All language subtitles for The.12th.Victim.S01E02.1080p.WEB.H264-BIGDOC

Dark ambient music

[watch ticking]

[Tape warps]

[Watch ticking]

One, two...

Three, four, five...

Six, seven, eight, nine...

[Metronome ticking]

This is the most terrible thing
that's ever happened in Lincoln.

Her hands were
bound in front of her,

and there was a
gag on her mouth.

[Man vo] It was the first of
its kind... these rebels without

a cause killing
people for no reason.

You could feel the fear
just on the TV itself.

[Man vo] Charley starkweather
saw himself as James Dean.

I think he's crazy.

[Man vo] Caril always
wanted to be somebody.

She wanted to be a star.

[Woman vo] I thought, "oh, wow,
is she a hard-lookin' broad."

[Man vo] I see,
really, a scared little girl.

[Man vo] The only two people
who witnessed what went on were

Charles
starkweather and caril fugate,

and everybody else is dead.

[TV flicks off]

Ominous music

Charley and caril travelled
all the way across the state of

Nebraska, which finally
comes to its climax in Wyoming,

when he's wrestling with
somebody in the middle of the

street, about to
kill his 12th victim,

and she's about to see it...

And she sees the
police officer over there.

That's where it explodes.

She is getting
away from Charley.

She's thinking, "i
have to get to this man.

I have to get to this police
officer and this has to end."

It was not a capture.

She had escaped.

She escaped.

She saw a cop car.

He was armed.

She ran in a zig-zag pattern.

She's thinking, "at
last, I found a police car!"

She said, "that's
Charles starkweather!

Arrest him!"

Of course, they arrested her.

She could have fought
extradition back to Nebraska.

But again, she's a
14-year-old child;

she doesn't know
what's going on.

And they didn't
give her a lawyer.

[Battisti vo] She
signed extradition papers.

She said, "I thought I had to
sign something so I could leave

and go home to mom!"

She goes, "yeah, I
wanna go back to Nebraska!"

She wanted to see her mother!

Right then is when her
next nightmare began.

Dark ambient music

[commotion and cameras flashing]

[Battisti vo] When she
first got into the jail,

she became hysterical, probably
because she was relieved,

you know, and then she
could let it all out.

She said, "where's my mother?

Where's my mother?

Why doesn't my mother call me?

When is she gonna call me?"

And Hazel heflin,
sheriff heflin's wife,

said, "well, you
know, right now,

the lines are very busy and,
um, I'm sure they'll be calling

you later."

And then, she
said to her husband,

"I don't think she
knows her family's dead."

That she was in Wyoming.

Caril said, "don't
leave me, don't leave me,

he's gonna come and get me."

And mrs heflin would
say, "he can't get you.

He's in jail."

"No, he will,"
you know, "he will,

he will."

And that's when she got
the hypodermic needle.

Because she was so hysterical.

And it knocked her out so
that she slept for 17 hours.

Well, by the time the
prosecutors got there to talk to

her, she was out of it.

Her parents are dead.

Everybody just
keeps saying, "later,

caril, later."

And it isn't until
she's in gering, Nebraska

that gertrude karnopp
just very coldly turns to her

and goes, "well,
don't you know, caril?

They're dead."

[Battisti vo] And
that's when caril said,

"you're lying to
me, they're not dead,

they're not dead,
they're not dead,

they're not dead."

She was still very, very
confused at that point.

She said, "what are all
these people talking about?

My family's alive.

I'm gonna see them
when I get back.

When I see my sister, I'll know
what happened when I see Barb."

They were taken back separately
extradited back to Nebraska.

When Charley starkweather was
arrested and caril was captured,

it was sort of like a win
for the police department.

Karnopp and scheele, they got
their man and they're driving

back.

A key thing that must have
spoiled it was when Charley

starkweather admitted
to killing colvert;

he did that on the drive back.

Tense music

Elmer scheele and
sheriff karnopp,

they knew they were still
under a lot of pressure.

What was gonna be revealed to
the public was further stain on

their reputation, further
stain on the police department.

[Jeff mcarthur vo]
This was a huge story,

known everywhere.

They should have gotten Charley
the month before in December,

when he had
murdered somebody else.

They certainly had
enough information,

other witnesses, other
evidence, but they hadn't,

and Charley himself was kind
of teasing them about that.

And caril left clues behind
for them for them to find.

At the bartlett house,
caril made the note that said,

"we're sick with the
flu, don't come in,"

and then at the bottom
wrote, "miss bartlett,"

and she underlined "miss
bartlett" three times,

and the reason she did this was
it was a way of sending a signal

to people out in the world
without Charley recognizing it.

