April 20, 2024

Court: State must pay legal fees over ‘In Cold Blood’ notes

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A court has ordered Kansas to pay legal fees arising from its efforts to block publication of notebooks kept by the lead investigator into the murders chronicled in Truman Capote’s book “In Cold Blood.”

KCUR reports the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled last week the state must pay more than $168,000 to attorneys who represented the investigator’s son and a literary memorabilia dealer in Seattle.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt sued in 2012 to prevent the publication or selling of notes from Harold Nye, lead investigator into the killings of the Clutter family in 1959 in Holcomb, Kansas.

A judge ruled in 2014 that Nye’s son, Ronald, could use the notebooks as the basis for a book. He also ordered the state to pay legal fees.