Police: DNA tests do not link ‘In Cold Blood’ killers to Florida murders

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – DNA testing on the two men who killed a Kansas family and were profiled in the Truman Capote book “In Cold Blood” does not link them to a quadruple murder in Florida more than 50 years ago.

Capt. Jeff Bell of the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office told The Associated Press on Tuesday they were unable to make a match between killers Perry Smith or Richard Hickock to Christine Walker, who was killed in Sarasota in 1959 with her husband and two children.

Authorities say there’s uncertainty because only partial DNA profiles were taken from the exhumed bodies and the Walker samples were degraded. No more tests are set.

Smith and Hickock fled to Florida after killing Kansas farmer Herb Clutter, his wife and two of their children.

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