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Bruce Springsteen: Shootouts, Killing Sprees, and the Making of Nebraska · DISGRACELAND

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Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
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Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgrayland is
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Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about the characters
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Speaker 1: from Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska are insane. One went on an
0:29
Speaker 1: unprovoked killing spree with his fourteen year old girlfriend in
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Speaker 1: ten excuse me, eleven innocent people died. Another was classified
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Speaker 1: by the FBI as the most violent member of the
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Speaker 1: Philly Mob. And those are just the real life true
0:43
Speaker 1: crime characters from the album. The fictionalized characters were at
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Speaker 1: least as compelling. One shot up a nightclub, another barely
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Speaker 1: restrained himself from murdering a state trooper, and a third
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Speaker 1: contemplated work as a hired hit man. Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska characters,
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Speaker 1: both the real and the imagined, drew from a deep
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Speaker 1: well of twentieth century American desperation characters who Springsteen found
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Speaker 1: in conversation with Flannery O'Connor's The Misfit and Charles Lawton's
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Speaker 1: Harry Powell, played so forcefully by Robert Mitcham in Knight
1:20
Speaker 1: of the Hunter in the Hands of the Boss. These
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Speaker 1: inspired character studies made for great music unlike that music
1:30
Speaker 1: I played for you at the top of the show.
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Speaker 1: That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop for
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Speaker 1: my melotron called Jack, Johnny and Jimmy MK one. I
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Speaker 1: played you that loop because I can't afford the rights
1:45
Speaker 1: to man Eater by Holland Oates. And why would I
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Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of she Cat Tamed by
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Speaker 1: a Jaguar Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was
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Speaker 1: the number one song in America on December seventeenth, nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty one, And that's the day Bruce Springsteen sat down
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Speaker 1: to write the title track for what would become one
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Speaker 1: of his greatest albums, Nebraska. On this episode, Charles Starkweather,
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Speaker 1: The Chicken Man, Johnny ninety nine, a meeting in Atlantic City,
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Speaker 1: and Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. I'm Jake Brennan in This Is
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Speaker 1: Disgraceland December of nineteen eighty one. Bruce Springsteen was not
3:03
Speaker 1: yet the biggest pop star in America, but he was
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Speaker 1: one of them. Hungry Heart, the lead single from his
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Speaker 1: previous album The River, released in nineteen eighty, went to
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Speaker 1: number five on the charts. It was Bruce's first top
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Speaker 1: ten hit, and it changed everything. He'd come up from
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Speaker 1: the streets in New Jersey and transformed himself into an
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Speaker 1: American success story. He had, it seemed everything, women, the
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Speaker 1: respect of his peers, a new Chevy camaro Z twenty eight,
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Speaker 1: and more money than he knew what to do with.
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Speaker 1: What to do with the money was a new challenge
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Speaker 1: for Bruce. Previously, he'd just hauled whatever he'd made into
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Speaker 1: the recording studio and lighted on fire. This was the
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Speaker 1: approach taken with The River and his previous masterpieces Born
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Speaker 1: to Run in Darkness on the Edge of Town, released
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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five in nineteen seventy eight, respectively. But
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Speaker 1: The Boss, as Bruce had affectionately come to be known
4:02
Speaker 1: from his role as band leader of the East Street Band,
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Speaker 1: due to his early days responsibility of dolling out the
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Speaker 1: Knight's earnings to the rest of the group, The Boss
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Speaker 1: wasn't about to make the same financial mistake again. The
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Speaker 1: studio wasn't a playground, a place where you showed up
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Speaker 1: without a plan and let your creative ideas run wild.
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Speaker 1: Doing so was a waste of time. You could quite
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Speaker 1: literally drain your bank account running up a studio tab,
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Speaker 1: blowing hours, days, weeks trying to find the sound that
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Speaker 1: was in your head. No, the studio was a place
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Speaker 1: of work, a place where you showed up with not
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Speaker 1: only a plan for what you wanted, but with a
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Speaker 1: plan for how you were going to get what you wanted.
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Speaker 1: That's how the great ones did it. Anyway, Barry Gordy,
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Speaker 1: the head of Motown Records, ran his studio like a factory,
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Speaker 1: and you couldn't argue with the results. If the Boss
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Speaker 1: wanted his follow up to the River to do it,
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Speaker 1: that album and his previous records hadn't done make him
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Speaker 1: money despite their success. He needed to act like an
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Speaker 1: actual boss and bring his employees, his band, an actual plan,
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Speaker 1: and make his studio run tight like one of those
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Speaker 1: refineries glowing off the New Jersey Turnpike. So the Boss
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Speaker 1: bought himself a little tape machine. He had only four tracks,
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Speaker 1: but it was enough enough to pre produce his ideas
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Speaker 1: for his next studio record. He rented a house in
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Speaker 1: Colts Neck, New Jersey. It was modest, somewhat secluded, no frills.
