Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

Introduction

Forensics

Case File

Cohorts

Defendant

Motive

Search & Seizure

Shamus

Interrogation

Prosecution

Discovery

Detection

Custody

Lineup

Truman Capote & Nelle Harper Lee

Herbert W. Clutter

Bonnie Mae Clutter

Kenneth Lyon

Kansas Bureau of Investigation

Harold Nye

Alvin Dewey

Richard Rohleder

Richard Eugene Hickock

Perry Edward Smith

Who really killed the Clutters?

William Floyd Wells, Jr.

Starling Mack Nations

Privileged Communications

Polygraph

Confession

Suspicion

Alvin Dewey

Harold Nye

Duane West

Earl Robinson & Logan Sanford

Jack Curtis

Arthur Clutter

Reverend Leonard Cowan

Dr. Austin J. Adams

Larry Hendricks

Preston Burtis

Obstruction

Pinched

“What is Kansas trying to hide?”

Fingerprints

Stakeout

Closing Argument

Patterns

String Theory

Reasonable Doubt

Closure

Due Process & the First Amendment

Concealment

Case Dismissed

Redemption

Legacy

Bibliography

Endnotes

Table of Figures

Figure 1. Nelle Harper Lee signed inscription to Nye

Figure 2. Perry Smith’s journals and memorabilia

Figure 3. Harold Nye’s notebooks on the Clutter case

Figure 4. Nye “jumps” Hickock on the Clutter murders

Figure 5. Hickock shows premeditation, hints at being paid

Figure 6. Western Cafe, Cimarron, Kansas, circa 1950s

Figure 7. Nye report on Western Cafe sighting in Cimarron

Figure 8. Plausible route taken after the murders

Figure 9. Wheatlands Motel Guest Register

Figure 10. Warren Hotel Guest Register

Figure 11. Pheasant hunters sighted days before murders

Figure 12. Clutter & Mrs Lyon observed without spouses

Figure 13. Clutter “dancing...smooching” with Lyon’s wife

Figure 14. Kansas Lawmen

Figure 15. Nye's first notes on the Clutter murders

Figure 16. Richard Rohleder in 1943

Figure 17. Perry Smith’s bloody boot print

Figure 18. Richard Eugene Hickock

Figure 19. Perry Edward Smith

Figure 20. Perry Smith ponders life

Figure 21. Smith (right) with Army buddy; Inchon, Korea

Figure 22. Perry (upper left) with “Cookie” tattoo, circa 1950

Figure 23. Chaplain’s Clerk John McRell, aka “Willie-Jay”

Figure 24. Perry Smith’s “unwanted horrible nightmare”

Figure 25. Perry Smith at age 16

Figure 26. Perry Smith’s note to the Meiers

Figure 27. William Floyd Wells, Jr.

Figure 28. Hickock on the safe as told to him by Wells

Figure 29. Wells claims he watched the safe being installed

Figure 30. Hickock writes about Wells taking the stand

Figure 31. Starling Mack Nations

Figure 32. Male article by Mack Nations, December 1961

Figure 33. Nations asks Hoffman to return Hickock letters

Figure 34. KBI interview of Floyd Wells at KSP

Figure 35. Agent Owens pushed Wells hard on the safe

Figure 36. Wells describes “the safe” in precise detail

Figure 37. Nye’s report on evidence in the stolen car

Figure 38. Richard E. Hickock - Prisoner #14746

Figure 39. Hickock implies premeditation; paid for the job

Figure 40. Hickock’s father asks if Dick got paid for murders

Figure 41. Hickock wanted Clutter’s wallet found empty

Figure 42. “... meeting with Roberts about an hour away”

Figure 43. “If we killed the old man and left the rest alive...”

Figure 44. “... do something with the rest of the family.”

Figure 45. Hickock boasts of getting paid for the job

Figure 46. Hickock describes killing Mr. Clutter

Figure 47. “We were the boss in that house.”

Figure 48. "I was hungry. Boy was I hungry."

Figure 49. Clutter family circa 1950

Figure 50. Richard Hickock and Perry Smith

Figure 51. KBI display of Clutter murder memorabilia

Figure 52. FBI Confirmation of Spermatozoa on Nightgown

Figure 53. Lurid magazines next to Kenyon Clutter’s body

Figure 54. Harold Nye

Figure 55. Joyce Nye