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'Nebraska' murders: Woman convicted for role in killings documented in Springsteen song seeks pardon
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Sep 5, 2021, 4:20:02 AM9/5/21
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A woman convicted for her involvement in a string of Nebraska
killings in the 1950s that left 11 dead, including her family
members, with her then-boyfriend is seeking a pardon.
Caril Ann Clair, 76, who was convicted under her maiden name of
Caril Ann Fugate and was 14 at the time of the slayings, told
the Omaha World-Herald that she's seeking peace of mind as she
ages.
Clair was a teenager when she accompanied her 19-year-old
boyfriend, Charlie Starkweather, on a murder spree in 1957 and
1958 that left her mother, stepfather and baby half-sister dead.
The killings were recounted in the Bruce Springsteen song
"Nebraska" and the 1973 film "Badlands" starring Sissy Spacek
and Martin Sheen. The crimes began in November 1957 when
Starkweather robbed and killed a 21-year-old gas station worker
in Lincoln. On Jan. 21, 1958, he went to his girlfriend’s house
and killed her three family members after her mother and
stepfather told him to stay away, authorities said.
Clair claimed Starkweather forced her at gunpoint to obey him.
They were captured in Wyoming eight days later.
“When I was 14 years old, I was abducted and held captive by
Charlie Starkweather. I was terrified and did whatever he wanted
me to,” Clair wrote in her pardon application, acknowledging
that she was present when one of the victims was shot and that
she did hold the money taken from him.
She spent 17 years in prison before her life sentence was
reduced and she was paroled in 1976. Starkweather was executed
by electric chair in 1959 after being convicted of one murder
count. He was initially charged with 11 counts but went to trial
for only one.
Clair applied for a pardon in 2017 but wasn't scheduled for a
hearing until next month, according to the newspaper. In her
application, she cited she's had no arrests or convictions and
has been employed at a hospital in Michigan, where she lives.
“The idea that posterity has been made to believe that I knew
about and/or witnessed the death of my beloved family and left
with Starkweather willingly on a murder spree is too much for me
to bear anymore,” her application states. “Receiving a pardon
may somehow alleviate this terrible burden.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Nebraska's Pardons Board has come under fire in recent years for
only issuing 13 pardon hearings in the past three fiscal years,
according to the Herald. The board consist of Republican Gov.
Pete Ricketts, Attorney General Doug Peterson and Secretary of
State Bob Evnen.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/nebraska-murders-woman-role-killings-
documented-in-springsteen-song-seeks-pardon
killings in the 1950s that left 11 dead, including her family
members, with her then-boyfriend is seeking a pardon.
Caril Ann Clair, 76, who was convicted under her maiden name of
Caril Ann Fugate and was 14 at the time of the slayings, told
the Omaha World-Herald that she's seeking peace of mind as she
ages.
Clair was a teenager when she accompanied her 19-year-old
boyfriend, Charlie Starkweather, on a murder spree in 1957 and
1958 that left her mother, stepfather and baby half-sister dead.
The killings were recounted in the Bruce Springsteen song
"Nebraska" and the 1973 film "Badlands" starring Sissy Spacek
and Martin Sheen. The crimes began in November 1957 when
Starkweather robbed and killed a 21-year-old gas station worker
in Lincoln. On Jan. 21, 1958, he went to his girlfriend’s house
and killed her three family members after her mother and
stepfather told him to stay away, authorities said.
Clair claimed Starkweather forced her at gunpoint to obey him.
They were captured in Wyoming eight days later.
“When I was 14 years old, I was abducted and held captive by
Charlie Starkweather. I was terrified and did whatever he wanted
me to,” Clair wrote in her pardon application, acknowledging
that she was present when one of the victims was shot and that
she did hold the money taken from him.
She spent 17 years in prison before her life sentence was
reduced and she was paroled in 1976. Starkweather was executed
by electric chair in 1959 after being convicted of one murder
count. He was initially charged with 11 counts but went to trial
for only one.
Clair applied for a pardon in 2017 but wasn't scheduled for a
hearing until next month, according to the newspaper. In her
application, she cited she's had no arrests or convictions and
has been employed at a hospital in Michigan, where she lives.
“The idea that posterity has been made to believe that I knew
about and/or witnessed the death of my beloved family and left
with Starkweather willingly on a murder spree is too much for me
to bear anymore,” her application states. “Receiving a pardon
may somehow alleviate this terrible burden.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Nebraska's Pardons Board has come under fire in recent years for
only issuing 13 pardon hearings in the past three fiscal years,
according to the Herald. The board consist of Republican Gov.
Pete Ricketts, Attorney General Doug Peterson and Secretary of
State Bob Evnen.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/nebraska-murders-woman-role-killings-
documented-in-springsteen-song-seeks-pardon
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