This was the best story about true crime that I have read. Capote's description of these events is riveting and everybody should read it, whether they like books on true crime or not.

n  "Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is."n

n  Initial Thoughtsn

In Cold Blood has been sat on my TBR pile since the day I first conceived it. With a reputation that precedes it as the first, and widely regarded the best, true crime novel. So when I was given the challenge of reading a "grizzly true crime novel" by the Night Shift Horror Group on Facebook there really was only one option.

It was first published in 1966, after appearing in a serialised format in the New Yorker, from the pen of the acclaimed author of Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958)... Truman Capote.

Based on actual events that took place in 1959, the idea for the book was formed when the author was struck reading an article that reported a horrific murder of a Kansas family that for him soon developed into an obsession. His fictionalisation of that incident received massive acclaim and was later adapted into a movie in 1967 and remade in 1996.

So after finding this out I was left scratching my head as to why I hadn't already read it. Better put that right before I'm the last person on the planet to do so. Well out of those select few that still actually read.

n  The Storyn

As I said this one starts in the year of 1959 with the murder of a Kansas farmer, named Herbert Clutter, and three members of his family at the River Valley farm in the rural village of Holcomb. A village where people trust one another and would leave their doors unlocked. That was until the shocking events that took place on that fateful night and changed the lives of everyone within that community forever.

No one could figure who would do such a thing and with what motive. Was it a burglary that went wrong or simply an opportunistic killing by a complete sadist? In the following account Capote answers all of the questions right to the bitter and brutal end. Honestly, there's a lot going on in this one with the investigation and the aftermath but I am determined not to spoil this one for you.

n  The Writingn

The first thing you need to know is that this book blurs the line between fact and fiction. Yes it is based on actual events but to compose it in the form of a story Capote has to take some artistic licence in recreating the scenes. And he does this beautifully with flawless writing and a brilliant setup.

It's structured as a converging story at the onset, with a number of plot threads taking place that eventually come together and follow a more linear style. This works really well as it gave me a full and comprehensive picture of the different elements at work and the impact that the brutal events had on everyone involved.

I could just tell that this was meticulously researched and loaded with facts and after a bit of digging myself I found the researcher that Capote relied on for help was none other than his longtime friend and fellow renowned authorHarper Lee, who of course went on to writeTo Kill a Mockingbird. Is that a match made in heaven or what? Indeed he dedicated the book to her.


Truman Capote outside the Clutter House

What's really interesting is that even before the murderers were apprehended Truman had decided to write about their crime and visited Holcomb to begin interviewing people connected to it. Including the officials who were investigating it. So he had no idea how this one was going to pan out when began the project.

The actual prose are excellent and the guy was obviously very talented. They're subtle and lull you in before hitting you in the face with something shocking. It's extremely readable and I had a very clear picture in my head of not just the events but also the way of life at the time.

The pacing is careful and deliberate, this isn't one hundred miles an hour. He's a writer who knows how to draw things out to perfection, giving you multiple points of view that really open up the world around you to make it a living breathing place. A perfect snapshot of that place and time. After finishing the book I actually felt like I'd been there, tasting the atmosphere, getting to know that diverse array of characters and experiencing the events first hand. And isn't that the true purpose of any book?

n  "The suffering. The horror. They were dead. A whole family. Gentle, kindly people, people I knew - murdered. You had to believe it, because it was really true."n

n  The Charactersn

The big surprise for me with this book was how effective and defined the actual characters were, as the narrative focused on the impact of the crime on those around it. There's a level of humanity that translates throughout the story and flows through each character, even the killers! Perry Smith and Richard "Dick" Hickock are small time crooks and it would be easy to portray them as stereotypical villains. But they are drawn with such intelligence, with real nuance and heart, that you begin to empathise with them if not sympathise. That's while being horrified by their actions.

n  "Dick became convinced that Perry was that rarity, a "natural killer" - absolutely sane, but conscienceless,and capable of dealing, with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblow."n

Capote delves into their backgrounds and it's this work that for me makes them the stars of the show. You really begin to understand the scars of their past and what drove them. Perry in particular is an extremely complex and complicated individual that had me conflicted on a number of issues. And that is not like me at all.

