A non-fiction story written in the format of a novel that details the brutal murder of a family of four in Kansas, a crime that seemed to have no motive, and the manhunt, arrest, and trial of the two men who were responsible. When this book came out in the 1960s, the style of writing, which came to be known as New Journalism, was probably original and shocking. Nowadays, it feels fairly ordinary, so reading the book in 2025, it comes off as an OK, but not exceptional true-crime story.
It’s a fairly comprehensive narrative: you hear about the family, the town they lived in, the murderers and their upbringing, the grisly details of the murder itself, the multi-state manhunt, the arrest, the interrogations, the court case, and what happened after. Apparently, the author spent 6 years working on the book, starting before the killers were captured, and interviewing everyone involved. As a result, you get to hear the story in the voices of those involved, with dialog, flashbacks, and action similar to a fiction novel.
There’s not much of a mystery here, as you know how it’s going to end right from the get-go, so it’s not as exciting or thrilling to read as modern fiction. To me, the most interesting part of the story was towards the end of the book, where, as the author goes through the court case, the book poses a number of interesting questions. Could these men could be considered insane? Did they know right from wrong? Did they get a fair trial? Was the death penalty justified in such a case? There are no easy answers to these questions, and things only get more complicated in the 1970s, as the country was faced with more and more of these motive-less crimes in the form of serial killers.
Overall, this felt like an important book historically, but I found it only OK as a read compared to the modern true-crime stories we have available today.
