INFAMY: The Murder Spree that Made Movie History

Hi, everyone. Before today's episode, we want to tell you about What the Fact. It's a new show from Conor Tomlinson, you know, from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week, they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Conor's infectious energy will make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod. This is Crime House. Sabrina. Yes. I have another game for us, but since we're both familiar with this story, we are going to change it up a little bit. Ooh. And today, we are asking the listeners, you guys, to guess which one is the lie about today's subject. The 1950s. The 1950s spree killer, Charles Starkweather. Okay. So, fact number one, Charles Starkweather faced the electric chair for his crimes. Number two, he and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Carol Ann Fugate, killed a total of five people in six months. Three, Charles believed that death was coming for him and used that feeling to justify his violent desires. What do you all think? Let us know. We're buying you time to shout your guess. Yes, and if you guessed that the lie was number two, then you are right, but it's kind of a half lie because bits of it are true. Charles and Carol did kill people, but they killed 11 people between November of 1957 and January of 1958, and almost all of these murders took place in a single week. It's terrible. Yeah. Today, we are going to tell you all about Charles's life, his growing resentment for the world, and how he and Carol justified their killing spree. We'll also learn how Charles's crimes were an inspiration for entertainment across nearly all aspects of pop culture. Welcome to Crimes of Infamy, a CrimeHouse original powered by Pave Studios. We're Sabrina Dianaroga and Corinne Vienne. Every Tuesday, we are exploring a different corner of the true crime universe. Examining cases that left a permanent impact on society, and giving you a front seat to every twist and turn along the way. I'll be the one walking you through the chilling narratives of every story. And I'll be zooming in on the moments and showing you how the very real scenes in these stories played out. If you're loving Crimes of, please follow, rate, and review us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community, and we love hearing from you. To get early access and ad-free listening, subscribe to the CrimeHouse Plus community on Apple Podcasts. You can also catch us on YouTube, where we include visuals that bring every case to life. This season is all about the crimes behind the world's most iconic horror movies, and today we're talking about Charles Starkweather, the 19-year-old whose killing spree inspired a host of pop culture phenomena, including movies like Terrence Malick's Brooding Badlands and Peter Jackson's horror comedy The Frighteners. But perhaps the most famous movie he inspired is the Oliver Stone action. A warning, this episode contains descriptions of murder and the killing of young children, so please listen with care. Before we tell you about Charles Starkweather's story and talk about the movie that he inspired, it's really important for us to point out that there were 11 people who lost their lives by his hand. Robert George Colvert, Marion Velda and Betty Jean Bartlett, August Meyer, Robert Jensen, Carole King, and Mary Jane Bartlett. C. Lauer and Clara Ward, Lillian Finkel, and Merle Collison. These were people from all walks of life. One victim, Betty Jean Bartlett, was only two years old. Each of them had a bright future ahead, and Charles Starkweather took that away from them in acts of senseless, brutal violence. Charles Starkweather and his accomplice, Carole Ann Fugate, killed almost all of these 11 people in the span of just a few days, and the sheer number of victims that he and Carole claimed, and the sheer number of victims that he and Carole claimed, and the sheer number of victims that he and Carole claimed, and just how quickly the bodies piled up, is the kind of thing that you would expect and hope to only see in movies, not in real life. And that's probably why Charles and his story caught the attention of multiple world-renowned directors, most famously, Oliver Stone. This is really interesting. The first screenplay for Natural Born Killers was actually written by Quentin Tarantino, though Oliver Stone heavily revised it for the screen, which I thought was really interesting because when I watched the movie, I was like, wow, this reminds me so much of Pulp Fiction, which was a. The Quentin Tarantino film. Wow. So, it makes sense. It's interesting that, like, I feel like Tarantino would want to keep this. I don't know. But the resulting film, which Stone directed, was based on Charles Starkweather, Carole Ann Fugate, and their horrific murder spree. It tells the story of a delusional couple whose love for one another is only matched by their hatred for the rest of the world, and who would also kill anyone who got in their way. Have you seen Natural Born Killers? No, I haven't. I actually enjoyed it. It does feel a little bit like a fever dream, and the violence is extreme, and it's a very, very dramatized, rowdy version of Charles Starkweather and Carole Ann Fugate. But if you like the 1990s Pulp Fiction-y type movies, it's a good watch. Yeah. I feel like this sort of recipe also finds itself in a bunch of different movies, too, right? Yes. Where it's like the couple who kills together. Bonnie and Clyde. If you will. Yep. Charles Starkweather's real-life killing spree was just as violent as the version shown on screen. Unlike the couple shown in Natural Born Killers, Charles and his girlfriend, Carole, were no more than children. I mean, Charles was 19, so he was an adult. Carole was a child. She was 14 years old. And 13 when she met Charles. Yes. Yeah. And to their two young minds, violence was the solution to most of their problems. If anyone stood in their way, or even looked at them, they would be killed. If anyone looked at them funny, the simplest solution for them was to kill those people. Yeah. So there's so much to unpack with this story. There's the psychology. There's whether Carole was a hostage or an accomplice. The lasting scar that these crimes left on society. And we are going to get into all of that. But amid all of the questions, one thing is certain. And that is that wherever Charles and Carole went, they left a trail of death in their wake. The morning of January 21st. February 27th, 1958, is a gray, freezing day in the town of Lincoln, Nebraska. Two men, their breath visible in the cold, walk across the yard of a quiet suburban home. These men are Rodney Starkweather and Robert Von Busch. They're here to look for Rodney's brother, Charles. Because nobody has heard from Charles or his girlfriend, Carole, in a few days now. And the last time anyone saw the couple was at this house, where Carole lived with her stepdad, mom, and younger sister. Normally this house is alive, bustling with activity, but today the place is as silent as a grave. Earlier that same day, the cops had stopped by, but they didn't find anything strange. Which was not enough for Rodney and Robert. They wanted to take a look for themselves. Charles has been acting strange for a while, and they're worried that something could be seriously wrong. Peeking through the house's darkened windows, the two men don't see anything out of the ordinary. They also can't find an easy way inside. So they decide to explore the few outbuildings on the property instead. Robert spots