US Journalism-In Cold Blood: The Case/Trial

State v. Hickock &Smith

THESTATE OF KANSAS, Appellee, v. RICHARD EUGENE HICKOCK and PERRY EDWARD SMITH, Appellants

Supreme Court of Kansas.

Opinion filed July 8, 1961.

Dale H. Corley, of Garden City, argued the cause and was on the briefs for defendant Richard Eugene Hickock.

A.M. Fleming, of Garden City, argued the cause and was on the briefs for defendant Perry Edward Smith.

Robert E. Hoffman, Assistant Attorney General, and Duane E. West, of Garden City, Special Counsel, argued the cause, and William M. Ferguson, Attorney General, was with them on the briefs for the appellee.

To read the full opinion,  click HERE:

Killers Richard Hickock, foreground, and Perry Smith, in suit, walk through the federal courthouse in Topeka in this 1963.
Photo taken by Bill Snead of the Journal-World, who was then a photographer for the Topeka Capital-Journal.

On November 15, 1959, the Clutter family—Herb and Bonnie, their daughter Nancy, and son Kenyon—were brutally murdered in their Holcomb, Kansas, home. Convicted of the crime were Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock, who were sent to the Kansas State Penitentiary. Soon after, the killers became the subjects of Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood. Capote conducted a number of interviews with the inmates before they were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965.

The Kansas Historical Society recently released Smith and Hickock’s inmate case files—593 pages and 727 pages, respectively—which include their criminal histories, warrants, legal correspondence, and notes to and from Capote. Here are a just few details from the files that shed light on their lives behind bars.

1.During his first stay in prison, Smith was busted for contraband.
2. During his first stint in prison, Hickock worked at the tag factory.
3. Smith went on a hunger strike in the first year of his second sentence.
4. During his second sentence, Hickock took courses on the Bible
5. Hickock was a college football fan.
6. When Capote interviewed Hickock and Smith in 1962, he also got a tour of the institution.
7. Harper Lee wanted to correspond with Smith.
8. Hickock told his life story to someone other than Capote.
9. They really, really wanted radios.
10. Capote sent Smith magazines.
11. Smith wanted to paint a portrait of the warden.
12. They read … a lot.
13. Smith sent a telegram to Capote the day before his execution.
14. At least one letter sent to Smith arrived too late.
15. They had the same last meal.

To read the full story with file details, click HERE.

'In Cold Blood' Killers Exhumed, Investigators Hope to Solve 53-Year-Old Cold Case

DNA will be extracted from the killers, who were executed 47 years ago.
By ALYSSA NEWCOMB
18 December 2012, 20:39

To read the full story, click HERE.

Duane West never goes too long without phone calls and visits from reporters wanting to know his version of the story.

It has been nearly six decades since four murders on a family farm — which became the basis for the novel “In Cold Blood” — shook this part of the world. He still doesn’t like to talk about it much.

West is one of the last key figures from the case who is still living. He was a 27-year-old lead prosecuting attorney in the trial of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, the men convicted of killing Herb, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter.

West, 85, still has definitive views on the murderers, the famed author who chronicled the slayings and the events that transpired after the Clutters were killed.

To read the full story, click HERE.

Witness to execution: Prison director Charles McAtee recalls killers

Charles McAtee’s phone rang about 2 p.m. It was April 13, 1965, and Truman Capote was calling to say he wouldn’t be visiting condemned killers Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith on the eve of their executions. 

Capote had spent the past four years documenting the brutal murders of a rural Kansas family and the lives of the killers for what would become the book “In Cold Blood.” He said the emotional buildup to the execution would be too much to bear.

The next 10 hours would change McAtee’s life. He would spend every minute with the killers, getting a rare glimpse into their personalities in their most vulnerable moments — scenes that never made it into Capote’s book.

For the rest of the story, click HERE.