The Gnu’s Room was the scene for a talk given by Ralph Voss Friday, Oct. 19, on his most recent book, “Truman Capote and the Legacy of ‘In Cold Blood.’”
Voss is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Alabama and is also the author of “The Strains of Triumph: A Life of William Inge” and “Elements of Practical Writing.”
Voss was 16 years old when Herbert Clutter, Herbert’s wife, and two of their children were brutally murdered in Holcomb, Kan., only a short distance from Voss’ hometown of Plainview.
Bob Carlton of The Birmingham News reported Voss’ reaction to the brutal murders.
“I remember very vividly that, up until that time, my parents had never locked the doors at night,” Voss told Carlton in The Birmingham News article.
This crime captured the attention of the state and nation.
These brutal murders eventually led to the publication of Truman Capote’s book, “In Cold Blood.”
Capote’s story of the Kansas murders has been recognized as one of the most enduring true-crime stories ever published.
When Capote learned of the quadruple murder, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime.
He interviewed local residents and investigators and took thousands of pages of notes.
The killers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, were arrested six weeks after the murders.
They were tried, convicted, and then spent five years on death row.
Capote then spent six years working on the book.
It became the greatest crime seller at the time and is almost universally acknowledged as one of the best books of its type ever written.
Capote’s book, “In Cold Blood,” examines the tangled psychological relationship between the two parolees who committed the Kansas murders. The book also explores the lives of the victims and the effect of the crime on the community.
“In Cold Blood” appeared as a four-part serial in The New Yorker in 1965. It was then made into a movie starring Scott Wilson and Robert Blake as the killers Hickock and Smith. A television miniseries followed in 1996.
In 2005, the movie “Capote” earned Philip Seymour Hoffman an Academy Award as best actor for his performance as Capote.
In 2006, another film “Infamous,” with Toby Jones and Sandra Bullock, examined Capote’s relationship with the killers.
As a Kansas native and a retired college English professor, Voss has remained fascinated by this case and by Capote’s book. Voss retired two years ago but had taught Capote’s book in the University of Alabama English Department for years.
Voss’ book, “Truman Capote and the Legacy of ‘In Cold Blood,’” takes a critical look at the effects Capote’s book left on Kansas, the publishing world and Capote himself.
“A lot of people think Capote had a right to tell the story,” Voss said in the Birmingham News article. “But by and large, they do think that he was very exploitative, not only of the crime itself and the killers, but also the law enforcement people in Kansas whose confidence he had won.”
For his book, Voss returned to his home state of Kansas in 2008 to retrace Capote’s steps and interview some of the people who were around when Capote first investigated this case.
Voss said Capote’s book is an iconic piece of crime literature.
“I can’t think of another book in American popular culture that has had such a rippling influence on so many different aspects of the culture,” Voss told Carlton.
Voss’s book was published by the University of Alabama Press and comes out Wednesday, Nov. 30.
Voss has also served as editor of “Magical Muse: Millennial Essays on Tennessee Williams” and coeditor of “Against the Grain: A Volume in Honor of Maxine Hairston.”
He is coauthor, with Michael Keene, of both editions of “The Heath Guide to College Writing.”
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