PERRY SMITH
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Detectives believe there’s another chapter to the horrific murder recounted in Truman Capote’s classic book “In Cold Blood.”
The bodies of remorseless killers Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, — hanged in 1965 for the 1959 slayings of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their two children in Holcomb, Kan. — have been exhumed at the request of Florida authorities.
They are trying to link the murderous drifters to an eerily similar crime in the town of Osprey.
Samples from the killers’ bone fragments will be tested in a Kansas laboratory against DNA evidence collected in the slayings of Cliff and Christine Walker and their two young kids.
The Clutter case was made famous in Capote’s book and in several movies, including “Capote,” a biopic about the author released in 2005.
But the Walker case is less known. The family was killed on Dec. 19, 1959, a little more than a month after the Clutters were slain.
Christine Walker was beaten and raped, and the couple’s 2-year-old daughter was drowned in a bathtub. Then they were all shot.
Hickock and Smith have long been suspects in that slaying, and there’s plenty of evidence against them, said Wendy Rose, spokeswoman for the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s all little stuff, but it makes sense when you put the pieces together,” she said.
Hickock and Smith checked out of a hotel in Miami early on the morning the Walkers were killed, and were later seen within 30 miles of Osprey.
The suspects worked as car mechanics, and a grease rag was found with Christine Walker’s body, Rose said.
There’s also evidence the Walkers had been interested in buying the car Hickcock and Smith were driving.
DNA testing has advanced to the point where it’s now possible to test the old samples against evidence in the Florida case, including semen found on Christine Walker’s underwear.
Although Hickock and Smith are long dead, Rose said there’s legitimate reason to pursue the investigation.
“There were nearly 600 people on a list of suspects. There are some people whose names were in the paper quite prominently back in the day who would like their names cleared,” she said.
“We have gotten e-mails from people who were friends or neighbors of the Walkers. They are thanking us for sticking with the case.”