The 12th Victim

The fable of young outlaw lovers lives on - at least in Lincoln, Nebraska.

As the story is passed on, each new generation has to put its imprint on the chronicle.

From pulp fiction to celluloid and VHS, the folktale develops from murks of desperate, illicit underage sex filled rampage to the essence of digital #metoo era.

The law is as it is interpreted. Charles was lucky enough not to be made a political exhibit of and fried fairly promptly, while luckless Caril was discerned too young and innocent to get the chair and too wicked to let go free, interpretations varying from a fire breathing termagant to a scared little orphan Annie.

Somehow, I can't make connection between Charles and James Dean, he has more like the air of James Cagney in 1937 "Angels with Dirty Faces".

Oh yeah, the Establishment has got its pound of flesh, alright.

As far as the filmmaking style went it could have been better and more focused. But the actual story is good and it's about time that Carol got fair treatment! The system convicted her before she even went down trial. She has passed numerous lie detector tests and passed all of them and never once in all the years since 1958 has she ever changed her story. Most investigators will tell you that people are lying will change their story a lot. Furthermore, I knew Carol when I worked at the same hospital with her in Lansing and she was a sweet and loving person and everyone absolutely loved her. I have seen her cry many times over what happened to her and cried for the people who lost their lives, including her own family. I hope that she will get the part in that she deserves. I love you Caril and I was very proud to call you my friend.

As "The 12th Victim" (2023 release; 4 episodes ranging from 47 to 57 min. Each) opens, we are introduced to teenagers Charles Starkweather (18) and Caril Ann Fugate (14), restless and outcasts in Lincoln , Nebraska. We then go to "December 1, 1957", when a gas attendant is shot at close range by Charles. It marks the beginning of a murder spree that shook Nebraska, and indeed the country. At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from director Nicola Marsh ("Stay On Board: The Leo Baker Story"). Here she reassesses the events taking place in late 57/early 58, when two teenage kids when on a murder spree. Episode 1 of this mini-series is by far the best, as it paints a good picture of what US society was like at that time, and the enormous shock these events caused. The central question of course is: why did these kids do it? And what role exactly did Carile Ann play in this? In and of itself this could've been a very intriguing true crime documentary. Alas, the series is far too long for its own good and spends an inordinate amount of time on details that are just not all that interesting. Cut the running time in half, if not more, and we'd almost certainly be talking about a far better end product. This is a missed opportunity in my book.

"The 12th Victim" recently started streaming on Showtime. If you are a fan of true crime documentaries, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Interesting docuseries about a case of which I wasn't aware (not a yank or a Springsteen fan thankfully), but that clearly has a hold on the American psyche.

As well as outlining the serious issues with how the case of the 12th (or 1st) victim and only survivor of the USA's first sociopathic spree killer of the TV news-age it contextaulises, both historically and culturally, those and future difficulties Caril has faced in gaining access to proper justice.

It also touches on the USA's obsession with glamourising guns, violence and misogynist men through pulp fiction, music, TV and movies, whilst sexualising,moralising and demonising the 'women' around them, even when those 'women' are children who've just turned fourteen.

It briefly alludes to the perilous and peculiar set-up of justice in the USA where law enforcement and prosecutors are elected rather than employed on merit, and therefore under pressure to get the results a baying mob of local constituents demand of them in a country that is uncivilised enough to still have the death penality in the C21th whilst pretending to be all sorts of permutations of 'Christian'.

BTW for UK audiences the cinematographer is Peter Hutchens (not Hitchens.... that was really confusing me....).

I consider this so-called "documentary" to be nothing more than a "mockumentary" in that it is so biased towards the ridiculously named "12th Victim", namely Caril Ann Fugate, that it presents a wholly unbalanced view in attempting to persuade viewers that she was completely innocent of complicity in all the crimes of which she was convicted by a jury of her peers. Indeed, I would go so far as to suggest that the biased views put forward in this series are extremely dangerous in that they suggest that trials with convictions that took place so long ago where most, if not all, of the participants have passed away should be regarded as "unsafe" when "modern standards" are applied.