"In Cold Blood" Book Review

In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"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 twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged for the crime on a gallows in a warehouse in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas.

"In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. It has already been hailed as a masterpiece."

It's an interesting account of an actual atrocity. It hasn't changed my opinion on capitol punishment, but it showed how sorry an affair this whole thing was, for everyone - victims, offenders, family of the victims, family of the offenders, the townsfolk, and even a whole state.

I wish all newspapers, and authors in general, could write this well. I had expected at some point to tell how much Mr. Capote liked the murderers, if what the movie, "Capote", showed is even remotely true. But he managed to remain impartial and honest about the whole procedure.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Capote's work. This was excellent.



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