Linda M. Battisti - The Twelfth Victim. The Innocence of Caril Fugate in the Starkweather Murder Rampage

A compelling cultural essaya sort of penance for our acceptance of a crude, flawed, and even corrupt legal system that meted out a barbaric version of justice to Caril Fugate back in those golden years.

Gary Gabelhouse, Author

The Third Temple

In this riveting book, Battisti and Berry re-examine the evidence, interview those involved, and apply new and dispassionate logic, with surprising conclusions. Rarely has a legal tangle been so masterfully told.

Roger Welsch, Author

My Nebraska

The Twelfth Victim shines a light on the dark rumors that enshroud the Caril Fugate storywas she Starkweathers accomplice or his hostage? Authors Berry and Battisti deliver the perfect one-two punch to clarify the scandalous gossip and hearsay that have so plagued this story for decades.

Jeff McArthur, Author

Pro BonoThe 18-Year Defense of Caril Ann Fugate

This book is a page-turner! Youll read about a trial in which evidence is withheld, statements ignored, and testimony fabricated. Caril Fugate was judged guilty before entering the courtroom.

Marcia Southwick, Author

A Saturday Night at The Flying Dog and Other Poems

An Addicus Nonfiction Book

Copyright 2014 by Linda Battisti and John Stevens Berry, Sr. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information, write Addicus Books, Inc., P.O. Box 45327, Omaha, Nebraska 68145.

ISBN 978-1-938803-65-9

Typography and Cover design by Jack Kusler

Cover photo by United Press International

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Battisti, Linda M.

The twelfth victim: the innocence of Caril Fugate in the Charles Starkweather murder rampage / Linda M. Battisti, John Stevens Berry.

pages cm. (An Addicus nonfiction book)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-938803-65-9 (alk. paper)

1. Fugate, Caril Ann. 2. Starkweather, Charles Raymond, 19381959. 3. CriminalsBiography. 4. Mass murderNebraska. 5. Trials (Murder)Nebraska. I. Berry, John Stevens, 1938- II. Title.

HV6248.F83B38 2014

364.15234092dc23

2013047677

Addicus Books, Inc.

P.O. Box 45327

Omaha, Nebraska 68145

www.AddicusBooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Caril and all those
who have believed in her

I WISH TO ACKNOWLEDGE my beloved Aunt Jeanmarie for all the prayers she said and the candles she lit for me during this endeavor; I thank my beloved brother Gino for educating me in criminal law and for his encouragement. I thank my dear friends for their abiding and unselfish interest in the years I spent researching and writing this book. I thank my bulldog, Christine Dior (Chrissie), for chewing on her toys rather than on my toes while I worked on my rewrites.

I wish to acknowledge James McArthur, Esq., son of Caril Fugates attorney, for his devotion to Caril, for his selflessness, and for sharing with me the work of his late father, John McArthur. I have developed the deepest respect and admiration for John and for Jim; the apple doesnt fall far from the tree. I thank my coauthor, John Stevens Berry, Esq., for his dedication to this book, for his eloquence, and for his passion for justice.

Finally, I must express my complete gratitude to Caril Fugate, for her heroism, her triumph over tragedy, her courage, her patience, and her trust in me. I especially thank you, Caril, for choosing me, out of many other journalists and writers who have approached you over the years, to tell your story. You always believed that God would send you the right person to tell your story, and it is He who brought us together.

Linda M. Battisti

F IRST I WISH TO ACKNOWLEDGE and thank Caril Fugate, who was kind enough to call in to my then radio show, The John Stevens Berry Show, the only time she has ever been on the air. She called me two consecutive nights, for a total of about four hours on the air. I was astonished at the calls I received from my listeners, so many of them saying they had reason to believe she was innocent and either their parents would not allow them to testify or the police ignored them. This was the beginning of my sensing that an injustice had been done.

I also want to thank Caril for allowing me to record our conversations together in Lincoln, Nebraska, and for her hard work in going over documents and records with me. I want to thank my wife, Margaret Berry, for her support and her kindness to Caril.

I want to thank Linda Battisti for appearing on my radio show, for further interesting me in the book about Caril she was writing, for inviting me to join her as a coauthor, and for being an inspiration and pleasure to work with.

Finally, I acknowledge the Berry Law Firm, which has nothing to do with the contents of this book (none of the attorneys will have seen the manuscript until after the book is published). Corporate President John Berry has always been very kind in making the secretarial staff available to me any time I needed them. I particularly appreciate the efforts of Marissa Landers and Reta Alphin, without whose assistance I could not have written my part of the book. I also want to thank two very fine trial lawyers, Chad Wythers and Matt Aerni, who did not assist in the book but who did attend to other duties in order to free me up and bring this project to a conclusion.

John Stevens Berry

M Y COAUTHOR, JOHN STEVENS BERRY, and I are aware that the murderous rampage of Charles Starkweather left wounds that will never heal in Nebraska. It is not our intention to renew the terrible suffering of the victims families, or to force recall of the terror and horror in Lincoln and surrounding areas during that time. However, in the interest of both truth and justice, it is our intention to demonstrate how a fourteen-year-old Nebraska girl was treated unfairly both legally and ethically in the aftermath of the Starkweather murders.

We ask our readers to set aside long-held opinions, to suspend disbelief, and to join us in this inquiry, which we have been pursuing for many years. We would have not written this book if we had not become convinced that Caril Fugate had, indeed, also been a victim of Charles Starkweather. She was never a willing accomplice, and she did not receive a fair trial. Several factors convinced us of this. Weve learned intimate details of Carils story through conversations with her over many years. Knowing her story, studying the trial record in light of our own experiences as attorneys, and doing historical research has led us to these conclusions.

As an attorney and longtime reader of true-crime stories, it seems inevitable that I would become interested in one of this countrys most brutal and terrifying eventsthe tale of Charles Starkweathers slayings of ten adults and a little three-year-old girl.

I have read every book about Starkweather that I could find. I have watched the movie Badlands, and sat glued to the television series Murder in the Heartland, both based on the Starkweather murder rampage. Starkweathers guilt in the killings is undeniablehe admitted the slayings and paid the ultimate price with his life at the young age of twenty.

The real story of his alleged accomplice, fourteen-year-old Caril Ann Fugate, was much more mysterious, and, until now, remained untold. Most books written about the killings assume that Caril was a willing participant, a smart-mouthed, thrill-seeking, blue-jeaned punkcrazy about Starkweather and his leather jacket, hot rods, and guns. In the 1950s, she was also considered a little tramp who had engaged in sexual intercourse outside the bonds of matrimony. In that era, Caril Ann Fugates reputation was as low as a girls could get.