Luciano, Starkweather and Bundy

What did Lucky Luciano, Charles Starkweather and Ted Bundy have in common besides being on the wrong side of the law? They were all born on November 24th.

Charles Starkweather was the second born on November 24th of this lawless trio, but he was the first to die. Born in 1938 in Lincoln, Nebraska, Starkweather was the third child of Guy and Helen Starkweather. The Starkweather children were by all accounts well-behaved in their youth, although Charlie’s mother did tell the press that after being bullied in school, he developed a mean streak and liked to fight. He was short, bowl-legged and had poor eyesight, but his dad said Charlie was a “dead shot.” The James Dean’ obsessed Starkweather went on a killing spree with his 14 year old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, that began toward the end of 1957 and continued until they were apprehended in late January 1958. Eleven people, including Caril’s mother, stepfather and two and a half year old baby step-sister, Betty Jean, were killed in cold blood. Starkweather was executed in the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln at 12:01 a.m. on June 25, 1959 at the age of 20.

Lucky Luciano celebrated his 62nd birthday in Naples, Italy, on what would have been Starkweather’s 21st birthday in 1959. Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania in 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily, Italy, the second child of Antonio and Rosalia Lucania. He had 2 brothers, Bartolomeo and Giuseppe, and 2 sisters, Filippia and Concetta. The family emigrated to New York City in 1906 when he was 10. By 1916, Luciano would serve a 6 month prison term for drug trafficking and continue with a life of crime as a top mafioso, until his luck ran out. His criminal career was brought to a halt by Thomas Dewey who prosecuted him on charges of running a prostitution ring. Many still feel that Luciano was framed with these charges in order to tarnish his glamorous underworld image and brand him as nothing but a pimp. Madam Polly Adler writes in her memoir, “A House Is Not a Home” (1953):

“… I was never called for questioning. However, I was astonished to learn that he [Dewey] was seeking to link Charlie Luciano with the prostitution racket. It was inconceivable to me that any such connection could exist. For one thing, I used to supply the girls when Charlie Lucky entertained in his plushy hotel suites, and it hardly seems logical that if he had the alleged tie-ups, he would patronize a madam outside the combine. Of course, it was no secret that Charlie Lucky was mixed up in all sorts of rackets, and his activities were openly discussed by the men who were ‘too light for heavy work and too heavy for light work.’ But not once was it ever even implied that he derived any part of his income from prostitution.”

Luciano was sent to Dannemora in 1936 but after 10 years, his lengthy sentence was commuted and he was deported to Italy. He left the USA on the Laura Keene on February 9, 1946. He died in Naples on January 26, 1962, and did not make it to his 65th birthday.

Ted Bundy turned 16 in 1962, still some years away from becoming a serial murderer. Ted Bundy is believed to have murdered women even earlier than 1974 but there is no definitive proof. Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell in 1946 at the Elizabeth Lund Home For Unwed Mothers in Burlington, VT, to Eleanor Louise Cowell. She migrated to Tacoma, Washington in 1950 and married Johnny Culpepper Bundy, who adopted Ted.

Bundy murdered 20 women between 1974 and 1978. He also attacked 5 women who survived. Bundy was imprisoned in 1975, but escaped and continued on a murderous rampage until he was apprehended in February 1978 by an officer in Pensacola FL. He was then convicted of 3 murders in 1980 and sentenced to die. Unlike Starkweather, Bundy sat on death row for many years, and even when his appeals ran out, tried to prolong his life by offering up information about other women he claimed to have killed. Ted Bundy died in Florida’s electric chair at 7:06 a.m. on January 24, 1989 at the age of 42.