Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey Of Charles Starkweather And Caril Ann Fugate - Softcover

Newton, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501110004 ISBN 13: 9781501110009

Publisher: Gallery Books, 2014

Synopsis

A gripping account of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate’s rampage across Nebraska in the late 1950s. Complete with an update on Fugate’s life today, WASTE LAND compellingly probes not only the mind-set of history’s deadliest juvenile delinquents—but also the tragic end of America’s innocence.

1958. More than a decade before Charles Manson warned parents to beware their homicidal children, nineteen-year-old Caril Ann Fugate embarked on a shocking, eight-day rampage across America’s heartland that left eleven bloody bodies in its wake—including Caril Ann’s parents. In an Ozzie and Harriet era of drive-ins, malts, and tail-finned cars, Starkweather and Fugate embraced the “live fast, die young” credo of The Wild One and James Dean, and touched off the Midwest’s greatest manhunt since John Dillinger.

Now, utilizing firsthand interviews, court transcripts, death-row confessions, and never-before-revealed case detail, WASTE LAND shines new light on the dark saga of Starkweather and Fugate—from their first kisses and kills to their capture and convictions. Complete with an update on Fugate’s life today, WASTE LAND compellingly probes not only the mind-set of history’s deadliest juvenile delinquents—but also the tragic end of America’s innocence.

About this title

Review

"Eleven years before another Charlie--Manson--told Americans to watch out for their homicidal children, [Charlie] Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate drove the message home with blades and bullets, stopping only when their car ran out of gas and they ran out of luck. If [James] Dean and [Marlon] Brando were the poster children for a generation run amok, then Starkweather and Fugate were the word made flesh. Their bloody trek across the heartland represents a turning point as grim and critical as Dallas or Kent State. It taught Americans to look for enemies around the breakfast table, rather than in Moscow or Havana."

Michael Newton, author of Bad Girls Do It! and other books about serial murder, combines an energetic prose style with extensive research to tell the tale of this famous 1958 pair of spree killers from Lincoln, Nebraska. Caril is a bit of a blank--just a sullen, peevish 14-year-old--but Charlie comes eerily alive in this book: his red hair, his slanted green eyes, his bowlegged strut, his resemblance to James Dean before he'd even seen Dean in a movie. He was the third child of seven in an outwardly normal family, but somehow he got a chip on his shoulder and thought the world had him "numbered for the bottom." Waste Land invites us into Charlie and Caril's world, then takes on a creepy, suspenseful ride through the eight days that left 11 people dead. --Fiona Webster

About the Author

Michael Newton is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction works, including Waste Land, Daddy Was the Black Dahlia Killer, and Cat and Mouse. A leading expert on serial murder, Newton lives with his wife in Nashville, Indiana.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1501110004
• ISBN 13: 9781501110009
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 392