Charles Starkweather leaves the Converse County jail in the custody of two Nebraska lawmen.

(Casper College Western History Center)

Caril Fugate after being captured

(Smith Archive / Alamy)

Karen:

Charles Starkweather

Episode sources:

1. Starkweather: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree that Changed America by Harry N. MacLean

2. “Starkweather: A Story of Mass Murder on the Great Plains” by Jeff O’Donnell

3. “CRIME: Even with the World” (Time) 1958

4. “Book chronicles 1958 killing spree that may have started fascination with murderers” by Scott LaMar (WITF) 2024

5. “Starweather Timeline” Lincoln Evening Journal (2014)

6. “Charles Starkweather” (Wikipedia)

7. “Spree Killer Charles Starkweather” w/ Harry MacLean (Most Notorious! podcast) 2023.

8. “‘It’s about more than just a crime’: what if a teen killer was actually a victim?” by Lauren Mechling (The Guardian) 2023

9. “‘The 12th Victim’ Dissects the Heart of an American Tragedy” by Rae Alexandra (KQED) 2023

10. “Timeline” (Nebraska State Historical Society) 2021

11. “Caril Ann Clair (Fugate) denied pardon hearing” by Andrew Ozaki (KETV) 2020

12. "Teenage killers murder three people" (History) 2009

13. “Was Caril Ann Fugate Really Charlie Starkweather’s Murderous Accomplice?” by Sara Kettler (A&E) 2023

14. “Michigan woman seeks pardon in Starkweather murder spree in Nebraska” by Francis X. Donnelly (The Detroit News) 2020

Georgia:

Iwao Hakamata

Episode sources:

1. “Hakamada felt ‘betrayed’ by judiciary he once had faith in” by Yuri Murakami and Ryuichiro Fukuoka (The Asahi Shimbun, May 15, 2024)

2. Updated: “Hakamada writes, ‘God, I’m innocent,’ at the start of ordeal” by Yuri Murakami and Ryuichiro Fukuoka (The Asahi Shimbun, May 14, 2024)

3. “Miso test holds key in acquitting former death row inmate” by Shunsuke Abe, Takashi Uematsu and Kazutaka Toda (The Asahi Shimbun, December 24, 2020)

4. “Ex-death row inmate’s acquittal in 1966 case a step closer” by Shunsuke Abe (The Asahi Shimbun, December 23, 2020)

5. “World's longest-serving death row inmate acquitted in Japan” by Gavin Butler and Shaimaa Khalil (BBC, September 26, 2024)

6. “‘I couldn’t stop crying for an hour’ – meet the 92-year-old campaigner who saved her brother from execution” (Amnesty International, February 14, 2025)

7. “World’s longest-serving death row prisoner awarded $1.4 million after acquittal – that’s $85 for each day” by Chris Lau and Yumi Asada (CNN, March 25, 2025)

8. “He’s the world’s longest-serving death row inmate. A court just exonerated him.” by Lex Harvey, Yumi Asada and Hanako Montgomery (CNN, September 26, 2024)

9. “Soul-Searching as Japan Ends a Man’s Decades on Death Row” by Hiroko Tabuchi (The New York Times, March 27, 2014)

10. “Why Japan is reluctant to retry the world’s longest-serving death row inmate” by Mai Sato (The Conversation, June 26, 2018)

11. “Japan Performed No Executions in 2023, Making U.S. the Only G7 Country to Use Capital Punishment Last Year” (Death Penalty Information Center, January 5, 2024)

12. “Robbery and Murder at Kogane Miso” (Free Iwao)

13. “Japan's New Jury System Evaluated” (Columbia Law School)

14. “Breaking News: Court Decides to Reopen Hakamada Case” by Mark Godsey (Wrongful Convictions Blog, March 27, 2014)

15. “Retrial ordered for 87-year-old boxer on Japan’s death row” by Mari Yamaguchi (AP, March 14, 2023)

16. “On Japan’s secretive death row, inmate becomes cause celebre” by Chisaki Watanabe (AP, May 11, 2008)

17. “Japan’s longest-serving death row inmate acquitted” by Adam Taylor (Washington Post, September 27, 2024)

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