 Hello, and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about the non-fiction novel by Truman Capote called In Cold Blood. My name is Sarah, and today I'm going to give you an overview of the book, a summary of its chapters, an analysis of characters, and a quick biography of the author. This video is really useful, especially if you are studying the book as part of your English literature course or exam, as I'll get into the details you need to know to get top marks. So, let's get started. So, In Cold Blood is a non-fiction novel by the American writer Truman Capote, published originally as a four-part series in the New Yorker magazine in 1965, and in book form in 1966. Capote used the techniques of fiction to tell the true story of the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Kansas by a pair of drifters and of the subsequent capture, trial, and execution of the killers. So now on to the plots. In Cold Blood tells the true story of the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. The book is written as if it were a novel, complete with dialogue and is what Truman Capote referred to as New Journalism, the non-fiction novel. Although this writing style had been used before, the craft and success of In Cold Blood led to its being dimmed the true masterwork of the genre. For Truman Capote, it was the last in a series of great works, which included breakfast at Tiffany's, other voices, other rooms, and the grass harp. In Cold Blood was originally published in four parts in the New Yorker and then released as a novel in 1965. In Cold Blood took six years for Capote to research and write, and it took an incredible toll on Capote, personally. So much that he never published another book again. In Cold Blood is said to have been his undoing. The book tells the story of the murder of the Clutter family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children, Kenyon and Nancy. They had two older daughters that were grown and out of the house and the events that lead the killers to murder. The family was living in Holcomb, Kansas and in November 1959, they were brutally killed with no apparent motive by Dick Highcock and Perry Smith. The family was discovered bound and shot to death with only small items missing from the home. Capote read about the crime in the New York Times soon after it happened, and before the killers were caught, he began his work in Kansas, interviewing the people in Holcomb and doing extensive research with the help of his friend Harper Lee who would go on to write the classic to kill a mockingbird. Perry and Dick initially get away with the murder, leaving behind scant clues and having no personal connection with the murdered family. Capote explores the motive again and again within his text, eventually concluding that any real motive for the crime lays within Perry. His feelings of inadequacy, his ambiguous sexuality and his anger at the world and at his family because of his bad childhood. Dick plays the role of true outlaw but the impact of the killings weigh heavily on him and his own role in the murders remains unexplained and unclear. The townspeople of Holcomb and other friends of the Clutters are deeply affected by the murders. This includes Nancy's best friend Sue and Nancy's boyfriend Bobby. The townspeople perceived the Clutters as the family least likely in the world to be murdered. Unable to conceive that the killers were strangers, many of them become suspicious of everyone and anxious about their own safety in the company of the neighbors. The man who heads the murder investigation, Al Dewey, becomes obsessed with both the murderers and the Clutter family. His need to find the killers becomes his driving force in life. While the anxiety in Holcomb grows, the killers move on with their lives. The book follows Perry and Dick to Mexico and back and incredibly it seems that they might never be found out and brought to justice. Ultimately, a living witness who can tie the two men to the Clutters footprints at the crime scene and the possession of a pair of binoculars and a radio from the Clutter home become the pair's undoing. They are arrested and both confess to their part in the crime. They are tried for murder and convicted. After many years on death row, both men are hanged. During their time on death row, Perry slowly reveals his personal thoughts, his ambitions and the motives that contributed to his life choices, including the fateful night he and Dick entered the Clutter home. So now on to a detailed summary. Chapter 1. The Clutter family is introduced on November 15, 1959, the day they were murdered through the eyewitness accounts of friends and neighbors who spent time with them before the Clutters met their fates. They are a tight-knit, all-American family unit. Herb Clutter spends his day running the ranch supervising his employees. He's a good employer offering decent wages and personal help to anyone who works