In Cold Blood

When a book like IN COLD BLOOD reaches the level of being a classic, there has to be a reason. Consider the following two excerpts: "The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them." "Then, starting home, he walked toward the trees, and under them, leaving behind him the big sky, the whisper of wind voices in the wind-bent wheat." The former excerpt is from Capote's opening paragraph; the latter cointains his closing sentence. Both are extraordinary, especially for their time, in capturing the mood and poetry of a place in the middle of a true-life story of a horrific mass murder. As is certainly well known, IN COLD BLOOD is Truman Capote's magazine-article-turned full-length-docu-novel about the murders of four members of the Clutter family in their Holcomb, Kansas, farmhouse in November 1959. The two killers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, were ultimately caught, tried, sentenced, and executed, factual matters that are still commonly known today thanks to two recent movies about Capote's life and his efforts to write the book. Even at its publication, IN COLD BLOOD was not a detective story in the traditional sense, since everyone already knew the perpetrators and the case's eventual disposition. In an era when such incidents were reported either factually (newspaper style) or sensationally (crime magazine style), Truman Capote effectively created an entire new genre: journalism as art form. Writing with a level of descriptive detail about places and events that create a strong sense of immediacy in the reader's mind, he begins his story with a re-creation of the Clutter family's last day of life. The effect is profound and eerie, since these pages are read with a foreknowledge of death not shared by the real-life characters on the page. Capote builds his suspense masterfully, alternating between the movements of Hickock and Smith and those of the Clutters (husband and father Herbert, perennially sick wife and mother Bonnie, intelligent, tinkering son Kenyon, and All-American sweetheart daughter and town darling Nancy. As he brings the two parties closer and closer together, Capote continues to fill in background on their respective lives. By the time his orchestrated characters have reached their mutual, bloody crescendo, the reader is intimately acquainted with them as individuals and their respective life stories. Thus, the author gives us individuals with whom we are intimate as characters in a novel, yet they are real people about whom he is reporting in a senseless, horrifying mass murder story. This is Capote's genius and the source of his book's classic status - factual reporting that reads like a novel, displaying the intimacy with its characters that is normally reserved for the so-called "omniscient author," the one who can hear, share, and express his or her characters' most private thoughts and motivations. Capote's pacing and remarkable eye for detail never relent as the story moves from crime to investigation, arrest, and trial by jury. He maneuvered himself into a situation where he was privy to every detail of the police investigation; it is equally clear he had extended access to Hickock and Smith throughout their ordeal, up to and including their ultimate disposition. While it was doubtless a level of access no longer available to reporters or writers, Capote took maximum advantage of it in crafting his story. What comes out of it, surprisingly, is a tale of two socially maladjusted young men of above-average intelligence whose trial was of questionable fairness, particularly as regards the mental health of one of them (who was probably more criminally insane than scheming murderer). In one of the book's most telling moments, Capote recounts the reports that the court-appointed psychiatrist would have rendered had the judge (and Kansas state law at the time) allowed them to do so. IN COLD BLOOD is truly a master work by an effete, East Coast reporter who beat the odds (and prejudices, no doubt) and entwined himself in his story and the lives of its actors to an unheard-of degree. The result was, and is, more than just a gripping account of a horrendous crime. It is a study in criminality: its victims, its effect on their families and community, its perpetrators and their families, even on the law enforcement personnel involved in the investigation. One can hardly imagine a more finely drawn study of a single crime and its all-too-human impact, presented in a form that remains to this day a page-turner in the very best sense of that phrase.

