Capote became interested in the murders after reading about them in The New York Times.[25] He brought his childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee (who would later win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird) to help gain the confidence of the locals in Kansas.
Capote did copious research for the book, ultimately compiling 8,000 pages of notes.[26] His research also included letters from Smith's Army buddy, Don Cullivan, who was present during the trial.[27]
After the criminals were found, tried, and convicted, Capote conducted personal interviews with both Smith and Hickock. Smith especially fascinated Capote; in the book he is portrayed as the more sensitive of the two killers. The book was not completed until after Smith and Hickock were executed.
An alternative explanation for Capote's interest holds that The New Yorker presented the Clutter story to him as one of two choices for a story; the other was to follow a Manhattan cleaning woman on her rounds. Capote supposedly chose the Clutter story, believing it would be the easier assignment.[28] Capote later wrote a piece about following a cleaning woman, which he entitled "A Day's Work" and included in his book Music for Chameleons.
Capote's novel was unconventional for its time. New Journalism, as a genre and style of writing, developed during the time in which In Cold Blood was written and Capote became a pioneer in showing how it can be used effectively to create a unique non-fiction story. New Journalism is a style of writing by which the author writes the non-fiction novel or story while it is developing in real life. This is exactly what Capote did as he followed the court trials and interviewed those close to the Clutter family to create this story while it was unfolding in the real world. As a result, he simultaneously researched and wrote the story we now know as In Cold Blood.
Veracity
In Cold Blood brought Capote much praise from the literary community. Yet critics have questioned its veracity, arguing that Capote changed facts to suit the story, added scenes that never took place, and manufactured dialogue.[6][29] Phillip K. Tompkins noted factual discrepancies in Esquire in 1966 after he traveled to Kansas and talked to some of the people whom Capote had interviewed. Josephine Meier was the wife of Finney County Undersheriff Wendle Meier, and she denied that she heard Smith cry or that she held his hand, as described by Capote. In Cold Blood indicates that Meier and Smith became close, yet she told Tompkins that she spent little time with Smith and did not talk much with him. Tompkins concluded:
Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has told exceedingly well a tale of high terror in his own way. But, despite the brilliance of his self-publicizing efforts, he has made both a tactical and a moral error that will hurt him in the short run. By insisting that "every word" of his book is true he has made himself vulnerable to those readers who are prepared to examine seriously such a sweeping claim.
True-crime writer Jack Olsen also commented on the fabrications:
I recognized it as a work of art, but I know fakery when I see it ... Capote completely fabricated quotes and whole scenes ... The book made something like $6 million in 1960s money, and nobody wanted to discuss anything wrong with a moneymaker like that in the publishing business.
His criticisms were quoted in Esquire, to which Capote replied, "Jack Olsen is just jealous."[30]
That was true, of course ... I was jealous—all that money? I'd been assigned the Clutter case by Harper & Row until we found out that Capote and his cousin [sic] Harper Lee had been already on the case in Dodge City for six months ... That book did two things. It made true crime an interesting, successful, commercial genre, but it also began the process of tearing it down. I blew the whistle in my own weak way. I'd only published a couple of books at that time—but since it was such a superbly written book, nobody wanted to hear about it.[30]
The prosecutor in the case was Duane West, and he claims that the story lacks veracity because Capote failed to get the true hero right. Richard Rohlader took the photo showing that two culprits were involved, and West suggests that Rohlader was the one deserving the greatest praise. Without that picture, West believes, the crime might not have been solved. West had been a friend of Capote's for a while during the writing of the book, including being Capote's guest in New York City for Hello, Dolly! and meeting Carol Channing after the show. Their relationship soured when Capote's publisher attempted to get West to sign a non-compete agreement to prevent him from writing his own book about the murders. Despite a series of malicious rumors, Capote himself was never considered a suspect in the killings.
Alvin Dewey was the lead investigator portrayed in In Cold Blood, and he said that the scene in which he visits the Clutters' graves was Capote's invention. Other Kansas residents whom Capote interviewed have claimed that they or their relatives were mischaracterized or misquoted.[31] Dewey said that the rest of the book was factually accurate, but further evidence indicates that it is not as "immaculately factual" as Capote had always claimed it to be. The book depicts Dewey as being the brilliant investigator who cracks the Clutter murder case, but files recovered from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation show that Floyd Wells came forward to name Hickock and Smith as likely suspects, but Dewey did not immediately act on the information, as the book portrays him doing, because he still held to his belief that the murders were committed by locals who "had a grudge against Herb Clutter".[6]
Ronald Nye is the son of Kansas Bureau of Investigation Director Harold R. Nye, and he collaborated with author Gary McAvoy in disclosing parts of his father's personal investigative notebooks to challenge the veracity of In Cold Blood. Their book And Every Word is True[32] lays out previously unknown facts of the investigation suggesting that Herbert Clutter's death may have been a murder-for-hire plot.