for him. His one rule is that he will not employ anyone who drinks or keeps alcohol. His daughter Nancy is a thriving popular attractive and kind teenage girl who dreams of moving to New York and attending college. Nancy is described as the town darling. She has long been dating a local boy named Bobby Wrapp, but she sees no solid future with him. Herb's wife and the mother of their children, Bonnie Clutter, suffers severe bouts with postpartum depression after the birth of her four children. She remains bedridden and miserable while her daughter and husband run the household. The youngest Clutter, Kenyon, spends his days constructing, deconstructing and rebuilding various electronics and gadgets. He is highly intelligent and has the promise of growing up to become an engineer and inventor. Unknown to the Clutters, Paris Smith and Dick Hickock are making their way to the Clutter home with the intention of murdering them all. Despite the lack of a clear motive, Dick is bloodthirsty. He plans to leave no witnesses and to blast hair all over the walls. Paris seems less enthusiastic about the potential for violence and pleads with Dick to buy stockings to disguise their faces. At first, Dick refuses, but eventually, Paris convinces him to buy stockings to conceal their identities. Paris has an incredible almost fanatical interest in words and the English language. His sole motive for participating in this crime has nothing to do with greed or bloodlust. All Paris wants is to stay with Dick long enough to reunite with his friend Willie J, a former prison mate and the focus of all of Paris' affection and actions. Meanwhile, Dick is fascinated by a story Paris once told him in which Paris bid a man to death with a bicycle chain. Dick wants to see if Paris is indeed a true killer. After Dick and Paris murder the Clutters and the bodies are discovered, Paris and Dick are exhausted. Paris sleeps in his hotel room while Dick returns to the home of his parents, where he eats, watches basketball and eventually falls asleep on the couch. On to Chapter 2. Herbert Clutters, three closest friends, arrive at the Clutter home after the bodies have been removed and the police finish their initial investigation. They clean up the home and scrub it off all of the unpleasant reminders of the crime itself. Paris and Dick have gone to Mexico as much to avoid arrest or suspicion as to fulfill Paris' desire to go skin diving and to search for treasure. Dick goes to Mexico reluctantly and finances the trip by writing bad checks. Dick uses phony checks to get both cash and to buy merchandise which he can sell somewhere else. Back in Holcomb, the murders have an epic impact on the town. Holcomb is a town where people traditionally know and trust one another, but now its residents keep lights on at all hours, lock their doors and suspect everyone else. Bobby Rubb, Nancy's boyfriend, faces more police interrogation but is eventually ruled out as a suspect. This despite the fact that he has the only reasonable motive to harm the Clutters, that of looting Nancy to her father's disapproval. Capote reveals details of Paris' childhood. His childhood was unpleasant until his mother began drinking and abandoned her husband, taking the children with her. Later, Paris was left in children's homes where he was horrifically abused, mainly by nuns. Paris is eventually reunited with his father and they tried to start a hunting lodge, but when the business failed, Paris and his father went separate ways after an intense physical fight during which Paris felt the need to nearly choke his father to death. Paris' sister and brother both committed suicide, while a second sister established a good life for herself with her husband and children. Paris reflects on his life of crime, which mainly consists of petty thievery and breaking and entering. Paris reveals to Dick that he has a reoccurring dream in which he is in Africa, where he approaches a tree that smells terrible but looks beautiful. In this dream, as Paris gets closer to the tree, he sees that it has diamonds hanging from it like fruits. He begins to pick the diamonds, but is attacked by a giant snake that wears the tree. The snake begins to eat Paris. What Paris doesn't tell, Dick, is that his dream always ends the same way, with a giant bird, a sort of parrot, arriving to save Paris, conquering whoever might be hurting Paris and then taking him to heaven. Back in Hong Kong, the murder investigation continues. Police discover a gold wristwatch tucked into Nancy's shoe, indicating that she heard the intruders and attempted to hide her valuables before they find her. Police also note that Kenyon's radio is missing. Rubbery was quickly disregarded as a motive for the crime, as Herb Clutter was infamous for having no cash on hand. But when locals hear that Kenyon's radio is gone, the townspeople presume that robbery was a motive after all. Capote makes it clear that Dick