Thursday, January 27,1983
Daily Nebraskan
7
3
Continued from Page 6
In many ways, he was like the other
teen-agers of his era. William Allen, in his
book, "Starkweather," described him as
being fond of blue jeans, cowboy boots
and a leather motorcyde jacket. His hero
was James Dean. Starkweather tried to
walk, talk, look and act just like his favor
ite rebel.
He dropped out of school at 16 before
completing the ninth grade. His one pas
sion, besides his steady girl Caril Ann
Fug3te, was stock car racing. He liked to
race at Capital Beach near Lincoln and
found he could take out his aggressions
behind the wheel of a car in the demolition
derby.
But he never really found an identity,
for which so many teen-agers long. Stark
weather was truly a rebel without a cause,
according to Marjorie Marlette.a reporter
for the Lincoln Journal in 1958.
"They (Starkweather and Fugate)
were both striving to be somebody, to
become an individual. He hadn't ever
achieved anything - he didn't have Any
thing to be proud of," Marlette said.
This lack of accomplishment in life
spurred Starkweather oh. He needed to
prove himself, and killing was the act that
vindicated him, according to Allen.
"I think he killed basically to try to get
back at a society which had rejected him,"
said Leo Scherer, also a reporter for the
Journal 25 years ago. "He had a lot of hate
built up in him. There were warning signs
all the way along that this was going to
happen to Charlie Starkweather."
Shorts !
i
"Life didn't mean anything to Charlie
Starkweather," Scherer said. "Once he
started, the rest was inconsequential. I
think anybody that touched his life during
that spree that wasn't killed was just damn
lucky.
According to Allen, Starkweather
wrote the following in a letter to his
parents soon after his capture :
"But dad i'm not real sorry for what i
did cause for the first time me and Caril
have more fun."
One person who was involved very
closely with the case is Joe T. Carroll,
chief of police in Lincoln during the
murder spree. He views Starkweather
as having possessed a criminal persona
lity, with "a streak of hatred in him."
"He was mad at the world," Carroll
said. "After the first murder, it just be
came a chain reaction for him. He didn't
have any more to lose. One more killing
was immaterial."
At his trial, Starkweather's lawyers
pleaded insanity and had several psychia
trists testify that he had difficulty in
dealing with reality, according to Allen's
book.
"He is suffering from a severe warping
of the emotional faculties; that is, he is
unable to experience feelings that other
people do. People don't mean anything
to him. They are no more than a stick or a
piece of wood to this boy," Dr. Nathan
Greenbaum said in court, as quoted by
Allen.
Despite the testimony of doctors
on his behalf, Starkweather was insulted
by his lawyers' plea of not guilty by in
sanity, Savery said.
"Charlie resented that. He felt he was
sane," Savery said. "1 think that anyone
who commits the crimes that he commit
ted and in the way that he committed
them and to the people that he committed
them has to be insane."
Even after the spree, while he was in
custody, Starkweather seemed to exist in
a fantasy world where others were con
sidered playthings, Carroll recalled.
"One time during his trial, on the way
to jail, he remarked that he'd love to be
driving the police car because he'd love
to run over the motorcycle officer escort
ing us," he said.
Although the courts today might have
viewed Starkweather differently, in 1958
he was judged to be sane while committing
the murder of Bob Jensen Jr. and was
sentenced to death.
During the time he spent in prison
before his execution, it appeared Stark
weather was somewhat rehabilitated. He
began to draw, paint and spend much time
with the prison chaplain. He was said to
have found God, according to Allen.
The following is part of a statement
by Starkweather, which he sold to
"Parade" magazine, as excerpted from
Allen's book :
"Now I feel no rebellion toward any
thing or anyone, only love and peace. I
received this love and peace through the
Bible."
While some believe Starkweather had
changed behind bars, others believe he
died with the same state of mind as when
he took part in the murders.
"I did not feci there was any basic
change of his personality from the time he
committed the murders until the time he
died in the electric chair," Scherer said.
Scherer was one of 1 1 people to witness
Starkweather's execution, and it left a
vivid impression in his mind.
"Charlie Starkweather dying in the
electric chair, with no remorse. The look
in his eyes, the hate. 1 think if five minu
tes before the execution, if you'd have let
him go, and handed him a gun, he would
have shot everybody in the room." .
As much as he might have yearned for
peace and normality in his life, Starkweat
her was, and still is, a question maker. Was
he a product of his generation? Just one
of hundreds of potential killers in this
society? Or the one-in-a-million enigma
that defies reason?
"If sometime in his life he could have
gotten to the proper officials, he could
have been helped," Scherer said.
His voice tinged with a trace of regret,
Scherer added, "Charlie Starkweather
was an individual that probably would
have been better off if he had never been
born in this society."
The final segment of this series will
examine the effect Starkweather had
on his hometown of Lincoln, which
was stunned by the murders of nine of
its residents.
H
The International Students Organization will meet
Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in the Nebraska Union. All UNL
students are welcome.
"The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love," a free film
presented by the Peace Corps, will be shown Tuesday at
4 p.m. in the East Union and at 7 p.m. in the Nebraska
Union. In addition, a Peace Corps information table will
be in the lobby of Henzlik Hall Monday and Tuesday
from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Hyde Memorial Observatory, on the south road of
Holmes Park, will be open to the public from 7 to 10 p.m.
each Saturday in February, when slide presentations with
taped narrations will be shown. Groups may arrange
for special programs by calling the Chet Ager Nature
Center, 471-7895.
"Gifts of an Eagle," the third film in the 1982-83
Audobon Wildlife Film Series, will be shown at 7:30 p.m.,
Feb. 3, in the auditorium of the Nebraska Center for Con
tinuing Education, 33rd and Holdrege streets. Admission
is $3.50 for adults, $2.50 for students.
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