I must admit that I approached this novel with many a bias and preconceived notion. I was curious about the claims that the author, Truman Capote, had created a new type of book-- the nonfiction novel. Let's use a word nerd alert to get down to the marrow of those two words: nonfiction |nänˈfik sh ən| prose writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people, such as biography or history. -and- novel |ˈnävəl| a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism. How can a novel which is by definition a fictitious tale with realistic leanings be nonfiction? Can one possibly glean enough fact, setting, character descriptions, and plot to flesh out an entire novel worth reading? I suspected not. So how do I feel now that I have read the book? I have several thoughts... here a few. The tone of the novel is journalistic in nature with a sympathetic overtone interwoven towards the victims -- and also the killers. I'll admit that this was off putting for me. The title for the book is a duplicitous moniker. "In Cold Blood" refers to the way the Clutter family was brutally murdered, but it also reflects the opinion of the author regarding the judicial treatment and sentencing of the murderers Perry Smith and Dick Hickok. When reading a book about a horrific mass murder, one does not expect to cultivate tender feelings for the people holding the guns. And yet, Capote tries his darnedest to incite empathy for the tough, neglected, even abusive past of these two individuals. A greasy, charming, sticky fingered ladies man -- Hickok is always at the ready with a dirty joke and a hot check. He is apparently ashamed of his tendency to rape young adolescent girls, but that doesn't seem to impede his impulse to do it... several times. He is classified as knowing right from wrong, but due to a car crash that could possibly have damaged his brain-- he now only lives on his impulses with no thought for the consequences. His parents are present but poor. Perry Smith has a troubled past to be sure. His parents --former rodeo performers turned cross country impoverished gypsies-- separate after his mother turns to alcohol to assuage her anxiety. After a particularly bad fight, the mother sweeps off with the children. The father does very little to reclaim his children over the years. The mother finally drinks herself to death, but not before turning all of her children over to the state. Perry's sisters and older brother are reprimanded to an orphanage. Perry has a horrific experience at a catholic institution where a nun tortures him for wetting the bed. He later begins to act out his aggression and is sent to some sort of detention center where he is again abused. He becomes ill and hospitalized --only then does his father find him and take him in. (But they have a tumultuous relationship that ends in Perry nearly killing his father and abandoning him for the merchant marines.) Perry's character is the oddest combination of an uneducated intelligent poet type with an unchecked thinly veiled murderous rage. His demeanor is disarming, his crippled physicality mollifying, his internal dialogue is haunting. He truly scares me. A shrouded menace that beguiles it's prey into believing itself nurtured and safe... Capote also gives us some psychiatric jargon to back up his feelings that these two praire-billy slaying thieves were simply overly vilified mentally inept victims themselves. However, this doesn't ring true-- with this reader at least. They had hard lives, physical and emotional trauma, and yet I couldn't find it in my heart to leap on the weep wagon for them after reading the descriptions --personal interview descriptions-- of what they meticulously did to the entire Clutter family. I will not go into those details here, but the level of callus premeditated apathy for human life is appalling. The book is well written and does softly tread the line of novel and fact. I believe there to be several embellishments but none that detract from the horror or heart of the story set before you. I was held captive, suffered, and was sentenced along with the characters in the story. To put it lightly, I was enthralled and would read many a more book written in this style. This book was a heavy hitter, and the actual facts made it that much more serious and engaging. I rate this book a 4 because I haven't stopped thinking about it since I put it down. Please follow my other reviews at ladyofliteraryleisure.blogspot.com

5/5 Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is a true-crime epic that grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. This isn’t just a story about a murder; it’s a deep dive into a Kansas town’s soul, with characters so real you feel their joys and fears. Capote’s writing is pure gold, painting Holcomb’s wide-open plains and cozy homes with such vividness I could smell the wheat fields. Every page crackles with detail, from the Clutter family’s warm routines to the killers’ twisted paths, making this 1959 tragedy feel alive and gut-wrenching. For someone who loves big stories and complex characters, this is a home run. The Clutters, the investigators, even the perpetrators—everybody’s fleshed out with care. You’ll ache for the family’s lost dreams and get chills watching the killers wrestle with their own demons. Capote nails the emotional payoff, weaving justice, loss, and quiet hope. One line sums up the story’s haunting grip: “Imagination, of course, can open any door—turn the key and let terror walk right in.” It’s a history lesson and a crime thriller rolled into one. I was skeptical about the hype, but this book earned every bit of praise. In Cold Blood is a masterclass in storytelling—deep, thrilling, and unforgettable. If you’re into history or crime, you will love this story.

This to me is one of the OG true crime stories, before the genre was really invented. Truman Capote is the man! Well and truly has a place in my top ten all time favourite books. If you love true crime and have not read this book, read it!

