Truman Capote House shortly afterwards. For Capote, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was a turning point, as he explained to Roy Newquist ("Counterpoint", 1964): The "new book", "In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences" (1965), was inspired by a 300 word article that ran in the November 16, 1959 "The New York Times". The story described the unexplained murder of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas, and quoted the local sheriff as saying, "This is apparently the case of a psychopathic killer." Fascinated by this brief news item, Capote traveled with Harper Lee to Holcomb and visited
Truman Capote who questioned certain events as reported in the book. Writing in "Esquire" in 1966, Phillip K. Tompkins noted factual discrepancies after he traveled to Kansas and spoke to some of the same people interviewed by Capote. In a telephone interview with Tompkins, Mrs. Meier denied that she heard Perry cry and that she held his hand as described by Capote. "In Cold Blood" indicates that Meier and Perry became close, yet she told Tompkins she spent little time with Perry and did not talk much with him. Tompkins concluded: Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has