Caril Ann Fugate
Caril Ann Fugate (born July 30, 1943) is the youngest female in United States history to have been tried for first-degree murder. She was the adolescent girlfriend of spree killer Charles Starkweather, being just 14 years old when his murders took place in 1958. She was convicted as his accomplice and sentenced to life imprisonment, being paroled after 17 years in 1976. Background to crime spree. Fugate lived in Lincoln, Nebraska with her mother and stepfather. 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, Starkweather shot and killed Fugate's stepfather, Marion Bartlett, and her mother, Velda. Starkweather then hit Fugate's younger half-sister, Betty Jean, and stabbed her in the neck. 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, the pair lived in  the house and turned away all visitors, which made Fugate's relatives suspicious. The bodies were found later in outbuildings on the property. Cross-state crime spree. Starkweather and Fugate then fled, driving across Nebraska and into Wyoming on a murder spree that claimed six more lives before they were arrested. She admitted holding a .410 gauge shotgun on a young high school couple, Robert Jensen and Carol King. Sentencing. 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 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 Women in York, Nebraska. In 1973, the Nebraska Board of Pardons commuted Fugate's sentence to 30 to 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. Release from prison. Considered to be a model prisoner, Fugate was paroled in 1976 after serving 17 years. She lived for a time in the Lansing, Michigan, area after being paroled. Following her release, Fugate worked as a janitorial assistant. She has since retired. In 2007, Fugate married Fredrick Clair, a machinist who also worked as a weather observer for the National Weather Service. Their most recent city of residence was Hillsdale, Michigan. 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. Fugate, going by her married name of Caril Ann Clair, was denied a pardon by the Nebraska Board of Pardons in February 2020. Her pardon application was supported by relatives of the murder victims. 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, not to absolve  them of crimes. In popular culture. Film and television. The Starkweather–Fugate case inspired the films "The Sadist" (1963), "Badlands" (1973), "Kalifornia" (1993), "Natural Born Killers" (1994) and "Starkweather" (2004). The made-for-TV movie "Murder in the Heartland" (1993) is a biographical depiction of Fugate and Starkweather, starring Fairuza Balk and Tim Roth in the starring roles. "Stark Raving Mad" (1983), a film starring Russell Fast and Marcie Severson, provides a fictionalized account of the Starkweather–Fugate murder spree. 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 four 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. Literature. 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. 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. 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.