Charles Starkweather

Starkweather was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the fourth of seven children of Guy and Helen Starkweather.[12] The Starkweathers were a working-class family; Starkweather's father was a carpenter who was often unemployed due to rheumatoid arthritis in his hands; Helen worked as a waitress to supplement the family's income.[13] Guy Starkweather admitted at Charles's trial to having pushed his son into a window; later his wife would divorce him on the grounds of extreme cruelty.[14] The family was downwardly mobile: Starkweather's great-great grandfather, George Anson Starkweather, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York's 21st district from 1847–1849.

Starkweather attended Saratoga Elementary School, Irving Junior High School, and Lincoln High School. In contrast to his family life, Starkweather later recalled nothing positive of his time at school.[15] He was born with genu varum, a mild birth defect that caused his legs to be misshapen, and claimed he was teased by classmates because he had a speech impediment.[15] His elementary school teacher did not recall his being teased.[16]

As he grew older and stronger, the only subject in which Starkweather excelled was the gym,[12] where he found an outlet for his rage against those who bullied him. Starkweather then began to bully those who had once picked on him.[17] Eventually he felt rage against anyone he disliked. Author Ginger Strand argues that his writings from prison suggest a strong element of class envy and bitterness.[18] Starkweather went from being one of the most well-behaved teenagers in the community to one of the most troubled. His high school friend Bob von Busch would later recall:

He could be the kindest person you've ever seen. He'd do anything for you if he liked you. He was a hell of a lot of fun to be around, too. Everything was just one big joke to him. But he had this other side. He could be mean as hell, cruel. If he saw some poor guy on the street who was bigger than he was, better looking, or better dressed, he'd try to take the poor bastard down to his size.[19]

By the time Starkweather dropped out of school, his parents and family were reportedly afraid of him due to his violent outbursts.[20]

In 1956, at eighteen, Starkweather was introduced to thirteen-year-old Caril Ann Fugate.[21] Starkweather dropped out of high school in his senior year and took a job at a newspaper warehouse[12][17] because it was near Fugate's school; he began to visit her every day after school.

Starkweather taught Fugate how to drive, and one day she crashed the car belonging to Starkweather's father, who banished Starkweather from the family home. Starkweather quit his warehouse job and became a garbage collector.[12]

Starkweather began developing a nihilistic worldview, believing that his current situation was the final determinant of how he would live the rest of his life, while striving only to satisfy his biological needs and acquire power over others.[22][23] He began plotting bank robberies, and settled on a personal philosophy: "Dead people are all on the same level".[24]

Late on November 30, 1957, Starkweather became angry at Robert Colvert, a service station attendant in Lincoln, for refusing to sell him a stuffed animal on credit. He returned several times during the night to purchase small items, until finally, brandishing a shotgun, he forced Colvert to give him $100 from the till. He drove Colvert to a remote area, where they struggled over the gun, injuring Colvert before Starkweather killed him with several shots to the head.[15]

On January 21, 1958, Starkweather went to Fugate's home.[2] Fugate's mother and stepfather, Velda and Marion Bartlett, told him to stay away. He fatally shot them, then clubbed to death their two-year-old daughter Betty Jean.[15] He hid the bodies in an outhouse and chicken coop behind the house.[25]

Starkweather later said that Caril was there the entire time, but she said that when she arrived home, Starkweather met her with a gun and said that her family was being held hostage. She said Starkweather told her that if she cooperated with him, her family would be safe; otherwise, they would be killed. The pair remained in the house until shortly before the police, alerted by Fugate's suspicious grandmother, arrived on January 27.[15] When the police broke in, they found no one there and the house in apparent order. A few days later, Charles's brother Rodney and his friend Bob Von Busch searched the house and premises, finding the stashed bodies. The police issued an alert to pick up both Starkweather and Fugate.[26]

Starkweather and Fugate drove to the farmhouse of seventy-year-old August Meyer, one of his family's friends who lived in Bennet, Nebraska. Starkweather killed him with a shotgun blast to the head.[15] He also killed Meyer's dog.[27]

Fleeing the area, the pair drove their car into mud and abandoned the vehicle. When Robert Jensen and Carol King, two local teenagers, stopped to give them a ride, Starkweather forced them to drive back to an abandoned storm cellar in Bennet. He shot Jensen in the back of the head. He attempted to rape King, but was unable to do so.[28] He became angry with her and fatally shot her as well. Starkweather later admitted shooting Jensen, but claimed that Fugate shot King. Fugate said she had stayed in the car the entire time. The two fled Bennet in Jensen's car.[21]

Starkweather and Fugate drove to a wealthy section of Lincoln, where they entered the home of industrialist Chester Lauer Ward and his wife Clara.[15] Starkweather stabbed their maid Ludmila "Lilyan" Fencl to death, then waited for Lauer and Clara to return home. Starkweather killed the family dog by breaking its neck, to keep it from alerting the Wards. Clara arrived first alone, and was also stabbed to death. Starkweather later admitted to having thrown a knife at Clara, but insisted that Fugate had stabbed her numerous times, killing her. When Lauer Ward returned home that evening, Starkweather shot and killed him. While the killers were in the house, the Wards' newspapers arrived, and they cut out the front-page pictures of themselves and Fugate's dead family. These pictures were found on them later, casting doubt on Caril's claim that she didn't know her family was dead.[29] Starkweather and Fugate filled Ward's black 1956 Packard with stolen jewelry from the house and fled Nebraska.[23]

