In Cold Blood Murders

On November 14, 1959 four members of the Clutter family were murdered by two heinous men looking to find what they believed would bring them riches, but instead brought upon them a lot of stress/worry and eventually a death sentence. The Clutter family was known as the second richest family in Holcomb, and Mr. Clutter was a very respected man, father, and farmer by the Holcomb community. Many outsiders believed Mr. Clutter kept cash money in his house and this myth ultimately lead to him and his family to being robbed and killed. Holcomb, Kansas prior to this incident was an extremely safe and secure area with minimal criminal activity so much so that its residents felt safe enough to leave their doors unlocked at night, as well as this area …show more content…
In Cold Blood the non-fiction novel was written by Truman Capote in 1966 seven years following the murdering of the Clutter family. The text was written as a factual report documenting the events that led up to the murders, the actual murders, and the after math of the murders. In Cold Blood the film was written and directed by Richard Brooks in 1967. Based off Truman Capote’s novel it was released on year after In Cold Blood the novel. Centered around the same horrific incident In Cold Blood the novel and the film share various similarities and differences between characters, tone, and point of view that suggest the two authors had different goals and reasons for producing their …show more content…
Everything he included within the novel from beginning to end was nothing but the truth which lead to his factual tone. This is demonstrated when he states, “The evening of Wednesday, December 30, was a memorable one in the household of Agent A. A. Dewey” (Capote, In Cold Blood 240). As well as when he begins to quote Perry Smiths testimony “Around midnight. Dick said it was seven miles away, he kept talking to himself saying this ought to be here and that ought to be there-according to the instructions he’d memorized” (Capote, In Cold Blood 266). These examples prove that Capote did his research and actually conducted interviews of the people that were involved to have all the factual evidence needed to produce this novel. The novel also exudes a somber tone as it describes some of the events leading up to the killings. For example, Capote describes how Mrs. Clutter had just found out the great news that her medical condition was physical not mental when he states, “So medical opinion had at least decreed, was not in her head but in her spine- it was physical” (Capote, In Cold Blood 17). This information made the already brutal crime even worse because things were beginning to look up for her and she was eventually going to be able to live the life she wanted when she was killed. In the film Brooks presented a mysterious tone to