Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate: Nebraska’s Deadly Crime Duo

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Bonnie and Clyde are the crime duo everyone knows.

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But what if I told you there's a pair that flips the whole story upside down.

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Meet Charles Starkweather, an Nebraska kid who went from leather jackets and motorcycles

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to a nationwide nightmare.

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And then there's Carol Anne Fugget, barely a teenager stuck in the middle of it all.

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This isn't a love story.

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It's a ride through violence, fear, and a mess no one could have predicted.

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Before we jump in, if you like your true crime brief and bingeable, you're exactly

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where you need to be.

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Hit follow now for at least two new episodes every week.

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This is 10 minute murder.

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Let's get into it.

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[MUSIC]

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When you think crime duos, Bonnie and Clyde pop up like the original poster kids.

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They're the legend.

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The blueprint everyone else gets measured against.

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If you buy into the idea that riding together through a hail of bullets is the ultimate

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ride or die, then there's got to be the exact opposite on the scale.

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That opposite, Charles Starkweather.

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Born fourth of seven kids in 1950s, Nebraska, Charles came from a family that had seen better

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days.

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His great-great-grandfather once sat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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But by the time Charles came around, the family was struggling hard.

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His dad was a carpenter sideline by rheumatoid arthritis.

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Mom picked up waitress shifts to keep food on the table.

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And Charles, bo legged with a speech impediment.

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He didn't exactly light up the school yard.

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He was the kind of kid you barely noticed.

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Things started to shift when Charles hit high school.

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Suddenly he was stronger than the other boys, stronger than his own dad, actually.

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It wasn't officially said that his dad was abusive, but he did admit to pushing Charles into

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a window once when he was a kid.

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By the time Charles hit his teenage years, the family said they were all scared of him.

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Stocky but solid, Charles became the guy who wore leather jackets like armor and chain

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smoked like it was his job.

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He bought a motorcycle and rode it everywhere like a tiny rebel king.

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To most kids around him and to Charles himself, he was someone to watch.

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Not only as long as he knew, he was the coolest person in the room.

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One childhood friend summed him up like this.

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Quote, "He could be the kindest guy you'd ever meet.

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If he liked you, he'd do anything for you.

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He was a total blast.

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Everything was one big joke, but then there was the other side.

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He could be mean as hell, straight up cruel.

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If he spotted some guy who was bigger, better looking, or dressed sharper, Charles would

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drag that poor bastard back down to his level.

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With that rough edge, Charles dropped out of his senior year and got a job at a newspaper

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warehouse.

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That's where he crossed paths with 13-year-old Carol Anne Fugut.

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He started hanging around her school gates every day.

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Charles was 18 by then, by the way, but back then, an 18-year-old dating a 13-year-old didn't

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raise as many eyebrows as it obviously does today.

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And neither did them getting serious.

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A few months in, Charles took Carol out in his father's car to teach her how to drive.

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Let's just say Carol wasn't exactly a natural.

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She crashed it.

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Bad enough to put a serious dent in the family finances.

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Hard times meant Charles's dad wasn't thrilled.

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In fact, he kicked Charles out of the house as punishment.

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Feeling cornered, Charles quit the newspaper warehouse job and took up work as a garbage man.

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He thought that if his life was already heading downhill, he figured he might as well

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get used to the ride.

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Carol wasn't about to stick around for that bleak vibe.

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She broke up with him.

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What she probably didn't know, by then, Charles had already started unleashing his frustrations

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in some seriously violent ways.

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In November 1957, a couple months before the breakup, Charles was at a gas station trying

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to buy a stuffed doll.

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Problem was, he didn't have any cash.

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He pressured the attendant, 21-year-old Robert Calvert, to let him buy on credit.

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Robert said no.

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Charles left, came back a few times making small purchases until finally he showed up with

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a shotgun.

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He demanded $100 from the register and dragged Robert out to a quiet spot.

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They wrestled over the gun.

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Charles won.

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He shot and killed Robert.

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Two days after Carol ended things, she came home and found Robert's body already inside

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the house.

