In Cold Blood’s Newest Infusion

Q&A with ‘And Every Word Is True’ Author Gary McAvoy

Just a quick post this week about a new book related to the bestseller that helped lay the groundwork for Forensic Files and all other true-crime entertainment: In Cold Blood.

Gary McAvoy, author of "And Every Word Is True," a new book about the Clutter murders and "In Cold Blood"
Gary McAvoy

Truman Capote’s tome about the murders of four members of a wholesome Kansas farm family created the first nonfiction novel.

In Cold Blood demonstrated how character development, recalled conversations, a sense of place, and a narrative thread could make a real-life crime story as absorbing as a work of fiction like Tom Sawyer or a movie like Gone with the Wind.

The immediate success of In Cold Blood elevated Capote from a darling within literary circles to the most famous author in the U.S. He died in 1984, but his book never will.

Ever since it debuted in 1966, In Cold Blood has invited conjecture about what Capote left out of the story and whether it was really the definitive account of the shotgun deaths of Bonnie and Herb Clutter and their teenage children, Nancy and Kenyon, at the hands of intelligent lowlifes Perry Smith and Richard Hickock.

The ex-cons robbed the Clutters on November 15, 1959, because they mistakenly believed the house contained a safe with $10,000. Instead, they found barely $50 in cash.

A widely distributed picture of the Clutters, minus their surviving elder daughters, Beverly and Eveanna. Clockwise from bottom left: Nancy, Bonnie, Herb, and Kenyon.
The four victims.

The latest development in the In Cold Blood saga comes from Gary McAvoy, a writer and dealer of literary memorabilia who freaked out Kansas officials when they learned he was planning to auction off two notebooks that belonged to Harold Nye, a KBI agent who worked on the Clutter case.

Nye’s son, Ronald, wanted to help defray his ex-wife’s medical expenses with the proceeds of the sale, according to McAvoy. While Kansas did everything possible to stop his plans, McAvoy used the notebooks as part of his research for a book, And Every Word Is True, about hidden evidence and alternative theories related to the Clutter murders.

“Reading material from various sources just doled out shock after shock,” McAvoy says. “I saw information that showed there was so much more to the story than Capote wrote. And the fact that the state of Kansas sued us after 50 years shows there are still secrets being kept.”

While In Cold Blood makes KBI agent Alvin Dewey into the humble central hero of the investigation, the notebooks show the importance of Harold Nye’s work on the case, according to McAvoy.

Harold Nye Notebook Page
One of Harold Nye’s notebooks

The unsung Nye reportedly didn’t care much about the spoils of association with the glamorous Capote. On the other hand, Alvin Dewey and his wife, Marie, attended Capote’s Black and White Ball and dined with the likes of Gloria Vanderbilt. Marie Dewey received a $10,000 consulting fee for the movie version of In Cold Blood, according to McAvoy’s book.

With six years of legal battles having ended, And Every Word Is True will debut March 4, 2019.

I was glad to get an early look at McAvoy’s book. I became an In Cold Blood fan after coming across an ancient hardcover version in a Florida vacation rental years ago. Since then, I’ve read and watched everything I could find about the case.

And Every Word Is True has some new and salacious revelations.

The author answered my questions in a phone interview on January 13. Edited excerpts of the conversation follow:

When did you first hear of the Clutter killings? In the late 1960s. I was in Germany after being drafted for the Vietnam War and started reading In Cold Blood. The book was gripping. I could not stop turning pages.

Both killers suffered severe accidents in their youth. A car crash left Hickock with askew facial features (Capote noted that he looked normal when he smiled). Smith’s legs were damaged so badly in a motorcycle wreck that some sources describe him as “crippled.” But he could walk and do manual labor despite chronic pain.
Richard Hickock and Perry Smith

While researching your own book, what was it like to see the 17 original crime scene photos, with the victims shot in the head? I’m not someone with morbid curiosity but I’m also not squeamish, and I was honestly revolted by the photos. I was unprepared for them. It’s hard for me to square that Perry Smith was a part of this, as brutal as these images are.

