Exam 3 Review - Crime, Punishment, and Justice in Lit

At every election gangs employed by the rival factions rioted at the polling places, smashing ballot boxes, slugging honest citizens who attempted to exercise their right of franchise, themselves voting early and often, and incidentally acquiring a contempt for the police and for constituted authority which was to have appalling consequences during the Draft Riots.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

A lone policeman, with more courage than judgement, tried to club his way through the mass of struggling men and arrest the ringleaders, but he was knocked down and his clothing stripped from his body, and he was fearfully beaten with his own nightstick. He crawled through the plunging mob to the sidewalk, and, naked except for a pair of cotton drawers, ran to the Metropolitan headquarters in White street, where he gasped out the alarm and collapsed.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

But no sooner had the police departed than the gangsters renewed their battle, and the rioting went forward with greater ferocity than ever. Barricades of carts and stones were piled up in the streets, and from behind these defenses the gangsters shot and hurled bricks and used their clubs. One giant member of the Dead Rabbits walked coolly along in front of his barricade and, although fired at repeatedly, used his pistol with such deadly accuracy that he killed two Bowery thugs and wounded two others. He was finally knocked unconscious by a small boy whose brother was fighting in the ranks of the Bowery Boys. This lad crept on his stomach along the barricade, and when he was close enough slammed a huge brickbat, about as heavy as he could lift, against the skull of the Dead Rabbit.  

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

The late sixties also saw the beginning of the reprehensible practice of using knock-out drops to deaden the senses of a victim while the thieves picked his pockets or appropriated his jewelry.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

Red Light Lizzie, perhaps the most famous procurer of her time, employed half a dozen men and women to travel through the small villages of New York and adjacent states, and lure young women into the metropolis with promises of employment; and several young men received salaries from her for enticing girls into dives and plying them with drugged liquor.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

Her principal rival was Hester Jane Haskins, also called Jane the Grabber, who became notorious as an abductor of young girls for immoral purposes.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

Several well-organized gangs of ghouls operated in New York during the post-bellum period, but for the most part they confined their activities to the tombs of Negroes and paupers, selling the bodies to doctors and medical students.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

It was feared that the intruders had descended into the vault, where four other bodies were interred beside that of the great merchant, but nothing had been disturbed beneath the surface of the ground.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

The greatest of the gangs which came into existence in New York after the Civil War was the Whyos, as vicious a collection of thugs, murderers, and thieves as ever operated in the metropolis; they were at least the peers of the fierce river pirates of the old Fourth Ward.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

The Whyos maintained their principal rendezvous in Mulberry Bend, slightly north and east of the Five Points proper, although during the summer many of them could always be found lounging in a churchyard at Park and Mott streets. The principal thoroughfare of the Whyo domain was Baxter, the Orange street of the old Five Points, which later became famous for its secondhand clothing shops and the pullers-in who dragged customers in from the sidewalks by main strength.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

Soon a score of men were blazing away with revolvers, but all were drunk and no one was injured.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

When he was at length brought to book for one of his many crimes, the police found this list in his pocket:  

Punching ............................$2  

Both eyes blacked ...................... 4  

Nose and jaw broke.....................10  

Jacked out (knocked out with a blackjack) .... 15  

Ear chawed off.........................15  

Leg or arm broke.......................19  

Shot in leg............................25  

Stab ................................25  

Doing the big job ......................100 and up 

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

Lyons was probably the most ferocious gangster of his period ... He frequently consulted his girls, Lizzie the Dove, Gentle Maggie, and Bunty Kate, all of whom proudly walked the streets for him and faithfully gave him their earnings.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

McCullagh battled with the three thugs for more than half an hour, and finally knocked them unconscious with his nightstick. He then tied their arms behind their backs with their own belts, loaded them into a cart and hauled them to the police station in West Thirty-fifth street.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

Throughout his career he continued to pin his faith to the nightstick, and when complaints were made of his furious clubbing he justified his course with the famous observation, “There is more law in the end of a policeman’s nightstick than in a decision of the Supreme Court.”  

