In Slightly Warmer Blood.
November 16, 2009 8:04 AM   Subscribe

In Cold Blood, 50 Years On : The Guardian takes a look at Holcomb, Kansas 50 years (to the day) after the crimes depicted in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.
posted by grapefruitmoon (10 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Good article. Thanks for the heads up, g-moon.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:31 AM on November 16, 2009


I'll never forget reading In Cold Blood for the first time at the age of 18 while staying in a remote cottage in Maine. Absolutely terrifying.

And it's always interesting to hear about the Capote/Lee relationship.
posted by oinopaponton at 9:00 AM on November 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


I saw the movie Capote a few years ago and then read In Cold Blood directly afterward. A chilling combination.
posted by muddgirl at 9:04 AM on November 16, 2009


Excellent article. I liked this:

[i]Rupp recalls that in the one interview he granted Capote, most of the questions were asked by Harper Lee, so much so that "sometimes I wonder who really wrote that book"[/i]

That's a very nice twist on the old rumor that Capote ghost-wrote Mockingbird for Lee.
posted by Ber at 9:17 AM on November 16, 2009


Sequels We'd Like To See:

In Cold Blood
In Colder Blood
In Blood So Cold You Could Plotz

-- Mad Magazine, many many years ago
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 10:08 AM on November 16, 2009 [2 favorites]


Good post--thanks for catching the anniversary. I read both In Cold Blood and Mockingbird the same year--I was probably 15. I certainly wasn't driving yet. At the time, both felt Gothic to me, and I understood they were both set in the South, but I didn't realize how close the authors were until I saw Capote a few years ago. I agree with sentiments above--an interesting friendship. Are there published letters out there?
posted by njbradburn at 10:14 AM on November 16, 2009


Watching this clip now, I'm struck by how hard Phillip Seymour Hoffman nailed it.

This article was pretty interesting but seemed pretty light. I would have liked more thought about the nature of crime then and now.
posted by lumpenprole at 12:29 PM on November 16, 2009


I haven't read In Cold Blood yet, but I have been meaning to, mainly since I live only 50 miles away from where it happened. The Lawrence Journal-World had a photo spread about 4 years ago that goes pretty well with the Guardian article.

In 2006, the Maders tried to sell the property at auction, but evidently didn't have much luck. It's currently not listed, and they are still listed in Finney County records as owners.
posted by weathergal at 3:53 PM on November 16, 2009 [1 favorite]


I know some of that family's relatives. It's creepy as all get out to have that realization: These people were real. They had relatives who loved them. It's not just some crime Capote wrote about.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:52 PM on November 16, 2009


Thanks for the article. I lived in Holcomb, Kansas as a kid in the 80's. Funny how I never even heard the story of In Cold Blood until I was much older and no longer lived there.
posted by aetg at 7:21 PM on November 16, 2009


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