Jeff Simmons

Chasing Starkweather Jeff Simmons

Orel Hackworth is new to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1957. A news correspondent, he lives for finding the "big story." That "big story" finds him, though, when 19-year-old Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, go on a two-state killing spree, leaving eleven bodies behind. For three days in January, 1958, Lincoln is gripped in fear. The entire nation is aghast, watching the murders unfold on television, a new experience for many Americans. Even foreign media stays abreast of the situation on the Great Plains. With the help of a friend in the FBI's Lincoln office, Hackworth chases behind Starkweather, practically tripping over bodies in the process. His exclusive stories are printed in newspapers across North America, to the point that he gains notoriety himself. Hackworth follows the case of Charles Starkweather all the way down to the very end, until justice is served.