In the novel Curtain, Matthew Litchfield was an elderly wealthy man. He had four daughters, whom he didn't allow to spend any money or hang out.
Matthew Litchfield was killed one evening with a blow on the head by his eldest daughter Margaret. However, Margaret was manipulated into killing her father by Stephen Norton, a four-times killer at the time. Litchfield was thus Norton's fifth victim. Matthew was also Elizabeth Cole's father.
Matthew Litchfield never appears in the novel.