The Theme Of True Crime In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

The endless stream of true crime and its consequences have been disastrous for the human race. True crime as a genre has taken a grasp of the world in recent years and refused to let it go. From series such as Dahmer, to Amanda Knox, services have been pumping out true crime content as though there is no other genre. This social adoration can trace its roots back to Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood '', this groundbreaking novel was not the first of its kind, but rather was the first to gain mass attention. Using real life events with a fictionalised narrative, Truman Capote fluffed up the murder of the Clutter family to serial acclaim. In doing this Capote created what is now known as true crime. Within Truman Capote’s “ In Cold Blood”, the dangers

Dick and Perry, the convicted murderers of the Clutter family, are commonly presented within the novel as being simply one misstep from being successful happy people, and given the chance to do right they would. Although possibly true, it is dangerous to portray such dark events as a simple story of redemption. This is clear when Capote writes, “I did make some advances toward the Clutter girl when I was there. But Perry never gave me a chance” (Capote 278-279). In mentioning Perry’s haltage of Dick raping Nancy, Capote is trying to humanise Perry to the reader. This attempted humanisation acts only to glorify further the actions of Perry, in turn redeeming him to the reader. Capote’s attempted redemption of the murderers can be seen as a last ditch effort to rationalise his position on Dick and

Within Capote’s “In Cold Blood” these biases are portrayed very prominently, especially in the section corner. This is readily apparent when Capote states, “I feel that due to the violence of the crime and the apparent utter lack of mercy shown to the victims, the only way the public can be absolutely protected is to have the death penalty set against these defendants.”(Capote 257-258). As both Dick and Perry are yet to have been convicted at this point, the judge is only further inflicting harmful stereotypes into his courtroom. Going into the pre-trial with a predetermined sense of guilt, due in large part to mass media hysteria, caused the judge to forgo the sanctity of the courts in an effort to kill two more men based solely on his