Charles Starkweather, known as 'Chuck' or 'Charlie' to his friends and family, was born in 1938. Caril Ann Fugate was born in 1943. At the age of fourteen, in 1956, she was in love with Charlie who was five years her senior.
Starkweather had a speech impediment and was often made fun of in school, getting into many fights. He did not do well in school, but excelled in gym where he released his pent-up rage and frustration. He dropped out of high school in his senior year and went to work in a newspaper warehouse, which he later quit to work as a garbage collector and used his route to plan robberies. His first robbery was at the Crest Service Station in Lincoln on December 1, 1957, where he held Robert Colvert, twenty-one, at gunpoint, robbed him of $100, abducted him, and then took him to a secluded location where he shot him in the head.
In 1958, the massacres commenced. It was on January 21, 1958, that Caril Ann returned from school to her family’s one story house in the poor Belmont section of Lincoln, Nebraska. Apparently, after an argument with Starkweather, Marion Bartlett, fifty-seven, Caril’s father, and her mother, Velda Bartlett, thirty-six, were shot in the head. Betty Jean, Caril’s two and a half years old sister, was strangled and stabbed to death in her bed. Following the murders, the couple simply made sandwiches and had lunch together.
Starkweather and Fugate hid the bodies in various locations behind the house and the young couple lived in the house for days. Twice, relatives came by to find out why nobody from the family had been seen. Caril sent them away at the door, telling them everyone was sick. She taped a note on the door reading,
A search turned up the body of Marion wrapped in paper in the chicken house. Caril's mother, Velda, and baby Betty Jean were found in an outbuilding. The lovers were already driving across Nebraska killing and stealing. What the authorities did not know was that just four hours earlier the couple had driven to a Highway 77 service station to buy gas, a box of .410 shotgun shells, and two boxes of .225, before heading to the rural farmlands of Bennet, just sixteen miles southeast of Lincoln. Starkweather knew where they could hide out for a while in a farmhouse owned by seventy year-old August Meyer, who often invited the Starkweather family to hunt on his property.
On their way to the Meyers farmhouse, their car became stuck in the mud. Robert Jensen, seventeen, and his date, Carol King, sixteen, were driving by at the time and offered to help. Starkweather instantly shot them in the head with his .22 rifle and made a failed attempt to rape King before stuffing their bodies into an abandoned storm cellar. They continued on to the Meyer's farm with the intention of obtaining more guns and ammunition. Upon arriving, Starkweather killed August Meyers with a .410-gauge shotgun and placed his body in a washhouse before heading back to Lincoln. After leaving the Meyer’s farm, Starkweather and Fugate drove to the house of industrialist C. Lauer Ward and his wife, Clara. After entering, Clara and their house cleaner, Lillian Fencl were fatally stabbed to death. Starkweather even snapped the neck of their family dog. When Mr. Ward returned home that evening, Starkweather shot and killed him. The killing sick duo filled the Ward's 1956 Packard with stolen jewelry from the house and fled to Nebraska.
The murders of Mr. and Mrs. Ward, and Lillian Fencl, created an upheaval within Lancaster County. All law enforcement agencies in the county conducted a house-by-house search for the killers. Sheriff Merle Karnopp deputized and armed over one hundred men. Governor Victor Anderson contacted the Nebraska National Guard. Schools closed, kids stayed indoors, the National Bank was secured, and in total, over twelve hundred officers were searching for the killers.
A traveling shoe salesperson named Merle Collison, thirty-seven, pulled his Buick off Highway 87 to take a nap. While he was asleep, Caril climbed into the back seat and opened the door for Charlie who shot Merle Collison nine times in the head. Joe Sprinkle, a geologist, saw something going on in a car, and stopped to see if someone needed help. Starkweather instantly pointed a gun at his head just as Deputy Sheriff William Romer came by. Sprinkle ran to the Deputy yelling,
Starkweather, covered in blood from flying glass, immediately surrendered.
Charlie and Caril were arrested and locked up in a Wyoming jail until their arraignment on March 26, 1958. Starkweather pleaded not guilty so there would be a trial. Caril Fugate also pleaded that she was not guilty.
Charlie Starkweather’s trial began on May 5, 1958, in Lancaster District Court, and ended seventeen days later on May 23 when a jury found him guilty and gave him the death penalty. He was executed by electrocution in the Nebraska State Prison on June 25, 1959.
In the meantime, Caril Fugate’s trial started on October 27, 1958. Throughout her trial, Caril insisted she was held hostage and feared for her life. Before Starkweather was executed, he was brought to Caril’s trial from his death cell to testify that she was a keen participant and could have escaped when he left her alone with loaded guns. On November 21, after only ten hours of deliberation, the five woman and seven man jury gave her a sentence of life in prison and she was sent to the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York.
“An interesting note to make here is that Caril Fugate was allowed to complete her high school education at the Nebraska Center for Women. She read over 1,000 books, learned to sew, write, and ran a column in the prison paper. She was even allowed to partake in programs such as bowling, swimming, and shopping the town. “
Further to this note, I will add that, on June 20, 1976, killer Caril Fugate was released from prison as she was considered a model inmate. On September 28, 1981, she was completed discharged by the parole board. She has never discussed her case in public since being released.
Victims
Robert Colvert, 21, gas station attendant
Marion Bartlett, 57, Fugate's stepfather
Velda Bartlett, 36, Fugate's mother
Betty Jean Bartlett, 2, Velda and Marion Bartlett's daughter
August Meyer, 70, Starkweather's family friend
Robert Jensen, 17, Carol King's boyfriend
Carol King, 16, Robert Jensen's girlfriend
C. Lauer Ward, 47, wealthy industrialist
Clara Ward, 46, C. Lauer Ward's wife
Lillian Fencl, 51, Clara Ward's house cleaner
Merle Collison, 37, traveling salesman
Delfina and Maria
de Jesus Gonzalez (Sisters)
Delfina and Maria were two sisters from the Mexican City of Guanajuato who operated the Rancho El Angel, a brothel, from the mid 1950s to mid 1960s. They recruited prostitutes, got them addicted to drugs, and forced them to serve the wicked and humiliating needs of their clientele.
