Charles Starkweather - 1958 Murder Spree

1958 Murder Spree

On January 21, 1958, Starkweather went to the Fugate home. Fugate was not there, and after Fugate's mother and stepfather, Velda and Marion Bartlett, told him to stay away, Starkweather killed them with his rifle, then killed their two-year-old daughter Betty Jean by strangling and stabbing her.

After Fugate arrived, they hid the bodies behind the house. They remained in the house until shortly before the police (alerted by Fugate's suspicious grandmother) went there on January 27.

Starkweather and Fugate drove to the Bennet, Nebraska farm house of seventy-year-old August Meyer, a family friend. Starkweather killed him with a shotgun blast to the head (in self-defense, Starkweather later claimed). He also killed Meyer's dog.

Fleeing the area, Starkweather and Fugate 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 shelter in Bennet, where he shot Jensen in the back of the head, then attempted to rape King, but not being able to perform, became angry with her, so shot her to death. Fugate mutilated King's genitalia in an apparent jealous rage. Starkweather later admitted shooting Jensen, claiming that Fugate shot King. The two fled Bennet in Jensen's car.

Starkweather and Fugate drove to a wealthier section of Lincoln, where they entered the home of industrialist C. Lauer Ward and his wife Clara at 2843 South 24th Street. Both Clara and maid Lillian Fencl were fatally stabbed, and Starkweather snapped the neck of the family dog. Starkweather later admitted throwing a knife at Clara; however, he accused Fugate of inflicting the multiple stab wounds that were found on her body. He also accused Fugate of fatally stabbing Fencl, whose body also had multiple stab wounds. When Lauer Ward returned home that evening, Starkweather shot him. Starkweather and Fugate filled Ward's black 1956 Packard with stolen jewelry from the house and fled Nebraska.

The murders of the Wards and Fencl caused an uproar within Lancaster County, with all law enforcement agencies in the region thrown into a house-by-house search for the killers. Governor Victor E. Anderson contacted the Nebraska National Guard, and the Lincoln chief of police called for a block-by-block search of the city. Frequent sightings of the two were often reported, with concomitant charges of incompetence against the Lincoln Police Department for their inability to capture the two.

Needing a new car because of the high profile of Ward's Packard, they found traveling salesman Merle Collison sleeping in his Buick along the highway outside Douglas, Wyoming. After they woke Collison, they shot him. 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.

The salesman's car had a push-pedal emergency brake, which was something new to Starkweather. While attempting to drive away, the car stalled. He tried to restart the engine, and a passing motorist stopped to help. Starkweather threatened him with the rifle, and an altercation ensued. At that moment, a deputy sheriff arrived on the scene. Fugate ran to him, yelling something to the effect of: "It's Starkweather! He's going to kill me!" Starkweather tried to evade the police, exceeding speeds of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). A bullet shattered the windshield, and flying glass cut Starkweather deep enough to cause bleeding. He then stopped abruptly and surrendered. Converse County Sheriff Earl 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." Both Starkweather and Fugate were captured in Douglas.