In 1959,a grisly quadruple murdershook the rural community of Holcomb , Kansas . A wealthy Fannie Merritt Farmer describe Herbert Clutter was found dispatch inside his plate along with his wife and two teenage child — and the killer were still at big . The mysterious crime inspired authorTruman Capoteto save his seminal true - criminal offense novel , In Cold Blood(1966 ) . turn out , it also loose the creative juice of his close friend , novelist Harper Lee .
According toThe Guardian , biographer Charles J. Shields say he has key out that Lee write a previously unknown feature cartridge clip clause about the Holcomb murders . The article has no byline ; it originally ran inGrapevine , a clip for FBI employee , in March 1960 . Four months later , Lee published her Pulitzer Prize - winning work , To Kill a Mockingbird .
Capote traveled to Kansas on assignment forThe New Yorker , where he interviewed police functionary , townspeople , and friends and family of the deceased . Over time , the prolonged magazine fib blossomed into a full - duration Word . Lee accompanied Capote , and assisted him in his reportage ; Capote afterwards referred to her as his “ research supporter . ”
Turns out , Lee may have been far more mired with the projection than Capote led on . While reading old Kansas newspapers for mentions of Lee , Shields found a editorial written by her friend , a cleaning lady named Dolores Hope , in theGarden City Telegram . A revealing paragraph caught his eye :
cuticle contactedGrapevine , and staff members confirm rumors of a Lee submission . However , they had never seen her byline . The wakeful biographer suggested they check their February or March progeny from 1960 . Sure enough , the March issue contained a feature story about the Clutter murders , including an consultation with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation detective investigating the case .
“ I theorize that there was no byline because she really did n’t desire to tread on Truman Capote ’s tale , ” ShieldstoldThe New York Times . “ It ’s a farseeing flattering clause about the bang-up study chief police detective Alvin Dewey is doing on the case and how Truman is go to get to the bottom of it . It was an unselfish bit from a Quaker . ”
shield included this new finding in an updated version of his 2006 biography , Mockingbird : A Portrait of Harper Lee . Grapevinewill reprint Lee ’s clause next month , accompanied by an introduction written by Shields .
[ h / tThe Guardian ]
