Databases and Research

Ask a Librarian: Send the Reference staff a question!

Bennett Martin Public Library houses the central Reference Collection for the library system. A selection of essential reference materials are also available at each library branch to assist you with your informational needs.

Local Reference Resources: Specialized Lincoln, Lancaster County, and Nebraska Research Tools

Local Genealogy Resources at the Lincoln City Libraries
Microfilm Reference Collection: Miscellaneous Local and National Topics
     ScanPro3000 Microfilm/Microfiche Reader Tutorial (on YouTube)
Starkweather: Murder on the Plains — 1957-58
The Mayors of Lincoln, Nebraska — 1871 to Present
The Governors of the State of Nebraska — 1854 to Present

List of Lincoln Mayors

Vertical Files Material

The following folders of clippings about the Mayor’s Office exist in our Vertical Files Collection:

• Lincoln — City Offices — Mayor’s Office — Historical List of Mayors
• Lincoln — City Offices — Mayor’s Office — up to 1974
• Lincoln — City Offices — Mayor’s Office — 1975
• Lincoln — City Offices — Mayor’s Office — Jan-Jun 1976
• Lincoln — City Offices — Mayor’s Office — Jul-Dec 1976
• Lincoln — City Offices — Mayor’s Office — 1977
• Lincoln — City Offices — Mayor’s Office — 1978

We also have several Vertical Files folders about individual past Mayors of Lincoln:

• Anderson, Victor Emanuel [1950-1953]
• Boosalis, Helen [1975-1983]
• Boyles, Bartlett E. (Pat) [1959-1963]
• Campell, Robert E. [1939-1941]
• Harris, Bill [1987-1991]
• Martin, Bennett S. [1956-1959]
• Schwartzkopf, Sam [1967-1975]

Other Resources

The library also has a microfilm reel containing clippings about the following five Lincoln Mayors: Victor A. Anderson; Ralph G. Brooks; Robert L. Cochran; Bennett S. Martin; and Fred A. Seaton.

• Press Clippings, Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln Nebraska [Microfilm 920.078 Pre]

Official Lincoln NE Mayor’s Office On-Line

• Official Lincoln NE Mayor’s Office Web site
• History of Past Lincoln NE Mayors on Lincoln NE Mayors Office official Web site, including photographs of nearly all past Mayors back to the 1870s.

List of Nebraska Governors

Vertical Files Material

The following folders of clippings about the Governors of the State of Nebraska exist in our Vertical Files Collection:

• Nebraska — Governors
• Nebraska — Governors — Mansion
• Nebraska — Governors — Messages
• Nebraska — Governors — Wives

We also have several Vertical Files folders about individual past Governors of Nebraska:

• Morton, J. Sterling [1858] — appointed position
• McKelvie, Samuel [1919-1923] — this and all below were elected
• Griswold, Dwight [1941-1947]
• Peterson, Val [1947-1953]
• Crosby, Robert [1953-1955]
• Anderson, Victor Emanuel [1955-1959]
• Brooks, Ralph [1959-1960]
• Burney, Dwight [1960-1961]
• Morrison, Frank [1961-1967]
• Tiemann, Norbert [1967-1971]
• Exon, J. James [1971-1979]
• Thone, Charles [1979-1983]
• Kerrey, Robert [1983-1987]
• Orr, Kay [1987-1991]
• Nelson, Ben [1991-1999]

Other Resources
The library also has a microfilm reel containing clippings about the following Nebraska Governors: Victor A. Anderson; Ralph G. Brooks; Robert L. Cochran.

• Press Clippings, Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln Nebraska [Microfilm 920.078 Pre]

Official Web site of the Governor of the State of Nebraska

The names of Charles Raymond Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate hold a place in the history books as Nebraska’s most notorious mass murderers. Their saga began when 19-year-old Starkweather killed a gas station attendant in December 1957. Then, in late January 1958, Charlie and his 14-year-old girlfriend Caril began an eight-day murder spree that started with the murder of Caril’s family, and eventually led to ten total deaths before they were captured on the highway outside Douglas, Wyoming. Tried and convicted of murder, Charles Starkweather was executed at the Nebraska State Penitentiary on June 25, 1959. Also convicted, Caril Fugate’s initial life sentence was commuted to a 30 to 50 year sentence in 1973. In 1976, after serving 18 years, Fugate was paroled and she eventually resettled in Michigan.

