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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
