Deliberate cruelty Truman Capote, the millionaire's wife, and the murder of the century

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Summary

Describes how author Truman Capote became obsessed with the true crime story of a Manhattan socialite who shot her banking heir husband in 1955, and discusses how publication of his book led to her suicide and his own scandalous downfall.

Published Reviews

Booklist Review: "Celebrated author Truman Capote and flamboyant socialite Ann Woodward had far more in common than their shared Manhattan milieu would suggest. Both rose from rural poverty and parental neglect to reinvent themselves in New York's café society, Ann by marrying banking heir Billy Woodward and Capote through his career as a best-selling author. That their paths would cross was inevitable, yet the circumstances that ultimately united them involved them both in a notorious crime and libelous betrayals. Woodward was accused of her husband's murder, allegedly mistaking him for a prowler on their Long Island estate. It was a tale no one believed but one too tantalizing for Capote to ignore. Just as he had been cataloguing the personal secrets of his coterie of "swans," such elites as Babe Paley, Slim Keith, and Lee Radziwill, for a self-proclaimed "magnum opus, Capote also exploited the Woodward murder to titillating and tragic effect. Montillo's deeply researched exposé of the untimely downfall of glittering icons haunted by fundamental insecurities and entrenched demons is a dishy true-crime, literary critique mash-up."
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "In this engrossing account, research librarian Montillo (Atomic Women: The Untold Stories of the Scientists Who Helped Create the Nuclear Bomb) recreates a tragic cause célèbre. On November 15, 1955, Billy Woodward was shot to death in his Long Island home by his wife, Ann, who later insisted that she had mistaken him for a burglar. Her story, which had more than a few holes in it, was persuasive enough that a Nassau grand jury declined to charge her with murder. Montillo punctiliously reconstructs Ann's painful life, including her failed attempt at becoming a movie star like her role model, Joan Crawford, and her troubled marriage to a philanderer, who may have been bisexual and whom she had wed after having a sexual relationship with his father. In addition, the author details the life of author Truman Capote, who planned to write an epic novel, Answered Prayers, "that would rival Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time," inspired by Ann's killing of her spouse. That never happened, but Capote's publication of a purported excerpt from it led Ann to die by suicide in 1975. True crime fans particularly interested in bloodshed among the upper classes will enjoy this dark look at two intertwined and unhappy lives. Agent: Rob Weisbach, Rob Weisbach Creative. (Nov.)"
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Additional Information

Subjects	Capote, Truman, 1924-1984 Woodward, Ann, -1975 Marriage Mariticide New York (State) New York History 20th century Biography & Autobiography True Crime Nonfiction History True crime stories. Biographies. 1924-1984. -1975 20th century.
Publisher	[Place of publication not identified] :Atria Books,2022 Atria Books2022
Other Titles	Truman Capote, the millionaire's wife, and the murder of the century
Contributors	OverDrive, Inc.
Language	English
System Details	Mode of access: World Wide Web. Format: Adobe EPUB eBook Format: OverDrive Read Requires Adobe Digital Editions
Description	1 online resource
ISBN	9781982153755 198215375X
Other	Classic View