Does that mean you agree with Capote’s portrayal of Perry Smith as a sensitive self-educated victim of a horrific childhood? Having read Perry’s writing, yes. He left a notebook with tabs from A to Z. He drew the Earth under “E” and writes about meteors under “M.” It was just an amazing font of knowledge. He wrote poetry and musings on life, and none of it said anything that would indicate he was a killer. Smith always referred to the Clutter murders as a horrible nightmare that should have never happened.

KBI agents Alvin Dewey and Harold Nye both worked on the Clutter murder case portrayed in "In Col Blood"
Alvin Dewey and Harold Nye

Were you surprised to learn that Perry Smith had a son?
I knew this years ago through my own research, but Jewell James doesn’t want to talk about it to writers. There’s a scene in the Sundance special [Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders] where he’s walking along Puget Sound.

Your book says Capote took Harold Nye and his wife to gay-friendly nightspots, some with drag shows — in Kansas, no less. What’s the backstory? Capote was back in Kansas in the early 1960s and wanted more information for his book and wanted to open Nye’s eyes — Harold was homophobic. According to Ron, his mother, Joyce, was furious and she must have been hoodwinked to go there. 

And Every Word Is True Cover by Gary McAvoy
Coming soon

In Cold Blood portrayed Herb Clutter as an ethically and morally perfect man — church-building, 4H-leading, cookie-baking, anti-tobacco, anti-drinking. Your book presents some other intelligence. Nancy wrote in her diary that Herb had started smoking. He was also said to be having an affair with the wife of a business associate. And Herbert Clutter had made enough enemies that Dewey, who was good friends with him, at first thought the murders were grudge killings. I leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions.


And Every Word Is True, published by Literati Editions, will be available on Amazon and everywhere books are sold on March 4.

4 thoughts on “In Cold Blood’s Newest Infusion”

  1. Great work, R.R.! It’s always a kick in the rubber parts when a personality in the media turns out to be a minor snake in the grass. It’s like when they busted Gary Glitter, or exposed Jimmy Saville. But frigging Herb, philanderer, smoker, heck he might have been cheating at solitaire. The affair is an amazing American tragedy, thanks again for opening the I Needed To Know That chakra. You are divine!

  2. Thanks for this, Rebecca. “Smith always referred to the Clutter murders as a horrible nightmare that should have never happened.” Well, yes, he would say that after the fact, like so many others sitting on death row – but it’s pretty meaningless, whether genuine or not. Smith admitted to cutting the throat of Herbert Clutter, as well as shooting both Herbert and Kenyon Clutter in the head. I’m asking myself what the significance of his allegedly being a “sensitive self-educated victim of a horrific childhood” is other than that being apparently unusual in (vicious) murderers.

    It’s speculated that Capote had a ‘thing’ for Smith, which, if so, may have elevated his (C’s) estimation of Smith. Mr McAvoy comes over as a little naive in this interview, it seems to me… Either that or I’m cynical as one who’s worked with some vicious prisoners and seen how easy it is to ‘romanticise’ them as ‘noble savages’ and, per Capote (possibly) for this to be sexualised (cf women throwing themselves at serial killers, etc), and where so, the obverse of that: excuses and sympathy for their (the offenders’) behaviour. At least in Smith’s case there was no question of guilt, so the only means of mitigating his behaviour, where that is desired, is by invoking the ‘bad childhood’ (not that I doubt it was – though often it’s only the word of the offender himself which is, astonishingly, often accepted without corroboration, despite the offender potentially gaining by its acceptance – nor that for some it would deeply, negatively affect them). The problem, of course, is always the counter-examples: those who had terrible childhoods who don’t reflect that experience in their adult behaviour. Is it just bio-psycho-social variance…?

  3. Rebecca – PS: Just to add that I should have used the term hybristophilia for the sexual attractiveness of some criminals: “a paraphilia in which sexual arousal, facilitation, and attainment of orgasm are responsive to and contingent upon being with a partner known to have committed an outrage, cheating, lying, known infidelities, or crime—such as rape, murder, or armed robbery.” Now, we’re not talking sexual congress here (!) but something on that continuum.

    As I said above, we do seem to see examples of this in women (and men, I’m sure) who despite the appalling crimes of their suitor – child abuse, rape, serial murder – marry them in prison or express attraction to them, despite this very abnormal response.

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