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While one might question, as many have, Capote’s account of events in In Cold Blood, his raw unedited notes archived in the New York Public Library attest to the potent talent he possessed for interviewing people. (NB: Shortly after Capote’s death in 1984, George Plimpton famously quipped, “Truman used to talk about how he never used a tape recorder or notes or anything doing that book. But sometimes he said he had 96 percent total recall, and sometimes he said he had 94 percent total recall. He could recall everything, but he could never remember what percentage recall he had.”)[173]
In the earliest interviews, taken in the first weeks following the murders, Capote and Lee each made note of numerous doubts and suspicions voiced by many people from Garden City and beyond. Few believed robbery was the sole motive; but that so many people who knew the Clutters well presumed that a darker purpose was afoot is startling. One of those doubters was Alvin Dewey, the KBI agent coordinating the investigation and a close friend of Herb Clutter.
