[4][5] Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith were two ex-convicts, recently paroled from the Kansas State Penitentiary.

[6] According to Truman Capote, the author of In Cold Blood – a non-fiction novel detailing the Clutter family murders – Hickock described his plan as "a cinch, the perfect score".

[7] On the evening of November 14, 1959, Hickock and Smith drove more than 400 miles (640 km) across the state of Kansas, heading for the Clutter residence to execute their plan.

In the early morning hours of November 15, the pair arrived in Holcomb, located the Clutter home, and entered through an unlocked door while the family slept.

Upon rousing the Clutters, they pushed Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon into a bathroom on the second floor of the house, then led Herb to his first-floor office.

Then they decided to cut him free and move him to the adjoining playroom, bound and gagged; they set him at an oblique angle on the small couch and stuffed a white pillow behind his head, presumably to make him more comfortable.

Finally, the killers bound and gagged Herb and pushed him down onto a mattress box on the concrete floor in the furnace room.

Each of the four victims had been killed by a single shotgun blast to the head, though Herb's throat was cut as well, and the killers retrieved each spent shell.

It was generally known in the area that Herb preferred paying by check, and he seldom carried on his person or kept in the house significant amounts of cash.

A majority of that crowd were also present at the burial at Valley View Cemetery, on the north edge of Garden City.

[11] Before the killers were captured, author Truman Capote learned of the Clutter family murders and decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime.