The Chilling Account of the Clutter Family Murders

The brutal Clutter Family Murders remain a haunting chapter in American crime history. Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, driven by a false rumor of hidden wealth, perpetrated a crime that shocked the nation and tragically ended the lives of four members of the Clutter family in their Kansas home.

The grim sequence of events began when Hickock and Smith, inmates at the Kansas State Penitentiary, were informed by a former Clutter family employee, Floyd Wells, that Herb Clutter, a respected farmer, kept a large safe filled with cash at his rural residence outside Holcomb, Kansas. Upon their release, fueled by desperation and this misinformation, the pair meticulously planned a robbery to seize this non-existent fortune.

On the night of November 15, 1959, Hickock and Smith arrived at the Clutter farmhouse. Unbeknownst to them, only four of the six family members were present: Herb and Bonnie Clutter, and their teenage children, Nancy and Kenyon. After entering the house, their hopes of a readily available safe were quickly dashed. Confronting Herb Clutter, they demanded the supposed hidden money. Mr. Clutter, in pajamas, offered them the small amount of cash he had on hand and truthfully stated there was no more. Disbelieving him, the intruders roused the rest of the family, ransacking the house in a fruitless search. Their meager haul amounted to a mere fifty dollars, a pair of binoculars, and a transistor radio – a chillingly paltry sum for the horror that was to unfold. Frustrated and enraged by the lack of wealth and perhaps fearing identification, Hickock and Smith made a horrifying decision. They systematically murdered all four members of the Clutter family in cold blood.

Alt text: Exterior of the Clutter family home in Holcomb, Kansas, the scene of the infamous murders.

The next morning, the gruesome discovery was made. Herb Clutter, 48, was found in the basement, sprawled on a mattress. He had been stabbed, his throat slashed, and brutally shot in the head with a shotgun. His hands were bound, and his mouth was sealed with tape. In the adjacent room, 15-year-old Kenyon Neal Clutter lay on a couch, also bound, gagged, and fatally shot in the head. Upstairs, in their separate bedrooms, were the bodies of Mrs. Bonnie Mae Clutter, 45, and 16-year-old Nancy Mae Clutter. Mrs. Clutter was bound and gagged, while Nancy was only bound. Each had been executed with a gunshot to the head.

Garden City Police Department Chief Mitchell Geisler and Assistant Chief Ritch Rohleder were among the first to arrive at the appalling crime scene. Rohleder, a skilled photographer, meticulously documented the scene. His photographs, despite the limitations of the technology of the time, proved crucial. One image captured a bloody footprint left by Smith, invisible to the naked eye, becoming a key piece of evidence. Another photograph documented a tire track left by the perpetrators’ hasty departure.

Alt text: Mugshot of Richard Eugene Hickock, one of the perpetrators of the Clutter family murders.

Alvin Dewey, of the Kansas Bureau of Investigations (KBI), took charge of the investigation, leading a team of four KBI investigators and enlisting support from other agencies. The nationwide manhunt for Hickock and Smith began immediately.

Following the murders, Hickock and Smith fled to Kansas City, where Hickock engaged in check fraud. They then traveled to Mexico for a brief period, pawning the stolen binoculars before hitchhiking through California towards Omaha, Nebraska. After a short stay in Omaha, they stole a car in Iowa and returned to the Kansas City area. Their journey continued to Florida and eventually Nevada. It was in Las Vegas, Nevada, that Dewey and the KBI finally apprehended them on December 31, 1959.

Throughout Hickock and Smith’s cross-country flight, Dewey and the KBI diligently pieced together evidence. A crucial break came from Floyd Wells, the former Clutter employee who had initially spread the false rumor of the safe. Wells, motivated by the reward money offered, confessed to authorities about informing Hickock and Smith about the Clutter family. Ironically, Wells himself later met a violent end during a prison break in Mississippi.

Alt text: Mugshot of Perry Edward Smith, the other perpetrator in the Clutter family murders.

At the time of their capture in Nevada, Hickock and Smith were still driving the stolen car from Iowa and were found to be in possession of the boot that matched the bloody footprint from the crime scene. Dewey and three other KBI investigators traveled to Nevada to secure confessions from the two men. After confessing, they were extradited to Garden City, Kansas, to stand trial in Finney County District Court. On March 29, 1960, an all-male jury delivered a guilty verdict and recommended the death penalty. For five years, Hickock and Smith resided on death row at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. On April 14, 1965, they were executed by hanging on the prison grounds with minimal public attention. Hickock was executed at 12:41 am, followed by Smith at 1:19 am. The state funded their burials, with Smith’s burial costing $250 less than Hickock’s due to Smith’s veteran’s burial allowance as a Korean War veteran. They were buried in Mt. Muncie cemetery.

In his final statement, Smith expressed, “I think it is a hell of a thing that a life has to be taken in this manner. I say this especially because there’s a great deal I could have offered society. I certainly think capital punishment is legally and morally wrong. Any apology for what I have done would be meaningless at this time. I don’t have any animosities toward anyone involved in this matter. I think that is all.”

Hickock’s last words were brief. “No, I guess I don’t.” However, he then called for KBI Agent Roy Church, a key figure in their capture, saying, “You’re sending me to a better place than this,” and added that he held no grudge against Church. He shook hands and said, “Goodbye.”

As Hickock awaited execution, the prison chaplain read from the 23rd Psalm. For Smith, a former chaplain offered a quiet prayer, “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed is the name of the Lord. May the Lord have mercy on your soul,” despite Smith’s wishes against any readings.

Their final meal consisted of spiced shrimp, french fries, garlic bread, ice cream, and strawberries with whipped cream, eaten separately with a chaplain present for each man. The Clutter family murders remain a stark and tragic reminder of the devastating consequences of greed and senseless violence.

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