Blog #6

Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate

On January 28, 1958, Charles Starkweather, a 19-year-old high-school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska, and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, killed a Lincoln businessman, his wife and their maid as part of a murder spree that began a week earlier and would ultimately leave 10 people dead. Charles and Caril both came from difficult pasts and connected with each other’s grief as a way to cope, they found familiarity within each other which allowed them to convince themselves that what they were doing to those people was acceptable. The two of them went on a road trip, killing along the way and they became known all around the US. A massive manhunt was born. The following day the couple was arrested and awaited for trial. When trail came , 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.