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{{short description|American murderer}}
{{short description|American serial killer}}
{{Infobox serial killer
{{Infobox serial killer
|name=Joseph Kallinger
|name=Joseph Kallinger
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|alias=The Shoemaker
|alias=The Shoemaker
|birth_date={{Birth date|1935|12|11}}
|birth_date={{Birth date|1935|12|11}}
|birth_place=Northern Liberties Hospital, [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], U.S.
|birth_place=Northern Liberties Hospital, [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_place=[[State Correctional Institution - Cresson]], [[Cresson Township, Cambria County, Pennsylvania]], U.S.
|death_place=[[State Correctional Institution - Cresson]], [[Cresson Township, Cambria County, Pennsylvania|Cresson Township, Cambria County]], Pennsylvania, U.S.
|death_date={{Death date and age|1996|3|26|1935|12|11}}
|death_date={{Death date and age|1996|3|26|1935|12|11}}
⚫
|victims=3
|cause=[[Heart failure]]
⚫
|victims=3
|country=United States
|country=United States
|states=[[New Jersey]]
|states=[[New Jersey]]
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|endyear=January 8, 1975
|endyear=January 8, 1975
|apprehended=January 17, 1975
|apprehended=January 17, 1975
|conviction=[[Arson]],<br>[[Child abuse]],<br>[[Murder]]
|conviction=[[Arson]], [[child abuse]], [[murder]]
|sentence=[[Life imprisonment]]
|sentence=[[Life imprisonment]]
|children=7
|children=7
|spouse= {{plainlist|
|spouse=Hilda Bergman (1952-1956) Elizabeth (Betty) Baumgard (1958)
* {{marriage|Hilda Bergman|1952|1956|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Elizabeth Baumgard|1958}}
}}
}}
}}
'''Joseph Kallinger''' (born '''Joseph Lee Brenner III'''; December 11, 1935 &ndash; March 26, 1996)<ref name="bookrags">{{cite web | title = 'World of Criminal Justice' on Joseph Kallinger | work = Bookrags | url = http://www.bookrags.com/biography/joseph-kallinger-cri/ | access-date = 20 April 2012}}</ref> was an American [[serial killer]] who [[murder]]ed three people, and [[torture]]d four families. He committed these crimes with his 12-year-old son Michael.<ref name="ffr">{{cite web | title = Joseph and Michael Kallinger | work = Frances Farmer's Revenge | url = http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/kallinger.htm | access-date = 20 April 2012 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120225041932/http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/kallinger.htm | archive-date = 25 February 2012 }}{{verify credibility|date=May 2012}}</ref>
'''Joseph Kallinger''' (born '''Joseph Lee Brenner III'''; December 11, 1935 &ndash; March 26, 1996)<ref name="bookrags">{{cite book | title = 'World of Criminal Justice' on Joseph Kallinger | via = Bookrags | url = http://www.bookrags.com/biography/joseph-kallinger-cri/ | access-date = 20 April 2012}}</ref> was an American [[serial killer]] who [[murder]]ed three people, and [[torture]]d four families. He committed the later crimes with his 12-year-old son Michael.<ref name="ffr">{{cite web | title = Joseph and Michael Kallinger | work = Frances Farmer's Revenge | url = http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/kallinger.htm | access-date = 20 April 2012 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120225041932/http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/serialkillers/kallinger.htm | archive-date = 25 February 2012 }}{{verify credibility|date=May 2012}}</ref>


== Early life ==
== Early life ==
Kallinger m was born on December 11, 1935 as Joseph Lee Brenner III at the Northern Liberties Hospital in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]] to Joseph Lee Brenner, Jr. and his wife Judith. In December 1937, the child was placed in [[foster care]] after his father had abandoned his mother. On October 15, 1939, he was adopted by [[Austrians|Austrian]] immigrants Stephen and Anna Kallinger.<ref name="radford.edu">{{cite web | last = Greenlief | first = Christopher |author2=Amanda Hall |author3=Jenna Hafey | title = Joseph Kallinger: 'The Shoemaker | url = http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Kalinger,%20Joseph%20_spring%202007_.pdf | format = PDF | access-date = 2 May 2012}}{{verify credibility|date=May 2012}}</ref>
Kallinger was born on December 11, 1935, as Joseph Lee Brenner III at the [[Northern Liberties Hospital]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]] to Joseph Lee Brenner, Jr. and his wife Judith. In December 1937, he was placed in [[foster care]] after his father had abandoned his mother. On October 15, 1939, he was adopted by [[Austrians|Austrian]] immigrants Stephen and Anna Kallinger.<ref name="radford.edu">{{cite web | last = Greenlief | first = Christopher |author2=Amanda Hall |author3=Jenna Hafey | title = Joseph Kallinger: 'The Shoemaker | url = http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Kalinger,%20Joseph%20_spring%202007_.pdf | access-date = 2 May 2012}}{{verify credibility|date=May 2012}}</ref>


