ves of Perry and his siblings. They enjoyed seeing their parents perform, but they were forced to live in a truck with little to eat as they traveled the country hunting work on the rodeo circuit. During the Depression in the 1930s, the family moved to Nevada in search of work. Tex John Smith, Perry's father, began moonshining for money. It was around this time that Flo Buckskin, Perry's mother, began drinking. The marriage ended in a huge fight "in which horsewhips and scalding water and kerosene lamps were used as weapons." Flo ran away with the children. John later went to San Francisco to get his children back. Perry was the only one that showed any love for his father. After the divorce, John was granted full custody, but he took only Perry and put the other children in foster care because he could not care for all of them. Perry got into trouble in school and was in a fight. His father summarily removed him from the school, and they left town. Perry says that although he wanted to go to school, his father wouldn't let him, "because he didn't want [him] to learn anything, only how to tote and carry for him." Perry joined the Marines in the Second World War, and he went to Korea, where he displayed signs of his sinister side by throwing a Korean man over a bridge for no reason. He returned from the war and went to find his father in Alaska, where they built the Trapper's Den Lodge. John began to blame his son for the unsuccessful business venture. They got into a fight which ultimately ended their relationship. They got into a fight over a biscuit. They yelled at each other, and John said he didn't want Perry to stay with him anymore. Perry grabbed John by the neck, and John threatened to kill Perry with a shotgun. Perry returned to the house later that night after a walk to find all of his possessions in the snow. His father had thrown him out of his house. Perry's mother died as a result of alcohol abuse, choking on her own vomit....
