Perry believes that his lack of money and friends are his main flaws, so if he spends his life trying to dispel his loneliness and poverty. Throughout the book Perry follows dick around despite Dick’s poor treatment of him because he simply wants a friend. Perry became active in theft at a young age and it was to gain money that he went to the Clutter’s in the first place. In jail Perry comes to the conclusion that, “‘The rich never hang. Only the poor and friendless.’” (257). Knowing he fills both these categories in his final days Perry desperately attempts to gain what he has lacked his whole life, a friend. In a desperate attempt to make a friend, Perry notes in his diary that he tried to talk with Dick’s father: “Said hello when I saw him go past [the cell door] be he kept going” (258). Again in his diary Perry remarks that he has, “Many thoughts of Dick” (259). But sadly neither of these attempts at connecting with someone come to life. After a long life of striving for friendship Perry is elated when he finally finds what he is looking for: “Here was someone offering help, a sane and respectable man who had once known and liked him, a man who signed himself friend” (262). Perry believes that finding this new friend will help him because a friend is what he lacks in his life. But attempting to collect money and make friendships has not, despite what he may think, previously benefited Perry and this time is no exception.