In Cold Blood is a non-fiction novel by the American author Truman Capote, first published in 1966. It details the 1959 murders of four members of the Clutter family in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas.
Capote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, and he traveled to Kansas to write about the crime. He was accompanied by his childhood friend and fellow author Harper Lee, and they interviewed residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousands of pages of notes. The killers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested six weeks after the murders and later executed by the state of Kansas. Capote ultimately spent six years working on the book.
In Cold Blood was an instant critical and commercial success. Considered by many to be the prototypical true crime novel, it is also the second-best-selling book in the genre’s history, behind Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter (1974) about the Charles Manson murders. Some critics also consider Capote’s work the original non-fiction novel, although other writers had already explored the genre, such as Rodolfo Walsh in Operación Masacre (1957).
In Cold Blood has been lauded for its eloquent prose, extensive detail, and triple narrative which describes the lives of the murderers, the victims, and other members of the rural community in alternating sequences. The psychologies and backgrounds of Hickock and Smith are given special attention, as is the pair’s complex relationship during and after the murders. In Cold Blood is regarded by critics as a pioneering work in the true-crime genre, although Capote was disappointed that the book failed to win the Pulitzer Prize. Parts of the book differ from the real events, including important details.
Crime
Herbert «Herb» Clutter was a prosperous farmer in western Kansas. He employed as many as 18 farmhands, who admired and respected him for his fair treatment and good wages. His two elder daughters, Eveanna and Beverly, had moved out and started their adult lives; his two younger children, daughter Nancy, 16, and son Kenyon, 15, were in high school. Clutter’s wife Bonnie had reportedly been incapacitated by clinical depression and physical ailments since the births of her children, although this was later disputed by her brother and other family members, who maintained that Bonnie’s depression was not as debilitating as portrayed in the book.
Two ex-convicts recently paroled from the Kansas State Penitentiary, Richard Eugene «Dick» Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, robbed and murdered Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon in the early morning hours of November 15, 1959. A former cellmate of Hickock’s, Floyd Wells, had worked for Herb Clutter and told Hickock that Clutter kept large amounts of cash in a safe. Hickock soon hatched the idea to steal the safe and start a new life in Mexico. According to Capote, Hickock described his plan as «a cinch, the perfect score.» Hickock later contacted Smith, another former cellmate, about committing the robbery with him. In fact, Herb Clutter had no safe and transacted essentially all of his business by check.
After driving more than 400 miles across the state of Kansas on the evening of November 14, Hickock and Smith arrived in Holcomb, located the Clutter home, and entered through an unlocked door while the family slept. Upon rousing the Clutters and discovering there was no safe, they bound and gagged the family, and continued to search for money, but found little of value in the house.
Still determined to leave no witnesses, the pair briefly debated what to do; Smith, notoriously unstable and prone to violent acts in fits of rage, slit Herb Clutter’s throat and then shot him in the head. Capote writes that Smith recounted 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.» Kenyon, Nancy, and then Mrs. Clutter were also murdered, each by a single shotgun blast to the head. Hickock and Smith left the crime scene with a small portable radio, a pair of binoculars, and less than $50 (equivalent to $523 in 2023) in cash.
Smith later claimed in his oral confession that Hickock murdered the two women. When asked to sign his confession, however, Smith refused. According to Capote, he wanted to accept responsibility for all four killings because, he said, he was «sorry for Dick’s mother.» Smith added, «She’s a real sweet person.» Hickock always maintained that Smith committed all four killings.
Investigation and trial
On the basis of a tip from Wells, who contacted the prison warden after hearing of the murders, Hickock and Smith were identified as suspects and arrested in Las Vegas on December 30, 1959. Both men eventually confessed after interrogations by detectives of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
They were brought back to Kansas, where they were tried together at the Finney County courthouse in Garden City, Kansas, from March 22 to 29, 1960. They both pleaded temporary insanity at the trial, but local general practitioners evaluated the accused and pronounced them sane.
