step-daughter was described as a teenager who ran away from home due to his “lascivious attentions.”

Carignan was described as sullen and uncommunicative, frequently getting up at night and driving long distances “to be alone and think.”

He was described as refusing to share his thoughts or name his destinations, and this contributed to the breakdown of his marriage.

Carignan departed from Seattle shortly after Kathy Miller’s body was retrieved.

A claim in the narrative described Carignan as arrested in 1974.

Carignan’s family relationships included: a mother; a second son; and children stated as three, all deceased—one by gunshot, one from cancer, and one from a dope overdose.

Carignan’s last vehicle ownership was described as a 1966 Toronado, 1968 Chevrolet Caprice, 1968 Chevrolet Pick-up 1/2 ton, and a 1973 Tornado.

Carignan gave personal views in a Q&A. He said:

He said:

“Nobody knows you're.... And they never will!”

He said he would advise kids:

“Do not have parents.”

He said:

“Crime certainly exists and must be punished, but most crimes were created by Congress and state legislatures at the behest of teh criminal justice system so it might grow and become more powerful.”

He said about alcohol:

“Alcohol? It is the bane of children and more dangerous than many drugs. Still, such a high priority should not be put on keeping it away from youth, it only makes them want it more.”

He said:

“I consider myself.... An above average intelligen person who, if my training and lucky had been different, would have been a most successful person in either the education or business fields.”

He said about his political party:

“None.”

He said about religion:

“God revealed himself to the Jewish people and has served them well as a go-between between themselves and The Force that creates teh laws of the universe.”

He said:

“Finish this sentence. I consider myself.... An above average intelligen person who, if my training and lucky had been different, would have been a most successful person in either the education or business fields.”

He said about views on racism, sexism, or homophobia:

“None of the above, but at one time I was homophobic and did not have a good day unless I beat the hell out of at least one.”

He said about superstitions:

He said about his biggest fear:

“I have no fears I can explain.”

He said about drugs:

“Drugs? Except for those drugs that might lead people to harm others, I think the government should keep its nose out of people's business, especially drugs like marijuana, which if it was legal, would cut out the use of a lot of other manufactured drugs.”

He described hobbies before going to prison as “Music and travel,” and hobbies now as “Music and letter writing.”