The Starkweather case, seemingly tame in comparison to serial killings that have followed it in subsequent years, was one of the most heavily publicized mass murders in U.S. history, drawing national attention both to Nebraska and to the psychological issues surrounding disaffected youth. The community of Lincoln, and most of the rest of Nebraska, lived in a near-constant state of hysteria and panic for several days. The events inspired a fictionalized 1973 feature film — Terrence Malick’s Badlands (starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek) — and a 1993 television mini-series — Murder in the Heartland (starring Tim Roth and Fairuza Balk). Even a hit song, “Nebraska”, released by Bruce Springsteen in 1982, was based on the events of 1958. In 2004, Liza Ward, the granddaughter of Starkweather victims C. Lauer and Clara Ward, published the bestselling novel Outside Valentine, which incorporated the Starkweather spree into a fictional storyline. In 2023, a four-part documentary series on Showtime, The Twelfth Victim, became available, based on a 2014 book by Linda Battisti and John Stevens Berry.

Over the years, the Lincoln City Libraries has proven to be a prominent research site for individuals wishing to learn more about the Starkweather case. We have several unique or rare resources available to individuals wishing to do research on this topic.

COURT TRANSCRIPTS
Court transcripts for the Charles Starkweather trial and Caril Ann Fugate’s trial were filmed, and are in the possession of the Nebraska State Historical Society Archives. This information was provided by the Clerk of the Lancaster County District Court.

NEWS CLIPPINGS
Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & N Streets has two unique resources, available for use in the library only.

• The Starkweather-Fugate Press Clippings, 1958-1973, Lincoln Journal-Star (microfilm)
  A separate microfilm reel containing only the newspaper stories related to the Starkweather case.
• The Starkweather Clippings Box
  All known articles from the Lincoln and Omaha papers (and a few other sources), photocopied and laminated, for easier readability. Click on the above link to see a complete index of the contents of this file.

The Starkweather Timeline
An abbreviated timeline of the events surrounding the Starkweather-Fugate murder spree, arrest, trials, and subsequent legal maneuverings that led to Starkweather’s execution and Fugate’s eventual parole.

All of these resources complement the book Headline–Starkweather by Earl Dyer (364.152 Dye) in the list below.

Revisiting the Starkweather Murder Spree: A Lincoln History Library Series Program, August 30, 2023

Library Service Associate Scott Clark, maintainer of the Starkweather resources for Lincoln City Libraries, looks back at the events associated with the infamous Starkweather murder spree, with materials from the Library's collection of historical newspapers and magazine articles from 1957-1959.

In this program from August 30, 2023, Library Service Associate Scott Clark, maintainer of the Starkweather resources for Lincoln City Libraries, looks back at the events associated with the infamous Starkweather murder spree, with materials from the Library's collection of historical newspapers and magazine articles from 1957-1959.

BOOKS AND DVDS
The Lincoln City Libraries system owns numerous books either exclusively about the Starkweather case or including references to it. Many of the books in this list are located only in the non-circulating collection available in our Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors, or are in the non-circulating Reference Collection. Please click on the titles or jacket illustrations for the books below to check on the titles’ locations and availability in the libraries. Note: More titles may be available in our digital eBook collections through Overdrive and/or Hoopla, but are not listed here. Additional note: Some of these titles may have been withdrawn over the years — if an item is no longer hotlinked into our catalog, consider ordering it through our InterLibrary Loan service, and we will attempt to borrow it from another library!

Encyclopedia of World Crime by Jay Robert Nash

Massive, four-volume chronicle of all types of crimes, worldwide. The Starkweather entry in volume 4 is only two pages, but still features a detailed recounting of the case, including an entire page of photographs of several of the victims. (This set is no longer available at Lincoln City Libraries.)
(The Starkweather entry is in Volume 4.)

Encyclopedia of American Crime by Carl Sifakis
Huge volume chronicling all types of American crimes and criminals. The Starkweather entry in this volume is approximately two pages long, with no illustrations. Published in 1982. (The 1982 edition is no longer available at Lincoln City Libraries. Also available in an expanded 1992 edition and completely updated 2001 edition in 2 volumes.)

The Encyclopedia of American Crime by Carl Sifakis (R 364 qSif 2001 v. 2)
Updated 2-volume set chronicling all types of American crimes and criminals. The Starkweather entry in this volume is approximately two pages long, with no illustrations. In this 2001 edition the Starkweather entry is in Volume 2.

Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present by Jay Robert Nash
Five pages of the original edition of this encyclopedic volume are dedicated to the Starkweather case, with photos of nine of Starkweather’s eleven victims. Published in 1973. (The print version of this set is no longer available at Lincoln City Libraries. The link above is to an eBook of the 1995 edition, available through hoopla.)

