Aug. 18, 2026

50 Shades of Evil: Nebraska - Charles Starkweather

Show Notes
Transcript

In January 1958, a 19-year-old high school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska named Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate went on a murder spree that left eleven people dead across Nebraska and Wyoming.

Starkweather, who idolized James Dean and styled himself as a rebellious outsider, and Fugate, who claimed she was a hostage, left a trail of bodies that included a teenage couple, a wealthy industrialist and his wife, a traveling salesman, and a young couple in Wyoming. The killings were brutal, impulsive, and seemingly without clear motive beyond rage, alienation, and a twisted desire for notoriety.

Timestamps
03:20 Starkweather's Early Years
06:59 Rebel Without Rules
11:22 First Killings Begin
13:20 The Bartlett Murders
16:36 Help Turns Deadly
19:38 Final Chase Ends
26:28 Execution Day

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WEBVTT

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H a wall street line, shackle change, Oh weesome, gird,

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it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's

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been a tentery juice as the hill Stream game Rango three, I'm.

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In bed by me or die inside these walls, inside

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the wild, hadn't went the girl as I'm.

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Hey everyone, welcome back to Bloody Angola. I'm Jim Chapman,

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and it's been about ten days since I've dropped an episode,

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probably the longest I've went. I'm usually solid at the

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seven day turns on dropping episodes, but I have had

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some hip and lower back problems that just totally threw

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me behind. I've been having to do a lot of

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physical therapy things like that for this. So I'm just

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now able to get back to recording another episode for you,

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but not too much longer. I'm like ten days out

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right now. But we're gonna get to Nebraska and I'm

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gonna tell you another fifty Shades of Evil story. And

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I want to paint the picture for you, so I

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want you to imagine January of nineteen fifty eight. You're

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in Nebraska, and of course this is flat land and

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it's January, so it's cold outside snow is lying dirty

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along the ditches, and in a black nineteen forty nine Ford,

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a nineteen year old garbage collector who has that James

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Dean style haircut of that day. He's got a thirty

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two revolver, and beside him is a fourteen year old

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girl in that car. Now in the trunk is a body,

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and on the back roads behind him several bodies of

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what would become one of the most shocking killing sprees

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in American history. Eight days, eleven dead, and an entire

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state was held high by two teenagers. So today I'm

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going to take you on that deep dive into the

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story of Charles stark Weather. He was a Nebraska killer.

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We're going to talk about his childhood, what shaped him,

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those teenage years that would harden him as short as

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they were in that eight day rampage, that made him infamous.

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So let's get into it and Charles Raymond stark Weather,

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he entered the world on November twenty fourth of nineteen

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thirty eight. This is in Lincoln, Nebraska. Now that city,

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in most of the country really during this time, was

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still climbing out of the long shadow of the Depression.

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Lincoln was the quiet state capital, and it was built

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on government work, the University of Nebraska, and the surrounding

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farm economy. In neighborhoods like the ones that Charles stark

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Weather lived in, they were made of modest framed houses,

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gravel streets in places, and people still trying to hold

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on to steady paychecks. Guy stark Weather, he worked as

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a carpenter and a general laborer. And that was Charles's

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dad in Helen stark Weather. She would keep the household running.

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They had a large family and Charles was one of

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seven children, and he wasn't the oldest, nor was he

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the youngest. He was kind of in the middle there. Now,

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from early on, Charles would stand out for all the

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wrong reasons. He was born with bowed legs and that

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affected his walk, and he also had a noticeable speech impediment.

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His eyesight was poor enough to require glasses, and he

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was short and stocky. And I bring this up because

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these physical traits made Charles go about his young life

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with kind of a chip on his shoulder. He would

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start responding to criticism with a quick temper, and he

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would throw hands all at the drop of a hat,

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even when he was a child. Now, teachers would later

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say that he was not what you would call academically strong.

