Jul 27, 2019 On this day in 1958, Charles Starkweather, a 19-year-old high-school dropout from Lincoln, Nebraska, and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, kill a. Starkweather turned serial killer.
(Redirected from John Joubert (criminal))
John Joseph Joubert IV (July 2, 1963 â July 17, 1996) was an Americanserial killer convicted of the murders of three boys in Maine and Nebraska. He was executed in Nebraska by electric chair.
Early life[edit]
Joubert was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on July 2, 1963. A bright child, he began reading at age 3 and borrowing books from a public library at 5. He was later found to have an IQ of 123, signifying above average intelligence. Joubert's parents divorced when he was 8 years old, and he stayed to live with his mother, whom he greatly resented throughout his life as being excessively controlling. His mother forbade him to see his father, and often stood in the way of his developing connections with his peers who taunted him on the basis of his relatively small build from the time he was in grade school up until high school.
From a very young age, Joubert began having increasingly violent sadistic fantasies. According to three psychiatric reports prepared on Joubert in 1984, his earliest sadistic fantasies began at around the age of 6. These fantasies revolved around murdering and cannibalizing a neighborhood girl who babysat him. To one psychiatrist, he described having nothing personal against the girl, seeing her as 'just someone to kill.'[1]
In 1971, Joubert's mother moved them out of their former house into a rundown apartment. At this time, he was considered an outcast at school, and sought to compensate for these feelings of isolation by joining the Cub Scouts. It was around this time that his sadistic and homicidal fantasies progressed to the point where he contemplated murdering strangers on the streets, tying and gagging those who resisted him. In one later psychiatric report, he was described as saying that he derived pleasure from the thought of his victims saying 'if you are going to do it, get it over with.'[2]
In 1974, Joubert's mother moved his family to Portland, Maine, and got a job as a bookkeeper. Here, his family settled in a two-story home in the middle-class Oakdale neighborhood. While he attended school in Portland, his problems with his peers began to intensify. He confessed at the age of 12 to having homosexual tendencies, and was further teased and ostracized because of it.
When he was 13, he stabbed a young girl with a pencil and felt sexually stimulated when she cried in pain. The next day, he took a razor blade and slashed another girl as he biked past her. In another incident, he beat and nearly strangled another boy. He relished the power of bullying, and continued to brutally attack his peers and younger children. At around age 16, he throttled an 8-year-old boy named Chris Day, almost killing him. Each offense occurred with gradually higher intensity, and each time Joubert successfully evaded getting caught.
In 1981, he graduated from Cheverus High School in Portland.[3]
Murders[edit]
On August 22, 1982, 11-year-old Richard 'Ricky' Stetson had gone jogging on the 3.5 mile long Back Cove Trail in Portland, Maine.[4][5] When he had not returned by dark, his parents called the police. The next day, a motorist saw the boy's body on the side of US I-295. The attacker appeared to have attempted to undress him, and then stabbed and strangled him. A suspect was arrested for the murder, but his teeth did not match a bite mark on Stetson's body, so he was released after a year and a half in custody. No additional leads presented themselves in the case until January 1984.
Danny Joe Eberle, 13 years old, disappeared while delivering the Omaha World-Herald newspaper on Sunday, September 18, 1983, in Bellevue, Nebraska.[6] His brother, who also delivered papers, had not seen him, but he did remember being followed by a white man in a tan car on previous days. It was found that Eberle had delivered only three of the 70 newspapers on his route. At the address of his fourth delivery, his bicycle was discovered along with the rest of the newspapers. There appeared to be no sign of a struggle. Joubert would later describe how he had approached Eberle, drawn a knife, and covered the boy's mouth with his hand. He instructed Eberle to follow him to his truck and drove him to a gravel road outside the town.
After a three-day search, Eberle's body was discovered in a patch of high grass alongside a gravel road some 4 miles (6 km) from his bicycle. He had been stripped to his underwear, his feet and hands had been bound, and his mouth had been taped with surgical tape. Knife wounds across his body suggested he had been tortured before death. In addition, Joubert had stabbed him nine times. As a kidnapping, the crime came under the jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States, so the FBI was called in.[7]
The investigation followed several leads, including a young man who was arrested for molesting two young boys about a week after the crime. He failed a polygraph test and had a false alibi but did not fit the profile the FBI had created for the murderer. He was released because of the lack of evidence. Other known pedophiles in the area were also questioned, but the case went cold due to a scarcity of evidence.
