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

Comstock/Thinkstock(LANSING, Kan.) — The bodies of the killers who were the basis of Truman Capote’s true-crime book In Cold Blood were exhumed Tuesday in Kansas, as authorities hope to crack a 53-year-old cold case using DNA.

After committing the In Cold Blood murders of Herbert Clutter, his wife and two children on Nov. 15, 1959, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock hit the road, hiding out from law enforcement in Mexico and Florida, among other places, according to Capote’s book and law enforcement accounts. They were ultimately captured in Las Vegas.

But it just so happens that Smith and Hickock were near Osprey, Fla., on Dec. 19, 1959, when the Walker family was murdered in their home.

The men were briefly investigated in 1960, but were ruled out as suspects after passing lie detector tests. Hickock and Smith were hanged on April 14, 1965 and buried at the Mount Muncie cemetery in Lansing, Kan.

Detective Kim McGath, who has been assigned to the Walker case for the past four years, said she decided to start from the beginning last year in investigating the case, and through her research developed a hunch that Smith and Hickock could be responsible.

“Some things started jumping out at me,” she told ABC News.

By the time they reached Florida, the men were spotted throughout the state looking for odd jobs to make a quick buck, often at mechanics’ shops and gas stations, according to Capote’s book.

It’s possible the young family, who had been in the market to purchase a Chevrolet Bel Air, may have crossed paths with Smith and Hickock, who were driving a 1956 model and likely needed money, McGath said.

They were spotted several times in the Sarasota area the day of the murders, and after the Walker family was killed, one of the men was seen with a “scratched-up face,” McGath said.

Physical evidence, long before the emergence of DNA testing, was also left behind, McGath said.

Christine Walker had been raped and semen was found in her underwear, she said, and there was a bloody cowboy hat found at the scene.

And two suspicious hairs, which were inconsistent with the Walker family, were found in the home.

“There was a dark hair found in the bathroom, where baby Debbie was found in the bathtub, and a long blond hair inside the dress of Christine Walker,” McGath said.

According to Capote’s book, Smith recalled reading about the murders in the Miami Herald.

“Know what I wouldn’t be surprised? If this wasn’t done by a lunatic. Some nut that read about what happened out in Kansas,” Smith told Hickock while the two were on the beach in Acapulco, in an exchange Capote recounted in his book. The men never confessed to the murders.

Mitochondrial DNA may prove otherwise if it can be extracted from the bones of the men.

“It’s absolutely possible,” McGath said. “It depends on all kind of circumstances. The soil conditions, the weather, what type of casket it is in. We will have no idea until we get out there.”

Fifty-three years after the murders, closure remains just as important to residents of the Osprey.

“People really changed the way they lived. They locked everything, were afraid of their neighbors,” she said. “There has just been such a great desire for this to be solved because it really affected so many people. It really is a lot more far reaching than a lot of people realize.”

 

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