Overview

The town of Holcomb rises from the plains of western Kansas, where tawny fields of wheat and dusty white roads stretch long and flat beneath a wide blue sky. In Cold Blood begins here, in Holcomb, where Herb Clutter; his wife, Bonnie; and their children, Nancy and Kenyon, lived—and where they died, shot to death in in the predawn hours of November 15, 1959.

There are two sides to In Cold Blood. The first is the story of the townspeople and investigators, who reckon with grief and fear in the aftermath of the killing. The second tells the story of the two murderers, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith. Placed side by side, these two narrative threads examine the multiple facets of a particular murder, illuminating a darker side to post–World War II, small-town America.

In Cold Blood represents the culmination of Truman Capote’s painstaking research, extensive interviews, and practiced storytelling techniques. The third-person narrative is often cinematic in style, full of transcribed quotes and detail-rich; the book cuts back and forth between delicately counterpoised scenes of the Clutter family and the two men who killed them.

Part I: “The Last to See Them Alive” weaves the stories of the Clutters’ last day alive, the discovery of their bodies, and Hickock and Smith’s journey to Holcomb. From the first description of the crime scene to the prison execution that concludes the book, the identity of the killers is clear. What remains unknown, and what drives the suspense throughout the rest of the book, is how the murderers killed their victims, and why.

Part II: “Persons Unknown” describes the stalled investigation, which is led by Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Alvin Adams Dewey. Hickock and Smith, who seem to have no connection to the Clutters whatsoever, decamp to Mexico after a check-passing spree in Kansas. Our understanding of the killers’ minds and personalities deepens: Perry is dreamy, angry, and broken by a horrific childhood, while Dick is charming, cavalier, and cruel. While the people of Holcomb suspect each other and mourn the loss of a prominent family, Dick and Perry spend their money and return to the States, certain that police will never link them to the Clutter family.

In Part III: “Answer,” their confidence proves misplaced. An old cellmate of Hickock’s named Floyd Wells puts two and two together and speaks up about Hickock and Perry. Wells once worked for Herb Clutter and told Hickock about River Valley Farm. Las Vegas police arrest the pair in December of 1959. Kansas investigators extract their confessions. Dick and Perry admit to the murders, but they themselves don’t seem to know quite why they did it. In the minds of the killers, the horrific slaughter of four carries almost no meaning.

The final section of the book, “The Corner,” describes the murder trial and its aftermath. Dick and Perry are sentenced to death, and, after five years on death row, they are hanged. So ends the tale of an American murder.