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

By 1870 the streets throughout the greater part of New York fairly swarmed with prowling bands of homeless boys and girls actively developing the criminal instinct which is inherent in every human being … There were the Forty Little Thieves, the Little Dead Rabbits, and the Little Plug Uglies, the members of which emulated their elders in speech and deed, and as far as possible in appearance.

• Gangs of New York

• Herbert Asbury

The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’ Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West. The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heeled boots with pointed toes. The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them.

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• This opening sets the tone for the book and frames Holcomb, Kansas as a symbol of rural American innocence - soon to be shattered. It also establishes Capote’s detailed, haunting, and journalistic style.

Until one morning in mid-November of 1959, few Americans - in fact, few Kansans - had ever heard of Holcomb. Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there. The inhabitants of the village, numbering two hundred and seventy, were satisfied that this should be so, quite content to exist inside ordinary life - to work, to hunt, to watch television, to attend school socials, choir practice, meetings of the 4-H Club. But then, in the earliest hours of that morning in November, a Sunday morning, certain foreign sounds impinged on the normal nightly Holcomb noises - on the keening hysteria of coyotes, the dry scrape of scuttling tumbleweed, the racing, receding wail of locomotive whistles. At the time not a soul sleeping in Holcomb heard them - four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives. But afterward the townspeople, theretofore sufficiently unfearful of each other to seldom trouble to lock their doors, found fantasy recreating them over and again - those somber explosions that stimulated fires of mistrust in the glare of which many old neighbors views each other strangely, and as strangers.

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• This quote marks a turning point in the narrative: the moment when that quiet life is shattered by the Clutter family murders. The contrast between the town’s normal nighttime sounds and the “four shotgun blasts” emphasizes the sudden, unnatural violence that invades the world. Capote uses this moment to show how deeply the crime affects not just the victims, but the entire community.

But when we got there - I didn’t want to do it. Go inside the house. I was frightened, and I don’t know why, because it never occurred to me - well, something like that just doesn’t. But the sun was so bright, everything looked too bright and quiet … We walked in, and I saw right away that the Clutters hadn’t eaten breakfast; there were no dishes, nothing on the stove. Then I noticed something funny: Nancy’s purse. It was lying on the floor, sort of open. We passed on through the dining room, and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Nancy’s room is just at the top. I called her name, and started up the stairs, and Nancy Ewalt followed. The sounds of our footsteps frightened me more than anything, they were so loud and everything else was so silent. Nancy’s door was open. The curtains hadn’t been drawn, and the room was full of sunlight. I don’t remember screaming. Nancy Ewalt says I did - screamed and screamed. I only remember Nancy’s teddy bear staring at me. And Nancy. And running…

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• This passage comes from Susan Kidwell, a close friend of Nancy Clutter, as she describes the moment she and Nancy Ewalt discovered the bodies. It’s one of the most emotionally powerful scenes in the book. Capote uses vivid, sensory details - “the sun was so bright … everything looked too bright and quiet” - to create an eerie contrast between the beautiful morning and the horror that awaits inside. This clash between light and darkness heightens the shock and confusion the characters feel, and it mirrors how violence can suddenly disrupt a peaceful world.

And that Perry could not abide: anyone’s ridiculing the parrot, which had first flown into his dreams when he was seven years old, a hated, hating half-breed child living in a California orphanage run by nuns — shrouded disciplinarians who whipped him for wetting his bed. It was after one of these beatings, one he could never forget (‘She woke me up. She had a flashlight, and she hit me with it. Hit me and hit me. And when the flashlight broke, she went on hitting me in the dark’), that the parrot appeared, arriving while he slept, a bird ‘taller than Jesus, yellow like a sunflower,’ a warrior angel who blinded the nuns with its beak, fed upon their eyes, slaughtered them as they ‘pleaded for mercy,’ then so gently lifted him, enfolded him, winged him away to ‘paradise.’ As the years went by, the particular torments from which the bird delivered him altered; others, — older children, his father, a faithless girl, a sergeant he’d known in the Army — replaced the nuns, but the parrot remained, a hovering avenger.

