Star Arch Hall Jr. was a sharpshooter, and when some of the attempts to fire "fake" bullets from his gun failed, he suggested that he fire live ammunition above the heads of the other actors. They agreed and a number of gunshots in the film are quite authentic.
The characters of Charlie and Judy were inspired by real-life serial killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate. Although the character of Judy acts like a very young teenager (like the real 14-year-old Fugate), a radio announcer was added to clarify that Judy is 18 years old, in order to sidestep censorship problems.
This is believed to be the first feature film based on real-life serial killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate. Mainstream Hollywood would not produce films inspired by the pair until a decade after this one. A number of films were inspired by the duo (some very loosely) and included such major examples as Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973) and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994)
The two motorcycle cops were actually off-duty Los Angeles Police officers who had their own bikes and did funerals and VIP escorts, etc. off the job for extra money.
Arch Hall Jr. based his performace as psycho killer Charlie Tibbs on "Tommy Udo," Richard Widmark's character in Kiss of Death (1947), right down to the giggle.
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