At first we couldn’t find the house. Judy, an old school friend of Nancy Clutter’s, told us that the driveway was no longer beautiful the way she remembered it.
At first we couldn’t find the house. Judy, an old school friend of Nancy Clutter’s, told us that the driveway was no longer beautiful the way she remembered it. The “tunnel of darkening green” that Capote described has been reduced to a line of seemingly burnt out skeleton trees. Silhouetted by the setting sun behind them, they stand as silent sentinels to what happened on that night fifty years ago. Like plants growing out of contaminated land they hold a disturbing memory that neighbours have tried hard to forget.
November 15, 1959 was a full moon and the driveway would have been illuminated. The wind blew the sound of the intruders’ presence in the opposite direction. Dick turned off the headlights and waited. As we drove down the track I looked for a trace of their forms, a hologram hanging in the air.
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 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
