In Cold Blood

Larry Hendricks

Hendricks is Holcomb’s English teacher and school bus driver who goes with Mr Ewalt and the sheriff to the Clutter home after the murders. His penchant for writing stories and him thinking to himself that he must remember every detail of the scene in case he needs to testify in court makes for an incredibly evocative account as the men discover all four dead bodies, and try in vain to piece together what could have occurred. Hendricks is our lens into the horrors of the crime scene, and his confusion mirrors our own as readers as we are exposed to the haunting details that he observes.

Mrs Hideo Ashida

Mrs Ashida and her family were welcomed into Holcomb two years previously and have a particularly close relationship with the Clutters. This is all largely symbiotic, as the community provide fresh produce and farming assistance to the Ashidas while they establish themselves, and in turn Mrs Ashida nourishes the community with her delicious soups! She is also a member of the 4-H Club, and Mr Clutter nominates her for an award for her contributions shortly before he is killed. Though she and her husband mention they are contemplating leaving for Nebraska before the murders, the deaths of the Clutters upset her greatly and she feels she has no choice but to leave town.

Mrs Bess Hartman

Mrs Bess Hartman is the owner of Harman’s Cafè where citizens of Holcomb meet to discuss the events that unfold in town. She is an “unfoolish lady” with “authoritative green eyes” and the cousin of Mrs Myrtle Clare. She relays the gossip she overhears from her patrons, as well as her own theories about how and why the murders of the Clutters took place.

Mrs Sadie ‘Mother’ Truitt and Mrs Myrtle Clare

Sadie ‘Mother’ Truitt is the old postmistress of Holcomb, and is described as a “gaunt” 75 year old woman wearing a “babushka bandannas” and a “rawhide jacket and denims and cowboy boots.” Hence, not only is she conspicuously Southern, her appearance also mirrors the “falling-apart post office” in which she works – it is as though both the buildings and the people of Holcomb are gaunt and run-down. (She’s also my favourite character because she hangs out in the ramshackle post office with her coffee and a good book, contently watching the world go by!)

She is the oldest resident who was born in Holcomb, and it is implied she has been there her whole life, just as her daughter Myrtle will after her, having followed in her mother’s footsteps to take on the duties of delivering mail. Myrtle takes after her mother in many ways, though with the addition of a “rooster-crow” voice and more opinionated demeanour.

The two women observe the ambulances drive to the Holcomb residence on Sunday morning, and Mother Truitt’s horrified reaction and subsequent confrontation of her own mortality is used as an analogy for the reaction of Holcomb as a whole.
Myrtle is often the representation for the town’s gossip and theorising, and she even maintains after Dick and Perry’s arrest that there must be some deeper conspiracy involving people in town. She is the embodiment of the desperate search for meaning amidst madness.

Mr and Mrs Bob Johnson

Bob Johnson is the man who meets with Herb Clutter the Saturday before he is killed to sell him a new life insurance policy. He is stunned by the fact that he met with a man to discuss life insurance just hours before he was murdered, resulting in a double indemnity (i.e. a payout of twice what the insurance was worth) for his remaining children, and though he legally does not have to do so, he decides it is morally right to make good on this agreement.

Jonathan Daniel Adrian

Adrian is a man of “no fixed address” who briefly shelters in the Clutter home while drifting to New Mexico, completely unaware of the tragedy. He is seen by Paul Helm who calls the sheriff, and Adrian shows them how he crawled through a pipe that led into the basement. He is then arrested when the investigators find a shotgun and a hunting knife in his car, though is later ruled out as a suspect.