Proof of Insanity in Perry Edward Smith

Dr. Jones, a renowned psychiatrist who has examined the mental health of 25 murderers, is brought in to judge the psyches of Dick and Perry. When Dr. Jones is called upon to make his judgment in court, he is asked “From your conversations and examinations of Mr. Perry Edward Smith, do you have an opinion as to whether he knew right from wrong at the time of the offense involved in this action?” (296) and then answers, “No” (296), and states that he cannot make an accurate judgment about whether or not Perry is mentally ill. The fact that Dr. Jones cannot come to a decision is reflective of the fact that there may be some underlying psychiatric issues in Perry’s mind. Had Perry been completely sane, like Dick, Dr. Jones would have come to a conclusion right away. However, Dr. Jones had seen conflicting evidence in Perry’s letter and behavior, and is unable to finish his evaluation without more testing. As opposed to disregarding Dr. Jones’s opinion, the court should have given him more time to examine Perry, as there is a likely chance that he would have concluded that Perry was suffering from a mental illness and was not sane at the time of the murders.

The development of a mental illness stems from genetics and the environment, and Perry was out of luck in both of those cases. Perry’s father describes his wife as “Her drinkin and stepin out, living with a young man” (126-127). Perry was born with a predisposition to become an alcoholic, as a result of his mother constantly drinking. Additionally, the syntax used by Perry’s father to describe his mother is incorrect, and shows that he was uneducated. His sentences are not complete and the endings to his verbs are incorrect. The lack of education in Perry’s father translates down to Perry as he does not become educated either. Furthermore, Perry’s mother was cheating on his father, a marriage which eventually ended in divorce. After his parents split up, two out of three of his siblings committed suicide, further damaging Perry’s emotions. Suicide is often associated with mental illness, proving even more likely that mental illness runs in the Smith family, and there is a high chance that Perry could become insane.

During Dr. Jones’s evaluation, he claims “In evaluating the intentions and feelings of others, his ability to separate the real situation from his own mental projections is very poor” (297). This is proven to be true as Perry stands over Mr. Clutter, ready to kill. When he is describing this moment, which should have been very powerful and full of rage as is normally during a crime of passion, Perry states, “I didn’t want to harm the man…I thought so right up to the moment that I slit his throat” (302). It is almost as if Perry is not feeling anything, a bizarre description for a person about to commit a brutal murder. The language that Perry uses is simple and clear. The last four words of his sentence come as a shock after the non-emotional diction that Perry uses to describe Mr. Clutter. Slitting someone’s throat is a violent and disgusting act, which comes as a surprise at the end of Perry’s sentence, similar to how the murders he committed were a surprise to Perry. Although he was well aware of Dick’s plan, Perry agreed to follow him into the Clutter household in order to obtain a large sum of money, not to murder a family. Perry seemed shocked when he was the one holding the knife and pulling the trigger instead of Dick.

Merton argues that everyone’s main focus in life is accomplishing goals, and the route that we take to complete these tasks says a lot about our character. Murton claims, “There results a twofold mental conflict insofar as the moral obligation for adopting institutional means conflicts with the pressure to resort to illegitimate means (which may attain the goal)” (677). Capote makes it seem as if Perry never struggled with this conflict, but was eager to resort to illegitimate means to obtain money, his initial goal. Although he was not initially planning to kill the Clutters, they stood in the way of his goal, so he made a split decision to get rid of them. Although Murton argues that there is a moral conflict present when the means are not available to accomplish a goal, only insane people would disregard societal norms in order to do this. In this case, disregarding society is not just voiding social norms, but judicial laws that have very strict consequences when broken. Only someone who was mentally ill, such as Perry, would disregard society in this way, especially for a goal as trivial as some extra money. Although Dr. Jones never officially declared Perry mentally ill, there is enough evidence in the novel to prove that he is such and was insane during the time of the murder.