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In Cold Blood
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Read In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood (1965) (edit title/settings)

A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences

by Truman Capote (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. Five years, four months and... read more

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

  • - A Kansas family is murdered and the killers are found and executed.

Summary edit see section history

This is the story of the fatal meeting of two criminals in prison. One of the men had worked for a Kansas farmer and his family and was sure the man had lots of money that the pair could get when they got out of jail. What follows is a devastating tale of horror when a robbery goes bad. The... read more

This is the story of the fatal meeting of two criminals in prison. One of the men had worked for a Kansas farmer and his family and was sure the man had lots of money that the pair could get when they got out of jail. What follows is a devastating tale of horror when a robbery goes bad. The story ends with the hanging of the two murderers and the weird feeling that chance played the major role in the crime - chance meeting, chance story, the combined chemistry of two men who would never have committed the murders if alone. This murderous tale will haunt the reader forever.

Characters/People edit see section history

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “"A mother is still the only one who can kiss a boo-boo and make it all well- explain that scientifically.”
    Barbara Smith
  • “"By the way, do you know what tomorrow is? Nancy Clutter's birthday. She would have been seventeen."”
    Dewey
  • “"Imagination, of course, can open any door- turn the key and let terror walk right in."”
    Garden City store proprietor
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Imagination, of course, can open any door—turn the key and let terror walk right in.
    Highlighted by 166 Kindle customers
  • Nothing is more usual than to feel that others have shared in our failures, just as it is an ordinary reaction to forget those who have shared in our achievements.
    Highlighted by 113 Kindle customers
  •     “What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is a breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”—Said by Chief Crowfoot, Blackfoot Indian Chief.
    Highlighted by 87 Kindle customers
  • “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.”
    Highlighted by 78 Kindle customers
  • How was it possible that such effort, such plain virtue, could overnight be reduced to this smoke, thinning as it rose and was received by the big, annihilating sky?
    Highlighted by 77 Kindle customers
  • At the time not a soul in sleeping Holcomb heard them—four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives. But afterward the townspeople, theretofore sufficiently unfearful of each other to seldom trouble to lock their doors, found fantasy re-creating them over and again—those somber explosions that stimulated fires of mistrust in the glare of which many old neighbors viewed each other strangely, and as strangers.
    Highlighted by 74 Kindle customers
  • “Feeling wouldn’t run half so high if this had happened to anyone except the Clutters. Anyone less admired. Prosperous. Secure. But that family represented everything people hereabouts really value and respect, and that such a thing could happen to them—well, it’s like being told there is no God. It makes life seem pointless. I don’t think people are so much frightened as they are deeply depressed.”
    Highlighted by 68 Kindle customers
  • The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.”
    Highlighted by 59 Kindle customers
  • It was the first payment on a forty-thousand-dollar policy that in the event of death by accidental means, paid double indemnity.
    Highlighted by 50 Kindle customers
  • Until one morning in mid-November of 1959, few Americans—in fact, few Kansans—had ever heard of Holcomb. Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there.
    Highlighted by 48 Kindle customers
Show all 13 quotes from this book

Organizations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call 'out there'.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part 1 -- The Last to See Them Alive
Part 2 -- Persons Unknown
Part 3 -- Answer
Part 4 -- The Corner

Glossary edit see section history

  • unmarred: unblemished
  • lamentably: deplorably, regrettably, unfortunately
  • wan: very pale and sickly
  • reticent: bashful, reserved
  • penitentiary: (AmE) a correctional institution for those convicted of major crimes; a prison or jail
  • ineffable: unspeakable, inexpressible
  • agog: highly excited, eager
  • elocution: the study of formal speaking
  • ethereality: ethereal: heavenly, unusually delicate, light, lacking material substance, intangible
  • despondency: depression, dejection
  • Austere: strict, stern; unadorned, ascetic
  • fastidious: having a close attention to detail
  • intinerant: traveling from place to place to work
  • haranguing: giving an impassioned, disputatious public speech; giving a tirade or rant, whether spoken or written; giving a forceful and lengthy lecture or criticism to someone
  • coterie: clique, social group of people or animals
  • indemnity: An indemnity is a sum paid by A to B by way of compensation for a particular loss suffered by B. The indemnitor (A) may or may not be responsible for the loss suffered by the indemnitee (B). Forms of indemnity include cash payments, repairs, replacement, and reinstatement.
  • sojourn: a temporary stay, esp. a short one
  • delineating: showing the form or outline of
  • paltry: negligible, trivial
  • forlornly: hopelessly, miserably, lonesomely
  • betrotheds: the person to whom one is betrothed
  • netsuke: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsuke
  • muy simpatico: (Spanish) muy means 'very' and 'simpatico' can mean friendly or sociable
  • shotgun: effective gun against turkeys small game and intruders. also good murder weapon if your stupid
Show all 24 glossary entries

