Killer On The Road Essay

Increased mobility and the class system in 1950s America contributed to Starkweather’s murder spree and the emphasis society put on these topics. The contribution of American society’s increased mobility is why there is support for Ginger Strand’s thesis of the American Interstate System contributing to Charles Starkweather’s murder spree. Wealth and class divided the country stronger than ever as highways built up the economy even further. The post-war society of America became a world of isolation as highways cut through the landscape.
In the book Killer on the Road, Ginger Strand proposes the growing interstate system facilitated Charles Starkweather’s murders in the country. As the highways developed within the country, once isolated communities

No longer was small-town America able to stay insular, and cities within more isolated regions of the country saw growth. As highways grew, so did the number of people traveling on them. The highway has earned a reputation for danger over the years. Murdered hitchhikers and similar crimes lead to a lack of connection between people or fondness for the open road. Highways were not only an opportunity for growth, they were an opportunity for exploitation. To not own a car was to be stagnant in a booming society. Starkweather could feel this in his shabby home in Lincoln. When he could steal cars and escape onto the roads in Nebraska, Starkweather could travel quickly before the cops truly knew what was happening. From killing Caril Fugate’s family to the disaster of dumped bodies on a farm to a return to Lincoln to kill a wealthy family, Starkweather used cars and the roads to murder eleven people around the city. Often, his crimes were an act of opportunity against those who fit into

Nebraska’s own highway, the I-80, offered contracts and money to local businesses within Lincoln. From this, wealth in the city increased as well as class stratification. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln educated a large class of students returning from World War II in 1949, and the school was a focal point of the social community in town. Various clubs and academic organizations were centered at the school. Education was the first step to money and influence, and the Starkweather family had no chance in this society. Charles Starkweather came from a poor family who did not benefit from the growing economy. In fact, Starkweather could barely hold a job hauling garbage. As his family grew more stagnant in the face of a growing middle class, Starkweather became resentful of the richer and more fortunate folks of Lincoln. During this time, America was also in fear of the rising threat of communism. Anyone outside the cookie-cutter idea of the country was deemed an outsider and associated with communists. America needed to be strong, and the refuse of society who were stuck in the lower rungs did not belong. Predictably, Starkweather was a juvenile delinquent from a poor family. Good for causing trouble and not much else, and it was no secret how society saw him. All he wanted was to escape. A car could offer him an escape; however, he could not afford one with his