Hello Gentle Reader
All crimes are terrible. On a personal note, the entire concept of a ‘true crime,’ book is not very pleasing to my ears. All crimes are terrible. No crime is different to me. Robbery/thievery, heists (be it jewellery or art), attempt of murder to murder, to rape and murder, to child sexual molestation. It is all horrible. Every last bit of it. What can possess a human being to commit such raging acts of complete hedonistic savagery is beyond my comprehension of the human mind. People however eat it up. “A Stolen Life,” a memoir of the Kidnapping victim of Jaycee Lee Dugard, was a rather popular during this Christmas season. Many middle aged (I presume) housewives – suburban living mothers, bought the book a long with some other mystery novels, that they read as fast as they could eat their bon-bon’s. However upon repeated, passing of the True Crime section, at the bookstore, while helping customers; I stopped and would go through the books there. Nothing of real interest. The common of what is to be expected from there. A lot of Anne Rule books, books on the mafia, biker gangs, and other odds and ends. However there were even more gruesome books placed there. “The Red Market: On the trail of the world's organ brokers, bone thieves, blood farmers and child traffickers,” by Scott Carney was one of such books. A disturbing book about the organ trade, it brings to mind that film “Inhale,” too mind. It was a book that, in no way would fit my own reading tastes for its subject matter, that is all too real, and yet is something that is best left forgotten or swept under the carpet. Other books were also around. “Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History” by Ben Mezrich was an interesting book, though again not something that would interest me in reading. Then of course comes the question on why on earth, did I pick up “In Cold Blood,” By Truman Capote. It is a difficult and not at all an air tight story at all. Passing by the section, day after day, the book stayed where it was. Eventually on a slow evening passing through the section, I decided to pick up the book and read a few of the paragraphs. Eventually the first ‘chapter,’ was read so to speak. A simple description of Holcomb, and its quaint prairie existence now, in full view for the entire reading public to maul over like a cow eating its cud.
“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansas call “out there.”’ For a city or urban dweller, such a thought of a place, so empty and vast can be quite invigorating. Yet for me, that first sentence of this book, allowed me to reminisce of my own (almost) two decades spent in a small village or hamlet in a place that one could say is ‘out there.’ When travelling near on the roads to get to it, GPS (Global Position System) simply states that the entire roads do not even exist – at least not the one that I’ve rode with. Yet the thought of that old town sitting out in a place ‘out there,’ surrounded by farmer’s fields – towards the north on the east side is the pasture of a group of cows. Stray cats from the village often go out there in the summer when, the cows are close to town and use the cows for warmth or for company perhaps. The pumpjacks sit like lonesome sentinels or monkes in the fields. Their horse heads bob up and down like they are bowing to the oncoming traffic, or can be seen like praying. However in the end they do resemble clockwork chickens, pecking at the ground for corn. Farmer’s houses lay scatted over their fields and pastures. The small hamlet sits obstinate, in its place. Not much happens there. Trains go through. Baseball tournaments (don’t ask me why) happen in the summer. The whole agriculture days happens early in the summer. The small fire department goes around with some of the denizens of the town, and hand out candy. During Halloween all the kids of the town dress up in goblins, ghouls, devils, witches, angels – and the younger ones dress up now as cute little animals (the most peculiar and cutest was the boy as a Skunk). Nothing bad – at least not on a major scale of personal tragedy has ever happened in the community. There were natural deaths, of course. But nothing pertaining to the subject of murder.
Part one of this book “The last to see them alive,” is the best of the book. These first 70 or so pages were the best of the book. The complete scene of the book was set. It is here, that the reader gets to know who the Clutter family are. The poor four person family who met an untimely fate. They were a good moral family of good values. Nancy Clutter is the last daughter of the Clutter family living at home. She’s a sweet girl, with a wonderful disposition. A hard worker and a gentle soul; who throughout this book, appears to be the one who everyone could identify with most, and her personality is able to put a sense of desire to catch the people who had murdered her, her father and mother, and her younger brother. She is dating another young man in the community Bobby, and is beloved by many in the community. Herb Clutter, is a man involved steadily in the community, always active in it, and therefore renewed in the community as a good man. Kenyon out of all the family would perhaps have been the only one to have picked up the farm from his father. He was the second one, shot in the family after his father’s brutal murder of having his throat slit, and then a shotgun blast to the head. Bonnie the wife of Herb Clutter, and the mother of Nancy and Kenyon, was a rather ill woman, and in the moments leading up to the demise of the family, showed her great compassion for them. However one should take that as fact – however the authenticity of this book and the dialogue and scenes are perhaps always brought into question.
This is one of the greatest criticisms of this book. What is fictional and what is the fact are often something that are, easy to see at times, while at times, it can become rather difficult to see as well. The easiest one at times to see is dialogue. It has always stricken me as interesting with non-fiction books, how they can see they are ‘non-fiction,’ and yet use dialogue, is something that has always interested me in, a ‘non-fiction,’ book (especially with biographies) because who can remember certain conversations of interest, unless they tape recorded them.
With an interview with “Esquire,” magazine Phillip K. Tompkins interviewed a woman who appears in this book Mrs. Meier, denies in an interview with Mr. Tompkins that, she never heard Perry (one of the executioners of Clutter family) cry and they never really talked or held any bond with each other. From Wikipedia:
“Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has told exceedingly well a tale of high terror in his own way. But, despite the brilliance of his self-publicizing efforts, he has made both a tactical and a moral error that will hurt him in the short run. By insisting that “every word” of his book is true he has made himself vulnerable to those readers who are prepared to examine seriously such a sweeping claim.”
Jack Olsen a true crime writer also commented on the discrepancies in this book, and the fabrications in this book, with his own criticism. Truman Capote however responded to the criticism with just stating that Mr. Olsen was just jealous.
Even Alvin Dewey Jr., the investigator of the senseless murders of the case, had said the last scene where he visited the graves of the Clutter family, was a scene that Truman Capote had made up.
However despite the discrepancies and questionable facts, in the book, it still is an enjoyable read. It’s difficult to say where I stand on the book, because of how it is. It is based on events that have happened, in the village of Holcomb, and includes real people as characters. However with his own style, his own use of prose, his own documentation and subjective use of the ‘non-fiction,’ form. However what Truman Capote had succeed, is through his eyes, he shows an idiosyncratic town. All the characters become people that we ourselves can know. The postmaster or postmistress, and their odd habits. There is the grocery clerks, the kids, and everyone else who comes throughout the town. He shows how the act of murder, the viciousness of the crime and the almost pointless and meaningless act itself, affects the town. The paranoia for six to seven weeks that had left people unsettled and scared. Nervous if the killer or killers were walking amongst them, and even after the murders and during the trial life never went back to normal for the village of Holcomb. However Truman Capote presides his characters (murders) and the victims with equal psychological scrutiny.
The other thing that Truman Capote, has done is really moved the true crime as a genre forward. Ever since “In Cold Blood,” came into print, others have repeatedly used the same formula with their own twist and turns, but the true crime book, came to be something of its own genre. Not quite mystery fiction or crime drama, but rather the horror of crime in real life.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M.Mary
