BooksBarbecue
Back We Were Killers Once
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

Whoever reads this may already know about our trip around the country, from Kansas to Mexico to California to Florida and back to Nevada where we finally were caught. It was a trip of more than seven thousand miles, and no one ever asked how we were able to make that trip on bad checks. The money the boy had taken from the Clutters, or at least some it, slipped out at my last clemency hearing, but I do not think Perry told it to Capote. What we told about the trip around the country stuck to the facts. The only thing we both left out is that the boy was with us the whole way, right down to him being in the room when I brought in the Mexican whore.

There has been talk that I was trying to prove I was normal or something like that, but the fact was we only had the one room and Perry and the boy refused to leave. So I did it with the two of them watching and I did not care if they looked at each other and grinned as if they knew something between them they would not share with me. But after the woman (and she was a grown woman, not a young girl at all) left, the boy asked if I enjoyed myself. I said yes as a matter of fact I did, and he said good, because I paid for her. I knew what he meant, that we would not have money for anything if it had not been for him finding all that cash at the Clutter ranch, but I kept my cool and left. I passed a few checks one town over and felt better having some of my own money in my pocket.

I talk about this now because it was a continuing sign that Perry and I were not the friends we had been before. Whenever the boy and I had a difference Perry would stick up for him and it was “getting my goat.” I remembered thinking of killing him and the boy back at the Clutter ranch, and these days I thought about it more and more.

I was ready to leave Mexico and that was the one time the boy sided with me against Perry. He was as bored as I was.

A good thing about these days is all the interstate highways that have been built. I-10 which runs all the way across the country from Phoenix to Jacksonville, Florida, had been constructed just a couple of years earlier, as if the government was helping us get around the country fast. I passed a few checks along the way and we saved some money by often sleeping in the car. This was especially good because there was less chance of being spotted by someone who might recognize us or the car as we drove through the center of the country.