What is the relationship between Dick and Perry in In Cold Blood?

Although
possessing the literary structure and techniques of a novel, is actually a
nonfiction work bypublished in 1966. It describes the murders of Herbert "Herb"
Clutter; his wife, Bonnie; and their children, Nancy and Kenyon in 1959 by Richard
"Dick" Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote traveled to Holcomb, Kansas, where the murder
occurred and did extensive research concerning the crime and interviewed both Smith and Hickock
several times before they were executed in 1965.

Perry Edward Smith (October
27, 1928 €“ April 14, 1965) was the older of the two killers, but despite that, he is portrayed
as more of a follower than a leader. Of mixed Irish and Cherokee ancestry, he was abused as a
child by his father, briefly raised by an alcoholic mother, and then sent to an orphanage, where
he may also have been abused. After a tour in the military, Smith had a motorcycle accident
which left in him with chronic pain in his permanently injured legs. Capote portrays him
somewhat sympathetically as a dreamer who loved painting and wrote poems and felt remorse for
the killings. He often functions as a sidekick, having ideas and dreams but being less
practical, driven, and motivated than Hickock.

Richard Eugene
"Dick" Hickock (June 6, 1931 €“ April 14, 1965) began as a popular student athlete but
was disfigured in an accident and unable to attend college for financial reasons. He is
portrayed as more practical and ruthless than Smith and the driving force in the pair's
activities, making decisions and translating plans from ideas into reality. He also seemed to
lack remorse and the capacity for self-reflection and second thoughts. He is shown as the leader
of the pair.