Infamous America - CHARLES STARKWEATHER Ep. 6 | “Badlands”

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

Charles and Caril have a final confrontation at the Ward home and then flee Nebraska. While they drive through Wyoming, the situation behind them in Lincoln, Nebraska explodes into pandemonium. When Charles attempts to steal a car on a lonely stretch of highway in eastern Wyoming, he provokes the final standoff with authorities.  Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to INFAMOUS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Hit “JOIN” on the Infamous America YouTube homepage.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4V_wVD7N1gEB045t7-V0w/featured For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warning. This series contains scenes of graphic violence that may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. By Wednesday, January 29, 1958, the event that would be called a murder spree was a little more than a week old. 19-year-old Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend Carol Ann Fugate were in eastern Wyoming. Behind them, in eastern Nebraska, there was chaos. One or both of the couple had killed three members of Carroll's family. Then they killed a farmer and two high school kids. Then they killed a wealthy middle-aged couple and their maid. Nine people were dead in or around Lincoln, Nebraska, and the spree wasn't done.

Charles and Carol had fled Lincoln right before the police department, the sheriff's department, and the National Guard had locked it down. The unprecedented killing spree was national news, and the governor of Nebraska was using using every resource to catch the two teenagers who were out of control and unpredictable. No one knew the couple's plan. No one knew if they had a plan. No one knew a motive for any of the murders. It was all so random and the murders had been so brutal that everyone around Lincoln was terrified. Citizens cleaned out the stores of all guns and ammunition. They locked their doors and fortified themselves while National Guardsmen drove through the streets and trucks with

machine guns mounted on the back. But all those resources had been thrown into action too late. By the time the lockdown happened, Charles and Carol were 500 miles to the west in Douglas, Wyoming. They were listening to reports of the situation on the radio of the car they had stolen from the wealthy couple they had murdered. Charles knew that lawmen all over the region were looking for the 1956 Black Packard patrician car that he was driving, which meant they needed a new car, fast. Charles and Carol were on Highway 87, 10 miles outside of Douglas when they came upon a Buick that had pulled over onto the shoulder of the road. Charles pulled over and stopped behind the Buick. He told Carol to stay put, but be ready with the 410 shotgun that lay across the back

seat. Charles chambered around in his 22 caliber rifle and left it on the front seat. He opened the door and walked toward the Buick. His cheap cowboy boots crunched the gravel beneath his feet. He claimed later that his intent was just to switch cars with the owner of the Buick, but he didn't count on two things, the arrival of a good Samaritan and the close proximity of a deputy sheriff. From Black Barrel Media, this is Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of Charles Starkweather and Carol Ann Fugate and their bloody rampage through America's heartland. This is episode six, Badlands.

Merle Collison was far from his home in Great Falls, Montana. He had crossed Utah and Wyoming for his job as a shoe salesman, and his schedule still called for him to go to North and South Dakota before he could return home to his wife and four-month-old son. By midday on Wednesday, January 29th, he was tired from being on the road. The 37-year-old shoe salesman pulled over to the shift. shoulder of Highway 87 between Casper and Douglas, Wyoming. He kicked his feet up onto the

passenger side of the bench seat. He laid his head back, slipped his hat over his eyes, and went to sleep. He woke up when he heard a tapping on the driver's side window. When Collison could focus his eyes, he discovered he was looking at a teenage boy who was fairly short and had striking red hair. The young man was the source of the tapping, and Collison probably didn't know he was Charles Starkweather. Collison might have expected to hear any number of travel-related problems out there on a desolate stretch

of highway in the badlands of Wyoming. Things like, I have a flat tire, or my car won't start. But he probably didn't expect to hear Charles say, unlock your door. We're going to switch cars. Collison was confused and told Starkweather no. Frustrated, Charles stomped back to his car

and reached inside. He grabbed the 20, caliber rifle off the front seat and opened fire on Merle Colison as Collison sat in his car. The salesman was hit nine times, including two rounds to the face and one to the neck. He fell dead across the front seat. Charles returned to the Packard and grabbed the guns and the supplies they had stolen from the Ward family. He told Carol it was time to go. The couple scurried over to Collison's Buick and Charles pushed the dead shoe salesman over to the passenger

side of the front seat. Carol got in the backseat, and Charles started the car. But the Buick didn't move. Either Charles couldn't get the parking brake unlocked or was unfamiliar with the brake on the Buick. He just sat there cursing. In the confusion of trying to make their getaway, Charles didn't notice that another car had stopped behind them. A man who was a good deal bigger than Charles was now walking toward the Buick. Joe Sprinkle was from Casper, Wyoming, and worked as a geologist for an oil company. He thought he was being a good citizen and checking to see if he could help a man with a broken down car. But as Joe walked toward the Buick, he was confronted by Charles Starkweather and the 22 caliber rifle. Charles swaggered up confidently, but he got

too close. Joe instinctively took hold of the weapon and tried to wrestle it away from Charles. As the two men struggled in the middle of the highway, the scene suddenly became more crowded. By chance, Natrona County Deputy Sheriff William Romer rolled up to the scene. He had been having a long lunch and running errands in Douglas. He was now on his way back to the sheriff's office in Casper, and he thought he was witnessing two men fighting because of a traffic accident. Then he saw that they were struggling for control of a rifle. Romer jumped out of his car and put his hand on his 38 revolver.

