Charles Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959) was a spree killer who murdered eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming when he was just 19 years of age. His accomplice was his 14-year old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. The killing spree began with a gas station attendant and then progressed to Caril Ann’s mother, stepfather and 2-year old sister among others. The murderous couple was eventually caught and convicted. Starkweather was sentenced to death and executed in Nebraska’s electric chair in 1959, the last execution in the state until 1994. Fugate was sentenced to 17 years for her part in the crimes and paroled in 1976.
The Starkweather case was the basis for films such as The Sadist (1963), Badlands (1973), Kalifornia (1993), True Romance (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994), and Starkweather (2004). A headstone paid for by actor Martin Sheen who played Starkweather in Badlands, marks his final resting place in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska.