KANSAS CITY, Kan. (Reuters) - The son of a detective who investigated the 1959 murders that inspired the best-selling book and movie "In Cold Blood" said on Tuesday he will publish a new book on the case now that a Kansas judge has approved release of previously blocked documents.
Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks on Monday lifted a temporary order he issued two years ago that prevented Ronald Nye from publishing or selling notes his father, Harold Nye, kept while investigating the murders of four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas.
The Kansas attorney general argued that files Harold Nye kept on the investigation were state property but Ronald Nye said his family possessed copies of records and were entitled to publish or sell them. Harold Nye died in 2003.
Hendricks said the state failed to show that any public interest is served by suppressing the records. Ronald Nye was joined by Gary McAvoy, the owner of a Seattle auction house, in seeking the records for possible sale, but Nye said on Tuesday he and McAvoy are now writing a book.
"Our book will be bringing some new information to light," Nye said. "It's very compelling information. We don't draw any conclusions. We don't take any literary license. We just present facts."
A jury convicted Dick Hickock and Perry Smith of murdering Herbert Clutter, his wife and two children. Hickock and Smith were hanged in 1965.
Harold Nye rose to become director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation from 1969 to 1971. Nye was a source for Truman Capote's book, "In Cold Blood," which became a movie in 1967.
Ronald Nye said his father stopped reading Capote's book on page 115. He compiled three note cards detailing what he considered inaccuracies and tossed the book aside without finishing it, Nye said.
Nye said he expected the new book to be published next September.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City; Editing by Sandra Maler)