a chicken coop and decides to check it out. As he steps inside the dim interior, Robert is confused by what he smells. An overpowering scent of cologne. As his eyes adjust to the dark, what he sees makes his blood run cold. On the ground, there's a bulky shape hidden by green paper. Bending down to get a closer look. Robert sees something white. It's the soft cotton of a t-shirt. He tears away at the paper, reaches inside, and he pulls out a human arm. Robert recoils in terror, rushing out of the chicken coop, calling for Rodney. But before he can explain what he saw, Rodney calls him over to the outhouse. Because inside the outhouse is the wrapped up body of a woman. Rodney, his face ash and white, gestures to a grocery box. It contains a third body, the body of Carol's two-year-old stepsister, Betty Jean. Three bodies, and Charles and Carol are nowhere to be found. Rodney and Robert had just found the decomposing bodies of Carol's family. Her mother, Velda, her stepfather, Marion, and her two-year-old stepsister, Betty Jean. The savagery of these murders, it was so hard for Robert and Rodney to stomach, and without saying it, both men just knew that Charles was the one responsible, and that Carol, there was a chance that she actually helped him do it. So it just seemed so incomprehensible to these men, but like here they were standing in front of these three bodies, this family, but to understand how Charles was able to commit these crimes and why, we need to go back to the beginning. It's also interesting, it says a lot that they found the bodies and their first thought isn't, "Oh no, Charles and Carol are also in danger." they did it. and we also know that it's really hard to get the full picture and background of a killer especially when it was this far back in the past we did have a source to draw from for this episode it was starkweather the untold story of the killing spree that changed america written by true crime author harry mclean and it's widely regarded as the most definitive account on charles starkweather and carol fugate so now let's take you back to 1938 we are in lincoln nebraska a city that harry mclean described as quote the heart of the heartland and this may seem a little bit cliche but really this was the sort of town where everyone knew each other everyone left their front doors unlocked and this was the place where crime and violence it just like was almost unheard of it didn't happen right you felt very safe and in this community was charles starkweather he was the third of his family to have been killed in the war and he was the third of his family to have been killed in the war and he was the third of his family to have been killed in the war and he was the third of his family to have been killed in the war and he was the third of his family seven children six boys and a girl and he would later describe the early years of his upbringing as being like an enchanted forest where he was free to roam through the countryside and do as he pleased sounds a little magical it does sound magical but i think this is a easter egg for the rest of this episode as we'll notice i think charles lives in a fantasy inside his brain yes so by all accounts when he was growing up he was a good kid he started going to school and charles apparently would also stay back with his teachers and help them with their work like making decorations for the holidays and stuff like that which did make me question when i heard this if he was staying back because he found some comfort in being with his teachers and not being at home right having attention because and also as you're about to get into this is probably the only good experience he really had yeah in school right so he was a very kind boy when he first started school but he also wasn't a very good student he struggled a bit and he was bullied relentlessly yeah the other kids would make fun of him for so many different things his lisp his stutter his red hair he was bow-legged just the name calling was virtually never ending and his parents were really concerned and so they contacted the school saying like hey here's what's going on can you please do something to stop it and basically administrators told the starkweathers that there was nothing that they could do about this bullying ridiculous so sad so for years charles had no choice he had to go to school and just endure this abuse and this ember of rage grew inside of him right but he didn't act on it not yet instead he tried to focus all of his energy on his other interests and one day a teacher saw him drawing and gave this young boy some paper and watercolors and this gesture was so kind and he loved this and it sort of set off this chain of events for charles that unfortunately it wasn't a good thing it led to a much darker path and from what i read and heard he actually was a really good artist there was a path he could have taken that he didn't end up going down charles looks down at the drawing he just finished a simple painting of a barn a fence a cow and some chickens and he's so sure that his mother will be happy with the finished product he delicately rolls up the paper and heads out the schoolhouse door maybe it's his excitement that keeps him from hearing his classmates jeer as they walk out the door and they find him and by the time he realizes what's happening it's too late a small chorus of voices call after him making the same familiar jokes teasing the way he walks teasing his fiery red hair which this isn't anything new and charles tries to quicken his pace so he can get away from his bullies but no matter how fast he moves the kids keep pace with him in fact they're getting closer and soon one of the boys sees the rolled up paper in charles's hand it takes half a second for him to realize that he's not the only one who's going to be the second for the boy to grab the painting and begin unrolling it charles can only watch as the boy tears the painting in half then again and again ripping it over and over the bully scatters the shredded paper on the ground and the other children laugh charles tries not to cry but he can't help it now seeing his tears the bully's laughter grows louder and when charles finally gets home his face is hot with tears his father seeing how upset his father is with him and his son is kneels down beside him he's always told charles to just ignore the bullies but not today today mr starkweather gives him a new piece of advice he tells charles that if anyone tries to pick a fight with him again he should quote knock the devil out of them and charles takes this advice to heart hearing this message charles felt something shift in him finally he felt like he had permission to act on that rage that had been building in him for years after being bullied and so he did start to fight back and the older he got he got bigger he got stronger and he got more violent and by the time he was in junior high he had cemented his reputation as a bully himself and he was definitely someone you did not want to mess with yeah and it was around this time that he met another kind of tough kid named robert von bush and the two boys had the same quick temper they became really fast friends and they together would beat people up who looked at them the wrong way yeah it's sad because because bullying is wrong we've both been bullied in our lives and it's really hard how do you deal with it we know and the world has taught us violence is never the answer but it's so hard you hear this story and it's like his family tried to do something and it just