Spark Notes in Cold Blood

T M

In Cold Blood Truman Capote

SMARTER BETTER FASTER

Contributors: Brian Phillips, Jeremy Zorn, Julie Blattberg Copyright (c) 2002 by SparkNotes LLC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher. SPARKNOTES is a registered trademark of SparkNotes LLC. This edition published by SparkNotes LLC SparkNotes Publishing A Division of SparkNotes LLC 120 5th Ave, 8th Floor New York, NY 10011

Contributors: Brian Phillips, Jeremy Zorn, Julie Blattberg Copyright (c) 2002 by SparkNotes LLC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher. SPARKNOTES is a registered trademark of SparkNotes LLC. This edition published by SparkNotes LLC SparkNotes Publishing A Division of SparkNotes LLC 120 5th Ave, 8th Floor New York, NY 10011

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CONTENTS CONTEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CHARACTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Last to See Them Alive: 1 of 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Last to See Them Alive: 2 of 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Last to See Them Alive: 3 of 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Persons Unknown: 1 of 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Persons Unknown: 2 of 2 (Perry’s Background) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Answer: 1 of 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Answer: 2 of 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Corner: 1 of 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Corner: 2 of 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 STUDY QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 REVIEW AND RESOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Review Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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Context

CONTEXT Truman Capote (1924-1984) was one of the most notorious writers of his time. Bitter public feuds with contemporaries such as Jackie Onassis, Norman Mailer, and Gore Vidal made Capote more than an author. His overt homosexuality, wit, and knockout opinions kept him on television and in magazines as a major personality. Capote did not attend college. Instead, he published a few short stories and eventually a first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, in 1948. A succession of books followed, as did involvement with the stage and film. In 1958 he wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Finally, after almost ten years living in Europe, he returned to the United States in the late 1950s hoping to compose what he termed "an epic nonfiction novel." In Cold Blood was that book. In 1959, Capote noticed a small newspaper item describing the mysterious murder of a Kansas ranch family of four. He decided that this might be the perfect story for him to write about. Five years of intense research followed, during which time Capote became very close to the two murderers, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith. He talked to the townspeople of Holcomb, where the murders were committed, and nearby Garden City. He followed the police investigation and the eventual appeals process until the execution of Hickock and Smith in 1965. During interviews he never took notes or used a tape recorder; instead he was able to transcribe the interviews from memory, a skill he had been practicing for years.

The result, published in January 1966, was a long and highly acclaimed novel, a success critically and commercially. It is a favorite among schoolchildren and inmates alike. According to Capote, every word of In Cold Blood is true. And Capote himself never appears in the book. He believed that the key to good journalism was making the author invisible.


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Characters

CHARACTERS Perry Edward Smith—Along with Dick, one of the two murderers of the Clutter family. He is a short man, with a large torso but small legs. His legs were badly injured in a motorcycle accident. He wants very much to be educated, and he considers himself quite intelligent and artistic. His childhood was lonely and disorganized. His criminal record seems to be a natural extension of the strange environments in which he grew up. Richard Eugene Hickock—Along with Perry, one of the two murderers of the Clutter family. Also a small man, Dick grew up in Kansas, was married twice, and is jailed for passing bad checks. He is a practical man who exudes confidence and cruelty, but in reality he is not as ruthless or brave as he seems. Herbert Clutter—The father of the Clutter family. His wife is Bonnie. He has four children: two older daughters who have moved out, and Nancy and Kenyon. His large property, River Valley Farm, keeps him moderately wealthy. Starting with little, he has built up a large, successful farm. He is a community leader, involved with many organizations. He is a gentle man, a strict Methodist. He served on the Federal Farm Credit Board under President Eisenhower. Bonnie Clutter— Herbert’s wife, Bonnie, cannot keep up with his public image as a leader, and she withdraws into the home. Suffering depressive mental disorders, she spends a great deal of time in bed. Nancy Clutter—Along with Kenyon, one of the two youngest Clutter children. They both still live at home. She is "the darling" of the town, a class president and future prom queen. Like her father, she is very organized. Kenyon Clutter—An awkward 15-year-old, Kenyon loves to tinker with carpentry and machines. Bobby Rupp— Nancy’s steady boyfriend, Bobby lives nearby. Alvin Dewey—An investigator for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), Dewey is the agent responsible for much of western Kansas. He becomes very involved in the case, to the distress of his wife, Marie, and his two small boys. Harold Nye—One of Dewey’s principal KBI assistants. Nicknamed "Brother Nye," he is the youngest of the group. During the capture and interrogation of Smith and Hickock, he has the flu. Roy Church—The oldest of the KBI assistants, Church is nicknamed "Curly" and is supposedly the fastest draw in Kansas. Clarence Duntz—Another of the three KBI assistants, Duntz is a burly man with a broad face. Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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Characters

Tex John Smith— Perry’s father, Tex is a kindly backwoodsman who taught Perry to bake bread, but who never comes to see his son in jail. Perry’s mother is Flo Buckskin, who Tex met and married on the rodeo circuit. Susan Kidwell— Nancy’s best friend, Susan lives in Holcomb. Willie-Jay—Assistant to the chaplain of Lansing, the Kansas state prison, Willie-Jay becomes a kind of mentor to Perry. He tells Perry that he is talented. Floyd Wells—An inmate at Lansing prison. After Perry leaves on parole, he became Dick’s cellmate. He is a former employee of Herbert Clutter, and he tells Dick about the ranch and the layout of the house. Lowell Lee Andrews—Andrews was a young college student who murdered his family. He is a schizophrenic. Several of his years on death row overlap with those of Dick and Perry. Perry resents the fact that Andrews is highly educated. Mr. Helms—An employee of River Valley Farm. Alfred Stoecklein—An employeeof River ValleyFarm. He andhis wife liveon theproperty. Bess Hartman—The proprietor of Hartman’s Cafe. She has a thick skin and scolds her customers when they gossip too much about the Clutter murders. Barbara Johnson—Perry’s only living sister. She lives in San Francisco and is married. Don Cullivan—An old army friend of Perry’s who starts a correspondence with him upon reading about the case in the newspaper.