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Sim put, he hated school, and when he felt slighted

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or embarrassed or bullied, he would disrupt. And there are

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accounts from this period of his life of deliberate cruelty

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toward animals, which would speak to the mean street that

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he was developing really early on. Now, the Starkweather household

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itself really offered no explanation for this. Large families and

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working class Lincoln in the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties,

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they often operated under pressure, Arguments happened, patients would run short,

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and Charles would later claim his father was harsh and

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his mother was overwhelmed. But this was the way it

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was in almost every household during this period of time.

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You're right out of the depression, you're suffering, I mean,

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you're saving your money, you're scared of the government, you're

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scared of banks. So this is nothing new for anyone

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really during this time, and it certainly would go nowhere

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to explain his rampage later on in life. Now, guns

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went into the picture early on, and they would really

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hold Charles's attention. He loved firearms, even at a very

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young age, and in Nebraska, firearms were common hunting, common

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thing there, and for Charles they became more than tools.

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He liked the power that they represented. He would practice

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with them, and the interest he had in those firearms

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that was pretty intense. Now by the end of childhood,

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he had already developed some core traits of someone whose

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future was not looking good. He had a short fuse,

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a long memory for insults, and an early comfort with aggression.

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By the time he reached his teenage years, the boy

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who had fought on the playground, he had already decided

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the people around him, all of them were enemies. He

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was the victim right and it was this attitude that

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would cause him to grow more dangerous over time. So

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Charles he eventually drops out of high school. Now high

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school held little interest for him and even less success.

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Classroom expectations to him felt like another form of judgment,

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and he answered them the same way he had answered

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playground insults withdrawal, resentment, and rejection. Once free of school,

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he took the kind of work available to a young

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man with limited skills, garbage collection. The job was dirty,

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it was physical, and it was low status. And it

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was also around this time that he began to shape

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his appearance around the images of a rebellion that were

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circulating in the mid nineteen fifties. That James Dean look

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that I told you about, sweat back, tear, heavy stare,

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leather jacket, and the posture of a young man who

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believed the world owed him something. He became obsessed with

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having just the look of a rebel. The post was

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not original to him, but he would wear it with

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commitment in his mind. The clothes, the hair, the curled lip.

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They weren't a costume. They were proof that he stood

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apart from ordinary people who followed rules and accepted their place.

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And in his teenage years, those weapons, they would still

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remain his thing. He would handle guns with increased familiarity

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and comfort and the power they represented pretty straightforward and

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life where he felt dismissed. A gun just would give

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him a sense of control and a sense of power,

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and as you would expect, theft and small acts of

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deviance they would add up nothing yet rose to the

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level of the later violence, but the direction was consistent.

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Rules were optional with this guy, Consequences were for other people,

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and force was his answer to everything, including and especially disrespect. Now,

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the most significant thing that happened to him during this

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time was a relationship with a thirteen year old girl

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named Carol Ann Fugaate. They would meet when stark Weather

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was eighteen and Carol was thirteen. The age gap was obvious,

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but it wasn't unheard of during this time in history.

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I mean, remember Elvis was dating Priscilla Pressley when she

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was like fourteen. But what began is kind of a

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tension seeking from an older boy quickly became an intense

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attachment for Fugate. Stark Weather would fixate on her and

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he would position himself as her protector. Now, Carol, still

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a young teenage girl living in a difficult household, she

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was all about it. The two of them built a

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world in which they were the only people they believed

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who truly understood each other, and everyone else was an enemy.

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So she was becoming as bad as he was now.

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Although aside from their attitude it sounded like the perfect

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love story of two lost souls, it wasn't. The relationship

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was not gentle. Stark Weather was possessive and he was controlling.

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He expected loyalty and would lose his shit every time

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Carol would show signs of independence. Arguments with Carol's family

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would become a common thing, and her mother and her

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stepfather made it clear that they did not like this

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older boy who was consuming their daughter's time and attention.

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Stark Weather, of course, would tell her this is just

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further proof that the world was against them, and as

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any impressionable young teenager would do, she bought right into

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his bullshit. They would start talking about running away and

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living kind of a rebellious life with no rules, and

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the family conflict at home would continue even inside his

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own home, and Charles would make up his mind that

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his own family was against him. And what stands out

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to me in this period is not a sudden break

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like this guy just all of a sudden went bad.

