Truman Capote - In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences Books Review

Overall 4.75 of 5 view all 4 reviews

cotell
Los Angeles, CA

Don't Plan on Sleeping after reading this one

avid reader

Pros

Great Character Development

JAN

2008

Truman Capote - In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences Books —

Before I forget, did anyone else notice that the book was dedicated to Harper Lee?

So did the crime fit the punishment? Which character is worse? Perry who had an awful, disgusting childhood, was beaten, usually homeless, abused and treated like a "slave" but, according to him, killed 4 innocent people. Or Dick who had a standard childhood came from a good and strict family, played sports in high school, met the women of his dreams and married her. He didn't kill the family but he did instigate the crime and encouraged Perry to play it out until the end. Did they both deserve to die? Is Perry the worst of the two because he committed the actual murders or was Dick because there isn't any excuse to explain his life of crime? Is Perry better because he prevented Dick from committing rape before he shot Nancy's head off? (Don't mean to be crude but you get the idea) I'm curious to know what everyone thinks.

I liked how Capote started the book before the murders occurred. You were able to see how everyone was living and you could see the difference in people's attitude from the day before, to the day after the crime. One moment they looked after their neighbors, the next moment they were looking at them sideways trying to see if they were guilty. And I like how he wrote from the cop's point of view in the beginning (Nancy's purse in the hallway, her watch in the shoe, why the son looked like he did before he was shot) and then how Perry filled in the holes at the end. The only thing that made me question things was that is was so exact. Three months went by (or was it more) and he remembered everything right down to the emotions he felt when he was scurrying for the silver dollar that fell out of the purse. I have a good memory but lets face it, do you know any man who can remember the details that Perry did? How Dick was able to recite from memory the stores that he passed bad checks?

I was also surprised that the daughters weren't mentioned after the hurried wedding ceremony. And I don't understand why she felt the need to get married the week of her family's death, right after the funeral. I would have waited. But of course now-a-days people would just live together while they wait for a better time to get married. I guess they couldn't do that back then :) No one but the mother's brother showed up for the trial. And he asked for people to forgive the killers and let them have life in prison instead of death. I wonder how the other family members felt.

While I was exploring a site titled "Six Degrees of Capote" came up. This had emails from those that either knew the victims, the criminal or the city where they were from. There wasn't a lot but it was really interesting to read some of those. I think with a bit more exploring we could find other sites like that, that include witnesses' recaps of the incident. It did bother me to learn how writing about this affected Capote the way it did. How he felt bad for the killers who had hoped that he could save them. Did Truman ever say if he was for or against capital punishment? You can't tell from the book which shows what a great author he is, no biased opinions at all even though he talked with the killers and the victims for over 6 years.

And no I won't be renting this movie I don't need to be reminded that sometimes you are just at the wrong place at the right time or the right place at the wrong time.

Truman Capote - In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences Books is recommended by cotell

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Comments about cotell’s Review

It would be okay to see the movie - it really didn't have a whole lot to do with the murders it was more about capote's life while he was righting the book, not the murder story itself.