Shakespeare References in Blood And Money

Thomas Thompson’s true crime book, Blood And Money, contains several Shakespeare references. The first is to Shakespeare himself, with Thompson writing, “Had he faced a firing squad and been told that his life would be spared only if he could quote from memory great chunks of Longfellow and Keats and Shakespeare, then he would walk away free and alive” (p. 10). Some of the references in this book are variations on lines from Shakespeare. For example, Thompson writes, “He owned a broken-down chestnut mare named Dot who had borne ten thousand young Houston children on her swayed back” (p. 28). This is a variation on Hamlet’s line to Horatio, “He hath borne me on his back a thousand times.” The next reference to is The Merchant Of Venice, with Thompson writing, “In numerous tellings, Ann had so refined and honed the ‘act of violence’ that it had become a set piece, a gothic monologue, her voice lowering and darkening in the suspenseful moments, then rising and coloring like Portia in the dock” (p. 266). Then we get another variation on a phrase invented by Shakespeare. Thompson writes, “Bennett returned to Texas with his law degree and a season of discontent” (p. 407). The opening line of Richard The Third is “Now is the winter of our discontent.” Then we have another Hamlet reference, Thompson quoting lawyer Bob Bennett, “And this is murder particularly foul, when you shoot a man until he is dead, and then go back and collect money from a defendant like this” (p. 503). This is a reference to the Ghost’s line “Murder most foul, as in the best it is.” The book’s final Shakespeare reference is to King Lear, Thompson writing “Now, just as the friend took his leave, turning the knob of Ash’s front door, grateful to leave as a theatergoer would be to depart the house of Lear, he ventured a rude question” (p. 509).

Blood And Money was originally published in 1976. I read the New Dell Edition, which was first printed in 1981.