The Personalities

Perry Edward Smith, born October 27, 1928, in Elko County, Nevada, was one of the two killers convicted in the Clutter murders. His parents were rodeo performers, and, when they left the rodeo circuit, the family moved across the west, looking for odd jobs during the height of the Depression. His mother eventually became an alcoholic and left her husband, taking her children with her. Every member of the family except one sister either died an early death (mother's and another sister's were related to alcohol) or committed suicide. Smith was nearly crippled by a motorcycle accident in 1952 that left his legs broken and stunted. Until the murders, Smith only had been a small-time criminal, serving time for burglary. He was executed in April 1965.

Richard Eugene Hickock, born June 6, 1931, was the other man convicted in the Clutter murders. He grew up in and near Kansas City with his parents and a younger brother, Walter. He was a popular student and athlete before head injuries from a serious car wreck in 1950 left him disfigured. Although he had wanted to go to college, the family couldn't afford it, so he became a mechanic. He married twice and had children and began living beyond his means, which seemed to turn him bitter. He turned to petty crimes to help make ends meet, and eventually landed in prison, where he met Smith and hatched his plan for robbery and murder.

Herbert William Clutter, born in 1911, a graduate of Kansas State University, was the owner of River Valley Farm in Holcomb. He was well-respected in agriculture circles as a county extension agent, chairman of the Kansas Conference of Farm Organizations and a member of the Federal Farm Credit Board during the Eisenhower administration. He was also a member of the First United Methodist Church of Garden City where he helped raise money for the current main church and taught Sunday school. He was killed in his home by Smith and Hickock on Nov. 15, 1959.

Bonnie Clutter, born in 1914, was Herbert Clutter's wife. Despite Truman Capote's portrayal of her as an invalid in "In Cold Blood," family and friends say she was much more lively, volunteering with church and 4-H activities with her husband and doting on her children. All agree that family was the most important thing to her. She was Smith and Hickock's last victim.

Nancy Clutter, 16, was a busy and popular teenager, involved in 4-H and school activities. She was said to be an organizer and was a straight-A student, president of her class and a good rider. She played the piano and clarinet and was devoted to her first boyfriend, Bobby Rupp. Nancy planned to attend Kansas State University, where she hoped to study art.

Kenyon Clutter, 15, was a quiet and studious young man. He had an old truck with a Model-A Ford engine that he and a friend used to race coyotes. He was taller than his parents and lanky, good with tools, and he was lovingly completing a hope chest for his sister Beverly, who was to be married in December 1959.

Beverly Clutter English, 65, is the second-oldest daughter of Herb and Bonnie Clutter. She attended nursing school at the University of Kansas and was out of the home at the time of the murders. She and her fiance, Vere English, were to have been married in December 1959 but moved up their wedding to just days after her parents' and siblings' funeral. They reasoned that the family already was gathered and they hoped to put some joy in to the wrenching sadness of events. The couple live on a farm near Newton, Kan., that is much like the place where her parents lived.

Eveanna Clutter Mosier, 68, was the first child of Herb and Bonnie Clutter. She and her husband, Don Jarchow, lived near Chicago at the time of the killings. They later moved to Nebraska, and, after her husband's death, she moved back to Kansas and lives close to her sister near Newton, with her husband, Bill Mosier.

Bob Rupp, 61, was Nancy Clutter's boyfriend and the last person to see the Clutter family alive. He had been at their home earlier in the evening and had watched television with Nancy and Kenyon. Shortly after he left, investigators think Smith and Hickock entered the home. He was initially questioned by police and took a lie detector test, and said later that he got a lot of suspicious looks from friends and strangers. He transferred to Garden City High to finish his junior year but transferred back to Holcomb for his senior year. He still lives in Holcomb, where he farms alfalfa and has raised four children with his wife, Coleen.

Alvin Dewey Jr., born in 1912, was the Kansas Bureau of Investigations agent who led the investigation of the Clutter murders. He was assisted by many other law enforcement officials from various agencies, although Truman Capote made him the hero of the book. The author and the Dewey family remained in contact for many years. Dewey also worked for the Kansas Highway Patrol, the FBI and was Finney County Sheriff before joining the KBI in 1955. He later said the stress of the Clutter case took its toll, leading to a heart attack in February 1963. Dewey died in 1987 and is buried in Valley View Cemetery in Garden City.

Duane West, 73, was the young Finney County attorney who prosecuted Smith and Hickock and sought the death penalty in the case. West still is active in the Garden City community and has remained a public figure, serving as a city councilman and mayor, as well as pursuing private interests in music and art. Capote attributes much of West's work in the book to a more veteran prosecutor who assisted in the case, which West says is his big beef with Capote to this day.

Truman Capote saw a small story in the New York Times about the Clutter murders and determined that the case would be the perfect vehicle for his breakout achievement: the self-described "nonfiction narrative." Capote, then 35, spent months in Kansas doing interviews for the book, which was first serialized in the New Yorker in fall 1965 and published shortly thereafter. The book is considered one of the great literary works of the 20th century. It is the author's best-known work, and it launched him into the high-society circles he so desperately wanted to be part of. He died in 1984 at age 59.

Harold Nye was a KBI agent who worked on the case. His wife, Joyce, says his constant traveling kept him away from his family, and the hectic pace contributed to his health failing later in life. She says he was skeptical of Capote and the book and walked out of the premiere of the 1967 film based on the book, telling her it was "a pack of lies." He died in August 2004.

Roy Church was a seasoned lawman, serving as Franklin County sheriff for four years before joining the KBI in 1947. He retired from the KBI to his native Ottawa, Kan., in 1964. He later served as a technical adviser for the 1967 film version of Capote's book and died in 1971 at the age of 73.

Clarence Duntz had an even more extensive law enforcement background, serving in the Kansas Highway Patrol, as sheriff of Smith County, as a military police officer during World War II, in the Salina police department and as the Hays chief of police, all before joining the KBI in Hays in 1955. Duntz continued to work for the KBI after the Clutter case and investigated several other multiple-murder cases before retiring to Topeka in 1977. He died in Topeka in 1991.

James Post — Someone who knew Smith and Hickock when he was Lansing State Prison chaplain, Post is now an Alzheimer's patient at a care home in Arkansas. A portrait of Jesus that Smith painted for Post hung in his church for 25 years until Post moved it into his Missouri home. After the book came out, Post and his son spoke at high schools about Smith and Hickock. They believe the book has deterred other troubled kids from committing similar crimes.

Susan Kidwell, one of Nancy Clutter's best friends and one of the girls who found her body, would not comment for this project. She's now married and living in New York. Her mother, Wilma, a close friend of Bonnie Clutter's, died in Garden City on Dec. 28, 1996.

Nancy Ewalt — The other teen who found the murdered Clutters, Nancy has since married and moved to Gill, Colo. She avoids publicity connected with the Clutter murders and considers the book and all subsequent media coverage "pointless."

Back to "In Cold Blood: A Legacy" main page »
Add your thoughts about the Clutter murders and "In Cold Blood" »