Clutter family murders

In the early morning hours of November 15, 1959, four members of the Clutter family – Herb Clutter, his wife Bonnie, and their teenage children Nancy and Kenyon – were murdered in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas. Two ex-convicts, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, were found guilty of the murders. Both Smith and Hickock were executed by the state of Kansas on the same day, April 14, 1965. The murders were detailed by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.[1][2]

Clutter family murders
Location of Holcomb within Finney County and Kansas
LocationHolcomb, Kansas
DateNovember 15, 1959 (1959-11-15)
Deaths4
VictimsHerbert Clutter (age 48)
Bonnie Clutter (age 45)
Nancy Clutter (age 16)
Kenyon Clutter (age 15)
MotiveRobbery
ConvictedPerry Edward Smith
Richard Hickock

Background

Herbert "Herb" Clutter was a prosperous farmer in western Kansas. His two elder daughters, Eveanna and Beverly, had moved out and started their adult lives. His two younger children, Nancy (age 16) and Kenyon (age 15), were high school students. Clutter's wife Bonnie had reportedly been incapacitated by clinical depression and physical ailments since the births of her children, although this was later disputed.[3]

Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith were two ex-convicts, recently paroled from the Kansas State Penitentiary. Floyd Wells, a former cellmate of Hickock's, had been a farmhand for Herb Clutter. Wells told Hickock that Clutter kept large amounts of cash in a safe. (However, Clutter did not have a safe and transacted all of his business by check.) After speaking with Wells, Hickock soon hatched the idea to steal the safe and start a new life in Mexico. Hickock later contacted Smith, another former cellmate, about committing the robbery with him.[4] According to Truman Capote, the author of In Cold Blood – a non-fiction novel detailing the Clutter family murders – Hickock described his plan as "a cinch, the perfect score".[5]

Murders

On the evening of November 14, 1959, Hickock and Smith drove more than 400 miles (640 km) across the state of Kansas, heading for the Clutter residence, in order to execute their plan. In the early morning hours of November 15, the pair arrived in Holcomb, located the Clutter home, and entered through an unlocked door while the family slept. Upon rousing the Clutters and discovering that there was no safe, they bound and gagged the family and continued to search for money, but found little of value in the house.[5]

Determined to leave no witnesses, the pair briefly debated what to do. Smith, notoriously unstable and prone to violent acts in fits of rage, slit Herb Clutter's throat and then shot him in the head. Smith later recounted, "I didn't want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."[6] Kenyon, Nancy, and lastly Bonnie Clutter were also murdered, each by a single shotgun blast to the head. During their commission of the crimes, Smith prevented Hickock from raping Nancy.[7]

Hickock and Smith left the crime scene with a small portable radio belonging to Kenyon Clutter, a pair of binoculars belonging to Herbert Clutter and less than $50 in cash believed to have been the "change" from a $60 check Herbert Clutter had recently cashed. Herbert Clutter was well-known locally as a businessman who preferred paying by check and never carried or kept significant amounts of cash. His billfold and scattered non-cash items were found in his first-floor bedroom.

Smith later claimed in his oral confession that Hickock murdered the two women. When asked to sign his confession, however, Smith refused. According to Capote's In Cold Blood, Smith wanted to accept responsibility for all four killings because, he said, he was "sorry for Dick's mother". Smith added, "She's a real sweet person."[8] Hickock always maintained that Smith had murdered all four victims.

Victims
  • Herbert William "Herb" Clutter (May 24, 1911 – November 15, 1959), age 48
  • Bonnie Mae Fox Clutter (January 7, 1914 – November 15, 1959), age 45, his wife
  • Nancy Mae Clutter (January 2, 1943 – November 15, 1959) was the 16-year-old daughter of Herb and Bonnie Clutter. She was the youngest of the Clutters' three daughters. As a student, Nancy earned high grades. She attended church regularly and was involved in 4-H. Her interests included horse-riding, baking, and helping younger children. On the night of the murders, Nancy was bound with rope and killed in her bed; she received a shotgun blast to her head. It is disputed as to whether she was murdered by Smith or Hickock.[7]
  • Kenyon Neal Clutter (August 28, 1944 – November 15, 1959), age 15, was the youngest child (of four) and the only son of Herb and Bonnie Clutter. Authorities found Kenyon on a couch; he had been bound, gagged, and shot in the head.[9] Kenyon had been killed by Perry Smith.[7]

The four murder victims are buried at Valley View Cemetery in Garden City, Kansas.

Perpetrators

In Cold Blood
Main article: In Cold Blood

Before the killers were captured, author Truman Capote learned of the Clutter family murders and decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime. He was accompanied by his childhood friend and fellow author Harper Lee. Together, they interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousands of pages of notes. The killers, Hickock and Smith, were arrested six weeks after the murders and were eventually executed by the state of Kansas in 1965. Capote ultimately spent six years working on his book. When finally published in 1966, In Cold Blood was an instant success. Today, it is the second-best-selling true crime book in publishing history, behind Vincent Bugliosi's 1974 book Helter Skelter, about the Charles Manson murders.[10]

Film and television

See also

References
  1. Anatomy of a Murder, Time Magazine, December 22, 1967 Archived July 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Random House, 1965.
  3. Amelia McDonell-Parry (22 January 2018), "'Cold Blooded': New Docuseries Picks Up Where 'In Cold Blood' Left Off", Rolling Stone, retrieved 18 March 2020
  4. In Cold Blood, p. 44.
  5. Truman Capote (25 September 1965), "In Cold Blood", The New Yorker, New York, New York, archived from the original on 8 October 2014, retrieved 15 November 2019
  6. In Cold Blood, p. 244.
  7. CrimeArchives: The Murders of the Clutter Family
  8. In Cold Blood, p. 255.
  9. Clutter family murders
  10. Ferri, Jessica (December 28, 2016). "Capote's Masterpiece 'In Cold Blood' Still Vivid at 50". The Daily Beast. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
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