Describe and explain the importance of the bicycle chain story.

The story of how Perry beat a black man to death in Las Vegas just for the fun of it is significant because it illustrated his violent streak...... and it drew Dick's attention. Before hearing that Perry had beaten a man to death with a bicycle chain, Dick wasn't very interested in cultivating his friendship. The story opened Dick's eyes to qualities Perry possessed that he could make use of.

He had liked him but not considered him especially worth cultivating until, one day, Perry described a murder, telling how, simply for the hell of it," he had killed a colored man in Las Vegas - beaten him to death with a bicycle chain. The anecdote elevated Dick's opinion of Little Perry; he began to see more of him, and, like Willie-Jay, though for dissimilar reasons, gradually decided that Perry possessed unusual and valuable qualities. Several murderers, or men who boasted of murder or their willingness to commit it, circulated inside Lansing; but Dick became convinced that Perry was that rarity, "a natural killer" - absolutely sane, but conscienceless, and capable of dealing, with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblows.