Editing In Cold Blood (section)

==Veracity==
''In Cold Blood'' brought Capote much praise from the literary community. However, some critics have questioned its veracity, arguing that Capote changed facts to suit the story, added scenes that never took place, and manufactured dialogue.<ref name=WallStreetJournal/><ref>{{cite web |last = Mass |first =Mark|title= Capote's Legacy: The Challenge of Creativity and Credibility in Literary Journalism|url= http://list.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0101b&L=aejmc&T=0&P=7693 |website= Listserv Archives |publisher=MSU |access-date= June 20, 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090911105758/http://list.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0101b&L=aejmc&T=0&P=7693 |archive-date= September 11, 2009}}</ref> Phillip K. Tompkins noted factual discrepancies in ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' in 1966 after he traveled to Kansas and talked to some of the people whom Capote had interviewed. Josephine Meier was the wife of Finney County Undersheriff Wendle Meier, and she denied that she heard [[Perry Smith (murderer)|Smith]] cry or that she held his hand, as described by Capote. ''In Cold Blood'' indicates that Meier and Smith became close, yet she told Tompkins that she spent little time with Smith and did not talk much with him. Tompkins concluded:
{{Quote | Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has told exceedingly well a tale of high terror in his own way.  But, despite the brilliance of his self-publicizing efforts, he has made both a tactical and a moral error that will hurt him in the short run. By insisting that "every word" of his book is true he has made himself vulnerable to those readers who are prepared to examine seriously such a sweeping claim.}}

True-crime writer [[Jack Olsen]] also commented on the fabrications:
{{Quote | I recognized it as a work of art, but I know fakery when I see it&nbsp;... Capote completely fabricated quotes and whole scenes&nbsp;... The book made something like $6 million in 1960s money, and nobody wanted to discuss anything wrong with a moneymaker like that in the publishing business.}}

His criticisms were quoted in ''Esquire'', to which Capote replied, "Jack Olsen is just jealous."<ref name="PointNoPoint"/>

{{Quote | That was true, of course&nbsp;... I was jealous—all that money? I'd been assigned the Clutter case by [[Harper & Row]] until we found out that Capote and his cousin {{sic}} Harper Lee had been already on the case in [[Dodge City]] for six months&nbsp;... That book did two things. It made true crime an interesting, successful, commercial genre, but it also began the process of tearing it down. I blew the whistle in my own weak way. I'd only published a couple of books at that time—but since it was such a superbly written book, nobody wanted to hear about it.<ref name="PointNoPoint">{{cite web | url= http://www.jackolsen.com/point.htm | last= Hood | first= Michael | title= True Crime Doesn't Pay: A Conversation with Jack Olsen | work= Point No Point | publisher= Jack Olsen | access-date= March 8, 2010 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100603035325/http://www.jackolsen.com/point.htm | archive-date= June 3, 2010 }}</ref>}}

The prosecutor involved in the case, Duane West, claimed that the story lacked veracity because Capote failed to get the true hero right. Richard Rohlader took the photo showing that two culprits were involved, and West suggested that Rohlader was the one deserving the greatest praise.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Patrick |date=2005-04-05 |title=Garden City officer forgotten in Capote's book |url=https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/apr/05/garden_city_officer/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Lawrence Journal-World |language=en-US}}</ref> Without that picture, West believed, the crime might not have been solved. West had been a friend of Capote's while he was writing the book, and had been invited by him to New York City to see ''[[Hello, Dolly! (musical)|Hello, Dolly!]]'', where he met [[Carol Channing]] after the show. Their relationship soured when Capote's publisher attempted to get West to sign a [[non-compete agreement]] to prevent him from writing his own book about the murders. Despite a series of malicious rumors, Capote himself was never considered a suspect in the killings.{{Dubious|date=June 2023}}

[[Alvin Dewey]] was the lead investigator portrayed in ''In Cold Blood'', and stated that the scene in which he visits the Clutters' graves was Capote's invention. Other Kansas residents whom Capote interviewed later claimed that they or their relatives were mischaracterized or misquoted.<ref>{{cite web| last=Van Jensen| url=http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/apr/03/writing_history_capotes/| title=Writing history: Capote's novel has lasting effect on journalism| work=Lawrence, Kansas Journal World| date=April 3, 2005| access-date=March 30, 2013| archive-date=November 1, 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101114950/http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/apr/03/writing_history_capotes/| url-status=live}}</ref> Dewey said that the rest of the book was factually accurate, but further evidence indicates that it is not as "immaculately factual" as Capote had always claimed it to be. The book depicts Dewey as being the brilliant investigator who cracks the Clutter murder case, but files recovered from the [[Kansas Bureau of Investigation]] show that Floyd Wells came forward of his own volition to name Hickock and Smith as likely suspects; furthermore, Dewey did not immediately act on the information, as the book portrays him doing, because he still believed that the murders were committed by locals who "had a grudge against Herb Clutter".<ref name=WallStreetJournal/>

Ronald Nye, the son of former Kansas Bureau of Investigation Director Harold R. Nye, collaborated with author Gary McAvoy in disclosing parts of his father's personal investigative notebooks which challenged the veracity of ''In Cold Blood''. Their book, ''And Every Word is True'',<ref>{{cite book|title=And Every Word is True|last1=Gary|first1=McAvoy|date=2019|publisher=Literati|isbn=978-0990837602|location=Seattle}}</ref> lays out previously unknown facts of the investigation, and suggests that Herbert Clutter's death may have been a murder-for-hire plot which involved a potential third suspect. However, McAvoy concedes that "neither Hickock nor Smith mention any of this in their confessions, or in their defense at trial".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://medium.com/@garymcavoy/never-before-seen-documents-reveal-a-different-story-than-was-told-by-capote-6b248184a82e |title=Never-Before-Seen Documents Reveal a Different Story than was Told by Capote |last=McAvoy |first=Gary |date=1 October 2019 |website=Medium |access-date=22 July 2024}}</ref>