He shouted, and in that moment, the larger of the two men wrenched the rifle away from the and dove for cover in a ditch. The smaller man ran away from a Buick and toward a black Packard. The smaller man hurried into the car, but then Romer was distracted. A teenage girl rushed out of the backseat of the Buick and ran toward him. She yelled that she was a hostage. She yelled that the man in the Black Packard had just killed someone. And then the Packard roared past them, headed toward Douglas Wyoming. My relentless sleep problems have always come from an overactive mind. I lay in bed at night with my mind racing from one thing to another,

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Mood is federally compliant. The gummies are legal and delivered right to your door. At Mood.com, get 20% off your first order with our promo code, Infamous. Go to Mood.com and use the code infamous to get 20% off your first order. your first order, and they have a 100-day satisfaction guarantee. Mood.com promo code infamous. Deputy Sheriff Romer secured Carol Ann Fugate in the back of his car. He was convinced at that point that she was a victim.

Then he dove in behind the wheel and started to pursue the Packard. Romer radioed ahead to Douglas and rallied the troops. When the Packard entered town, the Douglas Chief of Police, Robert Ainsley, and County Sheriff Earl Heflin were waiting. Charles cruised through the business district, and Sheriff Heflin emptied his 38-cali service revolver at the car, attempting to shoot out the Packard's tires. He missed, and Charles drove out the other side of town. Sheriff Heflin jumped into Chief Ainsley's car, and Ainsley hit the gas.

They raced out of town and onto the open road east of Douglas. Then the scene took on the look of a Hollywood movie. Chief Ainsley had his foot on the gas, and the car charged up behind Charles. Sheriff Heflin leaned out of the passenger side window with a 30-30 rifle. He opened fire and shattered the Packard's rear windshield. Chief Ainsley slowed down to see what Charles would do. The Packard skidded to a halt in the middle of the highway, and the chief stomped on the brakes. The police car stopped 20 yards short of the Packard, and the two lawmen readied themselves for a

gunfight. But to their surprise, the driver's side door opened and Charles stepped out. They could see he was bleeding from his head or neck as if he'd been hit by flying glass or injured in his fight with Joe Sprinkle. The lawman could see that he was also not holding a weapon. But Chief Ainsley wasn't taking any chances. He fired a warning shot at the ground near Charles's feet. He shouted at Charles to get on the ground. Charles took his time and Ainslie. Ainsley fired into the ground again. Finally, Charles laid down on the cold asphalt, and Sheriff Heflin cuffed him. The lawman secured Charles in the back seat of Chief Ainsley's car and drove back into Douglas.

During the drive, Charles mumbled only a few words. Go easy on the girl. She had nothing to do with it. The girl, Carol, was much more talkative on her ride to jail with Deputy Sheriff Romer. She said she had been a prisoner of Charles Starkweather for more than a week, since she had returned home from school and found Charles in her house. And this was where her double kidnapping story began. She claimed Charles told her he was holding her family hostage at an undisclosed location.

If she didn't go with him, he would instruct his unnamed associates to hurt her family. So then Carol herself became a hostage. But she also told Deputy Romer that she had, had witnessed nine murders, and that statement would come back to haunt her. How could she have seen nine murders and been so powerless to stop any of them or warn anyone? And how could she have seen nine murders but still believe her family was alive somewhere? Now, it was within the realm of possibility that all of that was true. She was powerless to help. She was powerless to warn anyone, and she truly believed her family was being held hostage. But that story would have plenty of holes in it.

By the time Charles and Carol were behind bars in the local county jail, they may have sensed that it was time to stop talking. Reporters from Nebraska and Wyoming converged on the jail, and they were allowed to see the prisoners. They snapped pictures and asked questions, but Charles and Carol refused to speak. In Lincoln, Nebraska, county sheriff Merle Karnop was glad the saga was over, though he wished he and his men had caught Charles on Nebraska soil. The next morning, Karnop flew on a small plane to Wyoming to see Charles Starkweather for the first time. The state of Wyoming released Charles and Carroll to the custody of Sheriff Karnop. Nebraska Governor Victor Anderson wanted Charles to face the death penalty in Nebraska,

and for Anderson, it was personal. Anderson was close friends with C. Lauer Ward and his wife Clara, two of the final victims of the killing spree. Charles and Carol traveled home to Lincoln in separate vehicles. Charles rode with the Lancaster County prosecutor and Sheriff Merle Carnop. Carol rode back under the supervision of the sheriff's wife, Gertrude Carnop. On the long drive, Charles asked Carnop about his son, Dennis. For the sheriff, it was an eerie reminder that the murderer had grown up within sight of the Carnop's residence.

