In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood- by Truman Capote

Is a none fiction novel published in 1966 about the murder of 4 people in the in the Herbert Clutter family in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas. A former cellmate of Hickock's, Floyd Wells, had once worked as a farmhand for Mr. Clutter, and had told Hickock about a safe at the farmhouse where he claimed Herb Clutter kept large amounts of cash.

(An empty safe could be used as an illustration for the book cover.)

Before the killers were captured Capote and his good friend Harper Lee traveled to Kansas to record and investigate the case- together they interviewed the local residents and collected vast research.

The killers, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested six weeks after the murders and later executed by hanging at the Kansas State Penitentiary on April 14, 1965.

Richard Hickock

Richard Eugene Hickock was born in Kansas City, Kansas, to farmworker parents, Walter Sr. and Eunice Hickock. He was a popular student with great intelligence and was an athlete at Olathe High School before head injuries from a serious automobile accident in 1950 left him disfigured, and resulted in his face being slightly lopsided and his eyes asymmetrical.

Although he had wanted to attend college, his family lacked the means to provide this, so he went to work as a mechanic. He married, but then became involved in an extramarital affair, eventually leading to the conception of his first child. He then decided to end his marriage to marry his mistress; that marriage also ended in divorce after two more children. He turned to petty crime, such as cheating and using fraudulent checks, to help make ends meet. He eventually landed in prison, where he met Smith and hatched a plan for robbery and murder.

Hickock’s injuries could be communicated in the cover of the book, as they may have been the route of his problems.

Hickock donated his eyes for corneal transplants, and they were used on two patients in Kansas City later that day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hickock

Perry Smith

The Smith family moved to Juneau, Alaska, in 1929, where the elder Smith distilled bootleg whisky for a living. Smith's father abused his wife and four children, and in 1935 his wife left him, taking the children with her to San Francisco. Smith and his siblings were raised initially with their alcoholic mother. After Smith's mother committed suicide when he was thirteen, he and his siblings were placed in a Catholic orphanage, where nuns allegedly abused him physically and emotionally for his lifelong problem of chronic bed wetting, a result of malnutrition. He was also placed in a Salvation Army orphanage, where one of the caretakers allegedly tried to drown him. In his adolescence, Smith reunited with his father and together they lived an itinerant existence across much of the western United States. He also spent time in different juvenile detention homes after joining a street gang and becoming involved in petty crime. 

Perry Smith appears to have had much horror and abuse in his childhood, this led to his distorted view of reality- ‘hate breeds hate.’ Which could be used for the cover.

While riding a motorbike he lost control of the bike due to adverse weather conditions. Smith nearly died in the accident and spent six months in a Bellingham hospital. Because of the severe injuries, his legs were permanently disabled and he suffered chronic leg pains for the rest of his life. (both have suffered serious injuries which could be communicated through design.

He read extensively, and during his time on death row, wrote poems and painted pictures for other inmates from photos of their family members.

Eternal Hope:

But he who thinks man is bare

Discarded of pride by force.

Has not the depth of soul to share

Emotions at its source

Perhaps my eyes shall never reach

The light of freedom's skies

But forever my hopes will span the breach

To keep my human ties.

Painting of Jesus by Perry Smith- could be used in design.