...say I'm one thing, but actually you're another thing.
I think being true to who you are is important.
I'm not saying you need to be psychoanalytical about the whole mess.
- But don't be afraid. - Yeah, I... But don't be afraid.
I had lunch with Jimmy Baldwin the other day.
- How is he? - He's a lovely man.
And he told me the plot of his new book.
And he said to me, "But I just want to make sure it's not one of those problem novels."
And I said, "Jimmy...
"your novel's about a Negro homosexual who's in love with a Jew.
"Wouldn't you call that a problem?"
And he looked at me and he laughed because he knew I was right.
I'm saying, you know, if you're gonna write something like that...
at least be honest why you're writing it.
Can't we just be honest?
Well, I don't think you actually need to be honest.
But don't come asking some white man from the South...
whether your book about a black man fucking some Jew...
when they're both of the same sex...
is an issue!
Don't ask me that!
Oh, no, it's not an issue, Jimmy.
Everyone's gonna be quite pleased with that topic.
So how about you, Truman? Do you admit it?
Well, I'm not nearly that controversial.
I'm not! I'm not! I am not.
I'm not nearly that controversial.
Oh, come on.
Hi. It's Truman for William Shawn, please.
Have you read the article about the killings in Kansas...
in the front section of The New York Times?
I think that's what I want to write about.
I want to go tonight.
- I figured you'd missed it. - I'm sorry.
That's all right. I thought I was heading to Kansas by myself.
God, I'm glad you agreed to come.
You're the only one I know with the qualifications...
to be both a research assistant and a personal bodyguard.
Thank you.
Now I'm nervous.
Yes?
Mr. Truman Capote and Miss Nelle Harper Lee?
Alvin Dewey...
Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
KBI.
Hi. I'm looking for Alvin Dewey.
Hi.
Mr. Dewey. Truman Capote, from The New Yorker.
- Bergdorf's. - Sorry?
- The scarf. - Oh.
- Nice. - Thank you.
Mr. Dewey, I wonder when we could arrange an interview, some time to talk.
About what?
Well, we're not looking for any inside information.
You know, I don't care one way or another if you catch whoever did this.
I'm writing an article on how the Clutter killings are affecting the town.
You know, how you all are bearing up.
I care.
- Excuse me? - I care.
I care a great deal if we catch whoever did this.
Oh, I see.
- As do a lot of folks around here. - Oh, of course.
Do you have press credentials?
- What's a New Yorker? - Magazine.
Magazines don't give out...
You can come to the news conference with the rest of them.
Sears, Roebuck.
The boy was 16?
He was 15.
Nancy was 16.
And it's her friend that found them?
- Laura Kinney. - Can you spell that?
I assume you're okay with the Laura part.
K-I-N-N-E-Y.
But, please, leave her be.
There's talk of a bunch of Mexicans. A whole bunch of Mexicans.
- Good morning. - Hi.
Can any of you tell me where I'd find Laura Kinney?
Is that her? With the boy?
Yeah, with Danny Burke.
Danny Burke?
Laura?
Thank you.
Truman.
I'm gonna find out where that girl lives.
Can I do that alone?
All right?
Okay.
Hi, Danny. I'm Harper Lee.
Nancy was your best friend?
Yeah, she was my best friend.
How has Danny been?
Pretty shattered.
Nothing terrible has ever happened to him before.
Danny was the last one at the house that night.
That's why Mr. Dewey keeps interviewing him.
They don't think that he had anything to do with it.
It's just to see if he remembers anything unusual.
People in town do seem to wonder if he was involved.
Yeah. That's been really hard for Danny.
Oh, it's the hardest when someone has a notion about you...
and it's impossible to convince them otherwise.
Ever since I was a child, folks have thought they had me pegged...
because of the way I...
The way I am.
You know, the way I talk.
And they're always wrong.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
I wanna show you something.
Maybe this will give you a better picture of what happened.
- What is this? - It's your diary.
"Danny here tonight and we watched TV.
"So nice just having him sit with us.
"Left at 11:00.
"P.S. He's the only one I really love."
Shake it with your wrist.
Use your whole arm.
More.