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Summary

SUMMARY Herbert Clutter inspects his ranch on the morning of November 14, 1959. That same morning, on the other side of Kansas, Perry Smith meets up with Dick Hickock. While the Clutters go about their daily business, running errands and baking apple pies, Hickock and Smith are tuning their car. After a long drive, they pull up to the Clutter home with a shotgun and knife in hand. That morning, the bodies are discovered by Susan Kidwell and another of Nancy’s friends. Initially, the police are baffled. Bobby Rupp is a suspect until he passes a lie detector test. Alvin Dewey, the KBI agent in charge of the investigation, thinks that the killer must be someone close to the family. Rumor sets the small town of Holcomb on fire. Hartman’s Cafe is the center of numerous theories. Meanwhile, Perry and Dick have returned to Dick’s hometown of Olathe. Dick passes some hot checks, and the two flee to Mexico. Perry has always dreamed of finding sunken treasure in Mexico. While the investigation in Kansas begins to methodically follow up dead end leads, Perry and Dick spend some time entertaining a rich German tourist before they run out of money in Mexico City. While packing to return to the states, Perry goes through his personal belongings and remembers his childhood. His mother and father rode the rodeo circuit until they had a falling out. Perry was passed from home to home as a child. Now, two of his three siblings have killed themselves. The investigation of the Clutter murders seems to be heading nowhere. However, a man in the Kansas state prison at Lansing, Floyd Wells, hears of the murder case. Sure that Dick Hickock is responsible, he begins to think of talking to the authorities. Meanwhile, Dick and Perry are hitchhiking in the American desert. They try to steal a car, but fail. By this time, Floyd has confessed, and Dewey and his team are beginning an elaborate manhunt. Before they are caught, Dick and Perry steal a car, return to Kansas City, pass more hot checks, and take up residence in Miami. They eventually backtrack to Las Vegas, where a policewoman recognizes their license plate number. Dick confesses after intense questioning, and Perry follows suit. The trial goes smoothly, and the two are condemned to death. During a five-year appeals process, Dick and Perry languish in Death Row. Perry tries to starve himself while Dick writes letters to various appeals organization. They are kept company by various appalling criminals. When death comes, Dick is awkward and Perry is remorseful.


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Analysis

ANALYSIS Capote wrote In Cold Blood as a literary experiment. He wanted to write a "nonfiction novel." He felt that he was one of the rare creative people who actually took journalism seriously. The question is whether a book such as In Cold Blood is actually a novel, a creative work, or journalism. We can pinpoint several artistic aspects of In Cold Blood. First, Capote has to make choices about the structure of the book. Capote chose a starting and ending point, and in between he choose the order and subject matter of the chapters. In the first section, "The Last to See Them Alive," chapters on the activities of the Clutter family alternate with chapters on the preparations for murder being made by Hickock and Smith. Reading about Nancy Clutter baking an apple pie and then reading about the killers’ tattoos creates a montage, contrasting subsequent images to create a specific impression. No newspaper article would have such a creative structure. When In Cold Blood was first published in January 1966, Hickock and Smith had been dead for less than a year. The murder and trial had garnered big headlines, and many readers probably knew the details of the novel before they began reading it. Capote had to make it interesting even to people who knew the outcome–the book had to be good literature as well as be informative and accurate. The novel is saturated with details that would never have been included in a newspaper. Moreover, the details are carefully picked. Knowing that Capote compiled 8,000 pages of research, the book seems to be a very carefully edited selection of facts and descriptions. For example, very little is said about the two older Clutter daughters, although Capote doubtless interviewed them. He left them out for artistic reasons. This shows that the facts of the Clutter case were the building blocks for what was ultimately a creative work. In arranging the facts of the Clutter case into a novel, Capote gave them a number of meanings. Not only are some of Capote’s opinions apparent–as in the case of his opposition to the death penalty–but the novel itself has several major themes. First, it is a commentary on the American Dream. Herb Clutter has made a wonderful life for himself–his daughter, after all, bakes apple pies. But Herb Clutter’s American idyll is abruptly and arbitrarily shattered by two petty criminals. The American dream is fragile, and it only functions if marginal people (ex-cons) are not present.


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Summary and Analysis

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

The Last to See Them Alive: 1 of 3 Summary Holcomb is a small town on the high plains of western Kansas. Herbert Clutter owns a farm in the area, River Valley Farm. On November 14, 1959, he wakes up, eats a light breakfast, and begins the day’s work. It will be his last. On the other side of the state, Perry Smith eats a breakfast of aspirin and cigarettes. His friend Dick Hickock comes to pick him up. Back at the Clutter household, a phone call wakes Nancy Clutter. A local girl wants to learn how to make apple pies. Nancy rearranges her schedule to make time. Herfriend Susan also calls. They talk about Nancy’s date with Bobby the previous night and how Herb Clutter wants Nancy to slow down their relationship. Nancy also mentions that, inexplicably, she has been smelling cigarette smoke. Also, her father seems to be worried about something. Dick is driving a black Cadillac. He and Perry take it to the shop where Dick works, where they tune the car, preparing for a long drive. Nancy has finished teaching Jolene Katz how to bake apple pies. She leaves, and Bonnie Clutter talks with the girl. She shows Jolene her collection of miniatures. After Jolene leaves she goes to bed, very depressed, as usual. Perry and Dick are getting cleaned up for their drive. Dick is athletic but small; Perry has a muscular upper body, but his legs were badly damaged in a motorcycle wreck. They are both tattooed–Dick in many places, Perry only in a few places, but his tattoos are polished and intricate. Four hundred miles away, Herb Clutter is driving Mrs. Ashidahome from a 4-Hmeeting. The meeting was in Garden City, a small city close to Holcomb. Mrs. Ashida and her young family are new to Holcomb, but they may have to move. Herb hopes that they do not move.

