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Dick Hickock and Perry Smith murder Herb, Bonnie, Kenyon and Nancy Clutter.
They're all found bound, gagged and shot by Nancy's friend, Susan Kidwell
This is what sets the events of the book in motion. -
Period: to
Dick and Perry are on the run from the police
After they attempt to rob and then subsequently murder the Clutter family, they flee to Mexico. After they run out of money in Mexico, they head back to the US and head to Kansas to pass false checks to get some fast money. While they are on the run. Capote takes this as a chance to reveal more about their backstories. He especially focuses on Perry's background and childhood and this gives Perry more depth and nuance than anyone else in the novel. -
Dick and Perry are arrested by Las Vegas PD because of a warrant for "hot checks".
This is when Dick and Perry are first caught by police. Before this, Dick's former cellmate and Herb Clutter's former employee, Floyd Wells tips off the KBI about Dick and Perry knowing about and wanting the Clutter's rumored fortune. Now that they are caught for something, the KBI can begin to interrogate Dick and Perry about the murders. -
Period: to
Capote interviews Dick and Perry while they are on Death Row
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Dick, then followed by Perry both confess to the murder of the Clutter family.
This is what could be considered the climax of the book. It is the most intense scene and the most tension in the book is loaded into this scene. Here we also learn about the motivations of both Dick and Perry. We learn how it was a robbery gone very wrong and how Perry feels remorseful while Dick does not. We get more detail as to what happened the night of the murders and we finally see the full picture. The book from that point forward is about the fallout of the confessions and trial. -
The Trial of Dick and Perry begins
This is the beginning of the trial that determined the fate of Dick and Perry after their confessions. -
Dick and Perry are found guilty of the murders and sentenced to death.
This is the end of the Clutter murder trial and Dick and Perry are both found guilty. However this is not the end of the novel because both are sentenced to death and the book follows them up until both of their hangings at the end of the novel. -
Dick and Perry are executed after a series of appeals which all fail.
The novel ends with Dick and Perry's executions on April 15, 1965. The book makes us question the death penalty and whether Dick and Perry should have received it. They were executed separately.
Dick first at 12:43 am and then followed by Perry at 1:22 am
