Charles Shmid Jr

The Pied Piper of Tucson Charles Schmid Jr. was born in June of 1942 to an unwed mother in Arizona. He was adopted by a wealthy couple in Tucson, Charles and Katharine Schmid. The Schmids were known as being kind people, and were the owners and operators of a nursing home. Charles Jr., or “Smitty” as he was known, was a troubled child. He was caught stealing, and subsequently dropped out during his senior year of high school. Charles relied on his parent’s money and lived on their property, never attending college or finding a job. He was known to hang around at the Speedway in Tucson, along with many teenagers. Charles would wear a face full of makeup, white lipstick, and a fake beauty mark. Regardless of his odd appearance, Charles always …show more content…
She wrote a short story entitled “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” which included a character almost exactly fitting Charles’s description. In the story fifteen year old Connie meets Arnold Friend, a strange older boy. Arnold stalks Connie, and shows up to her house after her family has left. He brings his friend along and tries to convince Connie to come with them. Connie eventually does, and although it is not expressly stated, the end of the story implies that she is going to have a fate similar to Alleen Rowe and the Fritz sisters. Oates gained the idea for her story from a Life magazine article about Schmid. She wrote the story similar to legends of “Death and the Maiden”, and made her main character a young and vulnerable girl (Ramsland, n.d.). Joyce Carol Oates based Connie mostly on what had happened to Alleen Rowe. Connie, like Alleen, was lured out of her house while her family was not home and was not seen again. Oates elaborated on the real crime and added some fantastical elements to her story, such as Arnold being more demon-like and having the voice of the radio announcer. On the whole though, the short story was largely based in