Floyd Wells

Floyd Wells, can be argued as the cause of the killings in the first place. He told Dick about the Clutter family, and when Dick told Floyd that he and Perry were going to kill and rob the Clutter family, nothing was done to stop them. The guilt of telling his fellow prisoner about the family was haunting him once he heard of the story from his cell while listening to the radio. He couldn't live with the guilt following him, thinking that he was the cause of these murders. So, he got some input from another prisoner, and decided that he was going to the authorities, to turn in the killer that had once been his fellow prisoner. He said, "Said he didn't think I ought to live with something like that on my mind," (163). So, because of Floyd, the killers were caught. This made the investigation a lot easier for the people in charge now that they knew the whole story. "The past three weeks, that's the angle we've concentrated on. Tracking down every man who ever worked on the Clutter place. Now, the way it's turned out, it just seems like a piece of luck. Few days more and we would've hit this Wells. Found he was in prison. We would've got the truth then," (165) Dewey explains. Floyd is the main reason why the killers were caught, but he is also one of the main reasons why the family was killed. He redeems himself by telling the authorities about the two murderers Dick and Perry. He saves himself, and saves the authorities from a lot more investigating. Floyd definitely saves and redeems himself by telling the authorities.