He was [[child abuse|abused]] by both his adoptive parents so severely that, at age six, he suffered a [[hernia]] inflicted by his adoptive father. The punishments Kallinger endured included kneeling on jagged rocks, being locked inside closets, [[coprophagia|consuming excrement]], committing [[self-injury]], being burned with irons, being whipped with belts, and being starved.<ref name="radford.edu"/> When he was nine, he was [[sexual assault|sexually assaulted]] by a group of neighborhood boys.<ref name="radford.edu"/>
He was [[child abuse|abused]] by both his adoptive parents so severely that, at age six, he suffered a [[hernia]] inflicted by his adoptive father. The punishments Kallinger endured included kneeling on jagged rocks, being locked inside closets, [[coprophagia|consuming excrement]], committing [[self-injury]], being burned with irons, being whipped with belts, and being starved.<ref name="radford.edu"/> When he was nine, he was [[sexual assault|sexually assaulted]] by a group of neighborhood boys.<ref name="radford.edu"/>


As a child, Kallinger often rebelled against his teachers and his adoptive parents. He dreamed of becoming a [[playwright]], and had played the part of [[Ebenezer Scrooge]] in the local [[YWCA]]'s performance of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' in the ninth grade.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/shoemakeranatomy00schr|title=The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic|first=Flora|last=Schreiber|date=1984|publisher=New American Library|isbn=0451128559|location=New York, N.Y.|oclc=10616493|url-access=registration}}</ref> When Kallinger was 15, he began dating a girl named Hilda Bergman, whom he met at a theater which he was allowed to visit on Saturdays. His parents told him not to see her, but he married her and had two children with her.<ref name="radford.edu"/>
As a child, Kallinger often rebelled against his teachers and his adoptive parents. He dreamed of becoming a [[playwright]], and had played the part of [[Ebenezer Scrooge]] in the local [[YWCA]]'s performance of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' in the ninth grade.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/shoemakeranatomy00schr|title=The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic|first=Flora|last=Schreiber|date=1984|publisher=New American Library|isbn=0451128559|location=New York, N.Y.|oclc=10616493|url-access=registration}}</ref> When Kallinger was 15, he began dating a girl, Hilda Bergman, whom he met at a theater he visited on Saturdays. His parents told him not to see her, but he married her and had two children with her.<ref name="radford.edu"/>


She later left him because of the [[domestic violence]] she suffered at his hands. Kallinger was hospitalized at St. Mary's on September 4, 1957 due to severe headaches and loss of appetite which doctors believed was a result of stress surrounding his [[divorce]]. Kallinger remarried on April 20, 1958 and had five children with his second wife. He was extremely abusive towards his family, and often inflicted the same punishments on them that he had suffered from his adoptive parents.<ref name="radford.edu"/>
She later left him because of [[domestic violence]]. Kallinger was hospitalized at St. Mary's on September 4, 1957, with severe headaches and loss of appetite, doctors believed was a result of stress from his [[divorce]]. Kallinger remarried on April 20, 1958, and had five children with his second wife. He was extremely abusive towards his family, and often inflicted the same punishments on them that he had suffered from his adoptive parents.<ref name="radford.edu"/>


Throughout the next decade, Kallinger would spend time in and out of mental institutions for [[amnesia]], attempted [[suicide]] and committing [[arson]].
Throughout the next decade, Kallinger spent time in and out of mental institutions due to [[amnesia]], attempted [[suicide]] and committing [[arson]].