Commentary The killers approach Holcomb, while the Clutters go about their wholesome, everyday business. This sequence is crafted so as to heighten the sense of suspense. Capote shifts quickly from scene to scene. It is like a film in which the scene shifts between simultaneous events in different places. The reader knows that the Clutters are going to die, but the Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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Clutters are blissfully ignorant of this fact. Capote capitalizes on this irony. At the end of almost each chapter about the Clutters, Capote writes that this will be their last day, their last apple pie, etc. It is obvious that Capote is the narrator, because the narrator is obviously more sophisticated than many of the characters in the book. His descriptions sound almost like anthropological investigations; he is aloof from his subjects. Although Capote had a rural childhood, his cosmopolitan experience comes through clearly as he describes "local color." In many ways, he is an urban sophisticate giving us a voyeuristic window into the "heartland" of America.

The Last to See Them Alive: 2 of 3 Summary Driving across the state, Dick and Perry stop to buy rubber gloves and rope. Perry suggests buying stockings to wear over their heads, but Dick reminds him that no witnesses will survive. Kenyon Clutter is in the basement recreational room, working on a hope chest for one of his older sisters. Kenyon is fifteen; he is interested in cars and tinkering with inventions, but not in girls. He and his best friend sometimes go out in his car, the Coyote Wagon, to round up coyotes. Kenyon goes outside and speaks to Mr. Helms, the husband of the housekeeper. They note that an insurance salesman is visiting Mr. Clutter. Dick and Perry have paused once again, this time to try to get black stockings at a convent. Perry remembers the real reason he came to Kansas, which for him is a parole violation. He had hoped to meet up with Willie-Jay, who was a kind of religious mentor to him when he was in prison. Not finding Willie-Jay, he agreed to do a "score" with Dick. Back at River Valley Farm, Mr. Clutter makes a deal for a large life insurance plan. The agent leaves with the first payment in his pocket. Driving down the highway, Perry is playing songs on his guitar and the two are sharing a bottle of orange drink and vodka. The next Monday, Bobby Rupp describes his last night with the Clutters to the police. He went over to the Clutters home and watched TV with the family. At eleven, he left. Dick and Perry have a steak dinner. They move on to Garden City, where they buy a tank of gas. Perry’s legs cause him great pain, and he spends a long time in the bathroom, trying to find the strength to stand up again. Dick thinks that his partner must be having second thoughts.


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Nancy, in her bedroom, makes an entry in her diary. Dick and Perry pull up to the Clutter home.

Commentary In Cold Blood is divided into small chapters. In this part of the narrative, Capote uses the short chapter lengths to their full effect–the chapters come quicker, like brief, alternating glances as Dick and Perry near the River Valley Farm. This heightens the sense of simultaneity. It is as if the mind’s eye were quickly toggling back and forth between a view of the Clutter home and one of the approaching black Cadillac, trying not to miss a thing.

Capote makes the most of the fact that he is telling a true story. To describe Billy’s visit to the Clutter home, he simply uses Billy’s testimony. He is calling attention to the fact that this is a true story. The factuality of his story becomes something like a gimmick. As the killers race toward Holcomb, Capote sketches the developing working relationship between Dick and Perry. Perry wants to tell Dick about his dream that a giant parrot will come and rescue him, but Dick ignores him. Dick is practical; he does not understand the romantic side of Perry. Also, he underestimates Perry. Dick thinks that Perry may be having second thoughts when in fact he is trying to overcome excruciating pain so that he can carry on.

The Last to See Them Alive: 3 of 3 Summary Nancy Ewalt, a schoolmate of Nancy Clutter, comes to the house the next morning. No one answers, so she and her father go to ask Susan Kidwell if she knows anything. Together, they return to the house and find the bodies. The local mail messenger, Sadie Truitt, sees ambulances approaching the Clutter farm. Soon, she and her daughter (who is also the postmistress) Myrtle Clare hear news of the murders over the radio. Myrt is cynical about the news, but they are both shocked. That morning the news was announced from Sunday morning church pulpits and over the radio. Many men converged on Hartman’s Cafe, where Bess Hartman realizes that the killer was probably someone she knows, someone from the town. Susan and Bobby Rupp are hysterical. Meanwhile, Perry is sleeping in a hotel, while Dick has sat down to dinner with his family. He told them that he and Perry were going to visit Perry’s sister in Fort Scott. After dinner, Dick falls asleep, exhausted. Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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Commentary Capote wisely leaves out the murder scene. Later, when the killers finally confess, Capote simply includes their description of what happened. Of course, he could have included those descriptions here, but that would detract from the novel. One of the most important plot elements of the novel is the race to discover who the killers are. And for the reader there is the mystery of exactly how the murders took place. Capote leaves the details of the murder out of the book, encouraging the reader to guess exactly what happened, as in a detective novel. He also chooses not to reveal the motive for the crime until the killers confess. The final chapters of "The Last to See Them Alive" describe Holcomb’s reaction to the murders. The main characters of the first chapters of the novel, Dick and Perry and the Clutters, recede, and various citizens of Holcomb come to the fore. Although Dick and Perry will remain important throughout the novel, they are not the heroes or even the anti-heroes of the novel, in the traditional sense of the word. Instead of having heroes, this "nonfiction novel" focuses on whatever figures are relevant to the murder case at any given time. For now, the public’s reaction is important. Later, the focus will shift to the police.

