Born Bad

by Jack Sargeant (Editor)

In 1958, garbageman Charlie Starkweather, accompanied by his jailbait sweetheart Caril Ann Fugate, embarked upon a killing spree which shocked America. Modelling himself on James Dean, Starkweather took teen rebellion to its logical and bloody conclusion, killing first Caril's disapproving father and then a succession of other victims before being apprehended and executed in the electric chair. Born Bad tells the story of the star-crossed bluejean lovers and their violent stand against the world, including quotes from Starkweather to illuminate his twilight creed of flaming youth unleashed. The book also investigates the cinematic legacy of the archetypal gun-crazy killer couple, including such films as Terrence Malick's "Badlands", David Lynch's "Wild at Heart", the Tarantino-scripted "True Romance" and Oliver Stone's notorious "Natural Born Killers".

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is in two parts -- a capsule history of the Starkweather-Fugate rampage and a brief analysis of the legacy they left behind in the form of a string of "road movies," focusing on the ones closest to the true story (e.g. "Badlands") but not totally neglecting the ones that take more liberties with the story ("Thelma and Louise"). Does a good job of questioning who was really responsible for what but does not attempt to reach any conclusions.

[Daniel Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book was really good but thats because I like books like these. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in murders and things of the sorts. The book pulled me in by the first murder that would happen and how they would just keep on going and not stop tell they got stopped by the law.