Shotgun in the Clutter Case

The Shotgun in the Clutter Case was identified as a weapon carried during the killings and later figured in the appeal over evidence taken from Dick’s home. It thus appears in two connected roles: as part of the prosecution’s account of the crime and as an object whose seizure became an issue in challenging the convictions.

Identification and Role in the Crime

In his closing argument, the prosecutor said that Dick and Perry Smith went armed with a shotgun and a dagger to rob and kill. He characterized the killings as a calculated pursuit of money, emphasizing that the loot amounted to forty dollars. The shotgun was therefore presented not as an incidental possession but as part of the preparations for the crime.

The prosecutor also referred to a shotgun blast as the end of the Clutter household. This placed the weapon within his account of the family’s deaths, although the passage does not specify which individual used it or establish a separate sequence of its use. His appeal to the jury made the shotgun one element in the case for imposing the maximum penalty.

Seizure and Appeal

Years later, defense attorneys Joseph P. Jenkins and Robert Bingham argued that the convictions were unjust because evidence had been seized without a search warrant. Their challenge specifically included the shotgun and a knife taken from Dick’s home. The objection concerned the legality of the seizure and the use of the items as evidence, not a new account of the weapon’s role in the crime.

The challenge formed part of a broader series of appeals that also disputed the timing and adequacy of legal representation and the refusal to move the trial despite extensive publicity. The case reached the Supreme Court of the United States three times, but the Court refused to grant certiorari on each occasion. The book records the defense’s claim about the shotgun’s seizure, not a ruling that the claim was correct or a separate judicial finding about the weapon.