When Charles Starkweather was arrested in 1958 at only 19 years of age, he gained notoriety as America’s first spree killer, and his 15-year-old girlfriend, Caril Fugate, became the youngest female in U.S. history to be tried and sentenced for first-degree murder—a sentence that this investigation questions through analyzing years of research. Accomplished attorneys Linda M. Battisti and John Stevens Berry contribute intelligent insights into a case that still stirs debate even 50 years later, and which inspired pop culture surrounding what was considered by most to be a gruesome love story. Supporting Caril’s claim that she was abducted and held against her will under threat of harm to her family, the book explores the tragic murder spree that earned the electric chair for Charles Starkweather while giving a fresh voice to Caril’s story as a hostage to the man who murdered her family and a witness to crimes that captured a nation.
The Caril Fugate story is to be released as a four-part SHOWTIME docuseries on February 17. The documentary is based on the Addicus Books title, The Twelfth Victim—The Innocence of Caril Fugate in the Charles Starkweather Murder Rampage. The series will premiere on Friday, February 17 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, with new episodes airing weekly on Fridays at 7 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. EST on SHOWTIME. All four episodes will also be released on demand and on streaming platforms for SHOWTIME subscribers on February 17. In 1958, nineteen-year-old Charles Starkweather gained notoriety as one of the nation's first spree killers. He murdered eleven people in Nebraska and one in Wyoming. After a week on the run, he was arrested, later convicted, and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Starkweather's girlfriend, Caril Fugate, fourteen, was with him throughout the murder spree. Was she his hostage or a participant? This question still stirs debate more than sixty years later. Fugate claims she was too terrified to attempt escape—Starkweather had told her he would have her family killed if she disobeyed him. Unbeknownst to her, he had already murdered them. A jury found Fugate guilty of first-degree murder.
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