Truman Capote was boasting about In Cold Blood being the best crime novel of the decade before he had even written a single word of it. His innovation of the nonfiction novel has transcended nearly half a century, remaining a terrific influence on writers and readers alike. Typically, in my own experience, I would have called bullshit upon hearing this claim without any actual evidence to back it up. Yet here I am scratching my head and contemplating how Capote could have possibly known the powerful force that become hailed as one of the best crime books ever written. This is especially peculiar to me because originally Capote had set out to write nothing more than a magazine editorial on the paranoia experienced by a community that has experienced a traumatizing tragedy. Did he have similar hopes and expectations of fame and fortune with the expose? Or did this new braggadocio come with the new idea of fleshing the piece out into a full length novel?
At this point in his career, Capote had already written Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which is still a pop culture phenomenon, being alluded to in literature and music and movies to this day. Topping the success of that story was not going to be an easy feat, especially when shifting genres so drastically. His partner in crime, (pun fully intended), Harper Lee, only ever wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, and was so discouraged by the thought of failing to produce another critically acclaimed masterpiece, she never published another work again. However, after In Cold Blood, Capote would not release much more than collections of short stories which never even came close to even vaguely reminiscent success. What did he lose? Was it the willpower to repeat the research, writing, and revising process? Or was it the courage to take the risk? What did he gain? A deeper, darker knowledge and understanding of the human mind and heart and how it works and what happens when things are out of sorts? Did he see something in himself that only Perry Smith could have showed him – was it something any of us would have ever wanted to see? Capote always did remark about how similar they were to the other: “it’s like we both grew up in the same house – I walked out the front door and he walked out the back” (Infamous). I wonder what they were doing in that house together – possibly taking the lives of four innocent family members in the middle of the night in Holcomb, Kansas?
Capote had always been intrigued by crimes and those who commit them, and considering his homo-erotic relationship with Perry Smith I am wondering if he had fetishized the psychopath. This may have been the reason he allowed himself to grow so close with the inmate on death row – insatiable curiosity. This doomed relationship would mentally disrupt Capote and never allow him to return to the “normal” (well, normal for him, anyway) life he had enjoyed prior to excavating the details of the case and the men behind the madness. Karma is a bitch, and this could be a stretch of logic, but could his ill-fated romance with Perry have been his penance for getting involved with the story in the first place? Once he demanded lengthening the project and extending his stays with both Hickock and Smith, the future was decided. The domino effect would play out over the next several years, ending in heartbreak and leading to alcoholism for Capote. He would eventually die due to complications of his coping mechanism.
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