Persons Unknown: 1 of 2 Summary A group of Mr. Clutter’s old hunting buddies goes to clean up the house, considering it their "Christian duty." Meanwhile, the KBI, begins its investigation. Alvin Dewey is in charge. Dewey has no clues, save for a footprint and a missing radio. He suspects more than one murderer was involved. He is unsure of motive, because there was little money in the house that could be stolen. Also, he guesses that the murderers were close to the family because they seem to have known the layout of the house. Mr. Clutter was tied down in the furnace room, his neck was slit, and he was shot in the head. Kenyon was tied down to a couch in the basement rec room and shot, while Nancy and Mrs. Clutter were tied down and shot in their respective beds. Paranoia and mistrust spread through Holcomb. The Clutters were perhaps the most secure, upstanding family in the community. No one now feels safe. In the town of Olathe, Perry and Dick are eating in a diner. Dick has a ravenous appetite, but Perry eats little. He is worried that they will be caught. He gets Dick to admit that he had some incorrect information. Susan Kidwell attends the Clutter funeral service. She remembers Nancy and her pet horse, Babe. She sees Nancy in her coffin, her head surrounded with cotton. A thousand people attend the funeral. Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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Dick and Perry move from shop to shop in Olathe, writing hot checks, and sometimes getting cash back. Soon their car is full of items that they can pawn. Back in Holcomb, Dewey cannot sleep because his phone is constantly wringing. Everyone has a "tip," and each tip must be thoroughly investigated. His wife, Marie, wonders if they will ever have a normal life again. The younger of the two surviving daughters is married on the next weekend. Her wedding had been planned for the following month, but as the entire family was already in Holcomb, the wedding date was changed. Also, a letter from Bonnie Clutter’s brother, Mr. Fox, appears in the local paper, asking the townspeople to forgive whoever killed the Clutter family. Perry and Dick are standing on a mountain outside of Mexico. Perry admits to Dick that he is surprised he was able to go through with the killings. Previously, he had told Dick that he once killed a black man for no reason, but this was a lie. As they continue on their drive, Dick continually swerves to kill stray dogs. Back in Holcomb, the journalists have left, but gossip still thrives in Hartman’s Cafe. One resident, a Mr. McCoy, has decided to move away, because his wife is so scared she cannot sleep. The Ashida family is also leaving.

Commentary This is the beginning of the hunt for the killers. It will occupy most of the book, and seems the most open-ended section of the novel, even though it is in the middle. The main plot lines at this point involve Perry and Dick’s ability to get along and remain solvent, and Dewey’s attempt to solve the mystery. Perry and Dick have a peculiar relationship. Perry worries about getting caught, and this upsets Dick, yet in many ways, Perry is the more responsible of the two. Perry and Dick eventually become very poor because Dick is bad with money–he spends it on drinks and prostitutes. Dick pretends to be levelheaded, especially when Perry begins to discuss his dreams of the giant parrot, but Dick is responsible for getting the pair into trouble. After all, he invented the Clutter scheme. Dewey becomes a very important character. In many ways, Dewey symbolically represents Capote. Like Capote, Dewey becomes very involved in researching the case. His desk fills up with notebooks. He loses himself in the case to the point that he cannot sleep. The same things happened to Capote, who felt psychologically damaged after completing the book. One is reminded of Dewey’s wife’s question about whether his life will ever be normal again.


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Persons Unknown: 2 of 2 (Perry’s Background) Summary Dick and Perry are in a small boat off the Mexican coast. They have befriended a rich German tourist named Otto, who has taken them out fishing. Perry sings and plays guitar, while Dick complains of a headache. It is Otto’s last day, and the now-penniless killers will soon return to Mexico City. Just as the sun begins to set, Perry catches a giant sailfish. He is photographed with the fish, and he looks like he has arrived in the promised land. Mr. Helms is still keeping up the grounds of the Clutter farm. One afternoon, he thinks he sees a face in Bonnie Clutter’s window. He calls the police. They find Jonathan Daniel Adrian, a vagrant who has been living in the house. He has a shotgun and a hunting knife in his car, so he is arrested. Dick and Perry are living in a hotel in Mexico City. They have run entirely out of money and must leave the hotel by 2 p.m. to avoid another day’s charges. Perry must decide what to take with him on the bus back to America. Since Olathe, he has been moving around with two large boxes of personal effects. They hold tacky souvenirs, old letters, and notebooks. He sorts through them, picking out things to take. He finds a letter from his father, Tex John Smith, essentially a biography of Perry’s childhood sent to the prison to help him get an early parole. In it, his father emphasizes that Perry was a "normal" child, and that he is "goodhearted" if he is treated right. He says that Perry does have a tendency to rebel against authority. The letter, especially the way it leaves out certain details and is generally self-righteous, fills Perry with self-pity, love, and hate. Perry remembers watching his parents, "Tex & Flo," ride bucking horses at rodeos. He remembers his parents’ divorce, how he went to stay with his mother and tried to run away to his father but was turned away. He remembers ending up in a Catholic orphanage, where nurses beat him because he wet the bed. Finally, his father took him in and he finished the third grade, the last schooling he ever got. His father built a mobile home and the two traveled the country together. Perry joined the merchant marine when he was 16 and the army after that. He was on his way to join his father in Alaska after finishing his service, but a motorcycle wreck delayed him in Washington State for a year. He helped his father build a roadside lodge, but it never gained much business. He and his father began to starve, and they have a falling out over the last biscuit. He headed for Massachusetts, where he planned to meet up with an old army man, but along the way he fell in with "bad company" and robbed an office supply store in Kansas. They were arrested, but Perry escaped in a stolen car. He went to Massachusetts, but failed to find his friend. He moved to New York for a while, but eventually the Federal Bureau of Investigation caught up with him and brought him back to jail in Kansas–where he met Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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Dick. By this time, his mother had died, his brother Jimmy had killed himself, and his sister Fern had "fallen" out of a window. He finds a letter that his remaining sister Barbara wrote him while he was in jail. It scolds Perry for feeling sorry for himself and for blaming their father and his childhood for his troubles. Perry loathes his sister. Perry also finds an interpretation of his sister’s letter, written by his prison friend WillieJay. In quasi-intellectual language, Wille-Jay writes that Barbara is obviously a conformist. He writes that it shows she is full of human frailings. The interpretation is full of quotations from Barbara’s letter. Perry also finds some of his own notebooks. One is a "dictionary" of odd words that Perry has learned, such as "Thanatoid" or "Depridate." Another is a kind of diary that includes odd facts and quotations. All this time, Dick has been making love on the other bed to Inez, a prostitute he has promised to marry. Dewey has been working very hard on the case, almost to the point of exhaustion. He is on his way to check over River Valley Farm, a habit of his. On the way, he stops at Hartman’s Cafe, where some citizens harass him, asking him to arrest somebody soon so their wives will stop being afraid. Dick and Perry are hitchhiking in the Mojave Desert. They have almost nothing. They are waiting for a car that they can rob.

