According to Capote, Hickock described his plan as 'a cinch, the perfect score.' Hickock later contacted Smith, another former cellmate, about committing the robbery with him. Hickock soon hatched the idea to steal the safe and start a new life in Mexico.

A former cellmate of Hickock's, Floyd Wells, had worked for Herb Clutter and told Hickock that Clutter kept large amounts of cash in a safe. Two ex-convicts recently paroled from the Kansas State Penitentiary, Richard Eugene 'Dick' Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, robbed and murdered Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon in the early morning hours of November 15, 1959.

Clutter's wife Bonnie had reportedly been incapacitated by clinical depression and physical ailments since the births of her children, although this was later disputed by her brother and other family members, who maintained that Bonnie's depression was not as debilitating as portrayed in the book. His two elder daughters, Eveanna and Beverly, had moved out and started their adult lives his two younger children, daughter Nancy, 16, and son Kenyon, 15, were in high school. He employed as many as 18 farmhands, who admired and respected him for his fair treatment and good wages. Herbert 'Herb' Clutter was a prosperous farmer in western Kansas. Parts of the book differ from the real events, including important details. In Cold Blood is regarded by critics as a pioneering work in the true crime genre, although Capote was disappointed that the book failed to win the Pulitzer Prize. The psychologies and backgrounds of Hickock and Smith are given special attention, as is the pair's complex relationship during and after the murders. In Cold Blood has been lauded for its eloquent prose, extensive detail, and triple narrative which describes the lives of the murderers, the victims, and other members of the rural community in alternating sequences. Some critics consider Capote's work the original non-fiction novel, although other writers had already explored the genre, such as Rodolfo Walsh in Operación Masacre (1957). In Cold Blood was an instant success and is the second-best-selling true crime book in history, behind Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter (1974) about the Charles Manson murders. Capote ultimately spent six years working on the book. Killers Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were arrested six weeks after the murders and later executed by the state of Kansas. He was accompanied by his childhood friend and fellow author Harper Lee, and they interviewed residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousands of pages of notes. It details the 1959 murders of four members of the Clutter family in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas.Ĭapote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, and he traveled to Kansas to write about the crime. In Cold Blood is a non-fiction novel by American author Truman Capote, first published in 1966.

საუზმე ტიფანისთან by Truman Capote