Warning. This series contains scenes of graphic violence that may not be suitable for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

He could be the kindest person you've ever seen. He'd do anything for you if he liked you.

That was Bob Von Bush's take on his boyhood friend, Charles Starkweather.

Bob would also admit that Charles had another side, but Bob was one of Charles's only friends.

And when Bob started dating a girl named Barbara Fugate, he suggested to Barbara that she bring her little sister Carol along on a double date.

Bob would bring Charles, Barbara would bring Carol, and who knew? Maybe Charles and Carol would hit it off.

At the time, in early 1957, Charles was 18 and Carol was 13, and they did hit it off and they became inseparable.

Carol was a tiny brunette with what some called an Elfish charm.

She copied the style she saw in fashion magazines and liked going to the movies, and to read the cheap gossip magazines that claimed to reveal secrets about her favorite Hollywood stars.

And all of that made it even more stunning that she was connected to the growing number of heinous crimes around Lincoln, Nebraska.

According to Carol's later statements, as the year 1957 progressed, she became frustrated with Charles's behavior, mainly his extreme jealousy.

Charles was now 19 and she was 14, and she claimed she ended their relationship in January 1958, right before all hell broke loose.

Now, Carol's mother, stepfather, and half-sister were dead. Though according to Carol, she believed they were alive and being held hostage by Charles' accomplices at some unknown location.

And now, she herself was a captive, and Charles was forcing her to go along with him on his grand plan to move to the Pacific Northwest.

Charles maintained the opposite, that Carol was a willing participant in six murders. The murders of her three family members, a 70-year-old farmer, and two high school kids.

A manhunt for Charles and Carol had been underway for about 24 hours now.

The Lincoln Police Department and the Lancaster County Sheriff's Department had been slow to react to the escalating crisis, but now they were actively scouring the area around Lincoln.

Meanwhile, Charles and Carol had fled the city, and then turned around and driven back into the lion's den.

Now, on Tuesday afternoon, January 28, 1958, they were holed up in the upscale Country Club neighborhood of Lincoln.

They were in the house of C. Lauer Ward and his wife Clara, and they had two hostages, Clara Ward and her maid, Lillian Fensel.

The morning had progressed smoothly after Clara and Lillian recovered from the shock of a home invasion by teenagers who were armed with a 22-caliber rifle and a 4-10-sought-off shotgun.

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