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Speaker 1: He holed up and got down to work with a
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Speaker 1: big Gibson acoustic, a mandolin, a glockenschebiel, a harmonica, an
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Speaker 1: echoplex tape delay in a taskan four track, and with
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Speaker 1: a Z twenty eight in the driveway for long rides
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Speaker 1: at night to spur his imagination. Bruce Springsteen had it all.
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Speaker 1: You know who didn't have it all? The guys in
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Speaker 1: the new songs. Bruce was demoing guys out in the margins,
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Speaker 1: hand to mouth grinders, the refinery workers, the veterans and
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Speaker 1: union humps, the guys the American dream left behind, the
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Speaker 1: runoff guys like these. The rhythm from the wipers on
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Speaker 1: the windshield lashed out a hypnotic beam. It did nothing
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Speaker 1: to take his mind off his problems. His debts, debts
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Speaker 1: yeowed across the river. His hands gripped the steering wheel
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Speaker 1: at ten and two. The words love and hate tattooed
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Speaker 1: across both sets of white knuckles. The way out was simple,
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Speaker 1: do the job, take the cash, pay the man on
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Speaker 1: the other side of the river. She'd understand, she'd ride
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Speaker 1: with him, She'd take that long ride. What was there
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Speaker 1: for the two of them here anymore? Anyway? He woke
6:50
Speaker 1: up early and punched in before the sun rose. The
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Speaker 1: days inched by just the same as the winters. He
6:56
Speaker 1: punched out into darkness, hit the bar on the arm,
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Speaker 1: and pa ate off your tab on Friday. All weekend
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Speaker 1: you blue steam hard, like a work whistle. When Sunday came,
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Speaker 1: you skip masks, watched the giants lose, and started another tab,
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Speaker 1: and did the whole thing all over again on Monday.
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Speaker 1: If you were lucky, the giants would cover, or your
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Speaker 1: pick six would come in and to gate their loss.
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Speaker 1: But most times neither thing happened. In Mudoh, so you'd
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Speaker 1: bet more the nets, the devil's seat in hall, anything
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Speaker 1: to outrun the vague and get you back in black.
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Speaker 1: There wasn't a life, not the kind they showed in
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Speaker 1: the movies anyway, or the kind they promised you in school.
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Speaker 1: She knew this now as well as you did. She'd
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Speaker 1: ride with you. She knew the score. Out west. There
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Speaker 1: was gold here. You already had a foot in the grave,
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Speaker 1: and you weren't quite yet forty. Do the job a
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Speaker 1: little favor for the man, Take the cash, leave, don't
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Speaker 1: look back, and start over. It was simple. But what
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Speaker 1: if you got caught. Getting caught wasn't so simple. Getting
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Speaker 1: caught would be hard, hard time, and maybe the death penalty.
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Speaker 1: New Jersey abolished the death penalty back in nineteen sixty five.
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Speaker 1: But what if the man you were going to do
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Speaker 1: this little favor for decided it had to take place
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Speaker 1: in Philly or on the other side of the river.
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Speaker 1: And what if a cop got popped? What that was
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Speaker 1: so hard to imagine. Cops got killed in the line
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Speaker 1: of fire in Manhattan every year. What if the line
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Speaker 1: of fire led straight back to your piece?
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Speaker 2: What then?
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Speaker 1: All he could think about was stark Weather in the
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Speaker 1: electric chair, Charles stark Weather. He and his girlfriend Carol Fugame.
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Speaker 1: She was just fourteen. Stark Weather was nineteen back in
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Speaker 1: fifty eight. When the news broke it was everywhere. He
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Speaker 1: was a teenager, just like stark Weather and Carol stark Weather.
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Speaker 1: He had to get out too, so that's what he did,
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Speaker 1: and Carol rode with her man. The duel was nineteen
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Speaker 1: fifty eight's biggest news sensation. Two teenagers on a murderous
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Speaker 1: ramp age who cut out from Nebraska. In Lincoln, Nebraska
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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty nine, the executioner didn't wear a hood. Instead,
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Speaker 1: he stood anonymously behind a ragged curtain inside the death chamber.
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Speaker 1: A few feet from the electric chair. The executioner entered
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Speaker 1: the penitentiary without fanfare. To him, it was simple, do
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Speaker 1: the job. Take the money, two hundred dollars. It went
9:56
Speaker 1: a long way towards supplementing his electricians paycheck. Inside the
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Speaker 1: prison walls, about fifteen teenagers had assembled with beer and
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Speaker 1: soda pop. They blared their radios and listened in for
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Speaker 1: the moment one of their own, Charles Starkweather, was executed
10:10
Speaker 1: by the state. The wardens sent some guards out to
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Speaker 1: control the situation, but they mostly just fell into the festivities.