== Criminal career ==
== Criminal career ==
Kallinger was arrested and imprisoned in 1972 when his children went to the police. While in jail, he had scored 82 on an [[IQ test]] and was diagnosed with [[paranoid schizophrenia]], and state psychiatrists recommended that he be supervised with his family. The children later recanted their allegations.<ref name="ramsland">{{cite web | last = Ramsland | first = Katherine | title = The Enigmatic Cobbler: Clever or Crazy? | work = truTV Crime Library | url = http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/joseph_kallinger/index.html | access-date = 20 April 2012}}</ref>{{rp|6}}
Kallinger was arrested and imprisoned in 1972 when his children went to the police. While in jail, he had scored 82 on an [[IQ test]] and was diagnosed with [[paranoid schizophrenia]], and state psychiatrists recommended that he be supervised with his family. The children later recanted their allegations.<ref name="ramsland">{{cite web | last = Ramsland | first = Katherine | title = The Enigmatic Cobbler: Clever or Crazy? | work = truTV Crime Library | url = http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/joseph_kallinger/index.html | access-date = 20 April 2012}}</ref>{{rp|6}}


Two years later, one of his children, Joseph, Jr., was found dead in an abandoned construction building <ref name="bookrags" /> two weeks after Kallinger took out a large [[life insurance policy]] on his sons. Though Kallinger claimed that Joseph, Jr. had run away from home, the insurance company, suspecting [[Crime|foul play]], refused to pay out the claim.<ref name="mariotte">{{cite book|last=Mariotte|first=Jeff|title=Criminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers, and Other Deviants|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=Hoboken, NJ}}</ref>
Two years later, one of his children, Joseph, Jr., was found dead in an abandoned construction building<ref name="bookrags" /> two weeks after Kallinger took out a large [[life insurance policy]] on his sons. Though Kallinger claimed that Joseph Jr had run away from home, the insurance company, suspecting [[Crime|foul play]], refused to pay out the claim.<ref name="mariotte">{{cite book|last=Mariotte|first=Jeff|title=Criminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers, and Other Deviants|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=Hoboken, New Jersey}}</ref>


Beginning in July 1974, Kallinger and his 12-year-old son Michael went on a crime spree spanning Philadelphia, [[Baltimore]], and [[New Jersey]]. Over the next six weeks, they robbed, [[assault]]ed, and [[sexual abuse|sexually abused]] four families and murdered three people, gaining entrance to each house by pretending to be salesmen. On January 8, 1975, they continued their spree in [[Leonia, New Jersey]]. Using a pistol and a knife, they overpowered and tied up the three residents. Then, when others entered the home, they were forced to strip and were bound with cords from lamps and other appliances.<ref name="mariotte" />
Beginning in November 1974, Kallinger and his 12-year-old son Michael went on a crime spree spanning Philadelphia, [[Baltimore]], and [[New Jersey]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stout|first=David|date=May 10, 1996|title=Joseph Kallinger, 59, a Cobbler-Turned-Killer|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/10/nyregion/joseph-kallinger-59-a-cobbler-turned-killer.html|access-date=September 6, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Over the next six weeks, they robbed, [[assault]]ed, and [[sexual abuse|sexually abused]] four families, gaining entrance to each house by pretending to be salesmen. On January 8, 1975, they continued their spree in [[Leonia, New Jersey|Leonia]], New Jersey. Using a pistol and a knife, they overpowered and tied up the three residents. Then, when others entered the home, they were forced to strip and were bound with cords from lamps and other appliances.<ref name="mariotte" />


This culminated in the killing of 21-year-old nurse Maria Fasching, the eighth person to arrive, when she refused to follow Kallinger's orders he responded by stabbing her in the neck and back. Another of the residents, still bound, managed to get outside and cry for help. Neighbors saw her and called the police. By the time they arrived the Kallingers had fled, using the city bus as their getaway vehicle and dumping their weapons and a bloody shirt along the way.<ref name="mariotte" />
This culminated in the killing of 21-year-old nurse Maria Fasching, the eighth person to arrive. When she refused to follow Kallinger's orders he responded by stabbing her in the neck and back. Another of the residents, still bound, managed to get outside and cry for help. Neighbors saw her and called the police. By the time they arrived the Kallingers had fled, using the city bus as their getaway vehicle and dumping their weapons and a bloody shirt along the way.<ref name="mariotte" />