The murders of the Wards and Fencl caused an uproar within Lancaster County.[15] The flames of public fear were fanned by the era's ongoing panic about "juvenile delinquency."[30] Law enforcement agencies in the region sent their officers on a house-to-house search for the perpetrators. Governor Victor Emanuel Anderson contacted the Nebraska National Guard, and the Lincoln chief of police called for a block-by-block search of that city. After several sightings of Starkweather and Fugate were reported, the Lincoln Police Department was accused of incompetence for being unable to capture the pair.[7] Vigilante gangs were formed, and local sheriff Merle Karnopp started forming a posse by arming men he found in bars.[31]

Needing a new car because of Ward's Packard having been identified, the couple came upon traveling salesman Merle Collison sleeping in his Buick along the highway outside Douglas, Wyoming. After Collison was awakened, he was fatally shot. Starkweather later accused Fugate of performing a coup-de-grace after his shotgun jammed. Starkweather claimed Fugate was the "most trigger-happy person" he had ever met. Fugate denied ever having killed anyone.[3]

The salesman's car had a parking brake, which was something new to Starkweather. While he attempted to drive away, the car stalled because the brake had not been released. He tried to restart the engine, and a passing motorist, geologist Joe Sprinkle, stopped to help. Starkweather threatened him with the rifle, and an altercation ensued. At that moment, Natrona County Sheriff's Deputy William Romer arrived on the scene. Fugate ran to him, yelling something to the effect of: "It's Starkweather! He's going to kill me!"[21]

Starkweather drove off and was involved in a car chase with three officers--Romer, Douglas Police Chief Robert Ainslie, and Converse County Sheriff Earl Heflin--exceeding speeds of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). A bullet fired by Heflin shattered the windshield and flying glass cut Starkweather deep enough to cause bleeding. He stopped, surrendered, and was captured near Douglas on January 29, 1958.[32] Heflin said, "He thought he was bleeding to death. That's why he stopped. That's the kind of yellow son of a bitch he is."[33]

Starkweather chose to be extradited from Wyoming to Nebraska. He and Fugate arrived there in late January 1958. He believed that either state would have executed him. He was not aware, however, that Milward Simpson, Wyoming's governor at the time, opposed the death penalty.[34] Starkweather first said that he had kidnapped Fugate and that she had nothing to do with the murders. However, he changed his story several times. He testified against her at her trial, saying that she was a willing participant.[35]

Caril Fugate, pictured en route to Lincoln, Nebraska. February 3, 1958

Fugate has always maintained that Starkweather was holding her hostage by threatening to kill her family, claiming she was unaware they were already dead. Judge Harry A. Spencer did not believe Fugate was held hostage by Starkweather, as he determined she had had numerous opportunities to escape. When Starkweather was first taken to the Nebraska penitentiary after his trial, he said that he believed that he was supposed to die. He said if he was to be executed, then Fugate should be also.[36]

Starkweather was convicted, after the jury deliberated for only 22 hours, for the murder of Jensen, the only murder for which he was tried. On May 23, 1958, he was sentenced to death, and Starkweather was executed in the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska, at 12:04 a.m. on June 25, 1959.[37] Half an hour before the execution, the doctor who was supposed to pronounce Starkweather dead, B.A. Finkel, himself suffered a fatal heart attack.[38] Starkweather gave no last words but in a letter from prison to his parents, wrote: "but dad I'm not real sorry for what I did cause for the first time me and Caril have (sic) more fun."[35] He was reportedly indifferent about his impending death and had become resigned to his fate.[22]

Following the execution, Starkweather was buried in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, as are five of his victims, including Mr. and Mrs. C. Lauer Ward.[39][40]

Fugate was convicted as an accomplice and received a life sentence on November 21, 1958. She was paroled in June 1976 after serving seventeen-and-a-half-years at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, Nebraska. She settled in Hillsdale, Michigan.

1. Robert Colvert (21), gas station attendant
2. Marion Bartlett (58), Fugate's stepfather
3. Velda Bartlett (36), Fugate's mother
4. Betty Jean Bartlett (2), Fugate's sister
5. August Meyer (70), Starkweather's family's friend
6. Robert Jensen (17), boyfriend to Carol King
7. Carol King (16), girlfriend to Robert Jensen
8. Lillian Fencl (51), maid in the Ward household
9. Clara Ward (50), Chester Lauer Ward's wife
10. Chester Lauer Ward (47), wealthy industrialist
11. Merle Collison (34), traveling salesman

Starkweather also killed two family dogs.

• Capital punishment in Nebraska
• Crime in Nebraska
• List of people executed in Nebraska
• List of rampage killers in the United States

• Allen, William. Starkweather: Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer. (2004), Emmis Books, 240 pages. ISBN 978-1-57860-151-6
• Cawthorne, Nigel; Tibballs, Geoff (1994) [1993]. Killers: Contract killers, spree killers, sex killers, the ruthless exponents of murder, the most evil crime of all. True Crime (2nd ed.). London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain: Boxtree Limited. ISBN 9780752208503 – via Internet Archive.
• Del Harding, reporter for the Lincoln, Nebr., Star, who covered the murders, the Starkweather and Fugate trials, and Starkweather's execution.
• Newton, Michael (February 1998). Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0-671-00198-8. Retrieved October 22, 2010.
• O'Donnell, Jeff (1993). Starkweather: A Story Of Mass Murder On The Great Plains. J & L Lee Publishers. ISBN 978-0-934904-31-5. Retrieved October 22, 2010.
• Strand, Ginger. Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate. (2012), University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-72637-6

• Bardsley, Marilyn. Charles Starkweather & Caril Fugate. Crime Library. Retrieved on 2009-07-30.
• Charles Starkweather at Find a Grave
• "Redheaded Peckerwood" on Christian Patterson web site.
• Nebraska State Historical Society
• Life Magazine article Feb. 10, 1958