It seems that there’s a mass shooting in America every few weeks. Stories of killing sprees or serial killers are commonplace on TV and in movies and books today.

But, it wasn’t always that way. There had to be a first and a time when multiple murders were new to a broad audience.

Best-selling author Harry MacLean points to a gruesome series of murders in Nebraska and Wyoming in January, 1958 as that point. Nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather, accompanied by his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, shot and stabbed 10 people to death over an eight-day period. In all, Starkweather murdered 11 people.

Maclean’s recently published book is titled Starkweather – The Untold Story of the Killing Spree That Changed America.

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