== Arrest and imprisonment ==
== Arrest and imprisonment ==
Police investigated Kallinger after gathering the bloody shirt and eyewitness testimony that he and his son had been seen in the area. They soon found out about Kallinger's history of domestic violence, Joseph Jr.'s unsolved death, and a series of arsons targeted against buildings he owned.<ref name="bookrags"/> Kallinger and his son were arrested on [[kidnapping]] and [[rape]] charges, and eventually charged with three counts of [[murder]] in New Jersey state courts. Kallinger [[insanity plea|pleaded insanity]], claiming [[God]] had told him to kill.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9903E5DE173BF933A05752C0A962948260 "Experts in Murder Trial Say Shoemaker is Schizophrenic"], ''The New York Times'', 30 January 1984.</ref>
Police investigated Kallinger after gathering the bloody shirt and eyewitness testimony that he and his son had been seen in the area. They soon found out about Kallinger's history of domestic violence, Joseph Jr.'s unsolved death, and a series of arsons targeted against buildings he owned.<ref name="bookrags"/> Kallinger and his son were arrested on [[kidnapping]] and [[rape]] charges. Kallinger was eventually charged with three counts of [[murder]] for his son Joseph Jr, Maria Fasching, and a neighborhood boy.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stout|first=David|date=1996-05-10|title=Joseph Kallinger, 59, a Cobbler-Turned-Killer|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/10/nyregion/joseph-kallinger-59-a-cobbler-turned-killer.html|access-date=2021-09-06|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Kallinger [[insanity plea|pleaded insanity]], claiming [[God]] had told him to kill.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9903E5DE173BF933A05752C0A962948260 "Experts in Murder Trial Say Shoemaker is Schizophrenic"], ''The New York Times'', 30 January 1984.</ref>


He was found [[sanity|sane]] and sentenced to [[life in prison]] on October 14, 1976. Michael, meanwhile, was judged to be under his father's control. He was sentenced to a [[reformatory]]. Upon his release at 21, he moved out of state and changed his name. While in prison, Kallinger made several suicide attempts, including attempting to set himself on fire. Because of his suicidal and violent behavior, he was transferred to a [[mental hospital]] in [[Trenton, New Jersey]]. He was transferred to a mental hospital in Philadelphia on May 18, 1979.
He was found [[sanity|sane]] and sentenced to [[life in prison]] on October 14, 1976. Michael, meanwhile, was judged to be under his father's control. He was sentenced to a [[reformatory]]. Upon his release at 21, he moved out of state and changed his name. While in prison, Kallinger made several suicide attempts, including attempting to set himself on fire. Because of his suicidal and violent behavior, he was transferred to a [[mental hospital]] in [[Trenton, New Jersey|Trenton]], New Jersey. He was then transferred to a mental hospital in Philadelphia on May 18, 1979.


[[Flora Rheta Schreiber]], the author of the bestselling book, ''[[Sybil (Schreiber book)|Sybil]]'', interviewed Kallinger in jail in 1976.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/04/obituaries/flora-schreiber-70-the-writer-of-sybil-and-of-shoemaker.html|title=Flora Schreiber, 70, The Writer of 'Sybil' And of 'Shoemaker'|last=Yarrow|first=Andrew L.|date=1988-11-04|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-12-26}}</ref> The interview was the basis for a book on the case which was published by [[Simon & Schuster]] under the title, ''The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic'' in 1983. This book was later part of a [[Son of Sam law|Son of Sam lawsuit]] brought by one of the victim's families as Kallinger received royalties for the book. A judge awarded the family earnings from not only Kallinger, but Schreiber and Simon & Schuster as well, leaving Schreiber nearly $100,000 in personal debt due to expenses of the book's research, including phone calls to Kallinger in prison which totaled $1200 per month for several years. A later appellate panel awarded only Kallinger's royalties to the families.<ref name="auto1"/>
[[Flora Rheta Schreiber]], the author of the bestselling book ''[[Sybil (Schreiber book)|Sybil]]'', interviewed Kallinger in jail in 1976.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/04/obituaries/flora-schreiber-70-the-writer-of-sybil-and-of-shoemaker.html|title=Flora Schreiber, 70, The Writer of 'Sybil' And of 'Shoemaker'|last=Yarrow|first=Andrew L.|date=1988-11-04|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-12-26}}</ref> The interview was the basis for a book on the case which was published by [[Simon & Schuster]] under the title, ''The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic'' in 1983. This book was later part of a [[Son of Sam law|Son of Sam lawsuit]] brought by one of the victim's families as Kallinger received royalties for the book. A judge awarded the family earnings from not only Kallinger, but Schreiber and Simon & Schuster as well, leaving Schreiber nearly $100,000 in personal debt due to expenses of the book's research, including phone calls to Kallinger in prison which totaled $1200 per month for several years. A later appellate panel awarded only Kallinger's royalties to the families.<ref name="auto1"/>