and Perry have possession of both Kenyon's radio and Herb Clutter's binoculars. Finally, footprints with a diamond shaped shoe pattern are discovered in the basement where Herb and Kenyon Clutter were murdered. Still another puzzle piece that baffles investigators is the positioning of the Clutter family's bodies. Nancy and Bonnie were covered with blankets up to their chins, tucked in, either before or after they were killed. A box had been moved from one end of the basement to the other to give Herb Clutter a more comfortable seat, and Kenyon had been given a pillow to lie on before he was murdered on the chest he built himself. These actions, coupled with the lack of upper motive in killing the family, said to be the least likely to have been killed. However, Kenyon, who ever been murdered, increases speculation in the town, criticism of the investigator and tension within the texts. Capote introduces Albert Jui and his family into the narrative. Albert is the lead investigator in the Clutter case, and he becomes obsessed with the Clutter's, the crime scene, and with finding the killers. Albert feels haunted by the Clutter family and believes that he will remain so until he knows what happened to them. He comes to believe that the person who killed the Clutter's knew them well and had a personal motive due to the intimate nature of the crime and the lack of an apparent motive. While Albert's wife is sympathetic, she is disturbed by the crime scene photos and has a terrifying dream in which Mrs. Clutter speaks to her from the grave about being murdered. Meanwhile, Dick and Perry continue their journey. They are hitchhiking, waiting for someone to pick them up. They intend to murder the unlucky driver and then steal the car. Chapter 3 Floyd Wells, a former cellmate of Dick Heacock, hears about the Clutter family murders and is struck with the realization that he knows who killed them and why. A former employee of Herbert Clutter, Wells remembers that he had told Dick about the Clutter family revealing details about the house and its occupants. Wells realized that Dick believed, based on Wells' account of his own employment there, that they would be safe in the office. While Capote revealed the identity of the Killers at the very beginning of the novel, he kept both a motive and any connection between the murderers and the Clutter's to himself. Sometimes, Capote's writing suggested that even the Killers themselves didn't know why they chose this family to kill, but here, finally, a motive surfaces, robbery. Dick Heacock was misled into believing there was a safe on the Clutter property. This is one of a series of small seemingly insignificant details that contributed to the fate of the Clutter family. Albert learns about Dick and Perry and the potential that they are the murderers, but he decides not to reveal details about the pair to the public or media. He is cautious because of the lack of physical evidence connecting Dick and Perry to the crime. What's more, Dewey believes even if robbery was the motive, the lack of money in the Clutter household would not be enough to cause Dick and Perry to murder the whole family. Regardless, Dewey receives files on Dick and Perry, including photographs of the men. Dewey's wife recalls upon seeing the two men, convinced that they were the last people the Clutter saw. Herbert Knight resolves to track down Dick and Perry. He visits the homes of their families and the pawn shops where Dick had been hawking stolen goods. And he comes to a hotel where the pair had been staying, where Perry's box of drones and memorabilia was being kept for him. He visits Perry's sister who remains pleasant but holds nothing back in her description of Perry as someone she fears, while at the same time someone she deeply loves and worries about. Perry and Dick get picked up by a driver, the perfect target for them to murder in order to steal the car. But at the last possible second, the driver picks up another hitchhiker in what Perry calls a goddamn miracle. Despite the threat of being discovered, Perry and Dick then decide to return to Kansas City because they believe it to be the best place for Dick to con his way into more money. While Perry remains worried about being so close to their crime scene, they make their way to the town, where Dick runs his camp and gets some money, and the two of them live without incident. By returning and again leaving Kansas without incident, Dick and Perry become convinced that they will never be connected to the clutter murders. As they continue their journey westward, they pick up a boy of about 12 and his grandfather. The four of them make a slow journey through the desert, picking up empty soda bottles to turn in for cash. The arrest occurs in Las Vegas on December 30th, 1959. Dick and Perry are captured by Las Vegas police based on the license plate number of the stolen car they were driving. Al Dewey is informed of the