Further reading for Charles Starkweather
Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey Of Charles Starkweather And Caril Ann Fugate by Michael Newton
Charles Starkweather is the subject of one America’s most misguided criminal fairy tales. Sensationalized to a ridiculous degree, Starkweather began a killing spree in 1957 that would end in the electric chair after 11 people had been murdered during his 60 days on the run. In truth, he was an 18 year old burnout with no prospects for the future and no problem being a legal adult with a 13 year old girlfriend. Though, as we’ll see, his relationship to Caril Fugate, may not have been the Bonnie and Clyde, love-against-the-odds fairy tale that modern American folklore and media have made it out to be.
Starkweather and Fugate were not couples killers like Bernardo and Homolka or Fred and Rose West. He was a loser who painted himself into a corner with his own bad decisions and murdered to cover up previous crimes. She was terrorized into being an accomplice and lost almost 20 years of her life in prison because of this loser.
Starkweather became a flashpoint in America for a 1950’s moral panic that put the crosshairs squarely on then-contemporary media items like true crime magazines, comic books, juvenile delinquency movies, and rock and roll. This case also gripped the nation and it exists in the popular consciousness either understood or misunderstood. Stephen King was said to have followed it closely in his youth. Movies have been made and made again about it. One of Bruce Springsteen’s best albums is built around the song Nebraska, which is a dire first-person account of the crimes.
Episodes: 504-505
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