Richard Eugene Hickock

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Raised by devoted parents on a farmstead near the village of Edgerton, Kansas, “Dick” Hickock had every benefit of a good middle-class childhood: a hard-working father, Walter, who built the family home with his own hands on forty-four acres of rich farm land; and Eunice, a deeply religious homemaker and doting mother. Walter worked as an auto mechanic and body repairman by day, and after hours would work the land with his family, yielding marketable crops of wheat, corn, hay, and strawberries, while their garden supplied an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables for the family. According to Dick’s younger brother, David, Walter and Eunice taught their sons “... the joy of living off the land, the beauty of nature, and the rewards of working and playing hard.”^[97]

All in stark contrast to the kind of life Perry Smith had.

But similar to Perry, two key incidents in Dick Hickock’s youth put his life squarely on a calamitous path. In his book, Dick’s brother David wrote that his brother had stolen a watch from a local drugstore. When discovered by his parents he readily admitted his guilt, made amends with the store, and no charges were filed.

Another more serious episode involved a car accident in 1950. At the time Hickock was on a date with his future wife, Carol, when he lost control of his car on a water-slicked highway. Dick was thrown from the vehicle into a water-filled ditch, in which he nearly drowned.^[98]

Once a high-achieving, handsome and popular high school athlete, Dick was transfigured after the accident, both cosmetically and psychologically. His face was badly scarred, leaving his left eye skewed and out of proportion.

Almost overnight Dick’s personality had changed from responsible, outgoing, and optimistic to “...more solemn, morose, and extremely reckless. He believed that he was able to do and say anything without any consequences.... His attitude continued to become more defiant and increasingly restless. His sporadic and irrational words left the rest of us wondering if the concussion he suffered in the accident had resulted in trauma to his brain.”^[99]

According to prison tests, Hickock had an IQ of 130, placing him in the second highest range: “Very Superior Intelligence,” one level below Genius. Dick’s car accident on its own, however, would appear unlikely as the sole agent of change, considering his theft of a drugstore wristwatch the year before. So, was the die cast early in his life, or did a head injury contribute to Dick's maladjusted and ultimately criminal activity?

Dr. James S. Walker, a specialist in severe trauma histories and one of only nine psychologists in the U.S. who are board-certified in both clinical neuropsychology and forensic psychology, reviewed Hickock’s correspondence and known personal history, and offered this observation:

From a nonscientific point of view, Dick Hickock was one who would have been called in his day and place “a man of low character.” Examination of his personality from a modern forensic neuropsychology point of view reveal several characteristics that we now strongly associate with the concept of a “psychopath”: superficial emotions, a glib style, lack of remorse, chronic irresponsibility, and callousness, to name a few. A very intriguing aspect of his case is his history of apparent severe traumatic brain injury. The motor vehicle accident that resulted in his facial disfigurement, with an extended loss of consciousness, is the sort that often results in frontal lobe dysfunction, a syndrome of impulsivity and poor behavior control known to at times result in violent criminality. In Hickock’s case, his head injury can with certainty only be blamed for perhaps disinhibiting personality factors that were already present, as some criminal impulses were already evident prior to the crash.^[100]

Dr. W. Mitchell Jones, the court-appointed psychiatrist who evaluated both Hickock and Smith in person, had asked each of them for biographical sketches in writing. In Hickock’s, he confesses to a variety of crimes and misdemeanors, but one paragraph stands out: “There were other things I should have told you, but I'm afraid of my people finding them out. Because I am more ashamed of them (these things I did) than hanging....”^[101]

Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology and distinguished author of several books on the science of crime scene investigation and serial killers (including another Kansas notable, Dennis Rader, the "BTK Killer"),^[102] offered another perspective on both men:

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Both Smith and Hickock were antisocial small-time offenders. Either might have resorted to killing if they had been seen or cornered, although I think that Hickock (an apparent narcissist), would more easily have killed a number of witnesses or pursuers than Smith would have.

From how they present themselves (though not from a professional assessment), Hickock would probably have shown less remorse over taking a life than Smith. Neither demonstrated the collection of traits we usually see in extreme offenders—such as rampage mass murderers and predatory serial killers—so for these two to have committed such a crime, we must also include the circumstances in the calculation. Personality disorders alone would not explain what motivated them, individually or working together.^[103]

Setting aside the fact that no one actually treated Hickock as a psychotic patient—a basic precondition for rendering any professional diagnosis—he does appear to fit the textbook definition of a psychopath, and certainly that of a pathological liar.

But liar or not, Hickock’s most intriguing disclosures, in his Death Row letters to Mack Nations, are in part corroborated by Harold Nye’s notes and official KBI reports—reports prepared weeks before the killers had even been identified.

As readers will find in chapters to come, Hickock’s elaborate retelling at least lends itself to a reconsideration of events.