"In Cold Blood"

Paper Summary:

Discusses the motives and actions of the cold blooded murderer, Perry Smith. Material is from Truman Capote's nonfiction novel "IN COLD BLOOD," and an article by G.A. Satten. Examines Smith's life and actions with Satten's examples to grasp how he could murder without apparent reason. Early abuses suffered by Smith.

From the Paper:

"In the annals of cold-blooded murders, the killing of the Clutter family stands out as a prime example. Truman Capote's 1965 non-fiction novel on the subject infers that the two murderers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, were not psychologically responsible, and although the two were found guilty, Capote's perspective seems reasonable. The murders committed by Perry Smith seem inexplicable even after reading Capote's In Cold Blood with its collection of accounts of Smith's life, the psychiatrist's report, and the excerpts from the Satten article on other murders committed "without apparent motive" (p. 298). Of course, as Capote points out, it was only the murder of Mr. Clutter that presents this kind of mystery since the other three members of the family were killed out of self-protection. But in Smith's account of killing Mr. Clutter there is so much simple ..."

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