In Cold Blood
- This article is about the book and its subsequent adaptations. For the video game, see In Cold Blood (game).
In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences, by Truman Capote, details the 1959 murders of Herb Clutter, a wealthy farmer from Holcomb, Kansas; his wife, Bonnie; his sixteen-year-old daughter, Nancy; and his fifteen-year-old son, Kenyon, and the aftermath (ISBN 0679745580). Capote claimed that he had created a new type of book, the non-fiction novel, by applying traditional literary conventions to crime reporting. Critics debate whether Capote in fact invented this type of writing.
Capote learned of the quadruple slaying from a news article in The New York Times. He decided to go to Kansas and write about the murders, even before the killers, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith, were captured. He brought his childhood friend and fellow author Harper Lee with him. Together they interviewed the locals and the investigators. Capote and Lee took thousands of pages of notes, and Capote spent years working on the novel.
The story was originally published in serial format in The New Yorker magazine in 1965. It was published as a non-fiction novel in January 1966.
The 1967 film In Cold Blood was based on Capote's novel. Richard Brooks adapted the novel and directed the film. Portions were actually filmed on location, including at the Clutter residence where the murders were committed. The film stars Robert Blake as Perry Smith, Scott Wilson as Dick Hickock, and John Forsythe as Alvin Dewey.
A 1996 TV movie was also based on the novel. In that adaptation, Anthony Edwards portrayed Hickock, Eric Roberts played Perry Smith, and Sam Neill played Holcomb police chief Alvin Dewey. Although both the theatrical film and the made-for-television movie are faithful to the novel, Brooks used his film to convey an anti-death penalty message.
The 2005 film Capote describes the events in Truman Capote's life during the writing of the book. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote, Catherine Keener as Harper Lee, Mark Pellegrino as Dick Hickock, Clifton Collins, Jr. as Perry Smith, and Chris Cooper as Alvin Dewey.
==The story== Template:Spoiler
The book weaves a complicated psychological story of two parolees who commit a terrible crime together, which by themselves never could have been capable of such evil. The book also paints a detailed picture of the victims, and the effect the crime had on the rural community in which they lived.
The Clutters
The story begins in Holcomb, a rural community in western Kansas, and with the Clutter family. The patriarch, Herbert, was a widely respected and successful farmer and dedicated Methodist who abstained from alcohol, nicotine and caffeine. He was a pillar of the community and built his home and business from scratch. He employed as many as eighteen farm hands, all of whom reportedly admired and respected him for his fair treatment, good pay, and bonuses.
His four children, three girls and a boy, were universally admired in the community. The two eldest, Eveanna and Beverly, had moved away and started their adult lives. The two younger children, Nancy (age 16), and Kenyon (age 15), were high school students and still lived at home. Clutter's wife, Bonnie, a member of the local garden club, had been incapacitated with depression and physical ailments since the births of her children.
On November 15, 1959, Herb, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter were bound, gagged, and murdered during a robbery.
The murderers
Two ex-cons on parole committed the murders and robbery. They had heard from a fellow prisoner, who had once worked for the Clutters, that there was a safe at the ranch that never had less than ten thousand dollars in it. The information was false; Mr. Clutter never kept cash and did all his business with checks.
Richard "Dick" Hickock (age 28) was a lifelong con man. He had above average intelligence, with an excellent memory and a knack for charm and persuasion. His childhood was relatively normal, with poor but stable parents, but he was nonetheless a sociopath; he subjected family and friends to the consequences of a lifetime of petty crimes, always returning home for acceptance, a job and another chance in life, and then repeating his criminal behavior. His forte was check fraud and petty theft. He relished the act of running over dogs in the road and harbored (and often acted upon) pedophilic desires for young girls, but claimed at all times to be completely normal.
Perry Smith (age 31) was son of rodeo performers. Half Native American, short and dark, he was partially disabled from a motorcycle accident and in constant pain from poorly healed leg bones. He, too, was of above average intelligence. He was artistically and musically gifted and enjoyed performing for others. His life, however, was tragic; his father abandoned the family, and his alcoholic mother, as well as his brother and sister, committed suicide. He had frequent nightmares of beatings at the hands of nuns and caregivers while in the various orphanages in which he was, to a large extent, raised. He had suffered constant rejection since childhood, although he never exhibited cruelty toward others. He often spoke of his grade school principal, who stood back and watched as the school bully twice his size attacked him; when he won the fight, the principal spent the following months making his life miserable. The only fights he got into at that school were for defending the victims of the same bully.
A combat engineer in the Korean War, and won the Bronze Star, but he was unhappy with his lack of promotions, because, he said, his commanding officer didn't like him. By this time, he had begun to develop antisocial tendencies and frequently got into fights. He was noted by coworkers as excelling to a high degree of skill in any job that he did.
Smith was Hickock's opposite in many ways. He was quiet, shy, introverted, and had a hard shell forged from a lifetime of abuse, rejection and perceived injustices. He had a facade of arrogance built on his self image, which didn't match what those around him saw. He eventually entered into crime with a man who picked him up hitchhiking, eventually landing himself in prison, where he met and was befriended by Hickock.
He suffered from enuresis (bedwetting), which is a very common childhood characteristic of serial killers. There is no indication, however, that he started fires or tortured animals, the other two components of the so-called "homicidal triad."
Partners in crime
A large part of the book involves the dynamic psychological relationship of the two felons that gave birth to a terrible crime. Hickock was the mastermind who recruited Smith to do the dirty work. He seems to have misjudged Smith, however, because of his made-up prison tales, as a natural born killer. In truth, neither had committed murder before, but competed with each other over their criminal boldness.
Hickock's idea (hatched in prison) was to commit the robbery, leave no witnesses, and start a new life in Mexico with the proceeds. They both had dreams of fleeing wherever they were, at the time, and starting a new life elsewhere.
Their parole agreement forbade the two to associate or use alcohol, which they did anyway. They broke into the Clutters' house shortly after their release, but found no substantial amount of money there. Smith was the one who actually killed the family, but interestingly enough, prevented Hickock from raping Nancy. They then went on a whirlwind tour of Mexico and the U.S.
Hickock's former cellmate, who had unwittingly inspired the crime, told his warden that he thought Hickock was the murderer after reading of the crime in the newspaper. The tip led to the duo's arrest in Las Vegas, Nevada, about six weeks after the murders.
Trial
The trial was held at the Finney County Courthouse in Garden City, Kansas. The judge, jury and lawyers had known (or known of) the victims. The judge denied a change of venue, noting that several ministers in the area were preaching against capital punishment in their sermons.
The prosecution based its case on confessions made prior to trial, matching boots in the custody of the accused to footprints found at the crime, and stolen items linked to the crime. Hickock had broken down and confessed under questioning, and Smith had eventually done the same after being told his friend had given him up (they were interrogated separately.)
Smith and Hickock pled temporary insanity. Local GP's, along with an expert psychiatrist who volunteered his skills, evaluated the accused, who were pronounced sane, as they understood the nature of their crime while committing it.
Smith and Hickock's lawyers filed (failed) appeals based on the judge denying a change of venue and preventing the accused from traveling to the state hospital for psychological evaluations.
Smith and Hickock were executed by hanging for their crimes on April 14, 1965. Hickock, then 33, died first at 12:41 a.m., and Smith died at 1:19 a.m.