Charles "Carl" Panzram (June 28, 1891 – September 5, 1930) was an American rapist, serial killer, and habitual offender. In prison confessions and in his autobiography, Panzram confessed to having murdered twenty-one boys and men, only five of which could be corroborated. He is suspected of having killed more than a hundred boys and men in the United States alone, and several more in Portuguese Angola.

Panzram also confessed to having committed more than a thousand acts of rape against males of all ages. After a lifetime of crime, during which he served many prison terms and escaped from many prisons, Panzram was executed by hanging in 1930 for the murder of a prison employee at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Carl Panzram was born on June 28, 1891, on a farm near East Grand Forks, Minnesota, the sixth of seven children born to East Prussian immigrants Johann "John" Gottlieb Panzram, and Mathilda Elizabeth "Lizzie" Panzram (née Bolduan).

Panzram later reflected on his early childhood with the sentiment that he was not liked by other children. By the age of five he claimed that he was a liar and thief, and recalled that he became meaner the older he grew. Panzram's father abandoned the family when he was seven years old. Around the same time, Panzram developed an infection in the mastoid process of his temporal bone, which forced him to undergo surgery, which was performed at home and only worsened the infection, so he was later taken to the hospital for further surgery.

It is unknown whether he suffered brain damage as a result of the incident. Eventually, four of his five older brothers left as well. One of them, his older stepbrother Louis Price, drowned in May 1905 while working as a lumberjack.

Panzram's run-ins with the law started in 1899, at age 8, when he was charged in juvenile court with being drunk and disorderly. In 1903, at age 12, he was arrested and jailed for being drunk and "incorrigible." Not long after this second arrest, Panzram stole cake, apples and a revolver from a neighbor's home.

In October 1903, Panzram's mother sent him to the Minnesota State Training School, purportedly a reform school. Panzram later wrote in his autobiography that he was repeatedly beaten, tortured and raped by staff members, in a workshop the children dubbed "the paint shop" due to leaving the room "painted" with bruises and blood. Panzram hated the school so much that he decided to burn it down, and did so successfully and without detection on July 7, 1905.

Some accounts claim Panzram killed a 12-year-old boy here. In January 1906, Panzram was paroled from Red Wing Training School, where he had been detained after stealing money from his mother's pocketbook. By his early teens Panzram exhibited alcoholism and had a lengthy criminal record, mostly for burglary and robbery offenses. At age 14, a couple of weeks after his parole and two weeks after attempting to kill a Lutheran cleric with a revolver, Panzram ran away from home to live on the streets. He often traveled via train cars, and later recalled having been gang raped by a group of homeless men on one of these occasions.^{[citation needed]}