On December 2, 1983 Christopher Walden, age 12, disappeared in Papillion, Nebraska, about 3 miles (5 km) from where Eberle's body had been found.[8] Witnesses again said they saw a white man in a tan car. Joubert said that he had driven up to Walden as he walked, showed him the sheath of his knife and ordered him into the car. After driving to some railway lines out of town he ordered Walden to strip to his underwear; Walden did so, but then refused to lie down. After a brief struggle Joubert overpowered Walden, and stabbed him; it was later found Walden's throat had been cut so deeply he was nearly decapitated. Walden's body was found two days later, 5 miles (8 km) from town. Although the crimes were similar, there were differences: Walden had not been bound, had been concealed better, and was thought to have been killed immediately after being abducted.
Arrest[edit]
On January 11, 1984, a preschool teacher in the area of the murders called police to say that she had seen a young man driving in the area. There are conflicting stories as to what occurred â whether the car was loitering or just driving around. When the driver saw the teacher writing down his license plate, he stopped and threatened her before fleeing. The car was not tan, but was traced and found to be rented by John Joubert, an enlisted radar technician from Offutt Air Force Base. It turned out that his own car, a tan Nova sedan, was being repaired.
A search warrant was issued, and rope consistent with that used to bind Danny Joe Eberle was found in his barracks room. The FBI found that the unusual rope had been made for the United States military in South Korea. Under interrogation, Joubert claimed he got it from the scoutmaster in the troop in which he was an assistant.
Robert K. Ressler, the FBI's head profiler at the time, had immediate access to the information about the two boys in Nebraska and worked up a hypothetical description which matched Joubert in every regard. While he was presenting the case of the two Nebraska boys to a training class at the FBI academy at Quantico, a police officer from Portland, Maine, noted the similarities to a case in his jurisdiction which took place while Joubert lived there prior to joining the Air Force. Bite-mark comparisons proved that Joubert was responsible for the Maine killing in addition to those in Nebraska. Ressler and the Maine investigators came to believe that Joubert joined the military to get away from Maine after the murder of the Stetson boy.[9]
Further investigation in Maine revealed two crimes between the pencil-stabbing of the 9-year-old girl in 1979 and the murder of Stetson in 1982. In 1980, Ressler's investigation revealed that Joubert had slashed a 9-year-old boy and a male teacher in his mid-20s who both 'had been cut rather badly, and were lucky to be alive.'[9]
Trials and appeals[edit]
Joubert then confessed to killing the two boys, and on January 12, 1984, he was charged with their murders. After initially pleading not guilty, he changed his plea to guilty. There were several psychiatric evaluations performed on Joubert. One characterised him as having obsessive-compulsive disorder and sadistic tendencies, and suffering from schizoid personality disorder.[10]:13 He was found to have been not psychotic at the time of the crimes. A panel of three judges sentenced him to death for both counts. Joubert was also sentenced to life imprisonment in Maine (which did not have the death penalty) in 1990 for the murder of Ricky Stetson after Joubert's teeth were found to match the bite mark.[11]
In 1995, Joubert filed a writ of habeas corpus to the United States federal courts over the death sentences. His lawyers argued that the aggravating factor of 'exceptional depravity' was unconstitutionally vague, and the court agreed. The state of Nebraska appealed to the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, which overturned the appeal, saying that he had shown sadistic behavior by torturing Eberle and Walden.
Joubert was executed on July 17, 1996, by the state of Nebraska in the electric chair. He was the second person executed in Nebraska since the death penalty was reintroduced in the state in 1973.[12]
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An appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court over whether the electric chair in Nebraska is a cruel and unusual punishment revealed that during his execution, Joubert suffered a four-inch brain blister on the top of his head and blistering on both sides of his head above his ears.[13]
See also[edit]References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Joubert_(serial_killer)&oldid=911809746'
Charles Raymond 'Charlie' Starkweather (November 24, 1938 â June 25, 1959)[1] was an American spree killer, 19 years old[2] when he killed eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming between December 1957 and January 1958. He killed ten of them between January 21 and January 29, 1958, the date of his arrest. During his spree in 1958, Starkweather was accompanied by his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate.
Both Starkweather and Fugate were convicted on charges for their parts in the homicides; Starkweather was sentenced to death and executed seventeen months after the events. Fugate served seventeen years in prison, gaining release in 1976.[3] The Starkweather-Fugate spree has inspired several films, including The Sadist (1963), Badlands (1973), Kalifornia (1993), Natural Born Killers (1994) and The Frighteners (1996). Starkweather's electrocution by electric chair in 1959 was the last execution in Nebraska until 1994.
