Schizophrenia In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

In Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, Capote follows the murder and aftermath of a wealthy, well- known family from Holcomb, Kansas. The murderers, Perry Smith and Richard, Dick, Hickock can both be best described here as mass murderers, considering that, together, they brutally murdered four people. Whether these murders were committed based off of psychopathic mentalities or simply greed and rage is often debated among authors and psychologists. Throughout the novel it is evident that Perry seems to have many characteristics commonly associated with schizophrenia rather than psychopathy, and these schizophrenic tendencies are greatly revealed in Part Two of the novel, “Persons Unknown.” Capote describes Perry’s abusive childhood

According to Richard Heyman and Amy Smith, “... victimized children grow up to victimize others,” (864). Perry did not grow up in a very stable environment. He witnessed his father abuse his alcoholic mother, who eventually took him and his siblings away from their abusive father. When his mother died, Perry spent time in an orphanage where he was a victim of both verbal and physical abuse do to his bed- wetting habit. In a study conducted by Heyman and Smith, it was discovered that a male’s likeliness to be violent during adulthood is, “increased by exposure to father-to-mother violence…” (870). Perry experiences this violence between his mother and father, which in turn causes his mother to take her children away from their father, creating an even more unstable environment. Later on in life, Perry was reunited with his father, and during this time, that Perry spent with his father, it was often evident that he was favored over his other siblings. This preference created a hostile environment among Perry and his siblings, and this hostility carried on through life. Over the years, the only people Perry had left were his father and his sister, Barbara. His brother, Jimmy, and sister, Fern, were both victims of suicide (Capote 138). These traumatic events may have contributed to Perry’s psychopathic tendencies, however, throughout his life, Perry seems to have more schizophrenic tendencies than psychopathic. On the contrary, Dick seems to have more psychopathic tendencies than Perry. He often enjoys killing dogs with his car, and feeling no remorse, a characteristic very typical of