Richard Hickock

Richard Hickock
Kansas State Penitentiary - March, 1960
Born	Richard Eugene Hickock (1931-06-06)June 6, 1931 Kansas City, Kansas
Died	April 14, 1965(1965-04-14) (aged 33) Lansing, Kansas
Occupation	Criminal, railroad worker, mechanic
Criminal charge	Murder
Criminal penalty	Death by hanging
Criminal status	Deceased

Richard Eugene "Dick" Hickock (June 6, 1931 – April 14, 1965) was one of two ex-convicts convicted of murdering four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, United States, on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. Along with Perry Edward Smith, Hickock took part in the home invasion of the Clutter family farmhouse.

Richard Eugene Hickock was born in Kansas City, Kansas, to farmworker parents, Walter Sr. and Eunice Hickock. He was a popular student with great intelligence and was an athlete at Olathe High School before head injuries from a serious automobile accident in 1950 left him disfigured, and resulted in his face being slightly lopsided and his eyes asymmetrical. Although he had wanted to attend college, his family lacked the means to provide this, so he went to work as a mechanic. He married, but then became involved in an extramarital affair, eventually leading to the conception of his first child. He then decided to end his marriage to marry his mistress; that marriage also ended in divorce after two more children. He turned to petty crime, such as cheating and using fraudulent checks, to help make ends meet. He eventually landed in prison, where he met Smith and hatched a plan for robbery and murder.

According to Truman Capote in his account of the Clutter murders, In Cold Blood, he was prevented by his partner in crime, Smith, from raping 16-year-old Nancy Clutter during the crime in the Clutter home.

Hickock later testified that he and Smith had gotten the idea to rob the Clutters after Hickock was told, by former cellmate Floyd Wells, who had earlier worked as a farmhand for the Clutters, that there was a safe in the family's house containing $10,000. However, when they invaded the house just after midnight on November 15, 1959, they discovered that there was no such safe. The pair then murdered all four members of the family. Alvin Dewey, chief investigator in the case, testified at the trial that Hickock insisted in his confession that Smith performed all the killings; Smith, however, first claimed Hickock killed the two women, but later claimed to have shot them himself. Both refused to testify during their trial.