arrest as his wife is preparing for a party. The two of them embrace and Al apologizes for spoiling her party. It assures him that it's the best way he could have spoiled it, as they will soon be living a normal life again. Dick and Perry are interrogated by police, both believing that they are being arrested for parole violations and Dick's bad check schemes. Harold Nye and Roy Church interview Dick, who is proud to confess that he cons people by writing bad checks. Dick becomes even more likes when the questioning turns to his personal life and history. When the conversation comes to the night of the clutter murders, Dick details a story that he and Perry invented and rehearsed in which they stayed in a cabin with two prostitutes. Nye tells Perry that he is a murder suspect in the clutter case and that there is a living witness. Perry finally admits that the story about the cabin is a lie and Dick realizes that the witness is his ex-cellmate and both men begin to unravel. Finally Dick tells the investigators that it was Perry who killed the family and that he was unable to stop Perry from killing them all. The news of the arrest arrives in Holcomb and received as an anti-climax. The people of Holcomb were almost disappointed that the murderer was not acquainted with the clutter and that the killer wasn't working among them. As Dewey and Dunn transport Perry back to Kansas, he gives the ultimate confession, recounting the murders in incredible detail. Perry reveals that Mr. Clutter cooperated with the home invaders up until he realized that his family was in mortal danger when his own throat was slit. Then he broke free of his restraints and Perry shot him in the head. With a general sense of frenzy the other members were shot, perhaps all by Perry. Perry's disgust and irritation with Dick becomes clear. Dick had such a bravado that wasn't able to follow through with the plan. The Clutter family was murdered because of Perry daring Dick to complete what he had started, but this became a frenzy of activity in which Perry seems to have acted alone. There is a question of whether or not Dick actually killed Nancy or Mrs. Clutter but it remains unanswered. Chapter 4 Dick and Perry are incarcerated and await trial. Dick is put into the county jail but in order to keep the two separated, Perry is put into a cell usually reserved for women at the home of the undersheriff, Wendell Mayer and his wife. Perry befriends the couple who treat him well and he acquires the trust and affection of a wild squirrel that lives just outside the window. When asked to sign his statement, Perry asked that it be changed to reflect that he now asserts as the truth, that he killed the entire family and that Dick did not kill Mrs. Clutter or Nancy. Perry does this as a means to comfort Dick's mother. He also keeps a journal remarking on his upcoming trial and his current life with the Mayers. Dick lives among the general population in county jail. He becomes popular among the inmates and begins to plot an escape. He fashions a shive but it is discovered before he can enact his plan. Perry also begins to think about escaping and he writes a note to the two young boys who have been watching his cell asking for a hacksaw. After he writes the note, Perry never sees the boys again and he begins to wonder if they ever existed. Perry also considers suicide by using the light bulb in his cell to cut his wrists. In a dream in which he succeeds in killing himself, he is visited again by the yellow bird. The trial arrives and Perry and Dick's sanity is called into question. The first doctors who examine Perry conclude that he is now and was at the time of the murders sown by the legal definition. Further details regarding the behavior of the two men following the murder are recounted. Perry says that after the killings the two men couldn't stop laughing that they felt high and joked around as they buried evidence and cleaned themselves. This new physical evidence was found by investigators and brought to the trial along with the radio binoculars and photographs of the shoe prints matching those of Dick and Perry. With this even without the confession the case is solid. Each man is appointed a lawyer. Both lawyers confess that the case is not the most attractive to a defense attorney but they do their best to represent Dick and Perry. Perry begins to correspond with Don Cullivan, a man with whom he served in the army. Don eventually comes to visit Perry in jail and the two of them share a meal. Perry tells Don that in truth he is not sorry and feels no regret for his crime. Don and Christian tells Perry that he is concerned for Perry's soul. Don admits that he enjoys Perry's company and friendship and personally concludes that it is only because of God's grace that he himself did not end up a criminal in the same way that Perry has. The property and belongings of the clutter family are auctioned off. There is a large