In the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas, Nancy Mae Clutter, a popular and bright 16-year-old White female, was known for her kindness, her involvement in school and church activities, and her love for her horse, Babe. On the night of November 14, 1959, she was at home with her father, Herbert, her mother, Bonnie, and her 15-year-old brother, Kenyon.
In the early morning hours of November 15, their lives were brutally cut short in a crime that would shock the nation.
Two ex-convicts, Richard "Dick" Hickock, 28, and Perry Smith, 31, entered the Clutter home through an unlocked door. They were acting on a false tip from a former cellmate of Hickock's who claimed that Herbert Clutter, a prosperous farmer, kept a safe full of cash in the house. Finding no safe, the pair awakened the family and bound them. Herbert and Kenyon were taken to the basement, while Nancy and her mother were confined to separate upstairs bedrooms. After a futile search for the non-existent safe, which yielded only about $40, a pair of binoculars, and a portable radio, the two men decided to leave no witnesses. Nancy was found in her bed, having been tied and shot in the head with a shotgun.
The investigation into the senseless murders initially had few leads. However, the tip from Hickock's former cellmate, Floyd Wells, eventually pointed law enforcement in the right direction. This led to a nationwide manhunt for Hickock and Smith. The two men fled across the country and into Mexico, but were eventually apprehended in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 30, 1959, six weeks after the murders.
Following their capture, Hickock and Smith were extradited back to Kansas to stand trial in Garden City. During interrogations, both men eventually confessed to the crimes, though they offered conflicting accounts of who killed which victim. In March 1960, a jury found both Richard Hickock and Perry Smith guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. After deliberating for only 40 minutes, the jury recommended the death penalty. Both men were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965, at the Kansas State Penitentiary.
