The Influence of In Cold Blood on River Valley Farm

    In 1966 Truman Capote, an American writer released a book called In Cold Blood. The book followed the events of the 1959 murder of the Clutter Family in Holcomb, Kansas. Two men had heard of a rumor that Herbert Clutter had a safe in his house that contained 10,000 dollars. They decided to travel many miles to rob the family in the middle of the night. One night in 1959, they did just that. However soon into their heist they realized they could not find the safe, it did not exist. So to cover their trails, they decided to murder everyone in the house, including Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children. They separated the two women upstairs and the two men downstairs, before killing all four of them. The two killers fled the scene, leaving a friend of the daughter to discover her body the following morning. Eventually the two killers were caught and sentenced to death, meeting their fate in 1965. 

Truman Capote would spend six years researching the murder of the Clutter family to write his novel. The novel not only features the details leading up to the murder, the murder itself, and the search and trials for the killers, but Capote creates dialogue to help set the scene of the novel. Many of this dialogue is made up, speculation and could not actually be proven due to undocumented circumstances. Capote’s novel would make the Clutter family murders well known around the world and make the house a novelty for tourists to come see in person. 

The house itself was commonly known as River Valley Farm. When it was built in 1948, it was rather large for its time, having a total of fourteen bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. It sat on nine acres of farmland, making it not only peaceful but secluded. Before the murders, the house was beloved for its charm and peaceful aura. The house would later become tarnished in its image through the murders, now being seen as eerie and dangerous to live in at night. 

Capote’s novel begins with an insight to Mr. Clutter’s morning routine and sets the scene for the calming attitude the farm and the house provide. This is a direct contrast to the surrounding chapters which discuss the two murderers staking out their plans for their heist. This beginning of the novel adds a layer of the unknown to come and the contrast the house is about to endure: from calming to bloody. 

    The novel shows the idea of a Broken American Dream seen through the house and the Clutter family. The family was very well known and loved in their town which habited only three hundred people. The house was a typical family farmhouse and served as a place for the Clutter family to grow and live. When the murders were first released, the killers were unknown and this caused a lot of unrest to spread through the town. Everyone was wary of one another and began locking their doors which was something that never happened in their town. The classic American family who worked hard for their livelihood and home were killed and their house was no longer a happy one. It was a testament to the brutality of reality. 

While it has been over sixty years since the original murder, the house still remains almost exactly the same as it had been when the Clutter family resided in it. This factor adds to the tourist interest created by the novel. After the release of the novel, people were suddenly very interested to see the house in which such horrors occurred. The house shifted through owners while each one had to endure people trespassing for a glimpse or more of the house. Previous owners have said they even had people walk up the driveway just to stand and stare at the house. 

    The way Capote perceived the house is important because it adds to the general aura of the book. The entire novel is stating horrific facts in a calm, truthful manner. The house is depicted in the same way. It appears just the same but the truth of the murders lie within the walls of the home. After the murders took place, everyone’s perception of the house flipped completely. The secluded area was no longer peaceful but rather dangerous and the quarter of a mile drive up to the house suddenly seemed too private. 

While the novel and the imagination of the readers have painted the house in a mysterious, eerie manner, there may be an important thing to note. The story of the Clutter family murders seems to have an omen of death that follows the house. A man named Bob Byrd, who owned the house shortly after the Clutters owned the property for twenty years before he eventually took his own life. Truman Capote himself also had a drop of health from his research. After six years of working toward his novel, he fell into addictions and a depression which eventually led to his death, making In Cold Blood his final novel. 

Whether the house actually has any reflection on these actions is up to interpretation, but there is no denying the influence In Cold Blood had on the River Valley Farm. The novel was the key factor in solidifying the infamous story of a kind family murdered in their home in the dead of the night.