Overview Of In Cold Blood: People Of Kansas Vs Clutter Family Murders

Tanjim Alam
Ms. Bricker
American Literature
3 March 2016
In Cold Blood: People of Kansas vs. The Clutter Family Murderers During the fall of 1959, an event happened that was never heard of before in the city of Holcomb, Kansas. As a city with virtually no crime, no disputes, and hardworking people, Holcomb is an ideal city with honest people. The Clutter family is a family admired by those around them due to their accomplishments and contributions to the community. Striving to become like the Clutters is the goal of the inhabitants of Holcomb. On November 15, 1959, the role model family is never heard from again. In a last attempt to secure money, they kill the Clutter family and plan to start their lives over. When caught and brought back

Smith and Hickock had very complicated pasts and accidents that were not connected but brought the two of them together in a contradicting partnership, “wherein each annoys and disgusts the other, but they are tied by this act of murder and their own insecurities, Dr. Jones, a court-appointed psychiatrist, asks the two to write their life histories. Smith's is rambling and detailed, revealing more about his dreadful childhood; Hickock's is succinct and generic. Extensive, detailed psychiatric profiles of both killers, written by Dr. Jones, appear in full text”(Thomason). Hickock is shown to keep Smith from getting caught and Smith is there to stop Hickock from getting distracted and doing morally wrong

It is not recorded whether or not any brain damage was inflicted during this accident, but considering his past , Smith did grow up to show signs of mental illness. A court-assigned doctor, Dr. Jones, is the doctor who analyzed the mental states of the criminals after being caught, had left details about what type of disorders they may have. Smith may have had bipolar disorder due to his mood swings and anger felt by many in his life. He tends to worry more than the usual person and dwells on the past when most look to the future, indicating that he could also have some type of anxiety disorder. “ [He] recalls the voices and objects of the night he helped kill the Clutters” and Post Traumatic Stress disorder can be associated to this and … [it] reflects on the possibility of mental disorders running in his family”(110). He was also on medication at the time of the murders. He was a frequent aspirin taker because of the pain in his legs, but overdosed most of the time. The medication was not taken into consideration when analyzed by Dr. Jones so there is a high possibility that he has more disorders such as a histrionic personality disorder and possibly damage to the mental state due to the overdose. Lastly, Smith’s mental health could be classified as a paranoid schizophrenic not because of one or two reasons, but all of his