Charles Howard Schmid Jr.: Serial Killer

Alex Asp

Mr. Willsey

English 3

9 May 2015

Charles Howard “Smitty” Schmid Jr. Charles Howard Schmid Jr. (July 8, 1942 – March 30, 1975), also known as The Pied Piper of Tucson, was a serial killer in the state of Arizona. He did not do good in school, but some considered him good-looking, intelligent and well-behaved.He excelled in gymnastics and even led his school to a championship, but stopped his senior year. After being suspended for stealing school property, he never returned and lived off $300 a month from his parents. They let him out on his own with a new car and a new motorcycle, drinking with girls and friends.

May 31, 1964, Schmid decided to murder Alleen Rowe, a high school student who lived with her mother. Schmid's girlfriend, Mary French convinced Rowe to go out with John Saunders, a friend of Schmid’s, but he had intended to murder Rowe anyway, to know what it’s like to kill someone.

Before murdering Rowe, Schmid forced his friend to rape her, but he did not comply to doing it. During the murder, Mary French waited in the car and listening to the radio. Afterwards they buried the body. When the victim went missing, family members back home went to the authorities to try to get them to investigate. They replied that they did not have enough evidence to search for the girl. Then, on August 16, 1965, Schmid murdered his old girlfriend and her sister. He told his friend Richard Bruns about the murders. This frightened Bruns very much, so he flew to Ohio and told his grandparents about the event that he had been informed in, and flew back to help authorities in an investigation against