This week I’m starting off with a Mystery Photo. Can you tell what this is? Leave your answer in the comment section along with the answer to the Mystery Question.
But first last week’s Mystery Question: Which answer did I make up?
It’s the year 1915 and a farmhand sits on death row for killing a farmer and his wife after stealing $200. At the trial, one of the first firearm experts to testify about ballistic identification had sworn a gun belonging to the farmhand had an abnormal scratch in the barrel, the same scratch that could be found on the bullets removed from the victims.
In addition to the expert witness testimony, the farmhand had confessed to the murder after being held at the local jail for 2 days without food or water. He was convicted and sentenced to death. What happened to overturn his conviction?
What happened to overturn his conviction?
- Someone else confessed to the murders.
- The expert was not an expert and had made up his testimony.
- The brother-in-law of the murderer confessed he had been forced to plant the gun in question in the farmhand’s quarters.
- The warden at Sing Sing where the farmhand awaited execution became convinced of his innocence and worked to get him released.
And the answer is…# 3. Can you believe an expert made up his testimony? And not in just this trial but several others.
And now for this week’s Mystery Question. I’m pulling from the archives again. It’s 1965 and a physician left his hospital, picked up his son from a nursery school near his home, then drove to a family friend’s house to pick her up for lunch. When the friend was unable to keep the luncheon appointment, he drove home to his apartment and found his wife lying on the utility floor. She had been shot repeatedly. He immediately called a neighbor, another medical doctor, who pronounced the wife dead. Which of the following statements is true of this case?
- The husband was arrested and convicted, but on appeal, he was released until the new trial, and he fled to Uganda where he became the personal physician to Idi Amin, the country’s dictator.
- When the murder weapon was identified as a Walther PPK, the doctor, a gun collector, claimed he didn’t own that type gun until evidence proved otherwise. He then changed his story and said it had been stolen.
- When asked why he didn’t examine his wife’s body, the doctor claimed he didn’t need to because he could tell from lividity that she was dead (Lividity=blood pooling at lowest extremities in a corpse). But the other doctor said when she examined the body, lividity had not occurred.
- Time of death was determined to be at 11:36 am. The doctor claimed that he was at his friend’s house at that time, but the friend said he was mistaken. She had strep throat and she had a dose of medicine due at 11:30 which she took on time. At the trial, she stated it was a good half hour after she took her medicine before the doctor arrived.
Okay, Super Sleuths, which statement did I make up? Leave your answer in the comments section to be entered in a drawing for a book from my library!
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]How did the good doctor implicate himself in his wife’s murder? Leave your guess for #bookgiveaway![/tweet_box] [tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Can you guess what’s going on in the photo on my blog? Leave a guess and be entered in #bookgiveaway![/tweet_box]
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Comments 23
Looks like a different kind of squirrel than we have in our parts hanging from its feet where the hummingbird feeder is attached to the tree and hanging onto the base of the feeder with its little paws as it drinks from the spout and we are seeing its underbelly??? I can’t take credit for the guess. It is my hubby’s. 😀
Author
Your husband got it, Sandra. I don’t know how many people who have seen that photo ask, “What in the world is this?” I’ll tell a little story about the squirrel next week.
My guess is # 4. As for the photo, it’s something that’s blown through the tree because of a tornado.
Author
Great imagination, Lisa! No, it’s a squirrel, like Sandra Orchard said.
Statement #2. Photo- a squirrel stretching to eat out of the hummingbird feeder.
Author
Hi Kim and welcome to my blog! You’re right, it’s a squirrel feeding on my hummingbird feeder. We’ll see if you’re correct on the mystery question next week.
I was going to guess that the photo is a bird feeder but I think Sandra Orchard’s husband is probably seeing a more complete picture. For the mystery question, I think #1 is made up.
Author
Hi, Edward. Yep, Sandra’s husband is correct. And we’ll see next week which is the false answer.
I will say #3 is the answer. Is that a hummingbird feeder in the picture?
Author
Yep, Ellen, that’s a hummingbird feeder. With a story. 🙂
I’ll go with #1. Wow, can’t wait to hear more of the squirrel story! lol
Author
It’s funny, Jackie. And we’ll see if you’re right about the Mystery Question!
That is one determined squirrel! Can’t wait to hear the story. I’m guessing #1 is false.
Author
It was hilarious watching him, Caryl. 🙂 And we’ll see about Mystery Question next week.
What a great pic of a determined school. By the way, BBW squirrel is tasty. Next, I’ve read the book you’re drawing these clues from and if I recall correctly (& I maty not), I believe it’s #3, that the others are true 🙂
Author
We’ll see if your memory is correct, Delores. And I’ve cooked squirrel just about any way it can be cooked. 🙂
I’m guessing 1 is made up.
Author
We’ll see next week, Paula. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Though it’s stated already, I had to swing by and see… was going to say a humming bird feeder too. What fun!
Author
Thanks for stopping by, Elaine! Wait until next week and you hear the story. 🙂
Wow, some really good (clever) answers to the mystery this time! Tough call, but I’m going to guess #4 is the fake one. Tricky picture, too! I see from the answers already that my guess would’ve been way off. 🙂
Author
Hi Jerusha. So glad you checked out the other comments, but I wonder now what you thought it was. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Well, my very first guess was going to be a saw stuck into the tree–in the mind set of the murder mysteries too much, I guess–but then I started to wonder if it was something to collect the sap from a tree for syrup! That was going to be my guess. 🙂