Pitying the Wrong Victims

The technical definition of Truman Capote’s account In Cold Blood is that of “creative nonfiction,” but the meaning of this is rather abstract. It seems more likely that Capote’s book is more an argument against the death penalty with one massive example extending through the entire piece: the focus – the Clutter murder by Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. Capote’s presentation of the story clearly shows his bias, tainting the credibility of his account of the murder and decreasing the authenticity of his genre while bringing into question the true meaning of the title, “In Cold Blood.”

In Cold Blood is largely set up as a written documentary, whose calling it does serve as a recount of the Clutter murder case. However, Capote’s larger purpose in telling the story seems to be more to argue against the death penalty, and the documentary style serves this purpose as well, for the reader isn’t aware of what is happening to her psyche, instead merely focusing on the story as a story, and not as a reality – where her opinions might change with the realization of the impact of the murders.

A striking attribute of In Cold Blood is that the main focus is not on the murder victims, the Clutters, or even the investigative work – the detective story – but on the murderers, Dick and Perry, and the inner workings of their minds. In introducing the souls of Dick and Perry to the readers, especially that of Perry, Capote illustrates the killers not as killers, but as human beings with sensitive sides, fears, dreams, and desires, who simply made a mistake – forgetting that that mistake ended four innocent lives. To help the readers forget the impact of Dick and Perry’s crime, there is a significant lack of focus on the Clutters themselves – each is afforded only a few short descriptions, and then a brief explanation of how he or she met his or her end at the hands of Perry (or Dick). In having less focus on the Clutters, they become less of a reality to us, and we as readers feel little emotional connection with them, while we feel an intense relationship with Perry and even Dick. This thus makes the murders less impersonal, and we fail to connect Perry and Dick’s crime with the actual ends of the lives of the Clutters – four lives to be lived no longer, for no reason but for forty dollars. When we forget about the impact of the crime, it becomes much easier to feel sorry for Dick and Perry – thus aiding Capote in his crusade against the death penalty.

The same situation holds true in the movie depiction of In Cold Blood, an argument based on Capote’s book and just as emphatic, but perhaps more effective than the book, for it grants viewers a visual representation of Dick and Perry, allowing us another glimpse into their reality. The movie presents the viewer with complete pity for Perry and Dick, because they seem like such amiable people, and because the Clutters seem altogether unrealistic as human beings – Nancy Clutter wouldn’t have walked into the room with the killers as calm as could be in the middle of the night; instead, she most likely would have panicked and hidden or run away. Though the movie presents Perry as the literal killer of all four Clutters (he references Dick as the witness to the crime, which wouldn’t have been the case if Dick had committed some of the murders), and the book is somewhat ambiguous on the topic, the movie presents just as much of a bias toward Perry as Capote’s book did. Dick is more personable in the movie, but his death is hardly depicted, and thus believed to the same extent as the Clutters: not much. Perry’s, however, is shown, with extensive coverage of the time before it, causing the viewer to feel the tremendous weight of impending death.

The result of the movie portrayal of Perry, then, is the loss of the memory of the atrocities he was responsible for, and the weight of his death alone – and the pivotal attribute of the argument against capital punishment. The scenes connecting Perry with the murders show him talking with Nancy Clutter and making the victims-to-be comfortable in bizarre ways, never actually hurting them. This is partially a product of the time in which the film was recorded, but even today, that information would have most likely been left out of the movie because it significantly weakens the argument that the movie, along with Capote, is making against the death penalty. In his death, we see Perry as completely helpless: shackled, scared, sweating or crying (or just concerned with the reflection of the rain on the windows upon his face), and ultimately, his heart stopping beating. Before his death, Perry pleads with his captors – those who are monitoring his final moments – for a chance to go to the bathroom, to save whatever is left of his dignity. His death is portrayed as an altogether inhumane experience, more so than the murders he committed, actually. The spectators watching the execution seem barbaric, standing by and just watching a man’s life end, and Perry’s helplessness upon the gallows culminates when his heart stops beating and the screen goes blank but for the three words “in cold blood” – the title of the movie, yes, but to which murders this refers is left somewhat unclear. Is it the murders of the Clutters, the first thought, or is it the executions of Dick and Perry, who had as little defense against their killers as Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon?

As “creative fiction,” then, Capote’s book is a little deficient, as it is in no way primarily objective, instead the front for his argument against the death penalty, an argument, which, along with the movie form of the book, is ultimately effective in many cases in persuading the viewer against the death penalty as a form of capital punishment. By dehumanizing the victims of the Clutter murder and disconnecting the ramifications of murder with their fates, and bringing the readers close to Dick and especially to Perry, the reader ultimately feels almost sorrier for Dick and Perry than she does for the murder victims, a scenario altogether shameful. It is, then, up to the reader to determine who the ultimate victims of the Clutter case were: the Clutters, or Perry and Dick.

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