Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview… a lost soul. Dick grew up poor in Kansas City, and he’s been in and out of jail since his wife left him. He writes his ol’ jail buddy Perry Smith about “a cinch – the perfect score.” He got a tip that a farmer by the name of Clutter keeps a safe in his house with $10,000 in cash. And so, with Perry at his side, Dick heads to the remote town of Holcomb, Kansas, to pay the Clutters a visit. Robbery and murder: it’s the perfect crime.
Personality… callous, impulsive, sociopathic. Dick is almost completely devoid of any decency – at any given time he’s either swearing, swigging, lying, or stealing. He has no conscience to temper his evil thoughts. As he tells Perry, killing for no reason – “that’s the best reason of all.”
Get to Know him in...
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A 1967 film based on Truman Capote's book of the same name. After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
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On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.
