The Starkweather Homicide

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The Starkweather Homicide Charles Starkweather was a spree killer who murdered eleven victims in Nebraska and Wyoming during a road trip with his underage girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. His actions inspired several movies, including Natural Born Killer, Badlands, and Wild at Heart. Starkweather appears to have enjoyed a stable and comfortable home life. He was the third of seven children, and despite being born into a poor family during the Great Depression he claimed that he never went hungry. His school life was very different: he was bullied because of a mild speech impediment, bowed legs, and severe nearsightedness. He reacted to this treatment by becoming a bully himself, and as his physical confidence and self-loathing grew, he changed from a well-behaved child into one of the meanest, toughest kids in the neighborhood. He also became obsessed with James Dean and tried to imitate his mannerisms, clothes, and hairstyles. He quit school at sixteen and started working in a warehouse. A few years later he started dating thirteen-year-old Caril Ann Fugate. After his father kicked him out of the house for crashing his car, he became a garbage man(he was later sacked). Believing he was doomed to a lifetime of drudgery and poverty, he started plotting bank robberies and developed his guiding belief that “dead people are all on the same level.” His first murder took place on November 30, 1957. He had tried to buy a stuffed toy for his girlfriend from a gas station, but had been refused credit. He returned at three in the morning with a 12-guage shotgun, robbed $100 from the till and, after a scuffle, he shot the attendant in the head at point blank range. After the killing he felt invincible, that he had risen above the laws of man and could do as he pleased. Two months later following an argument with Caril Ann’s mother and stepfather at their house, he shot

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