Posted on 12/03/2012 6:24:52 PM PST by nickcarraway
More than 50 years after the Walker family was murdered in the quiet, carefree town of Osprey, Fla., the focus of the cold case investigation has shifted to two notorious killers who were the basis of Truman Capote's true-crime book "In Cold Blood."
Investigators from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office are hoping to travel to Kansas as soon as an order is approved by a judge to exhume the bodies of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. They hope mitochondrial DNA evidence collected from the bones of the killers, who were executed by hanging in 1965, will help close a cold case that rattled Sarasota County.
On Dec. 19, 1959, the Walker family, including parents Cliff and Christine and their toddler children Jimmie and Debbie, were shot to death in their Osprey home.
Detective Kim McGath, who has been assigned to the Walker case for the past four years, said she decided to start from the beginning last year in investigating the case, and through her research developed a hunch that Smith and Hickock could be responsible. The men were briefly investigated in 1960, but were ruled out as suspects after passing lie detector tests.
"Some things started jumping out at me," she told ABCNews.com.
After committing the "In Cold Blood" murder of Herbert Clutter, his wife and two children on Nov. 15, 1959, Smith and Hickock hit the road, hiding out from law enforcement in Mexico and Florida, among other places, according to Capote's book and law enforcement accounts. They were ultimately captured in Las Vegas.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I can’t follow the story from this poorly written ‘article’ from ABC. Obviously, an Obama era graduate wrote this drivel.
I doubt that Smith and Hickock were responsible for the Florida killings tho it is possible. They murdered the Clutters because a fellow inmate told them he had worked for Herb and that he had a safe full of cash. In other words the Clutters were not random victims. I used to live only a couple of hundred yards from the Clutter family's graves. I took this photo back then.
Even if it’s only a snowball’s chance that the two are connected, this is a good way to get some nationwide exposure for your small-town cold case. The news loves stories like this, so they’ll get a bunch of PR and maybe some leads that are worthwhile from the people reading about it and remembering something.
Yes I saw “Capote” and thought it was pretty good. One of my professors at Troy was from Monroeville, Alabama and I think was kin to Capote. He could sure imitate Capote’s speech patterns.
There are those who think Capote wrote “To Kill A Mockingbird” instead of his cousin Harper Lee. Then there are some who say Harper Lee wrote “In Cold Blood”
Of course everyone thinks “Mockingbird” is a true story when it is simply another politically correct anti Southern White where the Black guy is falsely accused. In the movies and TV shows the Blacks are always innocent and in the real world they are always guilty.
I didn’t know Harper Lee was his cousin.
There was a remarkably similar case to Mockingbird in Arizona in the 20s or 30s. Hubby is asleep, or I would ask him specifics. Hubby was doing research for a project, and he was reading through old Arizona newspapers. He found a story so similar that he called me from the library to tell me about it. One of the people in the story was even named Atticus. I will write more about this when I have the details.
if theres a girl named Scout then the story in true...
:)
So she’s spinning deather conspiracy theories?
I agree, it was always obvious to me that Capote wrote, or had a strong hand in, Mockingbird. Terrible movie, just terrible.
I’d be very interested in hearing about it.
Saying an accused black man is always guilty is every bit as idiotic as saying he’s always innocent.
Making the determination is the reason we have trials.
what an unspeakable thing to happen to that family.
My father-in-law is an acquaintance of Harper Lee and is certain she wrote the book.
One of things he points to is a July 1959 letter from Capote to Harper Lee. In the letter, Capote tells Lee that he read her (unnamed) book, that he liked it, and that she was very talented. Lee hadn't written any published books by July 1959.
However, in July 1960, To Kill A Mockingbird was published, so it's assumed Capote was commenting on a manuscript.
Nothing in the 1959 letter suggests any work by Capote on the book. If he had any input on TKAM, it would have been editing work between July 1959 and publication.
By the way, Truman Capote wasn't related to Harper Lee. They were just good friends.
I personally never thought Capote wrote “Mockingbird” or that Lee wrote “In Cold Blood” but it has been speculated a lot.
I am not sure where I got the idea that they were cousins, but I have had that misunderstanding for a long time. I do remember them both being from Monroeville, Alabama tho right now I couldn’t even say I know that for sure.
They were neighbors, schoolmates, and childhood best friends in Monroeville.
At the time, there were numerous suspects she had associated with or dated from the Seafarers Union school she was attending who were investigated but police didn't have any evidence.
In 1997, the murderer was found in the Polk County jail in Florida where he was serving time for an unrelated crime. He had admitted to another inmate that he had killed a girl and when the inmated asked him who, he said it was the girl on Unsolved Mysteries.
The guy likely would never have been caught since he had only met Nancy in a bar that night she was killed.........
Thank you for writing, and for the information. A lot could have happened in the editing process. What always made me doubt her was that she never wrote anything else.
And, yes, I knew that she and Capote were not related. It was another FRpr who wrote that.
Thank you for writing, and for the information. A lot could have happened in the editing process. What always made me doubt her was that she never wrote anything else.
And, yes, I knew that she and Capote were not related. It was another FRpr who wrote that.
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