Summary

Crime history - ‘Pied Piper of Tucson’ kills first victim

By: Scott McCabe

Examiner Staff Writer

May 29, 2009

On this day, May 31, in 1964, the “Pied Piper of Tucson” killed his first

victim.

Charles Schmid Jr. earned his nickname because he was the leader of a

coterie of teenagers, many of whom would keep the secrets of his

murders.

Schmid was a short 22-year-old who stuffed newspapers into his cowboy

boots to make him seem taller. He used a clothespin to stretch his lower lip

to look like Elvis.

When a high school girl, Alleen Rowe, stood up to one of his friends,

Schmid decided to kill her. He and two teens took Rowe out to the desert,

murdered her and buried her in the Arizona sand.

When Schmid broke up with his girlfriend, she threatened to go to police

about the murders, so he strangled her and her sister.

One of the friends moved to Ohio later that year and told authorities

everything he knew about what Schmid had done.

Schmid was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years in prison. In 1975, he

was stabbed 47 times by fellow prisoners. Schmid died 20 days later.

Read more at the Washington Examiner:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Crime-history---Pied-

Piper-of-Tucson--kills-first-victim-46500002.html#ixzz0twkCNyqv