Getting to know the Clutter family was also vital in establishing the emotional impact and they are a traditional upstanding family who believe in helping those around them. The portrayal of the sixteen year old daughter, Nancy, as a realistic and vivacious teenager made this one very hard to take for me. It almost leaves an emotional scar due to the level of brilliance in the detail.

n  Final Thoughtsn

It's been a long review but honestly this book deserves it. I could honestly talk all day about it. A tremendous piece of work that is worthy of all the acclaim it has received. I'm now in no doubt about why it has such a reputation within the genre of true crime.

When a book makes you think and question your beliefs it's always a good thing as that's how we grow as people. This one raises important questions on capital punishment, mental illness and the rule of law. Really deep stuff for someone who generally reads trashy horror!

I consider this a must-read for anyone and not just fans of true crime. An absolute classic that gets the full five stars from me. So add this to your TBR and don't leave it on there as long as I did.

Thanks for reading and...cheers!

It is clear from reading In Cold Blood that not only is Philip Seymour Hoffman an excellent writer, but he is also an in-depth researcher. Every line in this book is painstakingly detailed and therein, as they say, is the devil. Well, the devil had me hooked from start to finish.

Beginning with a day-in-the-life of the Clutter family shortly before four of its members were slain, Mr. Hoffman presents the real-life tale of the murders (as well as its aftermath) in a somewhat nonlinear fashion, skipping past the killings themselves to account for the daily activities and whereabouts of their perpetrators—Dick Hickock and Perry Smith—until finally revealing, once Hickock and Smith are caught, the goings-on at the Clutter family home on the night of the murders. All of this, I think, adds to the intensity of the storytelling and maintains the suspense necessary to move the narrative along.

n  n
The Clutter family home in Holcomb, KS, site of the November 15, 1959 murders.

Though the writing is technically perfect, and someone (like Trudi) might come onto this review and yell at me for having attributed to it an incorrect number of stars, it is difficult for me to award that fifth star in cases where the book fails to rock my world, emotionally speaking. In other words, a book has to have its way with me—it needs to seduce me and whisper into my ear, and even making breakfast for me in the morning wouldn’t hurt. But these are just explanatory ramblings, and they are mostly unnecessary. Because this really is one helluva book.

In doing some research of my own I have discovered that Mr. Hoffman was not alone in his procurement of the details for this book. His good friend Catherine Keener, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, accompanied him to the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, where the murders took place. He did this, presumably, to maximize the information-garnering potential for his manuscript. But oddly enough, Keener is not credited anywhere in the novel as having made any contribution to it whatsoever.

Come to think of it, though, neither is Philip Seymour Hoffman.

“Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there.”

Catching up…

I know. This is a book that has been around for a while. But when it became a donation to my Little Free Library Shed recently, I knew it was time to re-visit it and share my thoughts.

This book actually began as a New York Times murder story that transformed itself into spine-tingling suspense. Can you imagine picking up your newspaper and devouring this headline story with your breakfast coffee?

Capote felt he could tell the story of this Midwest killing that featured sinister murderers in a way that would capture readers’ interest.

A 4-member family of a prosperous farming family are viciously murdered at close-range with a shotgun. No apparent motive. Limited clues. A local FBI investigator, Alvin Dewey is shocked at how meaningless and cruel the crime appears. Who would do this and why? And, how could Capote get the details he needed to write his story beyond headline grabbers?

“Imagination, of course, can open any door – turn the key and let terror walk right in.”

He turned to friend and fellow author, Harper Lee, obviously known for “To Kill a Mockingbird.” She had a way of penetrating the silence that seemed to be protecting the remote Kansas community entrenched in the murders.

