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Truman Capote: "In Cold Blood"

 Truman Capote was a monster; after "In Cold Blood," he wrote a bitchy story about a friend, and the friend killed herself. His remarks on Marlon Brando were so scathing, they led Brando to retreat from the spotlight (temporarily). Capote gave little (if any) credit to Harper Lee, though Lee clearly did heavy lifting on the Clutter story.


Capote claimed to have a deep interest in the Clutters, but he didn't really write much about them, and he felt free to invent lies. (Living Clutter relatives are still indignant to this day.) The bulk of "In Cold Blood" is a love letter to a murderer, Perry Smith, and the lies are rampant here, as well. Smith was not a deep soul; he was a killer. He did not apologize to his victims. He did not offer a concise explanation of his motives. (Capote would have you think otherwise.)

A recent study of "In Cold Blood" suggests a motive that Capote himself overlooked. Perry Smith and Richard Hickock were obviously lovers; Capote skipped over this fact because he suspected readers would be less likely to spend money on a true crime saga if they understood that the featured character was gay. Smith saw Hickock expressing interest in a rape; Hickock was going to rape one of the Clutter women. This led to jealousy and rage; it was intense sexual envy that led Perry Smith to begin committing murders. (Maybe.)

Justin St. Germain's critical study is fascinating and ambivalent. Capote and Smith are both compelling characters, and then there is St. Germain himself. His stepfather murders his mother; he decides to write about the event. The book wins acclaim, but it doesn't sell well. America is so eager for true crime--by the 1990s--that a TV producer offers to purchase JSG's family photos. (It doesn't matter that the murder was not sensational. MOST murders involve someone killing someone else he knows and knows *well* ....At least, the Clutter killings were extraordinary; it's rare to have a thug break into a home and slaughter a stranger. By the 90s, producers were not looking for extraordinary crime. They just wanted a crime. It didn't matter if the crime seemed banal.)

JSG is a born writer--and I really enjoyed his book.

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