Michael Korda, editor at Simon & Schuster, said that for many years he received a Christmas card from Kallinger from jail. <ref>{{Cite book|title=Another Life: A Memoir of Other People|last=Korda|first=Michael|publisher=Random|year=1999|isbn=9780679456599|pages=[https://archive.org/details/anotherlifememoi00kord/page/493 493]|quote="For many years I received a Christmas card from Kallinger, who was in the state institution for the criminally insane of Pennsylvania, where he was unwisely placed in the shoe-repair shop at first, thus giving him access to the same sharp, curved shoemaker's knife with which he had carved up a number of people during his heyday as a serial killer, with results that would have been predictable to anybody but a psychiatrist."|url=https://archive.org/details/anotherlifememoi00kord/page/493}}</ref> Schreiber herself grew very close to Kallinger during the writing process, and the two exchanged regular letters and phone calls until Schreiber's death in 1988.
Michael Korda, editor at Simon & Schuster, said that for many years he received a Christmas card from Kallinger from jail.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Another Life: A Memoir of Other People|last=Korda|first=Michael|publisher=Random|year=1999|isbn=9780679456599|pages=[https://archive.org/details/anotherlifememoi00kord/page/493 493]|quote="For many years I received a Christmas card from Kallinger, who was in the state institution for the criminally insane of Pennsylvania, where he was unwisely placed in the shoe-repair shop at first, thus giving him access to the same sharp, curved shoemaker's knife with which he had carved up a number of people during his heyday as a serial killer, with results that would have been predictable to anybody but a psychiatrist."|url=https://archive.org/details/anotherlifememoi00kord/page/493}}</ref> Schreiber herself grew very close to Kallinger during the writing process, and the two exchanged regular letters and phone calls until Schreiber's death in 1988.


==Death==
==Death==
Joseph Kallinger died of [[heart failure]] on March 26, 1996 at [[State Correctional Institution – Cresson|SCI Cresson]].<ref>{{cite web
Joseph Kallinger died of [[heart failure]] on March 26, 1996, at [[State Correctional Institution – Cresson|SCI Cresson]].<ref>{{cite web
| last = Dominic
| last = Dominic
| first = Sama
| first = Sama
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==See also==
==See also==
*[[Frailty (2001 film)]]

'''General:'''
* [[List of serial killers in the United States]]
* [[List of serial killers in the United States]]


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== Further reading ==
== Further reading ==
[http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Kalinger,%20Joseph%20_spring%202007_.pdf Joseph Kallinger “The Shoemaker” Information researched and summarized by Christopher Greenlief, Amanda Hall, and Jenna Hafey Department of Psychology Radford University Radford, VA 24142-6946]
* [http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Kalinger,%20Joseph%20_spring%202007_.pdf Joseph Kallinger “The Shoemaker” Information researched and summarized by Christopher Greenlief, Amanda Hall, and Jenna Hafey Department of Psychology Radford University Radford, VA 24142-6946]
<br />
<br />


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[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:American serial killers]]
[[Category:American adoptees]]
[[Category:Male serial killers]]
[[Category:American murderers of children]]
[[Category:American rapists]]
[[Category:American rapists]]
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[[Category:American people convicted of murder]]
[[Category:American people with disabilities]]
[[Category:American people with disabilities]]
[[Category:American adoptees]]
[[Category:American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]
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[[Category:American serial killers]]
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[[Category:Criminals from Philadelphia]]
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[[Category:Filicides in the United States]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by New Jersey]]
[[Category:People with epilepsy]]
[[Category:People with epilepsy]]
[[Category:People with schizophrenia]]
[[Category:People with schizophrenia]]
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[[Category:Filicides in the United States]]
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[[Category:American murderers of children]]
[[Category:American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New Jersey]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New Jersey]]
[[Category:American people convicted of murder]]
[[Category:Serial killers from New Jersey]]
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[[Category:People convicted of murder by New Jersey]]
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[[Category:Criminals of Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Deaths from epilepsy]]
[[Category:Criminal duos]]
[[Category:Serial killers who died in prison custody]]
[[Category:Serial killers who died in prison custody]]

