Why Were The Clutters Murdered?

In the novel In Cold Blood, author Truman Capote delves inside the minds of Perry Smith and Richard “Dick” Hickock, two killers who in one Sunday morning in November, managed to wipe out four members of the Clutter family and in that, signed their own execution warrants. From the day

Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is the story of Perry and Dick and the night of November 15, 1959. This investigative, fast-paced and straightforward documentary provides a commentary on the nature of American violence and examines the details of  the motiveless murders of four members of the Clutter family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers.

This essay aims to examine weather serial killers are born a certain way and their genetics define their psychotic tendencies or whether they're a product of a bad environment that they grew up. This essay looks at recent killings in the late 20th century as there is more information on the killers from this period and it's easier to gain details about their childhoods. Whilst I will look at various different killers to reach more rounded conclusions (see appendix for comparison table), this essay will focus on four in detail to examine the debate; Ted Bundy (1946-89), Jeffery Dahmer (1960-1994), John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994) and Gary Ridgway (1949-present).

Perry Smith and Dick Hickock were two very different men who came together in one the most renowned and talked about murders in American history. Although the men’s motives were the same, the psychological differences that they experienced after the murders were very different. Smith and Hickock were living testaments to the fact that one’s upbringing really does play a part into the person one will someday become. For Perry, his traumatic family experiences, or lack of them, led him to a psychotic malfunction and for

Through a life of crime, Perry pursues a life that differs from his childhood that was filled with abuse, loneliness, and abandonment. At the hands of the Smith and Hickock, the Clutter family never got to live out the American Dream to its full potential. The actions of Smith and Hickock led the police to demolish any chance of them to live out the small portion of the American Dream that they were able to achieve. Capote effectively described the fragility of the American Dream as it is pried from the Clutter family by Smith and Hickock. Capote also proves to be effective in his ability to provoke empathy for the darkest of people. “Hot islands and buried gold, diving deep in fire-blue seas toward sunken treasure—such dreams were gone. Gone, too was "Perry O'Parsons," the name invented for the singing sensation of stage and screen that he'd half-seriously hoped someday to be,” (Capote 202). By reiterating the death of Perry’s dream and his piteous upbringing, the reader has a sense of forgetfulness of the murder he committed and directs the attention to the feelings and intentions of Perry. When evaluated the intention of both Perry and the Clutter family was to achieve theirs

In “In Cold Blood” (1966) from page 200 to 202, Capote give us the insight into the past of Dick and Perry characters that caused them to resent a certain type of situation or condition. The author acknowledge this matter by showing how Dick and Perry nature being revealed through what they seen and encounter on their get away trip, first he inform us about how the view of the sea, and people Dick see in the hotels remind him of how he growth to feel hostile against people who possessed thing that he known he couldn’t have, “Why should that sonofabitch have everything, while he had nothing? Why should that “big shot bastard” have all the luck?” (Rhetorical question and Parallelism were used to emphasize Dick animosity), “open them up and let

Crime and glimpses into the heads of criminal masterminds has always been something that fascinates people. Although crime is a terrible thing, the complexity and intricacy of it is something that people love to hear about. One can turn on the news at any given time and almost certainly hear an account of some form of a crime within ten minutes. In the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, an account to a perplexing crime is taken to a whole new level. The Clutter family was a charming family of four that lived in the little town of Holcomb, Kansas. They were brutally murdered with no apparent motive by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, two men that had

Many people say the documentation of the murder of the Clutter family is Truman Capote’s best work. It started out as an article for The New Yorker, and evolved into the non-fiction novel; the first of its kind. Capote traveled to Kansas with friend Harper Lee to research the killings. In the course of six years bringing this narrative together, Capote began taking drugs and drinking heavily due to the dark nature of the book. Truman Capote tells the true story of a family murdered in In Cold Blood, through character analysis and symbolism to prove nature is a stronger force than nature in shaping a person’s character.

