The Kansas Historical Society announced that the inmate case files for notorious murderers Richard Eugene “Dick” Hickock and Perry Edward Smith have been added to Kansas Memory, the Historical Society’s online archives of photographs, manuscripts, and government records.

Hickock and Smith were convicted of the 1959 murders of Herb and Bonnie Clutter, their daughter, Nancy, and son, Kenyon, at the family’s home in Holcomb. The men were on death row at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing before their execution by hanging in 1965. The murders inspired the non-fiction novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

The case files contain correspondence with prison officials and family members, clemency petitions, newspaper articles, and legal documents. Items of particular interest include last meal requests, fingerprints, and execution witness lists. Hickock’s file is available at kansasmemory.org/item/208963 and Smith’s file at kansasmemory.org/item/208964.

The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency that also operates the Kansas Museum of History, State Archives, Kansas State Capitol Tour Center, and 16 state historic sites across Kansas.