You think I'm kidding around, but I'm serious.
Mama would've put in half the bottle. She had to buy it by the crate.
Alvin's gonna hate this.
I have to stop.
Oh, I cannot believe you're from New Orleans.
I miss it so much.
Well, I only lived there for a short while, but my mama was born and bred.
You know something?
Alvin pretends he doesn't know who you are, but the minute you came to town...
- he read your books. - No!
He had one of his men pick up Breakfast at Tiffany's in Kansas City...
'cause it's banned in the library here.
And he said, "I feel like you're spiting me."
I said, "Do you think I took this job to spite you?"
I was writing the script as they were filming, all that time in Italy...
and I'd work like mad all day long...
and then dash down to the bar around midnight...
to hand in the next day's scenes.
And Humphrey had just about moved into the hotel bar...
Humphrey Bogart.
...where he and John...
John Huston.
...had...
They drank every night.
And I mean drank, you know, like famished water buffaloes.
Well...
I'd only just handed them the final scene when the bellhop told me I had a phone call.
And it was my stepfather, Joe Capote...
calling to say that my mother had died.
I flew home to New York, terribly distraught...
but when I got to the apartment...
I could see that Joe was in even worse shape than I was.
He grabbed my hand and he said to me...
"Talk.
"Talk about anything." You know?
"I mean, any subject in the world.
"Don't worry whether it'll interest me or not.
"Just talk...
"so I won't break down."
He couldn't bear to be alone with his thoughts.
It was too painful.
You're celebrating.
Well, remember Nelle's manuscript she sent me in New York?
Yeah. Mockingbird. Killing a Mockingbird.
- You said it was good. - And I was right.
She just heard Lippincott wants to publish it.
Well, Jesus.
Jesus, well, that's terrific. Tell her congratulations from me.
Congratulations.
- Thank you. - Jealous.
- Will you be home by Christmas? - I wanna come home.
I wanna come home. I do. I just...
thought if they catch whoever did this, who knows what?
- I'll probably be here till next Christmas. - I'm gonna let you go.
I...
No, don't go.
We'll go away next spring to write.
- Maybe Spain. - Yeah.
- Okay, I'm gonna let you go. - Jack...
Jack, I promise. We'll go away this spring to write.
- Maybe Spain. - Okay.
All right.
My wife worked there, too.
What did she do in the house?
Cleaning. Cooking a little bit.
Quiet, quiet. Quiet, quiet.
"Girdle up. No extra bulges.
"If you're dressed right, when he gets home...
"the rest of the evening should be smooth sailing.
"Bon voyage, gals."
I can't believe you got that whole page. I only read it once.
- I've tested my... - Tested myself.
- I have 94%... - Percent recall.
- Cut that out. - Cut that out.
Cut that...
Cut that out.
Isn't that something, Alvin?
Oh, it's impressive.
Thank you.
- I'm sorry. He's upset. - What's he upset about?
They know who did it.
Two men.
You know, they passed through Kansas City last week writing bad checks.
By the time Alvin's boys got up there, they were gone.
- Truman Capote. - Dorothy Sanderson.
I figured you'd be left alone this morning by that hardworking husband of yours...
so I have breakfast, and I have news, and I have literature.
My friend, Jack, mailed me that book you wanted...
and I inscribed it myself.
"To the maiden of the Midwest, the priestess of the plains...
"the queen of the kitchen, my first novel. Truman."
- You're too much. Come on in. - Oh, thank you.
Go into the living room. Have a seat.
Let me get that. It's been ringing all morning.
Hello?
In the matter of the State of Kansas v. Richard Eugene Hickock...
and Perry Edward Smith...
this court has been informed by counsel, Mr. Weeks...
that the defendants wish to waive their right to a preliminary hearing.
His mind is somewhere else.
Mr. Hickock, is that your wish?
Yes, sir.
Why are they doing that?
Mr. Smith.
I ask that the waiver be effectuated.
"Effectuated"?
So noted.
Remove the prisoners.
Was it your choice to waive the hearing?
Do you still need some?
Give me your hand.
I could kill you if you got too close.
Now, would you like some water, or...
