The Clutters.

On Saturday night, 14 November 1959, the lights did not burn late at the home of Herbert Clutter and his family near Holcomb, Kansas. The Clutters customarily rose early on Sunday to prepare for church. In many ways they represented the heartland American ideal. Herbert Clutter was a successful wheat farmer and the current chairman of the Kansas Conference of Farm Organizations. A respected man in the community, Clutter never touched alcohol or tobacco or even caffeine. His wife Bonnie was a retiring woman and something of an invalid, but she was well liked and was a caring mother of their four children, two of whom were still at home. Their youngest daughter, Nancy, was sixteen and her brother Kenyon was a year younger. Both were straight-A students. Mr. and Mrs. Clutter had two other daughters.

The Murder Scene.

The morning of 15 November...