Dark music

because caril went by "fugate."

Her mother went
by "mrs barlett,"

which was more
important at that time.

"Mrs bartlett."

The only "miss barlett" in
the house was this two-year-old

half-sister of hers.

And of course, she couldn't
have written a note like that,

and so that was the reason she
underlined it three times: To

simply say to people
"something is wrong."

And the police
were just like, "ah,

you're crazy.

We're not gonna go
investigate that any further."

And so if she got out
there saying to people,

"hey, I left clues behind," that
made them look all the worse.

It became more in their own
personal best interest to

prosecute her because of the
fact that then it turns the

narrative away from "why
didn't they catch these people?"

To "look at this
14-year-old girl,

and look, it's the
new Bonnie and Clyde."

[Faint commotion]

[O'Donnell vo] The
public, when they saw Charley,

here was a teenage murderer,
cigarette hangin' out of his

mouth, rough-lookin'
he fit the part.

So there was no sympathy
for Charles starkweather in

this state.

[Jeff mcarthur vo]
When she was brought back,

for the most part, the
prosecution just simply knew

they didn't have to go to the
press... the press was coming to

them... so they
would just simply say,

"we charged her with accessory
of murder" and fed them little

bits and pieces of evidence just
from one single point-of-view.

So, like, when you look at those
early pictures of her when she's

being brought back, the
reporters are wanting to talk to

her, but they've rolled up all
the windows and they won't let

her speak to anybody, and they
wouldn't even let anybody tell

her what they're reporting.

[Shutter clicks]

[Wright vo] Most of the
pictures that I've taken were

done with this camera.

1950, I'd just gotten out of
school and came to a job with

the Lincoln star.

My primary job was
to take the film, not stills.

Try shooting stills and movies.

This is a picture of caril
Ann fugate here in Lincoln.

[O'Donnell vo] Public opinion
in Nebraska at the time was

horribly against
caril Ann fugate.

99 percent of the people in
this state felt that she was a

willing accomplice.

[Battisti vo] When she
was brought back to town,

she arrived in Lincoln at night.

And they put her in
that mental institution.

She still really wasn't
clear about her family.

One of the things that we
often see when people experience

profound psychological
trauma is that there's this...

Intense, almost desperate
attempt to hold onto hope.

[Battisti vo] It didn't
register with her that they were

all dead until she
saw her sister in the

mental institution.

And she said, "are
they dead, Barb?"

And she said, "yes,
caril, they are."

And she said, "that was the
time I knew that they were dead,

because I knew my sister
would never lie to me."

[Tape warps]

[Metronome ticking]

[Soft crying]

[Crying] Stupid!

[Inhales sharply]

Dead!

[Crying] Dead!

They were dead!

[Cries]

[Crying] I failed, I failed...

[Crying] They lied...

[Tape clicks off]

[Writing on paper]

[Battisti vo] I
really enjoy true crime,

and [chuckling] I
enjoy murder mysteries...

Knowing what's behind
murder, horrible things.

And I began reading
about Charles starkweather,

and I thought, "wow,
that was a bad guy,

you know, he
killed 11 people and...

Killed people he
didn't even know.

And his
girlfriend went with him."

And I thought, "she
must be horrible!

She must be just like he is.

She must have been a... a little
tramp just out... she hated her

parents, I mean, she cussed
and smoked and did all that.

What a horrible girl!"

But then, I started...

Thinking about things.

I thought, "this
is really strange.

I really don't know
this young woman."

And really, that's
what drew me in.

I wanted to get to know her.

I ordered the trial transcripts.

When I read caril's trial, I
read it over and over again,

and...

I said, "John mcarthur
proved this girl's innocence.

What happened?"

It was after two years I
really wanted to write a book.

I've never read more in my life.

It took me 15 years
to write this book.

I was drawn to caril because
I never in my life would have

thought...

Police officers or
prosecutors or judges would...

Would do wrong things.

They just don't do that!

When I first met her, I stayed
at her apartment with her,

and I brought my
recorder up then so...

She had an apartment,
a lovely apartment.

She sews... she's a wonderful
seamstress... so she made

everything... all her curtains,
she made the bed spread,

everything.

And she had this
bird flying loose.

I've always been
afraid of birds,

and that bird was
flying around everywhere.

Because she told me, "I will
never have anything caged in my

house," and I
thought, "I get it but..."

[Laughs]

Yeah.

Tense music

when she's
speaking with her sister,

I had given caril
a blank recorder,

and I said, "here's what i'd
like you to do: Just sit down

with Barb, have a nice
chat, and run the recorder."

