were the kind of people Capote didn't know. He was a very different person from a very different culture" who sought to portray life in Kansas as simple and desolate. As for the auction of the Nye collection, she said the KBI agent "was working for the state. For most state employees, wouldn't material you put together conducting state business belong to the state?" She said Nye's son should not be allowed to profit. "It's a fascinating question: Who's the rightful owner of this stuff?" said Andy Kahan, a victims' rights advocate for the city of Houston, Texas, who has tracked the growing marketplace of so-called "murderabilia." "If Kansas decides to press that question," he said, "it could lead to setting a precedent." Kahan noted that copies of public documents and evidence admitted in court are in the public domain and hold little monetary value. Investigative notes usually remain confidential, he said, but they're commonly relied upon when law enforcement agents decide to write true-crime books, often from their homes. "I'm sure that probably happens," said former KBI director Larry Welch, author of "Beyond Cold Blood," which was just released by University of Kansas Press and chronicles the agency's history. "I've never tried to auction off anything or sell anything. ... I don't remember possessing any property" of the KBI outside the office. He said investigators have their own preferred ways of jotting and keeping notes from interviews, which typically aren't turned over -- or asked for -- when agents