Barbara Smith

Barbara Smith, known to Perry Smith as Bobo, is his sister and the wife of Fred Johnson. The evidence gives her no sustained independent viewpoint: she enters the narrative through Perry’s recollections, his anger at her decision about his prospects after prison, and the report that she later avoided contact. Together, these moments establish a relationship in which possible practical help gives way to distance, while Perry’s account of his family supplies the basic context for her place among his siblings.

Identity and Family Background

At the trial, Perry Smith writes an autobiographical statement for the psychiatrist who had interviewed him. In his account of his family, he names Barbara among his siblings, alongside his brother Tex Jr. and sister Fern. He recalls that the family had gone to Juneau in 1929. The statement is Perry’s retrospective account rather than a separate portrait of Barbara, but it confirms that she belongs to the family history he presents while the jury is being assembled.

The other evidence identifies her as Perry’s sister and calls her Bobo. It also establishes her marriage to Fred Johnson, whom Perry regards as a possible source of help. Beyond these details, the account does not describe Barbara’s life, her reasons in her own words, or the circumstances of her marriage. Her significance in the narrative therefore comes chiefly from the choices and reactions attributed to her by others, especially Perry.

Refusal and Perry’s Resentment

While on the run, Perry worries about where he can go and who might help him. He considers Bobo, then dismisses the possibility of help from her while wondering whether Fred Johnson might assist him. Perry remembers that Fred had been inclined to guarantee him a job after prison, an arrangement that could have helped Perry obtain parole. Bobo did not permit it, judging that the arrangement would invite trouble and possibly danger. She later wrote to Perry to convey that position.

Perry does not treat the refusal as a settled boundary. In his thoughts, he imagines going to Denver to visit the Johnsons, where Fred would have to provide him with a new start if he wanted to be rid of him. He also imagines confronting Bobo and making her understand that he could be dangerous. The plan is presented as Perry’s angry fantasy, not as an action he carries out. Its importance lies in the way a refused offer of assistance becomes, in his mind, a grievance and a possible occasion to intimidate her.

This episode also shows the limits of the help Perry thinks he can claim. He has little money and is uncertain where to go; Fred’s willingness, as Perry remembers it, offers a possible route toward employment, while Bobo’s decision closes that route. The narrative does not establish whether her judgment was correct or what risks she weighed beyond the danger and trouble described in Perry’s account. It does show that Perry interprets her refusal less as a protective decision than as a personal slight to be repaid.

Separation After the Arrest

After Perry is imprisoned, neither his father nor his sister writes to him or visits. Investigators report that the sister is afraid of Perry and asks them not to disclose her current address to him. The account identifies this sister in the surrounding family material as Barbara, linking the earlier figure of Bobo to the later report of deliberate distance. The evidence does not say that she explains her fear directly to Perry or that he learns her address.

Perry responds to the news with a hostile remark that imagines her having been present during the crime. That response underscores the gulf between them without explaining the history behind her fear. The book does not present a reconciliation, a later exchange of letters, or evidence that Barbara changes her position. Instead, her absence becomes part of the wider isolation described during Perry’s imprisonment: he has little contact with his family, misses Dick, and depends on a small number of other connections, including the Meiers and occasional consultations with his lawyer.

The contrast between the earlier imagined visit and the later separation is stark. During the flight, Perry pictures himself traveling to the Johnsons’ home and forcing a response from Fred and Bobo; after his arrest, the reported fact is that Barbara has kept her address from him. The narrative does not say that she is responsible for his isolation as a whole, but her refusal of assistance and her request for privacy mark a clear boundary in a family from which Perry receives little contact.

Narrative Role and Limits of the Record

Barbara’s role is consequential but narrowly rendered. The offer Fred might have made connects her to Perry’s hopes for work and parole; her refusal turns that prospect into a source of resentment. Later, her fear and request for secrecy establish that the separation is not simply the result of distance or missed correspondence. She actively seeks protection from contact, while Perry’s reaction reveals how little room he gives to her perspective in his own account.

The narrative’s restraint leaves important matters unresolved. It does not give Barbara’s explanation beyond the reported concern that contact could bring trouble or danger, nor does it establish what she knows about Perry’s circumstances at each point. Her position can be described through the evidence—she rejects the proposed employment arrangement, writes to explain the refusal, later does not visit or write, and asks that her address remain concealed—but not expanded into an invented account of her motives. That limited presence is itself meaningful: Perry’s imagined claim on his sister’s household is set against her documented choice to withhold access, and the book offers no indication that the distance between them is repaired.