Alex Calleroz
4/28/14
Research Paper
Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate: Nebraska’s Bonnie and Clyde
When one thinks of serial killers, the first thoughts that come to that person are usually of cold blooded adults. Two young, carefree teenagers almost never come to mind, and most would never even consider the idea. Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate may just change the way people think of serial killers. The young couple rampaged across the state of Nebraska in early 1958, murdering ten people along the way. Most wonder what could cause such young people to turn into murderers with what seemed to be no conscience at all. Did Starkweather have a bad childhood? Bullying could have played a part in causing Charles to turn out the way he was. Caril Fugate became involved with Starkweather at the age of 13 and many questioned if it was possible for someone so young to have played a part in something as awful as murder. As the duo traveled, fear was struck into the public. No one knew why the victims were chosen. Did Starkweather or Fugate have a grudge against them? Were they trying to stop the two, or was it just sheer bad luck? Like most criminals, the pair was caught. They each had very different verdicts. Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate changed the history of Nebraska drastically in just a short amount of time.
The Great Depression was a tough time for most who lived through it, the Starkweather family was not excluded from the hard times. Even though they were poor, Guy and Helen Starkweather managed to make a living for themselves and their kids. The couple had seven children. Charles was the third. He had a normal childhood and a good home life. The Starkweather family made memories just like any other family wou...
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...d. While some say that Charles killed them himself, others argue that Caril was there helping him. The story behind the tragedy may never be known, but while the corpses of Velda, Marion and their youngest daughter were rotting in a chicken coop and the outhouse, the young couple lived in their home for several days. Though a great amount of people were suspicious of the sign on the door saying “Stay Away Everybody is Sick with the Flue”, by the time someone did something about it, the young couple had fled.
After Caril’s family, the murders continued. The truth behind each murder to come is unknown because Charlie and Caril each told prosecutors a different story. August Meyer, an old family friend of the Starkweather family, came next in the streak of homicides. After killing the seventy year old man, the pair robbed his home after leaving his body in a barn.
John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer, Henry Lee Lucas, Charles Manson, Timothy McVeigh, Ann Rule, Angel Resendez, David Berkowitz, Albert DeSalvo, Ottis Toole, Eddie Gein, and Herbert Mullin, what do all of these serial killers have in common and why did they kill? This is the question I am going to answer in my paper. I am going to examine several killers and their childhoods, mental disorders, and types of killings they performed.
How can it be that four members of a family, such as the Clutters, could have been murdered in cold blood? Who would want to commit such a horrible crime? What could the killer’s motivation be? These are key points and questions for the book “In Cold Blood”.
The serial killer that I have chosen to research is Mark goudeau, also known as the “Baseline Killer”. Mark was born on September 6th 1964, he was an american serial killer and rapist. He was involved in one of the two simultaneously occurring serial killer cases going on in South Phoenix, Arizona at that time. Mark’s was born in Phoenix, and was the second youngest of 13 siblings in which six were felons, and four have done prison time. Mark’s mother was a maid working at all different hours of the day, while his father Willie was a lot attendant for different car dealers. They were lower working class which didn’t help with thirteen children to take care of. His father had a drug and alcohol problem, which ran in the family. He later cheated
One of the first murders he performed was on his girlfriend’s family. Whether Caril Ann Fugate was an active participant or not, Starkweather murdered three of her family members in cold blood with disregard to Fugate’s feelings. The murder of her Fugate’s two and a half year old sister shows that Starkweather acted impulsively. Starkweather recalled that she would not stop crying so he “needed to shut he...
2011. “Serial Killers and Mass Murderers.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 9:
Family pressure during the great depression was unlike any the U.S. has ever seen. Everything about families changed in the 1930s. Couples during the depression delayed marriage, and at the same time the divorce rates dropped because people could not afford to pay for two households. Birthrates also dropped and for the first time in American history below the replacement level. Income was closed to none in all families; regular income had dropped by 35% just in the years Hoover was in office. Families had a lot of stress; some pulled together and made do with what they had others pushed away. People turned to who ever they had, family, friends, and after all else the government. Although there were rich people in the depression as well that the depression did not effect at all who were oblivious to the people suffering around them. By Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration the unemployment rate was up to 25% only increasing till the 1940s. Within families the role played changed as well. Women and children were now working to put bread on the table. Fathers would despise sons for becoming the main source of income for a family. Unemployed men had a deep lack of self respect. That often led them to running away from there families forever. Because many men ran out or stopped caring the women’s role was enhanced and became working women. Black women found it easier to find work a servants, clerks, textiles, workers, ect. Work made all women’s status go up in their homes. Most mi...
