Stolen 'In Cold Blood' Tombstones Found
I O L A, Kan., Dec. 29 -- The tombstones of the two killers immortalizedin Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood have been recovered 20 yearsafter they were stolen.
The tombstones — believed to have been ordered and paid for byCapote — were pried Wednesday from frozen ground on an easternKansas farm.
State investigator Tom Williams, who helped retrieve the gravemarkers, said he learned of their location from an acquaintance whohad heard the stones were in Allen County.
In the early 1960s, Capote spent several months in Holcomb, inwestern Kansas, gathering material for what would become hisbest-selling novel.
In Cold Blood chronicles the murders of four members of theClutter family. Killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith were drawn tothe Clutter home by rumors that the wealthy family kept cash intheir farmhouse. When Hickock and Smith didn’t find any money, theytortured and brutally murdered the family.
Smith and Hickock were executed in 1965.
Capote, who died in 1984, reportedly came to know the twomurderers well enough during his research that he ordered two graygranite tombstones to replace the spartan ones provided by thestate.
Williams said the man who stole the stones no longer lives inKansas, but the owner of the property where they were found knewthey were there and was familiar with the person who stole them. Noprosecution is planned.
“I’m not sure right now what is going to become of them,”Williams said.
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