PRO BONO Digs Into A Case That Haunted Stephen King

This article is by Jeff McArthur, author of Pro Bono. I enjoyed it quite a bit!  He discusses the Starkweather case -- a crime that fascinated a young Stephen King.   

STARKWEATHER, CARIL ANN FUGATE and STEPHEN KING

by Jeff McArthur

In 1958, 19-year-old Charles Raymond Starkweather went on a murder spree that left 11 people dead, and shocked the nation.  He took with him his 14-year-old ex-girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, and it soon because a mystery as to whether she had been his accomplice or his hostage.

The murder spree was something the country had not expected, and was ill-prepared for.  Most people left their doors unlocked, especially in less violent parts of the country like Nebraska, where Charlie and Caril lived, a fact that Starkweather took advantage of.  He had killed Caril’s family in their home, a farmer outside his house, and two teenagers after they picked him up as a hitchhiker; but it was when he killed one of the most wealthy men in town, his wife and their maid, all in bright daylight and inside their own home, that the state, and indeed the country, panicked.  The National Guard marched down the middle of the street in Lincoln, reports claimed that he had made it to several states, gun shops were emptied, posses were formed, and the news reached countries around the world in multiple languages.  People across the globe were horrified.

One of these people was ten-year-old Stephen King, who kept a scrap-book of the newspaper clippings he found that reported on the murder spree.  He has said in multiple interviews, including a recent one with Stephen Colbert, that the fear he felt from these events influenced his decision to become a writer.  He has backed up this claim in his book On Writing, where he said that he found a certain fascination in the pure evil of Starkweather.

He evidently was driven to share that fear with the world, as he, of course, went on to write horror that reflected that pure evil Starkweather embodied.  The murder spree and the characters have appeared both figuratively and literally in his books.  The character Randall Flagg was said to be a schoolmate of Charles Starkweather.  The character The Kid from the same book was modeled after the 19-year-old killer.  Also, George Stark, the primary antagonist of The Dark Half was named after Starkweather.

Though clearly inspired by the killer, he has said little about one of the elements that makes this story so fascinating and chilling, that of the 14-year-old girl who was with Starkweather during the murder spree.  Caril Fugate came home from school one day to find Charlie alone in her house.  Her family was missing.  No one knows exactly what happened over the next couple weeks.  All that is known for certain is that seven more bodies were found in their wake, and that Charlie later admitted to another murder the year before.

Charlie claimed at first that Caril had nothing to do with the murders.  He and Caril both told the exact same story, that he had told her that her family was being held by some friends of his, and if she didn’t do exactly as he said, he would call up his friends and have her family killed.  Caril said she did everything to keep them alive, but when she saw a police car along a Wyoming highway just after Charlie had killed a salesman in his car, she couldn’t take it anymore.  She ran to the sheriff and jumped in his car.  The officer had not yet seen Charlie, but when Caril pointed him out, the officer was able to call ahead to other officers who chased Charlie down.

Both parties told this exact same story multiple times until word got to Charlie that Caril was saying he was insane.  Suddenly, his story changed.  In fact, it changed every single time he told it.  Even in court, when he would answer one attorney, then the other attorney asked what happened, his story changed.

My grandfather, John McArthur, was Caril Fugate’s attorney.  He had no opinion of the case, and had taken it only out of a sense of constitutional duty.  But when he started interviewing Caril, he was shocked to learn that, first, no one had told her she was being charged with murder.  The police had questioned her without an attorney for days, gathering a case against her without telling her what was going on, and she had complied simply as a way to tell them what Charlie had done.  Second, my grandfather was surprised to learn that the case was far more complicated than anyone had let on.

Caril had left multiple clues for the police, including a note to turn everyone away from the house which read, “Everyone is sick with the flu, Miss Bartlett”.  She had underlined “Miss Bartlett” three times because the only Miss Bartlett in the house was her two-year-old half-sister.  When relatives went to the police saying something was wrong at the house, the police ignored them.  It had been Charlie’s brother and Caril’s brother-in-law who had finally broken into the chicken shed behind the house to find Caril’s slain family.

The second clue she left was when she threw from the car the school books of one of the teenage victims to show the police which direction they were headed.  Though the books were found on the road heading east, the police inexplicably determined that they were headed west.

Caril had also written a note begging for help, which was in her jacket pocket when she ran to the police officer.  This note disappeared when it was sent to the County Attorney’s office.  The big question now was, why did this happen?

It was very simple.  After the murder spree, a national investigation was held to determine why the Lincoln police department and the Nebraska sheriff’s department took so long to catch Starkweather.  They were under extra scrutiny because Charlie had killed someone two months earlier, and multiple witnesses had come forward pointing at Charlie, including some of his friends and family.  The police never so much as investigated him.  Now, under national scrutiny, they needed a scapegoat, and Caril Fugate was the perfect target for this.

John and Ruby McArthur in their home in 1952
McArthur archives

My grandfather was so angry at the unfair treatment Caril received that he continued to defend her pro bono, meaning without pay, for eighteen years.  He was offered pay by the State after the original trial, but the amount was less than half of what each of Charlie’s attorneys had been paid, and the State had allowed him to be represented by two attorneys, while it did not allow John’s partner to help with Caril’s trial; a move which far exceeded the judge’s authority, yet he did it anyway, as there was no one at the time to stop him.

After eighteen years, my grandfather, along with my father, who had become an attorney by that time, got Caril released on parole, though they all would have rather had a new trial.  Caril, in fact, could have gone for parole five years earlier, but had chosen to remain in prison in hopes to prove her innocence.

To this day, there are many misconceptions and rumors spread about the case.  It has spawned many movies, books, and songs.  Bruce Springsteen’s album Nebraska is based on it.  Peter Jackson’s first Hollywood movie The Frighteners is taken from the story, and Terrence Mallick’s Badlands was inspired by it.  Terrence and Martin Sheen, in fact, both became friends of Caril’s during the making of it.

The true story, however, is far more complex and interesting.  I have placed it all in a book I’ve written called “Pro Bono - The 18-Year Defense of Caril Ann Fugate”, which can be found on any e-reader, and on paperback on Amazon.  You can also find it on the website, along with a lot more information, including photographs, and the entire trial transcripts, at my website: probonobook.com