Richard Hickock
| Richard "Dick" Eugene Hickock | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 6, 1931 Kansas City, Kansas |
| Died | April 14, 1965 (aged 33) Lansing, Kansas |
| Charge(s) | Murder |
| Penalty | Death by hanging |
| Status | Deceased |
| Occupation | Criminal, railroad worker, mechanic |
Richard "Dick" Eugene Hickock (June 6, 1931 – April 14, 1965) was one of two ex-convicts who murdered four members of the Herbert Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. Along with Perry Smith, Hickock took part in the home invasion of the Clutter family farmhouse.
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[edit] Early life
Richard Eugene Hickock was born in Kansas City, Kansas to farmworker parents. He was a popular student and athlete at Olathe High School before head injuries from a serious automobile accident in 1950 left him disfigured. Although he had wanted to attend college, his family lacked the means to provide this, so he went to work as a mechanic. He married, fathering three sons, then became involved in an extramarital affair, eventually ending his marriage to marry his mistress, which also ended in divorce. He turned to petty crimes, such as creating and using fraudulent checks, to help make ends meet, and eventually landed in prison, where he met Smith and hatched his plan for robbery and murder.
He was also allegedly an ephebophile;[1] according to Truman Capote in his account of the Clutter murders, In Cold Blood, he was prevented by his partner in crime, Smith, from raping 16-year-old Nancy Clutter during the crime in the Clutter home.
[edit] Clutter murders
Hickock later testified that he and Smith had gotten the idea to rob the Clutters after Hickock was told, by former cellmate Floyd Wells, that there was a safe in the family's house containing $10,000 ($75,000 in today's dollars). When they invaded the house, however, they discovered that there was no such safe.[2] The pair then murdered all four members of the family. Alvin Dewey, chief investigator in the case, testified at the trial that Hickock insisted in his confession that Smith performed all the killings; Smith, however, first claimed Hickock killed the women, but later claimed to have shot them himself. Both refused to testify.
Along with Smith, Hickock was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 30, 1959 for the Clutter family murders, for which they were both tried and found guilty. They both talked extensively to Capote when he was researching In Cold Blood.
Hickock and Smith were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965.
[edit] Film portrayals
Hickock was portrayed by Scott Wilson in the 1967 film adaptation of In Cold Blood, by Anthony Edwards in the 1996 TV miniseries adaptation, Mark Pellegrino in the 2005 film Capote, and by Lee Pace in the 2006 film Infamous.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Doyle, Larry. "Bloodless" November 19, 1996
- ^ Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Random House, 1965.
[edit] External links
- 1931 births
- 1965 deaths
- People from Kansas City, Kansas
- American people convicted of murder
- American mass murderers
- People executed for murder
- People executed by hanging
- 20th-century executions by the United States
- People executed by Kansas
- American murderers of children
- Executed American people
- People convicted of murder by Kansas