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Modern-day Mythology/Epic Storytelling: In Cold Blood is crafted like a modern-day tragedy, on the scale of one of the Greek dramas from classical antiquity, and deals with many of the same universal themes: murder, vengeance, and the pursuit of justice. This, for Capote, was the power of his new literary genre, the nonfiction novel: to take events from the contemporary world and elevate them to epic storytelling proportions, enabling them to transcend their specific historical moment and reflect on broader truths about humanity. Capote assembles the disparate facts and perspectives about the Clutter case into a narrative that speaks profoundly on the nature of human life and death, criminality, American society and the pursuit of individual happiness -- reinventing in the process many of our modern-day forms of mythology (for example, the myth of the American dream).
  • Loss of Innocence/Undermining the American Dream: The Clutter killings are a turning point for the citizens of Holcomb and Garden City: for the first time, the dangerous wider world seems to threaten their peaceful existence, and their former naïveté gives way to feelings of doubt, fear and suspicion. According to Capote, it is the first time the citizens of this part of Kansas have had to endure the “unique experience of distrusting each other” (88). Their version of the American dream – of safety, security, and the ability to determine their own fate – becomes undermined, if not entirely thwarted, by the victimization of the Clutters. Their view of the world must suddenly include another kind of person, a poor, embittered, “rootless” person, for whom this dream was never an option in the first place.
  • The Banality of Evil: When the murders are first discovered, Perry and Dick, as “persons unknown,” are elevated to an inhuman, almost mythic stature, the essence of a pure and motiveless evil that has come to destroy the peaceful lifestyle of the Holcomb residents. Capote, however, replaces this simplistic view with a more nuanced and sensitive interpretation, by exploring the material, psychological, environmental circumstances that cause two otherwise ordinary human beings to commit such an atrocious act. Throughout the novel, Perry and Dick are transformed from heartless, cold-blooded menaces, whose actions seem to defy human logic, into the fraught, pitiful, completely humanized individuals they are at the end of the book, and the crime itself is boiled down to a very basic and fairly understandable set of emotional responses. Although he does not attempt to excuse their actions, Capote shows how ordinary feelings of frustration and despair accidentally erupt into such an extraordinary crime. The book seems to contend that criminality and “evil” are not things apart, as we tend to define them, but normal human responses that merely become amplified and find a destructive outlet.
  • Family: Family life is a key determinant of individual character in the context of the book. The Clutters, who symbolize the utmost integrity of family life, are obliterated by Perry, who represents everything it means to come from a broken home. The Clutters’ uprightness is related to the strength of their family, as Perry’s criminality is connected to the dissolution of his own kinship ties. In spirit, Dick is still wedded to his first wife, and his dreams of becoming self-sufficient are linked to the ability to support her and their three sons. The strength of a person’s family ties has the larger implication of whether that person can live happily, well-off, and in a self-determined fashion. (The exception to this rule is with regard to Dick’s parents, who seem to have raised him lovingly and for whom he has genuine respect and affection, despite his criminal tendencies.)
  • Socioeconomic Status: The Clutter killings are symbolic of a class conflict, highlighting the discrepancy between the affluent, middle-class, predominantly white citizens of Holcomb and the underprivileged, working-class, mixed-race (in the case of Perry) killers. Theft is the only form of economic mobility that Perry and Dick have ever known, as neither of them have had a chance at a proper education or a solid career (Dick, we learn, could not afford to attend college, and Perry was forced to help his father earn their basic subsistence in Alaska). Economic insecurity is at the root of the murders on every level: it forms the initial motive for the break-in (to steal the contents of Herb Clutter’s safe), and later on causes Perry to feel ashamed, for “crawling on my belly to steal a child’s silver dollar” (240), a sentiment which is ultimately to blame for the fatal turn the robbery takes.
  • Self-Image: The theme of self- or ego-image is crucial to understanding the interpersonal dynamics of Perry and Dick, especially those that lead to the eventual murder spree. Both men, Perry especially, are highly image-conscious and attuned to how others perceive them. Towards the end of the book, we learn from Perry’s psychiatric evaluation that he is “overly sensitive to criticisms that others make of him, and cannot tolerate being made fun of. He is quick to sense slight or insult in things others say” (297). In some sense, the rivalry between Dick and Perry is a mutual struggle for self-recognition, with each wishing the other man would validate his own self-image (this may be fueled, as some critics have suggested, by homoerotic desire). Self-image represents, in a larger sense, social status and self-determination, neither of which is available to these men. For Perry, the botched robbery at the Clutters is a painful reminder of his own lack of means or social mobility, and his feelings of shame and self-loathing at this realization are ultimately at the root of his homicidal rampage.
  • Homosexuality: Homoerotic desire is just below the surface of the relationship between Dick and Perry, between Perry and Willie-Jay, and, more implicitly, in the meta-textual relationship of Truman Capote to his two subjects. Whether or not these attractions were overtly acknowledged or even consciously realized by their subjects (Capote thought it was likely that both men had repressed these feelings), they are a palpable subtext of the narrative and serve several functions. On one level, they elucidate the relationship of Dick and Perry, adding a layer of intensity to their interactions that helps to explain why, for example, they might have become so frustrated at the Clutter home, or why so much of Perry’s self-image rests on Dick’s opinion of him. But the theme of homosexuality also functions as a larger symbol of, and premise for, Dick and Perry’s status as outsiders, social misfits for whom conventional society seems to have no place. At the time that In Cold Blood was penned, homosexuals were considered a threat to the social order, so much so that the F.B.I. kept official watch lists in order to monitor their activities. This unspoken element of their relationship heightens the intensity of their clash with conservative, small-town American life, and raises the stakes of the murder trial by a perceptible margin.
  • Mental Illness: Perry and Dick’s criminal tendencies are revealed to have underlying medical causes (Perry suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and Dick has brain damage from a concussion); the difficulty of the murder trial becomes, to what extent are they still accountable for their actions? In a larger sense, the book seems to grapple with the question of whether the same moral standards are applicable to all people, regardless of their upbringing and their life circumstances; or whether Perry and Dick are in some measure redeemed (at least morally, if not legally) by the fact of their mental illness, and the fact that their own lives have been so lacking.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Modern Library Classics. (publisher edition list)
This book is in Zvonka's list. (community list)
This is book 63 of 93 in Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List. (authoritative list)
This book is in True Crime: Basis Of A Movie. (community list)
This is book 5 of 99 in NPR's Top 100 Killer Thriller. (community list)
This is book 43 of 113 in Book Smart Reading List. (community list)
This is book 408 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 54 of 100 in Top 100 Mysteries of All Time (Mystery Writers of America, 1995). (authoritative list)
This is book 7 of 29 in Biblioteka XX. stoljeće (Jutarnji list). (publisher edition list)
This book is in Penguin's Top 100 Classics. (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin Modern Classics. (publisher edition list)
This book is in TIME Magazine's All-TIME 100 Best Nonfiction Books. (authoritative list)
This book is in Top American Novels of All Times. (community list)
This book is in Folio Society. (publisher edition list)
This book is in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Truman Capote (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Tere Loprete (Designer) - Cover design
  2. S. Neil Fujita - Jacket design
  3. Ellen F. Kane (Cover Artist) - Cover design