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• This passage gives us a powerful look into Perry Smith’s inner world, helping readers understand the deep trauma that shaped him. The image of the giant yellow parrot — a mix of angel, protector, and avenger — comes to Perry in dreams that started in childhood, during his time in a brutal orphanage. The parrot appears after a violent beating by a nun, and it becomes a symbol of escape, justice, and unconditional love. Over the years, the parrot reappears in Perry’s imagination, saving him from different figures who have hurt or betrayed him. The parrot represents both his need for love and his desire for revenge against a cruel world. This moment helps the reader see Perry not just as a murderer, but as a human being broken by years of suffering.

‘There is much resentment in this community [that is, Garden City],’ wrote Mr. Fox. “I have even heard on more than one occasion that the man, when found, should be hanged from the nearest tree. Let us not feel this way. The deed is done and taking another life cannot change it. Instead, let us forgive as God would have us do. It is not right that we should hold a grudge in our hearts. The doer of this act is going to find it very difficult indeed to live with himself. His only peace of mind will be when he goes to God for forgiveness. Let us not stand in the way but instead give prayers that he may find his peace.’

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• This passage comes from a letter to the editor written by a local man, Mr. Fox, during the aftermath of the Clutter family murders. In the middle of a town gripped by fear and anger, Mr. Fox offers a voice of compassion and forgiveness, urging his community not to give into hatred or thoughts of revenge. He acknowledges the pain but reminds people of their shared Christian values — especially the call to forgive, even when it feels impossible. His message is radical in its gentleness: rather than seek vengeance, he asks that people pray for the killer’s peace and spiritual redemption. Capote includes this letter to show the range of moral responses to the crime.

This plan was opposed by the special assistant prosecuting attorney, Logan Green, who, certain that ‘temporary insanity’ was the defense against his antagonists would attempt to sustain in the forthcoming trial, feared that the ultimate outcome of the proposal would be, as he predicted in private conversation, the appearance on the witness stand of a ‘pack of head-healers’ sympathetic to the defendants (‘Those fellows, they’re always crying over the killers. Never a thought for the victims’).

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• Capote includes this to highlight one of the book’s key tensions: should understanding a criminal’s background or mental illness change how we punish them? Green represents a more traditional, punitive view of justice, where motives and mental health are less important than the crime itself. His comment also shows how emotion and personal bias - especially resentment toward the killers - can shape legal decisions. By contrast, Capote seems to suggest that understanding the psychological roots of violence is necessary if we hope to prevent it or respond to it humanely.

“This seemed to concern him more than the outcome of the trial (which, to be sure, he did not consider a suspenseful matter: ‘Those prairiebillys, they’ll vote to hang fast as pigs eat slop. Look at their eyes. I’ll be damned if I’m the only killer in the courtroom.’

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• In this passage, Perry Smith reflects on the upcoming trial, but what stands out is his cynicism and detachment. He doesn’t expect a fair trial — instead, he mocks the jurors as “prairiebillys” and assumes they’ll sentence him to death quickly. The crude comparison — “They’ll vote to hang fast as pigs eat slop” — shows Perry’s bitterness, resentment, and feeling of being judged and condemned not for his actions alone, but for who he is.

  His line “I’ll be damned if I’m the only killer in the courtroom” also suggests a deeper theme: Perry sees hypocrisy in the justice system, where those who judge and execute him are, in his eyes, participating in state-sanctioned killing.

I did kill them. And it wasn’t because of anything the Clutters did. They never hurt me. Like other people. Like people have all my life. Maybe it’s just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it.

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• This quote comes during Perry Smith’s confession, and it’s one of the most important and disturbing lines in the entire book. In just a few sentences, Perry admits the horrifying truth: he killed the Clutter family, and they did nothing to deserve it. He acknowledges that the Clutters were innocent — “They never hurt me." But then he adds something heartbreaking and revealing: “Like people have all my life.”

  This moment shows how Perry is projecting years of pain, abuse, and rejection onto innocent strangers. It wasn’t anything the Clutter’s did — it was everything that had already been done to him. This confession exposes one of Capote’s major themes: the cycle of violence — how people who are deeply damaged by cruelty may later inflict that cruelty on others.

