LANSING, Kan. ? The bodies of the two men executed for the 1959 murders of a Kansas family that became infamous in Truman Capote?s true-crime book In Cold Blood were exhumed Tuesday in an effort to solve slayings of a Florida family killed while they were on the lam weeks later.
The bodies of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, both former convicts, were exhumed from the Mount Muncie Cemetery in Lansing, Kan., at the request of the Sarasota County, Fla, sheriff?s office, said the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
They were executed in 1965 for the murders of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their children, Jimmie, three, and Debbie, two, in Holcomb, Kan., on Nov. 15, 1959.
A Sarasota County Sheriff?s detective has been trying to determine whether Smith and Hickock were also responsible for the deaths of Cliff and Christine Walker and their two young children on Dec. 19, 1959, in their home in rural Osprey, about four hours northwest of Miami near Sarasota.
The two men fled to Florida after the Clutter murders and are thought to have spent at least a month there.
Kimberly McGath, a Sarasota County detective, said she requested the exhumation to obtain DNA that could be compared to that from semen found on Christine Walker?s underwear.
She is also hoping to obtain a match on a palm print found in the family?s home.
All the Walkers were shot. Christine Walker also was beaten and raped, and Debbie was drowned in a bathtub.
The unsolved murders 64 years ago remain one of the most horrific in Sarasota County history and shocked the community.
Detectives who investigated the Walker murders have considered Smith and Hickock possible suspects since 1960, according to records released by the Sarasota Sheriff?s Office.
Smith and Hickock were arrested in Las Vegas. A polygraph test cleared them of the Walker murders, but a polygraph expert said in 1987 such tests performed in the early 1960s were worthless.
Lansing police barricaded the entrance to the cemetery, limiting the access to the media and the public.
Exhuming a body is not a problem in the mild weather in Kansas, said Dr. Erik Mitchell, the coroner for Leavenworth County. But the exhumation still does not ensure the Sarasota County Sheriff?s Office will get the evidence they need for a DNA comparison.
- With files from news services
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