Murder or Justifiable Homicide?

Patricia Bradley Mystery Question 43 Comments

Last week this time I was on a plane to Florida to see my great grand Aliyah! The drawing is one that a friend did for me.

I thought the cowgirl outfit was perfect since I’m sure she’ll be riding horses before she can walk. 🙂

When I left Memphis it was in the 40s and when I got off the plane it was nearly 80. Yay! And oh, the flowers that were blooming. And I discovered this big yellow disc in the sky…it’s been raining so much in Mississippis I had forgotten what the sun looked like.

But enough about me. Let’s get to the answer of last week’s Mystery question.

Three of the following reports are true. I made up one. Can you guess which one?
  1. Police responded to a report of two dogs running loose and attacking ducks. One duck refused medical attention and left the area.
  2. A man reported that his neighbor’s dog is a jerk.
  3. A caller reported a squirrel was stealing his bird seed and demanded the police arrest the squirrel.
  4. Police received a report a man was attacking the double arches after McDonald’s employees refused to make him 30 double cheeseburgers.

And the answer is…#3. A caller reported a squirrel was stealing his bird seed and demanded the police arrest the squirrel. And I’ve used this one before. 🙂 But can you believe people would actually call in a report that a neighbor’s dog was a jerk? Or any of the ones that were true. lol

Now for this week’s Mystery Question: it’s 1985 and a man and his wife took up farming. An arrogant attitude and two years of crop failures had earned him the contempt of his neighbors. One day his farmhands found a dead sheep on his farm with a note “You Next.” He reported it to the police and detailed a lengthy and virulent campaign against him made up of threatening phone calls and poison pen letters. The motive for the campaign appeared to be from him seducing several of the women in town.
Nothing more happened until one day he asked his wife to pick up something from the hardware store for him. When her car wouldn’t start, she used his. As soon as she turned the key a pipe bomb went off, and she was badly injured, but not killed. The husband insisted the bomb was for him. He received more letters but analyzing the handwriting was pointless because each letter had been gone over backward and forward. The husband seemed thoroughly shaken and pointed the finger at a neighbor whom he’d had a lengthy and violent dispute over boundary lines.
Two weeks later, the police were called to the house where they found the neighbor shot dead by the husband. The neighbor still clutched a knife in his hands. The handle of the knife had his initials crudely carved in the handle. The husband was awash with blood–he had several slashes on his face and one deep gash from his left shoulder to his belt. He claimed the neighbor came over to ask about the wife then went crazy, admitting he’d put the pipe bomb in the husband’s car and had sent all the letters. When the neighbor attacked him, the husband ran to the closet and grabbed his shotgun and shot the neighbor, killing him and claiming self-defense. Four of the following statements about the case are true and one is not. Can you guess which is the incorrect statement? And can you guess how the case turned out?
  1. The neighbor’s workshop was searched and police found a steel pipe that had been cut and matched the steel pipe in the car bomb.
  2. All of the neighbor’s tools had his initials engraved on them.
  3. Round drops of blood from the husband’s wounds were found on the kitchen floor.
  4. Paper was found at the neighbor’s house that matched the poison pen letters.
  5. The husband had recently increased his wife’s life insurance policy.

Okay, Super Sleuths, what’s the wrong statement? And can you fill in the blanks on the case and determine the outcome? Leave your answer in the comments and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a book from my library and an adult coloring book this month!

Winner of last month’s $10 gift card is Suzanne and the winner of one of my books is Jessica. Congratulations!

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none” excerpt=”#bookgiveaway”]Did the husband kill the neighbor in cold blood or was it justifiable homicide?[/tweet_box]

 

 

 

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Comments 43

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  3. Jessica

    I say 4! The husband was trying to frame his neighbor by stealing some of his pipe.
    My husband and I don’t have extreme amounts of life insurance on each other and I have told him joking around that I’m of more value to him alive :).

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      Patricia Bradley

      Good idea, Jessica. Lol. I don’t have any insurance either…guess I write too many suspense books! 🙂 We’ll see next week if you’re right. Thanks for stopping by each week.

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  4. MJSH

    4. I think the husband planned it all and planted whatever the police found in the neighbor’s property.

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  5. Rosalyn

    I’m going with #2. I think the husband had this all planned out and tried to make his neighbor look like the guilty party.

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  8. Suzanne Sellner

    I think it’s #5 that is not correct. The others are too consistent with one another. This one is the odd one out.

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  9. Diane Nickerson

    I say #2 is completely false, although I believe the paper from #4 was found in the husband’s home. The husband was trying to murder his wife for the insurance money then framed his neighbor when the bomb failed to kill his wife.

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  11. Sherrill

    I think #4 isn’t true. The killer could probably have planted the pipe in the workshop, but it would be harder to get the paper in the neighbor’s house.

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    1. Sherrill

      And I’m pretty sure with the new insurance policy and the round drops of blood, the police would arrest the husband and he’d be found guilty! 🙂

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  13. Suzanne

    #5. He never intended to get rid of his wife, but the wife was writing the letters because she knew about his affairs.

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  15. Edward Arrington

    Pat, I am going with #2 this time. I think the neighbor planted the bomb that injured the wife so the husband sought revenge and set up the scene to make it appear the neighbor had come after him.

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  19. Trixi

    #2 this week and I can’t possibly tell how the case turned out, lol! I’m bad enough at guessing 😉
    Thanks Patricia! How fun to go see your great granddaughter Aliyah. You certainly don’t seem old enough to have grands!

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