Map of Holcomb city, Kansas

Holcomb is a city in Finney County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,245.

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Holcomb location map. Where is Holcomb city?

History

Holcomb took its name from a local hog farmer. The city was a station and shipping point on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The first post office in Holcomb was established in December 1909.

1959 murders

The town of Holcomb was thrust into national and, eventually, international notoriety after November 15, 1959, when four members of the prominent Clutter family (father Herbert, 48; his wife Bonnie, 45; their youngest daughter, Nancy, 16; and son Kenyon, 15) were found bound and shot to death in various rooms of their home, on the family’s River Valley Farm on the outskirts of Holcomb.

Two ex-convicts, Richard (“Dick”) Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested, tried, and convicted of the killings. It started when both Hickock and Smith were released from prison and, acting on jailhouse information by a cellmate of Hickock’s named Floyd Wells (who had worked for Mr. Clutter in 1948), made plans to rob the Clutter household under the mistaken belief that Mr. Clutter, according to Wells, kept thousands of dollars in cash in a safe at the residence. There was no Clutter safe, nor was there any substantial amount of cash in the home. Upon this discovery, and after killing the captive family to eliminate any witnesses, the pair fled with around $42 (equivalent to $390 in 2021), a portable radio, and one pair of binoculars. They were arrested on December 30, 1959, in Las Vegas, Nevada after possibly having murdered another family in Florida. Following their convictions and several appeals, Hickock and Smith were hanged for first-degree murder on April 14, 1965.

The murders, arrests and convictions of Hickock and Smith were the basis for author Truman Capote’s acclaimed book In Cold Blood, which was serialized in The New Yorker magazine in 1965 and first published in book form in 1966. Capote actually began work on the book several days after he read a news article in a New York paper in 1959 about the murders.

The best-selling book, in turn, spawned several filmed versions of the story: director Richard Brooks’ theatrical feature film In Cold Blood in 1967 starring Robert Blake, Scott Wilson and John Forsythe, and a two-part 1996 TV miniseries adaptation starring Eric Roberts, Anthony Edwards and Sam Neill that aired on network TV in 1996. Portions of the 1967 theatrical film were shot on location in and around Holcomb and nearby Garden City, including the actual house where the crimes took place.

The 2005 movie Capote, directed by Bennett Miller, is also about the author Capote, and the crimes in Holcomb. The 2006 film Infamous, starring Toby Jones as Capote, covers much of the same material.

Holcomb Road Map

Holcomb city Satellite Map

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.35 square miles (3.50 km), all land.

Climate

According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Holcomb has a semi-arid climate, abbreviated “BSk” on climate maps.

See also