Hickock and Smith are also suspected of involvement in the Walker family murders, which is mentioned in the book, although this connection has not been proven. A defense motion that Smith and Hickock undergo comprehensive psychological testing was denied; instead, three local general practitioners were appointed to examine them to determine whether they were sane at the time of the crime.
After only a short interview the doctors determined the defendants were not insane and were capable of being tried under M’Naghten rules. Defense lawyers sought the opinion of an experienced psychiatrist from the state’s local mental hospital, who diagnosed definite signs of mental illness in Smith and felt that previous injuries to Hickock’s head could have affected his behavior. This opinion was not admitted in the trial, however, because under Kansas law the psychiatrist could only opine on the defendant’s sanity at the time of the crime.
The jury deliberated for only 45 minutes before finding both Hickock and Smith guilty of murder. Their convictions carried a mandatory death sentence at the time. On appeal, Smith and Hickock contested the determinations that they were sane, and asserted that media coverage of the crime and trial had biased the jury, and that they had received inadequate assistance from their attorneys. Aspects of these appeals were submitted three times to the United States Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.
After five years on death row at the Kansas State Penitentiary, Smith and Hickock were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965. Hickock was executed first and was pronounced dead at 12:41 a.m. after hanging for nearly 20 minutes. Smith followed shortly afterward and was pronounced dead at 1:19 a.m.
Coverage and public discussion
During the first few months of their trial and afterward, Hickock and Smith’s murder case went unnoticed by most Americans. It was not until months before their executions that they became «two of the most famous murderers in history.» On 18 January 1960, Time magazine published «Kansas: The Killers», a story about the murders. Inspired by that article, Truman Capote wrote, in 1965 serialized in The New Yorker, and in 1966 published, as a «non-fiction novel», In Cold Blood, a true-crime book that detailed the murders and trial. Due to the brutality and severity of the crimes, the trial was covered nationwide, and even received some coverage internationally.
The notoriety of the murders and subsequent trial brought lasting effects to the small Kansas town, and Capote became so famous and related to trials that he was called to help the Senate in an examination of the court case. The trial also brought into the national spotlight a discussion about the death penalty and mental illness. Capote expressed that after completing the book and interviewing Hickock and Smith, he opposed the death penalty.
This trial has also been cited as an example of «the limitations of the M’Naghten rules (also called M’Naghten test).» The M’Naghten rules are used to determine whether or not a criminal was insane at the time of their crime and therefore incapable of being tried fairly. Authors such as Karl Menninger strongly criticized the M’Naghten test, calling it absurd. Many «lawyers, judges, and psychiatrists» have sought to «get around» the M’Naghten rules. In Intention – Law and Society, James Marshall further criticizes the M’Naghten rules, calling into question the psychological principles upon which the rules are based. He stated that «the M’Naghten rules … are founded on an erroneous hypothesis that behavior is based exclusively on intellectual activity and capacity.»
A 1966 article in The New York Times stated that «neighborliness evaporated» in the Holcomb community. «The natural order seemed suspended. Chaos poised to rush in.» In 2009, 50 years after the Clutter murders, the Huffington Post asked Kansas citizens about the effects of the trial, and their opinions of the book and subsequent movie and television series about the events. Many respondents said they had begun to lose their trust in others, «doors were locked. Strangers eyed with suspicion.» Many still felt greatly affected and believed Capote had in a way taken advantage of their «great tragedy».
Capote’s research
Capote became interested in the murders after reading about them in The New York Times. He brought his childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (who would later win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird) to help gain the confidence of the locals in Kansas.
Capote did copious research for the book, ultimately compiling 8,000 pages of notes. His research also included letters from Smith’s Army buddy, Don Cullivan, who was present during the trial.
After the criminals were found, tried, and convicted, Capote conducted personal interviews with both Smith and Hickock. Smith
