Charles Raymond Starkwether was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on November 24, 1938 to Guy and Helen Starkwether. Starkwether was the third of seven children. He attended Saratoga Elementary School, Irving Middle School, and Lincoln High School. Starkweather was born with genu varum, a deformity in which one or both legs are bent outward at the knee. He also suffered from a speech impediment, which caused him to be teased by his classmates and in his teens it was discovered that he suffered from severe myopia that had drastically affected his vision for most of his life. He was considered a slow learner and was accused of never applying himself.
Starkwether’s best subject in school was gym. It was gym class where he’s anger started against those who bullied him. After that Starkweather begin bullying those who had once bullied him, and soon his anger went beyond those who had bullied him to anyone who he did not like. Starkweather soon went from being considered one of the best-behaved teenagers in the community to one of the most troubled. Here is a statement from Stakwethers high school friend Bob von Busch: “He could be the kindest person you’ve ever seen. He’d do anything for you if he liked you. He was a hell of a lot of fun to be around, too. Everything was just one big joke to him, but he had this other side. He could be as mean as hell, cruel. If he saw some poor guy on the street that was bigger than he was, better looking, or better dressed, he’d try to take the poor basterd down to his