Crime & Courts

'In Cold Blood' files case returns to court

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

Associated Press
In Cold Blood Florida
The graves of Perry Edward Smith, right, and Richard Eugene Hickock, left, sit on a sloping hillside at the Mount Muncie Cemetery, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012, in Lansing, Kan. Smith and co-defendant Richard Eugene Hickock, the two men who were the subjects of Truman Capote's iconic book "In Cold Blood," were executed in April 1965 at the Kansas State Penitentiary for the killings of four members of the Herbert Clutter family in Holcomb, Kan. A Florida detective wants to exhume their bodies because he believes there’s evidence linking them to similar murders of a Florida family. (AP Photo/John Hanna) ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Attorneys sparring over investigation materials from the 1959 “In Cold Blood” murders in southwest Kansas are headed to court.

A motions hearing was scheduled Thursday in Shawnee County District Court to discuss what evidence the attorneys will exchange.

At issue are case files kept at the home of a deceased Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent who was part of the probe into the killings of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and two of their children at their farmhouse in Holcomb. The murder case became the subject of Truman Capote’s novel “In Cold Blood.”

The state argues the late agent’s family doesn’t own the case files. The state wants the materials returned and their sale, publication or distribution prohibited.

This story was originally published August 21, 2014 at 10:57 AM.

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