Dick’s parents does not believe that their son was a killer. "Was nothing wrong with my boy, Mr. Nye," Mr. Hickock said. "An outstanding athlete—always on the first team at school. Basketball! Baseball! Dick was always a star player. A pretty good student, too, with A marks in several subjects. Lord, I wish the Lord could tell me what happened, because I don't know what happened.” Pg. 165
Perry looks for sometime of father figure to fill in for the constant abandonment of his biological father. This is also the reason why he is very loyal to Dick and sometimes behaves as a child. “He feels the great need of friendship and …show more content…
“[Dick] was holding the knife. I asked him for it, and he gave it to me, and I said, ‘All right, Dick. Here goes.’ But I didn’t mean it. I meant to call his bluff, make him argue me out of it, make him admit he was a phony and a coward. See, it was something between me and Dick. I knelt down beside Mr. Clutter, and the pain of kneeling—I thought of that goddam dollar. Silver dollar. The shame. Disgust. And they’d told me never to come back to Kansas. But I didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound. Like somebody drowning. Screaming under water.” Pg. 244
Capote includes Dr. Satten to state that Perry was in fault for the death of the family, because he believes that people with violence in their childhood will kill people when in tension because they replace the people as their childhood trauma. “you despise them because their morals, their happiness is the source of your frustration and resentment. But these are dreadful enemies you carry within yourself. ” Pg.