Lowell Lee Andrews
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Lowell Lee Andrews was a University of Kansas sophomore convicted of killing his parents and his sister on November 28, 1958.
Andrews, a zoology major who played bassoon in the college band, was described by his hometown newspaper as "The Nicest Boy in Wolcott." In reality, the 18-year-old entertained fantasies such as poisoning his family and moving to Chicago to become a gangster.
Andrews and his sister were both at the family's home for the Thanksgiving holiday in 1958. Andrews' sister was watching TV with her parents when Andrews went upstairs to read The Brothers Karamazov. Once he was finished reading, he shaved, put on his nicest suit and went downstairs carrying a .22 caliber rifle and a revolver. Walking into the room where his parents and sister were watching TV, Andrews switched on the light and opened fire with his rifle. He shot his sister between the eyes killing her instantly. He then turned the gun on his parents, shooting his mother three times and his father twice. His mother made an effort to stagger towards him and he shot her another three times. His father attempted to crawl into the kitchen and was shot several more times with the revolver. He fired a total of 17 shots into his father.
After opening a window in an attempt to make the crime look like a burglary, Andrews left the house and drove to the nearby town of Lawrence, throwing his weapons in the Kansas River along the way. He went to his college apartment to establish an alibi with his landlady, then to the Granada movie theater where he watched Mardi Gras (1958) starring Pat Boone. When the movie finished, he went back to his apartment to feed his dog and called the police to inform them of a robbery at his parents' house.
When police arrived, they noticed Andrews seemed unconcerned over the death of his family. He protested his own innocence until the family's minister was able to get a confession out of him.
Andrews pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but was convicted and sentenced to death. Despite his appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court let his conviction stand, and the State of Kansas executed Andrews by hanging on November 30, 1962. He refused to offer any last words.
Andrews was on death row at the Lansing Correctional Facility at the same time as Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, murderers of the Clutter family and the subjects of Truman Capote's 1965 book In Cold Blood. Several pages in Capote's book are about Andrews, who was portrayed by C. Ernst Harth in the film Capote.
