In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood Summary | Part 1 Summary

The first part of In Cold Blood introduces the principal "characters" of the book - the Herb Clutter family and the two men who killed them - and follows the activities of each person on the day of the murder.

Author Truman Capote sets the scene by describing Holcomb, Kansas, the Finney County town where the Clutters are prominent citizens. A flat, windswept prairie town, population 270, it is unremarkable in every way - except for the murders that will take place there. Herb Clutter is the forty-eight-year-old owner of River Valley Farm, a large, prosperous operation containing several hundred acres of wheat and grains, as well as several hundred head of livestock. He is a frugal, no-nonsense man with Spartan habits, abstaining from all drinks with stimulants or alcohol and preferring a simple diet. On what will prove to be his last day alive, his breakfast consists of an apple and a glass of milk. He is known for his good business sense and for the fact that he never carries any cash on him.

Bonnie Clutter, his wife, is a woman who suffers from what the locals refer to as "spells." Mrs. Clutter experienced post-partum depression after the births of her last two children, and the depression never lifted. Over the years, she has received psychiatric treatment, which seems not to have cured her illness. She spends most of her time in bed, hidden away from the world.

The Clutters have four children. The eldest, Eveanna and Beverly, are married and live elsewhere. The children still living at home are Nancy, who is sixteen, and her brother Kenyon, fifteen. Nancy is the "town darling." She is attractive, a straight-A student, a leading member of all the school clubs and blue-ribbon winner for her pies. She dates Bobby Rupp, a nice, popular boy her age who lives nearby. Compared to his sister, Kenyon is somewhat eccentric. He is extremely intelligent, and some think he is a genius. He reads many books and spends long hours in the basement den, working on his mechanical inventions.

The scene shifts from the Clutter's farm to a small drugstore in the suburban Kansas City town at Olathe, some 400 miles east of Holcomb, where Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, is waiting to meet his friend Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three. The two met as inmates at the Kansas State Penitentiary. Smith is the son of one-time rodeo performers. He was often abandoned and abused as a child, and though intelligent, he never finished high school. He is something of a dreamer, studying maps of exotic places where he might live and uncover buried treasures. He is part Cherokee, with moist dark eyes and a dark complexion. His is a small but powerful frame, resembling a muscle-bound jockey. His legs were once broken in five places, and the accident has left him in chronic pain.

Hickock also has a small frame, though his is leaner and more athletic. A car accident has left his face crooked. His eyes are situated an uneven level, and the rest of his features are askew. He, too, is fairly intelligent, and he managed to finish high school. He was expected to go to college, but a lifelong history of petty crimes detoured his plans. Where Smith is a dreamer, Hickock is a schemer and basically a con man. When Hickock arrives, he drives the two men to the garage where he works as a mechanic. Together, they give his black 1949 Chevrolet sedan a tune-up. With the car serviced, the two men set out for Holcomb.

In the remainder of Part 1, the action shifts back and forth between the Clutter family and the two men on the road speeding toward them. As the killers draw closer, the Clutters go about their business, thinking that this day, November 15, 1959, is much like any other day. Herb Clutter does the rounds of his farm and meets with his insurance agent. Although he is in fine health, Clutter has decided to take out a $40,000 policy that will provide for his family in case of his death. The policy contains a double-indemnity clause: should Mr. Clutter die by an accident, the insurance company will pay out $80,000 to his survivors.

Meanwhile, Nancy - widely admired for her energy and industry - has her schedule typically filled to the brim with chores and errands. In addition, she will teach a young neighbor girl how to bake a cherry pie. The reader watches Nancy as though through a close-up lens as she talks on the phone to her best friend, gives her horse a bath, plays with her cat and teases her brother.