Revision as of 20:49, 19 May 2024

Joseph Kallinger
Born
Joseph Lee Brenner III

(1935-12-11)December 11, 1935
Northern Liberties Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedMarch 26, 1996(1996-03-26) (aged 60)
State Correctional Institution - Cresson, Cresson Township, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Other namesThe Shoemaker
Spouses
Hilda Bergman
​
​
(m. 1952; div. 1956)​
Elizabeth Baumgard
​
(m. 1958)​
Children7
Conviction(s)Arson, child abuse, murder
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment
Details
Victims3
Span of crimes
July 7, 1974 – January 8, 1975
CountryUnited States
State(s)New Jersey
Date apprehended
January 17, 1975

Joseph Kallinger (born Joseph Lee Brenner III; December 11, 1935 – March 26, 1996)[1] was an American serial killer who murdered three people, and tortured four families. He committed the later crimes with his 12-year-old son Michael.[2]

Early life

Kallinger was born on December 11, 1935, as Joseph Lee Brenner III at the Northern Liberties Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Joseph Lee Brenner, Jr. and his wife Judith. In December 1937, he was placed in foster care after his father had abandoned his mother. On October 15, 1939, he was adopted by Austrian immigrants Stephen and Anna Kallinger.[3]

He was abused by both his adoptive parents so severely that, at age six, he suffered a hernia inflicted by his adoptive father. The punishments Kallinger endured included kneeling on jagged rocks, being locked inside closets, consuming excrement, committing self-injury, being burned with irons, being whipped with belts, and being starved.[3] When he was nine, he was sexually assaulted by a group of neighborhood boys.[3]

As a child, Kallinger often rebelled against his teachers and his adoptive parents. He dreamed of becoming a playwright, and had played the part of Ebenezer Scrooge in the local YWCA's performance of A Christmas Carol in the ninth grade.[4] When Kallinger was 15, he began dating a girl, Hilda Bergman, whom he met at a theater he visited on Saturdays. His parents told him not to see her, but he married her and had two children with her.[3]

She later left him because of domestic violence. Kallinger was hospitalized at St. Mary's on September 4, 1957, with severe headaches and loss of appetite, doctors believed was a result of stress from his divorce. Kallinger remarried on April 20, 1958, and had five children with his second wife. He was extremely abusive towards his family, and often inflicted the same punishments on them that he had suffered from his adoptive parents.[3]

Throughout the next decade, Kallinger spent time in and out of mental institutions due to amnesia, attempted suicide and committing arson.

Criminal career

Kallinger was arrested and imprisoned in 1972 when his children went to the police. While in jail, he had scored 82 on an IQ test and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and state psychiatrists recommended that he be supervised with his family. The children later recanted their allegations.[5]: 6 

Two years later, one of his children, Joseph, Jr., was found dead in an abandoned construction building[1] two weeks after Kallinger took out a large life insurance policy on his sons. Though Kallinger claimed that Joseph Jr had run away from home, the insurance company, suspecting foul play, refused to pay out the claim.[6]

Beginning in November 1974, Kallinger and his 12-year-old son Michael went on a crime spree spanning Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Jersey.[7] Over the next six weeks, they robbed, assaulted, and sexually abused four families, gaining entrance to each house by pretending to be salesmen. On January 8, 1975, they continued their spree in Leonia, New Jersey. Using a pistol and a knife, they overpowered and tied up the three residents. Then, when others entered the home, they were forced to strip and were bound with cords from lamps and other appliances.[6]

This culminated in the killing of 21-year-old nurse Maria Fasching, the eighth person to arrive. When she refused to follow Kallinger's orders he responded by stabbing her in the neck and back. Another of the residents, still bound, managed to get outside and cry for help. Neighbors saw her and called the police. By the time they arrived the Kallingers had fled, using the city bus as their getaway vehicle and dumping their weapons and a bloody shirt along the way.[6]

