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Warning: Some of the videos contain graphic images which some may find disturbing.
In the late 1950s, violent crime was rare in small western Kansas towns.
But on the night of November 14th, 1959, recent parolees Perry Smith & Dick Hickock walked into an unlocked home in Holcomb.
They had been told there was a safe there with thousands of dollars. That information was wrong. Smith and Hickock didn't find a safe. What they did find was four members of a well-respected farm family, the Clutters.
Frustrated, the men shot and killed Herb, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter.
As rare and tragic as the murders were, they didn't get much national attention, until an unusual visitor decided to spend some time in Holcomb.
Truman Capote was already famous for writing "Breakfast at Tiffany's" among other works.
He arrived in Holcomb with close friend Nell Harper Lee, who was about to publish, "To Kill a Mockingbird.
Cliff Hope was Mr. Clutter's attorney. He showed Capote & Lee through the family's home just weeks after the murders, a scene depicted in the recent movie, "Infamous."
Cliff and his wife Dolores later hosted the two famous writers for Christmas dinner in the Garden City house where they still live.
Dolores had been told what to expect. "You don't need to worry about conversation, because he will. He will be the center of the conversation, and that was true."
It took Capote years to finish "In Cold Blood," the story needed an ending, which didn't come until 1965 when Smith & Hickock were executed.
"In Cold Blood" came out the next year and was a national sensation, but not with everyone in western Kansas.
Dolores Hope says, "I guess there were mixed feelings about it..with Capote coming in a cutting a wide swath... but the people I know who... I think they though it was unnecessary, because these were our people and it happened here."
"The main objection many people had was that it was about the murders more than the family. Of course, he intended it to be about the murders from the very beginning," adds Cliff.
Finney County Sheriff Kevin Bascue has become an unofficial tour guide for those studying the case. You may be surprised how often that interest comes even after 50 years.
"At least monthly, sometimes weekly. I don't think we've ever gone more than several months without having somebody call, or stop in."
Of course each year, there are fewer people alive who have first hand memories of the Clutters, or Capote's visits but still Bascue says, "Because of the different folks from around the country and around the world who have come in, I just have a feeling that this particular case, this book ,that movie, will be of interest to people probably for the rest of my lifetime."
The book made Capote a millionaire and perhaps the most famous writer of his time.
Copies still sell today, but something about the Hope's edition is special, a personal note from the author reading, "For Dotie and Cliff, with my gratitude and deep affection. Truman."
In the end, the story is really not about a book, a movie or a famous author. It should be about four good people, Herb, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon and the people and two that loved them.
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