Alvin Dewey

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alvin Adams Dewey, II (born September 10, 1912 in Murdock , Kansas , † November 6, 1987 in Garden City , Kansas) was an employee of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation . He became known in 1959 as the lead investigator in the murder of Herbert W. Clutter's family . Truman Capote set him a literary monument in his factual novel in cold blood .

Life

Alvin Dewey began his career with the Garden City Police Department in June 1936. He attended San Jose State College in California, where he completed a police training course. From 1939 he worked as a state trooper for the Kansas Highway Patrol.

In 1940 he was a special agent with the FBI , for which he initially worked in New Orleans , Louisiana . There he met his future wife Marie Louise Bellocq (1919–2002), whom he married in 1942. The marriage resulted in two sons. Dewey later worked for the FBI in Texas, Florida, and Colorado.

1945 took a year off from his job with the FBI and moved with his wife to Garden City, where he helped his family take care of their sick father. At the same time he was supported by the Democratic Party in the election of Finney County's sheriff . Dewey won the election, resigned from the FBI and served as a sheriff until 1955. He then became a special agent of the KBI. In this capacity, from 1959, he headed the investigation into the murder of Herbert W. Clutter. Perry Smith and Dick Hickock were eventually identified as perpetrators, sentenced to death and executed in 1965. During the investigation, Dewey also met Truman Capote, who researched the murder case and processed it in the cold-blooded factual novel .

In 1975 Alvin Dewey retired. He died in 1987 after a stroke.

His wife Marie founded the Alvin A. Dewey Memorial Scholarship Fund at Garden City Community College after his death.

In popular culture

Dewey is one of the main characters in Truman Capote's factual novel in cold blood (1966).

In the first adaptation of the novel from 1968, Alvin Dewey was played by John Forsythe . In the 1996 television film in Cold Blood , the investigator was portrayed by Sam Neill .

In Capote from 2005, the role of Dewey was taken on by Chris Cooper . The character of Alvin Dewey also appeared in the film Cold Blood - In the Footsteps of Truman Capote (2006), in which he was played by Jeff Daniels .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g Alvin Dewey at gcpolice.org, accessed October 10, 2017
  2. Alvin Dewey Dies; Investigated Killings Depicted by Capote . In: New York Times, November 8, 1987