The second story to accompany Tara Darby's photo
Capote stayed at the Wheatlands Motel whilst researching In Cold Blood. The owners have changed since then and the portrait of him that used to hang in the foyer was stolen a few years ago. No one could tell me which room Capote stayed in, so I imagined him and Nelle Harper Lee in ours – collating notes and discussing the killers' psychologies.
Harper Lee has been described as Capote’s “moral conscience” by Capote director, Bennett Miller. Without her, he may not have been able to penetrate the western Kansas community as successfully as he did. She had an innate understanding of people and showed restraint and sensitivity whilst Capote seemed to enjoy his own shock value. Clifford Hope, the Clutters' lawyer and his wife Dolores were the first to welcome the outsiders into their home, for Christmas. Dolores said she had once spent a solitary Thanksgiving away from home and did not want these visitors to spend the holiday by themselves.
Dolores told us a story from her childhood. When she was seven, growing up near Selden, northwest Kansas she used to walk to school with another young girl. Dolores’s grandmother died one day so she missed school for the funeral and whilst walking alone the other girl was abducted and killed. The murderer was caught and put into the town jail. Emotions were running so high that a local mob took the law into their own hands and organised what she described as a “hanging party.” Despite his proximity to the tragedy, Dolores’s father wanted no part in taking another man’s life and refused to be involved, actions for which he was maligned and ostracised. It made me think of Atticus Finch.
Tara Darby is a photographer based in Hackney, London. She is a regular contributor to Another, Dazed & Confused and many other international publications. She is currently working on a short film and upcoming exhibition
JM Lapham is a musician based in Austin, Texas. He has recorded albums with the band, The Earlies, for Names/679, and collaborated with Micah P. Hinson on The Late Cord for 4AD. He is currently finishing an album for an as yet untitled new project
