Court allows publishing of unseen In Cold Blood files which 'contradict Truman Capote’s account’

Truman Capote claimed every word of his literary masterpiece was true, but now the son of an investigator in the case plans to publish records that contradict the author

Richard Hickock (left) and Perry Smith, the two men hanged for the Nov. 15, 1959 murders of Herb and Bonnie Clutter and their children in Holcomb, Kansas Photo: AP

By Nick Allen, Los Angeles

The Telegraph -  02 Dec 2014

It is hailed as a masterpiece of “true-crime” writing but Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is facing claims that it was not so accurate after all.

Capote’s book gave a detailed account of the slaying of a family in rural Kansas in 1959, a savage multiple murder that obsessed America at the time.

More than half a century later a court battle has been going on between the state of Kansas and Ronald Nye, son of Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Harold Nye who kept some of the files relating to the case at his home.

According to Ronald Nye the files, which include crime scene photographs and his father’s notes, contradict Capote’s account and he wants to publish his own book based on them.

He claims his father was so angered by In Cold Blood when he tried to read it that he only got up to page 115 before hurling it across a room. 
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