Caril Ann Fugate (born July 30, 1943) is the youngest female in United States history to have been tried and convicted of first-degree murder.[2] She was the adolescent girlfriend of spree killerCharles Starkweather, being just 14 years old when his murders took place in 1958.[3] She was convicted as his accomplice and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1976, she was paroled after serving 18 years.
Fugate lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her mother and stepfather. She attended Whittier Junior High School in Lincoln and was an intelligent student who was well-liked by her peers. In 1956, at age 13, she formed a relationship with Charles Starkweather, a high school dropout five years her senior. They met through Caril's sister, Barbara, who was dating Starkweather's friend, Bob von Busch.
On January 21, 1958,[4] Starkweather shot and killed Fugate's stepfather, Marion Bartlett, and her mother, Velda. Starkweather then clubbed to death Fugate's two-year-old half-sister, Betty Jean. Fugate claimed she came home to find Starkweather there alone, waiting for her with a gun. She said he told her that her family was being held hostage and that if she did exactly as he said, her family would be safe. During the next six days, Starkweather kept Fugate in the house and turned away all visitors, which made Fugate's relatives suspicious. The bodies were found later in outbuildings on the property.[5]
Starkweather and Fugate then fled, driving across Nebraska and into Wyoming on a murder spree that claimed seven more lives, plus those of two dogs, before they were arrested.[5] She admitted holding a .410 gauge shotgun on a young high school couple, Robert Jensen and Carol King.[6]
Starkweather was sentenced to death and executed in the electric chair on June 25, 1959. He insisted that although he had personally killed most of the victims, Fugate had murdered several as well. Although she continued to maintain her innocence, she was tried and convicted for her role in the murder spree. Based on the evidence presented that Fugate had opportunities to leave her captivity and Starkweather's own testimony, the jury found her testimony that she was Starkweather's hostage not credible. She was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nebraska Correctional Center for WomeninYork, Nebraska.[2]
In 1973, the Nebraska Board of Pardons commuted Fugate's sentence to 30–50 years, making her eligible for parole. Governor J. James Exon and Secretary of State Allen Beermann voted in favor of the commutation, while Attorney General Clarence A. H. Meyer dissented.[7]
Considered to be a model prisoner, Fugate was paroled on June 20, 1976, from York Women's Reformatory in York, Nebraska, after serving 18 years’ incarceration.[8][9] She lived for a time in the Lansing, Michigan, area after being paroled.[10] Following her release, Fugate worked as a janitorial assistant and a nanny. She has since retired.
Fugate was seriously injured on August 5, 2013, in a single-vehicle accident near Tekonsha, Michigan. Her husband, who was driving their sport utility vehicle when it went off the road and overturned, died at the scene.[11]
Fugate, going by her married name of Caril Ann Clair, was denied a pardon by the Nebraska Board of Pardons in February 2020. Relatives of the murder victims supported her pardon application. She maintained her innocence in the 1958 slayings and requested a pardon to "alleviate the burden" of being known as a convicted killer. Her pardon was denied because the role of a pardon is to restore a felon's rights and because her request was too broad for the parole board.[12]
The 1996 Peter Jackson film The Frighteners features central plot elements with characters almost identical to Starkweather and Fugate, who commit a murder spree. The fourth episode, "Dangerous Liaisons", of season three from the ID series Deadly Women (aired September 2, 2010) was about the Starkweather–Fugate murders. The first episode, "Teenage Wasteland", of season four from the Investigation Discovery series A Crime to Remember (aired December 6, 2016) portrays the murders and subsequent trial. "The Thirteenth Step", the January 11, 2011, episode of Criminal Minds, depicts newlyweds on a North Dakota-Montana killing spree similar to the Starkweather–Fugate case.[14]
An investigative true-crime documentary miniseries that portrayed Fugate as the titular "12th Victim" of Starkweather was released on Showtime in February 2023.[15][16][17]
The 1974 book Caril is an unauthorized biography of Fugate written by Ninette Beaver, B.K. Ripley (pen name of Alexandra Ripley), and Patrick Trese.[18] Liza Ward, the granddaughter of victims C. Lauer and Clara Ward, wrote the 2004 novel Outside Valentine, based on the events of the Starkweather–Fugate murder-spree. The book Pro Bono: The 18-Year Defense of Caril Ann Fugate by Jeff McArthur follows Fugate's defense team through the trial and appeals process.[19]
In 2011, art photographer Christian Patterson released Redheaded Peckerwood, a collection of photos taken each January from 2005 to 2010 along the 500-mile route traversed by Starkweather and Fugate. The book includes reproductions of documents and photographs of objects that belonged to Starkweather, Fugate, and their victims.[20]
The San Francisco pop-punk Band J Church's 1994 song "Hate So Real" was based on the Starkweather/Fugate case, including the names of several victims and the line, "Now Caril can't deny me/and to this day I swear/she should be sittin' on my lap when I go to the chair." The song "In Vain" from their 1993 release Yellow, Blue and Green also used pictures of the two in its artwork.
Nebraska-based electropop trio Icky Blossoms featured a song entitled "Stark Weather" on their self-titled debut album. It is narrated from Starkweather's point of view and includes references to his killing of Fugate's mother, stepfather, and half-sister.
Nicole Dollanganger's song "Nebraska" (featured on her album Flowers of Flesh and Blood) is a retelling of the murders; though Starkweather is never actually named, Fugate is mentioned in a line which states "[he] showed his Caril Ann how to use a knife/picked it up slowly/killed with it twice."
