Charles Starkweather kills his girlfriend’s family at their home in Lincoln, Nebraska, and begins a week-long crime spree that leaves 10 dead. The teenager was waiting for 14-year-old Caril Ann Fugate to return home from school when he got into a fight with her parents, Marion and Velda. Starkweather shot them both with a shotgun as Caril Ann came in, and she watched him go to the bedroom and choke to death her two-year-old sister, Betty Jean.
Starkweather and Fugate then sat down and watched television together. When Caril Ann began to worry that relatives might show up and find the murdered family, Starkweather attached a note to the front door that said, “Stay a Way. Every body is sick with the flu.” For the next two days, Caril Ann successfully turned away relatives and police officers who came inquiring about the family. When Caril Ann’s grandmother finally came back to check again, the house was empty. When the bodies were finally discovered, Starkweather and Fugate were driving out of town.
For the next few days the couple sped around the back highways of the northern plains, killing new victims and stealing their cars. Among the victims were wealthy businessman, C. Lauer Ward, his wife, Clara, and their maid, Lillian Fenci. The women had been stabbed repeatedly. Over 1,200 men were assigned to capture Starkweather and Fugate, but they slipped into Wyoming, where salesman Merle Collison became their last victim.
When police officers stumbled on to Starkweather struggling with yet another victim, Fugate ditched her partner and claimed that he had been holding her hostage. Starkweather was apprehended after a high-speed chase. Initially, Starkweather went along with Fugate’s hostage story but abandoned it when it came time for her trial. Both were convicted. Fugate received a life sentence and Starkweather went to the electric chair on June 24, 1959.
The man who told officers in his confession that, “The more I looked at people the more I hated them because I knowed they wasn’t any place for me with the kind of people I knowed,” showed no remorse to the end. He refused to donate his eyes to an organ bank, saying, “No one ever did anything for me. Why the hell should I do anything for anyone else?”
Victims
Robert Colvert, 21 (12/1/1957)
Marion Bartlett, 57 (1/21/1958)
Velda Bartlett, 36 (1/21/1958)
Betty Jean Bartlett, 2 (1/21/1958)
August Meyer, 70 (1/27/1958)
Robert Jensen, 17 (1/27/1958)
Carol King, 16 (1/27/1958)
Chester Lauer Ward, 47 (1/28/1958)
Clara Ward, 50 (1/28/1958)
Lillian Fencl, 51 (1/28/1958)
Merle Collison, 34 (1/28/1958)
Find-A-Grave: Robert George “Bobby” Colvert
Find-A-Grave: Marion Bartlett
Find-A-Grave: Velda M. Street Bartlett
Find-A-Grave: Betty Jean Bartlett
Find-A-Grave: August Meyer
Find-A-Grave: Robert W. Jensen
Find-A-Grave: Carol King
Find-A-Grave: Chester Lauer Ward
Find-A-Grave: Clara Olson Ward
Find-A-Grave: Lillian Fencl
Find-A-Grave: Merle Collison
1958 : Killer couple strikes the heartland
Snarling Killer Behind Bars; Fear More Victims
Innocent Please Are Made By Starkweather, His Young Girl Friend
Final Arguments Begin In Starkweather Trial
Starkweather Case to Jury
Starkweather Ordered To Die In Electric Chair
Caril Story Of Killings Due Next
Mass Slayer Charles Starkweather Says He Doesn’t Care If Girl Lives Or Dies
Caril Fugate Says She Pleaded With Charles Starkweather For Lives Of 2
Tried to Flee From Killer, Caril Testifies
Caril Loved Spree Murderer
Caril’s Fate Up to Jury
Caril Is Guilty, Gets Life
Starkweather Is Granted New Stay Of Execution
Charles Starkweather Executed
Calm To The End, No Final Words
Death spree convict considered for parole
Caril Fugate Paroled, Spent 18 Years in Prison
Murderpedia: Charles Raymond Starkweather
Wikipedia: Charles Starkweather
Starkweather’s lasting impact on society and pop culture
Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate Trials: 1958 – Tough Background, Hostage Or Killer?
Investigator’s file lends fresh look at Charles Starkweather murder spree
Charles Starkweather
Murder She Wrote
The Dark Side of Nebraska: Charles Starkweather
Woman Who Participated In 1950s Killing Spree Chronicled By Bruce Springsteen Asks For Pardon
Notorious killer Charles Starkweather’s ex-girlfriend denied pardon by Nebraska
Caril Ann Fugate
Books
Born Bad
Starkweather : Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer
Waste Land : The Savage Odyssey Of Charles Starkweather And Caril Ann Fugate
Outside Valentine: A Novel (written by the granddaughter of C. Lauer and Clara Ward – it is fiction and not about the actual murders; looks interesting)
The Twelfth Victim: The Innocence of Caril Fugate in the Starkweather Murder Rampage
Caril
Movies/Documentaries
Badlands
Natural Born Killers
Starkweather
Murder in the Heartland
Murderers, Mobsters & Madmen Vol. 1
A Crime to Remember: Teenage Wasteland
Caril Ann Fugate and Charles Starkweather
Charles Starkweather mug 1958
INMATE INFORMATION
Filed under: crime, high profile, Monsters Among Us, murder, murder in the 20th Century, Spree Killers | Tagged: 1957, 1958, death penalty, execution, Fugitive, homicide, Movies Based on True Crimes, Nebraska, shooting, spree killer, This Day in History | 91 Comments »
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