1. Richard Eugene Hickock was one of two ex-convicts convicted of murdering four members of the 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.
18 Facts About Richard Hickock
1. 2.
Richard Hickock was born on June 6,1931, in Kansas City, Kansas to farmworker parents, Walter Sr.
3.
Richard Hickock was one of several siblings, including a younger brother named Walter Jr.
4.
Richard Hickock was a popular student and an athlete at Olathe High School.
5.
Head injuries from a serious automobile accident in 1950 left Richard Hickock disfigured, rendering his face slightly lopsided and his eyes asymmetrical.
6.
Richard Hickock drifted through several manual labor jobs, working as a railroad worker, mechanic, and ambulance driver while simultaneously continuing to write bad checks and commit petty theft.
7.
Richard Hickock was imprisoned in the Kansas State Penitentiary for stealing a rifle out of a local home.
8.
When Richard Hickock was 19, he married for the first time.
9.
Richard Hickock then decided to end his first marriage to marry his mistress, and they had two children together.
10.
Richard Hickock was released from prison in August 1959, after serving seventeen months.
11.
Richard Hickock testified after the trial that he and Smith had gotten the idea to rob the Clutters after Richard Hickock was told by Wells, their former cellmate, that there was a safe in the family's house containing $10,000.
12.
Alvin Dewey, chief investigator in the case, testified at the trial that Richard Hickock insisted in his confession that Smith performed all the killings.
13.
Smith first claimed Richard Hickock killed the two women, but later claimed to have shot them himself.
14.
Richard Hickock donated his eyes for corneal transplants, and they were used on two patients in Kansas City later that day.
15.
Smith and Richard Hickock had fled to Florida after the Clutter murders, and the two had been questioned about the December 19,1959, shooting murder of Cliff and Christine Walker and their two young children.
16.
Consequently, investigators have stated that Smith and Richard Hickock still remain the most viable suspects.
17.
In 2017, The Wall Street Journal uncovered a handwritten manuscript that Richard Hickock wrote while he waited for his execution on death row.
18.
Richard Hickock was portrayed by Scott Wilson in the 1967 film adaptation of In Cold Blood; by Anthony Edwards in the 1996 TV miniseries adaptation; by Mark Pellegrino in the 2005 film Capote; and by Lee Pace in the 2006 film Infamous.