What to Take from In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - Book Report/Review Example

In Cold Blood" The book “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote is a ic example of a book that combined story-telling with facts and gave rise to a newtrend in journalism; that of New Journalism. Capotes award-winning account of the murder and murderers in the book “In Cold Blood” catapulted him to the peak of his career with its release in 1965.The book is often regarded as a pioneering work of true crime. Not only was the book well received by the audience, it was also made into very successful movies. Within two years of the publication of the book, Oscar-winner Richard Brooks directed a movie based on the novel. This movie received four Academy Award nominations in 1968, including one for original music score by jazz/pop-legend Quincy Jones. Later, more movies were made on the same theme. A TV mini production on the same theme was aired in 1996. Reading about the murders in The New York Times, Truman Capote, a high-flying reporter wanted to investigate on his own and went to Halcomb in rural Kansas, the scene of the crime with a childhood friend and co-author, Harper Lee. After months of researching and talking to detectives and the local villagers, Capote came out with his book. The book was published in 1965 and made history in the literary and journalistic world. Summary of the book The book is based on the true account of a multiple murder of a wealthy farmer, Herbert Clutter and three members of his family at their farm in Halcomb, rural Kansas. In 1959, Herbert Clutter, his wife, Bonnie, daughter Nancy (aged 16) and son, Kenyon (aged 15) were brutally murdered by the assailants, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith. Herbert Clutter’s throat was slit and he was shot in the head. This was followed by the murders of the other two children and the wife. Though it is not very clear, but it is thought that the murders were in the following order: first Kenyon, then Nancy, and then Bonnie were murdered, each by single shotgun blasts to the head.The motive behind the murder seems to have been a misinformation about cash reserves in the Clutter households. Herbert Clutter was a successful farmer and community leader, a man known for his fairness, his loyalty to his invalid wife and his aversion to dealing in cash. Herbert Clutter was a dedicated Methodist and a widely respected self-made man who had established a successful farm from modest beginnings. Herbert Clutter, his invalid wife, Bonnie and their four children: three girls and a boy were very popular and widely respected by everyone in the village. The two eldest children, Eveanna and Beverly, had moved out of their parents home and started their adult lives. The younger two, Nancy (aged 16) and Kenyon (aged 15) were in school and lived with the parents. Bonnie was a member of the garden club and was supposed to be suffering from depression and physical illness after the births of her children. Herbert Clutter was admired and respected by his farmhands as he treated them fairly and paid them well. He had almost eighteen farmhands working on his farm. Nancy, a straight-A student and award-winning pie-maker, was dating a high school basketball star. Kenyon, the bookish youngest Clutter, was building a cedar chest to give to his oldest sister, Beverly, on her wedding. They were regular churchgoers, active in the 4-H and were liked by everyone in the village. Richard Hickock was an ex-convict on parole from the Kansas State Penitentiary. He had heard from a fellow prisoner, Floyd Wells, an ex-farmhand at the Clutters, about the ranch and Herb Clutter. He recounted how his boss spent $10,000 a week to keep his farm going, and speculated that there must be a safe somewhere on Clutters huge farm. Hickock was tempted to steal the money, leave no trace of the robbery and start a new life in Mexico with the cash from the Clutter home. He contacted Perry Smith, another ex-convict on parole at the state penitentiary and made him an accomplice in his plan. Hickock considered his plan as a foolproof one as he had planned to escape with the money and start a new life in Mexico with the money. On Saturday, November 14, 1959 the day of the crime, the two convicts drove 400 miles to Kansas and attempted to rob the Clutter family of its cash. However, they learnt that the information was false and there was no cash or safe at the farm. Herb used only checks for transactions. All they could lay their hands on was forty dollars, a radio and a pair of binoculars. Realizing that there was no money to be found at the Clutters home, Smith slit Herb Clutters throat and then shot him in the head. This was followed by the murders of the children and his wife. Each person was tied in a different room and shot in the head. About two months after the murders, Hickock and Smith were arrested in Las Vegas. In his oral confession, Smith admitted that Hickock had murdered the two women. Smith, however, refused to sign the confession. He wanted to accept responsibility for all four killings because he said he was "sorry for Hickock’s mother." Hickock always maintained that Smith did all four killings. The duo pleaded temporary insanity during the trial, but local GPs evaluated the accused and pronounced them sane. After five years on death row, Smith and Hickock were executed by hanging just after midnight on April 14, 1965 in Lansing, Kansas at the Kansas State Penitentiary (now known as Lansing Correctional Facility). Various Reviews and Analysis According to Amy Standen, Jan 22, 2002 in Salon.com, “ "In Cold Blood" began, as the story goes, when Truman Capote came across a 300-word article in the back of the New York Times describing the unexplained murder of a family of four in rural Kansas. "Holcomb, Kan., Nov. 15 [1959] (UPI) -- A wealthy wheat farmer, his wife and their two young children were found shot to death today in their home. They had been killed by shotgun blasts at close range after being bound and gagged ... There were no signs of a struggle, and nothing had been stolen. The telephone lines had been cut." Capote seized on the grisly story and went down to Kansas to turn it into a book. He spent six years researching "In Cold Blood," and claimed to have invented a genre, the nonfiction novel; later, Tom Wolfe and others would include "In Cold Blood" in their own movement, known as New Journalism.” Amy argues that both inventions of nonfiction novel and New Journalism, which were attributed to the book, “In Cold Blood”, have become old fashioned now, and the book itself appears less radical in today’s context. Yet, she feels that “the book stands out as a masterfully controlled recounting of murder and its aftermath and the people involved.” In the first few months after the books publication in late 1965, there was a lot of gossip and accusations leveled at Capote. The gossip and accusations increased as time passed by. Amy feels that “ His meticulous, even