Charles Starkweather was not some faceless monster. He was a local boy, which was bad for the sheriff in more ways than one. Charles confessed to robbing, kidnapping, and killing Robert Colvert exactly two months earlier in late November, 1957. Colvert had been working at the Crest Service Station when Charles had abducted him and killed him in the middle of the night. One of Colvert's co-workers had identified Charles as a potential suspect. Charles had been at his lowest point. He was a known troublemaker, who was a known troublemaker who, was homeless, jobless, and had been sleeping in his car next to the service station. But Sheriff Karnop believed, or wanted to believe, that the killer had been a vagrant who

drifted into town, committed this isolated act of violence, and then drifted away. That story was certainly easier and more convenient. But now the community wondered, what if the sheriff had taken the recommendation seriously and questioned Charles Starkweather? the other 10 victims would still be alive. When Charles and Carol arrived back in Lincoln, Charles was taken to jail and Carol was taken to a state hospital. Over the next few days, a judge decided Charles and Carol would be tried separately, with Charles's trial first. And now, both teams of lawyers, prosecutors, and defense attorneys had the difficult task of untangling the mess.

Charles and Carol gave multiple contradictory stories of what happened and how. Charles first claimed Carol was innocent of everything. Then he changed his story in multiple interviews and handwritten letters to the prosecutor. By the time the versions were totaled up, he had stated that Carol killed 16-year-old Carol King and actively participated in the murders of her own family members. And he implied, Carol killed Clara Ward and Lily and R. Fensel. Charles said that as far as he knew, Clara and Lillian had been alive when he and Carol fled the ward house. If the police later found them dead, it must have been Carol's doing. The picture that

Charles painted of Carol's involvement certainly had the chance to be damning to her credibility and character, but her possible involvement in the majority of the murders would soon be irrelevant. In a move that shocked many in law enforcement, the media, and the public, Charles' and Carol were only charged with one murder, that of 17-year-old Robert Jensen. And while the decision may have outraged some, there were reasons for it. Charles and Carol were the only living witnesses to any of the murders. It was her word against his and his word against hers, and they both told multiple conflicting stories.

Even with some of the murder weapons in evidence, the case was infuriating. With the limited forensic technology that was available in 1958 and with no visual or audio recordings of the crimes and no other witnesses, how was the prosecution going to prove who actually pulled the trigger or wielded the knife? The case came down to character. Robert Jensen, who had been shot several times in the back,

was the perfect example of a clean-cut, hard-working, all-American young man. Charles Starkweather was the opposite. He was the embodiment of the juvenile delinquency scare that was sweeping the nation. Charles was the angry, violent troublemaker who was the living, breathing stereotype of the 1950s rebel. The prosecution assumed that any reasonable jury would convict him. And in a strict legal sense, the prosecution only needed to convict Charles of one murder to send him to death row. In a messy case like this, it was better to go after one conviction that had a good chance of success than to try to secure 10 convictions and run the risk of it going wrong in a myriad

of ways. Charles entered a plea of not guilty, and the prosecution made it known that they would seek the death penalty, and it only took about three weeks. The trial of Charles Starkweather began on May 9, 1958. The defense tried to prove that Charles was insane, something Charles himself denied. They paraded out his mother, father, and his childhood friend. Bob Vaughn Bush, who was married to Carol's sister, to tell the jury that Charles had been a good kid until he was tormented ruthlessly during his early school years. The jury didn't buy it. The prosecution had Charles's letters of confession. They had numerous members of law enforcement plus coroners, pathologists, and psychologists. After three weeks, the jury found Charles guilty

of first-degree murder, and the judge sentenced him to death by electrocule. Carol's trial happened five months later in late October 1958. Her attorneys had fought all the way to the state Supreme Court to have Carol tried as a juvenile instead of an adult, but they lost that case. She was 15 years old when she went to trial, and because she would be tried as an adult, she could receive the death penalty. She pleaded not guilty, and became the youngest female in American history to be tried for first-degree murder. In her case, the prosecution didn't claim that Carol had actively murdered Robert Jensen. They claimed she had robbed him, and since he had been murdered in the process, she was equally

