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: 
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