Truman Capote – „In Cold Blood“

Truman Capote was and still is, because of his phenomenal legacy, a famous American writer who lived from 1924 to 1984. A short man, only 160 cm tall, with a high pitched voice, living in New York, a star among his many rich upper class acquaintances who considered him to be their dear friend, someone they confided in, extremely charismatic and funny, always leaving a long lasting impression on anyone who met him, succeeded in doing something nobody had done before him. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, the title „Breakfast at Tiffany’s“ sure does. It is a movie with Audrey Hepburn, an icon herself, you’ll say, and probably the whole world knows about her. But, do you know that the movie was an adaptation of Truman Capote’s book of the same name? I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know that and I was very surprised because my first contact with his written work was something far more different. The fact is, after such a success with „Breakfast at Tiffany’s“ it wasn’t hard to predict he was going to have a long, productive career, but just like I was surprised with the fact he was behind the well-known Hollywood story, he managed to surprise his audience at the time even more, in a big way!

His book, called „In Cold Blood“ was the first of the genre - the true crime, the genre we are so familiar nowadays, thanks to this remarkable writer and many writers after him. Whatever list of the best true crime books recommendation you read, always one stands on the throne – the first one, written in unique and shocking way with all the well crafted elements of a fiction novel. That was certainly hard to do, write a book which didn’t resemble some newspaper’s report, but to achieve impression of a fiction novel with all the realistic elements of the events that really happened one night, to one family, in Holcomb, Kansas, USA, in 1959.

When Truman Capote got interested in this case, even he didn’t know which way the story would go and that fact made the whole process even more complicated. It took him six years to write it, being a witness and a participant in certain „post-crime“ events, doing his own research and „building“ his novel.

I read this book in 2018, a few months ago, and it made me do my own research of the characters in the book, since there are public police files on the case. Actually, those were the police files about two men who did the worst atrocities of all - multiple murders. Their victims, the Clutter family, a loving, hard-working, well-respected, honest family, husband and wife and their two youngest children, aged 15 and 16 were gone by their hand. The unfortunate event happened in the Clutter’s family home, in the evening and night of November 14/15, 1959.

At the time, Truman Capote read an article in the newspapers about the crime. Just like everybody else, he was horrified, not just by the mere fact that the people were murdered, but also how the crime was carried out. It was a merciless execution in a small town where doors weren’t being locked, where people trusted their neighbors, where everybody knew everyone, where safety was so normal no one even considered important to think about it. The town where people lived their usual lives, looking forward to growing old and playing with their grandchildren after, hopefully, long and productive hard-working period of their life, enjoying their old age.

For the Clutter family that ordinary expectation became a nightmare. It was interrupted in the worst possible way and consequently fear instilled in the community. The residents locked their doors, the first neighbor became someone they couldn’t trust anymore and a possible perpetrator; nobody was able to grasp the sudden change of reality. Once a small peaceful town became a scene of terror. Doubt and insecurity got under the residents’ skin, the common feeling being that nobody was safe anymore.

Truman Capote got interested in this phenomenon. His idea was to travel to Kansas City and see for himself what kind of behaviour those people exhibited, how they felt and reacted to something so shocking and unimaginable, yet happening and do his own research. To be a good writer one must know how to decipher human feelings and fears, because they are universal, only the circumstances change and residents of Holcomb and Kansas City had been drawn into the extreme train of events where all those feelings reached a peak.

So, his long journey began in the company of Nelle Harper Lee (the writer of „To Kill a Mockingbird“), his dear childhood friend. He knew right from the start it was not going to be easy, he was worried that people won’t be open enough to talk to him because of his physical appearance, unusual dressing style and mostly being a stranger.

(Truman Capote and Nelle Harper Lee)

He was right. People were so horrified by the crime committed at the Clutter’s house that they, at first, didn’t want to talk about anything at all. The very first information he gathered was thanks to Nelle Harper Lee because people found her more approachable, but Truman and his social skills, charisma, eccentric yet nice and funny personality got to some people. In a while, he was someone people wanted to talk to, he became a guest in their houses and the person he owes gratitude the most ,for this favorable acceptance, is no other than wife of the chief detective on the case, Mrs Dewey. Consequently, Mr Alvin Dewey, a special agent of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and Capote became friends. If it hadn’t been that way, maybe the book „In Cold Blood“ would have never existed, at least in a form and substance we have been familiar with since 1966.

At that moment the Pandora’s box was opened. Truman got the insight into the details, he was aware what really happened that dark night and was acquainted with the puzzling parts of the crime. Four members of the family were dead and the most confusing part of this evil deed was that it contained extreme violence mixed with some unusual acts of inexplicable kindness, such as putting a pillow under the boy’s head to, what it seemed like, make him more comfortable or putting a mattress cardboard on the cold basement floor where Mr Clutter was lying before he was killed. That made no sense. Who would do the worst things of all and leave a sign of humane behaviour? What was the motive for the crime itself? Was that someone who knew them? Was it really done in cold blood?

On December 30 1959 the murderers were captured. That was a turning point for Capote's future work and the reason why it took him six years to write the book. After gathering information about the Clutters family and residents of their small town and the relief they felt when the perpetrators were caught, the focus of his interest suddenly changed, and that substance is actually the most important substance of the book. From the now answered question „Who did it?“ new question appeared, the most complicated and disturbing of all: „Why?“ The killers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith didn't know the Clutters. It was nothing personal, yet the crime suggests as if it was, especially when it comes to Mr Clutter and the way he died.

Capote wanted to talk to them and he got the chance thanks to his status and friendship with Detective Alvin Dewey. It was an exceptional opportunity which resulted in close and personal conversations, especially with Perry Smith. They became friends. Or, at least, it looked like that. That's the part we don't see in the book, but as the story goes, we get mixed feelings, trying to understand why those people engaged in such a horrible act of taking lives, yet there is some feeling in the air, constantly, as if there was something more to it, not just plain evil, but something seriously psychologically wrong.

(Truman Capote and Perry Smith)

No, they weren't insane in the eyes of law. In their words that was a burglary gone in the wrong direction without intention of killing anyone. Wouldn't that be a perfect excuse? Maybe in some imaginary world. Not in this one where four people lost their lives because of the money the perpetrators didn't find. They left the scene with about 50 dollars, a transistor radio and pair of binoculars.

But, who were they, what was Truman's perception when it comes to their troubled lives and what were the facts? Is there any possible explanation, without justification? Capote tried to find that out. He even felt sympathy but he didn't spare them. That's why the book is called „In Cold Blood“, but its name is just a surface to scratch. It is left for you to find out what really happened, what Capote wanted us to know in this non-fiction novel resembling the fictional one with the true crime essence. You can expect to feel the roller coaster of extreme emotions while reading the book and even after you finish reading it, if you find it interesting enough to do your own research pay attention to Perry Smith's last words written down in the book and what the death row convict said for real minutes before his execution by hanging in 1965. For me it was a big eye opener.

This writing is not a praise of the work nor its critique. I found its history and developmental process unique and worth mentioning while getting to know many details about the victims' lives, their neighbors and the killers. When you add the fact that Capote didn't want to finish the book until the killers' deaths it makes it even more unbelievable. Definitely worth reading and if you are interested in the genre, it is a must.

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