In the Heat of the Night (novel)
E256272
"In the Heat of the Night" is a 1965 crime novel by John Ball that introduces Black police detective Virgil Tibbs as he investigates a racially charged murder in a small Southern town.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| In the Heat of the Night | 8 |
| In the Heat of the Night (novel) canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2308385 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: In the Heat of the Night (novel) Context triple: [In the Heat of the Night, basedOn, In the Heat of the Night (novel)]
-
A.
In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 American crime drama film starring Sidney Poitier as a Black detective investigating a murder in a racially tense Southern town, noted for its powerful exploration of racism and social justice.
-
B.
A Time to Kill
A Time to Kill is a 1996 legal drama film based on John Grisham's novel, centered on a racially charged trial in Mississippi.
-
C.
Ghosts of Mississippi
Ghosts of Mississippi is a 1996 American courtroom drama film about the retrial of civil rights activist Medgar Evers’ assassin, featuring James Woods in an acclaimed supporting role.
-
D.
Going to Meet the Man
Going to Meet the Man is a 1965 short story collection by James Baldwin that explores themes of race, violence, sexuality, and power in mid-20th-century America.
-
E.
Middle Ward
Middle Ward is the central section of Windsor Castle, dominated by the Round Tower and serving as a key defensive and symbolic core of the fortress.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: In the Heat of the Night (novel) Target entity description: "In the Heat of the Night" is a 1965 crime novel by John Ball that introduces Black police detective Virgil Tibbs as he investigates a racially charged murder in a small Southern town.
-
A.
In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night is a 1967 American crime drama film starring Sidney Poitier as a Black detective investigating a murder in a racially tense Southern town, noted for its powerful exploration of racism and social justice.
-
B.
A Time to Kill
A Time to Kill is a 1996 legal drama film based on John Grisham's novel, centered on a racially charged trial in Mississippi.
-
C.
Ghosts of Mississippi
Ghosts of Mississippi is a 1996 American courtroom drama film about the retrial of civil rights activist Medgar Evers’ assassin, featuring James Woods in an acclaimed supporting role.
-
D.
Going to Meet the Man
Going to Meet the Man is a 1965 short story collection by James Baldwin that explores themes of race, violence, sexuality, and power in mid-20th-century America.
-
E.
Middle Ward
Middle Ward is the central section of Windsor Castle, dominated by the Round Tower and serving as a key defensive and symbolic core of the fortress.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
crime novel
ⓘ
debut novel ⓘ novel ⓘ |
| adaptationType | film adaptation ⓘ |
| adaptedInto |
In the Heat of the Night
ⓘ
surface form:
In the Heat of the Night (1967 film)
|
| author | John Ball ⓘ |
| award |
Edgar Award
ⓘ
surface form:
Edgar Award for Best First Novel
|
| awardYear | 1966 ⓘ |
| character |
Bill Gillespie
ⓘ
Sam Wood ⓘ Virgil Tibbs ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| detectiveType | police detective ⓘ |
| featuresBlackProtagonist | Virgil Tibbs ⓘ |
| genre |
crime fiction
ⓘ
mystery fiction ⓘ police procedural ⓘ |
| hasSequel |
Johnny Got His Gun
ⓘ
surface form:
Johnny Get Your Gun
The Cool Cottontail ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
corruption
ⓘ
justice ⓘ professional integrity ⓘ social inequality ⓘ |
| investigationTarget | murder of a prominent outsider ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 20th-century American literature ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Virgil Tibbs ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| narrativeFocus | interracial cooperation in law enforcement ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narration ⓘ |
| notableFor | introducing the character Virgil Tibbs ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| positionInSeries | 1 ⓘ |
| protagonist | Virgil Tibbs ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1965 ⓘ |
| publisher |
J. B. Lippincott & Co.
ⓘ
surface form:
Lippincott
|
| series |
Virgil Tibbs
ⓘ
surface form:
Virgil Tibbs series
|
| settingCountry |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| settingLocation | fictional town of Wells, South Carolina ⓘ |
| settingRegion |
Southern United States
ⓘ
surface form:
American South
|
| subject |
civil rights era tensions
ⓘ
murder investigation ⓘ racial prejudice ⓘ racism ⓘ small-town politics ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 1960s ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: In the Heat of the Night (novel) Description of subject: "In the Heat of the Night" is a 1965 crime novel by John Ball that introduces Black police detective Virgil Tibbs as he investigates a racially charged murder in a small Southern town.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
In the Heat of the Night
this entity surface form:
In the Heat of the Night
subject surface form:
They Call Me Mister Tibbs!
this entity surface form:
In the Heat of the Night
subject surface form:
The Organization
this entity surface form:
In the Heat of the Night
subject surface form:
The Organization
this entity surface form:
In the Heat of the Night
this entity surface form:
In the Heat of the Night
this entity surface form:
In the Heat of the Night
this entity surface form:
In the Heat of the Night