R.J. Parker - The Serial Killer Compendium

Starkweather and Fugate hid the bodies in various locations behind the house and the young couple lived in the house for days. Twice, relatives came by to find out why nobody from the family had been seen. Caril sent them away at the door, telling them everyone was sick. She taped a note on the door reading, “Stay a Way Every Body is sick with the Flue.” Caril Ann's grandmother felt something was suspicious and contacted the police, but when they arrived on January 27, the couple was gone.

A search turned up the body of Marion wrapped in paper in the chicken house. Caril's mother, Velda, and baby Betty Jean were found in an outbuilding. The lovers were already driving across Nebraska killing and stealing. What the authorities did not know was that just four hours earlier the couple had driven to a Highway 77 service station to buy gas, a box of .410 shotgun shells, and two boxes of .225, before heading to the rural farmlands of Bennet, just sixteen miles southeast of Lincoln. Starkweather knew where they could hide out for a while in a farmhouse owned by seventy year-old August Meyer, who often invited the Starkweather family to hunt on his property.

On their way to the Meyers farmhouse, their car became stuck in the mud. Robert Jensen, seventeen, and his date, Carol King, sixteen, were driving by at the time and offered to help. Starkweather instantly shot them in the head with his .22 rifle and made a failed attempt to rape King before stuffing their bodies into an abandoned storm cellar. They continued on to the Meyer's farm with the intention of obtaining more guns and ammunition. Upon arriving, Starkweather killed August Meyers with a .410-gauge shotgun and placed his body in a washhouse before heading back to Lincoln. After leaving the Meyer’s farm, Starkweather and Fugate drove to the house of industrialist C. Lauer Ward and his wife, Clara. After entering, Clara and their house cleaner, Lillian Fencl were fatally stabbed to death. Starkweather even snapped the neck of their family dog. When Mr. Ward returned home that evening, Starkweather shot and killed him. The killing sick duo filled the Ward's 1956 Packard with stolen jewelry from the house and fled to Nebraska.

The murders of Mr. and Mrs. Ward, and Lillian Fencl, created an upheaval within Lancaster County. All law enforcement agencies in the county conducted a house-by-house search for the killers. Sheriff Merle Karnopp deputized and armed over one hundred men. Governor Victor Anderson contacted the Nebraska National Guard. Schools closed, kids stayed indoors, the National Bank was secured, and in total, over twelve hundred officers were searching for the killers.

A traveling shoe salesperson named Merle Collison, thirty-seven, pulled his Buick off Highway 87 to take a nap. While he was asleep, Caril climbed into the back seat and opened the door for Charlie who shot Merle Collison nine times in the head. Joe Sprinkle, a geologist, saw something going on in a car, and stopped to see if someone needed help. Starkweather instantly pointed a gun at his head just as Deputy Sheriff William Romer came by. Sprinkle ran to the Deputy yelling, “it’s Starkweather, he’s going to kill me.” Charlie hopped into Sprinkle’s car and rammed a roadblock until a police bullet shattered his windshield.

Starkweather, covered in blood from flying glass, immediately surrendered.

Charlie and Caril were arrested and locked up in a Wyoming jail until their arraignment on March 26, 1958. Starkweather pleaded not guilty so there would be a trial. Caril Fugate also pleaded that she was not guilty.

Charlie Starkweather’s trial began on May 5, 1958, in Lancaster District Court, and ended seventeen days later on May 23 when a jury found him guilty and gave him the death penalty. He was executed by electrocution in the Nebraska State Prison on June 25, 1959.

In the meantime, Caril Fugate’s trial started on October 27, 1958. Throughout her trial, Caril insisted she was held hostage and feared for her life. Before Starkweather was executed, he was brought to Caril’s trial from his death cell to testify that she was a keen participant and could have escaped when he left her alone with loaded guns. On November 21, after only ten hours of deliberation, the five woman and seven man jury gave her a sentence of life in prison and she was sent to the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York.

“An interesting note to make here is that Caril Fugate was allowed to complete her high school education at the Nebraska Center for Women. She read over 1,000 books, learned to sew, write, and ran a column in the prison paper. She was even allowed to partake in programs such as bowling, swimming, and shopping the town. “

Further to this note, I will add that, on June 20, 1976, killer Caril Fugate was released from prison as she was considered a model inmate. On September 28, 1981, she was completed discharged by the parole board. She has never discussed her case in public since being released.

Victims

Robert Colvert, 21, gas station attendant

Marion Bartlett, 57, Fugate's stepfather

Velda Bartlett, 36, Fugate's mother

Betty Jean Bartlett, 2, Velda and Marion Bartlett's daughter

August Meyer, 70, Starkweather's family friend

Robert Jensen, 17, Carol King's boyfriend

Carol King, 16, Robert Jensen's girlfriend

C. Lauer Ward, 47, wealthy industrialist

Clara Ward, 46, C. Lauer Ward's wife

Lillian Fencl, 51, Clara Ward's house cleaner

Merle Collison, 37, traveling salesman

Delfina and Maria

de Jesus Gonzalez (Sisters)

Delfina and Maria were two sisters from the Mexican City of Guanajuato who operated the Rancho El Angel, a brothel, from the mid 1950s to mid 1960s. They recruited prostitutes, got them addicted to drugs, and forced them to serve the wicked and humiliating needs of their clientele.

When a girl became too ill, such as by being injured by repeat rape, or even as little as having lost their “prettiness,” they would be killed. They were known to kill any visitors who had large amounts of cash.

On suspicion of kidnapping young girls in the Guanajuato area, the police picked up a woman named Josefina Gutiérrez, a procuress, and it is believed that she gave up the sisters. Upon searching the compound, police officers found the bodies of eleven males, eighty women and many fetuses, a total of ninety-one.

Investigations exposed that they would recruit prostitutes through help-wanted ads and then force them to work. The Gonzalez sisters were each sentenced to forty years in prison in 1964.

In prison, Delfina died due to an accident. Maria finished her sentence and dropped out of sight after her release. Although they are often cited as the killers, there were also two other sisters who helped in their crimes, Carmen and Maria Luisa. Carmen died in jail due to cancer. Maria Luisa went mad because she feared that she would be killed by angry protesters.

“As this happened almost fifty years ago and in a foreign country, it is unbelievably hard to obtain information about the crimes, considering almost 100 people were killed.”

Karla Homolka and

Paul Bernardo (Husband and Wife)

The Scarborough Rapists and

School Girl Serial Killers

Karla Homolka, the eldest of three daughters, was born on May 4, 1970 in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, to Karel and Dorothy Homolka. Paul Bernardo was born on August 27, 1964 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Marilyn and Kenneth Bernardo. Paul and Karla met in 1987 and married in 1991. Shortly after they married, it was all downhill from there. Author Note: I am not proud to say that this lovely couple is from my country.