Charles Starkweather

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 films The Sadist, Badlands and Natural Born Killers and the Bruce Springsteen song Nebraska

Early years

Charles Starkweather was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on November 24, 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, Charles would later recall that the family never went without food or shelter; nor was he ever abused as a child. The Lincoln community considered the Starkweathers to be a strong family unit with well-behaved children. Guy, the father, was by all accounts a mild-mannered man; a carpenter, he suffered frequent periods of unemployment due to crippling arthritis in his hands and a weak spine. During these periods Charles' mother 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 also suffered from a mild speech 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 inherent failures would doom him to a life of poverty and misery.

Caril Ann Fugate

Around 1957 Bob Van Busch introduced Starkweather 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 nihilistic view on small-town life and hair-trigger temper. In spite of Caril's 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 every day. Starkweather was considered a poor worker. His boss later recalled, 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 hotrod and crashed it into another car. Charles' father, as the legal owner of the vehicle, was forced to pay the damages; the owner of the other car attacked Charles' father. Guy Starkweather, having finally reached his breaking point with his son's behavior, kicked Charles out of the house.

Charles moved in with Bob and Barbara, who were now married. Caril became the center of Charles's 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 nihilistic 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

On November 30, 1957, Starkweather went to a gas station where he tried to buy a stuffed toy dog for Caril on credit. The attendant, Robert Colvert, refused, and Charles left, furious. At three in the morning on December 1, 1957, Charles returned to the station with a 12 gauge shotgun. Initially, he left the gun in the car, went into the station, and bought cigarettes from Colvert, who was working alone. Starkweather left, drove down the road, turned around, and returned to the station, again leaving the gun in the car. This time he purchased a pack of gum, then once again left and drove away. He parked a distance away from the gas station, put on a bandanna and hat, then walked to the station with the shotgun and a canvas bag. He held Colvert at gun point and got $100 from the cash drawer before forcing Colvert to march back to his car. Charles drove Colvert to an abandoned area and made him get out of the car, at which point Colvert attacked Charles and attempted to get ahold of the shotgun. The shotgun fired in the scuffle, knocking Colvert to his knees; Starkweather then executed the stunned Colvert with a shotgun blast to the head.

Starkweather would later claim that in the aftermath of the murder he believed that he had transcended his former self to reach a new plane of existence in which he was above and outside the law. He confessed the robbery to Caril immediately, but claimed someone else had killed Colvert, which Caril did not believe.

Caril Ann's Family

On January 28, 1958, he went to visit Caril Ann. 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 ." 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.

Impact on Culture

Starkweather is the inspiration and subject of the song "Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen, which Springsteen originally considering calling "Starkweather". He is also mentioned in the 1989 Billy Joel hit "We Didn't Start The Fire".

Stephen King was strongly influenced by reading about the killings when he was a youth--down to keeping a scrapbook of the killings ^*--and has since incorporated him in many variations in his work (Starkweather is said to have been a schoolmate of Randall Flagg in The Stand and George Stark from The Dark Half was also named for him).

Having introduced the killing spree to America, the couple became the inspiration for the film Badlands by Terrence Malick, as well as The Sadist, Wild at Heart (based on a book by Barry Gifford), Kalifornia, and Natural Born Killers. More direct, although still not accurate, accounts were dramatized in the 1993 TV miniseries Murder in the Heartland with Tim Roth as Starkweather, the book Starkweather, and the 2004 movie Starkweather.

In the movie "The Frighteners" the fictional serial-killing antagonist John Bartlett is obsessed with beating Charles Starkweather's "score" of 11.

There is also a metalcore band from Philadelphia called 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, traveling salesman

External links

Starkweather story from crimelibrary.com