NCJ Number
207136
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 68 Issue: 1 Dated: June 2004 Pages: 39-42
Date Published
June 2004
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article recounts the Clutter family murder that occurred in Kansas in 1959.
Abstract
On November 15, 1959, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith murdered the Clutter family in Holcomb, KA, for one pair of binoculars, a Zenith portable radio, four silver dollars, and approximately $40 in cash. The murder shocked the Nation as news of the brutality in small town America traveled via mass media. The lives and backgrounds of Hickock and Smith are described, as is their meeting as cellmates in the Lansing State Penitentiary. Both Hickock and Smith had criminal backgrounds, but nothing that would predict the violence they unleashed on the Clutter family. The article describes how Hickock learned of the Clutter household from another cellmate who had worked for the Clutters. Hickock was told there was a safe in the Clutter house containing $10,000. Upon Hickock’s release, he reunited with Smith and both of them set out to steal the Clutter money and murder the entire family so as not to leave witnesses. The author asserts that, independently, each man would not have been capable of the murders, but that together, their combined bravado drove the murderous acts. The murderers were caught after Hickock’s previous cell mate gave statements to police. Both were found guilty and put to death for their crimes in 1965.