[Caril on recording]
Yeah, it's flashing.

Um, Linda, my sister and
i, we're just gonna talk.

And then, uh, we'll just let you
edit it and put it where you...

In the area you
think it belongs.

Dark music

our father was an alcoholic.

He had that personality
of a Jekyll and Hyde.

[Keys jingling]

You never really knew what our
dad was gonna be like until he

opened the door and came in.

So my mom would have
us hide in the closet.

[Distant man
shouting indistinctly]

Most of it was verbal abuse.

Then, this one time he
physically got in with her.

He was arrested several times.

One was corrupting a minor.

That's a nice way of
saying he had sex with a minor.

[Caril on recording]
Nothing was stable.

You could come home from school
and your whole house would be

packed with a bunch of boxes...

Most of the time, probably
because we were evicted.

And so they moved around
a lot, until she got married the

second time.

And I can remember my mother was
telling me that one of the best

things that happened to velda
was when she married Marion.

Tender music

[battisti vo] She loved
Marion and called him "father,"

because she said, "I never had
a father until he married my

mother."

And after Betty Jean was born,
every time Marion bought Betty

Jean something, he bought
Barb and caril something too.

And he said, "these
aren't my stepdaughters,

these are my daughters,
these are my children.

Tell me the first time that you
remember Charley and how you met

him and...

[Caril on recording] Um,
the first time I met him,

my sister had brought him down.

We double-dated and
we'd go to drive-ins.

Go ahead and open it.

Dramatic music

[caril on recording]
And after we'd seen that,

it was like...

I could not open the
door to our apartment.

I would knock on the door, and
then I'd run back and I'd wait

until somebody opened the door.

Ominous music

I just could not open that door
'cause I knew the monster was

behind it.

[Battisti on recording] Did you
think Charley was really cool?

[Caril on recording]
Yeah, in the beginning,

I really did.

He did remind me of, you
know, like James Dean.

He was... he was
fun, he was funny.

When he smiled, his
whole face would light up.

But then, it also gave
you a sense of... well,

when you're that age and
then there's an older boy is

interested in you, it
makes you feel like...

You're worth something.

There were numerous times when
he would ask me to marry him,

and I'd tell him
I was too young,

that I didn't even
know what love was.

[Battisti on recording] Um...

Did you ever notice Charley
changing at any time, caril?

[Caril on
recording] Yeah, he did.

I started withdrawing from him
because he started fantasizing

more and...

You know, like he would get a
better job and he had this and

he had that.

He would say, like,
he was born too late,

that he should have been
born back when the west was

still wild.

He'd get in this...

Accusing me of things, you know,
and he started going into this

accusation constantly,
just driving me crazy, you know?

"Well, what did
you say at school?

Who did you talk to?"

And it was like he was
trying to control...

Every minute of my
breathing existence.

She she told Charley that she
didn't want to see him anymore,

and she told her
mother to tell Charley,

if he came around
when she wasn't there,

not to come around anymore.

[Caril on recording] When I
broke up with him and he left

that Sunday, I
never, ever again...

Seen...

The Charles
starkweather that I knew.

He's basically put so much
of his own life into her,

and that's why, when
she broke up with him,

he fell apart.

Ominous music

[caril on recording]
When this happened,

and I came home
from school that day,

and I opened the door...

Dramatic music

there was the
monster behind the door.

[Battisti vo] Her
mother was never,

never not at home when
caril came home from school.

So she believed him
immediately when he said,

"I've kidnapped your parents
and your younger sister."

[Man vo] Caril, what happened
to you when you came home from

school on that Tuesday?

[Girl vo] He was
standing behind the door when

I walked in.

I don't remember
whether he grabbed me or not.

He said for me to sit
down on the couch or chair,

and then I asked him where
where my folks were 'cause they

were gone.

And then, he told me that story.

[Man vo] Which story was that?

[Girl vo] He told me my folks
were over at that old lady's

house and he said if I
done what he told me to do,

then they wouldn't be hurt.

[Battisti vo] Then, he told her
his friends were right outside

the door to her house too,
so if she tried to escape,

they would shoot her.

She said, "you're crazy.

What is all this?

You're a fool, what
are you talking about?"

He said, "sit down."

And she said, "no, i'm
not gonna sit down."

And then, he slapped her so
hard that she had to sit down.

And she told me, "I didn't
know who that person was.

That was not the
starkweather I knew."

[Man vo] Then, what
did you and he do.

[Girl vo] We watched television.

[Battisti vo] It would
be five days in the house.

Caril really was in a fog.

She was just so afraid
of being there with him.

