The mind of a murderer is difficult to understand. Events in their life become deeply rooted and transform into disturbed thoughts and mental attitudes that drive a killer to commit murder. In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, the Clutter family quadruple murder case in Holcomb, Kansas involved killers who were two very different individuals who had come together to commit a major "game." The plan was devised by Dick Hickock to rob and kill the Clutter family and he brought his cellmate, Perry Smith, from prison to assist him in the job. Each man's past contains different events that contribute to their not-so-healthy state of mind, and each sees crime differently. The psychological differences between the men give better insight into the execution of Clutter's murders and the reasoning behind them. Perry Smith's past proves to be very influential on his psychological state of mind. He grew up in an unstable home as his mother was an alcoholic and his father was absent for long periods throughout his life. As a child his family life was very poor until his parents divorced when he was six years old. He was later sent to a Catholic orphanage where he was punished by nuns. Every time Smith wet the bed, the nuns beat him. Perry says: “I had weak kidneys and wet the bed every night. I was severely beaten by the landlady, who had insulted and made fun of me in front of all the boys” (275). During this period the first signs of his disturbed psychological state came to light. “She was later fired from her job. But that never changed my mind about her and what I wanted to do to her and all the people who made fun of me” (275). Then his father arrived, ... middle of paper ... all of them while Dick collected the shells from the gun. Dick's suffering from a character disorder is different from Perry's suffering from schizophrenia because while Dick's disorder still affects his actions and thought processes, Perry's keeps him blind to his actions and how which are wrong. While Perry and Dick were on different sides of the psychology realm, that didn't stop them from working together to carry out the Clutter family murders. Capote's portrayal of Perry and Dick provides insight into the minds of the killers themselves and gives the reader a better understanding of the crime. The explanation of their past and what led to these psychological disorders helps to understand why the two men, although virtually completely different in their problems, were able to carry out one of the most heinous murders in American history..