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Speaker 1: With the locals back inside, Charlie's family said their last byes.
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Speaker 1: Charlie was self confident to the end, though cracking gallows,
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Speaker 1: humored jokes and flashing that James Dean smile of his.
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Speaker 1: The only thing that betrayed any sense of fear or
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Speaker 1: guilt or remorse was the plastic cross Charlie held in
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Speaker 1: his hand, given to him by the prison chaplain. Charlie
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Speaker 1: occasionally mild a few words to himself from the Bible,
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Speaker 1: I Will fear no evil. Thirty minutes before the big
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Speaker 1: show at eleven thirty PM, with Charlie entertaining his parents
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Speaker 1: and thirty five newsmen and morbid minded civilians setting in
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Speaker 1: outside the death chamber to bear witness to the execution.
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Speaker 1: Something strange happened. The doctor on site to pronounce Charles
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Speaker 1: stark Weather dead upon execution dropped dead himself heart failure,
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Speaker 1: out of nowhere, right there outside the Wharton's office, Lincoln, Nebraska,
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine. Death was in the air. The clock
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Speaker 1: waited for no one dead. Doctors weren't going to stop
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Speaker 1: the inevitable at midnight. The murder is Charles stark Weather
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Speaker 1: was going to die. The first murder A fucking gas
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Speaker 1: station attendant so smug about his job. He was a
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Speaker 1: goddamn gas station attendant, not a doctor. Charlie reckoned he
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Speaker 1: had it coming. Who the hell did he think he was.
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Speaker 1: Charlie wanted that little stuff bear for Carol on credit,
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Speaker 1: and the gas station attendant wouldn't give it to him
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Speaker 1: on account of the fact that Charlie had no job. Well,
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Speaker 1: the hell with him. Charlie was going to take the bear,
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Speaker 1: and then some the cash from the till, and then
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Speaker 1: the gas station attendant's life if he so much has
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Speaker 1: looked at him sideways. So that's what he did. Two
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Speaker 1: shotgun blasts. The first to his stomach put him on
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Speaker 1: his knees, and the second to the back of his
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Speaker 1: head put him out of his misery. Charlie Starkweather left
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Speaker 1: the scene confident. Dead men don't talk. The next murders
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Speaker 1: Carol's family. They hated him, misjuvenile, delinquin looks, his long hair,
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Speaker 1: his denim and dirty T shirt. The cigarette permanently perched
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Speaker 1: between his lips, But mostly they hated the fact that
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Speaker 1: he was nineteen and didn't have a job. He hated
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Speaker 1: that fact too, but what was he gonna do after
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Speaker 1: losing his job hauling garbage? The word was out around Lincoln.
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Speaker 1: Don't hire the stark Weather kid. He's lazy, He's a punk.
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Speaker 1: He kills dogs in his spare time. He was a
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Speaker 1: conspiracy is what it was. Charlie knew it, but that
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Speaker 1: didn't make the reality any different. He loved Carol and
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Speaker 1: she loved him. And with that gas station attendant's dead
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Speaker 1: body causing a real life who'd done it on the
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Speaker 1: pages of the Lincoln Journal, it was only a matter
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Speaker 1: of time before authorities came looking for Charlie. He and
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Speaker 1: Carol needed to get out of Nebraska, and they would
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Speaker 1: shoot their way out if that's what needed doing. Carol's
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Speaker 1: parents wouldn't hear anything about marriage. They assumed Charlie had
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Speaker 1: knocked Carol up. Charlie persisted he wouldn't leave the subject alone,
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Speaker 1: and he wouldn't leave their house until he got their approval.
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Speaker 1: It started with a slap, then another, both from Carol's mother, Marian.
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Speaker 1: Then her father gave Charlie a humiliating kicking the ass
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Speaker 1: on the way out the door. Charlie returned for Carol
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Speaker 1: minutes later. Enraged, he fought his way through the kitchen
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Speaker 1: door past Carol's mother. Carol's father, Velda, tried to stop Charlie,
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Speaker 1: but Charlie broke past and made a bee line for
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Speaker 1: Carol's room, where he knew his twenty two shotgun was.