Early life[edit]
Charles Starkweather was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the third of seven children of Guy and Helen Starkweather.[4] The Starkweathers were a working-class family. His father Guy was a mild-mannered carpenter who was often unemployed, due to suffering rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. During Guy's periods of unemployment, Helen supplemented the family's income working as a waitress.[5]
Starkweather attended Saratoga Elementary School, Irving Junior High School, and Lincoln High School. In contrast to his family life, Starkweather later recalled nothing positive of his time at school.[6] He was born with genu varum, a mild birth defect that caused his legs to be misshapen. He also suffered from a speech impediment, which led to constant teasing by classmates.[6]
As he grew older and stronger, the only subject which Starkweather excelled at was gym,[4] where he found a physical outlet for his rage against those who bullied him. Starkweather began to bully those who had once picked on him.[7] Eventually he felt rage against anyone he happened to dislike. In this period as a young teenager, Starkweather went from being one of the most well-behaved teenagers in the community to one of the most troubled. His high school friend Bob von Busch would later recall:
He could be the kindest person you've ever seen. He'd do anything for you if he liked you. He was a hell of a lot of fun to be around, too. Everything was just one big joke to him. But he had this other side. He could be mean as hell, cruel. If he saw some poor guy on the street who was bigger than he was, better looking, or better dressed, he'd try to take the poor bastard down to his size.[8]
Relationship with Caril Ann Fugate[edit]
In 1956, the 18-year-old Starkweather was introduced to 13-year-old Caril Ann Fugate by her older sister, whom he had previously dated. He had dropped out of Lincoln High School in his senior year and was working at a Western Union newspaper warehouse.[4][7] He sought employment there because the warehouse was located near Whittier Junior High School in Lincoln, where Fugate was a student. Given his working schedule, Starkweather began to visit Caril Ann Fugate every day after school. He was considered a poor worker; his employer later recalled, 'Sometimes you'd have to tell him something two or three times. Of all the employees in the warehouse, he was the dumbest man we had.'[citation needed]
Famous Nebraska Serial Killers
Starkweather taught Fugate how to drive, and one day she crashed his 1949 Ford into another car. However, Starkweather's father Guy was the registered owner of the vehicle. He paid the damages but argued with his son about it, and his having let his unlicensed girlfriend drive. Refusing to condone his son's behavior, Guy banished Starkweather from the family home. The young man quit his job at the warehouse and became a garbage collector at minimum wage.[4]
He began developing a nihilistic worldview, believing that his current situation was the final determinant of how he would live the rest of his life. He used his time on the garbage route to begin plotting bank robberies. He settled on a personal philosophy by which he lived the remainder of his time: 'Dead people are all on the same level'.[9]
1957: First murder[edit]
Late on November 30, 1957, Starkweather became angry at Robert Colvert, a service station attendant in Lincoln, for refusing to sell him a stuffed animal on credit. (Most purchases were made by cash.) He returned several times during the night to purchase small items, until finally, brandishing a shotgun, he forced Colvert to give him $100 from the till. He drove Colvert to a remote area, where they struggled over the gun, injuring Colvert before Starkweather killed him with a shot to the head.[6]
Starkweather later said that, after this first murder, he believed he had transcended his former self. In his new plane of existence, he was outside the law and could commit any crime without guilt or fear of repercussion.[citation needed]
1958 murder spree[edit]
On January 21, 1958, Starkweather went to Fugate's home to get his girlfriend.[1] Fugate's mother and stepfather, Velda and Marion Bartlett, told him to stay away. He fatally shot them, then strangled and stabbed to death their two-year-old daughter Betty Jean.[6] He hid the bodies behind the house.
Starkweather later said that Caril was there the entire time, but she said that when she arrived home, Starkweather met her with a gun and said that her family was being held hostage. She said Starkweather told her that if she cooperated with him, her family would be safe; otherwise, they would be killed. The pair remained in the house until shortly before the police, alerted by Fugate's suspicious grandmother, arrived on January 27.[6]
Starkweather and Fugate drove to the farmhouse of seventy-year-old August Meyer, one of her family's friends who lived in Bennet, Nebraska. Starkweather killed him with a shotgun blast to the head.[6] He also killed Meyer's dog.[10]
Fleeing the area, the pair drove their car into mud and abandoned the vehicle. When Robert Jensen and Carol King, two local teenagers, stopped to give them a ride, Starkweather forced them to drive back to an abandoned storm cellar in Bennet. He shot Jensen in the back of the head. He attempted to rape King, but was unable to do so.[11] He became angry with her and fatally shot her, too. Starkweather later admitted shooting Jensen, but claimed that Fugate shot King. Fugate said she had stayed in the car the entire time. The two fled Bennet in Jensen's car.