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It's a steady decline. And by the final months of

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nineteen fifty seven, Charles stark Weather, at this time nineteen,

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with a menial job, he convinced himself the only person

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who mattered was himself and the fourteen year old girl

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beside him, and the fuse was short and that match

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was let So let's go to the night of November

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thirtieth into December first of nineteen fifty seven and Charles

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stark Weather. He drives to a gas station on what

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is done as Cornhusker Highway in Lincoln, Nebraska. He needed money.

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Robert Colvert a twenty one year old attendant and a

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recent Navy veteran. He was working the late shift at

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this gas station. In a little about Robert, he was

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the youngest of six children, and after high school, he

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served in the US Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS

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Shang Grillaw. He was recently discharged from the Navy and

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he had returned to Nebraska and in nineteen fifty six

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he gets married. So Starkweather arrives at this gas station

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and he robs Robert Culvert at gunpoint. He took some

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money from the register and he forces Robert into his

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car with him and they drive him to a remote

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location near the Lincoln Air Force Base where he shoots

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this guy in the head. He later claimed the shooting

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happened because Culvert had been slow or disrespectful during the robbery.

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He would say different things, but the explanation typical right

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for this guy, Any disrespect in his mind justified murder.

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So he basically said, oh, he didn't walk fast enough.

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When we had the gun to his back telling him

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get in the car, so I killed him. Now sadly,

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at the time of his death, Robert's wife was pregnant

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with their only child, a daughter, who was born five

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months later, and people who knew him described him as friendly,

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just a guy that always smiled, good person, And for

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the next several weeks, stark Weather returned to something resembling

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an ordinary life. He continued seeing Caroline fugate, and the

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murder of Robert Culvert did not seem to FaZe this guy,

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and then on January twenty first of nineteen fifty eight,

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he kills again. That afternoon, stark Weather went to his

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girlfriend's home in Lincoln, and Carol's mother, Velda Bartlett, and

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her stepfather, Marying Bartlett, and Carol's two year old half sister,

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Betty Jean. They were all there. An argument starts over

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the now nineteen year old and these people's fourteen year

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old daughter. Stark Weather would later give conflicting accounts of

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who started the argument. What is not in dispute is

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the killing. Stark Weather shoots both mom and dad, his

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own girlfriend's mom and dad, killing them, and then he

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kills the toddler Betty Jean by hitting her and crushing

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her skull. He then moved the three bodies to an

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outbuilding behind the house and he hides these bodies. Stark

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Weather and Carol then remained in the house for several

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days afterward, hiding out. They would eat food in the kitchen,

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they would watch TV, and they would turn away relatives

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and even a neighbor who came by curious because this

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neighbor hadn't seen the family in days and that was

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rare and strange. So these two they would tell the

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people that came by, oh, the family, they're sick with

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the flu. And the bodies would stay hidden while the

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two of them lived in that home as if nothing

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ever happened. Then, on January twenty seventh, they finally left.

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Now stark Weather would take weapons, he would take Ammo.

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He would also take the family car and the first

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stop for this young couple that day was the form

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of August Mayor. And August was a seven your old man,

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seventy years old, y'all. He lived alone. He had a

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very well kept farm about two miles east of Bennett, Nebraska,

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and he had spent his entire life on that farm,

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never married, and people who knew him described him as

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soft spoken, very hard working, neat and just a great guy.

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Neighbors said his farm was better maintained the most state

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parks in Nebraska. He took pride in his work, and

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he was also a man of faith. And incidentally, he

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was also a family friend of the stark Weathers. He

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had known Charles since Charles was born and even allowed

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Guy stark Weather and his sons to hunt on his land.

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As a matter of fact, it was that prior relationship

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that led Charles stark Weather and Carol Anne Fugate to

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go there after leaving Carroll's parents' house. So the couple

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went there with the specific intent to rob and kill Mayor.

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Charles stark Weather knew him, and he knew this was

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kind of an easy target, older guy. Right when they arrive,

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stark Weather shoots Mayor in the head with a shotgun,

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and he also killed Mayor's dog just to be a deck.