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Speaker 1: Carol's father knew it too, He took off after Charlie
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Speaker 1: with a clawhammer. Charlie got to his gun just before
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Speaker 1: Velda attacked him. Charlie spun around and blasted a shell
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Speaker 1: through the old man's head, with Carol standing right there
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Speaker 1: next to him. Carol's mother then rushed in bedroom with
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Speaker 1: a butcher's knife. Charlie reloaded and shot her in the
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Speaker 1: face behind them on Carol's bed. Her little two year
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Speaker 1: old stepsister wailed away in fear, and Charlie wrapped her
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Speaker 1: in the head with the butt of the gun. But
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Speaker 1: that would shut her up, so he picked up the
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Speaker 1: butcher's knife and flung it across the room, straight into
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Speaker 1: the little girl's abdomen, killing her. It was a massacre.
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Speaker 1: It seemingly sprung from nowhere, but the truth was that
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Speaker 1: there had been a deep reservoir of rage and insecurity
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Speaker 1: brewing in Charlie for some time. He had long been
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Speaker 1: out of options. All he had was Carol, and her
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Speaker 1: parents had tried to deny him even that he had
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Speaker 1: to kill. And now that he had killed, he and
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Speaker 1: Carol had to run before dead. Before they started their
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Speaker 1: long ride, and the body started to pile up fast.
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Speaker 1: Augie Meyer one shotgun blasted the head, and another for
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Speaker 1: his dog, Charlie. He hated dogs. See Laura w a
15:00
Speaker 1: wealthy industrialist, his wife, Clara, and their maid, and Charlie
15:04
Speaker 1: killed mam. He said, Carol killed Clara, and Charlie also
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Speaker 1: killed the word's dog. He snapped its neck with his
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Speaker 1: bare hands. The killing spree brought national media attention to
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Speaker 1: Lincoln Nebraska, and no one knew where the two teenage
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Speaker 1: killers would strike next. A salesman, Merle Collision dead, the
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Speaker 1: two kids, Robert Jensen and Carol King dead dead, and
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Speaker 1: all told eleven innocent people dead. The white paint on
15:35
Speaker 1: the walls of the execution chamber was shipping away, a
15:38
Speaker 1: slow decay, the opposite of what awaited Charles Starkweather on
15:42
Speaker 1: the night of June twenty fifth, nineteen fifty nine. His
15:46
Speaker 1: head was shaved in preparation for the electrodes that would
15:49
Speaker 1: be attached to his skull, and they led him into
15:52
Speaker 1: the chamber, and the executioner avoided eye contact. The thirty
15:56
Speaker 1: or so onlookers couldn't see him, but they could see
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Speaker 1: Charlie rock Star. The James D. Cool went the way
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Speaker 1: of the shaved hair, but that defiant rebel without a
16:06
Speaker 1: cause attitude was still there in those final moments. When
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Speaker 1: they strapped Charlie to the electric chair, he told them
16:13
Speaker 1: to make him tighter. The onlooker shifted uncomfortably on the
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Speaker 1: other side of the glass. One electrode connected to his calf,
16:20
Speaker 1: another was fastened to his shaved head by a partial
16:23
Speaker 1: leather mask. Charlie closed his eyes and thought of Carol.
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Speaker 1: She was going to avoid the chair. He knew him.
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Speaker 1: He imagined her in her front yard, just like she'd
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Speaker 1: been on that day he first Saar twirling her baton.
16:36
Speaker 1: It was love at first sight, too real to last.
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Speaker 1: He wished he was right there with him, now, sitting
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Speaker 1: on his lap in the electric chair. But Charlie opened
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Speaker 1: his eyes. He gave a half moon smile to the crowd,
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Speaker 1: and the warden gave the executioner the nod, and the
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Speaker 1: executioner gave Charlie Starkweather two two hundred volts. Charlie's head
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Speaker 1: snapped back, his body pressed out against the straps, and
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Speaker 1: the executioner gave him another two thousand plus volts. Charlie's
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Speaker 1: inside sizzled at two hundred and ten degrees fahrenheit, The
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Speaker 1: backs of his eyeballs began to melt from inside his skull,
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Speaker 1: and the executioner threw the switch again, another massive voltage,
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Speaker 1: a third and final time. Charles Starkweather was pronounced dead
17:25
Speaker 1: at twelve oh four am. The warden cried. Some say
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Speaker 1: it was because the warden lost his friend that night,
17:33
Speaker 1: the doctor who dropped dead earlier in the evening. Charlie
17:37
Speaker 1: had that effect on people. Natural charisma for a natural
17:41
Speaker 1: born killer. That's what they said in the papers anyway,
17:50
Speaker 1: back in the day, back before the love and the
17:53
Speaker 1: hate tattoos. He had that charisma when he was younger,
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Speaker 1: that extra something that caused everyone at the bar to
17:59
Speaker 1: perk up when you walk. Didn't cause the foreman to
18:02
Speaker 1: give you some extra shit in that way that only
18:04
Speaker 1: working men bond. Caused her to open her eyes a
18:07
Speaker 1: little wider when you came through the door, too. But
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Speaker 1: that was then. That charisma was gone, now dead, like
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Speaker 1: Charles Starkweather. Now all you had where debts no honest
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Speaker 1: man could pay. We'll be right back after this. We're we're,
18:30
Speaker 1: we're as far as killers went. Charles stark Weather had
18:37
Speaker 1: no code. He killed indiscriminately. Sure he'd tell you he
18:41
Speaker 1: had his reasons, but they were bunk. A man needs
18:44
Speaker 1: to know where the lines are, and he needs to
18:46
Speaker 1: do his best to stay within those lines. Otherwise the
18:50
Speaker 1: world is just chaos. That's in part what Mass on
18:54
Speaker 1: Sunday provided, not just a reason to believe, but a
18:58
Speaker 1: set of rules to keep you from spinning off the earth.