Serial killers commonly attack a single target at a time one on one. There also tends to be no or very little relation between the person being killed and the killer (murder 1). “The nature of this drive has been heavily debated, but there is a consensus on some points (Anderson 1).” Many researchers have noted sexual behavior in the murder.
An analysis of the most famous murderers and serial killers in the Chicago area shows varying degrees of psychopathy or mental illnesses, which ultimately contribute to homicidal conduct. Analysis also shows that the paths of serial killers have a tendency to converge.... ... middle of paper ... ...
A serial killer is traditionally defined as the separate killings of three or more people by an individual over a certain period of time, usually with breaks between the murders. (Angela Pilson, p. 2, 2011) This definition has been accepted by both the police and academics and therefore provides a useful frame of reference (Kevin Haggerty, p.1, 2009). The paper will seek to provide the readers with an explanation of how serial killers came to be and how they are portrayed in the media. Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile.
The Stanley family consisted of Jackie, the mother, Claude, the father, two daughters, Nicole and Omega, son Keith, and two twin boys, Claude and Claude (Frontline Video, 2013). With a large family such as the Stanley 's, financially supporting everyone in it is difficult with a stable economy, let alone during a period of struggling (Frontline Video, 2013). During this time, the middle class was in poverty, meaning people in poverty originally, are far financially worse (Frontline Video, 2013).
Serial killers have many frightening facets. The most frightening thing about them is that experts still do not know what makes a human become a serial killer. Many experts believe serial killers become what they are because they have a genetic disposition or brain abnormality while other experts believe that a serial killer is created by childhood abuse; and some other experts believe that it is a combination of both brain abnormalities and abusive childhood experiences that creates a serial killer. A murderer is considered a serial killer when they “murder three or more persons in at least three separate events with a “cooling off period” between kills” (Mitchell and Aamodt 40). When defining a serial killer, their background, genes, and brain are not mentioned; perhaps one day those aspects of the serial killer can be included.
So what makes a serial killer? Levin points out that contrary to popular belief, serial killers don't just 'snap'; or 'go crazy'; (Douglas, p. 137). Many of the serial killers have been the victims of childhood abuse. Jack Levin stated 'Research shows many serial killers suffered abuse, incest or neglect as children and develop poor self images'; (Douglas, p. 137). Serial killers often have a childhood marked by the absence of any nurturing relationship. 'They often come from families where the parents were absent or ineffective, where authority was not defined, and where they could engage in destructive behavior undeterred-violent play, cruelty to animals, and incidents of arson being some of the childhood behavior patterns noted among many serial killers'; (Clark, p. 206).
Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theaters, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Nobles Booksellers” (Brown). When people think of serial killers, names such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy, and Gein are cited. During the time Jack the Ripper was executing his victims in London, Holmes began his gruesome career in Chicago (America’s Serial Killers). “Despite being America’s first serial killer, Holmes is hardly a familiar name and until now we haven’t had any popular visual record of his crimes: (Spikol). Why is it that people only think of the more popular killers with higher known profiles? They are all very similar to one another because they share characteristics. H.H. Holmes was a successful serial killer because he was well educated, cunning and charming. Those are just a few traits Holmes ...
Introduction: On the spectrum of criminal activity, serial killers are rather rare. Rarer still is a serial killer like Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to killing 28 women in the 1970s in ghastly fashion and some believe he may have killed far more. It is hard to imagine what could cause any person to cross the mental boundary into such macabre behavior as Bundy perpetrated. Nevertheless, it is important to try to understand that behavior because only though such an understanding would society be able to identify and deter mass murderers in order to save lives.
Rocks. The second of five children, an older sister Joan, and three little brothers Terrance, John, and Jerome, all to their parents Robert W. Hileman and Katheryn Conolly Hileman. My grandfathers’ childhood was difficult, because it was part of this depression. When he was a kid his food was rationed, his family was only allowed so much of certain items sugar, meat, butter, and other certain things. When he was twelve years old, he got a job at a deli slicing meat, he did this to help his family out, this demonstrates that even at a young age he was willing to do whatever it took to help out what with he called “the cause”, or his family.