He has little feeling for others outside a very small circle of friends, and attaches little real value to human life. This emotional detachment and blandness in certain areas is other evidence of his mental abnormality. More extensive evaluation would be necessary to make an exact psychiatric diagnosis, but his present personality structure is very nearly that of a paranoid schizophrenic reaction.

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• This quote comes from a psychiatric report evaluating Perry Smith before his trial. The expert describes Perry as someone with deep emotional detachment, little concern for human life, and mental abnormalities that suggest he might suffer from paranoid schizophrenia. While the court ultimately does not allow this testimony to be presented to the jury, Capote includes it to raise important questions about mental illness, personal responsibility, and justice.

Well, what’s there to say about capital punishment? I’m not against it. Revenge is all it is, but what’s wrong with revenge? It’s very important. If I was kin to the Clutters, or any of the parties York and Latham dispensed with, I couldn’t rest in peace till the ones responsible had taken that ride on the Big Swing. These people that write letters to the newspapers. There were two in a Topeka paper the other day — one from a minister. Saying, in effect, what is all this legal face, why haven’t those sonsabitches Smith and Hickock got it in the neck, how come those murdering sonsabitches are still eating up the taxpayer’s money? Well, I can see their side. They’re mad ‘cause they’re not getting what they want — revenge. And they’re not going to get it if I can help it. I believe in hanging. Just so long as I’m not the one being hanged.

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• This moment is significant because it shows Hickcock’s lack of real remorse and his tendency to rationalize violence and punishment, so long as it doesn’t apply to him. His honesty is disturbing — he’s aware of the anger people feel and he even agrees with it, but also distances himself from accountability. Capote uses Hickock’s words to highlight the moral contradictions of the death penalty debate. It also shows how someone like Hickock can talk about justice while ignoring his own role in the crime.

The reporter pursed his lips. ‘Nobody in our office wanted the assignment. Me either. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Just like jumping off a diving board. Only with a rope around your neck.’ ‘They don’t feel nothing. Drop, snap, and that’s it. They don’t feel nothing.’ ‘Are you sure? I was standing right close. I could hear him gasping for breath.’ ‘Uh-uh, but he don’t feel nothing. Wouldn’t be humane if he did.’

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• Capote includes this exchange to show the emotional discomfort and moral ambiguity surrounding the death penalty. Even people who witness executions try to reassure themselves that it’s quick, painless, and justified — but their uncertainty shows otherwise. This scene raises questions about whether state-sanctioned death can ever truly be humane, or whether it’s just another form of violence dressed up as justice.

Like the majority of American law enforcement officials, Dewey is certain capital punishment is a deterrent to violent crime, and he felt that if ever the penalty had been earned, the present instance was it. The preceding execution had not disturbed him, he had never had much use for Hickock, who seemed to him ‘a smalltime chiseler who got out of his depth, empty and worthless.’ But Smith, though he was the true murderer, aroused another response, for Perry possessed a quality, the aura of an exiled animal, a creature walking wounded, that the detective could not disregard.

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• Capote uses this moment to explore one of the book’s central themes: the moral complexity of justice. Even someone like Dewey, committed to the law and the victims, can’t help but feel something close to pity or sorrow for the killer. This passage also highlights Capote’s attempt to show humanity in even the most broken people, inviting readers to see beyond good versus evil and consider the deeper causes behind violent behavior.

‘And nice to have seen you, Sue. Good luck,’ he called after her as she disappeared down the path, a pretty girl in a hurry, her smooth hair swinging, shining — just such a young woman as Nancy might have been. Then, starting home, he walked toward the trees, and under them, leaving behind him the big sky, the whisper of wind voices in the wind-bent wheat.

• In Cold Blood

• Truman Capote

• Capote ends the book not on the killers or the executions, but on the survivors — and the lingering grief and beauty of ordinary life. This final moment emphasizes the emotional cost of violence and the way it echoes on, even after justice has been served. It also reinforces a central theme of the book: that loss can never be fully repaired, and some wounds remain open.