The journey of life often times does not always run the intended course that one envisions. Depending on the choices made and the uncontrollable circumstances that an individual is exposed to, his or her character will reflect those instances. In the non-fiction novel “In Cold Blood,” by Truman Capote, the reader is introduced to Perry Smith and Dick Hickock who without any remorse murdered the Clutter family. Is it simply human nature to commit gruesome acts without feeling a sense of guilt? There is no definitive answer to this, but it is however clear that human beings are capable of both good and evil, and there is usually a cause to every effect. It therefore leaves one to wonder what was the driving force or motive behind Dick and Perry’s

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood: a fictitiously unfactual fantasy or an accurately arranged account of a murder? The verdict is unclear; the novel-like manner of the book juxtaposes with the precise details of the plot. Capote’s writing style, unique compared to other works, poses this question with his seamless marriage of novel-like fabrication and stone cold facts. Capote’s use of ornately descript imagery and omniscient characterization intertwines with his intricate expertise and factual evidence, creating an intellectually fascinating portrayal of the Clutter family’s tragic murder.

In his novel In Cold Blood, Truman Capote writes about the Clutter family murders, which took place in November 1959. Herbert Clutter, Bonnie Clutter, and two of their children (Nancy and Kenyon) are murdered in their Holcomb, Kansas home by Perry Smith and Richard “Dick” Hickock. Capote 's novel, though telling the tale of true events, took on fictional, literary elements, creating a genre of its own: the nonfiction novel. It is through these literary elements that Capote sought for his readers to relate with the two killers, or at least gain a greater understanding of how their minds worked. His characterization of both Perry and Dick is planned carefully throughout the book, and only towards the end does the reader truly get a grasp of their personalities. This withholding – perhaps even manipulation – of information and how Capote presents the information allows him to achieve his purpose for the novel.

Does a man who brutally murdered four humans-for the sole reason that he had the power to-deserve any ounce of sympathy? “In Cold Blood”, Truman Capote uses “pathos” to appeal to the emotions of the readers about the two murderers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. Capote certainly sympathizes with and portrays one of the cold-blooded murderers in a positive light and portrays the other murderer as a despicable and disgusting human being. For instance, Capote utilizes righteous and simple diction to advocate Perry’s emphatic nature with choices like, “compassion” and “uncharitable”. Furthermore, the author’s piteous tone emphasizes the tragic and hopelessness of Perry’s life with choices like, “You think I like myself?” and “”. In addition, Capote’s tone and diction paints Dick as a tasteless, vicious creature who deserved to take the full blame of the murder. Lastly, there are several rhetorical strategies that author employs to encourage the audience to sympathize with Perry and to hate and despise Dick.

Truman Capote starts off his true crime book, In Cold Blood with “Not a soul in sleeping Holcomb heard-four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives”(Capote 5). This book examines the case of the Holcomb family that was brutally murdered. Two themes that become apparent throughout this case while reading In Cold Blood is good vs. evil and also how tragedy affects the innocent because of the guilty. These are both caused by the decisions that Perry Smith and Dick Hickock make that effect the good Clutter family.

In his nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote describes Mr. Clutter as a very active member of the community who “never sought to associate” with the upper-class men in his society. Capote’s purpose in writing this passage describing Mr. Clutter is to enable the audience to visualize and sympathize with the father of the family described in Part I of In Cold Blood in order to evoke a stronger emotional response from the audience when Dick and Perry murder the Clutter family. He develops this purpose by using elaborate diction and portraying Mr. Clutter as kind through Mr. Clutter’s own words.

On December 6th, 1941 the world welcomed Richard Benjamin Speck, who would become a well-known mass murderer. Speck, having a rather rough childhood, had an extensive criminal background before committing the unspeakable murders that made him famous. After being found guilty, Speck spent his remaining days in Chicago’s Stateville Penitentiary. One can look at Richard’s personal history, crime and criminal history to try and pin him to one criminological theory, when in reality, none will really fit him to a “T”. He was a psychopath who was in great need of psychological help, among other things.