Commentary The huge chapter on Perry’s background is the longest of the book. It reflects the fact that Perry is the most well-developed character in the novel. Capote reports that of the two prisoners, each of whom he interviewed countless times, he was closer to Perry. This is a considerable statement when one takes into account the fact another Capote statement. Before they were executed, he claimed, he was closer to Perry and Dick than to anyone else in the world. We learn much about Perry. In the first place, it is very eccentric to carry around so much memorabilia, a tendency that seems to indicate a romantic narcissism. His notebooks reveal that he considers himself an intellectual. The recorded quotes and thoughts are generally trite, and the words in his "dictionary" are Latinate monsters too cumbersome to ever use. The language of Willie-Jay is similar. Perry holds Willie-Jay in the highest esteem, but Willie-Jay’s letter is full of needlessly big words, and the fact that he wrote an interpretation of Barbara’s letter for Perry exhibits a condescending attitude. One wonders how Capote felt, giving the reader information that would reveal Perry’s lack of education. However, Willie-Jay is correct in noting the antagonism in Barbara’s letter. She certainly does not feel friendly toward Perry. After this chapter, one feels a great deal of sympathy, even though he is a murderer. He has almost no one left. He has fallen out with his father, and his sister has probably written him out of her will. The rest of his family is dead. Furthermore, Perry’s most recent crime seems to flow from previous events. The first time Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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he committed a felony, it was at someone else’s suggestion, as in this case. Perry has always been a wanderer, moving from home to home. He has no roots to ground him, and clings to Dick simply because he is there. Dick, on the other hand, has a family and feels more independent.

Answer: 1 of 2 Floyd Wells hears news of the Clutter murders over the radio while reclining in his jail cell. He is shocked. He never thought Dick Hickock, his former roommate, would go through with his plans. Wells, a former River Valley Farm employee, told Hickock of the Clutter fortune, and Hickock bragged that he and Perry would steal it. He waits for several weeks and then, about the time Dick and Perry are hitchhiking, Wells nervously reports this information to the authorities. Alvin Dewey enters his home to find his wife preparing dinner. He listens to her for a while, then breaks the news, showing her mug shots of the two men. He is very excited. Harold Nye, another KBI agent assigned to the Clutter case, visits the home of Dick Hickock’s family. He doesn’t mention the Clutter case, and leads Dick’s parents to believe that he is interested in Dick’s spree of hot checks. He learns that Dick supposedly visited Fort Scott on the weekend of the murders, and he spots a shotgun leaning against the wall. Still hitchhiking, Dick and Perry finally get a ride with a lone man who seems fairly well-to-do. Just as Dick gives Perry the symbol to club the driver’s head with a rock, the driver sees another hitchhiker and pulls over to pick him up, blissfully ignorant of almost being killed. Nye goes to Las Vegas, where he speaks to Perry’s old landlord. She is not much help, but he does find a box of memorabilia that Perry left behind. Nye visits Barbara in San Francisco. Her children and husband are playing in the back yard, and she is expecting guests. She reports that she has not heard from Perry and would report it if she did. Later that night she settles down with a photo album and remembers how her love for Perry waned and how he always blamed her for having an education. Now in Iowa, Dick and Perry take refuge from the rain in a barn by the highway. Dick wants to return to Kansas City, because he is sure he can pass some checks there. In the barn, they find a 1956 Chevy with the key in the ignition. They steal it. Dewey is careful to keep Wells’ confession a secret. There are a few rumors in Garden City, but none in Holcomb, where the murders have become a forbiddensubject in Hartman’s Cafe. Perry is nervously sitting in a laundromat in Kansas City. Dick dropped him off and promised to return. He is late. Perry is haunted by visions of police. Finally, Dick returns, having switched the license plate on the car and passed several big checks. Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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Dewey is having a nightmare. He walks into a cafe and sees the killers. They leap through the plate glass window and he chases after them. He wakes up in his office. As he gets ready to leave, he gets a phone call. It is Nye, reporting that Dick Hickock has been writing checks all over Kansas City.

Commentary With the introduction of Floyd Wells, the narration shifts back to a week after the murders. Although Dick and Perry have hinted at the existence of Wells, it was not known that they would be so likely to confess. This information could have been given a week after the murders, about the time Dick and Perry entered Mexico. But it has been withheld. This technique is similar to Capote’s decision not to describe the murders except through the confessions of Dick and Perry. By withholding this information until the police learn of it, Capote puts the reader into the mind of the police. The case becomes suspenseful, even though the reader knows that Dick and Perry are the killers. One wonders whether they will be caught. Another contribution to thegrippingquality of thenarrative is theway in whichthe reader is made sympathetic to Dick and Perry. While Perry is waiting in the laundromat, worrying about being caught by the police, one both looks forward to and dreads his eventual capture. Now, as what was a mystery becomes a manhunt, the suspense becomes less cerebral and more physical. Just as Dewey dreams of chasing the killers down the street, so does the reader imagine what the confrontation between Perry and Dick and the KBI will be like.

The Answer: 2 of 2 Summary Dick and Perry sit under an umbrella at a beach in Miami. It is Christmastime. Dick goes for a walk and tries to befriend a young girl. Noticing this is enough to disgust Perry and interrupt his contemplation of suicide. On Christmas morning, Bobby Rupp remembers how he would always brave the snows to walk over to the Clutter house and give Nancy her present. Bobby goes out running mindlessly and ends up in Mr. Clutter’s prize orchard, where the fruit is rotting in the Indian summer. Dick and Perry, having run out of money, are returning to the West, looking for work. In Texas, they pick up a young boy and his decrepit grandfather. Dick is scared the grandfather will die in the car, but is mollified by the boy’s ability to spot empty bottles along the roadside–which they pick up and cash in at a roadside restaurant. Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

