Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Holcomb Holcomb, KS

Holcomb is a city in Finney County in western Kansas, located about six miles west of Garden City on the Arkansas River, just south of U.S. Highway 50.

The community began as a Santa Fe Railway station called Sherlock in 1872 and served as a station and shipping point on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

On December 3, 1909, the post office was reestablished under the name Holcomb, honoring D.C. Holcomb, a local rancher and hog farmer who helped develop that part of Finney County.

Despite its 19th-century railroad roots, Holcomb was not incorporated as a city until 1961.

Holcomb is known worldwide as the site of the Clutter family murders, in which ex-convicts Richard Hickock and Perry Smith killed four members of the prominent farm family in their home on November 15, 1959.

The murders became the basis of Truman Capote's 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood — often ranked the second-best-selling true crime book in history — and of films including the 1967 movie In Cold Blood and the 2005 film Capote.

When the murders occurred in 1959, Holcomb had fewer than 300 residents; by the 2020 census the city had grown to 2,245 people.

Holcomb is one of the youngest cities in Kansas demographically: its 2020 median age was just 29.5 years, and 55% of its 687 households had children under 18 at home.

Hispanic or Latino residents made up 36.7% of Holcomb's population in the 2020 census.

Students in Holcomb attend Holcomb High School, Holcomb Middle School, and the Wiley and Holcomb elementary schools in Holcomb USD 363.