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Random House
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1965
ISBN: 0679443754
Page Count: 343

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: HV6533.K3 C3
  • Dewey: 364.15230978144

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Homoerotic desire is just below the surface of the relationship between Dick and Perry, between Perry and Willie-Jay, and, more implicitly, in the meta-textual relationship of Truman Capote to his two subjects. Whether or not these attractions were overtly acknowledged or even consciously realized by their subjects (Capote thought it was likely that both men had repressed these feelings), they are a palpable subtext of the narrative and serve several functions.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • In Cold Blood Wikipedia Page: 1 Overview of the crime2 Capote's research3 Publication4 Criticism5 Adaptations6 See also7 References8 External links
  • Folio Society: On the morning of Sunday, 15 November 1959, two teenage girls went to River Valley Farm in Holcomb, Kansas, the home of their friend Nancy Clutter. They found Nancy lying on her bed, shot in the back of the head with a shotgun, her bedroom wall spattered with blood. Her mother, Bonnie, was also dead, her hands tied together and her mouth taped with adhesive. In the basement, her father Herb’s throat had been slit; her brother, Kenyon, had been gagged and bound and shot in the face. The telephone line had been disconnected. Forty dollars in cash was missing.

Movie Connections edit see section history

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • House of Evil

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history

   
  • Bad Blood
  • Natural Born Celebrities

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