Infamous

Hi.

Okay, here she is, folks. Kitty Dean.

That a girl, Kitty.

It's 38 degrees in New York this morning.

The time is 10:
49.

Should I call and get our table for lunch?

Goodie-good.

And Big Mama? Bring lots of gossip.

Everything about him is designed to rivet:

The appearance, the demeanor,

and, of course, the voice.

The voice?

To the lucky person

who has never heard it...

...I can only say imagine what

a Brussels sprout would sound like...

...if a Brussels sprout could talk.

He's so magical...

...you soon forget the most unforgettable

sound in the world.

Here's a word I loathe: Eccentric.

Eccentric is a word that boring people use

to describe someone I think of as interesting.

A great many people think of me

as eccentric simply because...

...when I have my shoes polished

I have the entire shoe polished...

...top, sides and soles.

Some people think it eccentric...

...that every morning I have my maid

iron my money.

When I told Truman I had my maid iron

my money, do you know what he said?

Here's what he didn't say, "How eccentric."

Here's what he did say, "How wonderful!"

You can forgive a person a lot

who really enjoys you.

He's loads of fun wherever you go.

He's the rarest thing in the world,

a good talker who is also a good listener.

How could Leland

have been bored with you?

Even someone who doesn't speak

English can look at you.

He listened to me the way you'd listen

to announcements in a train station...

...just enough to hear

if there's an emergency.

Oh, well. He's with Pamela,

and I need to move on.

Maybe you can...

...but tout New York is dividing

into the Slim or Pamela camps.

Babe and I are the head Slimites.

Tru Heart.

Oh, have you heard about Tracy?

Yeah. Having her eyes done, I know.

Well, a little more than that.

She's gone off to have an abortion.

Oh, who's the father?

I presume not Dick.

Chas Fitzgerald.

Oh, perfect. Does Dick know?

I think she should just tell Dick it's his.

- She can't. Dick's infertile.

- What?

- Everybody knows that.

- Well, I'm sure they do now.

Did you see the paper?

Yes. There's a story that's stuck in my teeth

like a little piece of pull candy.

What is it?

Well, these well-to-do farm people

out in Kansas...

...were murdered in the middle of the night

in the most gruesome way imaginable.

- Do they have any idea who did it?

- No idea.

But that won't affect the piece

I want to write for you.

I want to explore how a crime

like this affects a town...

...where everyone trusts each other.

It may be preferable that we don't know

the identity of the killers.

Exactly. Because what I imagine everyone

is now afraid of is:

"Who among us did this horrible thing?"

It used to be you'd look at someone

and think, "There's old Mr. Busybody."

Now you think...

..."Did you do it?"

Oh, I can't bear the thought of you

going to Kansas.

Whom will I talk to?

Oh, that reminds me.

Did you hear about Tracy?

- The eyes?

- More.

Abortion.

Oh, I just saw her at Sotheby's.

She bought an adorable Degas.

I wanted it for the guest bath...

...but Bill wants to put the little

Giacometti man we have in the hall there.

Tell him nobody wants to go to the bathroom

and find a little man in there.

- I know it from bitter personal experience.

- T-Bone.

How did you find out about Tracy?

Slim. But I'm absolutely sworn

to secrecy.

I'm only telling you

because you're my dearest friend.

Nelle, as my oldest and dearest friend,

do you think the Kansas thing is good?

Are you joking?

That small town stuff,

that suspicion, that gossip?

That is your world as much as this,

maybe even more.

- How were they killed?

- Shotgun.

But there's a caretaker not a hundred yards

from the house.

How could he not hear four gunshots

in the dead of night?

Maybe he did it.

Did you consider that?

Maybe. Though the victims

were bound and gagged...

...which suggests at least two

in the killing party...

...one with the gun

to make them cooperate...

...and one to tie them up

and make them sorry they cooperated.

The father and boy were shot

in the basement...

...the mother and girl in their beds.

- How do you know all this?

- I called the D.A.

May I tell him who's calling, please?

Yes, dear. This is Truman Capote.

I'm sorry. The district attorney

doesn't take calls from strange women.

And what did you say?

Who says I'm strange?

They can judge for themselves soon enough.

I'm going down there in a week.

Which of your pillbox hats

do you think they'll like best?

Why didn't Jack come tonight?

If he's your fella, he's always welcome.

Truman and I...

...had a taste for one another's company

above all others...

...but we weren't a together-wherever-we-go

couple. He's very social.

I'm not...

...especially with that crowd.

Jack didn't...

...approve of us.

He has the social graces of a syringe.

Jack is just so iron, you know,

he's so, "That's that."

Before he knew Truman...

...he was married to a darling actress

named Joan McCracken.

They were dancers together in Oklahoma!

And he was mad for her.

And then the war came,

and he went away and he came back.

And she told him that she'd had an affair.

Well, he was so humiliated...

...that not only did he end

their marriage that night...

...but he stopped sleeping with women

altogether and he switched to men.

Can you imagine?

Curing your distaste for infidelity

by turning to men?

What if one of the people

you interview is the killer?

And what if he thinks you know?

He's already committed four murders,

you think he'll spare you?

Honey, is this your funny way of saying

you're worried about me?

- Doesn't it seem dangerous?

- Come with me, then.

I can't. I'm trying to write my book.

Well, then it's o sole mio, off I go!

- I don't want anything to happen to you.

- Honey, I'm indestructible.

- Much to everyone's regret.

- Not mine.

Come with me. Your book's all done.

Well, I am intrigued...

...but I want to get started on my new book

before Mockingbird comes out.

How near did you say the caretaker lived

to the main house?

Nelle grew up with him in Alabama.

She based the other little boy in

To Kill Mockingbird on Truman.

Aptly enough, she named the child Dill.

People always mention his effervescence...

...but one must remember that at the center

of any bright flame...

...there's always that little touch of blue.

Truman's parents deserted him

at an early age...

...leaving him with elderly relations

in my town.

And Truman always disguised his shame

over the absence of his parents...

...with grand tales

of adventure and glory.

"My daddy can't be here,

he's an aviator."

"My mother's a photographic subject,

but they're coming for me"...

...he would always say.

"They're coming for me."

Every year at Christmas...

...our elementary school did a pageant

through the center of town.

And one year, Truman wrote his parents

that he was the star of the pageant...

...though he was only

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