Charles Schmid was short and thin, so he often resorted to wearing raised cowboy boots. Additionally, he used heavy makeup, dyed his hair black, and painted a birthmark on his face in an effort to look like his idol, Elvis Presley.
He even used a clothespin daily to pull his bottom lip in hopes of looking as much like Presley as possible.
All this to attract the attention of young girls. whom he then murdered.
Charles considered himself a living copy of Presley.
Bad student but good at sport
At birth, Charles was adopted by Charles and Katharine Schmid, who owned and operated a nursing home in the city of Tucson, Arizona.
Charles was a difficult child and often clashed with his parents, especially Charles the Elder. The couple already separated when Charles was four years old, which further aggravated their relationship.
Charles tried to contact his birth mother when he was a teenager, but she kicked him out and said she never wanted to see him again.
The house that Charles’ mother gave him. The Friz sisters were murdered there. Picture/Life
Charles was a mediocre student but excelled in sports and was, among other things, the captain of a team that won the national junior gymnastics competition. He later said in an interview that it was fear that drew him to gymnastics. Knowing that one bad jump could be his last.
With a court of “fans”
But Charles was more interested in drinking and partying, and in his senior year of high school, he dropped out after he was caught stealing tools from school.
Charles’ house was always full of people. Picture/Life
Charles then moved into a house owned by his mother, who further abused him by allowing him to receive $300 a month in “pocket money”, which at the updated exchange rate is around ISK 400,000 Icelandic.
However, he had dropped out of school, showed no interest in seeking employment, and was generally a nuisance and an annoyance.
Soon Charles’s friend Paul Graff moved in, and with them John Saunders and Richie Burns the four formed a sort of gang that spent the evenings drinking and trying to pick up girls.
From the house of Charles. Picture/Life
Self-proclaimed female brilliance
Charles was not lacking in self-esteem and constantly boasted about his popularity with women.
In fact, Charles always had a group of young people by his side, and he was their undisputed leader. The house was always full of young people who stayed there more or less long and the party did not stop.
He put a lot of effort into his appearance, always had enough money on hand, and lived alone and unsupervised in an entire house. On top of that, most of the followers were younger than him.
On Sunday evening, May 31, 1964, Charles announced to his girlfriend, Mary French, and his roommate, John Saunders, that he was bored.
Allen Rowe. Photo/Getty
Declined an offer of sex
He wanted to kill a girl, as he said, and neither Mary nor John seem to have seen anything wrong with that statement.
The trio traveled to the home of 15-year-old Alleen Rowe. Her parents were divorced and Aleen lived at home with her mother, whom Charles knew worked night shifts.
It was Richie Burs who brought Charles down on the killing spree. Picture/Life
Alleen was chosen as the victim because she had refused sexual offers from Charles and his friends.
Charles ordered Mary to knock on Allen’s door and take him out for a ride. And unfortunately, Allen accepted the invitation. Everyone in the car except Alleen knew what was going to happen next.
Charles drove into the desert where he and John raped Alleen, then killed her by throwing a rock at her head. They then buried Aleen in a shallow grave.
Mary waited in the car while the above happened, listening to the radio.
Gretchen and Wendy Fritz
“Just a hassle to talk about it”
Charles couldn’t bring himself to brag about the atrocity with Richie Bruns, but the rape and murder couldn’t be avoided. Mary and John went wild and managed to tell all of Charles’ classmates about the deed.
But no one said anything.
“It was too late, she was dead anyway.” And it would have only created problems to keep quiet,” one of Charles’s classmates later said.
A year after Allen’s murder, Charles’s new girlfriend, 17-year-old Gretchen Fritz, and her 13-year-old sister, Wendy, have disappeared.
Gretchen was the daughter of wealthy people, who had been expelled from a fine private school for her peculiar and threatening behavior. It was recommended that she be seen by a psychiatrist as soon as possible, which her parents dismissed as hot air.
Charles captured. Image/Life.
So Gretchen and Charles were as toxic a couple as you can imagine. Gretchen was extremely jealous, watching Charles, throwing tantrums if he talked to other girls, and calling the others five to seven times a day. Charles was fed up with her.
He invited her over with the intention of ending the relationship, but threatened Gretchen to go to the police and report Alleen’s murder.
So Charles strangled Gretchen and since the little sister was with him, he strangled little Wendy too.
He then drove the bodies out into the desert and buried them.
At the trial. Picture/Life
Trial and judgment
Again, Charles confided in Richie Bruns about the murders and even told him exactly where they were buried.
But now Richie couldn’t keep his mouth shut and was actually terrified that his own girlfriend was Charles’ next victim.
So he left Arizona, went back to his parents in Ohio and told them the whole solar story. They immediately went to meet the police.
Richie would later become the main prosecution witness in the trial against Charles.
Charles followed the police to the graves. Picture/Life
In 1966, Charles was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Alleen Rowe and had to serve at least 50 years. He was sentenced to death for the murder of the Fritz sisters, but that sentence was commuted to life in prison when Arizona abolished the death penalty.
He was not well received by the other prisoners and in March 1975 he was stabbed so badly that he lost an eye and a kidney.
Charles Schmid died ten days later.
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