19:01
Speaker 1: Be it the Ten Commandments, the Apostles, creed or just
19:04
Speaker 1: living by Christ's example, It all added up to the
19:07
Speaker 1: same thing, a code. The mafia had a code. It
19:12
Speaker 1: affected most everything its members did. There were rules. You
19:16
Speaker 1: didn't kill women or children, first of all, not like
19:19
Speaker 1: stark Weather did. Ever, And if you were going to
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Speaker 1: kill you needed a reason, good reason, then you needed permission.
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Speaker 1: Charles stark Weather wouldn't have lasted ten minutes in Atlantic
19:32
Speaker 1: City in March of nineteen eighty, which was about as
19:35
Speaker 1: much time as Philly mob boss Angelo Bruno had left,
19:40
Speaker 1: except Angelo Bruno's killers didn't get permission. Angelo's driver pulled
19:45
Speaker 1: up outside Angelo's home on March twentieth, only to be
19:48
Speaker 1: greeted by an unsanctioned shotgun blast through the window of
19:51
Speaker 1: his new Chevy four door sledge. Some wise guy with
19:55
Speaker 1: juice called in a favor with the Philly PD and
19:57
Speaker 1: made sure Angelo's body was left untouched in his car
20:00
Speaker 1: for a couple hours. It wasn't much, just long enough
20:03
Speaker 1: for reporters to show up in snap picks. It was
20:06
Speaker 1: a truly gruesome picture. The aging mob boss, the so
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Speaker 1: called gentle Dawn, sitting upright in the passenger seat, a
20:14
Speaker 1: bullet hole in his head, his mouth, a gape in
20:17
Speaker 1: a look of shock. If the photo was meant to
20:19
Speaker 1: send a message, it was this in Atlantic City, war
20:24
Speaker 1: had just been declared. Angelo Bruno was murdered for power
20:29
Speaker 1: control of the rackets at Philadelphia, which meant control the
20:33
Speaker 1: gambling profits in Atlantic City. The man who ordered the
20:36
Speaker 1: hit on Angelo Bruno, his own underboss, Antonio Capo Negro,
20:40
Speaker 1: was quickly ordered dead by the mafia's ruined commission for
20:43
Speaker 1: not seeking permission for the assassination of Bruno for not
20:47
Speaker 1: adhering to the code. Capo Negro has found naked, beaten,
20:51
Speaker 1: and crammed into the trunk of a car in the Bronx.
20:53
Speaker 1: A couple weeks later, Angelo's job as boss of the
20:56
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Mafia was filled by Phil Testa aka the Chickenman.
21:02
Speaker 1: During his rule, power in Atlantic City was still disputed.
21:06
Speaker 1: The Chickenman was on borrowed time March fifteenth, nineteen eighty one,
21:13
Speaker 1: the IDEs of March, almost a year to the day
21:16
Speaker 1: from Angelo Bruno's on sanctioned hit. Another group of wise
21:20
Speaker 1: guys decided to color outside the lines with blood from
21:23
Speaker 1: the Chickenman. Three am Sunday morning, two one one seven
21:29
Speaker 1: West Porter Street, Philly, phil Testa aka the Chickenman, was
21:34
Speaker 1: returning from a night out at Virgilio's restaurant. Up the
21:38
Speaker 1: road a piece. At Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church,
21:41
Speaker 1: the local priest was up early preparing for that morning's
21:44
Speaker 1: early mass. The Chickenman pulled up his black Chevy Caprice
21:48
Speaker 1: Classic outside his South Philly home. The priest ready to
21:52
Speaker 1: chalice and linen. Across the street from the Chicken Man's house,
21:56
Speaker 1: a man sat silently in an inconspicuous car. He had
22:00
Speaker 1: his hands on a ramote At the church. The priest
22:04
Speaker 1: spread his hands across the linen, flattening out the square
22:08
Speaker 1: cloth embroidered cross side up. The Chickenman walked up the
22:12
Speaker 1: steps to his porch. The man in the car watched
22:16
Speaker 1: and waited. The priest donned his vestment and said a prayer.