Mrs. Sanderson lent you my book.
He said we'd curry favor with the judge...
if we waived our rights.
Who did?
The lawyer.
Your picture's undignified.
People recall first impressions.
What's been your first impression?
Hello.
- Mr. Shawn. - Truman.
I'm writing a book.
It's too much for a single article.
This town, the killers most of all.
You will be stunned by Perry Smith.
Why, what's happening?
Well, not much yet, but I know. I can sense him.
He's desperately lonely, frightened.
I have a question.
Are you ready?
- Would it matter? - No.
How much more money can you send me?
And how quickly could you get Dick Avedon out here to take some pictures?
Where did Perry get the art set?
Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?
Yes, sir.
Defendants, rise.
Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock...
you stand accused of four counts of the crime of murder in the first degree.
Have you reached a unanimous verdict?
We have, Your Honor.
What is your verdict?
Guilty on all four counts.
And I thought, "Where does the family eat?" You know?
I mean, does he, like, reach his hand through the bars...
and have dinner with everyone around the table?
Nelle, kudos on... Kill the Bird, is it?
- That's close. Thank you. - That's marvelous. Who's your publisher?
- Lippincott. - Yes. It's a children's book, right?
- Yes. - No, no. It's about children.
- Yes. - Yes, I've heard a lot about it.
- Good. - Congratulations.
- Thank you. - I didn't even know she wrote.
He's sad and he's shy.
And he's terrified.
They shotgunned the entire family in the face.
And I thought, at first, "I'm gonna be scared of these men.
"I'm gonna run, run right home."
Actually, the brother in the family...
Kenyon is his name...
they had placed a pillow under his head...
and then shot him point-blank in the face.
Almost as if they were putting him to sleep...
and then shot him.
This is the start of a great love affair.
Yeah. Truman in love with Truman.
The book I'm writing will return him to the realm of humanity.
It's the book I was always meant to write.
Well, he hasn't actually written a word of it yet...
but he says it's the nonfiction book of the decade...
so...
So...
what have you been doing?
And I'll tell you...
I was in Marilyn's apartment just last week, talking about movies, art.
Finally I had to break it to her that of the four Matisses hanging on her wall...
two were upside down.
Can I have another, please?
To answer your question, I'm following Breakfast at Tiffany's...
by blazing a different path.
By inventing an entirely new kind of writing.
The nonfiction novel.
- You have a subject? - Yes.
On the night of November 14...
two men broke into a quiet farmhouse in Kansas and murdered an entire family.
Now, why did they do that?
Two worlds exist in this country.
The quiet, conservative life, and the life of those two men.
The underbelly. The criminally violent.
And those worlds converged that bloody night.
Now, I spent the past three months...
The Warden will see you now.
Well, we do all right by our boys.
Showers once a week. Feed them good.
We'll be feeding Perry Smith in the infirmary soon if he don't eat.
Try and get the food in through his arm.
I'm sorry, what are you talking about?
Well, he hasn't eaten in a month.
It ain't his right to kill himself.
It's the right of the people.
The people of this state.
And that's who I work for, the people.
- No one told me. - Yeah, he won't eat.
- When can I see him? - Well, let me see.
How about you coming 3:00, Thursday afternoon?
No.
That's no good.
I need to see them now.
Then whenever I want, for as long as I want.
Well, that's just not how we do things around here, Mr. Capote.
Yeah, I understand what a burden...
unlimited visitation might be on this institution...
and on the people who pay for it.
And I want to be clear...
that I don't expect the citizens of Leavenworth County...
to have to shoulder that burden.
This is to be dispensed as you see fit.
You know, I didn't know where to count your boy at first...
him being half-Indian.
But I did him a favor. I counted him as a white man.
You're a kind and generous man.
Spread your feet.
This way.
- Hey, hey. - Yeah, hello.
Hey, thanks a lot for your help with the lawyer.
Oh, that's fine.
Wow. You must be really desperate for a story to come all the way out here.
You want to go see Perry, go ahead.
Thank you.
You want my advice, though, Mr. Capote...
he's just trying to prove the insanity defense.
It's okay.
It's Truman. It's your friend.
It's okay.