A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders

6: After Much Thought

6 After Much Thought 77 I During the summer of 1966 mass murder frequented the news. Truman Capote's In Cold Blood ushered in a "new journalism ," where real events were reported with fictional techniques . Capote engaged in a prolonged investigation to detail the mass murder of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, by two wanderers on 15 November 1959. Although first serialized in The New Yorker magazine in 1965, In ColdBloodwas still the year's most t alked about bestseller in 1966. Mr. Herbert Clutter, an affluent wheat farmer, employed I Z I - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - After Much Thought several farm hands. Floyd Wells, a former employee, later served time in the Kansas State Penitentiary where he became friends with a fellow prisoner named Richard E. Hickock, who made repeated efforts to learn as much about the Clutter family as possible. Specifically ; Hickock was interested in finding out if the Clutters had a safe in their home. Wells either suggested or Hickock conjured up a nonexistent safe located in a wall behind Herb Clutter's office desk, Eventually; Hickock was paroled. Shortly afterwards he and a friend named Perry E. Smith headed for the Clutter home, where they expected to steal at least ten thousand dollars. They did not know that Herbert Clutter had a well-known reputation for not carrying cash; anyone in Holcomb could have told the pitiful fools that Herb Clutter paid for everything by check, Hickock and Smith sneaked into the home through an unlocked door (most people from Holcomb saw no need to lock doors) and terrorized the family before lulling Mr. Clutter, his wife Bonnie, and their two children Kenyon and Nancy. Each of the victims had been tied at the wrists. Mrs. Clutter and her children were murdered by shotgun blasts to the head from short range. Mr. Clutter's body was found in the basement of his home; he had been shot in the head and his throat had been slashed.1 Still in prison, Floyd Wells notified the warden of Hickock's interest in the murdered family. A manhunt ensued and shortly thereafter Hickock and Smith were arrested in Las Vegas after having traveled much of the United States and Mexico. Both men confessed and revealed that the brutal murder of the family of four netted only fifty dollars. After his arrest, Smith said of Clutter, "He was a nice gentleman [and] I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."2 Hickock and Smith were hanged in April of 1965. Capote released In ColdBlood the next year. Hickock, and especially Smith, became infamous characters not only in American criminal history; but in literature as well. In Cold Blood, specifically its brilliant descriptions of two mass murderers, made Truman Capote an American icon. In late July of 1966 America was horrified by a mass murder in Chicago. Alone drifter and abuser of alcohol and drugs named Richard Speck. forced his way into a large but crowded apartment that functioned as a student nurses' dorm for the South Chicago After Much Thought -----------------m Community Hospital. Six of the nine young nurses who lived in the house were trapped immediately. He took their money and waited for the other three to return. Speck bound them with bedsheets he had cut into strips. For the next four hours, Speck committed some of the most heartless and brutal murders in American criminal history . He did not seem to tire of lulling; he took eight of the nurses, one at a time, and murdered them with his bare hands. Although armed with a knife and a pistol, he strangled five of the young women and stabbed only three. He also sexually assaulted one, Gloria Davy, who bore a tragic resemblance to Speck's former wife. The terrorstricken student nurses could hear the last gasps of each victim as she died. After each murder, Speck. paused to wash his hands, so that the young women were conditioned to expect Speck's return for another victim every time the lavatory faucet was turned onthen off. The ninth intended victim, Corazon Amurao, maneuvered herself under a bed where she hid for several terrifying hours. Speck apparently lost count of his victims and overlooked her. At 5:00 A.M. she heard the familiar ring of an alarm clock.. Ms. Amurao remained hidden beneath the bed in the still and eerily quiet apartment. At 7:00 A...