The Clutter Family Murderers November 15, 1959 appeared to be a typical crisp fall day in Holcomb, Kansas. The sun began to rise and the small farm town awoke, unaware that mere hours earlier, one of the most infamous quadruple murders in our nation’s history had taken place within the city’s limits. This paper will discuss the killing of the Clutter family from Holcomb, Kansas, the identity and lives of the killers, and various communication principles and theories that tie into the two killers lives and their actions leading up to, during, and after the murders. Whether you have lived in Kansas your entire life or have no connection to the state whatsoever, the Clutter family murders seem to raise the hair on everyone’s neck and leave them
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The Clutter family murders, which gained celebrity after the 1965 publishing of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” were the brutal slayings of Herbert and Bonnie Clutter and two of their children, Nancy and Kenyon, by 27-year-old Richard Hickock and 30-year-old Perry Smith (Garden City). The two killers, Hickock and Smith, knew each other from their time spent in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas. It was during their first stay in prison where Hickock heard of Herbert Clutter from a prison cellmate and learned that the family was rather wealthy (Dick Hickock). Upon release from prison, Hickock contacted Smith and they began making plans to rob the Clutter family (Capote). The duo met up in Olathe, Kansas, roughly twenty-four hours before the murders and prepared to travel the nearly 800 miles it would take to make it to Holcomb and back after pulling off the robbery (Garden City). Hickock and Smith arrived in Holcomb around midnight and entered the Clutter residence with relative ease. According to statements made by Smith in “In Cold Blood”, the pair entered through an unlocked side door and began searching the house for a safe with money. …show more content…
Hickock said the he had a normal childhood, his parents never beat or abused him nor did they fight with each other, and in his case file it is recorded that he was a “…healthy, happy and well adjusted child, getting along fine with all members of the family. Home life was tranquil and congenial and parents gave children normal discipline, advantages and opportunities of childhood” (Kansas State). Soon after starting with the railroad, Hickock married Carol Bryan and fathered three children with her and started a side job as a mechanic with Roark Motor Company for extra income (Dick Hickock). He also started an affair with another woman and fathered a child with her; it was during this time period that Hickock began his petty theft tendencies and started to display pedophiliac behavior, which he commented in a trial
The Clutter family murders, which gained celebrity after the 1965 publishing of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” were the brutal slayings of Herbert and Bonnie Clutter and two of their children, Nancy and Kenyon, by 27-year-old Richard Hickock and 30-year-old Perry Smith (Garden City). The two killers, Hickock and Smith, knew each other from their time spent in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas. It was during their first stay in prison where Hickock heard of Herbert Clutter from a prison cellmate and learned that the family was rather wealthy (Dick Hickock). Upon release from prison, Hickock contacted Smith and they began making plans to rob the Clutter family (Capote). The duo met up in Olathe, Kansas, roughly twenty-four hours before the murders and prepared to travel the nearly 800 miles it would take to make it to Holcomb and back after pulling off the robbery (Garden City). Hickock and Smith arrived in Holcomb around midnight and entered the Clutter residence with relative ease. According to statements made by Smith in “In Cold Blood”, the pair entered through an unlocked side door and began searching the house for a safe with money. …show more content…
Hickock said the he had a normal childhood, his parents never beat or abused him nor did they fight with each other, and in his case file it is recorded that he was a “…healthy, happy and well adjusted child, getting along fine with all members of the family. Home life was tranquil and congenial and parents gave children normal discipline, advantages and opportunities of childhood” (Kansas State). Soon after starting with the railroad, Hickock married Carol Bryan and fathered three children with her and started a side job as a mechanic with Roark Motor Company for extra income (Dick Hickock). He also started an affair with another woman and fathered a child with her; it was during this time period that Hickock began his petty theft tendencies and started to display pedophiliac behavior, which he commented in a trial