Joseph Kallinger was born on December 11, 1935, at the Northern Liberties Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His birth name was Joseph Lee Brenner III. He was the son of Joseph Lee Brenner Jr. and his wife Judith. When Joseph was just two years old, he was placed in foster care after his father left his mother. On October 15, 1939, he was adopted by Stephen and Anna Kallinger, who were immigrants from Austria.

As a child, Joseph faced severe abuse from his adoptive parents. By the age of six, he suffered a hernia due to the physical abuse from his adoptive father. The punishments he received included kneeling on sharp rocks, being locked in closets, and being whipped with belts. He was also starved and forced to eat excrement. Additionally, when he was nine years old, he was sexually assaulted by a group of boys in his neighborhood.

Joseph often rebelled against authority figures, including his teachers and adoptive parents. He had dreams of becoming a playwright and even played the character Ebenezer Scrooge in a local performance of A Christmas Carol while in ninth grade. At the age of 15, he began dating a girl named Hilda Bergman, whom he met at a theater. Despite his parents' disapproval, he married Hilda and they had two children together. However, their marriage ended due to domestic violence, and Hilda left him.

After his divorce, Joseph was hospitalized on September 4, 1957. He suffered from severe headaches and loss of appetite, which doctors attributed to the stress caused by his divorce. He remarried on April 20, 1958, and had five more children with his second wife. Unfortunately, Joseph repeated the abusive behavior he experienced as a child, often inflicting similar punishments on his own family.

Over the next decade, Joseph Kallinger spent time in and out of mental institutions. He faced issues such as amnesia, attempted suicide, and involvement in arson.

Joseph Kallinger was arrested in 1972 after his children reported him to the police. While in jail, he took an IQ test and scored 82. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Psychiatrists suggested he be supervised while with his family. However, his children later recanted their claims.

In 1974, Kallinger took out a large life insurance policy on his sons. Two weeks later, one of them, Joseph Jr., was found dead in an abandoned building. Kallinger said that Joseph Jr. had run away from home, but the insurance company suspected foul play and denied the claim.

In November 1974, Kallinger and his 12-year-old son Michael began a crime spree that lasted six weeks. They traveled through Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Jersey. They entered homes by posing as salesmen and committed robbery, assault, and sexual abuse against four families. On January 8, 1975, they attacked a family in Leonia, New Jersey. They tied up the residents and forced them to strip.

During this event, they killed a 21-year-old nurse named Maria Fasching after she refused to obey their orders. Authorities were alerted when one of the bound residents escaped and called for help. Kallinger and Michael fled the scene using a city bus and discarded their weapons and a bloody shirt along the way.

Police gathered evidence, including the bloody shirt and witness accounts. They learned about Kallinger's history of domestic violence, the unresolved death of his son Joseph Jr., and the arson incidents involving his properties. Kallinger and Michael were arrested for kidnapping and rape. Subsequently, Kallinger faced three murder charges for Joseph Jr., Maria Fasching, and another neighborhood boy.

Kallinger claimed he was insane and that God ordered him to kill. However, he was found sane and sentenced to life in prison on October 14, 1976. Michael was deemed under his father's influence and was sent to a reformatory. After serving his sentence, he changed his name and moved away.

In prison, Kallinger made multiple suicide attempts and displayed violent behavior. He was transferred to mental hospitals for treatment. In 1983, a book about his life, titled "The Shoemaker," was published. Kallinger died of heart failure on March 26, 1996, while in prison. He spent the last years of his life on suicide watch.