Anniversary of ‘In Cold Blood’ killings brings memories from a relative of the Clutter family

[proud2BlibKansan]

Sixteen-year-old Diana Selsor had just come back from a beach party and was home alone in Palatka, Fla., that Sunday afternoon. So it was she, not her parents, who opened the shocking note police had left with a neighbor.

“It said, ‘Four members of the Clutter family killed in Holcomb, Kansas.’ There was a number to call.”

Sunday marks 50 years since Selsor — now Diana Selsor Edwards — learned that her uncle Herbert, 48, aunt Bonnie, 45, and cousins Nancy, 16, and Kenyon, 15, had been slaughtered, hands tied behind their backs, in their farmhouse near Garden City.

It was a high-profile crime, the details splashed across front pages from coast to coast. Yet the murders might have been largely forgotten by now had it not been for Truman Capote’s groundbreaking book “In Cold Blood.”

And for that, Edwards and others in the normally private family remain eternally bitter.

“It has been, to me, a great injustice,” she said. “They were complex people, and (Capote) turned them into cardboard figures.”

more . . . http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1567276.html

[asjr]

1. I read the book and thought Capote did a

fine job. Hated the movie though.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. The family has never liked the book or Capote

It was quite controversial here in KS when I was a kid.

[The Midway Rebel]

13. And it still is for some folks.

I grew up with friends from Merriam and Shawnee, KS that knew Perry's family. Capote would never have his story without the cooperation from Perry. He promised Perry that his family would benefit from the book. They never got a dime as Capote screwed them over and went on to become the rich and famous afternoon talk show darling of the 70's. He never wrote much worth a damn after "I.C.B."

When I was 17, I met the prison chaplin that walked Perry to the gallows. I listened to him speak about Perry and I saw some the art work he left behind. I offer no defense for Perry's crime but, I have been against the death penalty ever since meeting that chaplin.

[Joanie Baloney]

4. The book was a jewel

It haunted me from the minute I picked it up and it haunts me still. I think it was a milestone for Capote as well as he had to strip away his NYC facade to deal with the down-home folks in Kansas. I don't think they were made into cardboard characters at all. He made them very real for me.

He also made the killers real. That's talent.

-JB

[The Midway Rebel]

19. Truman's talent was writing fiction.

http://www.crimemagazine.com/CrimeBooks/incold.htm

[Paladin]

34. It's Probably My Favorite Book Of All Time. (n/t)

[raccoon]

35. It was Harper Lee who dealt with the down-home folks in KS, in the movie Capote, anyway.

Also, the book Mockingbird says that.

[calico1]

3. I had read an article a few years back and it said

that the two older sisters have always refused interviews about this case.

I always found that kind of strange since one would think that if they wanted their family to be known for who they were and not just as murder victims that they would talk about them and make them more real to the public and not just characters from a Capote book.

By staying silent all of these years they have allowed the book and the media to define how the family is depicted which would seem to be the opposite of what it seems they have wanted.

[Raine]

40. I agree

I don't think they should let their family be defined by outsiders and the media. I guess they keep the true memories alive but only within the family ...

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/apr/04/sisters_family_surviving/

[meegbear]

5. And if it wasn't for "In Cold Blood" ...

the Clutter tragedy would be nothing more than part of a TruTV series on crime in America.

Capote may have "turned them into cardboard figures", but if the book didn't come out, they'd be a footnote.

[Berry Cool]

6. Maybe one can never feel that an outsider truly captured the personalities of people you knew.

I mean, it's a tough task. Someone who never met them has to recreate them as living, breathing figures after they're dead. All he's got to go on is what people say about them and what is known about what they did and what they left behind. No matter how good a job the writer does, chances are people who did know them will say the writer didn't really capture how they are. Especially if the writer comes to any conclusions about them that the person who knew them doesn't share.

[SoCalDem]

7. Which is why it's shameful for people to capitalize on the gruesome misfortunes

of strangers:( and to "memorialize" it every year in an almost celebratory manner:(

There are always family members left behind, who will never "get over it", and who must cringe every "anniversary" and the media salivates over the re-enactments, and re-runs the movies:grr:

[peekaloo]

8. I saw that movie as a kid on late night tee vee.

Scared the be-Jeebus out of me. I saw the Clutters as people I recognized in real life. Never read the book but since the focus was on the killers(and made Perry a sympathetic figure) that must have been a very bitter pill for the family.

[mitchum]

15. Scott Wilson returned a call that Mrs mitchum had placed to him for a few years ago...

(it was for an interview she was doing)
When I answered the phone, it took all of my self-control to keep from asking him, "Hey, will you say, We're gonna blow hair all over them walls, honey?"