He wouldn't let her
out of the house.

The only time he would allow her
out of the house was to collect

mail, and then he would
always be watching her.

She said not a lot happened.

They watched a lot of TV.

But in the meantime, there
are three bodies in the sheds

out back.

[Man vo] Now,
during that time, caril,

did you go to the bathroom?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] There in the home?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] You have a
new bathroom there,

is that right?

[Girl vo] Yes.

We talk about
the Miranda rights.

That didn't happen
until the 1960s,

and so there's no...

Definite right that you
had to be given an attorney,

but typically, people
knew to ask for one.

But a 14-year-old child doesn't
know anything about that,

so the police just came in,
knowing that they had already

pressed charges on her,
never told her they're pressing

charges against her... anything
she's saying can and will be

used against her in court...
Pretending they're just getting

information about Charley but
really building the case against

her.

[Man vo] Now, then, caril,
during that time that you were

in the house out
there, did you...

Have sexual relations
with Charles starkweather?

[Girl vo] I don't think so.

I know what you mean.

[Man vo] Do you
know what I mean?

[Girl vo] Yes.

He has no problem
bringing all this up...

To show, in their view,
that she wasn't a hostage,

that there was a real romantic

and sexual
relationship going on.

[Man vo] Did he, at any time,
have his sexual organ our in

your presence?

[Girl vo] No.

I... don't know what you mean.

[Battisti vo] I don't think
they had a clue what being a

14-year-old
little girl is about.

Plus, they had a preconceived
idea about caril... that she was

a tramp and that she
had experienced sex,

which back then in '50s...

That was horrible.

I mean, you couldn't even be an
unwed mother back in the '50s.

[Man vo] Did he, at
any time, put his...

Penis up in your... sexual organ?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] And did he
stick it in very far?

[Girl vo] No.

[Man vo] Did he
put it in slightly?

[Girl vo] He didn't
put it in an inch.

[Man vo] He put it
in... less than an inch?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] He did put it
in but less than an inch,

is that right?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] What was the reason
he didn't put it in further?

[Girl vo] It hurt.

Dale fahrnbruch, the prosecutor,

he was very, very interested in
her sex life with starkweather

for some reason.

You know, now that
she was an adult,

she said, "he was impotent;
He couldn't have an erection.

But I didn't know
that at that age."

[Man vo] Now, caril, I believe
you also told me earlier that

you told Charles on the way
to Wyoming that you loved him.

Is that true?

[Girl vo] Yes.

I think so.

[Man vo] And did you tell him
that on more than one occasion?

[Girl vo] Yes.

[Man vo] And what was your
reason for telling him that?

[Girl vo] I was
afraid he might kill me.

[Caril on recording] It
was actually nothing but...

Days of being verbally,
emotionally battered...

By adults...

Who did not take into
consideration that this was a

child doing the best they
could to relay to them...

The horror that she had seen!

[Man vo] And how many
times would you say,

caril, you stayed in the
house while he went away?

[Girl vo] Almost
about every night.

He tied me up when
he left the house,

but he didn't tie me
up tight so it hurt.

Caril was thinking, "my family
is being held by Charley's gang

of robbers " and that " if I try
to get away or warn or do this

or that, he would
have them killed."

Dark music

to protect themselves, a
response that people will have

in extreme trauma
is tonic immobility.

[Distant man
shouting indistinctly]

It's as if the body
or, in this case,

the mind is just frozen.

Collapsing, but it can also be a
situation where it's more of a

mental state of just being
completely unable to make the

ordinary decisions, to
think things through,

to see things in the way
that one ordinarily does.

Predator will just go limp.

It almost looks like
they're feigning death,

and sometimes, they will
actually almost have no heart

rate.

The predators would
just drop the prey and...

Go do something else.

Suspenseful music

[commotion]

Charley originally said caril
had nothing to do with any of

the killings.

Houses out behind the house.

But caril came home
about four that afternoon.

I told her a line that
they were somewhere.

I was gonna tell her
about what happened,

but I was letting it go by,
and before I said anything,

the days went by too fast.

At that point, he still had
not turned quite against caril,

even though he gave different
confessions here and there.

But he wanted to see her.

Dale fahrnbruch and Elmer
scheele would be talking to her.

And they said, "no, she
doesn't wanna see you."

Well, they know you can't
see her... period... anyway.

Two codefendants?

They're not permitted
to speak to each other.

They can't see each other,
they can't write to each other,

they can't pass
messages to each other.

It wasn't done.

But scheele said,
"well, you know,

maybe we could get
a letter to caril."

