Dawn of Mantis: True Crime, Mysteries and More · Dawn of Mantis Podcast

DOM Ep350 - The Clutter Family Murders (Pt. 2)

October 17, 2025·1 hr 3 min·10 clips

Dawn of Mantis finishes its two-part look at the Clutter family murders by picking up after the killings. Part one introduced the Clutter family and the two killers, Dick Hickok and Perry Smith. This episode follows what comes next, tracking the pair as they move across much of the United States and down into Mexico. The conversation stays on the run itself. It is not especially tidy, and that fits the show. One voice lays out the timeline while the others interrupt with questions, jokes, corrections, and the occasional burst of disbelief. The group keeps coming back to how little sense the killers make. They spend money, steal what they can, and quickly end up broke again. The hosts do not soften that reaction. They keep calling out how stupid and degrading the whole thing feels. The episode also pauses on the victims’ absence. The hosts talk about Herb Clutter as a hardworking, intelligent man and remember the family as decent people. That contrast matters to them. It gives the case its emotional weight. There is a recurring thread about money and what it does not fix. One host reflects on having had money and having had almost none, and says the difference did not make life perfect either way. The others push that thought toward a sharper point: bad character does not disappear when money appears. The investigation gets its own stretch of attention. The hosts describe it as a sophisticated piece of work for Kansas policemen in 1959. They seem genuinely interested in how the case was solved. That procedural side gives the episode more than shock value. The panel keeps moving between the facts and the commentary. Sometimes the discussion is grave. Sometimes it is snide. Sometimes it slides into small riffs on wording, attitude, or the absurdity of the killers’ choices. The tone shifts fast, but the case never gets lost. The arrest portion ties the scattered clues back together into a clearer picture. The show follows the trail rather than rushing past it. It gives room to the mechanics of the investigation. That helps the episode feel grounded even when the conversation gets unruly. Trials and executions are part of the finish. The hosts do not linger on procedural polish. They treat those stages as the last act in a story already defined by waste and cruelty. The emphasis stays on what the murders took from the Clutter family and how small the killers seem beside that loss. The show’s presentation is openly conversational. It sounds like people talking around a prepared narrative instead of reading from a script. False starts and mid-thought corrections stay in the mix. So do the jokes. That looseness is part of the appeal. The hosts are comfortable saying when they think the killers are idiots. They are also comfortable sitting with the sadness underneath that anger. The result is not polished. It feels human. The episode keeps returning to the idea that innocence can be wrecked by reckless people with no real plan beyond theft and violence. That idea gives the conversation its spine. The hosts do not prettify it. By the end, the series has moved from family portrait to manhunt to courtroom and final judgment. The route is plain. The tone is rough around the edges. The story still lands. The closing stretch adds a musical sendoff that matches the show’s offbeat personality. Even there, the humor stays tied to the idea that these hosts would rather keep talking than posture. That is the show’s basic rhythm. Listeners get a full sweep of the case. They also get the panel’s running commentary on stupidity, money, grief, and how hard it is to make sense of pointless violence. The episode does not try to clean that up. It lets the mess stay visible. The hosts make room for annoyance, sorrow, and a little irreverence. They are not trying to sound authoritative in a polished way. They are trying to work through the story together. The investigation is treated with real interest. The killers’ behavior is treated with almost no mercy. That combination keeps the episode from becoming either dry history or empty outrage. The conversation feels lived in. It is full of ordinary speech, familiar references, and the kind of repetition people use when they are circling a grim subject and trying to make it legible. That is not a flaw here. It is the texture. The final shape is simple enough: crime, flight, capture, judgment. But the show makes room for the human irritation that sits inside that outline. That is where the episode finds its voice. It ends as it begins, with the hosts treating the case like something to be understood rather than simply consumed. They may joke while they do it. They still stay with the facts. This is a story about loss, pursuit, and the banality of evil seen through a very chatty lens. The episode keeps its feet on the ground even when the hosts wander a bit. That balance is the point.

As heard by us

A blunt, bantering look at the Clutter murders' aftermath and the investigation that followed.

This installment of Dawn of Mantis closes out the Clutter family murders series by following the aftermath as the killers move across much of the U.S. and into Mexico, while the investigation, arrest, trials, and executions unfold in parallel.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want the run, the arrest, and the fallout.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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