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THE MURDERS THAT MADE TRUE CRIME A GENRE - The Clutter Family Case
Brooke Makenna's 26-minute breakdown, the fullest single telling on file.
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In the early morning of November 15, 1959, Herbert "Herb" Clutter, his wife Bonnie, and their teenage children Nancy and Kenyon were killed in their home outside Holcomb, Kansas, a small farming community. Herb Clutter was a prosperous farmer; Bonnie had reportedly struggled with clinical depression and physical ailments, though this was later disputed. Nancy, 16, and Kenyon, 15, were students at Holcomb High School.
The killings were carried out by Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, two ex-convicts recently paroled from the Kansas State Penitentiary. A former cellmate of Hickock's, who had once worked as a farmhand for Herb Clutter, told Hickock that Clutter kept large sums of cash in a safe. In fact, Clutter had no safe and conducted business by check. Believing otherwise, Hickock devised a plan to rob the Clutter home and escape to Mexico, and enlisted Smith to help.
On the evening of November 14, 1959, Hickock and Smith drove more than 400 miles across Kansas to the Clutter residence, arriving armed with a knife and a shotgun in the early hours of November 15. They entered through an unlocked door, roused the family, and separated them within the house while searching unsuccessfully for a safe. Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon were bound; Herb and Kenyon were taken to the basement, where Herb's throat was cut and he was shot in the head by Smith. Kenyon, Nancy, and Bonnie were each subsequently shot to death as well. The two men fled with a portable radio, binoculars, and less than $50 in cash.
Smith and Hickock were arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 30, 1959, roughly six weeks after the murders, following an investigation by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. They were extradited to Kansas and tried at the Finney County Courthouse in Garden City. Both were convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. On April 14, 1965, they were executed by hanging at the Kansas State Prison near Lansing; Hickock was pronounced dead at 12:41 a.m. and Smith at 1:19 a.m.
Approximately 1,000 mourners attended the Clutter family funeral at the First Methodist Church in Garden City, and burial followed at Valley View Cemetery on the edge of the city.
Author Truman Capote learned of the murders before the killers were captured and traveled to Kansas, accompanied by Harper Lee, to research the case, ultimately spending six years producing the non-fiction book In Cold Blood, published in 1966. The book became one of the best-selling true-crime works in publishing history and has been adapted into multiple films and television productions.