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Speaker 1: Washed me clean, Lord, and cleanse me from my sin,
22:24
Speaker 1: that I may rejoice and be glad unendingly with them
22:27
Speaker 1: that have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.
22:32
Speaker 1: The Chickenman opened his front door, and the man in
22:34
Speaker 1: the car flicked the switch on the remote. The priest
22:37
Speaker 1: blessed himself in accordance with his faith in Jesus' unwavering
22:41
Speaker 1: forgiveness of sinners everywhere.
22:44
Speaker 2: And then.
22:49
Speaker 1: When they found the Chicken Man's body, it had been
22:51
Speaker 1: blasted through a thirty inch hole in his house's front wall,
22:55
Speaker 1: shredded through brick, mortar and drywall. His lower torso was
23:00
Speaker 1: one cop who arrived on the scene put it completely mangled,
23:04
Speaker 1: looked like he had went through a paper shredder. Yet
23:06
Speaker 1: somehow the Chickenman was still alive, unconscious. They rushed him
23:11
Speaker 1: to Saint Agnes Hospital, where he woke. He didn't ask
23:15
Speaker 1: for his son, he didn't ask for his priest. Instead,
23:19
Speaker 1: he spit out his final words to the attendant doctor,
23:22
Speaker 1: defiantly telling him quote, it didn't hurt. The nail bomb
23:28
Speaker 1: they used to destroy phil Testa's house and to shred
23:31
Speaker 1: his body did the trick. Philadelphia's mob boss was dead.
23:36
Speaker 1: The headline the next day nailed it too, saying they
23:39
Speaker 1: blew up the Chickenman and Philly last night, seventy miles
24:12
Speaker 1: up the Jersey Turnpike from Philly in Coltsneck, New Jersey,
24:16
Speaker 1: Bruce Springsteen was holed up in his little ranch home
24:19
Speaker 1: writing those words, they blew up the Chickenman in Philly,
24:22
Speaker 1: last night, and they blew up his house too. The
24:25
Speaker 1: Boss was documenting the death of Another Boss, a documentation
24:30
Speaker 1: that would eventually end up on the UK and international
24:33
Speaker 1: album charts. The writing and homemade recording session in Colts
24:37
Speaker 1: Neck were intended to be demos, a roadmap for the
24:40
Speaker 1: eas Street Band to follow in the studio in an
24:42
Speaker 1: effort to get down on tape, a full fledged rock
24:45
Speaker 1: and roll follow up to The River, one that would
24:48
Speaker 1: document the desperate, true crimes of Charles Starkweather and the
24:51
Speaker 1: Chickenman's assassins, as well as other fictionalized characters, all of
24:55
Speaker 1: them on the Ropes. But something funny happened along the way.
25:00
Speaker 1: The demos proved too powerful to top in the studio,
25:04
Speaker 1: so the demos became the album, the album we know
25:07
Speaker 1: today as Nebraska. It was both a small production and
25:12
Speaker 1: a large statement. Bruce Springsteen didn't tour to promote the record.
25:16
Speaker 1: He simply released it to great critical acclaim, if not
25:20
Speaker 1: commercial success, and then he went straight back into the
25:23
Speaker 1: studio to record what would become the biggest selling album
25:26
Speaker 1: in his catalog and one of the biggest selling albums
25:29
Speaker 1: by any artist of all time born in the USA.
25:33
Speaker 1: The characters on Board in the USA are an extension
25:36
Speaker 1: of the characters Springsteen first sang about on Nebraska, characters
25:40
Speaker 1: both real and imagined, vivid characters that refused to be ignored.
25:48
Speaker 1: Ralph held a gun to the night Clerk's neck. He held
25:50
Speaker 1: him close, his hand gripped around his collar. It wasn't
25:54
Speaker 1: the money in the till he wanted. It's like stark
25:56
Speaker 1: Weather twenty two years before him. Ralph wanted respect. The
26:01
Speaker 1: night clerk had none, just had that smirk. Ralph's head
26:05
Speaker 1: rang with a sharp sound of steel on steel. The
26:08
Speaker 1: auto plan had been closed a month now, and Ralph
26:11
Speaker 1: could still hear the clanging from the line inside his head,
26:14
Speaker 1: a constant reminder of the job he'd lost. And here's this,
26:18
Speaker 1: three dollars and thirty five cents an hour. Ma wi
26:21
Speaker 1: motherfuck's smirking at him. The gin, the wine, the confused things.