seems like the only option to like in a way to be the scarier thing for him because the school didn't do anything about it like what yeah it's sad so now he has a friend who's very like-minded like him uh and later robert would say that if charles felt intimidated by another man he would go out of his way to take this guy down so it's now more than just protecting himself it's don't even look at me the wrong way right yeah and psychologically it also appeared that charles was just like obsessed with gaining some sort of control in his life yeah and this was a recurring theme throughout all of these events that are about to take place so when he was 16 he took back some of that control by dropping out of high school and then he got his own place he worked as a stock boy at the newspaper warehouse and then later got a job as a garbage collector which i heard that while he worked as a garbage collector in addition to grabbing the trash he would tell people to go to hell oh that makes me so sad because my son noah loves standing at the end of the driveway and like those kids do it's all the neighbors were all out there yeah no but it was let's pick up the bin of trash and tell everyone in the neighborhood to go to hell he was very angry he was an angry man yeah and so now he was out of school right so he wasn't being bullied he was now the bully and he and his friend robert stayed very close even though robert was still in school at some point in high school robert started dating a girl named barbara which is actually how charles meets the person who would change his life and fugate she was barbara's younger sister she was only 13 when they met yeah but she would curse people out she was a very tough tough kid and it was said that she sort of had this like intensity of someone who was a lot older than her so when 18 year old charles meets her in the summer of 1956 he is immediately in awe he's fascinated by this child yeah and her fiery personality and carol was attracted to charles's bad boy persona and she said that he kind of reminded her of james dean sort of this like rebel without a cause and despite this quite problematic age gap the pair became inseparable and a lot of that was charles's doing so he became super obsessed with carol to the point where he almost felt like she belonged to him which again goes back to this living in a fantasy world and i just am so fascinated by the psychology of couples that kill together or like this killer duo and i feel like there's probably a lot of love bombing at that age your understanding of relationships is so skewed it's more fantastical than it is realistic they both just like wanted that relationship and kind of got obsessed with one another and a viewing them as something more right i also feel like it's so tough with couples who kill too because oftentimes i feel like the female in that couple will often say that they were coerced and that they were forced to do certain things but it's not always the case it's not but we'll get into more of that with carol and charles yes what i did find interesting is and this says a lot about how charles viewed carol so they went on their first date they went on a double date to a movie with robert and barbara and then after their first date i guess carol had gone on another date with another guy and charles found out about it hunted down this man and threatened to kill him if he ever even talked to carol again yeah so hence carol belonged to him and she didn't have a choice so as charles's love grew for carol and became stronger and stronger so did his sense of fury towards the rest of the world and anyone who could potentially get in the way of the two of them being together which included their own families yeah charles's parents felt like carol brought out the worst in carol's parents thought that charles was bad news and basically brought out the worst in her very romeo and juliet which probably made them want to be with each other even more yeah but it's much darker what happened charles still had this really intense burning anger for the rest of the world but now instead of lashing out at school it was at his job and he thought that the work that he was doing was beneath him he hated such low wages and carol was the only thing good for him she was the shining light like she was it she was his entire world yeah and given that their families had expressed their disproval of the two of them being together it felt like the universe was trying to tear them apart and this was made all more apparent when charles started having really bizarre dreams and visions charles tosses and turns dreading what awaits him in his slumber night after night he's been plagued by nightmares and he's certain tonight will be no different despite his fear sleep takes over and sure enough there she is in the dream death is there to greet him she speaks to him like an old friend carol is there too shining and brilliant but not speaking tonight death presents charles with a coffin and tells him to get inside once the lid is closed the coffin sails into an enormous raging fire and charles is helpless to stop it he can feel the promise of this violent end mere moments away but rather than feel scared or panicked charles feels calm almost comforted if this is hell he isn't afraid of it charles allows the fire to engulf him completely at peace and all of a sudden he's awake carol sleeps undisturbed beside him and as charles gazes at her that feeling of calm begins to transform into one of absolute certainty death is coming for him and he's powerless to stop it but the coffin the fire it all spells out something more profound to charles that he's destined to go down in a blaze of glory a violent glorious end and that carol will be there to witness the end of the fire charles has had this fury building in him for years now right but after having these dreams and visions he's attaching it to something he now has this greater purpose and he had to show his loyalty to carol that's what he thought and so to prove that it was really just the two of them against the world he felt that if he had to kill in order to do that then so be it charles's fury was pushing him forward towards his destiny and all he had to do was get started the government gets a bad reputation but did you know that the roads under your feet the forecast on your phone the letter in your mailbox that's all government too i'm professor lindsey cormack and i'm hosting a new podcast called government that doesn't suck alongside professor greg jackson who you may know from the hit podcast history that doesn't suck each episode we dig into the surprising story of an american institution from the origins of the internet to the national park service to the gi bill and so much more you'll hear the stories behind them plus a conversation with an expert who knows it inside and out this is the real history of how we built the country under your feet and you'll never look at any of it the same way again listen to and follow government that doesn't suck available now wherever you get your podcasts charles starkweather had always hated the world the only bright spot was now his 14 year old girlfriend carol ann fugate and by the fall of 1957 the 19 year old had decided that he had to prove his undying love for his girlfriend carol had to know charles would do anything for her even kill and on december 1st of that year he took his very first life and it's not really clear if in this case charles actually set out to murder someone but he did it in a way that because it