[peekaloo]

32. I wish I had your control

because I asked my dad, who stayed up watching it with me, "Why does that man want to bust that girl if they have guns?"

After reading your insights posted below I may just have to read the book after all these years. Even at that age I did sort of understand the problem with the mother ("took to her room" was the common euphemism).

[mitchum]

9. Actually, Capote was very generous to the Clutters...

reading between the lines
it was pretty evident that
Herb was an alcoholic
Bonnie had withdrawn into mental illness
Kenyon kept his distance
and Nancy displayed all the overcompensating behaviors of the child of an alcoholic,
but Capote does not elaborate.

"In Cold Blood" is a masterpiece, and as Faulkner once said, "One masterpiece is worth one hundred old ladies"

[grantcart]

14. well not only that we are remembering the victims today only because Capote

wrote about him.


I think that there are lots of other victims families that wish their relatives were remember long after the trial ended.

[edbermac]

21. Huh? Herb an alkie? He was vehemently opposed to drinking.

The book states that the first question he'd ask prospective employees is if they drank, and they have to sign a clause discharging them if they were caught with alcohol.

[mitchum]

24. And there may have been a significant reason for Herb's public...

vehement stance against alcohol.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Wow. I never picked up on any of that.

I also disagree that Capote helped the family. He never did share the proceeds from the book as he had promised.

[Cheap_Trick]

10. My wife's uncle had the tombstones of the killers at his farm.

A friend had stolen them from their graves and left them with him.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=94565&page=1

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. My great Aunt and her husband bought the Clutter farm -

after the murders and lived there for many years. I could never figure out how they could do comfortably stay in that house. :scared:

[Cheap_Trick]

25. Oh hell no!

What a wierd thing that 2 DUers would have a connection like that.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

37. It's a small --

In-Cold-Blood world, I guess! :D

[Raine]

30. I read that one of the owners of the house

committed suicide, I think it was one of the owners that had it previous to the present owner.

[Are_grits_groceries]

12. I think writing that book

didn't do Capote a lot of good mentally. I think he and Harper Lee had shadows from researching it that never left them. I don't wonder that Lee became a recluse. She became Boo in a way.

[mitchum]

16. It was still worth it...

that whole life is short, art is long thing...

[Are_grits_groceries]

17. I'm not arguing that it wasn't.

I'll always believe it changed them somehow though. :hi:

[mitchum]

20. I also agree with you that it did change the two

[Jim__]

18. I didn't think Capote turned them into cardboard figures.

I thought they were extremely sympathetic figures. I remember reading the book, and even though I knew what wouold happen, hoping that somehow it wouldn't be them.

[edbermac]

22. Read the book and try to see American Justice In Cold Blood

I think that what people don't like about the book is that they feel that while he sympathizes with the Clutters, it seems he has more for the killers.

A few years ago on A&E cable a show with Bill Kurtis called American Justice: In Cold Blood was shown after a bio show of Capote. They had a tape of Hickock confessing and also showed the unedited crime scene photos of all 4 victims. Even in the grainy b&w, the pics were quite sickening, especially Mr Clutter and his son. Whatever sympathy I felt for the killers hanging dropped to practically nothing.

Maybe they'll re-air this weekend.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. I'll look for it.

Thanks!

[edbermac]

28. A series about this from a Kansas paper a few years ago

http://www.ljworld.com/specials/incoldblood/

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. That is fascinating.

Thanks for sharing.

[Raine]

33. Interesting

THANKS for the link.

[ellie]

27. I think in

the movie, Capote, there is a line, which I am going to butcher, in which Capote said that he and Smith could have been from the same family, except Capote went out the front door and Smith went out the back door.

And in an interview about a book about Lee, she thought the Clutters were strange, especially the two older sisters. I can't find the article though and can't remember exactly what was said.

[Raine]

29. I've always been interested in the case

read the books and seen the movies, there is also lot's of stuff on the internet. The house where the murders took place was up for sale a couple of years ago but it didn't sell and I think was eventually taken off the market.

[raccoon]

36. Wonder if anybody's living there now? Anyone know? nt

[Raine]

39. I think the people who had it up

for sale and couldn't sell it still live there.

[JI7]

41. how much did they put it on sale for ?

i'm surprised they couldn't sell it . i would think even people looking to profit would get it and offer tours of the house for money.

[Raine]

42. $275,000

This link gives some specs on the house.

http://www.hauntedcolorado.net/In_Cold_Blood_House.html

[JI7]

38. kick