“The more I looked at people, the more I hated them.”

On 21 January 1958, Charles Starkweather murdered the family of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate - her mother, father and younger sister. The couple then fled and for the next week 1,200 National Guardsmen and police combed Nebraska and Wyoming in search of them. Before he was finally cornered, Starkweather shot or stabbed a further seven people. He claimed that the killings had begun when Caril Ann’s parents had made fun of him. Initially, Starkweather claimed Caril was a hostage, but he later changed his story. She was sentenced to life and was released in 1977. Aged 19 Starkweather had a one-way trip to the electric chair in Nebraska on 25 June 1959. He had modelled himself on James Dean and in at least one respect he was correct: they both died young.