18


On December 30, Alvin Dewey is called out of the shower to answer a phone call. As his wife wonders why he is dripping water everywhere, he suddenly hugs her. He has not taken a minute off from the case since it began in mid-November. A police officer in Las Vegas spots the killers’ license plate, just after Perry picks up the memorabilia he mailed from Mexico City to his old hotel. In the Las Vegas police station, the four KBI agents–Dewey, Nye, Clarence Duntz, and Roy Church–are preparing to question Dick and Perry. Nye has the flu. The prisoners believe they are being questioned for passing hot checks. Nye and Church question Dick, who is cocky and reminds them that he has been questioned before. They lead up to the hot check spree in Olathe, and Dick tells them that they went to Fort Scott, failed to find Perry’s sister, and spent the night with two prostitutes. Dick takes pride in recounting the exact addresses of every place the pair stayed in their cross-country travels. Finally, Nye comes to the point, and accuses Dick of the murders. He denies them but is visibly shaken. Meanwhile, Dewey and Duntz question Perry. They repeat the process used with Dick, with the same result. Perry is very upset, and afterward lies troubled in his cold cell, as does Dick. The next day, Dick breaks. The two officers show him photographs of the footprints from the scene of the crime, which match Dick’s boots. Dick blames the actual killing on Perry. Back at Hartman’s Cafe, news comes over the radio that two suspects have been arrested. People are shocked and skeptical. The suspects are taken in two different cars on the long drive to Garden City, Kansas. Perry does not confess until Dewey tells him the story about killing a black man–something that only Dick would know, it proves that Dick has confessed. He gives a full confession. Dick had thought that Clutter had a large safe. When they didn’t find it, Perry wanted to leave. But Dick wanted to look around more. They wake and tie up the entire family. The process takes hours. Perry is frantic. Dick wants to rape Nancy, but Perry threatens to kill him if he does. Finally, Perry shoots the two downstairs and then Dick shoots the two upstairs. When the police cars arrive in Garden City, a large, stunned crowd watches the criminals walk from the cars to the jail.

Commentary The chapter in which Perry confesses is very long and detailed. In some ways, it is the climax of the novel. It is told in the present tense, while the rest of the book is recounted in the past tense. This temporal shift highlights the significance of the chapter. The beginning


19


of the next chapter is in the present tense; it simply describes how cats constantly prowl the main street in Garden City. The confession is a climax insofar as it represents the end of the mystery and chase that occupies the police for most of the novel. Throughout, it is clear to the reader that Dick and Perry killed the Clutter family, but the details are unclear. Now they are revealed. The motive is also revealed: They were hoping to find a safe full of money. It is a robbery gone wrong. Later, Perry will change his story somewhat, admitting that it was he who actually killed each of the Clutters. But, for the most part, all the mysteries are solved, and all that remains is the slow and inevitable approach of the execution.

The Corner: 1 of 2 Summary The Garden City jail is on the fourth floor of the county courthouse. That floor is also the home of Wendle Meier, the assistant sheriff, and his wife, Josephine. The "ladies’ cell" is part of their apartment, and so Perry becomes a part of it. Josephine finds him gentle, but her husband, who was at the scene of the crime, corrects her. Perry keeps a journal in his cell. He corrects his earlier confession, saying that in fact he personally shot all four victims. He hears on the radio that the district attorney will seek the death penalty. Neither Perry’s sister nor father come to visit him. He receives a letter from an old army friend, Don Cullivan, who read about the case in the papers. Don wants to be Perry’s friend and tell him about Catholicism. Perry crafts an enthusiastic response, explaining how he doesn’t believe in religion but would love to be Don’s friend. Meanwhile, Dick seems very relaxed, smoking and reading, but he is working on an icepick-like "shiv" crafted from a brush he stole, and planning escape. Perry’s diary continues. He notes that the sheriff searched the rooms and found Dick’s "shiv." He fantasizes that some men he sees outside plan to rescue him, but nothing comes of it. He dreams of the big, yellow parrot that will rescue him. The trial begins. The state-appointed counsel suggests a change of venue, but it is denied. A psychologist is called in. There is a request to delay the trial, because the Clutter estate sale will take place the day before the trial, but it is denied. On the first day of the trial, the jury is selected. Perry pays little attention, focusing on the "autobiography" that the psychologist asked him to write. He writes disjointedly, but intensely, mentioning some of the more traumatic events of his life. Dick does the same, but is more casual, and pays some attention to the jury selection.


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The next day, the state begins to present its case. Routine witnesses are called, such as those who were at the scene of the crime. Floyd Wells testifies. The trial progresses through the week; Dewey is the last to testify. His testimony is very important, because it is the first time the public has heard a description of what actually took place on the night of the murders. The fact that Dick wanted to rape Nancy Clutter shocks the courtroom. Don Cullivan visits Perry in his jail cell. Attempts to convert Perry fail, but the two share a dinner Mrs. Meier has prepared. On Monday, the defense makes its case. The only witness of substance is the psychologist. According to Kansas’ M’Naghten Rule all a psychologist can do is testify whether or not a defendant could tell right from wrong at the time of the crime. In regards to Perry, the psychologist says that he is not sure, but the judge does not let him say anything further. Capote includes what the psychologist would have said, carefully diagnosing Perry as a potential paranoid schizophrenic.

Commentary In these andthe concluding chapters, Capote’s opinion on thedeathpenalty comes to thefore. It is obvious that Capote wants to make a political statement. First, he clearly opposes the M’Naghten Rule, or he would not have transcribed the psychologist’s would-be statement. He wants to tell the reader what the court did not allow. Also, after this section, he quotes at length from a study done regarding insanity and the death penalty. Much has been written about the way society regards insanity and punishes or addresses insanity, but here it is enough to say that Capote feels as much information should be made available to the jury as possible before the accused are condemned to death. It is important to remember that the psychologist is not sure whether Perry is a paranoid schizophrenic or not. Perhaps one of the greatest challenges the reader faces is deciding for him- or herself whether Perry is crazy and whether his actions merit death. As issues of insanity and sympathy circle Perry, Dick remains a simple character. He is the straight man; Perry is the complex figure. Dick tries to escape but fails; he curses at Floyd Wells as the snitch leaves the witness stand. Dick is the classic criminal. It is in Perry that Capote makes his case against the death penalty, and gives the novel a general sense of ambiguity.