guilty of his death. Prosecutors used a long line of witnesses to prove that Carol was a participant in the crimes, not a hostage who was forced to do things against her will. Charles took the stand and testified against her. He laid out a story where she helped him in everything from start. start to finish. As much as the defense attorneys tried to antagonize Charles and debunk his testimony, they failed. He kept his cool on the stand. Carol's lawyers mounted a hefty defense based on character witnesses, their own psychological experts, and the inconsistencies in Charles's

various accounts of the crimes. But in the end, the jury didn't believe that Carol had been held against her will. They didn't believe that she really thought Charles was holding her family hostage somewhere. But they did believe that she had robbed Robert Jensen, and they believed she was just as capable of murder as her boyfriend. In the prosecutor's closing statements, he asked for life in prison, not the death penalty, and that probably made the jury's deliberation easier. Seven men and five women returned a verdict of guilty, and Carol Ann Fugate was sentenced to life. in prison. An independent investigator examined the actions and inactions of the County Sheriff's Department and the Lincoln Police Department during those early stages of what

turned out to be one of the darkest chapters in Nebraska history. The investigator cleared them of any wrongdoing. The press pointed out the numerous missteps by both departments. Some of the victims' family members threatened legal action, but the rest of the the community seemed eager and ready to move on. Sheriff Merle Carnop and police chief Joe Carroll served in their roles for another 20 years, and both were inducted into the Nebraska Law Enforcement Hall of Fame for their participation in the case of Charles Starkweather and Carol Ann Fugate. On June 24, 1959, just before midnight, prison guards came to the cell of Charles Starkweather and told him ominously, it was time.

And Charles asked, what's your hurry? Charles had already said goodbye to his family, and none stayed to watch his execution. When state officials asked Charles if he would donate his eyes, he refused. He told them that the world had given him nothing, and he was just returning the favor. In a twist that was almost too wild to believe, the doctor who was there to make the final pronouncement died of a heart attack right outside the execution chamber just before the sentence was carried out. Luckily, the prison had a backup doctor,

and the execution proceeded without further incident. Charles Raymond Starkweather was pronounced dead at 12.4 a.m. on June 25, 1959. Newspapers reported that 50 to 100 teenagers gathered outside the prison around midnight. They drank beer, blasted the radios in their cars, and partied. Some were probably there to be.

to say good riddance. Others undoubtedly glorified Charles Starkweather as a real life rebel without a cause. Carol spent the first 10 years of her time in prison trying to gain a new trial. All of those efforts failed, but in 1972, she participated in a network television expose about her life in prison that showed her to be a reformed model inmate. The documentary helped reshape her public image, and her defense team tried a different strategy. Instead of a new trial, they began to push for Carol's sentence to be commuted. The tactic worked. The Nebraska Board of Pardons commuted the sentence in 1973,

and three years later, Carol Fugate was paroled. She served 18 years in prison. Carol Ann Fugate moved to upstate Michigan and began a new life. While she was free, she was not innocent. A commuted sentence and parole was not a pardon. She continued to fight, claiming she was a victim of Charles Starkweather and not his accomplice. As recently as 2020, she petitioned the state of Nebraska to exonerate her. Family members of victims supported her petition, but a three-person panel voted unanimously

to uphold the guilty verdict from 1958. In the early 1980s, Carol appeared on a television show called LiDyton. detector. Its host was an attorney named F. Lee Bailey, who had defended Eris Revolutionary Patty Hurst, and later served on the legal dream team that successfully defended O.J. Simpson. Carol was hooked up to a polygraph and questioned. According to the machine, Carol was telling the truth. The fascination with Charles and Carol and their crimes continues to this day, obviously. Dozens of books have been written, including a novel based on the killings that was written by the granddaughter of Victim's See Lauer Ward and Clara Ward.

The events have inspired songs, the most famous being Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen. Charles Starkweather is mentioned in Billy Joel's legendary song We Didn't Start the Fire. Films like Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spaceic and Natural Born killers have taken their plots from Charles and Carol's Odyssey. In 2023, American TV Channel Showtime released a four-part documentary series that purportedly re-examines the crimes with a view that gives more weight to Carol as a victim rather than a participant. In the end, if Charles Starkweather wanted to be known, if he wanted to be remembered, he succeeded. Unfortunately, it required the murders of 11 people, but he and Carol have been enshrined in the halls of pop culture alongside a lot of, another notorious couple, Bonnie and Clyde. Next time on Infamous America, we're going to fast forward

to the 1970s and head east to New York for the story of another killer, arguably the most prolific mafia hitman of all time, Richard Kuklinski, better known as the Ice Man. That's next time on Infamous America. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week for new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercial. and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships began at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Jamie Lyko, original music by Rob Valier.

I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. Find us at our website, blackbarrelmedia.com or on our social media channels. We're Black Barrel Media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrel Media on Twitter. And you can stream all our episodes on YouTube. Just search for Infamous America Podcast. Thanks for listening.