Once he was in, Capote conducted his own investigation which would encompass the manhunt, arrest and trial of the culprits. Capote shared…

“…the greatest intensity in art in all its shapes and sizes is achieved with a deliberate, hard and cool head.”

It truly is a real-crime drama that captivates as readers turn pages. And, even if we think we know the story already, probably through endless documentaries we have watched, it still is a privilege to read Capote.

Too often crime is seen as one dimensional; criminals come from another realm that can't be explained. Capote had a gift for chipping away at criminal and victim to expose a deeper truth...often hidden for a reason. This book really captured my interest; one of the first 'true' books I can remember reading that made seek out other books about crime.

This book is one of the first, if not the first, true crime novel. According to Wikipedia, only Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders has sold more copies in the True Crime category than In Cold Blood. While true crime fans might read this today and think that it sounds like your basic true crime story, at the time it was groundbreaking to detail a crime in this much detail and in a format as big as a novel.

One of the things it appears that this novel set the precedence for, and that I have seen in other true crime novels, is that the author is not only researching the story, he is getting in the mix and talking face to face with the criminals (example - Ann Rule). Sometimes this leads to relationships and feelings that are reflected in the retelling. After you finish reading this, it is interesting to look this up online and see some of the theories about how Capote approached this crime and the people involved.

Speaking of Capote, I have never seen any of the movies about him, but it sounds like all of them focus on this part of his life – and there are at least 3 of them! I may need to check them out to see what I think. Also, I need to check out the classic film that came out shortly after publication.

One think I found very, very interesting  when speaking of what criminals could do on death row in Kansas, basically everything – every form of comfort, entertainment, ways to pass the time – were taken away from them. The justice system went out of their way to make things as uncomfortable as possible for those awaiting death. However, they let them read as much as they want. I am wondering why reading was the one acceptable past time they were given?

One thing I forgot to add when I originally wrote this review was that having read this and Breakfast At Tiffany's, it is hard to believe it is the same author. Probably the most diverse writing from the same author I have ever encountered.

True crime fans! Non-fiction fans! Fans of must read classics! You must add In Cold Blood to your list.

A seminal work for the nonfiction novel and the true crime genre, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood stands apart from most of its literary descendants. Not only is it compelling and suspenseful even when you know (like many crime dramatizations) what's going to happen, it's also very well-written. In fact, its literary quality gives In Cold Blood a dimension which few other nonfiction novels will match. The evolution of the form, since In Cold Blood, is nothing short of astonishing. It makes you appreciate how different the experience of reading the book is now compared to when the book was published. Yet, it is not a stuffy classic. This work made the world safe for nonfiction! Definitely worth reading!

When this book was suggested for my bookclub, I was intrigued. It is one of those books that I have meant to read forever and, indeed, it was published in 1966, the year I was born, so it was interesting for me to read just from that angle (even if it was first serialised in the ‘New Yorker’ in 1965).

Like so many great things that are created, this was inspired by something quite inconspicuous; a one column story which appeared in a newspaper on November, 16th, 1959, about the murder of the Clutter family on Rivery Valley Farm in western Kansas. This news story sent Truman Capote out to Kansas to investigate and resulted in him creating, arguably, the first ‘nonfiction novel.’

Although the subject matter of this book is, obviously, a tragedy, it is wonderfully written, with great sympathy to everyone involved and a very modern examination of the reasons for the crime. Indeed, early crime books/magazines tended towards the sensational and shocking. “In Cold Blood,” is the second best selling true crime book of all time, beaten only by the brilliant, “Helter Skelter,” so it keeps good company.

Like, “Helter Skelter,” this book is obsessed with detail. “In Cold Blood,” is a work of great research and took years to write. Capote sets the scene well; taking us through the last day of the Clutters and introducing us to this respected, and respectable, family. Although, later in the book, the author focuses on the killers, their backgrounds and their motivations, he is respectful to the victims and, by introducing them to the reader first, he enables us to feel sympathy for them before anything else. However, the bulk of the book does look at the men who are arrested, and tried, for the murders in great detail. He examines their past, their relationship and how they were caught, plus what happened to them afterwards.

