In January of 1958, the life of 36-year-old Velda M. Street Bartlett, a White female from Lincoln, Nebraska, came to a tragic and violent end. On January 21st, an argument erupted between Velda and her daughter's 19-year-old boyfriend, Charles Starkweather. Velda's disapproval of the relationship led to a physical altercation where she struck Starkweather and demanded he leave their home.
This confrontation set in motion a devastating chain of events that would leave multiple people dead.
Starkweather returned to the Bartlett residence, this time armed. He fatally shot both Velda and her husband, Marion Bartlett. Their two-year-old daughter, Betty Jean, was also brutally killed. The bodies of the family were then hidden on their property; Marion and Velda were concealed in outbuildings, while the body of their young daughter was also stowed away. For the next several days, Starkweather and Velda's 14-year-old daughter, Caril Ann Fugate, remained in the house. They turned away visitors, including concerned relatives, by claiming the family was ill with the flu.
The discovery of the bodies by relatives on January 27th triggered a massive manhunt for Starkweather and Fugate. The pair had already fled and embarked on a killing spree that terrorized Nebraska and Wyoming. Their crimes claimed the lives of seven more people before their capture in Douglas, Wyoming, on January 29, 1958.
Charles Starkweather was tried and convicted of murder. He was executed by electric chair on June 25, 1959. Caril Ann Fugate was also tried and convicted, receiving a life sentence for her role in the crimes. She was paroled in 1976 after serving 18 years in prison.
