Summary, Part One

The first section begins by describing the village of Holcomb, Kansas. Using beautiful imagery and rhetorical devises, Capote sets the stage for this peaceful little island in the middle of nowhere. This is a trusting town where no one feels the need to lock their doors… until mid-November of 1959, that is. Now we transition to Herbert William Clutter, the owner of River Valley Farm and the master of the Clutter household. He’s a good boss. He treats his employees with respect and pays them fairly. However, there is one action that he will not tolerate from his workers: drinking. We learn about his wife, Bonnie and her poor health. She is bedridden, suffering from depression since the birth of her first child.

After a brief overview of the Clutter family and its situation, the author transitions to a completely new scene. Here, a man named Perry Smith awaits his partner, Dick Hickock. Perry reflects on Dick’s promise of a big “score” at the Clutter house.

We switch back to the Clutter home where Nancy, Herbert’s kind, smart, and popular daughter, is teaching a local girl how to make a delicious cherry pie (despite already having a full schedule).  Nancy is described as the “town darling” who is always willing to help anyone who needs it. Her younger brother is Kenyon, who is fifteen. He is also highly intelligent and though he isn’t as social as his sister, he has a passion for building and reconstructing machines and gadgets.

Dick and Perry are on the way to the Clutter home where we learn more about their individual personalities. Dick is the mastermind of the operation. He is motivated by greed and blood-lust, as opposed to his partner. Perry is gentler, and seems more interested in finding love and acceptance than money. He collects books and loves to play his guitar. Perry convinces Dick to get stockings to conceal their identities, and to buy more than enough rope for the job.

We switch back to the Clutter home, where Bobby has joined the Clutters for watching television. He leaves around 11:30, and says goodnight to Nancy and her family.

The next morning, the bodies of Nancy, Bonnie, Kenyon, and Herbert are discovered. Their hands and feet are bound, and they have adhesive tape over their mouths. They were all shot in the head, and when a heartbroken Bobby goes to the family that he had seen alive and well merely hours before, he is unaware that he is the prime suspect for four counts of murder.