Is the letter written by Perry's sister included in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, as well as the those written by Perry's father and Willie-Jay the...

While s
nonfiction novel, as he labeled his most well-known work, , has
been pilloried over the years for the authors dissembling regarding the line between fact and ,
the letters from Perry Smiths father, sister and former fellow prisoner are authentic.  Once
Capote set out to dramatize a real-life crime, using details from the actual investigation and
real names, and while insinuating himself into the lives of key figures, his determination to
place artistic merit over fealty to absolute truth condemned him to a life of heightened
scrutiny.  Most recently, a trove of documents directly related to the 1959 murders of a Kansas
farm family by Perry Smith and Richard (Dick) Hickock, and to Capotes involvement in the
investigation, have placed the late authors veracity into question even more than ever before.
(See the February 8, 2013 Wall Street Journal article the link to which is
provided below.)  Capote, as these documents indicate, fabricated more than he had been willing
to admit while alive, to such an extent that the integrity of the law enforcement officials with
whom he maintained contact during and after the investigation has been called into question. 
While none of these revelations serves to cast any doubt at all into Smith and Hickocks guilt,
they do undermine Capotes character.  That said, and to reiterate, the correspondence Capote
included in In Cold Blood, specifically, the letters from Tex John
Smith, Barbara Smith, and Willie-Jay, to Perry Smith, are authentic.

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