Last to See Them Alive: Part 1
The book begins in the small farming town of Holcomb, Kansas. The reader is introduced to the Clutters, a well respected and admired family in the area. Herbert Clutter is the owner of the River Valley Farm, on which he lives with his wife, Bonnie, and their two children, Nancy and Kenyon. Herbert is an active member of the town’s community, and his success on their farm has enabled him to provide his family with a nice lifestyle. On the other hand, his spouse, Bonnie, is mentally ill and is diagnosed with a form of serious depression. Although she is anticipated to eventually heal, she often spends her days in bed and her illness puts a slight damper on the family’s pristine image. Their daughter, Nancy, is a model student and well liked member of Holcomb’s community. She actively participates in numerous extracurricular activities such as being the class president, playing a musical instrument, participating in school theatre productions, and teaching young girls to bake. Nancy is in a relationship with Bobby Rupp, but Herbert condemns their relationship because Bobby is Catholic while the Clutters are Methodist. Kenyon is quite the opposite of Nancy’s outgoing and social personality. He enjoys woodworking in the family’s basement and hunting with his friend, Bob Jones. The book then goes into depth to describe the happenings of Saturday, November 14th, which is the family’s last day alive.
Everyone in the family is going about his or her daily business: Bonnie is sick in bed, Nancy is teaching a neighbor, Jolene Katz, how to bake a cherry pie, Kenyon is finishing up a wooden chest, and Herbert attends a meeting with the New York Life Insurance agent. At this meeting, he gets forty-thousand dollar insurance which pays double in the case of unintentional death.
Meanwhile, in Olathe, Kansas, a man named Perry Smith meets up with Richard or “Dick” Hickock as Dick has a mysterious “score” that he needs Perry’s help with. It is revealed that both men are on parole from the Kansas prison, which makes the “score” much more daunting. It is clear that Dick is very extrovert and manly while Perry appears reserved and easygoing. The two continue to drive through Kansas but make several stops to pick up equipment such as rope and rubber gloves. During their travels, Perry’s thoughts are revealed about his past with Dick. He recalls a time back in the penitentiary when he had a “real friend” named Willie-Jay, who treated him with more respect and tolerance than Dick does now. They eventually reach a gas station in Garden City, which is right next to Holcomb.
The book then jumps to the next day, when the Clutters have been inexplicably missing. Two girls, Nancy Ewalt and Susan Clutter, enter the family’s house to find Nancy is shot in the head. They soon find the rest of the family was murdered as well.
Persons Unknown: Part 2
After the Clutter murder, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation appoints four detectives, led by Al Dewey, to investigate the murder. Dewey and his fellow detectives express 2 theories as to how the murder was executed, one scenario with a single killer and the other scenario, which Dewey favors, with two killers. The other detectives, Nye, Duntz, and Church, begin to interview anyone with a connection to the Clutters including Bobby Rupp, Nancy Clutter’s boyfriends, and Susan Kidwell, Nancy’s best friend. Susan Kidwell, along with a thousand other people, attends the Clutter funeral and sees Nancy, her head wrapped in cotton, in her red dress that she made.
While the detectives are searching for leads, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith have made it to Olathe, Kansas. Dick is confident that the police have no way of connecting them to the murder but Perry feels otherwise. Dick and Perry move through Olathe making money by collecting items in stores and pawn shops and writing fake checks. The criminals make enough money to travel to Mexico, where they planned to go after the murder. While Dick and Perry are in Mexico, they befriend a German traveler and go on daily boat rides. They decide to go back to America because they made very little money in Mexico. A major character development for Perry takes place as he’s deciding which possessions he is going to take with him to America. Perry reads through letters from his dad and sister. His dad letter is a biography of Perry written to the warden of a former jail Perry was contained in. The letter describes the dysfunctions of the Smith family including poverty, divorce, and alcoholism. Perry and his sister are the only two remaining children out of the four, who committed suicide or died an alcoholic. Perry and his father are very close because he is the only child who wasn’t persuaded to hate his father after their parents’ divorce. The second letter is from Perry’s sister who has a family and lives in California. After Perry reads the letter, he is reminded of how he hates his sister.
Answer: Part 3
Floyd Wells overhears news of the Clutter family murder on the radio outside of his cell. After hearing of the Clutter murder, he was surprised, knowing that his former cellmate, Richard Hickock, whom had bragged about these plans, had actually committed the crimes with the help of his friend Perry Smith. Wells was hesitant in his decision to tell the authorities because he was the one who had informed Dick of the Clutter family and their wealth, but decided to notify them in the end.
Alvin Dewey now has the lead on the murder and is able to comfort his wife with the mug shots of the two killers. Though not celebratory about the news, he was more certain than he had ever been about the case. But, with the popularity of the case and the fast speed at which word gets around, Al decides to keep Wells’ confession a secret.
Meanwhile, Harold Nye questions the parents of Dick Hickock. They tell him the very same lie Dick had told them: that he and Perry had been visiting Perry’s sister in Fort Scott. Nye also questioned Dick’s employers finding out that one day he had simply just not shown up for work.
A kind and lonely man pick up the hitchhiking Dick and Perry, still on the run. Dick charms the man with his charismatic story telling, meanwhile planning to signal to Perry to kill him from the back seat. However, when Dick signals Perry, the man picks up another hitchhiker. After being dropped off, they find a barn by the highway to rest. In the barn, they found a 1956 Chevy, their new runaway vehicle.
