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Teenage Killing Spree
Ned

The 50s bread a new type of teenager, one that was rebellious and cool. This was all very well when all they did was try and impress girls or hang around town on their bikes, but in Nebraska in 1958 a teen and his girlfriend went on a Bonnie and Clyde style killing spree.
    19 year old Charles Starkweather was a James Dean fanatic who tried to copy and badboy image of the movie star. He wasn�t the happiest of kids, and was frequently in fights and was expected to grow up into a bit of a loser. Frustrated by his poverty throughout his life, this may have added to Charlie�s
Caril Fugate and Charlie Starkweather
somewhat unstable personality and life of crime. He started dating Caril Ann Fugate who was 13 at the time, he knew her because she was his mate�s girlfriend�s little sister. It seems like a pretty good relationship, Caril was impressed by Charlie and he genuinely loved her. Charlie was chucked out after a row over damages that Caril had caused in a car accident. He began to tell people they were getting married that that Caril was pregnant, which was a lie and would cause the trigger event in his spree. He decided to turn to a life of crime, and went back to a gas station where the attendant had stopped him from buying a present for Caril, to rob it. He took the money from the cash draw and forced the attendant to drive him to the local weirdo woman�s house. There he shot him. He told Caril he�d robbed the gas station but not killed the man, but she didn�t believe him. With money in his pocket he decided to go see Caril�s parents, who were against their relationship. On January 21st Caril�s mother, Velda Barlett and her stepfather, Marion Bartlett were home and let him in. An argument broke out, and Charlie said that Velda hit him. He left, drove around and came back, at which point Marion kicked him out by force. He used a pay phone to called Marion�s workplace, to say that he was ill and wouldn�t be in for a few days, and then he waited for Caril to come home from school. Charlie�s recollection of the events was that an argument had broken out about Caril�s �pregnancy�, Velda and he had struggled and Marion came in the room with a hammer. Charlie shot him in the head. Velda came at him with a knife, and he shot her in the face. When she tried to reach her 2 and a half year old baby, Betty Jean, he hit her with the rifle and then hit and killed the baby. They moved the bodies to the garden, cleaned up and spent the evening drinking pepsi and eating crisps. For almost a week they lived there, claiming that everyone was sick through the letterbox with visitors called. Various people visited, sometimes the police, and were told that if they came in Velda�s life was in danger. It was only after a search of the house and chicken coup that the police found the bodies, and set out to arrest Caril and Charlie. They went to an elderly family friend�s, August Meyer, and shot him and his dog. They stole money, guns and food. Next they got a lift from a teenaged couple, but robbed and shot them too. Caril was apparently jealous of the other girl�s advances to Charlie and shot her herself. They left the bodies in August Meyer�s cellar. They went to a wealthy part of town and picked a house. They had the lady of the house serve them breakfast, and ended up killing and robbing her, her husband and the maid. Next he told his dad to tell someone who had objected to in his relationship with Caril that he was going to come and kill him, the city of Lincoln went haywire. Parents with guns collected kids whilst the National Guard roamed the streets with machine guns. He tried to rob a shoe salesman of his car, but when he didn�t agree he shot him, no surprise there then. When someone stopped to help and a policeman came by, Caril jumped out of the car yelling �take me to the police!� and said that Charlie had killed someone. A chase along the highway ensued, ended when Charlie gave himself up because he thought he�d be shot and was dying. In fact his wound was from some broken glass. As he�d killed people in Nebraska and 1 person in Wyoming he had a choice of electric chair or gas chamber. He chose electric chair and was tried in Nebraska (he actually would have probably only got a life sentence in Wyoming). He tried to blame many of the killings on Caril or that he was acting in self defence. This didn�t wash with the jury and he was executed on June 25th 1959. Caril tried to act like a scared 14 year old girl who was forced into the killings because she thought she�d die. This didn�t go down too well either, as it�s almost certain she killed at least one of the victims herself. As she was 14 she was given life, but was paroled in 1974. From her interviews she seems genuinely sorry for her crimes and managed to get out early because she was a model prisoner.
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