Serial Killer Harvey Louis Carignan #truecrime

Update- Harvey finally died in prison at age 95.

In America during the early 1970s a killer lurked in Minnesota, Washington and other Western states killing at least 5 people. By all rights this creature should never have had the opportunity to kill again after being sentenced to death in 1949 for a murder he committed in Alaska. Because of improper police procedure he was able to receive parole for that killing in 1960 and resumed his hunt for victims.
Harvey. Louis. Carignan. The Want Ad killer A K A Harv the Hammer.

Harvey Carignan was born May 18 1927 in Fargo North Dakota to a single mother in her early 20s. He was passed around various family members and descended into criminality at an early age. He was sent to a reform school at age 11 where he would spend 7 years. During this time he claimed he was sexually abused by female staff members and was also diagnosed with a nervous disorder characterized by twitching arms and legs.
At age 18 he left the reform school and joined the army. 4 years later he would commit the murder for which he was sentenced to death. In 1949, Harvey Carignan assaulted and murdered a 57 year old woman named Laura Schowatler.

Not long after his sentence, Carignans lawyers filed an appeal. The Supreme Court found that his confession had been obtained illegally as the police had promised he would not be executed if he confessed. Because of this the death sentence was nullified and Harvey was transferred to the infamous Alcatraz prison. He would spend 8 years in the rock until he was paroled in 1960.

Only a few months after his release, Carignan was arrested for burglary, assault, and attempted rape in Minnesota. He was convicted and sentenced to 2 and a half years in Minnesota state prison and and just under 6 years in federal prison at Leavenworth in Kansas. Again the convicted murderer be paroled in 1964.

He moved to seattle where he would be arrested the same year he was released, this year for burglary. For this he was sentenced to 15 years in Walla Walla state prison. But he was released on parole after barely 4 years had passed.

He got married in 1969 to a woman named Sheila Moran. He then moved in with her and her daughter. But, that same year he was arrested yet again for violating his parole and for robbery. His wife also divorced him due to physical abuse during his year sentence in prison.

2 years after his release, in 1972, Carignan would marry again, this time to a woman named Alice Johnson, a mother of 2. Her son, Billy, would soon leave the house due to the physical violence he suffered at the hands of Harvey.

Also in 1972, Harvey killed again. A woman name Virginia Piper disappeared. Another woman, 19 year old Laura Brock, was found beaten to death. Witnesses had witnessed her climbing into Carignans truck.

The next to fall prey to the depraved killer was a 15 year old girl named Kathy Sue miller. She had responded to an wanted ad for employees at a gas station. She was assaulted then beaten to death with a hammer. Her body would not be found for 2 months. 2 boys found her naked body wrapped in plastic on the Indian Reservation near Everett Washington.

One month after killing Kathy Sue Miller, Harvey attacked a woman named Mary Townsend. The 47 year old had been waiting at a bus stop when she was knocked unconscious. When she awoke in his truck, he demanded she perform sexual acts. Fortunately she was able to escape by leaping from the moving vehicle. Within days, he would be arrested for assaulting his wife Alice, and she left him.

However, he was free to kill again 3 months later. In September 1973, he picked up a 13 year old hitchhiker named Jerri Billings. He assaulted her in his truck before releasing her. Unfortunately she did not report the crime for months.

Harvey picked up another hitchhiker in May 1974 in Minnesota. Her name was Eileen Hunley. The pair began dating and Harvey moved in with her. But, when she attempted to leave him that August, he killed her with a hammer. When her body was found over a month later, her skull had been crushed from the hammer blows, and she had been assaulted using a tree branch.

In September of that year, Carignan picked up a pair of hitchhikers in Minneapolis. 17 year old June Lynch and 16 year old Lisa king. He took them outside of town and attacked them with a hammer. Lisa escaped while he smashed June, and he dumped her body out of the truck and sped off.

One week later, he attacked Gwen Burton who he had picked up in a Sears parking lot. She narrowly survived the ordeal after he dumped her unconscious in a field.

Over the next week, Harvey would attack 3 more women. Versoi and Diane Flynn were picked up and forced to perform depraved acts on Carignan while he threatened them with a hammer if they did not comply. They were able to flee the monster when he stopped to get gas. But, his next victim, Kathy Schultz would not be so lucky. Her body was found by hunters in a cornfield 40 miles outside of Minneapolis. Once again, her skull had been smashed by repeated blows from a hammer.

Police in Minneapolis and Washington were coming together at this point to compare crimes and were able to present a lineup to surviving victims. Harvey Carignan was picked out as the attacker. When he was arrested, police found maps in his possession which had been marked with red circles in both the US and Canada. Some of these designated places where Carignan had applied for work and others where he had purchased vehicles. However, others linked the killer to unsolved murders and attacks on women. One of these circles was at the location where Laura Brock had been kidnapped in Washington, one designated the place where a murdered girl had been found in North Dakota, and another was placed at at the intersection where Mary Townsend had been waiting for a bus when Harvey attacked her with a hammer.

In February of 1975, Carignan was tried for his crimes against Gwen Burton. He attempted to claim insanity and explained that God had instructed him to attack women. The jury was not fooled and found him guilty. His sentence was a maximum of 40 years in prison. Unfortunately, Minnesota law prevented a sentence from exceeding 40 years and so the other guilty verdicts did not add to his time behind bars. He was found guilty for the assault on Jewry Billings, the murder of Eileen Hunley, and the murder of Kathy Schultz. Luckily, his sentence was changed to Life imprisonment and he has been denied parole.

He was sent to the Minnesota Correctional facility in Bayport.
As of 2022, according to Minnesota’s corrections database he is still alive at age 94 and housed at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Faribault- thankfully this changed in 2023 and he is no more.