The Corner: 2 of 2 Summary The high society of Garden City comes to the courtroom to hear the summations of the case. Judge Tate is famous for his addresses to the jury. He calls for the death penalty, and they Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

21


return it. He had asked the jury not to be "chicken-hearted," and as the two prisoners leave the courtroom, Perry says to Dick, "No chicken-hearted jurors, they," and they both laugh out loud. In the corner of Lansing Penitentiary is a small enclosure, Death Row. It is known as "the Corner." Along with Dick and Perry, there are three prisoners. One is the famous Lowell Lee Andrews, a young biology student who slaughtered his family and then confessed. He is certifiably schizophrenic, and a book arguing against the M’Naghten Rule was based on him. Dick passes the time smoking and reading erotic novels and law books. He constantly writes to various organizations requesting help with appeals. Meanwhile Perry tries to starve himself to death. Then–upon receiving a letter from his father–decides he wants to live. Two years of postponed execution dates fly by. The prisoners are eventually joined by George York and James Latham, two AWOL (absent without leave) soldiers–teenagers who went on a killing spree across the country having decided that they hated life. One of Dick’s letters works. A representative of the Kansas bar association, a man named Shultz, takes up the case. A hearing is held, claiming that the jury was prejudiced, that the state-appointed defense did not try hard enough, and that Judge Tate was biased. But Tate, the lawyers, and the jury quickly and fiercely dispel any doubt that Dick and Perry had a fair trial. Talking to a journalist who is periodically allowed to visit, Dick describes the night Andrews is executed. Dick liked Andrews, but Andrews annoyed Perry because he was very educated and was constantly correcting Perry’s speech, as Perry once corrected Dick’s. Dick speaks about how he likes the other prisoners and about how he has tried to get along with Perry, whom he thinks is always jealous and two-faced. Dick says that he is not against the death penalty, for he understands the impulse for revenge. After a total of five years–the case has been to the Supreme Court twice–Perry and Dick are hanged on April 15, 1965. Dewey attends the execution. He is surprised by how casual everyone is. Dick enters, says that he holds no hard feelings against the state, shakes hands with the four KBI officers, and is hanged. Perry enters and winks "mischievously" at Dewey. When asked for his last words, he sobers up. He says that he is against the death penalty and that he is sorry, and he is hanged. As he exits, Dewey does not feel relief; instead, he remembers a recent trip to the graveyard. There, he ran into Susan Kidwell, who was visiting the grave of Nancy Clutter. Susan told him about how well she was doing and how Bobby Rupp had just been married. The wind blows over the grass.


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Commentary As the novel labors to its close, Capote again plays with narrative time at the execution. First, it is reported in the papers, then Dewey’s experience at the execution is described. This removes the reader from the criminals. Dick was speaking intimately to a journalist, and then suddenly the reader learns about the macroscopic details of the court case and of the executions. Then the reader actually sees the executions, through Dewey’s eyes. Among other techniques employed to bring to the novel a tone of closure, Capote increasingly refers to Perry andDick as Smithand Hickock. Usinglast names is a mannerism native to official uses–Capote is symbolically representing the distancing effect the trial has on the characters. The trial refers to them by their last names, and the "Dick and Perry" of the rest of the novel fade into courtroom entities. In many ways, this difference in name usage represents the fact that the trial and the book are otherwise similar. Although the trial is official, Capote’s book is in many way a second trial, an attempt to make the average reader sympathize with Dick and Perry, or at least to make the reader understand the "tragedy" of their deaths. If anything about In Cold Blood is more significant than the extent to which it "retries" Dick and Perry, it is its experimental nature. Is the "nonfiction novel" successful? Capote himself brings up this question as he begins to introduce himself as a character. Throughout the novel, he has painted detailed emotional portraits of many of his characters, making it obvious that he has interviewed them at length. But when, in the last section before the execution, Dick talks with "a journalist who was allowed to visit," that journalist’s identity is as clear as daylight. Capote in a sense acknowledges the fact that he was a part of the events of the novel, too, because he was in communication with all the characters. Earlier, he writes that Perry’s only friend was Don Cullivan, and one thinks that surely Capote was also becoming a friend. Throughout the novel, one is curious about the questions Capote asked. Now, finally, he makes a concession and admits that Dick was talking to a journalist who is surely Capote. It is a gracious gesture.


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Study Questions

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Analyze the relationship between Dick and Perry. Dick controls Perry. Perry, on the other hand, is much braver. The best example of this is the night of the murders. Dick masterminded the crime, and even when Perry wanted to leave, he insisted that they stay and look again for the safe. Of course, it is Perry who prevents Dick from raping Nancy, but the fact remains that Perry was reacting emotionally, on a case by case basis, to Dick’s actions. Dick, on the other hand, was operating according to a plan, convincing Perry to go along with him. While Dick is more controlling, he grows attached to Perry and never manages to get rid of him, whatever he may say to himself. While Dick may have usually been in control, Perry did most of the work. He was able to murder, and during interrogations, Dick cracked first. In many ways, Perry is the more romantic of the two; he is more interesting as a literary character. Dr. Jones, the psychologist brought in by the defense, calls Perry a paranoid schizophrenic. He is crazy; Dick is sane. Perry dreams of a giant parrot; when he tells Dick about the dream, Dick does not listen. Perry catches a huge blue fin fish, but Dick does not fish because he has a headache. While Perry worries about getting caught and wants to talk about it, Dick tells him to shut up. While Dick may be the controlling mastermind, he is a shallow character beside Perry.

2. How does Capote color the opening section with a sense of impending murder and doom? First and most obviously, he titles the opening section "The Last to See Them Alive." Additionally, he describes the last day of Clutter family in great detail, always mentioning that it is their last. For example, he writes that Clutter "headed for home and the day’s work, unaware that it would be his last." This counterbalances the fact that the reader knows the outcome of the story from the beginning. Because the Clutter murder and the subsequent trial actually happened, they were public knowledge, and so his contemporary readers knew the details of the case before they started the novel. Therefore, Capote emphasizes the coming deaths instead of making them surprises.

3. Does Capote take a stand on the death penalty? Not explicitly. However, he does select details and construct his narrative in a way that let the reader become frustrated with the legal system. For example, although he makes sure the reader knows that Dewey believes Dick is ultimately responsible for the crime, this is not backed up by the rest of the book. The rest of the book is ultimately irresolute about Copyright 2002 by SparkNotes LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, any file sharing system, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of SparkNotes LLC.

