In the quiet, early hours of a Lincoln, Nebraska morning on December 1, 1957, the life of 21-year-old Robert George "Bobby" Colvert, a White/Caucasian male, was tragically cut short. A recent Navy veteran, Colvert was working the night shift as an attendant at the Crest Service Station. His path fatefully crossed with that of 19-year-old Charles Starkweather, who harbored a growing resentment after Colvert refused to sell him a stuffed animal on credit for his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann
Fugate.
Starkweather, fueled by anger, returned to the station multiple times that night, making small purchases before revealing his deadly intent. Brandishing a shotgun, he robbed Colvert of $100 from the cash register. The terror did not end there. Starkweather forced Colvert into a car and drove him to a remote, frozen dirt road on the outskirts of Lincoln. A struggle over the shotgun ensued, during which Colvert was wounded before Starkweather fatally shot him in the head. This act of senseless violence marked the beginning of a notorious killing spree.
The initial police investigation pointed towards a transient as the likely suspect, allowing Starkweather to temporarily evade suspicion. However, Colvert's murder was the first of eleven homicides committed by Starkweather, with Fugate accompanying him for the majority of the subsequent crimes that spread across Nebraska and into Wyoming. Their spree of violence instilled widespread fear until their capture in Douglas, Wyoming, on January 29, 1958.
Following their apprehension, the full scope of their crimes came to light. Charles Starkweather was convicted for his murderous rampage and was executed by electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary on June 25, 1959. Caril Ann Fugate was also tried and convicted for her role in the killings. She was sentenced to life in prison but was paroled in 1976 after serving seventeen and a half years. Robert Colvert was laid to rest in Beaver Crossing Cemetery, his life a tragic prelude to one of the most infamous crime sprees in American history.
