Lincoln, NE, 1958: When two love-struck, sex-crazed teenagers embark on a killing spree in Lincoln, Nebraska, it will fall to one local sheriff to put the brakes on this nightmare of a joy ride.
Charles Raymond "Charlie" Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959) was an American teenaged spree killer who murdered eleven people in the states of Nebraska and Wyoming in a two-month murder spree between December 1957 and January 1958. All but one of Starkweather's victims were killed between January 21 and January 29, 1958, the date of his arrest. During the murders committed in 1958, Starkweather was accompanied by his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate.
Starkweather was executed 17 months after the events, and Fugate served 17 years in prison before her release in 1976. The Starkweather-Fugate spree has inspired several films, including The Sadist (1963), Badlands (1973), Kalifornia (1993), and Natural Born Killers (1994). Starkweather's electrocution in 1959 was the last execution in Nebraska until 1994.
Trial and execution
Starkweather chose to be extradited to Nebraska and he and Fugate arrived there in late January 1958. He believed that either state would have executed him. He was not aware that the Governor of Wyoming at the time was an opponent of the death penalty. Starkweather first claimed he had kidnapped Fugate and had nothing to do with the murders; however, he changed his story several times, finally testifying at Fugate's trial that she was a willing participant. 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 she had had numerous opportunities to escape. When Starkweather was first brought in to the Nebraska penitentiary he stated that he believed that he was supposed to die and that if he was executed, then Fugate should be too.
Starkweather was found guilty and received the death penalty for the murder of Robert Jensen, the only murder for which he was tried. He was executed by electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska, at 12:04 a.m. on June 25, 1959. He is buried in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln along with five of his victims, including Mr. and Mrs. Ward.
Fugate received a life sentence on November 21, 1958. She was paroled in June 1976 after serving 17 1⁄2 years at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, Nebraska. She settled in Lansing, Michigan, where she changed her name and worked as a janitor at a Lansing hospital. Fugate married Frederick Clair in 2007 and, apart from a radio interview in 1996, has refused to speak of the murder spree. Caril Ann Clair was living in Stryker, Ohio when she was seriously injured and her husband killed in a car crash on August 5, 2013.
Charles Raymond "Charlie" Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959) was an American teenaged spree killer who murdered eleven people in the states of Nebraska and Wyoming in a two-month murder spree between December 1957 and January 1958. All but one of Starkweather's victims were killed between January 21 and January 29, 1958, the date of his arrest. During the murders committed in 1958, Starkweather was accompanied by his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate.
Starkweather was executed 17 months after the events, and Fugate served 17 years in prison before her release in 1976. The Starkweather-Fugate spree has inspired several films, including The Sadist (1963), Badlands (1973), Kalifornia (1993), and Natural Born Killers (1994). Starkweather's electrocution in 1959 was the last execution in Nebraska until 1994.
Trial and execution
Starkweather chose to be extradited to Nebraska and he and Fugate arrived there in late January 1958. He believed that either state would have executed him. He was not aware that the Governor of Wyoming at the time was an opponent of the death penalty. Starkweather first claimed he had kidnapped Fugate and had nothing to do with the murders; however, he changed his story several times, finally testifying at Fugate's trial that she was a willing participant. 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 she had had numerous opportunities to escape. When Starkweather was first brought in to the Nebraska penitentiary he stated that he believed that he was supposed to die and that if he was executed, then Fugate should be too.
Starkweather was found guilty and received the death penalty for the murder of Robert Jensen, the only murder for which he was tried. He was executed by electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska, at 12:04 a.m. on June 25, 1959. He is buried in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln along with five of his victims, including Mr. and Mrs. Ward.
Fugate received a life sentence on November 21, 1958. She was paroled in June 1976 after serving 17 1⁄2 years at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, Nebraska. She settled in Lansing, Michigan, where she changed her name and worked as a janitor at a Lansing hospital. Fugate married Frederick Clair in 2007 and, apart from a radio interview in 1996, has refused to speak of the murder spree. Caril Ann Clair was living in Stryker, Ohio when she was seriously injured and her husband killed in a car crash on August 5, 2013.
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