26:27
Speaker 1: Ralph was tired. Ralph was tired of a lot of things,
26:31
Speaker 1: of working too hard, of working too little, of working
26:34
Speaker 1: too hard for too little. Ralph was tired of being drunk.
26:38
Speaker 1: Ralph was tired of being confused. Ralph was tired of
26:41
Speaker 1: that fucking smirk. So Ralph pulled the trigger, He tore
26:47
Speaker 1: out of the store, raced downtown, blew a red light,
26:49
Speaker 1: and when he entered the club, tiptop the jukebox cut
26:52
Speaker 1: and the crowd hushed. What does a man do in
26:55
Speaker 1: that situation, A smart one puts his head down and
26:58
Speaker 1: stares into his beer. Ralph was supposed to meet the
27:02
Speaker 1: man there because it was out of the way, inconspicuous,
27:05
Speaker 1: a meeting not only on the other side of the river,
27:07
Speaker 1: but in the part of town where no one would
27:09
Speaker 1: recognize him unless you came barrowing through the door like
27:13
Speaker 1: Ralph with that wild stare, the one that dared everyone
27:16
Speaker 1: in the damn place to ask him what his fucking
27:18
Speaker 1: problem was, because the way he looked, Ralph clearly had
27:22
Speaker 1: a problem. The man needed a driver. Ralph needed money,
27:26
Speaker 1: just like the man did, but Ralph had other ideas.
27:30
Speaker 1: It was immediately confronted once he entered the bar. It
27:33
Speaker 1: was what he wanted. He wanted the confrontation. Ralph pulled
27:37
Speaker 1: his piece. He waved his gun around, daring anyone in
27:40
Speaker 1: the joint to come for him, and off duty cop
27:42
Speaker 1: got the drop on him from behind out in front
27:44
Speaker 1: of the club, and that was that. Ralph pulled judge Brown,
27:48
Speaker 1: and the judge gave Ralph ninety eight in a year
27:50
Speaker 1: and called it even Johnny ninety nine. The man got
27:56
Speaker 1: in his car, hit the turnpike and headed north New
28:00
Speaker 1: Jersey Turnpike at night went relentless rain in the rear
28:06
Speaker 1: view a state trooper just what the man needed. He
28:10
Speaker 1: played it cool. It was just a cop, and he
28:13
Speaker 1: was just a guy on the road. He kept his
28:15
Speaker 1: car at the edge of the speed limit and prayed
28:18
Speaker 1: to the Lord above that the trooper didn't run his plates.
28:21
Speaker 1: He just needed to get to the boardwalk. She was
28:24
Speaker 1: going to meet him there, and he was going to
28:25
Speaker 1: be early. But it didn't matter. His mind was made up.
28:29
Speaker 1: He wasn't going to do it. He couldn't do it.
28:32
Speaker 1: The job didn't matter how much he owed. He didn't
28:36
Speaker 1: know Rocko and Sure as the sun shine down on
28:38
Speaker 1: the swamps of Jersey. He didn't know Chickie, the two
28:41
Speaker 1: men who blew up the Chicken Man. But still he
28:43
Speaker 1: couldn't push their buttons. He couldn't do the favor for
28:46
Speaker 1: the man. He saw what had happened to Ralph worse
28:49
Speaker 1: than Stark war there. Ralph wasn't going to the electric
28:52
Speaker 1: chair he was going to prison for the rest of
28:55
Speaker 1: his life with nothing but the thoughts in his head.
28:57
Speaker 1: That was torture, the guilt of it all. How do
29:01
Speaker 1: you come back from that? That sealed it. He was out.
29:05
Speaker 1: Forget his debts, forget the fact that he'd already agreed
29:08
Speaker 1: to do the thing. She would understand, she'd take that
29:11
Speaker 1: long ride out west. They'd go and never return. He
29:17
Speaker 1: had to. He had no other options. But you don't
29:20
Speaker 1: agree to do that kind of favor for that kind
29:22
Speaker 1: of man, and then we neg he'd be as dead
29:24
Speaker 1: as a chicken man Bruno, Starkweather and all the rest.
29:27
Speaker 1: So he drew what literally had from his account. It
29:30
Speaker 1: was enough for two Coast City bus tickets, enough to
29:33
Speaker 1: get out of town. He'd figure out the rest later.
29:36
Speaker 1: He stared at the state trooper in the rear view
29:39
Speaker 1: to calm himself. He thought about the man's life. Maybe
29:42
Speaker 1: he had a kid, maybe he had a wife. Maybe
29:45
Speaker 1: he had a code. Rocco and Chicky didn't have a code.
