Truman Capote was famous for his story telling almost as much as he was for the stories that he told.  He was often to be found in the center of any party, captivating all around him with his tales.  Is it possible that this love of exaggeration seeped into his non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood.

While this question is not a new one, new evidence is being analyzed to determine just what creative licenses Capote might have taken in his novel. 

In the novel, the "hero" of our true crime is Alvin Dewey, the head investigator into the Clutter family killings.  Capote glosses over the delay between an ex-con naming the suspects and Dewey's action to arresting them.  Could this delay have allowed the killers, Dick and Perry, to commit more murders?  DNA evidence collected from another family killing done during that time span is being analyzed.

The question remains, if Dewey did wait too long, why does Capote leave it out of his story?  We, as readers, feel a measure of compassion for Perry, as it seems that Capote himself did.  Would he have found this tried beyond bearing if this were not the true case of a weak man who snapped, but rather the first of a growing murder spree?

When I travel to Monroeville, Capote's childhood home, I will definitely keep this question in mind!  Capote is a wonderfully complex man, and at least as hard to reconstruct as the errors from a 50 year old murder.

Capote's Greatest Lie