Why Paint Caril Fugate as a sympathetic character?

Thanks a lot. I recently finished reading the first book you recommended "Wasteland." I'll check out the rest and thanks a bunch for posting about the American Justice, I'll make sure to set a reminder for myself.

I have that episode of American Justice on DVD. I also have a half hour version that has a clip from the 1993 press conference Caril held in regards to the making of Murder In The Heartland (the one hour version tat was released on DVD didn't have the press conference). And since it's about that time of the year (anniversary of the killing spree), the Lincoln Star has a special section devoted to the 50th Anniversary. Lots of stories, and pics I've never seen (including the first color pic I've ever seen of Charlie).

http://www.journalstar.com/special_reports/starkweather/


www.nwa-wrestling.com

Ninette Beaver was the reporter for the local Lincoln televisions station that broke the story and covered it, often being featured on national (network) news reports. She later wrote a book on the case called "Caril."

That is the most historically accurate of the books out there and is very much like this movie. Here is a link to Amazon.com's list of used copies. It's out of print, unfortunately:

http://tinyurl.com/6orbyr

If the tiny URL link doesn't work, and I don't know when or if they expire, try looking up Ninette Beaver Caril on Amazon and you'll find the same thing.

But Ninette Beaver followed the case from beginning to end and far beyond. She, like most reporters who stayed with the story, concluded that Caril Ann Fugate was not guilty. Her attorney, John McArthur, likewise felt she was not guilty of any of the crimes. In fact, upon his death, McArthur's son James continued to fight for Caril's freedom.

Not to belabor the point, but Fugatewas convicted of one murder - and not specifically convicted of shooting that person. That would be Robert Jensen of Bennett, Nebraska, which is just south of Lincoln. If one confesses to a robbery which results in murder, that person is legally culpable of the murder. But in this case, there were some circumstances that change the situation entirely:

(1) Fugate had witnessed the "first" murder committed by Starkweather "up close and personal" just hours before the robbery of Jensen and his girlfriend Carol King. By "first," I mean if was the first one Fugate knew about, the shooting of Starkweather family friend and rural farmer Gus Meyer. Her family (mother, baby sister, stepfather) had already been killed six days earlier, and Starkweather had killed the previous December in a gas station holdup. But Fugate knew none of that and was in shock when Starkweather pointed a gun at Jensen and King in a carjacking.

(2) Having just witnessed the shooting of Meyer, Fugate was terrified when Starkweather confronted the two teenagers from Bennett. She "went along" with the robbery only in the hopes that if Starkweather got the car and the little money Jensen had (I think about $4), King and Jensen would not be killed.

(3) The only reason police could prosecute Fugate for the Jensen shooting was because she confessed to it. Basically, she told the truth. She didn't want to rob or kill anybody, but the robbery was a sure thing. So she pushed the two teenage robbery victims to get out of the car fast and leave the money so Starkweather couldn't kill them. That's robbery in the strict sense, of course. But it's also not voluntary and not committed with intent.

(4) Fugate remained in the car when Starkweather followed the Bennett teenagers into an underground storm cellar where he shot Jensen and then, after an attempted rape of King, shot her, too. King was not just shot, she was also sexually mutilated - the signature of a perverse and angry male, not of a female or a male acting with a female accomplice.

There are a hundred other reasons to think that Fugate had no foreknowledge of any of the crimes and that she made at least two very serious but unsuccessful attempts to run from Starkweather during the murder spree. In fact, she did finally succeed in getting away from him right after the last killing - the Montana salesman shot in his car on a Wyoming highway. That's how the chase ended. Fugate saw a deputy sheriff's car and bolted from Starkweather's - hysterically screaming that it was "him," the shooter they were looking for.

I do not for a minute believe that Fugate had any criminal intent. Like Beaver and the McArthurs (and numerous reporters who covered the story), I believe she was wrongly convicted.