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According to her, Charles ordered her inside and gave her a strict warning.

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Carol's family, her mother, stepfather and two-year-old half-sister, were all being held captive

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inside.

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The message was clear.

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Behave, and they would live.

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Step out of line, and they would die.

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And here's where it gets murky.

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Did Carol know what had already happened to them?

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The truth was, Charles had already killed her family and stashed their bodies in the

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chicken coop out back.

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According to Carol, he told her that they were being held captive, but he had already killed

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them.

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Whether she knew for sure or just since something was off, who knows, she just kept up the

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act.

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For days, Carol lived in the house with Charles.

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Every time someone knocked, she sent them away.

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Eventually, they put a sign on the front window.

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Stay away.

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Everybody is sick with the flu.

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Miss Bartlett.

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And by the way, flu is spelled F-L-U-E.

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Yes, the spelling is terrible, but Miss Bartlett was underlined twice.

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Carol later said she did this on purpose, a quiet signal that something was wrong, since

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the only Miss Bartlett in the house was her toddler sister.

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Carol's grandmother smelled something fishy and threatened to call the cops if she couldn't

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talk to the rest of the family.

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Charles didn't like that one bit.

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He ordered Carol out, and they sped off in the family car.

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Next stop was August Mayor's Farm.

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August was a family friend, 70 years old, and not scared of Charles at all.

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That confidence didn't last.

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Their car got stuck in the mud.

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August kindly offered his horses to pull them out.

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Instead, Charles had other plans.

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As August showed them to the stables, Charles pulled out a shotgun and fired.

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Then he killed August's dog by beating it to death with the gun, breaking the shotgun

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in the process.

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As nothing says, friendly visitor, like murder and dog brutality.

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The reason for killing August is incredibly unclear, and it didn't exactly solve the young

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couple's problem either.

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Their car, still stuck in the mud, and now they couldn't exactly stay on the farm where

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Charles had just killed another person.

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Salvation came in the form of 17-year-old Robert Jensen and 16-year-old Carol King.

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The two of them had been driving by when they saw Charles and Carol struggling with their

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car.

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Not knowing that Charles had already killed a total of five people, Robert and Carol offered

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them a lift.

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And by the way, these are two different carols.

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I realize it gets confusing.

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Charles and Carol got in.

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Only four Charles did then threaten the other two into driving to a nearby storm shelter.

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It turned out that Charles had another gun on him.

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He shot and killed Robert before attempting to assault Carol King.

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While King put up a fight and when Charles lost his temper with her, he shot and killed her

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too.

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Charles and the original Carol then got away in their new car and drove to an affluent

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neighborhood in Lincoln.

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They picked a house, seemingly at random, and attacked.

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Charles stabbed the family maid, a woman named Ludmilla.

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He killed her and the dog again too.

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He then stabbed the wife Clara to death and then shot her husband Chester when he got

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home.

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The two of them now had a fancy hideout where they were free to rest up for a while.

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They filled up the ward's car with jewelry and other valuables and raided the house.

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It was during this time that newspapers arrived with the news of Carol's murdered family.

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And it is here that the exact level of Carol's involvement comes into question.

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It is easy to believe that Carol was simply another of Charles's victims, especially considering

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that she was only 14 years old and he was 19 at the time.

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But we're also operating under the assumption that Carol didn't know her family had already

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been murdered and was, in fact, only going along with Charles because she believed that he

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would kill her family if she didn't.

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At first, Charles insisted Carol had nothing to do with the murders.

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Then he switched gears and said she played an active role in some of them, including the

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killings of Clara and Merle Collinson.

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Carol always denied any involvement, saying she only went along because she believed

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her family was still alive and that fear kept her trapped.

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Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

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After all, we're talking about a terrified teenager caught in a nightmare.

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Charles was sentenced to death and executed a year later at 20 years old.

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Even then, he claimed Carol deserved to die with him.

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Carol got life in prison but was paroled after 17 years.

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She turned her life around, became a model inmate, and later worked in a hospital as an

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Annie.

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