Murder In George Orwell's In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood recounts the story of the actual murder of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas. Taking place in 1959 the book tells of the murder of the Clutter family, Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage kids, Kenyon and Nancy, we also get to see the events that lead the killers to commit the chilling murder. Living in Holcomb, Kansas, November of 1959, the family was brutally killed, with no apparent motive, by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The family was discovered bound and shot to death, with only a few small items missing from the home. Perry and Dick get off clean in the begging, leaving behind minimal clues and get luck with having no known personal connection with the murdered family. We see Truman explore the motive again and again within his text, eventually we are left believing that any real motive for the crime lays with Perry — his feelings of inadequacy and his anger at the world and at his family because of his bad childhood. Dick, on the other hand, just acts the role of true outlaw, but the impact of the killings weighs on him quite badly, and his own role in the murders remains if not a little unclear. As is to be expected the townspeople of Holcomb and …show more content…
The book follows Perry and Dick to Mexico and back, and incredibly, it seems that they might never be found out and justice will remain unfulfilled. Ultimately, a living witness who can tie the two men to the Clutters, footprints at the crime scene, and the possession of a pair of binoculars and a radio from the Clutter home become the pair's undoing. They are arrested and both confess to their part in the crime. They are tried for murder and convicted; after many years on death row, both men are hanged. During their time on death row, Perry slowly reveals his personal thoughts, his ambitions, and the motives that contributed to his life choices, including the fateful night he and Dick entered the Clutter