kind of seemed like he was attempting an armed robbery at first right but either way on the afternoon of november 30th he took a shotgun from a friend's garage and in the early hours of the next morning he took his car down the corn husker highway which is a ridiculous name i feel very nebraska very nebraska yeah it was a like very remote road at the time so it was lonely two-lane road in the middle of the nebraskan prairie it was not traveled often by cars and he's out there very very early in the morning eventually he stops at a gas station and he's to buy some gum and a pack of cigarettes he didn't really exchange many words with the gas station attendant who was a man named robert george culvert and without incident charles left right he appears to have lost his nerve because it seems like he was maybe thinking about attempting a robbery at that time but he left he drove away but he didn't go far he decided to instead park his car down the street on the side of the road and sitting there in the driver's seat charles grabbed a scarf pulled it over his open nose and mouth obscured the rest of his face with the hunting hat grabbed the shotgun and then walked down the road back to the gas station he points this firearm directly at the attendants robert culvert yeah and then charles made him hand over all the money from the register and next charles tells him that he needs to open the safe but robert's like oh i i don't have access like i can't open the safe yeah apparently he was a newer employee too so he wouldn't have known that information yeah he didn't say no i won't it was just like i can't i can't but to charles that was the wrong answer at this point it seemed like charles's intentions had changed so what could have been maybe once an armed robbery turned into something a lot darker because he then forced robert into the car at gun point and then he started to drive them down this isolated dark stretch of road in silence and after a little while charles pulled over he told robert to get out of the car and robert in this moment thought this was his chance to try to get the upper hand yes so something yeah yeah he fought so in a very sudden motion he reached out and tried to grapple and like knock the gun out of charles's hands but charles was stronger and he still had his hand on the gun and he just started firing he fired multiple lethal shots through robert's head geez and charles didn't even bother to do anything with robert's body he just left him there in the middle of the road to be found which he was found a few hours later right police at the time had no idea who killed robert charles had not left any evidence behind they assumed maybe a drifter had come through town and killed robert and like there was literally nothing to implicate charles or no it was such a random act of violence yeah that yeah there was no reason for anything to point back to charles so now charles thinking he just got away with murder and really he did get away with murder he felt this violent nightmare that he had was starting to come true right so this was a way to get him out of the car and to get him out of the car to bind him and carol together forever even if she didn't know it yet charles would later say that his violence would quote leave a trail that couldn't rub out like tracks cut in a rock which goes back to him wanting to be powerful i mean power and control are some of the biggest motivators behind a lot of people who kill but i think with charles and there's a lot written about him where he just looked down upon a lot of things in life he looked down upon a lot of things in his life upon the jobs that he had he felt like there was a bigger calling for him and a bigger destiny and that he was above everything to be remembered too like he really did care about people knowing who he was and knowing knowing he and carol that they would never be forgotten ever yeah it only took two more months for him to feel this urge to kill again and warning the following segments include depictions of the murder of a child and as much as we would like to skip past this part it is a charles starkweather's horrifying story yeah it is january 21st 1958 and charles starkweather is driving toward carol's stepfather's house only a few days earlier carol had told charles that she didn't want to see him again it came out of the blue with no explanation and charles refused to accept it because he knew that they were soulmates and he knows it's carol's parents who are the ones getting into her head because they're soulmates carol would never break up with him if it wasn't for her family so charles thinks it's time to get them out of the picture when he arrives at the house carol's mother velda and her stepfather marion are there and they're not happy to see charles velda shouts at charles tells him that he's not to see carol ever again cursing at him over and over marion is just as angry telling charles that he has to leave charles doesn't even try to argue he gets in his car drives away to a payphone he calls marion's work and tells them that marion is sick and won't be coming into work for several days then he gets back in his car and drives back to the house by this point carol's home from school and when charles lets himself in he can hear carol fighting with her mother when velda sees that charles is back she curses him again hitting him square in the face charles can hear his father's words ringing in his head he needs to get out of here and in a rush of fury charles slaps velda the force of it knocks her to the ground marion is drawn to the commotion and when he sees what charles has done he is furious the two men fight throwing punches wherever they can and eventually marion frees himself and rushes out of the room to find a weapon but when marion returns with a hammer from his toolbox he finds charles waiting there with a gun without hesitation charles shoots marion in the head velda rushes into the kitchen grabbing a knife but charles shoots her too. By this point, all of the noise has woken up Carol's two-year-old stepsister, Betty Jean, who had been resting in the other room. To make her stop screaming, Charles smashes her in the head with the butt of his gun, but it's not enough to quiet her. So he grabs the knife and stabs her in the throat. I want to cry so bad right now. This is so horrifying. All of this is wrong, and it's so devastating, but the violence and the amount of overkill that he put into killing the two-year-old child. Yeah. According to Charles, he said that Carol was present when this happened, and she watched him kill her entire family and that she didn't do anything to try to stop it. I mean, this is what's really hard when there's two killers involved, and. And as we'll learn, Charles afterwards was like, I'll talk about it all the time, whereas Carol hasn't really talked about it. So it's hard to know whose story is the right one or what really happened behind closed doors. But there was also one version of the story where Carol was egging him on, rooting him on to kill her family. Ugh. Which, let's remember that she was a child and he was an adult. Yes. So there really wasn't much that she could have done in this moment either. So I don't even like to try to imagine what she was going through at that point. But when it was over, Charles did claim that Carol didn't seem to be in shock, that she was all business and was just like, what should we do with the bodies? He even said that she, Carol, told him, in quotes, this is what we've always wanted. Again, Charles's