The Twelfth Victim

When Charles Starkweather was arrested in 1958 at only 19 years of age, he gained notoriety as America’s first spree killer, and his 15-year-old girlfriend, Caril Fugate, became the youngest female in U.S. history to be tried and sentenced for first-degree murder—a sentence that this investigation questions through analyzing years of research. Accomplished attorneys Linda M. Battisti and John Stevens Berry contribute intelligent insights into a case that still stirs debate even 50 years later, and which inspired pop culture surrounding what was considered by most to be a gruesome love story. Supporting Caril’s claim that she was abducted and held against her will under threat of harm to her family, the book explores the tragic murder spree that earned the electric chair for Charles Starkweather while giving a fresh voice to Caril’s story as a hostage to the man who murdered her family and a witness to crimes that captured a nation.