Tense ambient music

so on February 7th, Charley
writes his letter to caril,

and it is such a
casual kind of letter.

She had not seen Charley
since they were on the road,

since she had seen him
kill all these people.

[Charles vo]
February 7th, 1958.

Dear caril, how are you?

Okay, I hope.

They said I cannot see you

'til they get done
talking to you so...

I'm hoping I can see you then.

That is, if you
would want to see me.

I'm sorry about your
mom, dad, and sister.

I would like to
know something...

Did you think that I would
have killed you when we got to

Washington?

I told you I could not
shoot you if I had to.

And one more thing I would like
to know: Them things you were

saying when we were
on the road, like...

When I asked you
if you hate me...

And I think you know what
the rest of them were...

Was you just
giving me a line or...

What was you?

Write back if you will.

Please.

Chuck.

Ps you know damn well
I would never shoot you.

[Girl vo] Chuck...

I don't want to see you...

Because I might do something I
would be sorry for later on.

Elmer scheele brought to
Charley the note from caril

saying that she didn't
want to see him and,

while Charley's in the
bad mood, also said,

"and by the way, she's been
saying that you're crazy."

That's the one thing Charley
did not want anybody to ever say

about him, let alone
his ex-girlfriend,

the girl who he
thought he had control over.

But who facilitated that?

The cops and the prosecutors.

They wanted to
turn him against her.

She is practicing
writing a letter...

On the back page of judge
Harry Spencer's stationary.

Well, you just don't go out
and get a judge's stationary.

He had to give it to somebody.

This just isn't
legal malpractice,

this is evil.

They wanted her to
be put into prison;

they wanted her to be guilty.

Tense ambient music

he thought to himself,
"here's this gal I love,

who was gonna go out with
me in a Blaze of glory,

James Dean, the whole
thing, and she's turning on me."

So he's like, "okay, well,
let me tell you what really

happened," and that's when
he started saying that she

committed these murders.

And that's when his story
changed every single time he

told it.

His life today with the attitude
of an interested bystander.

[O'Donnell vo] Charley's trial
was interesting in the fact they

were charging him with
first-degree murder for the

killing of Robert Jensen.

They picked the Jensen murder to
prosecute because they felt that

was the easiest one to prove.

There was such a juxtaposition
between this 17-year-old student

council president,
and here was Charley.

[Gavel banging]

[Man] Charles Raymond
starkweather is called as a

witness on his own behalf.

State your full name, please.

Charles Raymond starkweather.

[Man] How old are you, Charles?

[Charles] 19.

Charley...

Wanted to plead "not guilty" by
the reason of all the killings

were in self-defense.

Now...

That one's a stretch.

[Man] Charley, do you feel
any remorse or sorrow for these

people that you've killed.

[Charles] I won't answer that.

[Man] But you do feel that
every one of them that were

killed, you killed
in self-defense,

is that correct?

[Charles] The
ones I killed, yes.

[Audience murmuring]

[Jeff mcarthur vo] Charley's
attorney is at a total loss as

to what to do.

Then, he thinks, "well,
there is another person there.

Tense music

and if she was the
one manipulating him,

then let's point the finger at
her and say that Charley was a

victim of manipulation."

So from then on, the defense
attorney's whole reasoning in

Charley's trial was
"it's caril's fault."

The prosecution, also knowing
that they're going to be trying

caril soon, instead of
fighting against them,

suddenly, they're both
in agreement... "Yeah,

it's caril's fault"
and they went,

both, right along with it.

[Gavel banging]

[Man vo] Helen l starkweather
is called as a witness on behalf

of the defendant.

[Helen] Soon after he
started going with caril,

it seemed like his
family was pushed behind,

and his whole life
centered around her.

She seemed to
have a hold on him.

[Audience murmuring]

And so much of what people
now believe happened comes from

that, comes from this
trial where there was nobody

representing caril fugate.

During that trial, Charley
testified and blamed caril Ann

fugate for killing Carol king.

[Man] Charley, in your
confession pertaining to the

Jensen case, right after
you left the cave out there,

I think your confession said
that you were mad at caril about

something.

What were you mad at
her about, Charley?

What she did.

[Man] And what did she do there?

[Charles] Shot Carol king.

[Audience gasps and murmurs]

[Man]
She... shot... Carol... king?

[Charles] Yes, sir.

Which was a bombshell.

The courtroom just was stunned.

Suspenseful music

[male reporter vo] A smiling,
nodding Charles starkweather

walked out of the Lancaster
county district courtroom a

little after three
o'clock this afternoon...

A man ordered to die
in the electric chair.

Jury members ordered
the death penalty.

