Editing Howard Unruh (section)

==Background and possible motives for killings==
Howard Unruh was the son of Samuel Shipley Unruh and Freda E. Vollmer. He had a younger brother, James; they were raised by their mother after their parents [[marital separation|separated]]. Unruh grew up in [[East Camden, New Jersey]], attended Cramer Junior High School and graduated from [[Woodrow Wilson High School (New Jersey)|Woodrow Wilson High School]] in January 1939.<ref>[http://www.dvrbs.com/camden/CamdenNJ-HowardUnruh.htm Howard Unruh] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310172044/http://www.dvrbs.com/Camden/CamdenNJ-HowardUnruh.htm |date=March 10, 2011}}, dvrbs.com.</ref> The Woodrow Wilson High School yearbook from 1939 indicated that he was shy and that his ambition was to become a government employee.<ref name="trutv">[[Katherine Ramsland|Ramsland, Katherine]]. [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/howard_unruh/6.html Rampage in Camden]{{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612072425/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/howard_unruh/6.html |date=June 12, 2008}}, ''truTV.com''.</ref>

Unruh enlisted in the [[United States Army]] on October 27, 1942, and saw active service as an armor crewman across Europe between October 1944 and July 1945.<ref name="newspaperarchive1949">{{cite web |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/racine-journal-times-sep-07-1949-p-1/ |title=13th Victim of Massacre Dies |work=[[Racine Journal Times]] |date=September 7, 1949 |via=[[NewspaperArchive]] |access-date=September 14, 2018}}</ref><ref name="newspaperarchive6">{{cite web |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/090749nj-shoot.html?mcubz=3/ |title=Veteran Kills 12 in Mad Rampage on Camden Street |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 7, 1949 |access-date=April 1, 2021}}</ref> He was remembered by his section chief, Norman E. Koehn, as a first-class soldier who never drank, swore, or chased girls and spent much time reading his Bible and writing long letters to his mother.<ref name="newspaperarchive2">{{cite web|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-sep-07-1949-p-1/ |title=Wanted Revenge, Killer of 12 Says |work=[[Wisconsin State Journal]] |via=NewspaperArchive |date=September 7, 1949 |access-date=September 14, 2018}}</ref> It was also cited that Unruh kept meticulous notes on the enemies killed in battles, down to the details of the corpses. He was awarded the [[European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal|European Theater of Operations Medal]], the [[World War II Victory Medal|Victory Medal]], and the [[Good Conduct Medal (United States)|Good Conduct Medal]].

Unruh was [[military discharge|honorably discharged]] at the end of the war and returned to New Jersey to live with his mother. Both his brother and his father later indicated that Unruh's wartime experiences had changed him, making him moody, nervous, and detached. Unruh briefly found work as a sheet-metal worker before enrolling at the [[Temple University]] [[Temple University School of Pharmacy|School of Pharmacy]] in [[Philadelphia]] but quit after a month citing "poor physical condition" as the reason. Supported by his mother's income working in a soap factory, he hung about their house, decorating it with his medals, reading his Bible, and practicing his shooting in the basement, which he had turned into a [[Shooting range|practice range]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/mt-vernon-register-news-sep-07-1949-p-1/ |title=Test Sanity of Veteran Who Killed 13 Persons |work=Mt. Vernon Register-News |via=NewspaperArchive |date=September 7, 1949 |access-date=September 14, 2018}}</ref>

It was around this time that Unruh's relations with his neighbors began to deteriorate and his resentment grew over what he regarded as "derogatory remarks made about my character". His brother James pointed to an ongoing [[feud]] between Unruh and his neighbor, pharmacist Maurice Cohen, over Unruh's use of Cohen's backyard as a means to access his apartment.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/indiana-evening-gazette-sep-13-1949-p-6/ |title=Slayer of Thirteen Gets Sanity Tests |work=Indiana Evening Gazette |via=NewspaperArchive |date=September 13, 1949 |access-date=September 14, 2018}}</ref> Prior to the killings, Unruh went to a movie theater in Philadelphia and sat through several shows before returning home around 3 a.m. He had gone to the theater to meet a man, with whom he had been having a weeks-long affair for a date but was delayed and arrived to find that the man had gone.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-first-mass-murder-us-history-180956927/ |title=The Story of the First Mass Murder in U.S. History |first=Patrick |last=Sauer |website=Smithsonian}}</ref> Upon his return home, a gate he had installed that day had been removed.<ref name="newspaperarchive8" />