In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood is the true story of the investigation, chase, and trial of 2 murder suspects in Holcomb, Kansas. The horrific murder of the Clutter family was a complete mystery. There was nobody who wanted to hurt the family, and no clear intention of the murders. The book takes a different approach to explaining the story. The killers motives were not told until the end of the book, the book focuses more on the hunt to find the killers, and explaining the development of the characters throughout the events.

The book opens up in Holcomb, and introduces the Clutter family. Herbert, the father of the family, goes to work like any other day, blissfully unaware that it will be his last. His wife leaves the house to help a neighbor make a cherry pie. On the other side of the state in Olathe, Perry Smith waits at a cafe for his accomplice, Dick Hickock. Perry is introduced as a man with many dreams and aspirations. After the planned murder, he is set on going to Mexico. He is very sentimental, and carries loads of old meaningful thing around with him. Dick on the other hand, is a very straightforward, pragmatic man. "I know about hell. I been there." (229)He doesn't understand music or poetry like Perry does, but he knows what he wants and how to get it. They tune up Dick's black Cadillac for the long road to Holcomb and set out to the Clutter's residence. The next morning, the Clutter family is found dead in their home, and local Alvin Dewey takes the case, determined to find out who did it.

Perry and Dick do travel to Mexico, befriending a German tourist (after travelling through Kansas and surrounding areas) and then hitchhike through the Mojave desert. While Dewey is losing sleep over the case, he gets a tip from a former cellmate of Dick Hickock's. Floyd Wells was listening to the radio in his cell when he heard about the murders. Remembering Dick and Perry's plan to take the "Clutter fortune", he tells authorities. Dewey and another man on the case, Harold Nye, set out to find the suspects. Dick and Perry travel through Iowa, Kansas City, Miami, and Texas, the 2 men end up in Las Vegas where the license plate on their stolen car in recognized.

They are taken to the jail, quickly followed by Dewey and Nye. They believe that they are being questioned for all of the fraudulent checks that Dick wrote on their journey. After lots of intense questioning, Dick gives in, and then Perry. For 5 long years they are kept in the death row penitentiary "The Corner" before they are sentenced on April 15, 1965. In the last chapters before his death, Perry is a mess. He is a very complex character and Capote explains what is going on in his mind. He tries to portray Perry as the innocent one of the two, because Dick was not remorseful. The story was told very well, and the character progression was a very important part of the book.

The author, Truman Capote, is a very intelligent man. He wrote the book not focusing on the murder, but on the race to find the killer. He presents the information in ways that the reader would not expect. He goes into Perry's childhood and bringing up very in depth, and the book follows his character development and mental state. He pays attention to the feelings of Perry, Dick, and Dewey in a way that is not the norm in a murder story. He wrote this so that even people who thought they knew everything about the murder would be captivated by the writing. In many large cities, murder is a common occurrence. This murder was such a big deal because in the small town of Holcomb Kansas, everybody thought they were safe.  In 1959, almost nobody was travelling through the tiny place and people were terrified by the murder. The uncertainty of the townspeople is shown throughout the book, and everybody is pointing fingers and making theories.

Although the book is written for an older audience, I believe that younger teens can enjoy the book. They may not fully appreciate Capote's stylistic devices and intelligence, but the story is intriguing. Older audiences can fully understand the message of the book and the emotions of the characters in it. I think the main purpose for this book is to question and challenge the morality of the death penalty. Capote makes the reader go deep inside of Perry's mind and when the time comes, the reader feels bad for Perry, because he isn't such a bad guy. He purposefully portrays Perry as more innocent than Dick.

Capote has a very interesting writing style. He uses lots of dramatic irony in the beginning chapters, because the reader knows what is going to happen to the Clutter family, but the Clutters are completely unaware. The chapters switch back and forth between the Clutters and the murderers, and the chapters become shorter and more intense, making the reader anticipate what is about to happen. Capote also leaves out the details of the murder until the end of the book. He gives the information in the order that he learned it during the questioning of Duck and Perry. He also chose to write Perry's confession in the present tense while the rest of the book is written in the past tense. It makes that chapter stand out. The tone that Capote uses is very unique and has many different moods. Towards the end of the book, his opinions on the death penalty begin to come through. He shows that even when you think you are on top of the world, it can all come crashing down without a moment's notice. This is shown in the Clutter's murders, and in Dick and Perry's demise. In the last few chapters Capote refers to the murderers at "Hickock and Smith". This, along with Dick betraying Perry, "It was Perry. I couldn't stop him. He killed them all."(230) in a sad way ends the reign of "Dick and Perry".

Overall, I thought In Cold Blood was a great book. The order of information and the stylistic devices used made the book very interesting. Knowing more about Dick and Perry's background really helped the story make sense. I would recommend this book to anybody, I give it 9 out of 10 Cherry Pies for creativity and overall great presentation.