version of the story. Delusion. It's like feeding into his delusion. Yeah. So to Charles, this was proof that Carol wanted to be with him just as much, as he wanted to be with her. And now that they killed Carol's own family, both of them could be together. There was no going back. Which also part of me was like, well, if he felt his own family was in the way too, why was that never a thing? It was like everything to do with Carol's life and what. Yeah. And I think the catalyst here is that Carol did try to break up with him. True. But once again, now with Carol's family deceased, Charles and Carol were together and it was them against the world. In the blood, Charles moved the family's bodies. He hid them in the chicken coop and the outhouse so that they were out of sight. And after that, they didn't really know what to do next. So for the next six days, they just hunkered down and stayed in the house. And occasionally, Charles would leave to go into town to grab some food or supplies. I feel like this is more proof that Carol was not like, yes, yes, kill them, do this. When he went on these errands would tie Carol up to make sure that she didn't escape. And there were multiple instances where apparently, he hailed her at gunpoint. And why would you do that if she's on board and it's you two against the world? Exactly. And adding to that, Carol said that this is not how this played out at all. Right. She said that she got home after Charles had killed her whole family, but that she didn't know this yet. And Charles had told her that her family was being held hostage somewhere. And that if she didn't do exactly what he said, he would kill them all. So whichever version is true, there are a lot of reasons to believe that followed instructions and that Charles was really the mastermind behind all of these killings. She did help him hide bodies. She even put a note on the front door of her house saying that her family had the flu to keep visitors away and visitors from coming in. Which again, if she was believing that they were held hostage, of course, she's going to do whatever to save them in that moment, not knowing that they were already behind the house. I know. But again, hard to know which one is true. And then so I think, like I was saying, Killer Couples is so interesting, and I wanted to dig into it more psychologically as well. And we found some really interesting information when it comes to Killer Couples. More than a fifth of serial killers operate in teams, which I didn't know. Wait, that's way higher than way higher than I thought. Yeah. Most of the time, one is a dominant figure who seeks out a partner with insecurities. It could be someone much younger, less stable, who needs companionship, like in this situation, a Carol, who is a lot younger. In learning about Carol's upbringing, I think her birth father had been a peeping Tom. Like, there's some stuff in her background that would make her more susceptible to someone like Charles coming in. And usually they do participate in murder to get something they want, like security, social status, or love. So kind of all three for Charles. And Carol. I don't think she cared about the social status. Oh, you mean? Oh, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. But she's participating to get something, from Charles, like love. Or to stay alive. And stay alive. Yes. Whether or not Carol was a willing accomplice, they were able to keep people away and from prying too much. But after four days of this, someone did get worried after not hearing from the family, and they called the police. But once again, Carol went out and told them, everything is fine. We're all okay. Charles knew that it wouldn't be too long until someone came back. And so he was like, it is time for me and you, Chica, to go hit the road. And the stark had a friend who owned a farm out in Bennett, which was around 20 miles away from Lincoln, where they had lived and where these murders took place. And so Charles was like, okay, let's go out to this guy's house and we're going to go stay with him. So on January 27th, 1958, six days after Charles murdered Carol's family, the couple loaded up Charles's 1949 Ford and they drove in the direction of this friend's house. Charles didn't really have a plan. He just knew he had to leave Lincoln. You needed to find a place for them to hide. And if anyone dares step in their way, he's just going to kill them where they stand. And for the next three days, Charles made good on that promise, leaving a trail of death in his wake. A 1949 Ford rumbles along a quiet country highway. Charles and Carol are on their way to a farm owned by August Meyer, one of the Starkweather's family friends. The couple's that they can hide out on this property while they figure out what to do next. And so far, things seem to be going relatively smoothly. But when they pull into August's dirt driveway, the car gets stuck in a ditch and no amount of slamming on the gas pedal can get it out. Charles is already on edge and this setback sends him over the top. He barks at Carol that he's going to go to the farmhouse and get August to come help. But before he steps out of the car, he loads his rifle with a pair of bullets and Carol can sense what's coming. But there's nothing she can do to stop him. So she stays quiet and joins Charles as he walks towards the farmhouse. And August has already come outside to greet them. And seeing the state of the car, he cheerfully offers to help. He just has to grab his coat. Charles and Carol trail silently behind him into the house. And within seconds of stepping across the threshold, Charles lifts the rifle pointed at the back of August's head and pulls the trigger. The gunshot snaps Carol out of the trance that she's been in ever since her parents were killed and she screams. And she finds that she cannot stop screaming. But Charles isn't bothered by the sight of his family friend lying dead on the ground. He ransacks the farmhouse, grabs whatever he can find, money, another gun, and a fresh set of clothes. And he tosses his rifle to Carol who carries it limply in her arms. By now she's grown silent, her eyes wide still staring at the body lying on the floor. And Charles gestures for Carol to follow her out of the farmhouse, to which she silently obeys. As the crisp prairie wind blows against his face, that old familiar sense of calm washes over Charles. He has a gun, some money in his wallet, and his best girl by his side. Nobody will ever stand in his way. And keep in mind, August was a family friend, like a beloved friend that Charles himself really seemed to love. It's almost as if he doesn't comprehend what's going on. He's moving on so quickly from it, it's just like, okay, moving, like, he's in a delusional state. Right. Like, I truly wonder what was going on in his mind. Because now, from his accounts, we only know what he's like stating he felt. I almost feel like it doesn't match exactly what was going on in that moment. Yeah. I don't know. But killing August Meyer might have given Charles this sort of renewed sense of purpose. But it did not change the fact that he was in a delusional state. It did not change the fact that their car was still stuck in this ditch. Right. So they had another failed attempt to dislodge it. And that is when Carol and Charles decide, okay, this isn't working. We're just going to leave it. And they are going to hitchhike their way out of town. It only took a few minutes for them to flag down a young couple driving a sedan, Robert Jensen and Carol