Yes it's a bit long winded But the story and the people are so compelling

In Cold Blood is a fictionalization of a true crime drama that details accurately (although there has been some controversy about that) the events leading up to the cold-blooded murder of the Clutter family, father, mother, 17-year-old Nancy, and 16-year-old Kenyon in their farmhouse on the outskirts of Holcomb, Kansas, Nov. 15th, 1959. Truman Capote takes us into the minds of the killers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, how they met, planned, and executed what was intended to be a robbery without witnesses, how it all went awry, and what they did after the event. Hickock dropped Smith off at his hotel, then went home to his parents farmhouse, ate dinner, and slept the rest of the afternoon while his father and brother watched a ballgame on TV. His father said at the time, it was unusual for Dick to miss a game on the TV. Capote gets into the minds of members of the tight-knit community of Holcomb, and friends of the Clutters in nearby Garden City, where the family attended the Methodist church. He takes us behind the work of the detectives trying to solve these murders into their family lives, and their painstaking determination to solve a murder scene that revealed almost no clues. Despite the horror of the senseless, brutal murders of a family full of protestant work ethic and innocence of the criminal element of society, Capote's telling masterfully conveys the tragedy without ramming the sickening details down our throats. It is a calm retelling, well-organized in a manner that fills the reader with empathy and pathos for the community, admiration for the way the pieces of the case against Perry and Dick come together, and the feeling that justice was served. There is even a modicum of sadness for the murderers, and some understanding of the twisted way in which their lives evolved to be such a waste. But the sense of loss is reserved in its entirety for the Clutter family, the remaining two older sisters, one married, the other at university, and the grieving town. Even coming to this novelization in command of the facts of the story, one cannot help being drawn into the compelling prose and the attempt to convey the complex workings of the callous regard for life held by these criminals, and others with whom they shared the 2nd floor of the Segregation and Isolation Building of the Kansas State Penitentiary for Men. "In a south section of the prison compound there stands a curious little building: a dark two-storied building shaped like a coffin. . . Among the inmates, the lower floor is known as The Hole — the place to which difficult prisoners, the "hardrock" troublemakers, are now and then banished. The upper story is reached by climbing a circular iron staircase; at the top is Death Row." The early part of the novel alternates the stories of the four members of the family against the stories of Smith and Hickock; afterwards, it juxtaposes the efforts of friends to cope, killers to evade, and detectives to track. It is a seemingly long process. Capote spent countless hours over many years conducting interview. First, the friends of each of the victims, then, the criminals as they awaited trial, followed by several years of appeals, right up to their executions. There are, mercifully, no pictures in the book, benign or otherwise. Capote's prose is clear and precise enough to convey the tranquility of the Clutters' River Valley Farm; it is deft enough to put the more tragic images into our minds without the horrific reality of photos. There is speculation that the ending, where detective Dewey meets Susan Kidwell, a friend Nancy Clutter had planned to attend the University of Kansas with, at the gravesite of the Clutters: four graves gathered under a single gray stone, and quietly discusses how life has moved on, is pure fiction. We can only guess. But it is a nice way to close the book: Sue is at K.U., Bobby Rupp has married, the killers have been executed, and the Clutter graves are left "[under] the big sky, the whisper of wind voices in the wind-bent wheat".

excelente!

An outstanding and powerful work of literature, even more impressive because it conveyed true crimes, a profound investigative insight, the vivid sense of time and place, and the atmosphere that cloaked the evil events carried out on November 15 in 1959, in Holcomb, Kansas. Truman Capote is an artist that painted every detail of the story with such a detailed flow that causes us to stop and appreciate the surroundings rather than wishing the story was being pushed at a faster pace. Looking at America in the 50s from the perspective of a foreigner we often think more of a Holywood version of an innocent age, affluent, white picket fences, apple pie, and rock and roll pervading the airwaves. If anyone asked me when and where I'd liked to have lived it would have been the US in the 1950s. In Cold Blood smashes that image with the reality that cruelty can take away life, a community’s character and the idyllic vision I'd imagined above. The murders of four of the Clutter family by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith for $40, stunned not only the population of Holcomb but ultimately a world-wide audience. My vision, I so wanted to believe of the US, couldn't have been better envisioned than by Holcomb in the 1950s, where families rarely locked their doors and the safety of the neighbourhood was never doubted. Hickock and Smith not only brutally destroyed the lives of four innocent people but destroyed the fundamental promise of safety in our own homes. The story explores the background of the murderers, what drove them, how they considered what they had done, the investigation into the crimes, and the community that became fearful and suspicious that for a long time they did not know who was responsible. To achieve this nonfiction novel with such beautiful prose is a seminal point in literature where it is arguable that Capote created a new genre. I have for a long time been fascinated by the relationship between Truman Capote and Harper Lee and how they helped each other research and draft their renowned classics. It is interesting that Harper Lee had been inspired during the ‘In Cold Blood’ collaboration with Capote to research and use the case of Robert Burns who shot dead the serial killer, Reverend Willie Maxwell, to write her own true-crime novel - which never materialised. Another relationship Capote shattered during his years of self-destruction. I do believe this is a must-read novel and is surely a classic and a powerful combination of true-crime with such beautiful writing talent.