Laredo

Laredo appears as a decisive point on Perry Smith and Dick’s route into Mexico: they crossed the border there on the morning of November 23, during their second day in the country when the narrative catches up with them. The town is defined less by description than by its function as a threshold between the United States and the fugitives’ onward journey.

Border Crossing and Route

The crossing at Laredo began a journey that had already taken Perry Smith and Dick to San Luis Potosí, where they spent their first night in a brothel. At noon, while picnicking on a promontory, they were still two hundred miles north of their intended destination, Mexico City. The sequence places Laredo at the start of a route southward, with the border crossing anchoring the chronology of their flight.

Narrative Significance

Laredo is a brief but concrete geographic marker in the account of the men’s movement after the killings. The narrative does not pause to describe the crossing itself; instead, it supplies the date and direction of travel, then shifts to the roadside scene in Mexico. That compressed treatment makes the border a hinge in the journey: a point they passed through, rather than a place where they settled.