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Richard Eugene “Dick” Hickok
Proprietor of River Valley Farm, husband to Bonnie Clutter, and father of Eveanna Jarchow, Beverly English, Nancy Clutter, and Kenyon Clutter. Murdered by Perry Smith and Dick Hickok. Herb is a devout Methodist, a hard worker, and a valued citizen of Holcomb, Kansas. A university-educated man, he pulled himself up by the bootstraps to become a prosperous farmer and rancher. By all appearances normal, Herb seems to harbor some secret unhappiness. His marriage is by all accounts troubled.
Herb Clutter Quotes in In Cold Blood
The In Cold Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Herb Clutter or refer to Herb Clutter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 1 Quotes
At the time, not a soul in sleeping Holcomb heard them – four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.
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In Cold Blood opens by describing a serene and pastoral town in which salt-of-the-earth Kansans raise families and livestock in a religious and warm community. Capote sets up this image of paradise only to dash it with the description of the shotgun blasts. In a way, this opening mirrors the experience of reading the whole book; Capote repeatedly presents readers with idyllic scenes of American life and traditionally successful characters only to tell us afterwards that everything is darker and more complicated than it initially appears. This quotation also sets in motion the unspooling of the plot. By revealing that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaq
Always certain of what he wanted from the world, Mr. Clutter had in large measure obtained it…[H]e wore a plain gold band, which was the symbol…of his marriage to the person he had wished to marry…She had given him four children – a trio of daughters and a son.
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This quotation is an example, like the opening of the book, of Capote building up a character only to later dash the reader's expectations. In this description, Herb Clutter seems to embody the achievement of the American dream. He knew what he wanted and he got it; he's married, and he has lovely children and a successful farm. In this moment, readers get the sense that Herb must have been idyllically fulfilled by his rich life. Because we already know that he was murdered, this description seems tragic, but we don't know yet that it is also misleading. In the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Comm
Part 2 Quotes
How was it possible that such effort, such plain virtue, could overnight be reduced to this – smoke, thinning as it rose and was received by the big, annihilating sky?
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In this moving passage, Herb Clutter's friends have come to his farm to clean the crime scene and burn all the items that were ruined by blood. Here, Andy Erhart, who watched Herb work his way up from humble origins to professional and familial success, feels hopeless before the bonfire because of what it symbolizes to him. To Erhart (who is, in some sense, a proxy for the reader), Herb did everything right--he worked hard and achieved his goals. Erhart doesn't understand, then, how it could all be taken from Herb so quickly and senselessly. To Erhart, the bonfire is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde eni
Nancy wore her dress of cherry-red velvet, her brother a bright plaid shirt; the parents were more sedately attired, Mr. Clutter in navy-blue flannel, his wife in navy-blue crepe; and – and it was this, especially, that lent the scene an awful aura – the head of each was completely encased in cotton, a swollen cocoon twice the size of an ordinary blown-up balloon, and the cotton, because it had been sprayed with a glossy substance, twinkled like Christmas-tree snow.
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In this eerie passage, Nancy's friend and boyfriend are viewing the bodies of the Clutter family at the funeral home. Their appearance is described in an almost absurdist way--they are each carefully dressed in beautiful clothes, but their heads (where each was shot) are encased in huge swabs of cotton that "twinkled like...snow." Here, Capote is drawing out an image that points to the contradictions and absurdities of the American dream. There is something aspirational in the fancy clothes that the Clutters wear, but, as their cotton-encased heads show, they have nothing left to aspire to. In a way, this Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium e
Part 3 Quotes
Perry Smith killed the Clutters…. It was Perry. I couldn’t stop him. He killed them all.
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Throughout the book, Dick is portrayed as the more cold-blooded of the two killers due to his lack of remorse and kindness. When presented with an evidence photograph of a bloody footprint and told of all the murder charges he is facing, Dick does not keep to his word that he and Perry will tell the same story to police interrogators, and instead he blames the killings on Perry. This further cements the reader's negative opinion of Dick, as he is essentially attempting to sacrifice his friend, who he dragged into the killings in the first place, in order to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. N
Part 4 Quotes
As the auction progressed, and Mr. Clutter’s worldly domain dwindled, gradually vanished, Paul Helm, remembering the burial of the murdered family said, “It’s like a second funeral.”
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This quote approaches the fragility and emptiness of the American dream in two ways. First, it is similar to the previous quote in which Herb's friends are burning their bloodstained belongings and are reminded of how quickly a hard-won life of success can be taken away. In this way, the quote speaks to the fragility of the kind of life that people tend to consider enduring and stable. In another way, this quote addresses the materialism of the American dream. Capote is concerned in this book with the disconnect between appearance and reality, and one of the main ways in Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus
Soldiers don’t lose much sleep. They murder, and get medals for doing it. The good people of Kansas want to murder me – and some hangman will be glad to get the work. It’s easy to kill – a lot easier than passing a bad check. Just remember: I only knew the Clutters maybe an hour. If I’d really known them, I guess I’d feel different. I don’t think I could live with myself. But the way it was, it was like picking targets off in a shooting gallery.
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At this point in the story, Perry is beginning to unravel psychologically, so his words cannot be considered reliable. However, in a sense, this passage seems to be one of the most honest in the book. It would have been easy for Perry to play up his moral conflict (evident in his efforts to make the Clutters comfortable before their deaths, his questioning whether he and Dick are normal if they're capable of an act like that, or his thinking of Nancy Clutter on her birthday) and earn the sympathy of his Christian friend, but instead he presents himself in Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetu
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Herb Clutter Character Timeline in In Cold Blood
The timeline below shows where the character Herb Clutter appears in In Cold Blood. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: The Last to See Them Alive
Flashback to two days earlier. We’re introduced to Herb Clutter – the “master” of River Valley Farm. Herb is middle-aged, but “in first-rate condition”...
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...success in the play, as well as his wife’s good spirits – gives her permission. Herb gives Nancy a scolding later that night, given that she returns home two hours late,...
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Herb ends up sleeping in, given that he went to bed far too late. He wakes...
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Herb’s backstory is touched upon in this scene, detailing how he worked his way up from...
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Herb greets the farm’s “sole resident employee,” Alfred Stoecklein. Alfred begs off work, given that his...
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Five pheasant hunters from Oklahoma appear, and they approach Herb. Teddy runs at them but, gun-shy, he quickly puts his head down and tucks his...
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...scheduled for that day. While in his office, she notices a peculiar smell of tobacco. Herb gives her leave to skip 4-H, and Nancy tells a relieved Mrs. Katz that she...
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...friend Susan Kidwell calls on the phone. Nancy reveals to her that she’s worried about Herb – she suspects that he’s been smoking cigarettes. She also mentions that Herb has once...
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Herb and Kenyon attend the 4-H Club meeting in Garden City, a town of eleven thousand...
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...Mr. Clutter write a check for a new life insurance policy. Mr. Johnson jokes about Herb’s infamous habit of never carrying cash. Herb boasts about his daughter’s impending marriage, and comments...
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...mouth has been taped shut. She, too, has been shot in the head. Kenyon and Herb are found in the basement, in separate rooms. Both are tied, have their mouths taped,...
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Part 2: Persons Unknown
Four of Herb’s closest friends go to the Clutter home in order to clean up. As they burn...
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Part 3: Answer
Floyd Wells, a former employee of Herb’s and a current inmate at Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing (imprisoned for stealing lawnmowers, in...
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