Richard Hickock

Truman Capote brings Dick and Perry front and center during “The Corner” chapter of In Cold Blood. Capote allows the reader to empathize with Dick and Perry in completely different ways. Each character shows how the arrest, interrogation, and sentencing affects them and the way they process life. These emotional attachments that Capote creates allows the reader to discover that not only are Dick and Perry not ruthless murders, they are actually humans with fears and regrets. The arrest that…

Gazing out the window studying the smoke of the burning vehicle outside their Nash Rambler, whose engine “boiled over again just after [Toby and his] mother crossed the Continental Divide”, Tobias Wolff’s mother contemplates the lack of accomplishments she has achieved in her life. Her lamenting of the harsh memories of Florida “that had gotten her no farther than flat broke and sometimes not that far,” compels their family of two to reevaluate their lives until they come to a conclusion of what…

As Dick is continuously questioned, he never stops lying. Dick states, “Hickock said, ‘Perry Smith killed the Clutters.’ He lifted his head, and slowly straightened up in the chair, like a fighter staggering to his feet. ‘It was Perry. I couldn’t stop him. He killed them all’” (230). Though Dick creates the whole scheme for the…

In 1959, the savage murder of the Clutter family attracted thousands of journalists to the remote town of Holcomb, Kansas. One of them was author Truman Capote, who had recorded the details and consequences of the murder in his best-selling novel: In Cold Blood. Debated hotly regarding its credibility and writing style, the novel remains a controversial and unique work. In Cold Blood is important to be read by high school students since it exposes students to a renowned work of a unique genre of…

Ashley Reyes Forensic Anthropology Prof. Mires 11/22/17 Dead Men Do Tell Tales Dead Men Do Tell Tales, by William Maples, talks about the most horrific cases of conquistador Francisco Pizarro and Vietnam MIAs to the secretive deaths of President Zachary Taylor and the family of Czar Nicholas the second. Maples is a forensic anthropologist that worked at the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural history. He wrote this autobiography in 1994 and demonstrated…

Jason Blossom’s murder, in Riverdale, unties the perfect bow that the town of Riverdale represented. Riverdale was an innocent and peaceful town until the murder revealed its darkest secrets of the past and present. Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead are the main characters who have significantly changed throughout season one and will continue to change in season two. The revelation of secrets in Riverdale causes each character to change in significant ways. These characters represent youth in…

that we won't forgive him." (Capote, 197) Capote uses these descriptive images of Dick through people that knew him and his childhood memories to manipulate the readers into believing in his own opinions of Dick. During the murder of the Clutters, Hickock said that he "was going to rape her [Nancy Clutter]." (Capote, 330) This quote makes the readers feel more hatred toward Dick and led him to be portrayed as the antagonist. In Mexico, Perry exclaims that, "Dick had sold the car, and three days…

In Cold Blood is a nonfiction book by Truman Capote on the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. From the point of view of the Clutters and the murderers Dick and Perry, Capote tells the story along with the purpose of humanizing the murderers. Capote uses pathos, point of view, and diction to allow the reader to see into the minds of Dick and Perry, and get to know them as more than just names in a newspaper article. Through Capote’s use of pathos, the reader makes a connection and…

Given by Capote’s in depth narration, the purpose for writing is to give a comprehensive account of the murders. By truly leaving no stone unturned, Capote reveals to his readers the total impact of the crimes. The killers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, victimized far more people than the four they killed, and in fact they may have been most dangerous to themselves. By examining crime through such an inclusive scope, Capote is able to communicate to his readers the residual consequences of crime…

Dick Hickock and Floyd Wells were cell mates when in the Lansing prison. When in prison they shared personal information with each other. Floyd Wells worked for the Clutters that Dick had murdered. Besides from that, Floyd told Dick about what was on the Clutter estate from when he worked there. What made Floyd share the information about the Clutters? Dick must of came off as a trustworthy person to Floyd. Which was probably a mistake. When Dick learned about the Clutters and who they were,…