Though it is risky, Dick and Perry, low on money, decide to take a quick trip to Kansas City. Dick drops Perry off at a Laundromat and promises to be back soon. Dick is late, and Perry becomes paranoid and extremely upset with Dick. Dick had been out exchanging bad checks and changing the license plate, apparently hitting a jackpot. While doing this so haphazardly, Nye as notified and now the KBI is now aware of their current location.
For Christmas, they end up in Miami, where we are first introduced to Dick’s not so surprising pedophilic tendencies. We learn this through Perry’s disgusted reaction to Dick’s interest in one young girl at the beach.
Meanwhile, we are updated on Bobby Rupp’s Christmas, which seems to be generally sad, which is not surprising. He remembers how he would go to the Clutters house every Christmas and give Nancy her gift. Subconsciously, he finds his way to the Clutter orchard and looks over at the now empty and quite house.
While in Las Vegas, Perry visited the post office where he claims the packages he had shipped to himself from Mexico. Dick was waiting outside in happy spirits. He was having thoughts of starting a new life without Perry, whom he had grown tired of. Neither of the two was paying enough attention to notice the patrol cars that were following them.
Dick and Perry were interrogated in the Las Vegas City Jail. Nye and Church interrogated Dick, and Dewey and Duntz interrogated Perry. During interrogation, Dick confessed to breaking and entering but said that Perry committed all four murders. Perry, on the other hand, had a different story.
The two were taken in to the Garden City jail where they'd wait for their trial.
The Corner: Part 4
In
the fourth part of the clutter case, Perry and Dick are seen in separate cells
in the county jail. Perry, staying in
the ladies cells near the kitchen, keeps a journal where he admits that his
earlier confession was wrong and he actually shot all four members of the
Clutter family. Perry says he does his because he wanted Dick’s mother, Mrs.
Hitchcock, to be well: he wanted her to know that her son didn’t kill anybody. While
at the county jail, he also gets a letter from Don Cullivan, an old friend from
the army who had read about the clutter case and wanted to be his friend,
something Perry really needs at this time. Perry writes back accepting Cullivan’s
friendship and asking him if he could make an appearance at his trial. During
this time, Perry also writes that the sheriff has found a make shift “shiv” in
Dick’s room that he was planning to use to escape. Perry sees this as Dick
trying to save them both; however, Dick has only intended to save himself.
The trial begins the next day. During the
first meetings, the psychologist
is called in and asks both Dick and Perry to write an autobiography of their
lives up to now. The jury is also selected during the time they have to write
the autobiography. Dick pays attention to this choosing of the jury, sitting
casually, while Perry, giving an intense and accurate account of his childhood,
hardly notices. The next day, the actual trial begins. Floyd Wells testifies
first and then Al Dewey. Dewey gives the courtroom a “never before heard”
description of what exactly happened the night the Clutters were killed. He
also tells the courtroom that that night Dick also wanted to rape Nancy
Clutter, something that Perry had told them previously. Don Sullivan comes to visit
Perry at the county jail (the only visitor Perry has). Perry, excited for
finally having a friend and a visitor, cleans up his cell and asks for the best
food for dinner. The following Monday, the defense makes its case. The only
person that has a say in the outcome of the trial is the psychologist. The
psychologist can testify whether or not during the process of planning or
committing the crime the defendant (Perry and Dick) could recognize right from
wrong. The psychologist announces that they believe Dick could tell right from
wrong; however, they remained unsure of Perry’s state.
After the judge
declares Dick and Perry guilty of the murder of the Clutter family, giving them
the death sentence, they make their way to the Lansing Penitentiary
Death Row, also known as “The Corner”.
Capote tells the story of Dick and Perry
facing their imminent death while waiting in Death Row. There, whatever was left
of their friendship seems to have disappeared for Dick, as Dick refers to Perry
as being jealous and two faced. However, Perry still feels the need to cling to
the remains of their broken companionship. While first entering Death Row, they
encounter several other felons whom had committed crimes similar to theirs.
One person that
seemed to affect Perry and Dick the most was the famous Lowell Lee Andrews. Andrews
was a really smart kid, not yet graduated from college. However, his mental
instability led him to killing his entire family in their living room then
confessing to the police. He describes not feeling any pain or not even really
thinking about it after he did it. It was like nothing really happened. Dick,
unlike Perry, has found a friend in Andrews during their wait on death row.
Perry, however, despises Andrews for he makes Perry feel unintelligent, always
correcting Perry every time he uses bad grammar or sentence structure. The same
thing Perry would always do to Dick. During his time in Death Row, Perry also
tries starving himself, trying to take the “easier” way out. However, he loses
his battle after receiving a letter from his father and returns to his cell
reluctantly.
After
five years, and two trips to the Supreme Court, Perry and Dick are finally
hanged. With their execution as the headline to many magazines across the
country, Al Dewey has been waiting for this day since the discovery of the
Clutter murders. Dewey is completely stunned by Dick’s causality as he says he
has no hard feelings against the state for his last words shakes people’s hands
and is hanged. His body will be taken back to his hometown with his family to
be buried. Perry; however, also surprises Dewey for he winks at Dewey on his
way to the top then when asked for his last words genuinely admits how sorry he
is for his actions. Dewey cannot seem to look at Perry until the only thing he
sees are his feet dangling. No one is really sure where Perry’s body will go
for he hardly has much a family to take him. Dewey reminisces on his recent
trip to the graveyard where he ran into Susan Kidwell whom had told him that
she was in college and Bobby Rupp, Nancy Clutters old boyfriend, was married.
The story ends with the wind blowing over the grass and the wheat.
