NATIONAL BRIEFS

KANSAS: 1959 killers' bones exhumed

The bodies of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, executed for the 1959 murders of a Kansas family that became infamous in Truman Capote's book "In Cold Blood" were exhumed Tuesday in an effort to solve the slayings of a Florida family killed weeks later. Bone fragments were collected from the skeletal remains of Hickock and Smith, who were hanged for the murders of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their children in Holcomb, Kan., on Nov. 15, 1959. The fragments were collected at the request of a Sarasota County Sheriff's detective, who has been trying to determine whether Hickock and Smith were responsible for the deaths of Cliff and Christine Walker and their two young children on Dec. 19, 1959, in their home in Osprey, near Sarasota. Smith and Hickock had fled to Florida after the Clutter murders.

ILLINOIS: Two escape high-rise jail

A manhunt is under way for two bank robbers who escaped from downtown Chicago's high-rise jail Tuesday, apparently squeezing through a narrow window and scaling down about 20 stories with a makeshift rope. Joseph "Jose" Banks and Kenneth Conley went unaccounted for during a 5 a.m. head count. Investigators found a broken window in the men's cell, where window bars were found inside a mattress, according to an FBI affidavit. Fake metal bars were found in the cell, a rope was tied to a window bar, and each man's bed was stuffed with clothing and sheets to resemble a body, the affidavit said.

THE SOUTHWEST: Snow coming from Rockies

A snowstorm is moving through the Rocky Mountain region as holiday travels begin. The National Weather Service expects 3 to 8 inches of snow in southern Utah and northern Arizona, 6 to 8 inches in some parts of Colorado.