Rheumatoid Arthritis Support

Starkweather was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the third of seven children to Guy and Helen Starkweather. Starkweather claimed not to have any horrible memories of his home life; although his family was of working class background, he remembered always having shelter and other resources. The community considered the Starkweathers to be a respectable family with well-behaved children. Guy Starkweather was by all accounts a mild-mannered man; he was a carpenter who was often unemployed due to rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. During these periods, Starkweather's mother supplemented the family income by working as a waitress.

Starkweather had attended Saratoga Elementary School, Irving Middle School, and Lincoln High School in Lincoln. In contrast to his pleasant memories of his family life, Starkweather possessed no kind remembrances of his time during schooling. Starkweather was born with Genu varum, a mild birth defect that caused his legs to be misshapen. He also suffered from a mild speech impediment, which caused constant teasing by classmates. He was considered a slow learner and was accused of never applying himself, although in his teens it was discovered that he suffered from severe myopia which had drastically affected his vision for most of his life.

The sole aspect of school in which Starkweather excelled was gymnastics, wherein he found a physical outlet for his growing anger against bullies. Starkweather used his newfound physicality to begin bullying those who had bullied him, and soon his anger stretched beyond those who had been cruel to him to anyone whom he happened to dislike. Starkweather soon went from being considered one of the most well-behaved teenagers in the community to one of the most troubled. His high school friend Bob von Busch would later recall:

Along with von Busch, Starkweather developed a James Dean fixation, and began to groom and dress himself to look like James Dean. Starkweather empathized with Dean's rebellious screen persona, believing that he had found a kindred spirit of sorts, someone who had suffered torment similar to his own, whom he could admire. Starkweather developed a severe inferiority complex and became self-loathing and devoid of morals, believing that he was unable to do anything correctly, and that his own inherent failures would cause him to live in misery.


Adapted from the Wikipedia article Charles Starkweather, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki