Resumo de In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

It was Holcomb, Kansas, the heartland of America; home of cattle, Sunday school, and Saturday matinees, not murder. Yet when the Clutter family is slaughtered late one evening in November, 1959, writer Truman Capote takes it upon himself to chronicle the strange twists and turns of a bizarre and ruthless murder. In a flowery, non-journalistic style, Capote forces us into the last hours of the victims and ponders what they were thinking, before venturing into the minds of the witnesses, police department, and finally the murderers, who on the surface seemed everyday Joes. Perry Smith, an aspirin popping undersized man is the real killer, showing absolutely no mercy for his victims, while Richard Hickock, self-assured and apparently remorseless, appears at first to be the ringleader. It is somewhat with a shock we learn that it is Perry and Perry alone, a man of poetic thoughts and neglected childhood, who pulls the shotgun trigger four times. The respected Herbert Clutter, his fragile, housebound wife, their lively 16 year-old daughter Nancy, and younger inventive son, Kenyon become a footnote in history. The pairs? motive was simple; robbery. While in prison, Hickock had been assured by cellmate, Floyd Wells, that Herb Clutter kept thousands of dollars in his office and all they had to do was walk in and take it. Nothing is as simple as it seems and in a day and age when DNA evidence is non-existent and a witness hard to find the police, headed by Al Dewey, seems stumped. Yet, finally, the former cell-mate squeals and when fool-heartedly the pair returns to Kansas after having gone through all their funds in Mexico they?re identified because of the slew of bad checks they write in Kansas which lead to their arrest in Nevada.
The final line and reason for the gritty title In Cold Blood, is that there was no reason to murder the Clutter family. If Dick Hickock had done his homework, he would have discovered that Herb Clutter didn?t believe in cash resulting in a final take of a measly 40-50 dollars. The family?s teenaged Nancy, hearing intruders in the house, stashes her watch into her shoe, which is never found by the killers who after tying her up, tuck her tenderly into bed before later blowing out her brains. Dick and Perry have to settle for a few dollars and a radio. The killers are a paradox which fascinates Capote. Why kill people who most likely could have never fingered them in the first place? Why try to make your victims comfortable before killing them? And lastly why mail incriminating boots to Las Vegas, which later becomes irrefutable evidence since the bloody boot print is one of the only real pieces clues the police have?
Perry Smith and Richard Hickock were hanged on April 14, 1965 after exhausting all hopes of appeal. The Clutter family murder, their killer?s psychology, motive, subsequent arrest and later execution would have never made headlines outside of the Midwest if it hadn?t been for a hungry writer in search of a sensational story. Reading In Cold Blood raises the question of whether or not the brutality of this crime ever be understood? What was it about the particular homicide that riveted Capote and made him write a stylishly lavish book that seems less a true crime story than a radiant novel about the Midwest? It is said that readers of the book will never be the same and that all writers will seek to copy Capote?s meandering, compelling style. It is for you to judge and read the classic that destroyed Capote?s life and started a public?s fascination with criminal psychology that eventually spawned two forceful films and a still loyal following of the book first published in 1965.

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