Charles Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959) was a spree killer who murdered 11 victims in Nebraska and Wyoming, USA during a road trip with his underage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate and became a national fascination, eventually inspiring the film Badlands and Natural Born Killers.
Early Years
Charles Starkweather was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on November 24th, 1938, to Guy and Helen Starkweather. The third of seven children, Starkweather never recalled any bad memories of his home life. Despite being born at the tail-end of the Great Depression, the family never went without food or shelter, and Charles would later recall that he was never abused as a child. The Lincoln community considered the Starkweathers to be a strong family unit with well behaved children. Guy Starkweather was, by all accounts, a mild-mannered man; a carpeneter, he suffered frequent periods of unemployment due to crippling arthritis in his hands and a weak spine. During these periods Helen supplemented the family income by working as a waitress.
In contrast to his pleasant memories of his home life, Starkweather possessed no kind remembrances of his time in public school. Starkweather was born with a mild birth defect, Genu varum, that caused his legs to be misshapen, and he spoke with a mild impediment, which caused him to be teased, picked upon, and beaten up from an early age. He was considered a slow learner and was accused of never applying himself, although in his teens it was discovered that he suffered from severe myopia which had rendered him nearly blind for most of his life.
The only aspect of school in which Starkweather excelled was gym, wherein he found a physical outlet for his growing anger at the world around him. Starkweather used his newfound physicality to begin bullying those who had bullied him, and soon his anger stretched beyond those who had been cruel to him to anyone whom he happened to dislike. Starkweather quickly went from being considered one of the most well behaved children in the community to one of the most troubled. His high school friend Bob Van 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.
Along with Van Busch, Charles developed an obsession with James Dean, and began to groom and dress himself to look like Dean. Charles sympathized with Dean's rebellion, believing that he had found a kindred spirit of sorts, someone who had suffered similar ostracization to his own, to whom he could look up. Starkweather developed a severe inferiority complex and became self-loathing and nihlistic, believing that he was unable to do anything correctly, and that his own inherant failures would doom him to a life of poverty and misery.
Caril Ann Fugate
When Charles Starkweather was eighteen, Bob Van Busch introduced him to thirteen-year-old Caril Ann Fugate. Van Busch was dating Caril's older sister, Barbara; Charles took a quick shine to Caril, who shared his nihlistic view on small-town life and hair-trigger temper. In spite Caril's being of below average to average intelligence, Charles was impressed with her intellect. To Caril, Charles was impressive: Older, tough, a rebel. The fact that Caril was impressed with Charles was enough to bolster Charles' ego to the point that he no longer felt himself to be inferior or worthless.
Charles quit school shortly after he met Caril and took a job at a warehouse near her school so he could see her everyday. Starkweather was considered a poor worker, his boss later recalling, Sometimes you'd have to tell him something two or three times. Of all the employees in the warehouse, he was the dumbest man we had.
Charles taught Caril to drive, and one day she stole his hot rod and crashed it into another car. Charles' father was the legal owner of the vehicle and forced to pay the damages; the owner of the other car attacked Charles' father. Guy Starkweather kicked Charles out of the house, having finally reached his breaking point with his son's behavior.
Charles moved in with Bob and Barbara, who were now married. Caril became the center of Charles' life; he began telling people that the two were engaged, then that he had gotten Caril pregnant, a lie which enraged her parents.
Charles quit his job and went to work as a garbage man for minimum wage. Charles slipped back into his nihlistic views on society and life, believing that his current situation was the final determining factor in how he would live the rest of his life. He used the garbage route to begin plotting bank robberies, and finally found his own personal philosophy by which to live out the remainder of his life: "Dead people are all on the same level."
The first murder
The killing spree began on December 1, 1957, when Starkweather robbed a gas station and abducted the attendant, Robert Colvert. He drove Colvert to a secluded spot and executed him with shotgun blasts in the abdomen and the head.
On January 28, 1958, he went to visit his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. At her house, he argued with and shot Caril Ann's mother and stepfather and strangled Caril Ann's two-year-old sister. Caril Ann got home just in time to witness all three murders. Starkweather hid the bodies at various places behind the house. The two stayed in the house for several more days, turning people away with a note taped to the door, written by Caril, that read: "Stay a Way Every Body is sick with the Flue [sic]." Caril Ann's grandmother became suspicious and called the police.
When they arrived, Charles and Caril Ann had already left. In the following three days, Starkweather shot and stabbed seven people to death. Over 1,200 police officers and National Guard members searched for the couple, who were finally arrested in Douglas, Wyoming. Upon being discovered by a Wyoming State Trooper, Caril ran to him, yelling something to the effect of "It's Starkweather! He's going to kill me!".
Starkweather first claimed Caril Ann had nothing to do with the murders, but dropped the story when she accused him of holding her as a hostage. He was electrocuted in the Nebraska State Penitentiary on June 25, 1959. Caril Ann was sentenced to life in prison but was paroled in 1976. Starkweather is buried in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska, along with five of his victims: the Bartlett family and the Ward couple.
Starkweather is the inspiration and subject of the song "Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen (which was originally titled "Starkweather"). He is also mentioned in the 1989 Billy Joel hit "We Didn't Start The Fire". The killing spree also served as part of the basis for the movies The Sadist, The Frighteners and Natural Born Killers, was dramatized in the 1993 TV miniseries Murder in the Heartland, the book Headline: Starkweather, and the movie Starkweather. The murders were fictionalized by Terrence Malick for his film Badlands (also the title of a song from Springsteen's Darkness On The Edge Of Town album). In the movie "The Frighteners" the fictional serial-killing antagonist John Bartlett is obsessed with beating Charles Starkweather's "score" of 11.
No relation to Linda Starkweather.
Victims
- Robert Colvert (21), gas station attendant
- Marion Bartlett, Caril Ann's stepfather
- Velda Bartlett, Caril Ann's mother
- Betty Jean Bartlett (2), Marion and Velda's daughter
- August Meyer (72), Starkweather's family friend
- Robert Jensen (17)
- Carol King (16), Robert's girlfriend
- C. Lauer Ward (47), wealthy industrialist
- Clara Ward, C. Lauer Ward's wife
- Lillian Fencl (51), Clara Ward's maid
- Merle Collison, travelling salesman
External links
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