Charles Starkweather & Caril Fugate

C. Lauer Ward

Around 5:30 p.m., the Lincoln Journal arrived and Charlie was thrilled. "Hey, Caril get a load of this! We're stars! Made the front page of the Journal." He had reached his zenith. He was somebody to be reckoned with.

A half and hour later, C. Lauer Ward came home from work to face the barrel of Starkweather's gun. After a long scuffle, Charlie finally got the upper hand and shot the industrialist dead.

Then he turned on Lillian Fencl. Caril and Charlie tied her to a bed and stabbed her to death. Charlie claimed that Caril killed the maid, while Caril claimed that Charlie did it. Refreshingly, Charlie didn't try to justify the killing this time by claiming the maid attacked him.

The next day, Ward's cousin and business associate missed him at work and called the house throughout the morning. Then around noon time, he went over to the house and let himself in. He found the bodies of Ward and his wife and the maid. Downstairs, Queenie barked furiously and upstairs Suzy cowered under the bed with a broken neck.

Governor Anderson was notified immediately of the savage attack on his friend. Shortly afterwards, he called out the National Guard, "and they were soon cruising the streets with jeeps armed with mounted machine guns. Parents with guns drawn rushed to the schools and took their children home. The city was completely sealed off. A block by block search began. The FBI started an investigation. A thousand-dollar reward was offered by the mayor. Aircraft were sent up to help look for the Wards' black Packard." (Allen)