"Ol' Creepy" Karpis

What led Alvin Karpavitz, AKA, “Ol’ Creepy” Karpis, from being a troubled kid who skipped school to becoming “Public Enemy No. 1” in 1935 and remaining on Alcatraz longer than anyone?

In Karpis’ case it may have been a neurological disorder.

Karpis was a Canadian whose parents immigrated to the United States in about 1917 when he was six. Family troubles and difficulties at school led to truancy and breaking and entering. At age 15, he landed a ten-year sentence in a Kansas reform school. He escaped, went to an adult state prison, then got out at the beginning of the Great Depression.

Worse, Karpis had picked up some nasty friends in prison, notably Freddie Barker, a vicious, domineering little psychopath. Together with other criminals, the Karpis-Barker gang roamed the upper Midwest, robbing banks, using woman as shields in their getaways and shooting innocent onlookers. Two sensational, ransom kidnappings in 1933-34 led to massive, nation-wide manhunts. Karpis was the last to be captured.

In prison he was labeled, but apparently never diagnosed, as a psychopath and indeed, he appeared to have a callous disregard for human life. But eventually he became a model prisoner, something mental health professionals know doesn’t happen to psychopathic personalities.

Instead, Karpis may have had an undiagnosed developmental disorder. He had characteristics that are consistent with Asperger Sydrome an autism spectrum disorder. He walked on his toes, had “creepy” eyes, was intensely focused and, even after years behind bars, seemed unable at times to comprehend the cultural rules. This may also account for his leveling off after years in a highly structured environment. Eventually he transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary at McNeil Island where he was known as a model prisoner, paroled in 1969 and died at age 70 in 1979.

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