The 19-year-old former Lincoln
garbage collector took the

verdict with the apparent
indifference that had marked his

manner throughout the trial.

Here comes... here comes
Charles starkweather now,

this time a cigarette
is lighting, smiling.

[Male reporter] What do you
think of the verdict, Charles?

[Male reporter] I
see Charley, thank you.

[Male reporter] What do you
think of the verdict, Charles?

[Charles] Yeah, it was fair.

[Male reporter] All right,
we had a very short word with

Charles starkweather there in
which he said that he thought

the verdict was fair.

Starkweather was
gonna be convicted.

There was more of a question
about whether caril would be

convicted of first-degree
murder or a lesser charge.

But, in all likelihood, the
die had been cast at that point.

Nobody in those jury rooms
didn't know about this case.

[James mcarthur vo] The
general feeling in the public,

there was no question... they
absolutely believed caril was

guilty.

I know the police were very
strongly wanting to see her

convicted.

There was so much
pressure against caril.

The crime was so horrific,
involved so many people... and

very prominent people... that
it just wasn't good enough that

just one person...
Starkweather... be found guilty.

If the crime is so horrific, the
public kind of seems to demand

that the perpetrators be as
broad as the crime itself is.

[Battisti vo] She was a juvenile
and should have been tried

in juvenile court;
The statute was very,

very clear on that.

It was as if there was a tacit
assumption among the judges...

And the prosecutors that
"we're gonna go for her.

We were really made
fun of, you know,

because we couldn't
catch starkweather.

There's egg on our face."

So I think it was "let's
sacrifice this young girl for a

couple of years.

She's gonna get out eventually."

Tense music

there were certain factors
at play when this happened.

Both Elmer scheele and sheriff
karnopp were up for reelection

that year.

[Man vo] I think of all the
participants on the prosecution

side, county attorney scheele
probably would have been the

most vulnerable.

He could very well have wound
up losing his position had caril

been acquitted.

The fact of the matter is the
police were under incredible

pressure.

Not everybody
necessarily played fair.

[James mcarthur
vo] Out in Wyoming,

where caril and
Charley were caught,

when the authorities
from Nebraska came,

they came with the idea...

That caril was guilty.

They were making accusations
against caril which couldn't

possibly have been true.

Then, of course, there was that
matter of that she had written a

note that she was
being held hostage.

Tense music

[battisti vo] She
wrote a note saying,

"help, police, don't ignore."

And she kept that in her pocket.

And her intention was when
she was able to pass that on to

somebody...

[James mcarthur vo] They found
it in Wyoming in the pocket of

the jacket she was
wearing, and mrs heflin,

she helped her husband put
various pieces of evidence in a

box...

And sent it all back to
the sheriff back here.

She was disgusted to learn that
all of the evidence... except

for one piece, and that was
that note... came back here.

And someone went...

"Oh.
[Laughs]

'Help, police, don't ignore?'
What do I do with this?"

It was deep-sixed.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] When my
grandfather became her attorney,

she just stared
talking about Charley,

and he goes,
"okay, that's all good,

but we need to start
preparing for your case,"

and she just went, "what
are you talking about?"

And he says, "well,
they charged you,"

and she goes, "what
are you talking about?!

I didn't do... Charley
did all the stuff!"

And my grandfather had to tell
her that her life was on the

line.

Tense music

enter ninette beaver, who
goes to him and is like,

"hey, we need to start telling
the public more about her.

They're hearing all of these
rumors and all these things from

Charley."

My grandfather kept putting it
off because of the fact that he

didn't want the trial to be all
about... through the newspapers.

But she finally was able to
convince him because the rumor

was getting spread around
that caril was pregnant,

and she's like, "we have to put
her on camera so people see she

isn't pregnant."

Ninette, she was wonderful, she
was like a pioneer in Nebraska

television.

I think she was the
first female TV reporter.

[James mcarthur vo] Nothing
like this had ever been done on

national television before.

And so when they got
a chance to do it,

this was a feature that was
shown and filmed for 'the today

show.'

She'd never had
these clothes on before.

This was all a new look.

If anything, they
made her look too old.

They made her look like a woman
who was 10 years older than...

Which was a very, very bad move.

So my grandfather was a
little worried that on national

television, she was going to...

Get really
emotional, so he told her,

"don't let anything
rattle you, don't get,

you know, too
excited, et cetera."

Instead of letting
herself get emotional,

she just went stone-cold, and
all of her answers were very

robotic.

Now, had you gone with
him for quite a while?

Yes, I had went with
him the year before,

and then...

I told him I didn't
want to see him again,

but he came back.

