A cigarette is being blamed for starting a fire that damaged the Kansas home in which members of the Clutter family were murdered in 1959, a case chronicled in the infamous Truman Capote novel and subsequent movie“In Cold Blood.”
The fire, which was reported in the early evening on Monday, was contained to a bedroom, a local fire official toldThe Witchita Eagle.However, heat and smoke damage spread to the rest of the house and water damage accumulated in the basement. The current resident of the home was not injured.
On November 5, 1959, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, on parole from the state penitentiary, murdered Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their children, Nancy, 16, and Kenyon, 15.
