Remembering a time of locked doors

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 we received. Additional letters will be published in the Sunday World-Herald.

* * *

Larry Carstenson was a student at the University of Nebraska.

“I had just driven my girlfriend to the home of her parents in Nebraska City in my old Ford jalopy. I was returning to Lincoln late that cold January night when my car stalled at the railroad tracks at Eagle, Neb.

“What I didn't know at the time was that a manhunt was on for Starkweather in the Bennet area, about 15 miles south of Eagle. Authorities were looking for a short, stocky guy with eyeglasses and wearing a high school letter jacket.

“There I was, a short, stocky guy, almost exactly the same age, wearing glasses and standing beside the road in my high school letter jacket, wondering why no one would stop and give me a ride.

“In those days it was not unusual for folks to give each other rides — especially when it was so cold and the hitchhiker was obviously in trouble. Finally, four college students stopped, opened their window just a crack and asked who I was.

“I was able to establish that I knew some of the same people they knew at the university so they had pity on me and allowed me to ride back to Lincoln with them.

“When I returned to my fraternity house, everyone was running about, looking for guns and getting ready to volunteer for a posse to go after Starkweather. Obviously none of my fraternity brothers had the slightest idea of the nature of the person they thought they were going to help find.

“By the next morning, everyone learned to their disappointment that Starkweather had left the area.”

* * *

Tim Dempsey of Omaha shared a physical feature with Starkweather.

“I was a big kid for 14, and in January of 1958, I had the misfortune of having long red hair. Sure, everybody combed their hair like James Dean in those days. I was headed home and in trouble because it was late. As I hurried up the street, two men, both wearing short brimmed hats and sport coats, jumped from an unmarked police car and quickly taught me a lesson in compliance.

“Since I was only 14 and didn't carry identification, my identity had to be checked with my parents so I was given a free ride the two blocks to my house.

“I was quarantined for the duration until Starkweather's capture.”

* * *

Gerald Wade (a retired World-Herald reporter and editor) was a student at the University of Iowa.

“It fell to two of us to have our turn putting the Daily Iowan, the University of Iowa newspaper, to bed. … We were students at the university and on the Daily Iowan staff. It was that night the story took on its more horrific aspects for those outside of Nebraska.

“My co-worker that evening was a Jesuit priest sent to Iowa University by his college to refresh or learn editing and other journalist skills. … It was our turn to be in charge; to determine which stories — local, regional or national — to play up and which to ignore and if a story broke big we could, within some restraint, delay the press run. The Starkweather story arrived via Teletype, unrolling on large spools of beige or yellow paper.

“It was not a matter of how we were going to handle the Starkweather story but when we were going to wrap it and send the copy to the pressroom. I wanted to wait or, to put it in what someone outside the newspaper game might think cynical terms, I wanted to see if more bodies were found or if Starkweather and his girlfriend were captured.”

* * *

Don Nichols Jr. was 9 and an elementary school student in Omaha.

“I remember that this story was ‘the talk of the town' and everybody was locking their doors and watching out for any strange people in the neighborhood. After Starkweather was captured, my mother was at my school for the parent/teacher meetings.

“My teacher suggested to my mother that if I had any comic books that they should be thrown away as it was reported that Starkweather read comic books.

“So I lost about 100 comic books from my collection. Now I wonder if I could have kept them, what they would be worth today.”

* * *

Jim Dixon was 10 and lived on a farm in rural south-central Nebraska.

“It disrupted my family's way of life. At the time, farmhouses were rarely locked. I remember ours becoming locked day and night. My father or mother drove me to and from a rural one-room schoolhouse. The teacher would lock the doors during classes and be watchful of the kids during recess. …

“At night I remember being scared prior going to bed but my older brother would keep a loaded rifle in the bedroom, which was a no-no before. I don't know if my parents knew about the loaded gun.”