Most folk interested in the death penalty, whether they are for or against capital punishment, have read the non-fiction novel by Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, or seen the film based upon that book which starred Robert Blake and Scott Wilson as the two men executed by the State of Kansas for the killings of the Clutter family back in 1959.  

Most people know that Perry Smith and Richard Hickock were sentenced to death by hanging for the killing of an entire family in their rural family home but not as many people are aware that after the Kansas crime, the two men left Kansas and roamed the country — including stints in Nevada and Florida.

Which means that it is very possible that Smith and Hickock were in the State of Florida at the time of another set of homicides close to Miami: that of the Walker family, crimes that have remained unsolved even today.

Through a set of facts tying Smith and Hickock to the Walker homicides that has been deemed sufficient to support a court order allowing exhumation of their bodies, the two In Cold Blood killers may now be tied by DNA evidence to the Walker homicides as well.

For details, read the continuing coverage at the Huffington Post or the Miami Herald.  The bodies were exhumed yesterday and DNA testing has already begun.  It’s not clear when any results or findings will be announced.