turnout and everything is sold. The final tragedy is the sale of Babe, Nancy's horse, who was not a useful farm animal but a pet. Sue Kidwell is overcome at the sight of Babe being led away by a farmer intending on using the horse to plow. Floyd Wealth testifies as the mysterious witness. He is given the reward but at the time of the book's writing he is again incarcerated for armed robbery. The prosecution also introduces the crime scene photos, physical evidence and Perry's confession. The defense only is able to put forth characters with the defense only is able to put forth character witnesses and makes closing arguments more against the death penalty than for the innocence of the murders. But both Dick and Perry are found guilty and sentenced to death. Mrs. Mayer grieves after the verdict she is joined in her grief by the squirrel that will not take food from her but continues to wait for Perry. The two men arrive at Death Row where they are to stay for a total of five years. During this time Dick and Perry live with other prisoners who are on Death Row. The inmates are all within speaking distance to each other but their cells line up so they cannot see one another. Perry attempts to starve himself to death though his motivation may have been to be declared legally insane. The other occupants of Death Row are introduced among them is Loa Lee Andrews, a large and highly intelligent young men who killed his entire family and feels no guilt or grief. Eventually young soldiers George Ronald York and James Douglas Latham arrive on Death Row. These two men all good-looking and pleasant despite having gone on a multi-state killing spree because of their belief that the world has become hateful. The title of the chapter is revealed. On Death Row the term used for those who have gone to the gallows and been executed is gone to the corner. Dick finds an attorney to appeal his conviction based on what he considers his lack of a fair trial. He's ultimately unsuccessful. Andrews is put to death on November 30th, 1962. Dick and Perry are put to death on April 14th 1965. Al Dewey attends the execution and feels deep, true empathy for Perry and his last minutes. Dewey sees Perry as a child. The final scene of the book jumps ahead and finds Susan Kidwell and Al Dewey meeting one another in a graveyard. Susan is attending college and living in New York just as she and Nancy had planned. The book ends optimistically looking ahead to the future and with a feeling that Susan and Al are moving on with life and with a feeling that Susan and Al are moving on with life. So let's study the characters. Herbert William Clutter, the head of the Clutter family, his 48th and owns a ranch. He provides well for his family and employs several ranch hands. He's a hard worker, a generous employer, a strict but fair father and a faithful husband to his bedridden wife. He's a college graduate having a degree in agriculture from Kansas State University and a self-made man. He is the embodiment of the American dream and the pinnacle of respect. Bonnie Clutter, wife of Herbert, mother of four and bedridden with severe depression since the birth of her youngest, Bonnie. She's fragile, affectionate and deeply ashamed of her condition. She's always cold even in the summer and her room is always heated. She collects miniature things and wants studied to become a nurse. In the opening of the book she has recently been given a silver of hope for recovery by a doctor who suggested her condition may be the result of a pinched nerve. Nancy Clutter, daughter of Bonnie and Herbert Clutter and described as the town darling. Nancy is smart and beautiful and she is involved in the community. She is the class president, a leader of the 4H program, a musician and an excellent student. She is generous and kind to her friends and neighbors. Kenyon Clutter, the youngest of the Clutter children at 15. Kenyon is a loner. He has one friend who he no longer sees often because the friend has recently taken a girlfriend. Kenyon is highly intelligent and likes to build and modify electronic gadgets and other machines. Paris Smith, one of the two murderers of the Clutter family. He grew up under difficult circumstances. He was abandoned by his family and severely abused by nuns and other caregivers. He has a reoccurring dream about a large bird that saves him from bullies, abusers and anyone who might cause him harm. Paris is described as a small man, but very muscular in his upper arms and chest. His feet and legs, however, are small and delicate. This is one of Paris's many contradictions. He never passed the third grade, but as an adult he has an incredible thirst of foreign knowledge, vocabulary and literature. He is calm and gentle and he seems to want love and acceptance, but he is eventually revealed to be the more brutal of the two men. One of his main motivations is to take Dick to Mexico and to hunt for treasure and go skin diving. After