Perry Smith (murderer)

Yeah, it’s been awhile.  I know.  I’ve been sick, busy, uninspired…blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, this weekend I borrowed the movie “Capote” from the library.  I’ve seen it before, but this time I decided to watch it a little more closely, including the “making of” featurettes.  After a comment that an actor made about Perry Smith (one of the men involved in the Clutter murders that are chronicled in Capote’s book In Cold Blood), I decided to look for some more information online.  After typing the man’s name into Google, the first list of sites popped up.  On top of that list was the article in Wikipedia titled, “Perry Smith (murderer).”

No, I don’t want to come across as soft on criminals, but that heading fucking sucks.  Yes, the murders were brutal.  Yes, the story is infamous.  Yes, Wikipedia needs to provide some measure of disambiguation.  But to have lived your whole life and then, after death, to be defined by that one word… I don’t know.

I know why it’s written that way.  I know that people who have committed terrible crimes that are greatly publicized are often remembered only by the acts for which they have been convicted.  (Think of other famous assassins, serial killers, or terrorists).  I’m not saying that it doesn’t make sense.  I’m just saying that it sucks.