Summary and Analysis of In Cold Blood - A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Worth Books

Author:Worth Books
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Worth Books
Published: 2016-12-26T18:08:41+00:00

Direct Quotes and Analysis

“At the time not a soul in sleeping Holcomb heard them—four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.”

These words close the opening scene of In Cold Blood. The shotgun blasts are those that killed the Clutter family, and that led to Dick Hickock and Perry Smith’s executions. Holcomb was a sleepy Midwestern farming town, where horrific and random acts of violence did not occur. The Clutter family was an integral part of the community; Mr. Clutter was involved in local politics, and their children were popular and had bright futures ahead of them. These first two sentences also set the book’s tone. As a “nonfiction novel,” the writing is literary, but the content is true.

“‘I didn’t want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.’”

Confessing to the Clutter killings, Perry uses these words to describe his murder of Herbert Clutter. Alvin Dewey, who listens to Perry’s statement, is left unsatisfied. The way Perry tells it, the Clutter murder was practically an accident, motiveless and pointless.

“But the confessions, though they answered questions of how and why, failed to satisfy his sense of meaningful design. The crime was a psychological accident, virtually an impersonal act; the victims might as well have been killed by lightning. Except for one thing: they had experienced prolonged terror, they had suffered.”

Here the author considers Perry’s confession, and KBI Investigator Alvin Dewey’s personal take on this version of what happened at the Clutter home. Dewey—like many readers—expects a motive that makes rational or emotional sense. Instead, Perry seems to have committed the murders without any particular intent. However, lightning strikes happen by chance and are over in seconds; the crimes committed on November 15, 1959, were deliberate, and its victims had time to take in what was happening and suffer.

“‘Feeling wouldn’t run half so high if this had happened to anyone except the Clutters. Anyone less admired. Prosperous. Secure. But that family represented everything people hereabouts really value and respect, and that such a thing could happen to them—well, it’s like being told there is no God. It makes life seem pointless.’”

Capote quotes a Holcomb schoolteacher who describes the social and psychological aftermath of the shooting. The Clutter family was deeply respected in the community. If something so horrible could happen to such great people, then, the thinking goes, it could happen to anyone. In such a small town, losing a family like that is like losing members of your own. This also shows the ripple effect of the pointless act of violence committed by Smith and Hickcock.

“‘I’m a normal.’”

Dick Hickock is quoted with these words several times throughout In Cold Blood. Even on death row Dick maintains, despite his criminal activities and sexual perversions, that he is average, normal; just a regular man. Dick is trying his best to maintain his integrity—he isn’t the sick, twisted man that his family, the police, and the legal system are making him out to be.

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