The Clutter Family
Chapter 1 - Capote makes sure we appreciate the Clutter family as people in the beginning
rather than seeing them solely as victims after the murder. He also does this with Dick
and Perry - we see them as people before criminals.
Mid Chapter 3 - Capote reminds us of the Clutter family as people and victims through the
memories from Bobby Rupp.
Chapter 4 - The auction of the Clutter’s belongings and the funeral.
Herb Clutter:
- New York Times article: “a wealthy Kansas farmer”, very well known in the farming
community. Part of the Federal Farm Credit Board, Kansas Wheat Growers Association.
- Strong religious views (Methodist Christianity - strong commitment to his beliefs), key
roles in the church.
- 4H club community.
- Self-built successful man (Meritocracy), owns 1,000 acres of land. Faced obstacles.
- Designed and built his own house.
- Good man, respected, successful.
Nancy Clutter:
- 16 years old, “a real southern belle”, “straight A student”.
- Close to her father Herb Clutter.
- Presented as lovely, helpful and popular in the community (helping Jolene make a cherry
pie, helping with trumpet solo, participated in school play, making bridesmaid dresses
for her sister's wedding, looking forward to see her baby nephew)
- Big sense of community and family - strong values.
Bonnie Clutter:
- Bedridden by mental illness, suffering from postnatal depression - mental health in the
1950's is a taboo, not known and understood. A sense of sympathy.
- Shows that the Clutter family is not all “perfect”
- A sense of guilt before she met Herb Clutter, she was free and had a job.
Kenyon Clutter:
- Kept to himself, intelligent with strong family values.
- Sibling rivalry with Nancy, being teenagers, a sense of normality.
, Structure - True History of an American Tragedy
The pattern of alternating multiple viewpoints and the combination of fiction and
non-fiction writing, contrasts the Holcomb community's idealised endorsement of
all-American values with the amoral life-style and aspirations of the perpetrators, informs
the structure of the book.
Section One - ‘The last to see them alive’:
● Describes the last day of the Clutters with the details of their back stories, personalities
and relationships.
● It is paralleled with a close observation of the two criminals Dick and Perry on their way
to murder the family.
● The reader does not know about the crime itself but the gruesome aftermath.
● Capote creates huge tension by shifting the focus and manipulating time: this insiders'
account of victims and killers drawing inexorably closer together exploits readers'
existing knowledge of the actual events of this huge and celebrated case.
Section Two - ‘Persons Unknown’:
● Describing the investigation process and its main players (lead detective Alvin Dewey), he
conducts his research with virtually no evidence.
● The reader learns about the impoverished and fragmented back-stories of killers Dick
and Perry, through family letters, prison documents, and detailed inventories of their
possessions, movements and plans.
● Dick and Perry leave for Mexico “sunken treasure” however they return to America
because Dick wasn’t getting paid enough in Mexico. They return through the Mojave
Desert in California.
Section Three - ‘The Answer’:
● Dick and Perry are now on the road, broke, on the verge of further crimes, driving
cross-country from Kansas through Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama to Miami, then New
Mexico and Arizona to Las Vegas, planning to escape to Mexico in search of gold.
● The police are close but the criminals don’t know that. Creates suspense and tension.
● Meanwhile, Dewey's team research and interview the boys' families (Dick’s family and
Perry’s sister), revealing damaged and amoral relationships.
● The capture of the criminals is undramatic and inevitable because the reader knew this
all along because of the parallel structure.
● Once Dick and Perry are captured, the confessions emerge unexpectedly swiftly, as with
shocking treachery, each implicates the other as the main perpetrator. Forms the
emotional climax of the section - and indeed of the book as a whole - and which most
clearly reveals Capote's fascination and ambivalent empathy with the killers.
● Floyd Wells, who worked on the Clutter farm, is the person who told Dick and Perry
about the money in the Clutter house. He also told the KBI about Dick and Perry.
