STARKWEATHER
             INSIDE THE MIND OF A TEENAGE KILLER
by William Allen

In November 1958, nineteen-year-old Charlie Starkweather, accompanied 
by his fourteen-year-old girlfriend, Caril Fugate, went on a gruesome, 
eight-day murder spree in Nebraska that left ten people dead and shocked 
a nation already ill at ease with the idea of rebellious teens.  The 
senseless killings left an indelible mark on America and the case has 
horrified and fascinated ever since, inspiring the films Badlands and 
Natural Born Killers and the recent bestselling novel, Outside Valentine 
by Liza Ward.  In STARKWEATHER: Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer 
($14.99, October, Emmis Books), William Allen, the foremost authority 
on the case, has revised his 1976 classic on the murders (which The New 
York Times praised as “a meticulously researched documentary”) to include 
information unavailable at the time of the first publication.

In the tradition of In Cold Blood, STARKWEATHER is a brilliant example 
of investigative journalism and examines the psyche of a young man over 
the edge who “had come to love Death.”  Allen paints a chilling portrait 
of a loner at odds with the world, who believed from a young age the world 
was laughing at him.  “It gave him a thrill to tell the world to go to 
hell,” Allen writes.  “He couldn’t see how he could want to live at all…if 
he didn’t have his hatred to sustain him.”   His only salvation was the love 
of his girlfriend, whom Starkweather was convinced was willing to die 
with him. 

STARKWEATHER: Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer contains information 
including notes from Starkweather’s prison journal, transcripts of 
interviews between the killer and prison psychologist Dr. James M. Reinhardt, 
and an interview with Caril Fugate from the prison where she served eighteen 
years for the murder of Robert Jensen.  In her defense at trial, Fugate’s 
lawyers portrayed her as a kidnap victim but Allen asserts, unflinchingly 
throughout, that she was a willing accomplice.

William Allen is the leading expert on the Starkweather spree and one of only 
a few people with first-hand knowledge of the characters central to the 1958 
carnage.  He is the author of six books, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated 
Fire in the Birdbath and Other Disturbances, as well as numerous essays for 
Esquire, the New York Times, and the Atlantic Monthly.  He lives in Fort Davis, 
Texas and is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.

STARKWEATHER: Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer
by William Allen
Emmis Books ● October 2004 ● $14.99
Paperback ● 208 pages ● ISBN 1-57860-151-7
www.emmisbooks.com