Questions 43 - 47

43. Describe the Finney County murders prior to the Clutter murder.

• The Hefner Slaying: August, 1920. A fellow called WalterTunif was working on the Finnup ranch. He had a car, turned out to be stolen. He was a soldier AWOL from Fort Bliss, over there in Texas. He was a rascal. So one evening the sheriff rode out to the Finnup ranch to ask Tunif a few questions. Walter Tunif shot the sheriff right through the heart. The devil who done it, he lit out of there on one of the Finnup horses, rode east along the river. The next morning, they caught up with him; old Walter Tunif. He didn’t get the chance to explain how he did that because the boys were irate.
• John Carlyle Polk, a Creek Indian, 32 years of age, resident Muskogee, Okla., killed Mary Kay Finley, white female, 40 years of age, a waitress residing in Garden City. Polk stabbed her with the jagged neck of a beer bottle in a room in the Copeland Hotel, Garden City, Kansas.
• A pair of railroad workers robbed and killed an elderly farmer. (11-1-52)
• A drunken husband beat and kicked his wife to death. (6-17-56)
• A man named Mooney was walking around the park. He was from North Carolina, he went to the rest room, and a boy followed him inside, Wilmer Lee Stebbins, 20 years old. Afterward, Wilmer Lee always claimed Mr. Mooney made him an unnatural suggestion. And that was why he robbed Mr. Mooney, and knocked him down, and banged his head on the cement floor, then, he stuck Mr. Mooney’s head in a toilet bowl and kept on flushing till he drowned him. First off, he buried the body a couple of miles northeast of Garden City. Next day he dug it up and put it down fourteen miles the other direction. Finally, he dug one grave.

44. Why does Dewey return to the Clutter home each day?

Dewey returned to the Clutter home each day because he was obsessing about the case. He was convinced that the family knew the killer very well, and also that the motive was revenge and hatred for Herb Clutter. In addition, Dewey found those visits pleasurable.

45. Describe Marie's dream.

Marie’s dream: she had a “silly dream” that seemed to be so real for her. She dreamed that Bonnie Clutter walked through the door. Bonnie was wearing a blue angora sweater, and she looked so sweet and pretty. Then, Marie talked to her but she could not understand what Bonnie was saying. At the end, Bonnie looked at her and said that there were not nothing worse than to be murdered.

46. What example of fate is found at the end of "Persons Unknown"?

Dick and Perry continued their journey. They were waiting for someone to pick them up on the road. They also intended to murder a driver and then steal the car but they could not because the car did not stop at all. In conclusion, this might be the fate of for the killers.

47. What example of irony is found at the end of "Persons Unknown"?

a. An example of irony could be that Perry murdered the Clutters because of his deep anger towards his own family.

b. Other example could be that Perry liked Mr. Clutter, as well as the other members of the family. This at first seems ironic, but in fact it says a great deal about Perry’s motive for killing the Clutters. The murders were not inspired by a literal hatred of this specific family, but by misdirected frustration and resentment that finds a symbolic object in the Clutters and the values that they represent. The family is unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of this fury, but they are by no means its source.