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Study Questions

whether or not Dick is responsible. So, when Dick complains that he shouldn’t be executed because he hasn’t killed anyone, Capote has invited us to sympathize with him. Capote also makes the reader sympathetic to Perry’s case. Because Kansas law takes a very strict view of pleading insanity, the jury never learns that Dr. Jones has diagnosed Perry as a paranoid schizophrenic. Yet Capote writes a verbatim account of what the psychologist would have said had he been able to speak openly. Thus, Kansas and Judge Tate are implicitly blamed for not letting the jury know the truth about Perry’s mental instability. By poking holes in the condemnation of Dick and Perry, Capote implicitly argues that the death penalty is being used inappropriately, as a means to quell the fears and anger of Kansas citizens. After all, he includes the detail that the Kansas governor does not pardon them because he doesn’t feel it would be "in the interest" of Kansas citizens.

4. What does the crime reveal about the town of Holcomb? How does the gossip surrounding the murders reflect underlying truths about the town? 5. Does In Cold Blood have a protagonist? Is it Herb Clutter? Dewey? Perry? Explain. 6. Why did Capote leave out descriptions of the two older Clutter sisters? Did the narrative benefit from this exlusion? 7. What role does "dreaming" play in the novel, both figuratively and literally? Think of Perry’s dream of the parrot and of finding gold in Mexico, and of Dewey’s nightmares. How reliable is what Capote tells us about these dreams? 8. How is montage used in In Cold Blood? In other words, how does the back- and- forth description of events in Holcomb and events surrounding Dick and Perry make the novel more vivid? 9. In what ways does Capote reveal the nature of his research through the construction of the book? Is it important that Capote himself is never named? Does his absence endanger the credibility of the narrative? Think of the Heisenberg Principle. 10. Is In Cold Blood a creative work? Is it more than journalism? Why or why not?


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Review and Resources

REVIEW AND RESOURCES

Review Quiz 1. Other than the missing radio, what clue is left at the scene of the crime? A. Some of the suspect’s hair B. Fingerprints C. Footprints D. Bloody snowshoes

2. Which of the following statements about Holcomb is not true? A. Its streets are unpaved. B. The place where teachers live is called "the teacherage." C. Promising students leave and finish high school in Garden City. D. It does not have its own police force.

3. How are Dick and Perry executed? A. Electrocution B. Gas chamber C. Hanging D. Firing squad

4. Who is Nancy Clutter’s boyfriend? A. Kidwell B. Alvin Dewey, Jr. C. Duane D. Rupp

5. How did Perry’s parents meet? A. Flo Buckskin met Tex John Smith in the rodeo circuit. B. Flo Buckskin rescued Tex John Smith from drowning in the Arkansas River. C. Flo Buckskin convinced Tex John Smith to join her motorcycle gang. D. Flo Buckskin joined Tex John Smith’s construction company.


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6. In Mexico, Perry is photographed with A. a giant sail fish. B. a new German wife. C. Inez, the glowering prostitute. D. his new car.

7. Why does Perry resent Lowell Lee Andrews? A. He killed his own parents. B. He becomes Dick’s good friend. C. He corrects Perry’s grammar. D. He smokes too much.

8. Other than money, what do Perry and Dick take from the Clutter home? A. An old mule and one day’s provisions B. Binoculars and a radio C. Soup and a power drill D. Jewelry and the television

9. What does Perry depict in pastels? A. The great parrot B. Willie-Jay C. Nancy Clutter D. Jesus Christ

10. In addition to murder and theft, what crime does Dick hope to commit in the Clutter household? A. He hopes to demolish the house. B. He hopes to rape Nancy Clutter. C. He hopes to steal the plans for a big grain shipment. D. He hopes to find a giant drug stash.

11. What event coincides with the start of the trial? A. The marriage of Herbert’s youngest surviving daughter. B. Bobby Rupp’s marriage. C. The Clutter estate sale. D. The death of Flo Buckskin.


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12. Where is the trial held? A. Garden City B. Holcomb C. Washington D. Las Vegas

13. Where are Perry and Dick arrested? A. Holcomb B. Garden City C. Chicago D. Las Vegas

14. The Clutter’s farm was near what town? A. Holcomb B. Garden City C. Chicago D. Las Vegas

15. While in Mexico, Perry and Dick spent time with a tourist of what nationality? A. Spanish B. American C. Russian D. German

16. As a child, where was Perry physically abused because he was a bed wetter? A. A convent B. A zoo C. A boardwalk D. A hotel

17. Who was murdered in the basement den? A. Nancy B. Bobby C. Kenyon D. Nye


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18. How long do Dick and Perry spend on death row? A. Two months B. Two years C. Five years D. Seven Years

19. Dick learned of the Clutter family from whom? A. Floyd Wells B. Willie-Jay C. Duane Reds D. Frank Kermode

20. What is the name of the KBI agent in charge of the investigation? A. Harold Nye B. Wild Bill Hickock C. Clarence Duntz D. Alvin Dewey

21. How many Clutter children are there? A. One B. Two C. Three D. Four

22. Which of the following ailments applies to Bonnie Clutter? A. Cancer B. Sclerosis C. Chronic depression D. Drug addiction

23. Where do Dick and Perry spend Christmas? A. Las Vegas B. Mexico City C. Paradise City D. Miami


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24. Which crime does Dick regularly commit? A. Breaking and entering B. Passing hot checks C. Killing lawyers D. Money laundering

25. What is Perry’s primary reason for returning to Kansas? A. To break his parole B. To meet up with Dick C. To meet up with Willie-Jay D. To kill the Clutters


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Answer Key: 1:

C

8:

B

15:

D

22:

C

2:

D

9:

D

16:

A

23:

D

3:

C

10:

B

17:

C

24:

B

4:

D

11:

C

18:

C

25:

C

5:

A

12:

A

19:

A

6:

A

13:

D

20:

D

7:

C

14:

A

21:

D


Spark Notes in Cold Blood

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