STARKWEATHER – PODCAST WITH CRAIG SILVERMAN
- Aug 1
- 2 min read
Updated: 7 hours ago
Great podcast with former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman on Dec. 23, 2023.
Summary: Harry MacLean in Craig's Lawyers' Lounge - 13:07 Craig’s Lawyers’ Lounge welcomes back attorney and accomplished author, Harry MacLean, who remembers meeting the host back in his Denver Chief Deputy DA days. Possible solutions to America’s violent crime epidemic are considered, including the banning of AR-15s.
In Starkweather: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree that Changed America, the award-winning author of four bestselling true-crime books, revisits America’s mid-century crime spree that affected him so much as a native Nebraskan.
Charles Starkweather, 19, and Caril Fugate, 14, terrorized Lincoln, Nebraska and areas beyond in late January of 1958. Eleven innocents were slaughtered. If you like true crime, American history and great writing, this book is for you.
Major newspaper critics are raving about Starkweather, with the Washington Post’s headline reading, “The killings that made mass murder an American obsession; Harry N. MacLean’s ‘Starkweather’ revisits a notorious midcentury crime and finally gives one woman the justice she deserves.” MacLean favorably compared to Capote and Mailer.
MacLean will have you loving his Cornhusker State despite the murder spree committed by two of their own. Or was it really one? Was Caril Fugate a hostage or a helper? The two made headlines as lovers, but was that true? Harry MacLean reaches his conclusions.
The epilogue is startling, as the author reveals personal connections. Starkweather looked like James Dean and Caril was a photogenic 14-year-old. Host and guest discuss the media sensational Christmas 1996 murder of JonBenet and also capital punishment’s utility. But only as retribution.
What’s it like to be a famous writer? Harry tells us the thrill of once seeing someone in Europe reading his classic, In Broad Daylight. Learn Harry’s writing discipline and the psychological toll this book took on a Nebraska native. MacLean is a master storyteller.
Photo above: This is identical to the chair Charlie Starkweather was electrocuted in on January 25, 1959.