Chapter 1 - Capote makes sure we appreciate the Clutter family as people in the beginning
rather than seeing them solely as victims after the murder. He also does this with Dick
and Perry - we see them as people before criminals.
Mid Chapter 3 - Capote reminds us of the Clutter family as people and victims through the
memories from Bobby Rupp.
Chapter 4 - The auction of the Clutter’s belongings and the funeral.
Herb Clutter:
- New York Times article: “a wealthy Kansas farmer”, very well known in the farming
community. Part of the Federal Farm Credit Board, Kansas Wheat Growers Association.
- Strong religious views (Methodist Christianity - strong commitment to his beliefs), key
roles in the church.
- 4H club community.
- Self-built successful man (Meritocracy), owns 1,000 acres of land. Faced obstacles.
- Designed and built his own house.
- Good man, respected, successful.
Nancy Clutter:
- 16 years old, “a real southern belle”, “straight A student”.
- Close to her father Herb Clutter.
- Presented as lovely, helpful and popular in the community (helping Jolene make a cherry
pie, helping with trumpet solo, participated in school play, making bridesmaid dresses
for her sister's wedding, looking forward to see her baby nephew)
- Big sense of community and family - strong values.
Bonnie Clutter:
- Bedridden by mental illness, suffering from postnatal depression - mental health in the
1950's is a taboo, not known and understood. A sense of sympathy.
- Shows that the Clutter family is not all “perfect”
- A sense of guilt before she met Herb Clutter, she was free and had a job.
Kenyon Clutter:
- Kept to himself, intelligent with strong family values.
- Sibling rivalry with Nancy, being teenagers, a sense of normality.
, Structure - True History of an American Tragedy
The pattern of alternating multiple viewpoints and the combination of fiction and
non-fiction writing, contrasts the Holcomb community's idealised endorsement of
all-American values with the amoral life-style and aspirations of the perpetrators, informs
the structure of the book.
Section One - ‘The last to see them alive’:
● Describes the last day of the Clutters with the details of their back stories, personalities
and relationships.
● It is paralleled with a close observation of the two criminals Dick and Perry on their way
to murder the family.
● The reader does not know about the crime itself but the gruesome aftermath.
● Capote creates huge tension by shifting the focus and manipulating time: this insiders'
account of victims and killers drawing inexorably closer together exploits readers'
existing knowledge of the actual events of this huge and celebrated case.
Section Two - ‘Persons Unknown’:
● Describing the investigation process and its main players (lead detective Alvin Dewey), he
conducts his research with virtually no evidence.
● The reader learns about the impoverished and fragmented back-stories of killers Dick
and Perry, through family letters, prison documents, and detailed inventories of their
possessions, movements and plans.
● Dick and Perry leave for Mexico “sunken treasure” however they return to America
because Dick wasn’t getting paid enough in Mexico. They return through the Mojave
Desert in California.
Section Three - ‘The Answer’:
● Dick and Perry are now on the road, broke, on the verge of further crimes, driving
cross-country from Kansas through Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama to Miami, then New
Mexico and Arizona to Las Vegas, planning to escape to Mexico in search of gold.
● The police are close but the criminals don’t know that. Creates suspense and tension.
● Meanwhile, Dewey's team research and interview the boys' families (Dick’s family and
Perry’s sister), revealing damaged and amoral relationships.
● The capture of the criminals is undramatic and inevitable because the reader knew this
all along because of the parallel structure.
● Once Dick and Perry are captured, the confessions emerge unexpectedly swiftly, as with
shocking treachery, each implicates the other as the main perpetrator. Forms the
emotional climax of the section - and indeed of the book as a whole - and which most
clearly reveals Capote's fascination and ambivalent empathy with the killers.
● Floyd Wells, who worked on the Clutter farm, is the person who told Dick and Perry
about the money in the Clutter house. He also told the KBI about Dick and Perry.
