In Cold Blood Mental Illness

Truman Capote was a very talented writer, and he always knew the perfect ways to portray each character in all of his books. In his book In Cold Blood, Capote interviewed both of the killers, but he knew that there was something about Perry Smith. Throughout the whole book, he would be constantly trying to figure him out and why he did what he did. Throughout the book, Capote uses the technique sympathy to portray Perry.

Because Dick believes the wealth of the family stems from luck, he develops an aura of jealousy towards the innocent family. Although the Clutters never did any wrong towards Dick, his jealousy fuels anger and hatred. As anger and hatred imbue Dick, he shows his criminality by taking part in the murders of the innocent family. Though Perry participates in the murders, he has a better sense of right from wrong than Dick. Perry states, “I had to get down on my knees.

A psychopath created by years of abuse and feeling nothing but hatred towards so many, Perry’s chances of becoming a murderer was inescapable. “... it is only people like Perry, ‘isolated’ and ‘animal’, who are driven by a lonely search for distant ‘mirages’ (Conniff 82). What this means is, psychopaths like Perry Smith kill because they are seeing things that others do not, they see

In Cold Blood is a novel that follows the story of the four Clutter’s and their murder. It takes place in Holcomb, Kansas where they were killed by two men. These two men initially get away, but are then caught later after many adventures. The two men are identified as Perry and Dick. It is seen that they murdered the Clutter’s without any motive or harsh feelings towards them.

While Perry is mortified that he and Dick could commit such a gruesome crime, Dick couldn’t care less. All Dick is worried about is how odd Perry is. Because of how quick Perry’s mood could change, Dick thought he was “spooky as hell.” Now, Perry wasn’t your average run of the mill man. He still wets the bed, cries in his sleep, and “could slide into a fury ‘quicker than ten drunk Indians’”.

Truman Capote, the author of In Cold Blood, creates sympathy for almost every character the reader comes across. Through the use of manipulating the reader's emotions and connecting them to each character, Capote successfully pulls it off. There are four main groups that Capote chooses to create sympathy for the murder victims, the murderers, the law officials involved, and the ordinary citizens of Holcomb, Kansas. Truman Capote created the most sympathy for two characters, Perry Smith and Detective Dewey. From the beginning of the novel, Capote showcases Perry Smith a likable character.

Everyone is born with the capability to do evil, however, the events and environment in our lives shape our psyche to such an irrefutably extreme extent that they define our character and our conscience, redefining what we see as right and wrong. Perry is very sensitive by nature due to his family’s troubles and his father’s behavior. The pressure that Perry feels to impress Dick, who he makes into a faux father figure, combined with the weight of his past push him to the breaking point which happens to be the Clutter murders. Perry was bound by his experience, he could never fully escape the horrors of his childhood as they were the limits of his apprehension. Regardless of Perry’s traumatic childhood, justice must be equally upheld to everyone, despite the differences in the ways we were raised.

However, the Clutters have certain aspects which could be considered ‘abnormal’, especially in the case of Bonnie, a depressed and reclusive mother. Perry and Dick are juxtaposed with the Clutters, they are a seemingly abnormal duo, who are antisocial, have a hunger for murder and are even physically disfigured. Both Perry and Dick have attributes that are still somewhat ‘normal’ despite their surface abnormality. Perry is sensitive, creative and sings, Dick has had an upbringing that was completely typical of any American child, that is, he was brought up in a loving and caring environment, with enough money to live comfortably and attend secondary education. Dick also constantly defends himself saying: “I’m a normal”.

From the time of hanging to the time their hearts ceased beating, it took nineteen and twenty minutes, respectively. Also, in preparation for the trial of the Clutter family murderers, doctors did psychiatric evaluations of the pair. Capote includes what the doctors would have said had they been allowed to elucidate during the trial. The evaluations suggest that Hickock and Smith might have been better off in a mental institution. By including the conversation at the hangings, the elapsed time before death, and the doctors' unspoken evaluation, Capote suggests that neither the death penalty nor hanging is always the best course of action for a person's crime.

It is clear that Truman Capote believes that the systematic execution of murderers is flawed, and that the legal system in which death-penalty bound convicts are tried is a skewed one. In the novel, the reader finds out that Perry has been diagnosed by a psychiatrist as a paranoid schizophrenic. “More extensive

Perry’s erratic spontaneous outbursts is what caused him to go through with the murders and slit Mr. Clutter’s throat which put him on the killing frenzy that ended the rest of the Clutters lives. Capote highlights Perry’s sociopathic tendencies by comparing them to that of Dicks Psychopathic tendencies which exemplifies how when put together they are at each others fault for the

He is portrayed as a mastermind in the cold-blooded killing of the Clutters family, a man with little respect for the lives of others, which can be seen through Dick’s expression before the murder of the Clutters when he converses Perry, “We’re gonna go in there and splatter those walls with hair” (Capote 234). This sudden tone shift enables Capote to depict Dick as a cruel and immoral character. Dick’s lack of empathy and concern for other people beside himself allow him to commit crimes without remorse, which is in contrast to Perry’s moral contemplation after each bad actions they committed. Moreover, Dick is represented as the true criminal with evident motives in murdering the Clutters, while Perry is seen as a vulnerable victim who depends on Dick for validation and acceptance, something in which Dick happily provides in order to manipulate Perry, as Capote writes, “Dick became convinced that Perry was that rarity, ‘a natural born killer,’—absolutely sane but conscienceless, and capable of dealing with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblows. It was Dick's theory that such a gift could, under his supervision, be profitably exploited” (Capote 205).

Dick and Perry's lives in the Book, “In Cold Blood,” were portrayed as cold blooded murders in Holcomb. The murders they committed were lethal, brutal, and some may dare to say inhumane. The killing of the Clutter family is the main focus of the book, and although you clearly can justify the fact that Dick and Perry deserve to die for what they did, Truman capote, the author of the book seems to think that the capital punishment should be stopped and was not necessary on behalf of the murders, I actually disagree. I am totally agree with capital punishment, primarily the death penalty because you do the crime and I believe if it's something incredibly inhuman, vile, and cruel, that you should be killed for it. " In Exodus Twenty, Verse Thirteen,

Richard "Iceman" Kuklinski was viewed as a normal man by society for much of his adult life. This man was far from normal. Kuklinski was a psychopath and a sociopath who was driven to kill by his troubled childhood and his lifestyle as a paid hit man. This paper will focus on the criminological theory of why Kuklinkski committed these murders. Richard Leonard Kuklinski was born in 1935 to Stanley and Anna Kuklinski ("Meet Notorious Contract Killer Richard Kuklinski").

Many of us believe there is good and there is evil, they aren’t one of the same. Except for Eric Burdon, who says “Inside each of us, there is a seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other”. Truman Capote has an understanding this and is seen in Perry, one of his characters in “In Cold Blood” written in 1965.