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Mayor's body was then dragged into a warehouse slash outbuilding

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behind the main house and it gets partially hidden now.

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Stark Weather and Fugate then took money, food, and guns

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from that property. They leave and they head down the road,

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and as soon as they leave, uh oh, they get

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stuck in the mud and they can't get their car out.

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Robert Jensen and Carol King see this. They see this

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car stuck in the mud. They see this stranded pair,

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and they stop to help. And this is a common

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courtesy on those roads in this part of Nebraska. So

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Robert Bobby Jensen, he was just seventeen years old, sharp kid,

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junior class president at Bennett High School. He played football

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and he was very well liked. And Carol King, she

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was just sixteen years old. She was a cheerleader at

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the same school. She sang in the choir. She was

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a good student. The two of those were high school sweethearts,

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just in the wrong place at the wrong time, just

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trying to be nice and help these people stuck in

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the mud. So as soon as they walk up to

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stark Weather, stark Weather immediately pulls a gun on them.

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He robs Jensen of a small amount of money, y'all

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four bucks. He then forces Jensen to drive them a

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short distance to an abandoned storm seller. Now at that

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storm seller, stark Weather ordered Jensen down the steps. This

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kid walks down the steps and Charles stark Weather shoots

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him six times in the head. Jensen's body falls to

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the bottom of the stairs and was just left there

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as far as Carol King, she was shot once in

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the head and her by body was found partially undressed.

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Her genes and underwear were actually pulled down around her ankles,

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and she had been stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen, growing

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and genital area. And of course stark Weather later on

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upon his arrest, would give conflicting statements. He would sometimes

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claim he was the one responsible for both killings, and

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at other times he would blame Carol for shooting King

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or for the stabbing aspect as it related to King,

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saying she acted out in jealousy because he had found

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King attractive. So they kill these two kids. They leave

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the bodies in the storm cellar, and they take off

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now in Jensen's dark blue nineteen fifty Ford. Then on

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January twenty eighth, the killings moved into what you may

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say was a higher social bracket than what they've done before.

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The couple started targeting the wealthy. Stark Weather and Carol

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would enter the home of See Laurel Ward, who was

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a wealthy Lincoln businessman now Ward, he wasn't there at first.

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They entered the home and his wife was there, Clara,

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and their living maid was there, Lilian. As soon as

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they bust in, stark Weather would control the house. When

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see Laura Ward returned, he was shot and he was killed.

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Then Claire Ward and Lilian they were also killed, stabbed

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and bound in addition to being shot. The three bodies

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were then left inside the residents and stark Weather took clothes,

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money in the Wards nineteen fifty six Black Packard. The

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couple then drove west down the highway, so the final

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killing occurred near Douglas, Wyoming. This was on January twenty ninth.

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A guy by the name of Merle Collision, who was

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a trifling shoe salesman. He had pulled his Buick off

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to the side of the road. He was tired, he

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wanted to rest. Star Weather sees this approaches, shoots and

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kills this man right there in broad daylight, and he

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attempts to steal his car. However, the Buick had this

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kind of complex push button transmission that stark Weather could

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not figure out how to operate. And while he struggled

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with this vehicle, trying to get it to start. A

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young geologist by the name of Joe Sprinkle he comes

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up upon this scene and he sees all this. He

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realizes what's happened in a fight follows between him and

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stark Weather, and during the fight, a Wyoming Deputy sheriff

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named Bill Rummer he arrives on the scene. Stark Weather

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sees the deputy. He takes off running, jumps in the car.

