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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 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 severely affected his vision 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 ostracism similar to his own, to whom he could look up. Starkweather developed a severe inferiority complex and became self-loathing and nihilistic, 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.[edit] Caril Ann FugateAround 1957 Bob van Busch introduced Starkweather to fourteen-year-old Caril Ann Fugate. She was born July 30, 1943.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 used his hotrod and crashed it into another car. Charles' father, as the legal owner of the vehicle, was forced to pay the damages. This caused a physical argument between Charles and his father. Guy Starkweather, having finally reached his breaking point with his son's behavior, kicked Charles out of the house.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."[edit] The first murderOn November 30, 1957, Starkweather went to a Lincoln 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 hold 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. On November 30, 1957, Starkweather went to a Lincoln 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 hold 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.[edit] Other murdersOn January 21, 1958, Starkweather went to visit Caril at her dilapidated house. Finding her not home, he argued with and shot to death Caril Ann's mother and stepfather, as well as fatally clubbing Caril Ann's two-year-old sister, Betty Jean. He hid the bodies at various places behind the house before Caril came home from school. The two stayed in the house for six 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.[sic]" Caril Ann's grandmother became suspicious and called the police. When they arrived on January 27, Charles and Caril had already gone.Charles and Caril drove to the Bennet, Nebr., farm home of August Meyer, 70, a Starkweather family friend, whom Charles shot in the head. Shortly thereafter, they got stuck in the mud and abandoned their car. When Robert Jensen and Carol King, two local teenagers, stopped to give them a ride, Charles forced them to drive back to an abandoned storm cellar, where both were shot and killed. Starkweather admitted shooting Jensen but later claimed Fugate shot King. Starkweather and Fugate then took Jensen's car.The two then drove back to Lincoln to the wealthier section of the town, where they entered the home of C. Lauer and Clara Ward, a wealthy local industrialist and his wife. Both Clara Ward and Lillian Fencl, the Wards' maid, were fatally stabbed. Starkweater admitted throwing a knife at Mrs. Ward but denied inflicting the multiple stab wounds that were found in her body. He also denied he fatally stabbed Fencl, whose body also showed multiple stab wounds. When Ward came home that evening Starkweather shot him. Starkweather and Fugate filled Lauer's black Packard with loot from the house and drove it into Wyoming. Needing a new car due to the high profile of the Lauer's Packard, they found traveling salesman Merle Collison, sleeping in his Buick along the highway near Douglas, Wyo. Waking Collison up, Charles shot him, although Starkweather later claimed Fugate finished him off after his (Starkweather's) gun jammed. Starkweather claimed Fugate was the "most trigger happy person" he had ever seen. A deputy sheriff happened on the scene as Starkweather was trying to start Collison's car. 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 over 100 miles per hour. After suffering a minor bullet wound in the ear, Starkweather stopped abruptly. Sheriff Earl Heflin said, "He thought he was bleeding to death. That's why he stopped. That's the kind of yellow sonofabitch he is." Both Starkweather and Fugate were jailed in Douglas.Starkweather first claimed Caril had nothing to do with the murders, but changed his story several times, finally testifying at her trial that she was a willing participant. Caril has always maintained he was holding her hostage by threatening to kill her family (she maintained she did not know they were already dead.) Charles Starkweather was executed in the electric chair at 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.[edit] Impact on cultureStarkweather is the inspiration and subject of the song "Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen, which Springsteen originally considered 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 murders when he was a youth—down to keeping a scrapbook about them [1] and has since incorporated Starkweather 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—these being only two characters amongst a myriad of others that are named for or are variations of the personality of Starkweather). Additionally, the interstate killing spree undertaken by Lloyd Henreid and Poke Freeman in The Stand mirrors the actions of Starkweather and Caril Ann. King has also revealed that The Kid, a leather jacket-wearing thug who appears in the uncut edition of The Stand is the reincarnation of Starkweather.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 Headline: Starkweather, and Stephen Johnston's 2004 movie Starkweather.In the 1996 movie The Frighteners the fictional serial-killing antagonist Johnny Bartlett (named after Caril Ann's family) is obsessed with beating Charles Starkweather's "score" of 11. Bartlett's backstory appears to be patterned after Starkweather.A metalcore band from Philadelphia is called Starkweather.The San Francisco punk band J Church wrote a song called "Hate So Real" about Starkweather and Fugate.His last name is mentioned as one of the disembodied brains in the book Krokodil Tears by Jack Yeovil as part of the Dark Future series.Liza Ward's novel Outside Valentine is a fictional retelling of the Charles Starkweather murders and their far-reaching impact. Liza is the granddaughter of Starkweather victims C. Lauer and Clara Ward.The name of the main antagonist in the Rockstar video game Manhunt is Lionel Starkweather.[edit] Victims1. Robert Colvert (21), gas station attendant 2. Marion Bartlett, Caril Ann's stepfather 3. Velda Bartlett, Caril Ann's mother 4. Betty Jean Bartlett (2), Marion and Velda's daughter 5. August Meyer (70), Starkweather's family friend 6. Robert Jensen (17) 7. Carol King (16), Robert's girlfriend 8. C. Lauer Ward (47), wealthy industrialist 9. Clara Ward, C. Lauer Ward's wife 10. Lillian Fencl (51), Clara Ward's maid 11. Merle Collison, traveling salesman 12. Brian Avery Bradt (20), transient