Summary

Holcomb is a small village in southeast Kansas, just outside Garden City, Kansas. Holcomb consisted mostly of wheat farmers in 1959. No one had ever heard of Holcomb until the murders of the Clutter family on November 15, 1959.

Herb Clutter was a healthy, forty-eight year old man in November of 1959 as attested by the insurance physical he had shortly before his death. On the morning of November 14, 1959, Clutter woke later than usual on his farm, River Valley Farm, because he had stayed up late the night before waiting for his daughter to return from a movie. Clutter was upset with his sixteen year old daughter Nancy. Her long time beau, Bobby Rupp, had brought her home, in spite of the fact that Clutter had previously asked Nancy to stop seeing Bobby exclusively. Clutter felt that she was ignoring this advice...