Reading Responds

Truman Capote’s, In Cold Blood is the true story of a multiple murder of a farming family, the Clutters that changed the small town of Holcomb, Kansas and neighboring communities in 1959. The story weaves a complex psychological story of two men who together committed the murder. Capote researched and wrote details about the lives of the victims and the effect the crime had on where they lived. A large part of the story involves the dynamic psychological relationship of the two felons that culminated in this senseless crime.

            Capote came across an article in the New York Times that inspired him enough to travel to Kansas to investigate the murders.  Capote brought he brought  his childhood friend Harper Lee, who would later write the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, with him to help gain the confidence of the locals, who distrusted Capote. He describes the town as “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’”

            The two interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousands of pages of notes as research. The killers, Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested not long after the murders. After the criminals were found, tried, and convicted, Capote held personal interviews with both Smith and Hickock. Smith especially fascinated Capote, in the book he is portrayed as the more receptive and guilt-ridden of the two. Capote noted in one of his interview notes, “My files would almost fill a whole small room, right up to the ceiling. All my research. Hundreds of letters. Newspaper clippings. Court records – the court records almost fill two trunks… I have some of the personal belongings – all of Perry’s because he left me everything he owned; it was miserably little, his books, written in and annotated; the letters he received while in prison. . .not very many. . .his paintings and drawings…I think I may burn it all … The book is what is important. It exists in its own right. The rest of the material is extraneous, and it’s personal. What’s more, I don’t really want people poking around in the material of six years of work and research. The book is the end result of all that, and it’s exactly what I wanted to do from it (Capote).” Capote eventually spent six years working on the book, and was not completed until after Smith and Hickock were executed.

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. Modern Library. 5 March 2002 .

“In Cold Blog-A blog for historical true crime fans.” WordPress.2007. http://incoldblog.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/in-cold-blood-by-truman-capote/.

 “American Masters.” PBS. 2008. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/capote_t.html.

---