Dick is in many ways the more evil of the two killers. A head injury early in life led to him adopting more psychopathic tendencies, though his upbringing wasn’t as turbulent as Perry’s. He has an ex-wife whom he claims to love, but she left him when he cheated on her and got another woman pregnant, whom he subsequently married then abandoned. Despite is relatively high IQ, he becomes a creature of impulse, and has little capacity to distinguish right from wrong. This is most evident in the crimes he commits – not only the murder of the Clutters, but his molestation of young girls. Though he is “sincerely ashamed” of this, he is unable to suppress these carnal desires, which is further proof of his diminished psychological capacity. He is apparently only prevented from raping Nancy Clutter by Perry, who detests the idea.