Although these events happened a long time ago, this book does not feel particularly dated. The reasons behind such crimes are, sadly, still much the same as they were then. Although I cannot say this was an easy, or comfortable, read, it is really a brilliantly written book and I am glad that I finally read it.

As an English reader I had not heard of the Clutter massacre, and all I knew about Truman Capote was his novel "Breakfast at Tiffany's". It took a while before I recognised this novel as truly great. The 1950's domesticity did not appeal to me. It seemed alien, claustrophobic, gender-specific and rather dull. But after a while I realised the genius in describing the setting of this time and place to the minutest detail.

The "New York Times" calls In Cold Blood

"The best documentary account of an American crime ever written."

It is a ground-breaking book by Truman Capote, generally agreed to be the first factual novel, although others had explored the idea before. It is about the murders in 1959 of the Clutter family at their farmhouse in Holcomb, Kansas. The four murders received a lot of media attention, as the motive was unclear. Partly because of this Capote and his friend author Harper Lee decided to travel to Kansas to write about the crime before the killers were apprehended. They painstakingly interviewed all the local residents and investigators, taking numerous notes which Capote subsequently worked into his novel over the next six years.

The killers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith were arrested six weeks after the murders, but Capote does not start at that point; not at the point of the actual slayings for dramatic effect, as many writers would. He starts by describing the comfortable, happy family lives of devout Christian people living in the small town of Holcomb down to the smallest detail. Their daily lives, the aspirations of both old and young, the clinical depression of Bonnie Clutter (the mother, Herbert's wife) are all carefully set down. Carefully woven into the narrative, Capote also writes a dispassionate account of the killers' early childhoods, recording the highlights and events which in retrospect seem shocking in the extreme, but are so meticulously recorded by Capote that they form a non-judgmental picture.

It is the juxtaposition made by Capote which means that the reader assesses the situation for themselves. The impoverished and brutal early childhood (some of the cruellest episodes ironically were perpetrated by nuns) of Perry Smith contrasts sharply with the settled happy community who had been devastated by the event. First hand accounts from the residents are included. Most were fearful; all were stunned and confused. Some bent on revenge, some on forgiveness. Every single one in this church-going community seemed to want to do the Right Thing, though they differed as to what that was.

The feelings - the stress and deteriorating health of investigators involved - became more intense as the search went on. Truman increases the feeling of suspense as the search continued whilst making us more familiar with the two characters who had perpetrated it, so we are familiar with both Perry Smith's abusive childhood and Dick Hickock's head injuries and possible brain trauma following a car crash in 1950. At no point however does the author comment on such episodes; he remains impartial. He does not really need to. The reader now has ample material to make subtle inferences as to how responsible for their actions these two could be.

The actual murders are recorded about halfway through the book, and the following 6 weeks where they were on the run is chronicled as a time when the relationship between the two was breaking down. Here are the thoughts of Dick Hickock, as he envisages setting off on his own, as set down by Capote.

"Goodbye, Perry. Dick was sick of him - his harmonica, his aches and ills, his superstitions, the weepy womanly eyes, the nagging, whispering voice. Suspicious, self-righteous, spiteful he was like a wife that must be got rid of."

In turn Perry Smith is beginning to wonder why he ever admired Dick Hickock, who takes a delight in running over stray dogs and prefers to steal even when they do have money in their pockets. Both are coming across as extremely damaged personalities, before we ever get to any formal psychiatric analysis.

The pair were eventually tracked down by the evidence of a former cell-mate Floyd Wells. Having himself worked for Herbert Clutter he chatted to Dick Hickock about how well off this Methodist family were, giving details of the farmhouse, habits of the family, whether they had a safe etc. When he saw the subsequent use Dick Hickock had made of the information he told the police. (He claimed that although Hickock had stated to him that he would kill all the family, such boasts were so common in prison as to be meaningless. In addition, there was a reward for information.)

