Harvey Carignan was sentenced to die for the 1950 murder of laura Showalter in Alaska, where he was stationed as a member of the U.S. Army. Despite confessing to the killing he was exommerated on appel and released in 1959 after serving time on an unrelated rape conviction. Carignan was not caught again until he was sentenced to a total of 150 years in prison for the Minneapolis, Minnesota hammer slayings of his Eileen Henly and eighteen-year-old Kathy Shultz in 1975. The sex killer was also convicted of two brutal sexual assaults but under Minnesota state law he could be given only a total of 40 years for the homocides and assaults.

Carignan's crimes extend far beyong his convictions and he is the prime suspect in a number of other murders and sexual assaults. Seattle authorities are convinced he killed teenager Kathy Miller after whe went missing in May of 1973 after answering an employment ad for the service station Carignan operated. The twisted Carignan is also most certainly guilty of the rapes and attempted murders of several Minneapolis-area women and girls, some of whom only excaped death due to their attacker's lack of thoroughness after he unwittingly left them for dead. Investigators in Washington, North Dakota, and Canada are also very interested in Carignan's potential as a suspect in several unsolved crimes. The drifting murderer is also one of many suspects in a string of unsolved murders in california.