Name_____________________________________Period______________Date_________________
In Cold Blood: Persons Unknown
Summary of pages 138-148
Summary of sister’s letter:
This section opens with a discussion of her children. Briefly discusses the deaths of Jimmy and Fern, stating everyone has
weaknesses, that their deaths were such a waste. She lectures Perry that he is responsible for his own actions, that his
confinement is an embarrassment to her and their father, that he shows no regret for his misdeeds or respect for any laws.
She praises her father, and states that Perry has hurt him. She recognizes that her father shared his life with Perry and not
his other children. That Perry owes him respect and common decency. She tells Perry that he lives his life without
compassion for his fellow man. She ends her letter with a reminder that only he can turn his life around.
*(end of sister’s letter)
Perry does not keep the letter out of any affection for his sister, far from it, he loathed Barbara. He had told Dick, the only
real regret that he had was he wished his sister had been in the Clutter house the day of the murders! Perry keeps
Barbara’s letter because Willie-Jay wrote a “very sensitive” analysis of it.
Willie-Jays analysis of the letter:
Barbara cannot “fathom the pressures brought to bear upon you because of environment, intellectual frustration and a
growing tendency towards isolationism. “ Willie Jay recognizes that Barbara is jealous of the preferred treatment that their
father gave Perry. Willie Jay believes that their father has taken advantage of Barbara’s emotions by painting a picture of
himself as a loving father to Perry, only to be infamously treated by that son in return. Willie Jay warns Perry that he can
expect more letters like this from Barbara if he keeps corresponding with her. That any letters from her will only serve to
increase his already dangerous anti-social instincts.
*(end of Willie Jays response)
Perry continued to sort and choose through the pile of material he thought too dear to part with, his high school diploma
that he received while in prison; his personal dictionary, a thick notebook of non-alphabetically listed miscellany of words
he believed “beautiful” or “useful” or at least worth memorizing. He has a second notebook “The Private Diary of Perry
Edward Smith” which is not a diary at all but a collection of poems, literary quotations, and passages from newspaper
articles and books.
The scene in the Mexico City hotel room ends with Dick having sex with Inez. The previous midnight, when Dick had
brought her to the room and told Perry that she was going to sleep there. Perry, felt sorry for her because she really
believed Dick meant to marry her. Perry tries to hurry Dick up, telling him that their day ends at two PM. Their bus leaves
for California at two o’clock that afternoon.