King. For a few minutes, they all drive towards Bennett together without incident. But then Charles asks Robert if he can pull over so that he can make a phone call. And Robert says no. And as soon as he said no, the energy shifted dramatically in the car. Charles takes out his gun. He points it at Robert. And then he demands that he pulls over. Robert says no again. He refuses. He thinks he's bluffing. He's like, there's no way this guy's actually going to pull the trigger. Like he's being super erratic and emotional, like whatever. But suddenly Carol pipes up from the backseat and she's like, no, we are serious. You need to pull over. And to prove her point, Charles claimed that Carol said, quote, shoot the girl. Again, Charles claims. Yes. Carol did not say she did. them charles claims yeah according to carol she asked charles not to hurt them so that is the complete opposite of what charles stated happened right either way robert did as charles said now he did pull over but now charles wanted to head back for august meyer's farm and on the way he basically robbed them he took all of the money in robert's wallet and once they arrived back to this farm charles then forced robert and robert's girlfriend carol king out of the car and in a desperate attempt to gain the upper hand robert tried to wrestle the gun away from charles but we saw what happened last time someone tried to get the upper hand against charles yes and this time he shot robert multiple times killing him on the spot robert's girlfriend carol king she tries to escape so charles says his own girlfriend carol proves that she wasn't bluffing with the threats and she then aims her gun for this young woman's back and shoots and kills her so charles says that his girlfriend carol killed carol king according to charles again according to charles yeah afterwards they dump the bodies and they return to the dead couple's car and i do want to make a note we don't know for sure but when carol king and robert's bodies were found carol's pants were taken off and so while charles claimed that there was no sexual violence it does make you question what really happened yeah charles said that after these three additional murders he had a change of heart and he wanted him and carol to turn themselves in but that it was actually carol who said that they shouldn't do that she didn't want that and she pointed her own rifle at charles and basically threatened him and said she refuses to go down like that so charles says i think we all agree carol didn't do that yeah so apparently this outburst from carol this rejection of the idea of turning themselves in and owning up to their crimes snaps charles back into himself or snaps him back into this delusion yeah and he then guns it down the highway in this stolen car the couple decided to scratch the plan to go to bennett and instead made the short drive back to lincoln carol told charles that she wanted to stop at her mother's house to grab her makeup bag but when the couple turned onto the street they were shocked by what they saw because unbeknownst to them at this point charles's brother rodney and his good friend robert von bush had just discovered the bodies of carol's family in carol's family's home property like out by the chicken coop so they had told the police who then put an apb for charles carol in their 1949 ford out and even though at this point they were driving a stolen vehicle so charles and carol were not in that car charles was so terrified of being identified so he whips the sedan around and drives away as quickly as possible without drawing more attention to them going down this road yes one thing is for certain he and carol were not in that car and they were not in that car and they were not in that car so charles and carol now need to find a new place to hide and i feel like it starts to turn into this frenzied killing and this is why it's called a spree killing because you can tell like they are now on the run and they're just acting out of i don't even know what the right word is but it's just it's frenzied yeah and they decide to break into a stranger's house choosing one at random they swing their stolen car into a driveway and charles and carol don't even have to break in because like we said in the very beginning this is the type of town where people don't lock their doors and they don't have to break in because they don't have to break in and the door is unlocked inside there were two women the house was not empty instead clara ward and her maid lily and finkel were inside when charles and carol entered the house and for a few hours these two women complied with everything that the couple demanded of them but later that day things took a turn for the worse clara had managed to find her husband's gun and she actually pointed it at charles and shot but she didn't hit him she missed and in response to that she was shot she was shot and in response he stabbed her with a kitchen knife until she was dead and at the end of the day clara's husband lauer came back home from work and found this horrific scene and then he tried to fight charles because charles and carol were still in the house but charles shot and killed this man and it's unclear exactly how their maid lily and finkel was killed and who killed her but she was also deceased in the home so sad by the next morning january 29th all three members of this household were dead and the death toll had now risen to 10 people and charles and carol were back on the road at this time in a new car they took the ward's 1956 packard and charles knew that he and carol were being hunted by authorities and so they were speeding down the highway when the radio over the radio a report comes saying that the police had found the bodies at the ward house so now he's like okay now we're attached to this car that belongs to the wards we got to ditch this car so he scopes out a new car that he and carol could steal and it didn't take long for him to find one a buick parked at the side of the road he pulls over and rushes to the car and finds a man sleeping in the driver's seat his name is merle collison charles grabs his gun and screams wake up as merle collison jolts awake charles yells that the two men are going to switch cars merle is still half asleep when charles fires a round of shots through the window shattering it to pieces he fires again as merle tries to reach for the gun and charles shouts for carol to bring him another weapon carol leaps out of the car and runs over handing charles the 22 caliber rifle and charles uses that rifle to kill merle collison standing there next to charles carol stares down at the mangled mess of the stranger her eyes linger on the pools of blood as they soak into the upholstery charles doesn't notice her shock he's too busy dumping merle's body out of the car he yells at carol to get in and she goes into the back while he grabs their stuff sitting in the back seat carol feels something shift in her a panic rising in her throat she cannot do this anymore she has to get out of here and just then carol notices a man approaching this man had noticed something going on and pulled over but he has no idea what he's walking into carol watches things unfold in a predictable manner charles thrusts his gun into this man's face and the man's face is covered in the stranger tries to wrestle it from him but this time charles's strength is equally matched and the two men trade blows with charles suddenly on the defense with charles distracted carol realizes this is her chance to escape frantically she