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This deputy follows, gives chase from behind, and the pursuit

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ends when the stark Weather's vehicle again becomes stuck in

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the mud. He's then taken into custody along with his

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young girlfriend. So stark Weather, being who he was, he

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was not the type to remain silent. He's almost proud

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about doing this shit, which is not a good idea

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when you've killed eleven people. In the hours in the

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days after that arrest, he would talk and talk and talk,

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admitting to every killing. Now, Wyoming and Nebraska both had

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victims in this case, with the final murder having occurred

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in Wyoming, but the bulk of the victims and the

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stronger set of charges belonged to Nebraska. So stark Weather

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would return to Lincoln, Nebraska, and prosecutors they made what

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I consider an interesting choice. Rather than attempt to try

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him for every murder at once, they concentrated on a single,

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totally provable case. They charge stark Weather with the murder

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of Robert Jensen. In the evidence vents was strong. They

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had ballistics, they have the stolen car, they had Charles

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stark Weather's own freaking confession, and the sequence of events

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also matched up to where they could get a conviction.

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So one solid conviction for first degree murder is really

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all the state needed for the death penalty. So this

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trial starts in May of nineteen fifty eight. Can you

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believe that talk about moving fast compared to how fast

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trials moved today, which is not fast at all. Right,

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But it starts in May of nineteen fifty eight. It's

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in Lancaster County, and the courtroom, as you can imagine,

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is packed with reporters, and stark Weather when he appeared

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in court still had that same fifties look, the hairstyle,

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the posture that he had worked on for years. His

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demeanor would draw as much attention as the testimony and

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the facts of the Jensen's killings were difficult to hear,

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but very damning to Charles stark Weather. The prosecution would

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lay out a straightforward case. Stark Weather had robbed Jensen,

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forced him into that storm cellar, and shot him repeatedly

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in the head. Carol's presence and actions were part of

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the narrative they brought it up, but the charge against

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stark Weather would stand on its own. The jury did

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not deliberate long. They found him guilty of first degree

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murder and the sentence was death in the electric chair

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at Nebraska State Penitentiary. Now Caroline Fegate. She was tried separately,

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and she was fifteen by the time of her trial.

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She was still a minor under the law, but the

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state treated her as an active participant, which she was

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in all these crimes. The prosecution argued she had aided

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and abetted, that she had opportunities to escape or ask

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for help and had never taken them, and that her

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presence and actions throughout this killing made her feminally responsible.

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Now her defense, they would say he coerced her, and

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that she was scared of Charles and that's why she

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just stayed with him this whole time. And she maintained

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that stark Weather had threatened her that she believed her

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family was still alive and in danger. Is she resisted,

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and that she had been held hostage rather than a partner.

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But the jury they didn't buy that bullshit. They rejected

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this hostage narrative, and they convict her of first green

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murder in the perpetration of a robbery in connection with

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Jensen's death. But because of her age, she received a

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life sentence rather than death. She would serve only seventeen

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and a half years before being paroled in nineteen seventy six. Jim,

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did you see what happened in Texas today? Wait before

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you tell me that, let me tell you what happened

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in New York. It cannot be as crazy as the

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case I told you about yesterday in Louisiana. You know what,

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we should do a podcast about it, and with that

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00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:09.960
we did. Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines

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00:25:09.960 --> 00:25:13.440
that have dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from

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00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:17.400
all over the country and even sprinkle in a few globally.

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00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:20.279
Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to

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00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:24.400
your podcasts, simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking

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00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:34.480
the link in the description of this podcast. Now of course,

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00:25:34.599 --> 00:25:40.400
the media coverage around this was insane. Newspapers and magazines

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were in the photographs, and everybody in the entire country

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at this time was just enthralled with this case. And

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it was They had news back then, the three channels,

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but they didn't have Internet during that time, so it

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was full newspaper glory back then, where the front page

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of every paper in the country was following this trial.

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And stark Weather himself, he would give interviews, he would

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write letters while he was in jail, and he would

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continue to adjust his account of Carroll's role depending on

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00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:18.359
the moment in the audience. None of it altered that

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legal outcome. And throughout all these appeals where he was

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00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:25.680
saying all those things, none of it stood except the

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conviction and the death sentence as well. So he gets

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transferred to Nebraska State Penitentiary and Lincoln to await execution,

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and on the night of June twenty fourth into June

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twenty fifth of nineteen fifty nine, the state of Nebraska

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prepared to carry out that sentence only a year after

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his conviction. Crazy right to think that hadn't been that

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