In Cold Blood Research Paper

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In Cold Blood

Tina Huang

CRJ 252

Professor Schnurbush

March 4, 2018

Introduction

In 1966, Truman Capote, an American novelist, screenwriter, and playwright published In Cold Blood, a chilling yet fascinating account of murder set in Holcomb, Kansas that retells the death of the Clutter family and the investigation that resulted in the execution of the killers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. The novel unravels recurring themes of violence and examines biological, sociological, and psychological factors that led to the motiveless murders of four members of the Clutter family, Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon. The book begins by outlining the multiple murder case in the 1950’s and is not limited to a legal

The Clutter family murder occurred on November 15, 1959, and the arrest of the perpetrators Smith and Hickock was on December 30, 1959, by Las Vegas Police Department on a Kansas warrant for hot checks. The Sunday after the family murder, Susan Kidwell and Nancy Ewalt noticed that the Clutters were missing church, so they attempted to reach them by phone and rang the doorbell but nobody answered, which they found extremely disconcerting. Nancy’s father, Mr. Clarence Ewalt suggested they go back to their house to wake them up. As a result, the girls found Nancy’s body and all the blood, Mr. Ewalt tried to call the ambulance, however, the line had been cut. The tangible evidence was given towards the KBI, who follow a strict operational order during

This is most likely due to the Clutters being the ideal, well respected all-American family, who gained admiration, not just from neighbors, but from their employees too. The aftermath of the gruesome murders was the moral panic among Kansas residents since residents could no longer look each other in the eyes with trust, as there was speculation among them that the crime had been committed by one of their own, not by a drifter. In the novel, Capote includes a female schoolteacher and her claim that there would not have been much of an emotional response if the victims of the heinous crime was anyone less admired, wealthy, and respected. This claim led to the unacceptable, ugly realization that there might not be no God, which influenced people to become depressed and spurred the ongoing fear of being a statistic just like the Clutters (Capote, 1993, p.