Herbert Clutter and his family go about their daily routines, unaware it is the last day of their lives.

Dick Hickock and Perry Smith outfit their car and drive toward Holcomb, planning to rob the Clutter home.

Bobby Rupp spends the evening with the Clutter family watching television before leaving after 10:30 pm.

Dick and Perry arrive at River Valley Farm, break in, and murder all four members of the Clutter family.

Nancy Ewalt and Susan Kidwell venture inside the Clutter home and discover blood covering Nancy Clutter's bedroom walls.

Officers find all four Clutters bound and shot inside the farmhouse; Herbert's throat has also been cut.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation opens a murder investigation led by Special Agent Al Dewey.

Floyd Wells, Dick's former prison cellmate, hears a news report about the murders and alerts the warden to Dick's involvement.

Dick and Perry are arrested at a rundown apartment building in Las Vegas.

Dick confesses to participating in the robbery but insists Perry alone is responsible for all four murders.

Perry confesses in detail, describing how shame and rage triggered him to kill Herbert Clutter and the rest of the family.

Dick and Perry arrive at the Garden City courthouse, where the crowd falls silent as they are led inside.

A psychiatrist concludes both men may bear diminished responsibility, but the court rules most of his testimony inadmissible.

The jury convicts Dick and Perry after 40 minutes of deliberation, and the judge sentences both men to hang.

After the executions, Dewey finds no closure; his thoughts drift to a chance encounter with Susan Kidwell, now studying art at college.

The Clutter family goes about their final day on a prosperous Kansas farm while two ex-convicts drive toward them planning a robbery. The next morning, the family is discovered murdered, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation takes charge of the case. After months of investigation, a tip from a former prison cellmate leads authorities to Dick Hickock and Perry Smith in Las Vegas. Under questioning, both men confess, and Perry describes how shame and rage drove him to kill the Clutters for less than fifty dollars. The men are tried in Garden City, convicted, and sentenced to death by hanging. Five years later they are executed, and the lead detective finds that the closure he sought remains elusive.

The headline story: from the Clutters' last day to the killers' execution.

Herbert Clutter finalizes a $40,000 life insurance policy on the last night of his life, reflecting on his achievements.

Dick lies to his parents, claiming he and Perry plan to visit Perry's sister in Fort Scott as a cover story.

Dick and Perry stop in Emporia to purchase rubber gloves and rope in preparation for the robbery.

News of the Clutter murders spreads through Holcomb's post office and cafe, frightening the tight-knit community.

KBI agents question Holcomb residents but uncover only minor grievances against the Clutters and no clear motive.

Dick and Perry pass bad checks and pawn purchased items around Kansas City to raise money for Mexico.

Beverly Clutter and her fiancé marry in the week following the Clutter family's funeral.

Two families, including the Ashidas, announce plans to leave Holcomb as fear and unease grip the community.

Dick and Perry meet a German man named Otto and go deep-sea fishing off his boat near Acapulco.

Dick and Perry sell their car in Mexico City when money runs out, and Dick insists on returning to the United States.

Dick and Perry sit by the road in the Mojave Desert, attempting to lure a passing driver to rob and kill.

Dick and Perry steal a car from a barn in Iowa and drive toward Kansas City despite Perry's protests.

Dick and Perry spend Christmas on a Miami beach where Dick unsuccessfully attempts to seduce a 12-year-old girl.

Perry is housed in the Sheriff's Residence awaiting trial and forms a friendship with Josephine Meier, the undersheriff's wife.

Dick befriends Lowell Lee Andrews on Death Row while Perry, threatened by Andrews's college education, goes on a hunger strike.

The second pool fills in the texture of events surrounding the murder and its aftermath, from Herbert Clutter signing a life insurance policy hours before his death to Dick and Perry's desperate flight through Mexico and across America. While investigators struggle to identify a motive and the Holcomb community reacts with fear and suspicion, the fugitives pass bad checks, scheme against strangers, and slowly exhaust their money and options. Their aimless odyssey takes them from Mexico to Iowa to Miami before they are finally run to ground. After conviction, the killers face a long and uncertain wait on Death Row, where new inmates arrive and the prison routine presses down on the final years of their lives.

Behind the headlines: the key events the main plot passed over.

Perry waits at a cafe in Olathe studying a map of Mexico, secretly hoping to reconnect with Willie-Jay and avoid the robbery.

Dick tries to buy black stockings from nuns at a Catholic hospital to use as face masks but returns to the car empty-handed.

Dick and Perry stop for gas in Garden City; Perry nearly abandons the plan before reemerging from the bathroom.

Perry reads a newspaper article about the Clutter murders at a Kansas City diner and warns Dick about Floyd Wells as a loose end.

Perry finds his father's letter to the parole board while packing in Mexico City, triggering memories of his abusive and impoverished childhood.

Perry reads a letter from his sister Barbara, who refuses to accept that his upbringing explains or excuses his behavior.

Agent Nye visits Dick's family and learns Dick's personality changed sharply after he sustained a concussion in a car crash.

Agent Nye confirms Perry's stay in Las Vegas and visits Barbara in San Francisco, who confirms the Fort Scott alibi is false.

Perry convinces Dick to pick up a young boy and his grandfather hitchhiking; the group earns cash collecting discarded bottles.

Agent Nye confronts Dick with crime scene photographs of boot prints that match a pair of Dick's own boots.

Perry maintains silence under interrogation until learning on the drive back to Kansas that Dick has already confessed.

Perry describes Dick waking Herbert Clutter to demand the safe, and how Herbert's denials and offer of a check further enraged Dick.

Perry reveals he bound Nancy himself to prevent Dick from raping her, and explains how finding a silver dollar triggered him to kill Herbert.

Dr. Jones privately concludes Perry likely killed in a dissociative state and shows signs of paranoid schizophrenia, but the court restricts his testimony.

Perry apologizes for the murders before his execution and states on principle that he opposes capital punishment.

This pool traces the key turning points that reveal why the Clutter murders happened and how they were solved. Perry's reluctance to follow through on the robbery and Dick's careless contempt for leaving witnesses are visible from the start, while a gas station pause and a newspaper article hint at the plan's fragility. Investigation into Dick's background uncovers a personality transformed by a car crash, while Perry's letters from home expose a life shaped by poverty and abuse. The confessions reveal that the murders were less calculated than chaotic, triggered by humiliation and a spiral of shame. In court, a psychiatrist's private conclusions about both men's mental states are largely suppressed by the rules of evidence, and only at the gallows does Perry find words to express regret.