Packard Forum Index » General

Lifetime Channel made a movie about the Starkweather-Fugate rampage. It is very accurate and uses a 1955 Patrician as a stand in for Ward's 1956.

Charlie Starkweather was executed in 1959 -- quick justice back then, relatively speaking.

Caril Ann Fugate was sentenced to Life, but was paroled in 1976 at the age of 32. She was only 14 at the time of the murders.

Craig

I saw a movie about this several years ago,they wern't the first bad guys too try a get away in a Packard.
I read an article years ago, based on an escape in the 1920-1940's and the quote ( either the escapees or writers )was, " When escape is necessary & a fast getaway imperative choose a Packard."
Packard 385

I was previously aware of this killing spree - and the involvement of a 56 Patrician - from an article published, many years ago, in Packards International's magazine. (IIRC, that car still survives.)

It should come as no surprise, then, that I was excited when the Murder in the Heartland mini-series later premiered on the ABC network in 1993. I was pumped when the black Patrician showed up on screen - even though they used a 55 model. However, I sighed at one point, when the camera view switched to an interior angle from the rear seat, but showed the dash of an old Ford, from earlier in the timeline, instead of the Packard.

I don't know how much more production strayed from fact, but that Pat sure looked menacing when it was stopped along the highway near the top of a hill. Dressed in all-black, with the front-end hunkered down and the ass-end jacked up, it looked like it was ready for a showdown with the cops. Someone must have known how to manipulate the T-L.

Unfortunately, that scene with the Packard carried over to the next evening, and I missed a good bit of that because I had to work late. After they apprehended Starkweather, the rest of the film was all downhill for me.

This miniseries was later released on VHS (set of two tapes, IIRC), but I never got around to picking up a copy. That may be just as well, as I've heard rumor that it had been edited. It later aired on some cable network, several times, but I'm not sure if that was the original version. It has never turned up on DVD, though.

The parts with the Packard in it.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FnnqN9VVR8E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2ynCSclHqHs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9cUHoh9sCY4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3re8ulLTUbM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ulxF4URseF4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/684xCUjUvK0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This movie was shot in the North Texas area. They contacted our club about a car. I talked to the production company, but I did not want my original agate and topaz car painted black.

They bought a car from a club member in Dallas, and painted it.

youtube.com/watch?v=Zc7xmlMOb-E#t=2723,,not sure how you do the picture,

more bad dudes,,

need to run back a few frames, has side shot and driving in ,,,,drive in movie parking spot, and front shot of when they hot wired it,
youtube.com/watch?v=Zc7xmlMOb-E#t=2509

55 pat.

Thanks for your research and providing those essential scenes, here, for our viewing pleasure, Don.

Happy to do it BH. I hadn't seen the movie, I think the Packard parts probably were the best part of it.
You were right about them cutting to interior shots of the Packard. They actually used the radio shot from the Ford they previously drove.

IMO, the best scene with the Packard in the movie is when Starkweather & Fugate are driving through a small town and a local cop pulls up next to them at a stop light. They are nervous that he will recognize them and/or the Packard. But, he eyeballs them and the car and then says:

"Pretty car you got there."

We all hear that a lot, too!

On Edit: at the end of video clip #17 above.

Craig