Fascinating and Flawed: In Cold Blood Review

The slaying of four members of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas in November 1959 and the subsequent investigation and trial attracted the attention of author Truman Capote. He painstakingly researched the case and conducted dozens of interviews. In the process Capote nearly created a new genre of literature, the non-fiction novel, in which a true story is told using the techniques of fiction writing. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences is the result of Capote’s efforts.

From the outset, the reader knows of the Clutters’ murders as well as the capture, conviction, and execution of the killers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. Early on, Capote introduces the readers to Herbert Clutter, a wealthy and well-respected farmer in Kansas, and his family. Capote quickly sketches a biography of each of the victims: Herb, his wife Bonnie, and their two teenage children, Nancy and Kenyon. Herb and Bonnie had two older children, Eveanna and Beverly, who lived out of the house, and thus were not targeted in the murder. Capote builds tension by keeping two questions in front of the reader. First, what really occurred in the Clutter’s house during the morning of the homicides? And second, given the seeming randomness of the murders and the distinct lack of clues or motive, how were Smith and Hickock were ever captured or convicted?