Starkweather and Fugate drove to a wealthy section of Lincoln, where they entered the home of industrialist C. Lauer Ward and his wife Clara.[6] Starkweather stabbed their maid Lillian Fenci to death, then waited for Lauer and Clara to return home. Starkweather killed the family dog by breaking its neck, to keep it from alerting the Wards. Clara arrived first alone, and was also stabbed to death. Starkweather later admitted to having thrown a knife at Clara, but insisted that Fugate had stabbed her numerous times, killing her. When Lauer Ward returned home that evening, Starkweather shot and killed him. Starkweather and Fugate filled Ward's black 1956 Packard with stolen jewelry from the house and fled Nebraska.
The murders of the Wards and Fenci caused an uproar within Lancaster County.[6] Law enforcement agencies in the region sent their officers into a house-by-house search for the perpetrators. GovernorVictor Emanuel Anderson contacted the Nebraska National Guard, and the Lincoln chief of police called for a block-by-block search of that city. After several sightings of Starkweather and Fugate were reported, the Lincoln Police Department was accused of incompetence for being unable to capture the pair.
Needing a new car because of Ward's Packard having been identified, the couple came upon traveling salesman Merle Collison sleeping in his Buick along the highway outside Douglas, Wyoming. After Collison was awakened, he was fatally shot. Starkweather later accused Fugate of performing a coup-de-grace after his shotgun jammed. Starkweather claimed Fugate was the 'most trigger happy person' he had ever met. Fugate denied ever having killed anyone.
The salesman's car had a parking brake, which was something new to Starkweather. While he attempted to drive away, the car stalled because the brake had not been released. He tried to restart the engine, and a passing motorist stopped to help. Starkweather threatened him with the rifle, and an altercation ensued. At that moment, a deputy sheriff arrived on the scene. Fugate ran to him, yelling something to the effect of: 'It's Starkweather! He's going to kill me!'
Starkweather drove off and tried to evade the police, exceeding speeds of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). A bullet shattered the windshield and flying glass cut Starkweather deep enough to cause bleeding. He stopped and surrendered. Converse County Sheriff Earl Heflin said, 'He thought he was bleeding to death. That's why he stopped. That's the kind of yellow son of a bitch he is.'[12]
Trial and execution[edit]
Starkweather chose to be extradited from Wyoming to Nebraska. He and Fugate arrived there in late January 1958. He believed that either state would have executed him. He was not aware that Milward Simpson, Wyoming's governor at the time, opposed the death penalty.[13] Starkweather first said that he had kidnapped Fugate and that she had nothing to do with the murders; however, he changed his story several times. He testified against her at her trial, saying that she was a willing participant.
Fugate has always maintained that Starkweather was holding her hostage by threatening to kill her family, claiming she was unaware they were already dead. Judge Harry A. Spencer did not believe Fugate was held hostage by Starkweather, as he determined she had had numerous opportunities to escape. When Starkweather was first taken to the Nebraska penitentiary after his trial, he said that he believed that he was supposed to die. He said if he was to be executed, then Fugate should be also.[14]
Starkweather was convicted for the murder of Jensen, the only murder for which he was tried. He was sentenced to death, and executed by the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska, at 12:04 a.m. on June 25, 1959.[15] He is buried in Wyuka Cemetery in Lincoln along with five of his victims, including Mr. and Mrs. Carl Ward.[16][17]
Fugate was convicted as an accomplice and received a life sentence on November 21, 1958. She was paroled in June 1976 after serving 17½ years at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, Nebraska. She settled in Lansing, Michigan. She changed her name and worked as a janitor at a Lansing hospital.
Fugate married Frederick Clair in 2007. Apart from a radio interview in 1996, she has refused to speak of the murder spree.[18] Caril Ann Clair was living in Stryker, Ohio when she was seriously injured and her husband killed in a car crash on August 5, 2013.[19]
Victims[edit]
Starkweather also killed two family dogs of people that he murdered.
Depictions in media[edit]Representation in film and television[edit]Lincoln Nebraska Serial Killer Who Traveled With Daughter
Literature[edit]
Visual arts[edit]
In 2011, art photographer Christian Patterson released Redheaded Peckerwood,[23] a collection of photos made each January from 2005 to 2010 along the 500-mile route traversed by Starkweather and Fugate. The book includes reproductions of documents and photographs of objects that belonged to Starkweather, Fugate, and their victims. Patterson had discovered several of these objects while making his photographs and they had never been seen publicly before or identified with these figures.[24]
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Video games[edit]
The main antagonist in the 2003 video game Manhunt is called Lionel Starkweather, supposedly named after Charles Starkweather.
Music[edit]
See also[edit]Footnotes[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Starkweather&oldid=913927871'
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