In Cold Blood: Summary Essay, Research Paper

In Cold Blood: Summary

Book Information:

Author : Capote, Truman

Title : In Cold Blood

Publisher : Random House

Original Publication Date : 1965

Book Outline:

In a small town in Kansas a family of four were murdered for no apparent reason.

The murderers ran for a few years and finally they were caught, tried, and

accused for murder. In 1965 they were hung for the crime.

In the story a family was killed for no reason. This well respected farming

family had no enemies, and no quarrels. Although they were wealthy, Mr. Clutter

never kept cash in the house. The whole region and eventually the country was

shocked by the randomness and brutality of the act, in much the same way it was

by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The two men in which didn’t even know the

Clutter family went into their house and shot all four of them.

There were two main characters. Dick is the first one that I will talk about.

Dick was 33 years old and he did not have the best character. Dick was one who

helped participate in the killing of the Clutter family. I didn’t like him from

the very beginning. He struck me as the type that is your friend one minute and

enemy the next. Perry is the other charecter that I will talk about. Perry

wasn’t as bad as Dick but yet he still struck me as having a bad character for

what he did to the family. It took me awhile to get a good impression of Perry.

Perry was a really nice guy and I think that he just got mixed in with the wrong

crowd. At the beginning, when they first started to kill all of the family

members, they had them tied up and Perry didn’t want to kill the family but he

thought that if he acted like he was gonna kill Mr. Clutter then Dick would stop

him. Then they would let them all go but when Dick didn’t stop him Perry became

a mad man and went ahead and killed the whole family. Later at the gallows Perry

started to have second thoughts a little to late so he tried to starve himself

but didn’t succeed. He was finally hung, during the hanging period he apologized

to everyone for what he did.

“This is it, this is it, this had to be it, there’s the school, there’s

the garage, now we turn south.” To Perry, it seemed as though Dick was muttering

jubilant mumbo-jumbo. They left the highway, sped through a deserted Holcomb,

and crossed the Santa Fe tracks. “The bank, that must be the bank, no we turn

west-see the trees? This is it, this has to be it.” The headlights disclosed a

lane of Chinese elms; bundles of wind-blown thistle scurried across it. Dick

doused the headlights, slowed down, and stopped until his eyes were adjusted to

the moon-illuminated night. Presently, the car crept forward. This passage was

chosen because it was what Dick and Perry were saying right before they went to

the Clutter house and killed the family. I feel that this quote is an

important one. To me I feel that it suggest’s that the accused were out to

commit a robbery, and had no original intent to kill the Clutters. Due to Mr.

Clutter not keeping any money in the home, the criminals were unable to locate

any money to steal. The criminals then proceeded to kill the family of four. I

feel that the murderers used the Clutters as a way of removing their anger from

not being able to locate the money they were looking for. The book follows the

story to the trial and execution of the killers, and spares few details

throughout. The outcome of the trial was guilty and the punishment was death

by hanging the accused.

One of the main points I saw by reading this book was the way the country /

region viewed itself after the murder occured. Many were shocked by the murder.

I feel that if the murder had of occured in todays society people would not have

been as shocked as they were then. When the story was based, not as many

murders existed, and this crime was just a total outrage to the normal society.

Why is the book on the Law reading list? Legal aspects of the book:

I feel this book is on the law reading list because it provides the story that

is based on law characteristics. In the story criminal law is presented. While

reading the book I noticed many crimes, that were later resolved in a court of

law. The book presented the arrest, trial and eventual conviction/execution of

the accused. This provides an excellect law guideline showing how justice was

served.

The legal aspects of the book include the arrest of the accused, the trial that

the killers had to under go, and the decision for execution of the accused.

My Opinion On The Book

From reading this book I learned that even though you think that you can

trust someone you really can’t. It made me realize that not all people are good

natured. It also made me realize that your mind can be changed by your friends.

I felt this book was well written, and provided a good story line. It included

a good combination of crime, which eventually lead to law and order. I enjoyed

reading the book, and would recommend it to others taking the law program.