As Smith and Hickock draw ever closer, the reader learns more of their personal history. Smith had a friend in prison named Willie-Jay, a chaplain's clerk, who saw Smith's good qualities - his poetic imagination and creativity - and encouraged them. Willie-Jay, however, was prophetic in describing Smith's main character flaw: "Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occasion." Smith had hoped to meet up with Willie-Jay in Kansas when the latter was released from prison, but he missed his bus by five hours and never saw him again. Smith would later claim that if he had connected with his friend, he would never have gotten involved with Hickock and the murders. Hickock proved to be a shrewd judge of character. He recognized that "explosive emotional" element in Smith and knew it would make him a perfect partner in crime.

Through Nancy's boyfriend Bobby Rupp, the readers learn about the Clutter family's activities on their final night alive. He and Nancy and her brother and father watch several TV shows. When it is time to go, Nancy walks him outside, and they make a date to see a movie. Then she goes back into the house, and Bobby drives away. It is the last time he sees her alive. Nancy goes to her room and sets out her clothes for church the next day. Before she goes to bed, she makes a brief diary entry, as she does every night, highlighting some of the day's events.

Meanwhile, Hickock and Smith pull into a gas station on the outskirts of Garden City, the largest town nearest Holcomb, just a few miles away. Then they drive into Holcomb, as Hickock locates certain landmarks he has studied that will lead them to their destination.

The action shifts to the following morning. The reader is introduced to Nancy Ewalt and her father Charles, who is driving his daughter, as he does every Sunday, to the Clutter house, where she will accompany her friend Nancy Clutter and family to church. Something is different this Sunday, though. When Nancy Ewalt knocks on the door of the Clutter house, no one answers. This is highly unusual; the Cutters never miss church. The Ewalts drive to the home of Nancy Clutter's best friend, Susan Kidwell, who also accompanies the Clutters every Sunday. They always pick her up on their way to church. From her house, Susan calls the Clutter residence. There is no answer. Mr. Ewalt drives the two girls back to the Clutter house. The cars are still in the driveway. The two girls enter the unlocked house through the kitchen door and see no sign of activity, only Nancy's purse lying on the floor. The two girls make their way into the house and up the stairs to Nancy's room. Suddenly, Mr. Ewalt hears screaming inside the house. He rushes to meet the girls and hears his daughter hysterically shouting that Nancy Clutter is dead and that there is blood on the walls.

The phone lines are cut, and so Mr. Ewalt decides to drive back to Susan's apartment to call the Garden City sheriff. Another tenant in the apartment house, Larry Hendricks, a local English teacher, overhears the girls' hysterical screams and goes down to see what the trouble is. He accompanies Mr. Ewalt back to the Clutter house to wait for the sheriff. When Sheriff Robinson arrives, the three men go inside. First, they go to Nancy's room and find her lying in her bed. She has been shot in the back of the head from a shotgun held only a few inches away. Her hands and feet are bound with rope.

Next, the men discover Mrs. Clutters' body in her room. Her feet and hands are also bound. Her mouth is taped shut, and her eyes remain wide open. She has been shot point blank in the side of her head.

The three men next begin to search for Kenyon and Mr. Clutter. They find them in the basement. Kenyon is found bound by rope and lying on a couch in the den. His head is resting on a pillow, and his mouth is gagged. He has been shot head-on, directly in the face. Mr. Clutter is discovered in the furnace room lying on top of a mattress box. His feet and hands are similarly bound, and he was also shot directly in the face. In addition, his throat has been cut with a knife. Only one clue seems to have been left behind: a bloody shoe print on the mattress box.

Soon, the house fills with law enforcement officials, medical professionals, and people from the local media, as news of the murders begins to spread across the town and the county. The emotional responses of some of the local citizens are given vent at the local hangouts, Hartman's Cafy and the post office. One of those most touched by the tragedy is Bobby Rupp. Not only is he distraught over the news of the death of his girlfriend and her family, but he is also a prime suspect.

The next day, back in Olathe, Kansas, Smith sleeps off his exhaustion in a hotel room, his boots soaking in a basin of pink-tinted water. Nearby, Hickock shares a large Sunday dinner with his family and then falls into a deep sleep.