“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat
plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area
that other Kansans call ‘out there.’”
~Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
“Holcomb, Kan., Nov. 15 [1959] (UPI) — A wealthy wheat farmer, his wife and their two young children were found shot to death today in their home. They had been killed by shotgun blasts at close range after being bound and gagged … There were no signs of a struggle, and nothing had been stolen. The telephone lines had been cut.”
On the night of November 15, 1959, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith drove nervously through a cold Kansas rain to the Clutter family farm located just outside Holcomb. Believing falsely that proprietor Herbert Clutter kept a safe that held large amounts of cash, Clutter and his family were brutally murdered. Hickock and Smith made off with $50 in cash.
Apprehended six weeks later in Las Vegas, NV, Hickock and Smith faced extradition and were sent to Kansas State Penitentiary where they served five years on death row. Hickock and Smith were executed by hanging just after midnight on April 14th, 1965. Â
Immortalized for his account of the Clutter murders, Truman Capote was immediately catapulted into the top rank of American writers with the release of In Cold Blood in 1966. By all accounts this novel was–and still is–widely heralded as a masterpiece–not only a masterpiece of writing, but as a brilliant insight into the criminal mind.
Snow turns to rain on the highway that leads to the Clutter home, outside Holcomb, KS
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