obsessive reporting allowed his characters to tell the story, and the result is the best true-crime novel you ever couldnt put down.” Amy feels if the assailants had known about Herbert Clutter’s aversion to dealing in cash, the crime would not have taken place at all. She also feels that the family is almost fantasized and it is hard to be believe the description. She discusses about the killers’ background and their motives too. Both the accused had completely different backgrounds. Perry Smith came from a broken and violent family. Two siblings had committed suicide, and one of the parents had a history of alcoholism. After a motorcycle accident, Smith had a disability in his legs and was addicted to aspirin. He was also a daydreamer. Drawing inspiration from his favorite movie "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," Smith was sure of finding his own treasure in Mexico after escaping from Halcomb. In contrast, Dick Hickocks family was poor but relatively stable. Hickock just wanted to make a quick buck and escape to an unknown place. Even in Hickock’s case, a car accident marred his otherwise handsome face. While Hickock was known for passing bad checks, his family seemed to be perplexed when they learnt about the Clutter murders. They felt he has been an ordinary boy who could never think of such evil. Amy feels it was strange that Hickock recruited Smith as his accomplice. He was not a natural-born killer and had lied about once killing someone just because he had felt like it. Maybe, Hickock should have hired a hard-core killer when compared to the very ordinary Perry Smith. There seem to have been various resemblances between the author, Capote and Perry Smith, the more sensitive and guilt-ridden of the two killers. George Plimpton in his book "Truman Capote," talks about the possibility of a physical relationship between Capote and Smith: “His body, as one of his "swans" would later recount in combined a boyish face and torso with "the legs of a truck driver." Capote might have been lucky that he had a career in journalism and the similarities between him and Smith ended there only. The family backgrounds seemed to be common. Capote, like Smith, had been born to absent, unpredictable parents. Suicidal tendencies and alcoholism were common in both the families. Both Capote and Smith longed for acceptance yet were full of self-importance. Perry, felt he was "special"; while Capote called himself a "a genius." His mothers second marriage and his own good looks and charming nature brought a change in his life when compared to Smith. This prevented him from ending up lonely and desperate as Smith did. “Like Smith, Capote knew exactly what he wanted to be, and he constructed himself accordingly. Capotes ambitions were realized; Smiths werent.” It is obvious that Capote had a soft corner for Smith. A detective who had been interviewed by Capote in Kansas claimed that Capote had involved in a sexual affair with Smith, during his visits to the penitentiary. While the story might not be true, Capotes description of the failures in Smiths life show his empathy with the accused and is also the recipe for the tremendous success of the book. He has at length described Smith’s efforts for self-improvement, his handwritten vocabulary lists full of words like "ostensibly" and "depredate." Smith was an elementary school dropout, but later worked at a beautiful handwriting, and began to appreciate Thoreau’s works. Amy feels that “this is where Capotes journalism -- not his writing, but his reporting -- comes alive: when we hear Perry Smith remembering what it was like to be reunited with his itinerant, absent father, "like when the ball hits the bat really solid. Di Maggio." She has appreciated the suspense created in the dialogues in the book. When Nancy and Kenyon Clutters English teacher, Larry Hendricks, finds the bodies, the dialogues have created a gripping suspense. Similarly, when he describes Smiths taped confession, there are hardly any observations on Capote’s part. The fascinating dialogues emphasize the flow of the story. Amy also feels that Capote has underplayed the reaction of the local population on having a high-flying reporter amidst them for a long time. They must have been in awe of him, while also resenting his presence and activities. The presence of his childhood friend Harper Lee with him might have helped reduce the resentment of the locals to some extent. Capote’s lifestyle and writings seemed to be a culture shock for the local population, according to George Plimpton in his book “Truman Capote”. Capote was a good listener and thus a good storyteller. He combined facts in an interesting manner to make the book, InCold Blood an international bestseller. Objectivity of the Book Doubts have been raised time and again about the objectivity of the book, In Cold Blood. There seem to be many resemblances in the characters of Capote and Smith, one of the accused. Both had similar family backgrounds, but Capote made it to the journalistic and literary world, while Smith wasn’t lucky enough do so. He projects Smith in a kinder light in the book, when compared to the other killer, Hickock. He is supposed to have remarked, “"I really admired Mr. Clutter, right up until the moment I slit his throat,". It was Smith who stopped Hickock from raping Nancy Clutter, though it was Smith only who later killed her. His conscience also seems to be more guilty than Hickock, as he took the blame for all the four murders in his written confession. While describing Smith as a murderer, Capote has tried to bring about the indecision and thought going on in his mind at the time of the murder. Smith has not been projected as a hard-core killer, but as a gentle character who acknowledged that Clutter was a gentleman and he liked him, but was forced to kill him nevertheless. It seemed to have happened at the spur of the moment. New Yorker critic Renata Adler snottily summed up New Journalism as "zippy prose about inconsequential people," and its a charge that most New Journalists, and Capote certainly, wouldnt have gone too far out of their way to deny. The lives of "inconsequential people," especially those caught in consequential events, have been fascinating readers for years -- both before Capote and the New Journalists and after. Most recently, its what drove so many people each day to the Portraits of Grief section in the New York Times. And its part of the reason we continue to try to make sense of the psychology of crime -- even crime on such a horrific scale as the Sept. 11 attacks. And as for "zippy prose," as Wolfe pointed out in "The New Journalism," one need only try to imagine its opposite. Truman Capotes In Cold Blood: The Nevada Connection by Guy Louis Rocha, Nevada State Library and Archives http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/nsla/archives/spec-feat.htm Salon.com, accessed 21June, 2008. http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/masterpiece/2002/01/22/cold_blood/index.html Read More