Perhaps no crime in American history has gotten as much national attention as the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, which is once again in the national spotlight following the release of a memoir by one of the killers.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, “In Cold Blood,” the true crime novel written by Truman Capote, may have left out an important detail – the fact that killer Richard Hickock wrote his own book-length manuscript about the murder of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their teenagers, Nancy and Kenyon, claiming that a man he identifies only as Roberts hired him and Perry Smith to murder the family.
During the trial, prosecutors claimed Hickock and Smith entered the house believing there to be $10,000 in a safe, based on a tip Hickock had received from a cellmate while in prison. Capote presented that same motive in the book.
The fact that Hickock was a pathological liar – and his failure to use the information to stay off of death row – sheds some doubt on the manuscript’s validity.
