Posted on 04/14/2020 5:59:13 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
This date in 1965 saw the end of the road (and the end of the rope) for Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, the drifters who slaughtered the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, and inspired Truman Capote’s magnum opus In Cold Blood.
I used to live within a hundred yards of the cemetery in which the Clutter family was buried in Garden City, KS.
Used to go plinking on land owned by Al Dewey the KBI and later FBI agent who caught Hickock and Smith. It was within sight of the Clutter home across the Arkansas River.
With all the true crime channels and documentaries now we have seen several of them on the clutter case including the movie.
The paperback is sitting here on the bookcase and your post serves a reminder to start reading especially during this downtime
I believe the murders occurred in 1959 maybe 60 decades ago
As I recall Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) did most of the heavy lifting in writing the book.
Harper Lee and Truman Capote were next door neighbors in Monroeville, Alabama.
Some claim that Lee actually wrote “In Cold Blood”. I think it more likely that Capote actually wrote, “To Kill A Mockingbird”.
“the murders occurred in 1959 maybe 60 decades ago”
That would make it 1420 AD.
Sounds about right
Smith and Hickock richly deserved to swing. I remember seeing a movie version of the books years ago and wondering "Why did it take them so long to hang?" They were callous and cruel when they murdered the family and I thought the appeals process dragged on far too long in the movie version of the book.
?
That book was in our household, too. First edition. Saw the movie first. Read the book. Then a few years back saw the movie, Capote. Interesting subject and approach. Last year was aboard Amtrak a couple of times as we barreled through Holcomb. Stayed up to see the farmhouse lights.
That’s MSM Math right there. Good catch.
The movie version seemed to end with the statement/question ‘In Cold Blood’.
You might be right. At times, the styles seemed a little to close. Harper was an excellent writer as well and certainly did collaborate with Capote. The two movies that were released in the last two years (Phillip Seymore Hoffman’s rendition “Capote”) and “Infamous” with Toby Jones were excellent.
A Kansas Highway Patrol veteran told the story of how Dick Hickock got it into his head that he could “beat the hangman,” when his time for the rope came.
In the last year of prison, Hickock did daily strengthening exercises in his prison cell to build up muscles in his neck and shoulders.
The exercises worked, but Hickock apparently forgot the judge’s words “...hang by the neck until you are dead.”
When the rope snapped and should have broken Hichkock’s neck, the exercises worked. Instead of a quick death from a broken neck, he withered away for a half hour, choking to death...
Best book I ever read ten times.
And if not for a couple of serial killers hung about two months later, Smith and Hickock would have been the last two executed in Kansas.
I meant last few years. Hoffman’s movie was 2005-6 I believe.
Also note that they were convicted in 1960 and executed in 1965 after only 5 years on death row. Ah the good old days.
That happened to one of the nazis executed at Nuremburg too, but not for the same reason.
In his case the American MP who placed the noose on him moved the knot away from the place where it would snap his neck, leaving him to be just plain ol' strangled... .
The account that I read had the MP taking credit for it in an interview with a reporter, because the guy shrieked "Heil Hitler" as he was being marched up the gallows.
The poor Clutters deserve to be remembered as virtual martyrs to decency. They did nothing to earn the fate they were dealt.
Hanging Smith and Hickock was the waste of a good rope. They should have been hit in the head with a shovel and fed to pigs.
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