In cold blood section 3 - Essay Example

[Your full March 15, In Cold Blood- Section 3 In section 3 of his nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, the author, Truman Capote, shows Floyd Wells in the Kansas State Penitentiary listening to the radio news about the Clutter murders. The bodies had been discovered by one of Nancy’s friends who went to the Clutters’ house to check why they had not yet got prepared for church. She had found an eerie silence inside the house and shockingly discovered the four bodies in different parts of the house.

Floyd was shocked to hear the news because he had been acquainted with the Clutters for many years. He remembered Clutter as his boss and Kenyon and Nancy as cute little kids. Now he held himself responsible for the murders of four innocent lives because he was the one who told his cellmate, Dick Hickock, about Clutter’s safe. He had told him that he once worked with a wealthy man named Herb Clutter who owned a farm at Holcomb and kept large amount of cash at a safe at his home. Guilt makes Floyd talk to the authorities about Dick.

He confessed and Dewey took his team for Dick’s search when Dick and Perry were hitchhiking in some desert. They had tried to steal a car but had failed but finally they succeeded in stealing a car and went to the Kansas City. They stayed in Miami but when they were heading towards Las Vegas, they were recognized by a policewoman through their license plate number. Both of them were caught and initially were questioned about some parole violation some days back which they admitted to. Then the police told him the real reason of their arrest and they were caught off guard when told that they were accused of brutal homicide of four innocent people in an attempt of blotch robbery.

When Perry realized that Dick had confessed, he said, “I always knew if we ever got caught, if Dick ever really let fly, dropped his guts all over the goddam floor—I knew he’d tell about the nigger” (232). When they were being brought to the jail, the authorities thought that the crowd would be violent, but they were surprised to see that “when the crowd caught sight of the murderers, with their escort of blue-coated highway patrol-men, it fell silent, as though amazed to find them humanly shaped” (248).

They were then taken to the opposite sides of the jail and brought to trial. They were shown the evidence of the case which included Floyd’s testimony and footprints found in Clutter’s house. Initially Dick blames Perry for all the murders and says that he could not stop him, but finally confessed about the murders while Perry followed the proceedings. Perry wanted to take the responsibility of all four murders when actually Dick had killed two of them, but Perry wanted so because according to him, he was sorry for Dick’s mother.

According to him, “I didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound. Like somebody drowning. Screaming under the water” (244). Finally they were given capital punishment but during their five year stay in the Death Row, Perry tried to starve himself and Dick wrote appeal letters to the authorities. Eventually, both of them are hanged to death.