Harvey Carignan: Serial killer 'Harvey the Hammer' who lured women with 'help wanted' ads dies at 95
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised.
RUSH CITY, MINNESOTA: Serial killer Harvey Carignan, known as “the Want-Ad Killer” and “Harvey The Hammer”, has reportedly died at 95 due to natural causes at a prison in Minnesota earlier this month. Carignan lured unwary women with 'help wanted' advertisements so he could rape and kill them with a hammer.
He was convicted in 1975 of murdering two women — Eileen Hunley and Katherine Schultz. Harvey, at a trial, claimed that god had ordered him “to kill whores and harlots.” He pleaded insanity, but was found guilty.
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On July 31, 1949, a 57-year-old local woman named Laura Showalter was raped and murdered when Carignan was stationed at Fort Richardson, the Army base in Anchorage, Alaska. Carignan’s death sentence for the Showalter murder was overturned and he was sentenced to just 15 years for the Dorcas Callen attack, the woman who was able to escape from Carignan. He went to prison, first in Alaska, then Washington State, and finally to Alcatraz in 1952. In 1960, Carignan was paroled from The Rock and a psychopath who escaped the hangman’s noose was free to prey on women once again, according to KFGO.
Carignan served 9 more years in prison before parole
Before being granted parole, Carignan served a further nine years in prison for assaulting a different woman. He served his time in the Alcatraz prison island, south of San Francisco from 1952 to 1960, according to a report.
Carignan earned 'Harvey the Hammer' for similarity in murders
In case of Hunley murder, the victim vanished in Minnesota in August 1974 and her body was discovered five weeks later. Her skull had been repeatedly hit. In addition, a tree branch had been used to rape her. Carignan admitted to killing Schultz in September 1974 after picking her up from south Minneapolis and taking her to a rural spot. Her severely beaten body was discovered from a cornfield. He earned the moniker "Harvey the Hammer" because, like Hunley, she had her skull crushed with a hammer, according to a TMZ report.
Carignan is alleged to have murdered at least five women before serving the remainder of his life in prison. He had already served a significant amount of time behind bars for burglary and a parole violation. On October 15, 1972, Leslie Laura Brock was found dead in Washington after suffering several head injuries. At least one person claimed to have witnessed her getting into Carignan's truck.
Kathy Miller, 16, came across an ad 'Service station, Help Wanted'
Kathy Miller, another one of Carignan's victims, was 16 when she was looking for a job for her boyfriend. Her eye caught the ad 'Service station, Help Wanted' in Seattle Times. Although she was looking for a job for her boyfriend, the gas station’s proprietor seemed more interested in her. Her mother overheard her conversation as she gave the caller her full name, phone number, and address and was shocked. The man wanted to pick her up from a nearby department store.
Instead, her mother told her to go to the police and advised her against going for the interview, but she had gone anyway. Carignan raped her and then killed her with a hammer. Her remains were found months later when two boys were hiking at the Native American reservation to the north of Everett, Washington. Her body was covered in plastic and she had hammer holes in her skull, the researchers stated.