Photo: Brandon Bell / Getty Images
On 28 January 1958, Charles Starkweather, a young man aged 14 who dropped out of school Lincoln, Nebraska High School and his girlfriend of 14 years, Caril Ann Fugate, killed a man and two women, as part of a murderous crime spree that started a week earlier and would eventually stop 10 dead people.
The murderous couple’s deadly road trip, which generated a huge media attention and a massive manhunt, came to an end the next day, when Starkweather and Fugate were arrested near Douglas, Wyoming.
The crimes later inspired a host of books, movies, and music, including the movie of 1973 by Terence Malick “Badlands”, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, and the song by 1976 by Bruce Springsteen “Nebraska”.
Growing up, Charles Starkweather was bullied and did poorly in school. He later idolized James Dean and identified with the rebellious and marginal image of the actor.
Starkweather committed his first murder on December 1, 1200, when he robbed a gas station and killed the manager.
This became a serial killer on 21 of January of 1958, when he shot Fugate’s stepfather and mother after arguing with them at their home and strangled his girlfriend’s two-and-a-half-year-old sister.
Starkweather and Fugate remained hidden at the crime scene for several dayss, before leaving, they murdered three more people, a farmer and two teenagers, the 27 January.
The last victim of Starkweather and Fugate, a shoe salesman, was murdered on 27 January; the couple was captured later that day.
Both were convicted of murder; He was sentenced to death and died in the electric chair on June 10. 1959, while Fugate was sentenced to life in prison, but was released in 1976.
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