looks around and then she spots it a police car across the street carol flings open the car door sprints towards the cruiser not bothering to look back for charles's reaction she yanks the police car and the man's face is covered in blood as the police car door open and climbs in panting carol points directly back at her lover she can feel the hot sting of tears on her face as she screams that that is charles starkweather the killer that they've been looking for and this is when things happen so quickly so at some point during this fight with the stranger charles looks up he also spots the police cruiser across the street and he without even looking if carol's with him he sprints away from the buick and he takes off in the stolen packard again yeah every man for himself yep it didn't take too long for police to track him down and by the end of the day on january 29th 1958 both charles and carol were arrested and charged with first degree murder at first charles refused to implicate carol taking all the blame for the killings but carol admitted that she was complicit in the crimes as well and she was probably like riddled yeah of course at this point but she was crying she was booked and throughout all of her interrogations and it was reported that she left the police car and she was in the car and she was in the car and she was in the car and she was in the car and she was in the car and she looked as if she had been crying for days i mean she's a 14 year old girl whose family has been murdered in front of her yeah or maybe not because she said that she was just yeah yeah she was hardly the picture of a hardened killer and whatever the truth was the media latched onto the story and didn't let it go i mean this killer couple became headlines right i mean it's such a like that's it just seems so bizarre and there's something just so fascinating unfortunately about this story and i think about like that dynamic that i do understand why overnight they sort of became these celebrities yeah they had killed 10 people in only eight days they were like the younger bonnie and clide and the omaha world herald's headline on their arrest was punk's blood-stained string ends at 10 dead with wyoming capture charles is happy about this like he leans into it he's into the attention all he's ever wanted was to be important and remembered and be in power yeah and so much so that he actually ordered his lawyer not to argue insanity for him because he said quote nobody remembers a crazy man carol was a lot more shy she did not want the attention she presumably didn't want any part in any of this that was happening and as her trial date approached she actually retracted her confessions which unfortunately made it harder for her and charles to be convicted of the multiple murders and in the end there was only enough evidence to take them to court for killing robert jensen and they were both charged with robert's murder but they were tried separately on it so interesting i also read a lot of the trial and carol's lawyer did a really good job of like honing in on calling her a little girl like this child she is a little girl and she is that's why earlier i like said female when i was talking about the dynamics i was like i can't say woman because she's not a woman she's a girl she's a child so carol is actually the youngest woman to ever be executed tried and convicted of first degree murder in the united states which is so wild because in my mind like she was abducted yeah this was a child abduction case where like she right just barely survived it and when it comes to this case i think there is so much to dive into psychologically and same with charles i know he said no one remembers a crazy person but he's also living in his own delusions right too right so it's like what he says and what carol says like they can like maybe they're both not telling the truth like is anyone telling the truth right well they're that's the thing so there's a lot of questions over his psychology both from the prosecution and the defense prosecutions doctors found that he was legally sane of course because they want to try him yeah and that he was not suffering from any type of psychotic disorder but the doctors hired by charles's lawyers thought otherwise they thought charles didn't have the mental capacity for premeditated robbery or murder and that right and wrong didn't mean the same thing to charles that it did to him an ordinary person and there is an entire book written by a psychologist who spent a lot of time with charles darkweather that talks a lot about how he lived in this fantasy world the fact that he attributed his childhood like to growing up in an enchanted forest he lived in this movie fake reality that he even himself claimed like he blamed some of it on watching too much tv as a kid yeah come on okay whatever his issue is we're not psychologists here yeah the jury did take the prosecutor's side and charles was found guilty and he was sentenced to death by electrocution on june 25th 1959 charles arrived at his own execution without incident he walked himself over to the chair without any assistance but when the deputy warden asked if he had anything to say charles silently shook his head he also refused a steak for his last meal he just opted for the cold cuts after pandering to the media frenzy about his crimes charles ultimately died in silence which again like you talking about the psychology of it all it is so interesting that it was so important for him to have this particular display or like projection of who he was and i don't know if maybe he realized that that wasn't working and that's why he was silent in the end or if he just felt in his fantastical mind and world that this was it and he'd done it and he's just like sitting there on his throne dying exactly as he wished i don't know it's so hard to say so much of this story as told by charles and relayed by him was this obsession with carol and that it was the two of them forever and no one else could have her like the possession of her but then there was also a time when someone asked him about carol like he basically said i don't care what happens to her i do wonder about her older sister too barbara right who like was dating his friend there's a lot of horror and i don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing i don't know i don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing i don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing in these stories and that's why they influence these horror movies to be created as for carol she was also found guilty as well she was sentenced to life in prison so not to be executed however she only served 17 and a half years and was released on parole in 1976 i think there was a law passed that there was no automatic life sentences for minors and so when that happened her sentencing changed carol spent the years after her release doing everything she could to prove her innocence she appeared on the late show lie detector in 1983 where she took a polygraph test and she passed yeah and after that carol went on to have a very quiet uneventful life working as a janitorial assistant and a nanny until she eventually retired in 2020 she was denied a pardon although the relatives of her and charles's victims supported her effort i think it's very obvious when we get to the like the end of this case that she very much was also a victim today she's 82 years old and she's been a victim for a long time and she's been a victim for a long time living in michigan she changed her name