On January 28, 1958, Charles Starkweather, a high-school
dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska, and his teenage girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate,
kill a Lincoln businessman, his wife and their maid, as part of a murderous
crime spree that began a week earlier and would ultimately leave 11 people
dead. The killer couple’s deadly road trip, which generated enormous media
attention and a massive manhunt, came to an end the following day, when
Starkweather and Fugate were arrested near Douglas, Wyoming.
Growing up, Charles Starkweather was bullied and did poorly
in school. He later idolized James Dean and identified with the actor’s
rebellious, outsider image. Starkweather committed his first murder on December
1, 1957, when he robbed a gas station and killed the attendant. Reportedly, an
attendant at the station had previously refused Starkweather’s attempt to buy a
present for Fugate on credit. Starkweather turned serial killer on January 21,
1958, when he shot Fugate’s stepfather and mother after arguing with them at
their home, and strangled Fugate’s two-and-a-half-year-old sister. Starkweather
and Fugate remained holed up at the scene of the crime for several days, before
taking off in Starkweather’s car and murdering 7 more people between January
27-28. Their final victim, a shoe salesman, was killed on January 29th; the
couple was captured later that same day. Starkweather and Fugate were convicted
of murder. He was given the death penalty and died in the electric chair on
June 25, 1959. Fugate was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in
1976.
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