Charles Raymond Starkweather (November 24, 1938 – June 25, 1959) was an American spree killer who murdered eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming between November 1957 and January 1958, when he was nineteen years old. He killed ten of his victims between January 21 and January 29, 1958, the date of his arrest. During his spree in 1958, Starkweather was accompanied by his fourteen-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate.

Both Starkweather and Fugate were convicted on charges for their parts in the homicides; Starkweather was sentenced to death and executed seventeen months after the events. Fugate served seventeen years in prison, gaining release in 1976. Starkweather's execution by electric chair in 1959 was the last execution in Nebraska until 1994.

Criminologists and psychologists have analyzed the Starkweather case in an attempt to understand spree killers' motivations and precipitating factors. It also became notorious as one of the earlier crime scandals that reached national prominence, much like the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son, with the media outlets covering the case at the time openly condemning Starkweather. Starkweather’s crime spree has endured in popular culture, most notably as the inspiration for the 1973 film Badlands and Bruce Springsteen’s song “Nebraska.”

Starkweather was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the fourth of seven children of Guy and Helen Arnold Starkweather. The Starkweathers were a working-class family; Starkweather's father was a carpenter who was often unemployed due to rheumatoid arthritis in his hands; Helen worked as a waitress to supplement the family's income. Guy Starkweather admitted at Charles's trial to having pushed his son into a window; later his wife would divorce him on the grounds of extreme cruelty. The family was downwardly mobile: Starkweather's great-great-grandfather, George Anson Starkweather, was a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York's 21st district from 1847 to 1849.

Starkweather attended Saratoga Elementary School, Irving Junior High School, and Lincoln High School. Starkweather later recalled nothing positive of his time at school. He was born with genu varum, a mild birth defect that caused his legs to be misshapen, and claimed he was teased by classmates because he had a speech impediment. His elementary school teacher did not recall him being teased.

As he grew older and stronger, the only subject in which Starkweather excelled was physical education, where he found an outlet for his rage against those who bullied him. Starkweather then began to bully those who had once picked on him. Eventually, he felt rage against anyone he disliked. Author Ginger Strand argues that his writings from prison suggest a strong element of class envy and bitterness. Starkweather went from being one of the most well-behaved teenagers in the community to one of the most troubled. His high school friend Bob von Busch would later recall:

He could be the kindest person you've ever seen. He'd do anything for you if he liked you. He was a hell of a lot of fun to be around, too. Everything was just one big joke to him. But he had this other side. He could be mean as hell, cruel. If he saw some poor guy on the street who was bigger than he was, better looking, or better dressed, he'd try to take the poor bastard down to his size.

By the time Starkweather dropped out of school, his parents and family were reportedly afraid of him due to his violent outbursts.