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Case file s296 · Literature and art · 1984
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1984
Truman Capote: Truman Capote by Jack Mitchell
Truman Capote. Jack Mitchell. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
25 August 1984
Place
Bel Air, Los Angeles · United States
Field
author · Literature and writing on the timeline
Legal tradition
New York and California law · Common law
Historical event
New York society after the "La Côte Basque" scandal of 1975
Religion
Truman Capote: Atheist and agnostic (recorded as American agnostics on Wikipedia)
Member of
American Academy of Arts and Letters, Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts (Wikidata)
Literature and artBodies, bones and burialsPostwarNorth AmericaUnited States

Truman Capote's ashes were divided, stolen at a party, returned in a garden hose, and auctioned in 2016

Capote died at the Bel Air home of his friend Joanne Carson, Johnny Carson's former wife. The coroner listed liver disease complicated by phlebitis and multiple drug intoxication. His will named his partner, Jack Dunphy, as chief beneficiary and provided that after Dunphy's death a literary trust funded by Capote's royalties would pay for prizes, fellowships and scholarships. Dunphy died in 1992 and the Truman Capote Literary Trust was set up in 1994. Capote was cremated. His remains were reportedly divided between Carson and Dunphy; Dunphy said he received all of them. Carson kept her share in an urn in the room where he died. In 1988 the ashes were reported stolen during a Halloween party at her house, with $200,000 in jewels. Six days later they were found in a coiled garden hose on her back steps. In 2016 Julien's Auctions sold ashes that had belonged to Carson. The reported price was $43,750†. His unfinished novel Answered Prayers was published in 1986 and 1987.

What the law took from it

A will that is silent on the remains leaves the body to whoever is in the room, and ashes can be sold as property.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Truman Capote's ashes were divided, stolen at a party, returned in a garden hose, and auctioned in 2016,” story s296, https://www.celebrity.estate/truman-capote-1984, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

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