Review 3

1. In “Recognizing the Art of Nonfiction,” (not one of your assigned readings) J. Madison Davis writes, “All true-crime writers must fictionalize to create interesting books, and all effective novelists draw from the details of reality.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

2. What evidence do we have that Ruby McCollum was guilty? Does the writer imply she had a reason to kill? Give specific examples to support your answer.

3. What makes In Cold Blood such an important part of the tradition of literary true crime? How do you think the genre would have evolved without it? (provide support for your answer)

4. Are women (as victims or killers) portayed differently in written accounts of crime versus in true-crime television

5. What evidence of noir do you see in Jack Webb’s account of the Dahlia case? How does Bowden’s modern-day “Body in Room 348” fit with this tradition?