First blog entry will be about two notorious killers I am very familiar with and I believe I have mentioned once before in my fall semester blogs. Richard Hickcock and Perry Smith are the two men responsible for the death of Herb, Bonny, Kenyon, and Nancy Clutter in their home of Holcomb Kansas on November 15, 1959. As someone who has read the phenomenal book of In Cold Blood, I have first insight on these two criminals, ranging from their birth dates to the the day there were executed.

Hickcock was born on June 6, 1931 and Smith on October 27, 1928 (Blanco.) Hickock and Smith were two young males who have spent most of their time and in and out of prison at a rather young age. This is also where they had first met each other. Hickock was born to his two farm owner parents, was an athlete and very popular throughout high school, and had his whole life ahead of him. That was until he endured a motorcycle accident in 1950 which left his face very much so disfigured.

Perry’s life was the exact opposite. His parents split up when he was still at a young aged ti his father abusing his mother and siblings. Him and his three other siblings were forced to live with his alcoholic mother, until one day she died of choking on her own vomit. Two of Smith’s siblings also committed suicide, and the last, Barbara, severed any communication the two had. Perry was forced to live within an orphanage where he was supposedly abused, both physically and emotionally.

The Clutter family murder had taken place November 14, 1959. This murder was so extraneous because the Clutter family was beloved by everyone in the community. They had two healthy and popular children in Nancy and Kenyon, a rather successful husband and father in Herbert and a, in some minds less than ideal wife and mother in Bonnie. This murder had every on the edge of their seats because if this beloved family isn’t safe, then is anyone? This whole murder began when Hickcock was informed by a fellow inmate that the clutter family had a safe full of lifetime savings stashed away in their house. This immediately sparked a match in both Smith and Hickcock as their true motive was to just gag the family and keep them locked up until they acquired the treasure they desired so badly. This obviously did not go as planned and led to one of the most infamous cases in history.

The day of the murder, both Perry and Hickcock waited until all the lights within the house were turned off and the family had gone to sleep. They proceeded to sneak into the house, cut the phone line, and capture Herb for interrogation. Plot twist is there never was a safe full of money. Angered by the fact Herb constantly denied knowing of a safe full of money, Smith and Hickock awoke everyone and tied the girls upstairs and led the men to the basement. After finding no safe and hardly any money, Smith took it into his own hands and proceeded to murder each member of the Clutter family.

After around a month, Smith and Hickcock were found in Las Vegas and taken into custody. Both of these killers were taken into court and given psychological testings. Conclusions founded that they both indeed suffered from psychological problems. Perry from schizophrenia and Richard from antisocial personality disorder. Throughout the story there are many clear indications that Perry exhibits clear signs of schizophrenia. Often times he would have delusion of persuasion as he would often feel the world is against him and often his misplaced emotions. Had no emotions to his siblings deaths or any sentiment towards using racial slurs against colored people. Hickcock would have the sinister temptation of touching younger women. He even went as far as touching Nancy before Perry ultimately stepped in.

This is still kind of rough as I’m working on how to specifically approach every killer so next weeks blog should be better. Next week’s blog will also be about someone convicted for the murder of his family around the same period the Clutter murder had taken place.

Sources

• https://murderpedia.org/male.H/h/hickock-richard.htm
• https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/smith-perry.htm

My passion blog will be based around serial killers and the psychological trauma and motive behind their heinous crimes. And as someone pointed out, I will be evaluating every crime and criminal through primary sources and hard data as to opposed to my opinion as I am not a licensed psychiatrist so will be sticking to the professionals. This would prevent false information from being provided and avoid speculation. I will dive into a brief history of the killer(s), the crime(s) committed, possible motive, and the psychological reasoning, if any, as to why the crime was committed.