"In Cold Blood," Capote's New Non-Fiction "Novel."
One of my favorite books is Truman Capote’s, “In Cold Blood.” It was released in 1966 to unbelievable acclaim, following six years of research into a case of multiple murder in rural Holcomb, Kansas. The victims were a family of four, the Clutter family, who for no apparent reason, shortly after midnight on November 15th 1959, were all shot and killed in their home with no witnesses, no sign of robbery, and no suspects.
At the same time as the murders, Truman Capote had been looking for a subject for what he liked to call, a “non-fiction novel.” He knew he would know the story when he came across it and one month after the murders, he found a short article about it in the back of a New York city newspaper. He went to his editor at the New Yorker and said he was going to Kansas. This was the beginning of a change in Mr. Capote’s life that once caused him to later remark, “If I had realized then what the future held, I never would have stopped...I would have driven straight on. Like a bat out of hell.”** But, he didn’t, and his trip gave us, “In Cold Blood.”
As writers, we can look at this story as a crime novel, even a thriller. The word novel is important because up until it’s release the use of drama, or much artistic crafting in non-fiction form was rare. It was done, but not on the scale of a full length book and it was not widely used. Capote aimed to change that and instead of simply reporting facts, craft them into something interesting, and even suspenseful to read. He wanted to take non-fiction to a new level. He spent years researching crime itself. Murders, murderers, the reason behind their actions, the criminal justice system and more. He once said in an interview that more than 80% of the research he did never even ended up in the book. However, it obviously helped him to better understand what he was writing about. Capote also took care to be completely objective in his writing. He did not choose sides, although he did befriend both the families of the victims, their neighbors, and then also befriend the very killers. He remained friends with the two killers, Dick Hicock and Perry Smith, up until the day they were executed, an event that Capote attended personally. Smith left every bit of what was left of his personal belongings to Capote, and Truman even paid for their headstones.
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