A Critical Look at In Cold Blood: The True Crime Novel as a Work of Literature
Criminal Behaviorology
A Critical Look at In Cold Blood: The True Crime Novel as a Work of Literature
After meeting writer Nicolas Tredell in 2018, I found him to have a keen understanding of true crime, writing, and history. He has edited a new book focusing on the Truman Capote novel, In Cold Blood. We discuss the infamous Clutter family murder as written about in Capote’s world-famous work, as well as in multiple film and television adaptations, as well as the influence of such a style of writing.
Show Highlights:
- The Clutter family murder in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. The shocking nature of such a crime in its time as compared to today.
- The psychology of the perpetrators, Smith and Hickock. The “folie à deux” (“madness for two”) element in this murder. The social-psychological factors involved.
- The very pertinent issues in this case, impacting us to this day, including insanity as a defense, the death penalty, and so forth.
- What is appealing regarding this case and Truman Capote’s book, In Cold Blood.
- The cross-cutting technique in Capote’s writing and other prescient features that are hallmarks of modern true crime and fiction stories.
- What is special about the true crime novel as literature and why true crime remains so popular.
- The accuracy of these kinds of based-on-a-true-story type novels and movies. Can such a genre ever be completely accurate, or is some embellishment necessary to truly convey the ideas?
- Capote’s possible insight into how our changing world was relevant to the Kansas murders. Crimes motivated for self-esteem.
- How our modern life, highway travel, technology, and other factors all contribute to crimes manifested in new ways.
Critical Insights: In Cold Blood, Edited by Nicolas Tredell (2020):
https://salempress.com/book/critical-insights-in-cold-blood
The Clutter Family Murder:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clutter_family_murders
In Cold Blood (1967):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061809/
In Cold Blood (1996):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116619/
Capote (2005):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379725/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Infamous (2006):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420609/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2
Look up CrimBehav on Facebook: facebook.com/CrimBehav.
Criminal Behaviorology on Blogger.
CB Podcast Sites:
https://criminalbehaviorology.podomatic.com
https://anchor.fm/criminalbehaviorology
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/criminal-behaviorology/id1441879795?mt=2&uo=4 https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy83MzY4OWFjL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz https://open.spotify.com/show/5VM7Sjv762u7nb91YWGczZ https://www.breaker.audio/criminal-behaviorology https://overcast.fm/itunes1441879795/criminal-behaviorology https://pca.st/Q38w https://radiopublic.com/criminal-behaviorology-GEv2AZ https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/anchor-podcasts/criminal-behaviorology
Please write a review on any of our podcast sites listed above.
Questions, comments, and requests for transcripts to: criminalbehaviorology@gmail.com
Thank you for listening.
--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/criminalbehaviorology/support