Charlie Starkweather Biography

Charles (Charlie) Raymond Starkweather was born on November 24, 1938 in Lincoln Nebraska. He was executed on June 25, 1959 in Lincoln Nebraska for first degree murder of 11 people and 2 dogs in Nebraska and Wyoming between December 1957 and January 1958. He was accompanied by his 14 year old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate who served 17 years in prison. His first murder was on November 30, 1957, when he got angry at gas station attendant Robert Colvert when he refused to sell him a stuffed animal on credit. Starkweather returned many times that night buying little things. Finally he returned for the last time with a shotgun, forced Colvert to give him $100 then drove him to a remote location. Stark weather then killed him with one shot to the head. The murders continued. On January 21, 1958, Starkweather went to Fugate’s home to see if she was there. She was not there and her mother and step father, Velda and Marion
Starkweather was caught when his getaway car would not start and a deputy sheriff arrived, shot a bullet though his windshield which shattered the glass injuring him. He stopped and confessed. Starkweather changed his story multiple times about Fugates involvement in the murders. Fugate claimed she was being held hostage by Starkweather and he was threatening to kill her family and was unaware he had already killed them. Judge Harry A. Spencer did not believe her story at all stating she would have had many opportunities to escape. Stark weather finally confessed at her trial that she was a willing participant in the murder spree. Starkweather was found guilty and received the death penalty for the murders. He was then executed in the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska on June 25, 1958. He was buried at Wyuka Cemetery with five of his