Question about IN COLD BLOOD murder case—why didn’t the hired man hear the gunshots? Or did he?

[raccoon]

The Clutter family was killed with a 12-gauge shotgun. Law enforcement officials wondered why the hired man and his family didn’t hear the shots.

From IN COLD BLOOD: (Larry Hendricks, a Holcomb, KS resident who goes to the Clutter house right after the murders are discovered, relates: )

“Outside, on the lawn, I saw the under-sheriff talking to a man—Alfred Stoecklein, the hired man. Seems Stoecklein lived not a hundred yards from the Clutter house, with nothing between his place and theirs except a barn. But he was saying as to how he hadn’t heard a sound—said, ‘I didn’t know a thing about it till five minutes ago, when one of my kids come running in and told us the sheriff was here. The Missis and me, we didn’t sleep two hours last night, was up and down the whole time, on account of we got a sick baby. But the only thing we heard, about ten-thirty, quarter to eleven, I heard a car drive away, and I made the remark to Missis, ‘There goes Bob Rupp.’ “

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1965/09/25/1965_09_25_...

From IN COLD BLOOD: (Alfred Stoecklein said, as to why he and his family didn’t hear the shots:)

“For one thing, the wind. A west wind, like it was, would carry the sound t'other way. Another thing, there's that big milo barn 'tween ... That old barn 'ud soak up a lotta racket ' fore it reached us.”

OK, I know sometimes sound travels in weird ways. And maybe the guy and his family didn’t hear anything. But it does make you kind of wonder, since he heard Bobby Rupp drive off just a few hours before the gunshots.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[ThomWV]

1. Its not surprising he didn't hear it.

The gunshots were in the house, it wouldn't have been that loud outside the house, and a 100 yards away it wouldn't have been much at all, and then of course the other guy was inside another house. Oh, and with any sort of wind and a barn in-between I'd actually be pretty surprised if he did hear it. A shotgun isn't all that loud.

[raccoon]

2. Thanks, Thom. I haven't had experience with noise of shotguns in RL. nt

[NV Whino]

3. Another thing to consider

They may have actually heard the shots and it didn't register that anything was wrong. It's a rural area. May people have guns. Many people hunt... not just for food, but to protect crops from vermin (as in rabbits). In instances such as that, shots simply become background noise.

[Aerows]

4. It's been a long time since I read that

Interesting discussion.

[edbermac]

5. He had a reasonable explanation.

I'm sure the house had been built well-insulated to protect the owners from the Kansas winters, also 2 of the murders took place in the basement, so I can understand how the shotgun blasts could have been muffled to someone 100 yards away. He also might have been asleep or dozing off at that time.

[lame54]

6. crying baby

[raccoon]

7. Thanks for the responses--yall have brought up some good points. nt