Book Review - NonfictionIn Cold Blood (1965)
by Truman Capote
"'We talked some, he was very shy, but after a while he said, 'One thing I really like is Spanish rice.' So I promised to make him some, and he smiled kind of, and I decided--well, he wasn't the worst young man I ever saw. That night, after I'd gone to bed, I said as much to my husband. But Wendle snorted. Wendle was one of the first on the scene after the crime was discovered. He said he wished I'd been out at the Clutter place when they found the bodies. Then I could've judged for myself just how gentle Mr. Smith was. Him and his friend Hickock. He said they'd cut out your heart and never bat an eye. There was no denying it--not with four people dead. And I lay awake wondering if either one was bothered by it--the thought of those four graves.'"That was sorta dull... An undeniably impressive endeavour for a writer, but dull nonetheless.
In 1959, in the town of Holcomb, Kansas, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith--former cellmates at Kansas State Penitentiary--viciously murdered the widely beloved and respected Clutter family at night in the Clutter home, a crime that left investigators scratching their donut-binging heads. No one, it seemed, had any motive to harm the family (indeed they seemed to be without enemies whatsoever), and there were virtually no clues left behind that could help implicate anyone. So how were Hickock and Smith finally apprehended? Did they even have any motives? What type of person could do something like that? How could someone do something like that?
Trust me, it's much more boring that I'm probably leading some of you to believe. Murder in cold blood is decidely less compelling than murder out of passion or hatred. It is also somewhat comforting to think that there must be a motive behind a crime as serious as a murder, rather than having to dwell upon possibility of someone seemingly taking lives arbitrarily, but that's not why I felt no great fondness for this work. The crime itself, although heinous to be sure, seemed rather... unextraordinary. Hardly worthy of the Capote's efforts. Capote's meticulous research was nothing short of astounding. The murder, the investigation, trial, and execution were all reconstructed with such stunning detail that I have a very hard time believing that someone would have gone to such great lengths for a relatively uninfluential, run-of-the-mill murder in cold blood. But, as the title suggests, gaining insight into what type of people can commit murders in "cold blood" is the primary focus of the documentary, and I think Capote did an excellent job at that, but he neither chose to advance a great, new, exciting theory nor add anything whatsoever to our understanding of these people. Some murders had horrific childhoods. Some have led relatively normal lives. There really seems to be no rhyme of reason as to why some people become murders and others don't. And perhaps that is what is so chilling to many readers. I, myself, felt almost nothing. Superbly written, though, in most respects. B-
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