There was enough other evidence to convict the pair - photographs made of bloody shoe prints which had been invisible to the naked eye, a radio which had been stolen from the house at the time of the attack and subsequently sold ... It seems precious little evidence to present-day readers used to DNA analysis etc, but coupled with the evidence given by the prisoners later, as to where they had disposed of the weapons etc, this was enough at the time.

Capote uses the statements made by both prisoners (who were kept separate so that there could be no collaboration) to describe these horrific events. By this clever device the part of the novel which could have been almost unbearable to read takes on a clinical feel. It is never sensationalist or gratuitous. These are the killers' own words.

At this point the complex psychological relationship between the men comes more into prominence. We already feel we know these men; we know perhaps some of the reasons why they were able to do what they did. It is becoming poignantly clear that what sparked the actual events was the complex relationship between the two, who in turn relied on each other, admired each other, hated each other ... Here is a quote from Perry Smith to detective Dewey,

"Then he says to me as we're heading along the hall towards Nancy's room, "I'm gonna bust that little girl." And I said, "Uh-huh. But you'll have to kill me first"….that's something that I despise. Anybody that can't control themselves sexually."

And again, most revealingly as picked up by a psychologist later,

"I didn't want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."

And of Dick Hickock, "I meant to call his bluff… I didn't realise what I'd done til I heard the sound. Like somebody drowning…. Dick panicked….I couldn't leave him like he was…. Then I aimed the gun."

Dick Hickock also shared this antagonism against his partner, but it was only later when his former cellmate Floyd Wells was called as witness, that Capote says, with a flash of insight he realised he was not as dangerous as Perry. "Suddenly he saw the truth. It was Perry he ought to have silenced."

Capote states that Alvin Dewey, the investigator most involved with this case considered that the two versions of the killings were very much alike. But he concluded that the confessions of how and why failed to satisfy his sense of meaningful design. The crime was a psychological accident, virtually an impersonal act. The actual amount of money stolen was between 40 and 50 dollars.

The lead up to the trial, as everything else, is carefully documented. The choice of legal representation, of the judge, of the jurors. One potential juror said, when asked his opinion of capital punishment, that he was ordinarily against it, but in this case, no. Yet he was still allocated to the jury. There were no qualified psychiatrists within Garden City, where the trial held. The prosecuting attorney referred to the profession as a

"pack of head-healers" sympathetic to the defendants. "Those fellows, they're always worrying over the killers. Never a thought for the victims….. Our own local physicians attend to the matter. It's no great job to find whether a man is insane or an idiot or an imbecile."

Whereas the defending counsel said, "Whatever their crime, these men are entitled to examination by persons of training and experience… Psychiatry has matured rapidly in the last twenty years."

Listening to both sides, the judge acted strictly within law, appointing 3 Garden City doctors, despite the fact that the unpaid services of a qualified psychiatrist experienced in such cases had been offered.

Details from the trial stick in the memory. The testimony of Dick Hickock's father, who was seriously ill at the time (he died months later) but was mocked by the prosecuting attorney for getting the dates of the car accident which led to his son's head injuries and subsequent personality change wrong. One eminent psychiatrist had been called as a defence witness. However the judge only allowed him a yes/no answer to the question, could he could state that the defendants knew the difference between right and wrong. He answered "Yes" in respect of the first one, then was dismissed. No further comment was allowed. Presumably faced with an impossible question to answer in those terms he then answered "No" to the question when put about the second accused. Again, no further elucidation was allowed by the judge, as this was perfectly allowable under Kansas law.

