Caril Ann Fugate Denied Pardon

Courtesy 1011 Now

The Nebraska Board of Pardons held a public meeting on Tuesday to consider an application for clemency from Caril Ann Clair (Fugate). This request was denied, reports our media partner 1011 Now.

“I think it’s important as you look at the purpose of her request that this is not the role of the pardon’s board,” said Doug Peterson, Attorney General. “We can’t come in and alleviate the burden she feels for this case. ”

Fugate had asked to be pardoned for the following convictions:
– Felony Murder in the First Degree in Lancaster County; Sentenced December 20, 1958
– Felony Murder in the First Degree in the Perpetration of a Robbery in Lancaster County; Sentenced December 20, 1958

Fugate accompanied her older boyfriend during a string of killings and 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.

Caril 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. 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 the pair was arrested in Wyoming.

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 killed a 21-year-old gas station attendant in Lincoln. On Jan. 21, 1958, authorities say he went to his girlfriend’s house and killed her three family members after her mother and stepfather told him to stay away.

Starkweather said Clair was home the entire time, but she said she wasn’t and that when she got home, he met her with a gun and told her that her family was being held hostage and wouldn’t be killed if she obeyed him. The two then set off and weren’t captured until eight days later near Douglas, Wyoming, which is nearly 470 miles (756 kilometers) west of Lincoln.