"In Cold Blood":
Was it the greatest true crime story ever written?

A Heinous Crime

Fifty-two years ago in 1959, a horrific crime was committed. In a home in rural Holcomb, Kansas, the Clutter family was fast asleep. Two men entered to steal money they were told was hidden inside. There was no money. In a rage the two men shot each of the four members of the family in the head in sequence.

There was some newspaper coverage within the region, but the crime was mostly unknown. The author, Truman Capote who was living in New York, learned of the crime and decided to go to Kansas to investigate. He and his lifelong childhood friend Harper Lee, who would later write “To Kill a Mockingbird,” gathered information and interviewed local residents.

Six weeks later, with the help of a prison informant, the police caught up the killers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith in Las Vegas. They were returned to Kansas for trial. After the two men were tried and convicted, Capote and Lee conducted lengthy interviews with them on Death Row, where the criminals resided for five years. Hickock and Smith were executed by hanging in April of 1965.

A few months after the executions, Capote’s book “In Cold Blood” was published. The reaction was immediate.

A Literary Classic

I had seen Truman Capote on television and he seemed to me to be a disturbing yet fascinating personality. But I wasn’t at all sure that I wanted to read his book, which I thought would be a detailed description of these grisly murders. But the literary reputation of “In Cold Blood” won me over. I found that it was the most engrossing book I had ever read.

I was surprised to learn that Capote’s book did not particularly focus on the murders themselves, but examined events before and after the crime. It looked deeply into the lives of Hickock and Smith, the two killers. It posed, and answered, the question of how these two troubled teenage boys had turned into sociopathic killers? It also studied how this small farming community reacted to the deaths of their friends the Clutters. Everyone was deeply affected.

“In Cold Blood” was the first in a new genre. Capote called it a “non-fiction novel.” While it reads like a novel, the characters and events are real. Today, so many television and film plots come right from the news headlines. Capote’s work had started this trend. The beauty and the insight of the prose is staggering. You could almost feel yourself living in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959.

Eventually, there were three compelling films, a TV miniseries, and even an opera based on the story of the Clutter murders.

The 1967 film was directly based on the book. It was filmed in black and white, and felt cold and raw. It was Robert Blake’s finest career performance; he played the murderer Perry Smith. This film was nominated for four Academy Awards. In 1996, the miniseries starred Eric Roberts and Sam Neill, it was also based on the book.

The 2005 “Capote” was different. Instead of reenacting the plot directly, it focused on Truman Capote’s research, with Harper Lee, in writing his book. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, with Philip Seymour Hoffman named Best Actor (his finest performance to date). The next year the film “Infamous” with Daniel Craig and Sandra Bullock followed a similar line and was very favorably received.

As good as these film versions are, do yourself a favor on a winter night and settle down with a copy of “In Cold Blood.” The original is still the best.

(Robert Thomas for The Unfolding Journey)