and she continues to seek pardon for her crimes so i also think it's very telling given after they're both caught for these crimes and sentenced charles goes on to tell his story he is like all about sharing the details whether about him and carol's involvement but carol chooses to be quiet she doesn't want to talk about it no she's like all about sharing the details but carol chooses to be quiet she doesn't want to talk about it no she's I think of myself at 13 14 years old and I mean I'm not proud of this but like my understanding of relationships like any boy that showed me attention I was so excited about and like I changed my persona like I became like interested in skateboarding at 13 years old for a guy okay but that's that's like a normal part of I know adolescence but that's why I understand it's very different from Carol that's why I feel for yes I like truly feel like he was just this older guy that like maybe it was interesting and like bad boy behavior for two days and then suddenly it got really real real fast and really scary yeah so after his execution Charles Starkweather became a sort of morbid celebrity the world just hadn't seen many spree killers up until that point and this is also 1950s I think the percentage of Americans that had at least one television in their home is probably the highest it's been in history up to this point until this point so it is on the television this news of this spree killing couple became very very much in the zeitgeist and everyone knew about it and this is different than just a normal serial killer the major difference being that with a spree killing there's no cool down period between the murders and their crimes are usually motivated by intense emotion triggered by something like a perceived personal rejection which I think implies Charles and then also this like perceived threat of everyone around him being in the way well it's interesting because like the spree came after the initial crime and there was a cool down period of like two months and then the spree happened right and there's also a lot of confusion there with the first murder what was his intention behind it was it premeditated was he just trying to get money for this future that he was building in his mind of him and Carol running off together was he seeing something that wasn't actually there right but Charles killing spree carried a sort of dark fascination with it and within just a few years of his death Charles and Carol's story started making its way into pop culture in 1963 a low budget film titled the sadist took inspiration from Charles Starkweather to tell the story of a crazed couple who took a group of travelers hostage this movie was released to little fanfare I have not personally seen it and then about a decade later Terrence Malick told a similar story in his directorial debut for the film Badlands which in this version of the Starkweather case A-list actors Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek play the familiar roles of a doomed cynical couple who go on a killing spree in Montana and it is a very quiet version of this like chaotic love story it's told almost through like a journal entry of the character who's based off of Carol interesting I mean this story goes so far beyond even movies like it inspired music Bruce Springsteen's 1982 song Nebraska he sings from Charles's point of view one of the lyrics is quote from the town of Lincoln Nebraska with a sawed-off 410 on my lap through the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path do you want to sing it for us no that is my favor to you all listening I will not sing it go listen to that song yourself yeah oh and now Charles and Carol only killed one person in Wyoming Merle Collison but at this point their crimes were so intertwined in the American heartland that Nebraska Wyoming and beyond it all just kind of fell into this bucket of places that Charles Starkweather had touched and murdered in yeah and now the most infamous adaptation of Charles Starkweather's case is the 1994 film Natural Born Killers which we talked about in the beginning it's a story that will sound very familiar after hearing about Charles and Carol's crimes it stars Juliet Lewis and Woody Harrelson and the film is very campy blood-soaked it's a tale of a couple on a killing spree across the American southwest but this version of the story ages both of the killers up so Juliet Lewis and Woody Harrelson play much older couple who are very sexual and it leads to a prison brawl that's chaotic I mean it is a very chaotic film and like I said it reminded me a lot of pulp fiction but there's a lot of scenes of them in like middle-of-nowhere diners that they're clearly bloodthirsty and get off on their crimes which is I think different than the real life story yeah there's a whole another emotional layer added if you go to the original story which again is a very chaotic story and I think it's a very chaotic story and I think it's a very chaotic yeah natural born killers also tackled the media frenzy around the couple's crimes playing into the hedonistic indulgence of a news cycle obsessed with murder and there's even a like a scene where where they are in this man's home and it's in this very artsy way flashing between the news and across the screen it says too much tv like it's commenting on the way the media he blamed this is so like ted bunny blamed watching too much porn for his killing right they're looking for something to blame externally outside of themselves but i think it's also commenting on the fact that the media ran with this story and was putting it all over tv and glamorizing it in a way that maybe isn't the best for our society right but unlike the real life charles and carol the film's murderous duo survive and live out the rest of their lives in private and like the final shot this doesn't give away much of the movie but the final shot is them with children in an rv yeah reminds me of like bits and pieces of dexter yeah and like visions shown there the many fictional versions of this story all have some truth to them the themes of a doomed couple on the run the lack of empathy for human life the delusions of a toxic relationship taken to its extreme yeah and how scary it is when someone doesn't have a motive and anyone could be the next potential target in real life the story of charles starkweather and carol ann fugate is more of a tragedy than a high-octane thriller charles's view of the world is more of a tragedy than a high-octane thriller his view of the world was resentful it was cynical and violent and his hatred towards his fellow man ripped a hole in his community it is a wound that even now can never fully heal and although charles and carol have been immortalized on the big screen their victims are the ones that we here at crimes of want to remember and we should remember the people who lost their lives for truly no reason many of whom were just trying to help someone they thought was in need like the couple who pulled over for them or even protect someone they loved like carol's family their deaths are the ultimate horror and that's not something to be celebrated thank you all so much for listening we're your hosts sabrina diana roga and corinne vienne join us next tuesday for another peek inside another crimes of infamy and if there are any cases you'd like us to cover please let us know in the comments here at crime house we want to thank each and every one of you for your support and if you liked what you 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