Arrest and imprisonment

Police investigated Kallinger after gathering the bloody shirt and eyewitness testimony that he and his son had been seen in the area. They soon found out about Kallinger's history of domestic violence, Joseph Jr.'s unsolved death, and a series of arsons targeted against buildings he owned.[1] Kallinger and his son were arrested on kidnapping and rape charges. Kallinger was eventually charged with three counts of murder for his son Joseph Jr, Maria Fasching, and a neighborhood boy.[8] Kallinger pleaded insanity, claiming God had told him to kill.[9]

He was found sane and sentenced to life in prison on October 14, 1976. Michael, meanwhile, was judged to be under his father's control. He was sentenced to a reformatory. Upon his release at 21, he moved out of state and changed his name. While in prison, Kallinger made several suicide attempts, including attempting to set himself on fire. Because of his suicidal and violent behavior, he was transferred to a mental hospital in Trenton, New Jersey. He was then transferred to a mental hospital in Philadelphia on May 18, 1979.

Flora Rheta Schreiber, the author of the bestselling book Sybil, interviewed Kallinger in jail in 1976.[10] The interview was the basis for a book on the case which was published by Simon & Schuster under the title, The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic in 1983. This book was later part of a Son of Sam lawsuit brought by one of the victim's families as Kallinger received royalties for the book. A judge awarded the family earnings from not only Kallinger, but Schreiber and Simon & Schuster as well, leaving Schreiber nearly $100,000 in personal debt due to expenses of the book's research, including phone calls to Kallinger in prison which totaled $1200 per month for several years. A later appellate panel awarded only Kallinger's royalties to the families.[10]

Michael Korda, editor at Simon & Schuster, said that for many years he received a Christmas card from Kallinger from jail.[11] Schreiber herself grew very close to Kallinger during the writing process, and the two exchanged regular letters and phone calls until Schreiber's death in 1988.

Death

Joseph Kallinger died of heart failure on March 26, 1996, at SCI Cresson.[12] He spent the last 11 years of his life on suicide watch.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c 'World of Criminal Justice' on Joseph Kallinger. Retrieved 20 April 2012 – via Bookrags.
  2. ^ "Joseph and Michael Kallinger". Frances Farmer's Revenge. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2012.[unreliable source?]
  3. ^ a b c d e Greenlief, Christopher; Amanda Hall; Jenna Hafey. "Joseph Kallinger: 'The Shoemaker" (PDF). Retrieved 2 May 2012.[unreliable source?]
  4. ^ Schreiber, Flora (1984). The Shoemaker: The Anatomy of a Psychotic. New York, N.Y.: New American Library. ISBN 0451128559. OCLC 10616493.
  5. ^ Ramsland, Katherine. "The Enigmatic Cobbler: Clever or Crazy?". truTV Crime Library. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  6. ^ a b c Mariotte, Jeff (2010). Criminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers, and Other Deviants. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
  7. ^ Stout, David (May 10, 1996). "Joseph Kallinger, 59, a Cobbler-Turned-Killer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  8. ^ Stout, David (1996-05-10). "Joseph Kallinger, 59, a Cobbler-Turned-Killer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
  9. ^ "Experts in Murder Trial Say Shoemaker is Schizophrenic", The New York Times, 30 January 1984.
  10. ^ a b Yarrow, Andrew L. (1988-11-04). "Flora Schreiber, 70, The Writer of 'Sybil' And of 'Shoemaker'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-12-26.
  11. ^ Korda, Michael (1999). Another Life: A Memoir of Other People. Random. pp. 493. ISBN 9780679456599. For many years I received a Christmas card from Kallinger, who was in the state institution for the criminally insane of Pennsylvania, where he was unwisely placed in the shoe-repair shop at first, thus giving him access to the same sharp, curved shoemaker's knife with which he had carved up a number of people during his heyday as a serial killer, with results that would have been predictable to anybody but a psychiatrist.
  12. ^ Dominic, Sama. "Joseph Kallinger, Shoemaker Jailed For 3 Infamous Killings". Philly.com. Interstate General Media, LLC. Retrieved July 23, 2013.

Further reading


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