29:49
Speaker 1: They were on the wrong side of that line. He
29:52
Speaker 1: had a code, he did he couldn't kill even if
29:56
Speaker 1: he'd already agreed to. But what did that mean? What
29:59
Speaker 1: would his make make of that? How would that go over?
30:02
Speaker 1: In confession? Forgive me, father, for I have sinned. I
30:05
Speaker 1: agreed to put a bullet in Rocco and another one
30:07
Speaker 1: in Hickey, so as to make a brown paper bag
30:09
Speaker 1: full of cash to pay off my gambling debts. But father,
30:12
Speaker 1: it's okay. I didn't do the damn thing. Thinking it
30:16
Speaker 1: and doing it weren't the same. But thinking you could
30:20
Speaker 1: do it? What did that mean? Who was he? What
30:24
Speaker 1: exactly was he capable of? What did he become? What
30:27
Speaker 1: if the trooper pulled him over? What would he do?
30:30
Speaker 1: His mind went hazy. He prayed, Oh Lord, deliver me.
30:35
Speaker 1: Mister state trooper pleased, don't stop me, and the Lord
30:39
Speaker 1: was in a listening mood. The trooper peeled away at
30:41
Speaker 1: the next off him, Sein said, Atlantic City, five miles
30:46
Speaker 1: from here. He drove on. But what had he done?
30:50
Speaker 1: What had he learned? He was going to do it?
30:53
Speaker 1: He was, He was set. It wasn't any moral revelation
30:56
Speaker 1: that stopped him. It was fear of getting caught, fear
30:59
Speaker 1: of life alone behind bars with nothing but unbearable guilt,
31:02
Speaker 1: total selfishness. He had no code. The code said thou
31:07
Speaker 1: shalt not kill, And he didn't. But he wasn't absolved.
31:10
Speaker 1: He was guilty of the thoughts in his head. Maybe
31:13
Speaker 1: not in a court of law, but in the eyes
31:14
Speaker 1: of his maker. And there was no forgiveness without penance,
31:18
Speaker 1: and there was no penance without sacrifice. He knew this,
31:21
Speaker 1: She knew this. He didn't deserve her. It was plain
31:24
Speaker 1: as day. He couldn't have her, not now. At least.
31:28
Speaker 1: He needed to sort this out on his own. That
31:31
Speaker 1: was the solution. He'd leave her behind, and if she
31:34
Speaker 1: deemed him worthy over time, she'd come for him. That's
31:36
Speaker 1: the only way it could work. A man needs a code. Otherwise,
31:41
Speaker 1: the thoughts in his head turned to chaos. Salvation is
31:44
Speaker 1: a last minute business, and he wasn't going to let
31:46
Speaker 1: it come down to that. Redemption stayed open all night.
31:49
Speaker 1: He wheeled his stolen car off the highway and headed
31:52
Speaker 1: toward the boardwalk. He parked across from a bus without
31:55
Speaker 1: a stap plates near the promenade. He told her he'd
31:59
Speaker 1: be waiting in the chevy with Nebraska plates, but now
32:02
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be. It was a necessary lie, one that
32:06
Speaker 1: could be easily forgiven. When she arrived, she'd get the message.
32:11
Speaker 1: One cost city bus ticket on the driver's seat, a
32:14
Speaker 1: Meexico road map and a business card from the Sands
32:17
Speaker 1: Gold Motel out west. He was gone and maybe she'd
32:22
Speaker 1: join him if he was worthy. Either way, he'd saved
32:26
Speaker 1: himself from eternal disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan.
32:33
Speaker 2: This this Disgraceland, all right.
32:48
Speaker 1: I hope you doug this episode. Apple podcast listeners, make
32:51
Speaker 1: sure you have auto downloads turned on so you never
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Speaker 1: missed an episode of Disgraceland.
32:55
Speaker 2: This week's question of the week is which songwriter best
32:59
Speaker 2: told the story of true.
33:01
Speaker 1: Crime and song really working our side of the street?
33:04
Speaker 2: Here?
33:04
Speaker 1: Was it the Boss with Nebraska? Was it Johnny Cash?
33:07
Speaker 1: The Killers? The Cure? Em and m so many choices?
33:10
Speaker 3: Hit me up and let me know six one seven
33:12
Speaker 3: nine oh six six six three eight, Leave me a
33:14
Speaker 3: voicemail or send me a text and.
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Speaker 1: Lampod at gmail dot com. Leave a review for the
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Speaker 1: created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with
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Speaker 1: Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on
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34:25
Speaker 1: Rock a rolla Hee The bed Don Man