Remembering fear, precautions with ‘a mad-dog killer on the loose'

We asked readers to share their memories of where they were and how their family and community were affected in January 1958, when news broke about Charles Starkweather's killing spree.

Here is a sampling of the responses.

In 1958, Roger Holthaus was attending Carleton College in Minnesota.

“For semester break in late January 1958, Richard Stumbo, a fellow resident of Hastings, Neb., and I decided to utilize our 6½ days of freedom to hitchhike home to surprise our parents. … Since it got dark by 5:30 p.m., we decided that our chances of getting a ride to Hastings before dark were remote, so we made signs to Lincoln.

“Lesson one! Even if you are busy with exams, listen to the news before embarking on a hitchhiking adventure. … Every car we were in had the radio on and the top news story every hour was from Lincoln where some guy and his girlfriend were killing people. …

“We eventually got a ride from Sioux City (Iowa) to Omaha and heard over the radio that Starkweather and Fugate had been captured near Douglas, Wyo. We grabbed a bus in Omaha that made a stop in Lincoln about one o'clock in the morning. We joked with each other that the lunch counter in the bus depot looked more like Miss Kitty's saloon in ‘Gunsmoke' since everyone had a gun on the counter and there were ‘posses' outside patrolling. The counter cook discreetly told us to keep our comments to ourselves since most people in Nebraska weren't convinced that the two mass murderers had been captured.”

Kay Huddleston lived in Taylor, Neb.

“We heard about the killings on television and then followed the daily rampage by reading the accounts in The World-Herald. I was the same age as Caril Ann Fugate, and my father owned the bank in Taylor.

“When we heard Starkweather had been spotted at a filling station in Broken Bow, we were so afraid that he would come to Taylor and rob the bank. Everyone in town knew the descriptions of the car from Lincoln, and we were on the lookout for it.”

Gene Steinmeyer was in elementary school in Clatonia, Neb.

“My class had a field trip to a rural school at Highland Center. It was a small, country school. The superintendent drove us, which was unusual. Then, when we knocked on the door, also unusual, a parent with a gun opened the door. It had been barred with a two-by-four and not by a lock.

“People in Clatonia walked the streets with guns during the Starkweather crisis. Back then, the telephones were all local with a local operator. There were several people on every party line. As a kid, I would eavesdrop on people on the line. We knew everyone's ring, like one short and two longs. I heard the party line ring and heard the person telling how Starkweather had been captured in Wyoming. I got to break the news to the family. Of course, no one believed a 6-year-old.”

Sue Armstrong was 7 and lived in Alliance, Neb.

“I remember when they caught Charlie Starkweather in Wyoming and they brought him through Alliance. My parents talked about how the federal agents and police were stopping in Alliance to get gas. They stopped at a gas station at the end of our block to refuel. I was in fear thinking he might escape when they stopped.”

Merle E. Paulsen attended the University of Nebraska and worked for the Lancaster County Engineer's Office.

“After discovery of the bodies of August Meyer, Robert Jensen and Carol King, the survey crew that I worked on was directed to go to the abandoned school site where the teenagers' bodies were found and prepare a map of the area which would later be used as a piece of evidence in Starkweather's trial. …

“There were several ‘freelance reporters' covering the trial and at one time during the jury deliberation for Starkweather the judge called one of the reporters into the courtroom and admonished him for trying to take bets on when the jury would come back and the possible verdict. …

“During her trial I happened to get on the elevator three or four times when Fugate and her escorts were taking her up to the courtroom. …

“I doubt with the security measures of today anyone would be allowed to ride in the same elevator with a murder suspect.”

Jean Horner was 7.

“Starkweather's rampage was right before my eighth birthday. But I remember much of it very clearly. One of the many strange things I recall is that my sister and I went to a birthday party about four houses down on the other side of the street. The street was a dead end with next to no traffic, but my mother walked us over. The hostess of the party had a gun in her apron, even with all of us little kids around.”

Deborah A. Wollesen was 2½.

“We lived on a farm approximately 20 miles south of Octavia, Neb., about 35 or 40 miles north of Lincoln. My mother and father said they were so frightened by the news coverage, they very seldom left a door unlocked, which at the time was unheard of.

“My mother said when she hung clothes outside to dry, she would be so uncomfortable she would basically just throw the clothes up on the line, and upon re-entering the house, do an entire search upstairs and down.”

Nancy Lorenz was in second grade in Lincoln.

“Our teacher lined us up at the door for an early dismissal. Someone asked, ‘Miss Flack, why are we leaving now?' And Miss Flack said, ‘There's a mad-dog killer on the loose — run home, children!' I vividly remember her chilling words, and I ran the block and a half to my home sobbing all the way, and discovered my front door was locked! I feared that my mom was already killed, but my two girl cousins soon let me in.”

Maureen Monen was home near 44th and Cass Streets in Omaha with her 1-year-old son when she heard a radio report of the killings.

“Our doorbell rang, and I saw a shadow of a man at the door. Grabbing my son, I jumped off the davenport and ran to the icebox to get an ice pick.

“Then we went to the front door and cautiously opened it. There was a meek-looking young man standing there. He was the Fuller Brush Man. I don't imagine he sold many brushes that day!”

Sandi Smith was 12, living in Omaha.

“My most vivid memories of that era was from the night Charles Starkweather was electrocuted. I was at a slumber party, and we all gathered around the radio and listened to the news of the electrocution.”

Thomas Dowd of Omaha was a freshman at Creighton University.

“… Lancaster and Douglas Counties … reached such a level of fear that vigilante groups were forming as means of self-protection. A group of us students at Creighton went home and armed ourselves with shotguns and were planning a trip to Lancaster County to search out Starkweather.

“Fortunately, before we headed out of town we learned from a news account that he had been spotted in Wyoming and we returned to our homes with our shotguns.

“In retrospect, it is hard to comprehend how we got caught up in such an emotional state that had virtually turned our group of college students into prospective vigilantes or members of a posse. Yet it truly was the environment which existed and unfortunately changed the wonderful years of security which existed in the '50s.”

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