In Cold Blood

Mr Walter and Mrs Hickock

Dick’s parents are farmers who welcome him home the day after the murder for Sunday dinner, completely unaware of the crime their son has committed. Unlike Perry, they provided a stable family home for Dick, but his head injury damaged his psyche in ways they could not fathom. Though Mrs Hickock is initially averse to Perry, he considers her such a sweet woman that he takes responsibility for all four murders so that she would not have to live with the knowledge that her son was such a vicious killer. Mr Hickock maintains some belief in his son’s innocence, protesting that the judge is biased during the trial. Meanwhile, Mrs Hickock just tries to catch her son’s eye and “simulat[e] a smile which, though flimsily constructed, affirmed her loyalty.” Ultimately, they are unconditionally loving parents, who are in “anguish” over the circumstances their son is in, and Mrs Hickock in particular is shocked to discover how compassionate people are to their situation, even in Holcomb, where no one has said “a mean word” to them. When she learns of Perry’s efforts to conceal Dick’s violent and predatory nature from her, she reflects that where once she hated Perry, now she just pities him as a “dying” man.

John ‘Tex’ Smith and Julia ‘Flo’ Buckskin

Perry’s parents are far less stable than Dick’s. Tex Smith was a “homely- handsome Irish cowboy” while Flo was a Native American girl who worked as a “professional rodio performer” before they met, married, and had four children, three of whom would meet tragic ends. Despite a few happy years when the rodeo performing couple live with their four children, a messy divorce leaves Flo an embittered alcoholic, and she dies choking on her own vomit having lived her final years in a drunken stupor, prostituting herself to get by.

Tex eventually gains custody of Perry (though abandons his other children to the foster care system, perhaps due to the patriarchal society’s preference for the first born son) and teaches him to fish and hunt. He later submits a “biography” of Perry’s traumatic life to the court in order to grant him parole for his petty theft charges. However, Perry’s attempts to live with him in Alaska afterwards end with them literally trying to kill each other – Tex is only unsuccessful because the gun he fires at his son is not loaded. This fractured relationship is never mended, and likely the cause of Perry’s various psychological hang-ups and attachment issues.

Barbara Johnson

Barbara Johnson is the one child of Tex and Flo that does not seem to have been afflicted by crippling mental illnesses. She “entered ordinary life, married” and had “begun raising a family,” while all of her siblings die by either suicide or execution. We hear her perspective first in a letter she writes to Perry while he is in prison in which she implores him to take responsibility for his own actions, though he uses an analysis written by Willie-Jay to counter this in his mind.
 
As a result of Willie-Jay’s letter, Perry is able to dismiss Barbara as a hypocrite who only finds it easy to “ignore the rain” because she “ha[s] a raincoat” (i.e. she has escaped a life of hardship and trauma). This is something of a turning point in our estimation of Perry though, as we start to see signs of a man deep in denial about his own inadequacies, and determined to deflect responsibility onto his father, his abusive upbringing at the hands of “Black Widow” nuns, or society as a whole. Agent Nye also goes to meet with Barbara as part of his investigation, and learns Perry’s backstory from her, after which she “bolt[s]” her door closed in an attempt to protect herself from her family history.

Fern ‘Joy’ Smith

Fern is the sibling whom Perry is most fond of, and he remembers her as “such a sweet person... artistic... a terrific dancer,” and someone who could have “got somewhere” in life if she were luckier. Though Perry tried to convince himself that she fell, she killed herself at nineteen by jumping out of a fifteen storey hotel window – another senseless tragedy. That she changes her name to ‘Joy’ at fourteen and spends “the rest of her short life tr[ying] to justify the replacement” is bitterly ironic given her suicide and likely mental struggles.

Jimmy Smith

Jimmy is Perry’s only brother, a Navy officer who kills himself after having shot his wife the day prior, suspicious of her supposed infidelity, though it is implied he was paranoid. His story is one of several Smith tragedies, and supports the notion of a family history of mental illness.

Floyd Wells

Floyd is the person who while in prison erroneously informs Dick that Mr Clutter has $10,000 in a safe inside his property, and is hence the unwitting catalyst for the murders. As a former employee of Mr Clutter, he is able to give Dick a detailed description of the house’s layout, though he only persists with the lie believing that Dick would never attempt to carry out a robbery. He redeems himself by confessing what he told Dick, which is what leads to Dick and Perry’s capture, and testifying against them in their trial. Although he earns a reward and parole for having ensured their conviction, he is back in prison in no time, serving as an example of the cyclical recidivism in the American criminal justice system.

Willie-Jay

Willie-Jay is a fellow inmate of Perry’s at the Kansas State Penitentiary, and despite their brief time together, he leaves a lasting impression. As the chaplain’s clerk, Willie-Jay is a man of God who attempts to instil an appreciation for religion and morals in Perry, though he struggles due to Perry’s stubborn nature. He leaves Perry a scathing letter that astutely identifies his most fundamental fears and flaws, ultimately in an attempt to warn Perry that he cannot continue to resent others for their happiness. He also identifies something dangerous that lurks in Perry’s core: an “explosive emotional” centre that is “out of all proportion to the occasion.” We then see the culmination of this in Perry’s behaviour at the Clutter home, suggesting Willie-Jay was incredibly perceptive in his assessment of Perry.

However, Perry sees his greatest critic as perhaps his greatest friend, and will later try to fill the void left behind in Willie-Jay’s absence with Dick who is in many ways antithetical. Perry believes Willie-Jay to be the only one who truly sees his “worth” and his “potentialities,” finding solace in his support. Willie-Jay moves east after he is released from prison for petty theft, and Perry is disappointed to later learn he has left Kansas despite their tumultuous friendship. His message continues to haunt Perry, though it is clear Perry does not learn from this in time.

Joe James

Joe is an Indian logger who cares for Perry after his motorcycle accident, and testifies at his trial about Perry being a “likeable kid,” and later, a “likeable fellow.” Unsurprisingly, this is not sufficient in saving Perry from death row.

Lowell Lee Andrews

Andrews is on death row at the same time as Perry and Dick, having murdered his own parents and sister. He is a diagnosed schizophrenic but due to Kansas’ M’Naghten Rule, this is not enough to save him from his execution, which occurs three years before the hanging of Perry and Dick. He is a thorn in Perry’s side during their imprisonment together, as he is just as if not more intelligent than Perry, but demonstrates this by correcting his grammar to annoy him. Andrews is “without malice, but Perry could have boiled him in oil,” which is evidence of his untempered rage and delusions, and perhaps also proof that Perry is too mentally unwell to have learned any moral lessons by his imprisonment.

Cookie

Cookie is a nurse who cares for Perry after his accident, and she becomes the girl Perry “almost marrie[s].” This is not a conventional relationship, as it begins with her having “pitied him” and “babied him” before “sexual episodes of a strange and stealthy nature had occurred,” likely indicative of Perry’s attachment disorder (or as some critics have postulated, his homosexuality or asexuality) before he leaves her with a poem he pretends to have written.

Bill and Johnny

Bill is a young, incredibly impoverished boy who is living on the streets with his old, sick grandfather Johnny. The pair meet Dick and Perry while they are on the run, and together they hunt for enough bottles to exchange for money to buy food. Billy has a sunny optimism despite his circumstances, and is an example of a struggling character making the best of a terrible situation.

Don Cullivan

Don meets Perry while they are serving in the military, but like Willie-Jay, he finds religion and attempts to bring Perry to God, though is likewise unsuccessful. He testifies in Perry’s defence at the trial and attempts to make a case for Christian forgiveness.