Capote goes on to quote the psychiatrist's prepared analysis, after his examinations of the defendants, which presents a much fuller picture. The conditions described after several intensive interviews he had had with the killers use terms which are more familiar to modern readers - organic brain damage from the accident, schizophrenia and dissociative behaviour, where an individual suddenly finds himself destroying some key figure in his past, who may be unclear to him. They may well have been new concepts to the jurors who were in the main farming people, but they were not privy to this crucial information in any case.

Although the ending of the trial is a foregone conclusion, the actual execution of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith did not take place for a further 5 years. Capote explains that in the US judicial system it is possible to appeal several times, and that this is common practice. He spends a further part of the novel in describing the characters and crimes committed by various other inmates on Death Row. Interestingly, this part of the novel is not as objective as the rest. Capote's feelings begin to impose more. Perhaps it did not seem as important to be scrupulously impartial as these cases were not crucial to the main text. What it does do for the reader however, is to create a feeling of the suspension of reality - a reflection of the interminable waiting that the prisoners must have felt in their turn.

The execution by hanging, the witnesses, the quiet behaviour of the killers is all described. And a final short scene is added which is pure fiction, where Alvin Dewey goes to the graves of the Clutter family and meets one of the children's close friends, now an adult. This I found quite allowable as a coda. It ties up the ends nicely, and I am not sure how else Capote could have done this, without inserting his views in a summing-up, which clearly he did not want to do.

This novel is not only ground-breaking but superbly crafted; a pretty near perfect novel. The continual switch between present and past tenses only serves to give a more immediate feel; an edge to the narration. My star rating? Well, I cannot say, I "like it", (3 or 4 stars) but I can say, "It was amazing!" Five stars.

For the longest time I thought this book was about the mob. Truman Capote just sounded like a name associated with the mob to me. My father in law told me to read it and gave it to me stating it was a true murder mystery that happened in KS. The story started out slow for me I really just wanted to read about the murders and what really happened in that house. The story was set up in four sections and for good reason which I won't spoil for those who have not yet read it. The Clutter family was definitely murdered in a heinous way that makes you want to lock your doors and windows. This book really pulled at my heart strings and there were times I get sick, mad, irritated, and then lonesome, especially at the very end. This book left me in despair. Four members of a family brutally murdered and what? Life still goes on for the rest of us. I hope some day in my life to go to Holcomb, KS and put flowers on the graves of the Clutters.

Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is a highly disconcerting read. After painting an idyllic scene we'd expect from the Midwestern setting evil makes it's presence felt. The blood is chilled and the heart gripped as a result.

As everyone must know by now this is considered the first nonfiction novel. All the bare facts of this story actually took place. A family of four was indeed murdered in their home by two unknown assailants on 14 November 1959. What made this book innovative was the fact that Capote handled these facts not as a journalist but as a novelist. Rather than restrict himself to just the "who, what, where, when and why" of the fourth estate he let the fiction writer in him fill in the gaps left by the facts at hand. Scenes like Bonnie Clutter's last sad night on earth could and would only be attempted by a novelist.

While Capote never makes it possible for us to forgive the murderers - not that he or anyone could - he goes a long way towards making them sympathetic. It is the film's ("Capote") claim that he fell in love with Perry Smith while writing this book. Perhaps. Smith does indeed come off as a fully rounded person while Hickock seems less interesting to him and consequently to us. What counts though is that he makes them human. After reading about the nature of this crime that in itself is a huge achievement.

Finally, I just want to point out a person who played a huge part in this story but always fails to attract the attention accorded to the murdered, the murderers or Capote himself, namely Alvin Dewey. Dewey is the relentless Javert of this tale and it is through his eyes we see the facts unfold. Capote's drawing of him as a man morally wounded by the evil inherent in the murders of this poor family touches the heart. His refusal to let the murderers get away with their heinous crime galvanizes the spirit in turn.
This is where the true greatness of this book lies.

I started this book one night at two in the morning and read til I finished it at nine a.m. It is the very definition of a page turner. Once you are told what happened it is impossible to put this book down until you find out why.

Acknowledgements

--In Cold Blood