Starkweather: The Story of a Mass Murderer by William Allen (Heritage 364.152 All)
Perhaps the most in-depth examination of the Starkweather case, with references to several of the other books published prior to 1976 (particularly the volumes written by Professor James Reinhardt). This book contains detailed timelines, plus numerous photos of Starkweather, Fugate, the victims and the crime scenes. Published in 1976. (Also available in a 1977 paperback reprint edition and 2004 retitled edition, below.)

Starkweather: The Story of a Mass Murderer by William Allen (Heritage 364.152 All 1977)
Paperback reprint of the 1976 edition above, with only very slight updates and/or corrections. Published in 1977. (Also available in the original 1976 hardback edition, above, and 2004 retitled edition below.)

Starkweather: Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer by William Allen
Yet another reprint of the 1976 volume by Allen, with only very slight updates and/or corrections. Published in 2004.
(This edition is no longer available at Lincoln City Libraries.)

Caril by Ninette Beaver (Heritage 364.152 Bea)
A look at Charlie, Caril and the events that led to Caril’s imprisonment — in three parts: Part One details Caril and Charlie’s backgrounds and relationship, and the crimes that were committed. Part Two is a detailed examination of the trials of both suspects. And Part Three is an exploration of Caril’s life growing up in the State Reformatory for Women in York, NE, and her on-going efforts to exonerate herself of the crimes for which she was convicted. Told almost exclusively from Caril’s point-of-view, after a series of interviews with Omaha news reporters. Published in 1974.

Caril by Ninette Beaver
Paperback reprint of the original 1974 edition, with no apparent changes. Published in 1976. (This edition is no longer available at Lincoln City Libraries.)

The Quality of Murder: Three Hundred Years of True Crime by Anthony Boucher (Heritage 364.152 Bou)
The case of Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate is one of 24 profiled in this anthology of true crime essays. “The Status Seeking of Charles Starkweather”, by James McKimmey, comprises 8 pages in this volume. Published in 1962.

Headline: Starkweather — From Behind the News Desk by Earl Dyer (364.152 Dye)
Earl Dyer, retired executive editor of The Lincoln Star, was a 30-year-old city editor on January 28, 1958, the day three members of a Lincoln family were found brutally murdered at their home. With Star editor James Lawrence out of town, it fell to Dyer — and his counterparts at the competing Lincoln Journal — to cover those shocking deaths and the series of killings over the next three days. In Headline: Starkweather, Dyer recounts the story of the two hometown newspapers’ coverage of the murders; the multi-state manhunt for Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Fugate; their arrests; their trials and convictions; the execution of Starkweather in 1959; and the eventual release and parole of Caril Fugate in 1976. Published in 1993, this book reprints many of the articles that appeared in these two newspapers, with typographic errors corrected and retrospective comments included.

Murder Cases of the 20th Century: Biographies and Bibliographies of 280 Convicted or Accused Killers by David K. Frasier (No longer available at Lincoln City Libraries.)
"This reference book contains entries for over 280 killers from the famous Richard Speck to the relatively unknown Jack Henry Abbott who stabbed a waiter for not allowing him to use the toilet. The bibliographic biographies note (when applicable) birth and death dates, aliases, occupation, location of the murders, weapons, number of victims, time period, quotations, and a brief overview of the murder case with a bibliography of related books, films, plays, videos, and audio programs." — Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc. The Starkweather case is covered in five pages. Published in 1996. (This title is no longer available at Lincoln City Libraries.)

Berserk: Motiveless Random Massacres by Chester Graham
From journalist Graham Chester come terrifying true stories of notorious mass murders and the deranged killers who committed them. 8 pages of shocking photographs. Includes references to Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate. Published in 1993. (This title is no longer available from the Lincoln City Libraries.)

Mass Murder: America’s Growing Menace by Jack Levin & James Allen Fox
Following an in-depth five-year study investigating simultaneous and serial murderers, Levin and Fox attempt to construct a profile of the kind of person who commits such crimes against their fellow man. Includes approximately eight pages dedicated to the Starkweather/Fugate case. Published in 1985. (This title is no longer available from the Lincoln City Libraries.)

Starkweather: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree That Changed America by Harry N. MacLean (364.152 MACL)
Bestselling author Harry N. MacLean tells the story of this shocking event and its lasting impact, a crime spree that struck deep into the heart of the heartland. (Also available as an eBook through hoopla.)