Character analysis
Dick Hickock
in In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Dick Hickock is one of the two convicted murderers at the heart of Truman Capote's true-crime narrative, acting as the mastermind whose bravado hides an underlying cowardice. Coming from a working-class Kansas family, Dick was a former high-school athlete and mechanic. His story shifts from a scheming opportunist to a condemned prisoner. His entire plan to rob the Clutters begins with a tip from his former cellmate, Floyd Wells, who described Herb Clutter as a wealthy farmer with a safe full of cash. Dick recruits Perry Smith for the job, promising "no witnesses," a boast that highlights his cold-blooded calculation even before the murders happen.
On the night of November 14–15, 1959, at the Clutter farmhouse, Dick's nerve mostly fails him; it is Perry who carries out the killings while Dick either watches or looks away. This detail is vital to Capote's portrayal: Dick projects toughness through crude jokes, bouncing checks, and a predatory interest in young girls, yet he cannot act on his own threats. After the murders, he and Perry wander through Mexico and the American Southwest, cashing bad checks to survive.
Dick is captured in Las Vegas, interrogated by KBI agent Alvin Dewey, and ultimately confesses—partly implicating Perry. He is tried, convicted, and hanged at Kansas State Penitentiary in April 1965. Capote presents him as glib and self-deceiving, a man whose charm covers a moral void rather than the tortured depth he attributes to Perry.
Connected characters
- Perry Smith
Dick's partner and the man he recruits for the Clutter robbery. Their dynamic is one of mutual dependency and tension: Dick supplies the plan and the bravado, Perry supplies the nerve Dick ultimately lacks. Dick's confession partially shifts blame onto Perry, and Capote consistently contrasts Dick's shallow cynicism with Perry's more complex psychology.
- Floyd Wells
Dick's former cellmate at Kansas State Penitentiary, whose casual description of Herb Clutter's farm plants the seed for the entire crime. Wells later contacts authorities after reading about the murders, making him the key informant who leads investigators to Dick and Perry.
- Herb Clutter
Dick's intended robbery target, chosen solely on the false premise of a large safe. Herb's murder—carried out after no safe is found—exposes the hollowness of Dick's planning and his willingness to kill for a haul that ultimately yields under fifty dollars.
- Bonnie Clutter
One of Dick's four victims. Bonnie's fragile mental state is noted by Capote, and her helpless death underscores the senseless brutality of a crime Dick set in motion but could not bring himself to fully execute.
- Nancy Clutter
One of Dick's four victims. Capote's narrative reveals Dick's predatory attraction to teenage girls, lending Nancy's murder an added layer of menace and making Dick's culpability morally distinct from Perry's.
- Kenyon Clutter
The youngest Clutter victim. Kenyon's death, like the others, results from Dick's original directive that there be 'no witnesses,' illustrating how Dick's words set the lethal terms of the night even when Perry's hands carried them out.
- Alvin Dewey
The KBI agent who interrogates Dick after his arrest in Las Vegas. Dewey's methodical questioning breaks down Dick's defenses and extracts the confession that seals both men's fates, representing the law's patient answer to Dick's reckless confidence.
- Truman Capote (Narrator)
Capote interviews Dick extensively on death row. He portrays Dick with considerably less sympathy than Perry, presenting him as glib, morally hollow, and self-serving—a narrative choice that shapes readers' judgments of relative guilt throughout the book.