In the third part of In Cold Blood, Truman Capote writes of the two grungy hitchhikers, an old man, Johnny, and his young grandson whom Dick and Perry pick up as they see them walking along the highway. Capote describes the young boy as an innocent child forced to live in poverty and homelessness with his ill grandfather as of way of reminding the reader of Perry’s childhood of loneliness and neglect so that when Perry is forced to talk of the murder, which he inevitably will, the reader empathizes with him.

Earlier in the story, Perry remembers his childhood in the orphanage and the constant moves with his father. Perry recalls the time with his father in Alaska as he exclaims, “ ‘Christ, it was cold…Dad and I slept hugged together, rolled up in blankets and bearskins. Mornings, before daylight, I’d hustle our breakfast, biscuits and syrup, fried meat, and off we went to scratch a living’ ” (133). Perry and his father used to dream of finding gold in the “sandy beds of snow water-streams” in Alaska, however this dream never becomes a reality (133). Whether trying to establish an inn for tourists or hunting for gold, Perry and his father were always searching for the next big money making scheme, while at the same time trying to stay alive with little food and shelter. Similar to Perry and his father, Johnny and his grandson find an easy approach to make a small amount of money that goes a long way as it ultimately feeds them through their travels. While riding in the back of the Chevrolet, the boy sees four empty Coca-Cola bottles on the side of the street and demands that Dick stop the car. The kid explains to Dick that, “ ‘there’s plenty of money in bottles....I guarantee you we can pick us up a big piece of change. That’s what me and Johnny been eating off. Refund money’ ” (209). Both Perry and his father, and the boy and Johnny find ways to get by even in their homeless state. By including the small episode involving Johnny and the boy in the long story of Dick and Perry roaming the country, Capote uses the pity the reader feels for the boy to remind them that Perry’s childhood is just as heartbreaking. Once captured by Alvin Dewey, the detective for the Clutter case, Dick and Perry confess to the killings and explain to him exactly what happened on the night of the murder and the nights leading up to it. After hearing the account Perry tells Dewey, Capote describes Dewey’s reaction. Capote writes, “And Dewey could not forget their [the Clutter’s] sufferings. Nonetheless, he found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger—with, rather, a measure of sympathy—for Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another” (246). Dewey realizes that from the story Perry tells him, Perry’s life is full of unfortunate events that get Perry into serious trouble that he has no control over. Dewey understands the events that lead to Perry’s present ordeal, and the reader also understands the unfortunate irony of Perry’s life. As Perry would describe, Willie-Jay, his wise and brilliant friend from jail offers to meet up with him. Perry tries to connect with him but misses him at the bus stop by only a couple of hours. Since Perry missed Willie-Jay, he meets up with his old prison-mate, Dick, who then persuades him into joining him in quick ten-thousand dollar money making scheme. Dick’s plan wins them a set of binoculars, a portable radio, $40-$50, and a death sentence. If Perry had met up with Willie-Jay as he hoped, Perry would not have met up with Dick and participated in the murders. The reader senses this irony and feels pity for the unfortunate man, which is exactly what Capote wants.