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Perry Edward Smith ( October 27, 1928 - April 14, 1965)

Perry was born in Huntington, Nevada to Flo Buckskin and "Tex" John Smith, rodeo performers.
His family moved to Juneau, Alaska where his father distilled bootleg whiskey.
In 1935, Smith's mother left his father and moved the family to San Francisco.
Perry's mother died of alcoholism prior to his adulthood and he was sent to a Catholic orphanage.
At the orphanage, Perry was both physically and emotionally abused.
Smith also lived in a Salvation Army orphanage, as well as, detention homes, before returning to his father.
At the age of 16, Smith joined the United States Merchant Marine and served in the Korean War.
During his time oversees, he was repeatedly thrown into the stockade for public carousing and fighting with Korean civilians and other soldiers.
After a honorable discharge in 1952, Perry purchased a motorcycle; this lead to the wreck that disabled his legs for the rest of his life.
Perry Smith first met Richard Hickock in prison. Here they devised the plan to murder the Clutters, in order to attain the contents of a safe described to them by an inmate.
After capture in Las Vegas, Nevada in January 1960, he began a long trial process where he became good friends with Truman Capote.
There have been many rumors about the actual nature of the relationship between Capote and Smith.

(Perry Edward Smith)

Richard (Dick) Eugene Hickock (June 6, 1931 - April 14, 1965)

Dick Hickock was born in Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas.
Dick tried to rape Nancy Clutter; however, Perry Smith was successful in stopping him.
He came from a good stable family and after high school he married Carol Bryan.
Together Carol and Dick had three sons.
In 1950, Dick was involved in a car accident that left him with a dislocated jaw and a disfigured face.
While he was still married, he fathered a child with another girl, Margaret Edna. His wife promptly divorced him.
While in jail for bad checks, Richard met Floyd Wells, the man that eventually turned him in for the murder of the Clutter family.
After breaking into the Clutter's house and learning that the safe did not exist, Dick and Perry tied up the Clutters and executed them one by one.
He and Perry were arrested in January 1960, and after a lengthy trial, were hanged.
(Dick Hickock)

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