In Cold Blood - Truman Capote [68]
friend from Korea. But the people there said he'd left six months back and they had no idea where he'd gone. Too bad, big disappointment, end of the world, all that So I found a liquor store and bought a half gallon of red wop and went back to the bus depot and sat there drinking my wine and getting a little warmer. I was really enjoying myself till a man came along and arrested me for vagrancy." The police booked him as "Bob Turner" - a name he'd adopted because of being listed by the F.B.I. He spent fourteen days in jail, was fined ten dollars, and departed from Worcester on another wet November afternoon. "I went down to New York and took a room in a hotel on Eighth Avenue," Perry said. "Near Forty-second Street. Finally, I got a night job. Doing odd jobs around a penny arcade. Right there on Forty-second Street, next to an Automat. Which is where I ate - when I ate. In over three months I practically never left the Broadway area. For one thing, I didn't have the right clothes. Just Western clothes - jeans and boots. But there on Forty-second Street nobody cares, it all rides - anything. My whole life, I never met so many freaks." He lived out the winter in that ugly, neon-lit neighborhood, with its air full of the scent of popcorn, simmering hot dogs, and orange drink. But then, one bright March morning on the edge of spring, as he remembered it, "two F.B.I, bastards woke me up. Arrested me at the hotel. Bang! - I was extradited back to Kansas. To Phillipsburg. That same cute jail. They nailed me to the cross - larceny, jailbreak, car theft. I got five to ten years in Lansing. After I'd been there awhile, I wrote Dad. Let him know the news. And wrote Barbara, my sister. By now, over the years, that was all I had left me. Jimmy a suicide. Fern out the window. My mother dead. Been dead eight years. Everybody gone but Dad and Barbara." A letter from Barbara was among the sheaf of selected matter that Perry preferred not to leave behind in the Mexico City hotel room. The letter, written in a pleasingly legible script, was dated April 28, 1958, at which time the recipient had been imprisoned for approximately two years: Dearest Bro. Perry, We got your 2nd letter today & forgive me for not writing sooner. Our weather here, as yours is, is turning warmer & maybe I am getting spring fever but I am going to try and do better. Your first letter was very disturbing, as I'm sure you must have suspected but that was not the reason I haven't written - it's true the children do keep me busy & it's hard to find time to sit and concentrate on a letter as I have wanted to write you for some time. Donnie has learned to open the-doors and climb on the chairs & other furniture & he worries me constantly about falling. I have been able to let the children play in the yard now &then - but I always have to go out with them as they can hurt themselves if I don't pay attention. But nothing is forever & I know I will be sorry when they start running the block and I don't know where they're at. Here are some statistics if you're interested -
Height Weight Shoe Size Freddie 36-1/2 " 26-1/2 Ibs. 7-1/2 narrow Baby 37-1/2 " 29-1/2 Ibs. 8 narrow Donnie 34 " 26 Ibs. 6-1/2 wide You can see that Donnie is a pretty big boy for 15 months with his 16 teeth and his sparkling personality - people just can 't help loving him. He wears the same size clothes as Baby and Freddie but the pants are too long as yet. I am going to try & make this letter a long one so it will probably have a lot of interruptions such as right now it 's time for Donnie's bath - Baby & Freddie had theirs this a.m. as it's quite cold today & I have had them inside. Be back soon - About my typing - First - I cannot tell a lie! I am not a typist, I use from 1 to 5 fingers & although I can manage & do help Big Fred with his business affairs, what it takes me 1 hr. to do would probably take someone with the Know How - 15 minutes - Seriously, I do not have the time nor the will to learn professionally. But I think it is wonderful how you have stuck with it and become such an excellent typist.