Now, that Sunday, I told
him to leave and I didn't ever

wanna see him again.

Why?

What had brought you
to this conclusion?

Why didn't you wanna
go with him anymore?

I think he's crazy.

[Ninette] Is it true that you
refused to let Charles give...

Give himself up after Bennet?

No, I wanted him
to give himself up,

but he said he couldn't.

[Ninette] He didn't
say why he couldn't?

He said one more killing
wouldn't make any difference.

[Ninette] And then, you knew
then that you were just gonna go

on from there, is that right?

No, I didn't.

[Ninette] You just didn't
know what to think about it?

No, after he had...

After I heard the
shots from the...

Teenager, I knew at any
minute, he could kill me.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] What they
heard wasn't as important as

what they were seeing, which
was this stone-cold woman.

And even though she's a girl,
they just saw her as a woman,

and they just became more
convinced that she was a killer.

Charles has said in his
confession that at times,

you held the gun on
some of the victims.

Is that true?

No, it's not true.

Now, out in, uh, Nebraska, a
filling station attendant said

that, um...

Charles got out of the car and
went into the filling station

and that you were sitting
there with a gun on your lap.

Why didn't you, uh,
get away at that time?

He had a knife and
he had a gun with him.

Did you know how
to drive the car?

People just thought
she was unemotional,

uncaring, and it was easy for
them then to couple her with

Charley.

PTSD is really a physiological,
neurobiological shift into a

survival mode.

For a person with
post-traumatic stress disorder,

in some ways, it's actually
safer to feel nothing than it is

to feel potentially
overwhelmed with anger,

distress, fear, sadness.

That can be very overwhelming.

We heard, uh, a lot of rumors
right after you were brought

back that, uh, you were
expecting a baby at the time you

were captured.

Have you had a baby
since you've been here in...

No, I haven't.

I've never been pregnant and...

I've never had a baby.

Ominous music

it was a public
relations disaster.

[O'Donnell vo]
This was a shock.

The public, when they
saw her and her interview,

they just...

"Oh...

She looks... like she could have
participated in everything that

happened!"

And... big mistake.

Suspenseful music

[Male reporter vo] Caril Ann
fugate didn't seem like the

central figure in a first-degree
murder trial as she entered the

courthouse, her hand clenched
tightly in that of mrs merle

karnopp, the sheriff's wife.

Why did sheriff karnopp have to
do a perp walk with caril fugate

every day down in the street?

He could have parked right up at
the courthouse steps and let her

out.

His media savvy was incredible.

He put caril on the front page
every single day in a way that

any lawyer would not want
their defendant to be seen.

That kind of stuff isn't
done today for a reason.

[Male reporter vo] The
15-year-old fugate sat quietly

in the courtroom, seemingly
swallowed up in the oversized

lawyer's chair with a look
of forced attention on her

perpetually-pouty face.

It came out in Charley's
trial a lot was "did she have

opportunity to get away?

Was she his
accomplice or not accomplice?"

But in her trial is where that
became the really big issue.

Tense ambient music

[Larkin vo] He could have
easily exonerated her and got or

off quicker, or maybe it was
a few years in a reformatory.

No, he was dead-set
that she abandoned him,

she betrayed him, and he would
do anything he needed to do to

take her down with him.

Witness.

At a certain point, everybody
just stopped listening to

anything else that was going
on in the trial at that time,

and they... all the eyes
kept looking at the door.

It was like this
sick fascination.

"Charley
starkweather's gonna be here."

He came in and he was
announced, and the doors opened.

I mean, he might as well
have been a prince walking in.

The last time caril had
seen Charley was in Wyoming,

when she had run from him and
jumped into the police car.

And since then, she had learned
that he had killed her family.

Tense music

[battisti vo] When she saw that
starkweather was going to take

the stand, she dug her nails
into the wrist of her lawyer.

And she told me, she said,
"he must have been bleeding,

Linda, because I dug and I dug,
and I did not take my nails off

of him until
starkweather was off the stand."

[Man] Charles, will you tell us
what is the fact with reference

to this story about her
parents being held hostage?

[Charles] It's a
story we made up.

[Man] Who made up that story?

[Charles] We both did.

[Man] While you were
staying at the bartlett home?

Yes.

[Man] And what is the truth
with reference to you holding

caril hostage?

[Charles] Now, that ain't true.

[Man] Do you have any idea why
caril didn't make an effort to

get away from you?

[Charles] No.

No.

She had all the
chance in the world.

Tense ambient music

[Oberlander] Right here.

"I hope to god to
get through this."

Right there.

And then she goes with the hand.