the murders, Paris seems unable to reconcile his personal opinion. After the murders, Paris seems unable to reconcile his personal opinion of himself with the crimes he has committed. Paris also appears to have homosexual tendencies, which are revealed via his affections for both Dick and a former cellmate by the name of Willy J. Dick Hiccup, one of the two murderers of the Clutter family. He is motivated by coronal impulses, lust, greed, vanity and indulgence of any kind. He is the mastermind and instigator of the murders, having heard about a big score at the Clutter ranch. He is further motivated by the fact that there is a teenage girl in the house. Dick intends to rape her. After the murders, Dick shows no remorse or interest in discussing the crime. He remains focused on finding money and women and avoiding capture. He is able to con shop owners and vulnerable women out of money and property. His friendship with Paris stems solely from a lie Paris told him in which he killed a man with a bicycle chain. Dick was amused by the story and had hoped to bring forth Paris's murderous nature again during the Clutter robbery. I'll win a dance, Jewie. Head of the Clutter murder investigation, he had been a sheriff of Finey County and a special agent of the FBI. He becomes completely obsessed with the Clutter case, spending all of his emotional energy sometimes at the cost of his family in solving the crime. The clues, leads, theories and his general meditation on both the family and the crime. He admits to be haunted by the crime and he intends to continue his investigation until he finally understands why the Clutters were murdered. His motivation becomes the narrative and the reader finds it equally imperative to continue reading to discover finally what actually happened. Willy J, a friend of Paris from a previous incarceration. Paris' desire for a relationship like the one he had with Willy J leads him to begin his journey with Dick. Floyd Wells, a former cellmate of Dick Hickock and a former ranch head of Herbert Clutter. Floyd becomes a catalyst for the murders by allowing Dick to believe that the Clutters had a safe in the house. The murders take place 10 years after Dick and Floyd share a cell, but Wells becomes the only person who can tie the murders to Dick and Perry. Susan Killwell, Nancy's best friend and one of the last people to see the Clutters alive. Susan discovers the bodies after the family is killed. Her grief causes her a form of intense bond with Bobby soon after the murders. About the author. Truman Capote was born on September 30, 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He died in August 25, 1984 in Los Angeles in California. He is an American novelist, short story writer and playwright whose early writing extended the Southern Gothic tradition, though he later developed a more journalistic approach in the novel in Cold Blood, which together with breakfast at Tiffany's remains his best known work. His parents were divorced when he was young, and he spent his childhood with various elderly relatives in small towns in Louisiana and Alabama. He attended private schools and eventually joined his mother and stepfather at Mill Brook in Connecticut, where he completed his secondary education at Greenwich High School. Capote drew on his childhood experiences for many of his early works of fiction. Capote drew on his childhood experiences for many of his early works of fiction. Having abandoned further schooling, he achieved early literary recognition in 1945, when his haunting short story, Miriam, was published in Mademoiselle Magazine. The following year, it won the O. Henry Memorial Award. The first of four such awards Capote received. His first published novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was acclaimed as the work of a young writer of great promise. The book is a sensitive, partly autobiographical portrayal of a boy's search for his father and his own sexual identity through a nightmarishly decadent southern world. The short story showed a final door and other tales of loveless and isolated individuals were collected in a three-of-nights and other stories. The quasi-autobiographical novel The Grass Harp is a story of non-confirming innocence who temporarily retired from life to a treehouse returning renewed to the real world. One of Capote's most popular works, Breakfast at Tiffany's, is a novel about Holy Golly Thlee, a young few-cafe society girl. It was first published in Esquire Magazine in 1958 and then as a book with several other stories. So that's all for this video. If you found it useful, give it a thumbs up and do subscribe to our channel where we offer free materials that you can use as part of your studies to really get a better grasp of specific areas you might find challenging. Make sure to visit our website where you'll find useful revision guides, modem answers and tools to get top marks. Thank you for listening!