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Back We Were Killers Once Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty–one
  25. Twenty–two
  26. Twenty–three
  27. Twenty–four
  28. Twenty–five
  29. Twenty–six
  30. Twenty–seven
  31. Twenty–eight
  32. Twenty–nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty–one
  35. Thirty–two
  36. Thirty–three
  37. Thirty–four
  38. Thirty–five
  39. Thirty–six
  40. Thirty–seven
  41. Thirty–eight
  42. Thirty–nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty–one
  45. Forty–two
  46. Forty–three
  47. Forty–four
  48. Forty–five
  49. Forty–six
  50. Forty–seven
  51. Forty–eight
  52. Forty–nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty–one
  55. Fifty–two
  56. Fifty–three
  57. Fifty–four
  58. Fifty–five
  59. Fifty–six
  60. Fifty–seven
  61. Author’s Note
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. Also by Becky Masterman
  64. About the Author
  65. Newsletter Sign-up

I met Perry in Leavenworth where we were cellmates for only two weeks. But it was then he told me he had actually killed someone in Nevada once, and I thought he would be a good partner in crime for this reason, that he seemed to be open to all kinds of possibilities, and not much of a conscience. I had never killed anyone, and did not think I could do it. I got paroled first, and talked Perry into meeting me shortly after, when he was released. That’s how we hooked up, at a restaurant in Kansas City. It was there that I laid out the plan to get a car, drive across the state, rob the Clutters, and be back in Olathe in the same day so as not to make anyone suspicious. Perry agreed to the plan.

I had been working as a mechanic in an auto shop in Olathe near where I was living with my parents on their small farm. It was easy to borrow a car from that place, load up a shotgun I had, pick up Perry who had moved into a motel in town, and head out very early one morning.

Our destination was a small town outside of Garden City, four hundred miles away. This is where the Clutters were, and I was only thinking about the job. But Perry was thinking about Mexico. He talked and talked about what we would do in Mexico, what cities we would go to, as if the Clutters were just a stop for gas or food. I said would you please shut up about Mexico already and keep your mind on what we need to do tonight? He did not lose his temper at me the way he did sometimes, he just stewed.

We were about fifty miles west of Olathe and had a long ways to go. I did not relish the thought of Perry giving me the silent treatment for the rest of the trip. When you are doing a job together you need to be together. Well, within a few miles of Perry’s silence we encountered the boy and the man, the boy waving wildly at us to stop. As we got close, I could see the man was old. He stood still next to the boy like a sad statue.

It is true that they were on the side of the road and flagged us down, and that I was against picking them up. But it is more complicated than the story Perry ultimately told. And it was not about bottles.