Memory bank, November 15

In the fall of 1959, Herbert and Bonnie Clutter invited their relatives to come to Holcomb, Kansas, for a family gathering at Thanksgiving. Gabbing, eating, playing games, hunting, horseback riding, going through the family albums, watching football on TV, normal activities that Midwesterners do when they socialize. The kind of gathering that my mother's family has done dozens of times at Thanksgiving. There was a family reunion, all right, but not the way Herbert and Bonnie planned.

The Clutter family was murdered -- in cold blood -- 50 years ago, November 15, 1959. A niece and cousin of the victims writes about that time. She writes well.