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Charles Starkweather
Spree Killer
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Charles Starkweather was an American spree killer who murdered 11 victims in Nebraska and Wyoming during a road trip with his underage girlfriend Caril Fugate. He became a national fascination in the USA, eventually inspiring the films The Sadist, Badlands, Starkweather, Murder in the Heartland, The Frighteners, and Natural Born Killers. Starkweather first killed a gas station attendant that would not sell him a stuffed toy dog on credit. Next he murdered the family of Caril Fugate, including her two year old sister who he clubbed to death. Their subsequent road trip leaded to seven more deaths, largely unprovoked. Starkweather first claimed Caril had nothing to do with the murders, but changed his story several times, finally testifying at her trial that she was a willing participant. Caril has always maintained he was holding her hostage by threatening to kill her family (maintaining she did not know they were already dead.) Starkweather was executed in the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary on June 25, 1959. Caril Ann was sentenced to life in prison but was paroled in 1976.?s
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