I'm George oberlander Jr. I have
a severe to profound hearing

loss and I rely on lip reading
and various body language

reading.

It's fairly complicated.

I don't fully
understand how I do it.

My doctors never understood.

The person that we're talking
about today really had a unique

style of talking.

I don't know if
you noticed that.

I had to practice.

Three hours.

Three hours to do three minutes.

"I have a story to tell."

"What are we gonna do
when we get out of here."

That's it there.

She's smiling!

She's relaxed, confident.

There is no way she thought
she was gonna be found guilty.

You can't have that...

Level of emotion if you think
something bad... you think you

did something bad or you think
something bad is gonna happen to

you.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] I do know
that my grandfather was pretty

certain that she
would be convicted.

He had no faith, really, that
the people of Nebraska would

treat her fairly.

Getting Charley wasn't
enough; They wanted more blood.

[O'Donnell vo] A lot of the
other testimony Charley gave,

they felt that he lied in many
different things and it wasn't

such a concern.

But what they did believe was
that she had ample opportunity

to get away from
him and... did... not.

And that cinched that "guilty"
verdict on caril Ann fugate.

Sad ethereal music

and she's, I think, the youngest
gal that's ever been sentenced

to life in united
states history.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] She
acted initially the way a lot of

people would... just
breaking down and crying.

But then, she just
looked at the jury and said,

"if you really
thought I was guilty,

why didn't you
give me the chair?"

Tracking down these kids, and
that if they'd have found out

that Charley killed
colvert a month of so earlier,

this never would have happened.

In a kind of a jungian
collective unconscious,

there is a need to
blame the woman.

You could call her "Eve,"
you could call her "Delilah,"

but by god, you're
gonna blame the woman;

that's what's gonna happen.

[Slides clicking]

People blame the woman.

People love to blame the woman.

[Commotion]

First, she believed that she
was saving her parents' lives,

then she believed she
was gonna get killed.

Who would have been that brave?

Oh, anybody you
talk to would have.

"Well, I would have escaped!"

Yeah...

"Well, I would have
known what to do!"

Hell...

Tense music

[Jeff mcarthur vo]
For quite a while,

caril has been rebuking Charley,
saying that she didn't wanna see

him.

But then, when his
execution date is coming up,

she started
saying, "no, Charley,

you need to recant all that.

You need to say I
didn't do those things.

You know I didn't
do those things."

People just simply
believe whatever he said,

they're hanging
on his every word,

and so if he recanted,
that would go a long way.

And he's just ignoring her.

[Girl vo] To mr and
mrs guy starkweather.

I want you to know I did
everything I could... and my

lawyers did, too... to help
Charles from being executed.

Can you get him to tell the
truth about my family's death?

If you could get him to do
that, I would be ever grateful,

and it would help him, too.

Thank you, caril fugate.

[Jeff mcarthur vo] So caril
fugate is writing to anybody who

might have any possible
control over his execution.

She even wrote a telegram to the
president of the United States.

[Girl vo] Starkweather
will be executed tomorrow.

I have been denied by governor
Brooks a request to see him and

see if he will tell the truth in
front of a minister or someone

else who would fair
before he is executed.

I know you are very busy, but
please help me in any way you

can.

Thank you, caril Ann fugate.

Of course, this, in many
ways, makes her look bad,

because it looks
like she is defending,

you know, her
boyfriend, when in fact,

what she's really
doing is trying to say,

"hey, he knows the truth,
he knows he's telling a lie,

I can talk him into
telling the truth,

but I need more time."

Eerie ethereal music

the doctor who was going to be
there to pronounce death keeled

over of a heart attack right
before they were taking him.

Well, uh, dr finkel was
standing in front of the,

uh, door of the
warden's office, had,

uh, an immediate seizure.

He died almost immediately.

[Male reporter] And he would
have been the one to pronounce

starkweather dead?

Yes, sir, that was his
purpose for being here.

That made it someone
else have to step in,

certainly, to become the doctor.

Enforcement
officers and attorneys.

And they didn't
let the public in.

And I suppose I had got on
because I knew most of these

people.

And Charley said, "how
much time do I have left?"

And the guard or
whatever said, "15 minutes."

And Charley said,
"well, I guess that's it, then."

And then, he put a small plastic
cross in his right palm...

Chaplain kline read
the 23rd psalm to him,

and then he was taken to
the execution chamber.

As the execution
gets closer and closer,

you think, "he'll do it
now, he'll do it now.

He can't go to his death
with the lie on his soul."

He was the only person
in the world who knew...

She was not guilty.

Suspenseful music

tense ambient music