Killing Spree

I saw her standin' on her front lawnJust a twirlin' her batonMe and her went for a ride, sirAnd ten innocent people died From the town of Lincoln, Nebraska With a sawed off .410 on my lapThrough to the badlands of WyomingI killed everything in my path I can't say that I'm sorryFor the things that we doneAt least for a little while, sirMe and her we had us some fun Now the jury brought in a guilty verdictAnd the judge he sentenced me to deathMidnight in the prison storeroomWith leather straps across my chest Sheriff, when the man pulls that switch, sirAnd snaps my poor head backYou make sure my pretty babyIs sittin' right there on my lap They declared me unfit to liveSaid into that great void my soul'd be hurledThey want to know why I did what I didSir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world   Those are the lyrics of the song, “Nebraska,” written by Bruce Springsteen in 1982 immortalizing the killing spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate in Lincoln, Nebraska and nearby Wyoming in 1958. Were Charlie and Caril Ann a new breed of Bonnie and Clyde? Was 14-year-old Caril Ann, a willing and equal participant in 10 ruthless and gruesome murders, or was she a hostage? Books, movies, and endless documentaries have tried to answer that question. Harry N. Maclean has an “inside track” on the story having grown up at the time in Lincoln contemporaneously with Starkweather and Fugate. Today on MURDER MOST FOUL, Mr. Maclean shares his recollection of the period and what it was like to return to Lincoln to research his book, “STARKWEATHER: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree that Changed America.”