His body was later discovered on a country road.Ĭlair admitted taking $4 from Robert Jensen's (left) wallet just before he and his girlfriend, Carol King (right), were shot to death. The infamous saga, which inspired the 1982 Springsteen song Nebraska and the 1973 film Badlands starring Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen, began in November 1957 when Starkweather robbed and shot dead 21-year-old gas station attendant, Robert Colvert, in Lincoln. Because I loved them with all my heart,' Clair wrote.Īmong those who submitted letters in support of her pardon request were a granddaughter of two of Starkweather's victims, two of Clair's stepsons, a former prison warden and a Michigan woman who hired Clair as a nanny. 'I lived in constant fear for my family's safety. I was terrified and did whatever he wanted me to,' wrote Clair, who acknowledged that she was present when one of the victims was shot and that she did hold the money taken from him. 'When I was 14 years old, I was abducted and held captive by Charlie Starkweather. In her request, Clair said a pardon would represent only a formal forgiveness of her crime, which she says she committed in mortal fear. In her request, Clair (pictured when she was 14 in 1958) said a pardon would represent only a formal forgiveness of her crime, which she says she committed in mortal fear 'Receiving a pardon may somehow alleviate this terrible burden.' '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,' Clair wrote in her 2017 application, which the board is scheduled to consider on February 18. In her pardon request, Clair, who now lives in Hillsdale, Michigan, said the Nebraska Board of Pardons has a chance to right a historical wrong. Her sentence was later reduced and she was paroled in 1976. He was convicted and executed by electric chair on June 25, 1959.Ĭlair was charged in only one of the killings, and was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Starkweather was charged with 11 counts of murder but went to trial for only one. She was 14 when she accompanied her 19-year-old boyfriend, Charlie Starkweather, on a bloody journey that left 11 people dead, including her mother, stepfather and baby half sister, before they were arrested in Wyoming. Published: 21:57 BST, 29 January 2020 | Updated: 04:39 BST, 30 January 2020Ĭaril Ann Clair (pictured in 1993) is seeking a pardon for her role in 11 murders in the 1950s when she was 14, arguing that she accompanied her boyfriend because he threatened to murder her familyĪ woman who accompanied her older boyfriend during a string of killings recounted in the Bruce Springsteen song Nebraska is seeking an official pardon, saying she was 14 years old at the time and that he had threatened to kill her family if she didn't obey.Ĭaril Ann Fugate, who is now 76 and goes by her married name of Caril Ann Clair, said in her application for a Nebraska pardon that she's seeking peace of mind as she ages, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Lauer Ward, 48, his wife Clara, 46, Lillian Fencil, 51, and Merle Collison, 37īy Valerie Edwards For and Associated Press Also killed were Robert Jensen, 17, his girlfriend, Carol King, 16, August Meyer, 70, C.Their victims: Robert Colvert, 21, Clair's stepfather, mother and baby sister, Marion Bartlett, 57 and his wife Velda, 35, and two-year-old Betty Jean.In request, Clair said pardon would represent formal forgiveness of her crime.Clair was charged in only one of the killings, and was convicted and sentenced to life in prison her sentence was later reduced and she was paroled in 1976.He was convicted and executed by electric chair in June 1959, when he was 20.Starkweather was charged with 11 counts of murder but went to trial for one. Clair claims her boyfriend, Charlie Starkweather, 19 at the time, took her on a killing spree that left 11 people dead, before they were arrested in Wyoming.Caril Ann Clair, now 76, is seeking an official pardon, saying she was 14 years old at the time and that her boyfriend threatened to kill her family if she didn't obey.Woman, 76, seeks official pardon for her role in a string of 1950s killings that inspired Springsteen song 'Nebraska' when she was 14, arguing that she accompanied her boyfriend because he threatened to kill her family
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