This week I’ll be near Jackson, Mississippi, for an author get-together at the Mendenhall Library and then on to Natchez for research on the new series that will be set there. It’s going to be a busy week! Now onto last 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?
- 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.
- All of the neighbor’s tools had his initials engraved on them.
- Round drops of blood from the husband’s wounds were found on the kitchen floor.
- Paper was found at the neighbor’s house that matched the poison pen letters.
- The husband had recently increased his wife’s life insurance policy.
And the answer is…#4. All the others are true. The man had tried to kill his wife and pin it on his neighbor. But the round drops of blood were in the wrong shape for a frenzied life and death struggle. Add the fact that the rest of the neighbor’s tools were nicely engraved rather than being crudely carved into the handle, and the husband had recently upped his wife’s life insurance. The husband was tried and convicted of killing his neighbor and attempting to kill his wife and was given two life sentences. Congrats to Jessica, Mindy, Sherrill, and Lucy!
Now onto this week’s Mystery Question. It’s 1965 and a doctor finds his wife dead, ostensibly of a heart attack. He convinces a colleague to sign off on the thirty-something woman’s death certificate as death due to coronary thrombosis after the husband indicated his wife had chest pains the previous day. Fast forward forty-one days and the husband collects the insurance money and then marries a wealthy socialite. His marriage upsets his lover and she blew the whistle on him, claiming he not only killed his wife but her husband as well–who also supposedly died of a heart attack. The following statements are all true except one. Can you guess which is the one I made up? And can you guess the outcome of the trial?
- After an exhumation of both bodies, the medical examiner can find nothing wrong with the wife’s body, other than a tiny hypodermic puncture mark.
- The lover’s husband shows no signs of a heart attack, instead shows signs of strangulation.
- The husband hires F. Lee Bailey, a famous defense attorney, and the attorney gets him acquitted on the murder charges of the lover’s husband, citing the lack of bruising around the throat.
- F. Lee Bailey successfully argued that both deaths were due to natural causes and the whole episode had been a figment of the lover’s malicious imagination to get back at the accused because he’d spurned her.
- The prosecution argued that as an anesthesiologist, the husband had access to succinylcholine chloride and he knew the drug degrades to other chemicals in the body and is undetectable.
Did the doctor commit the perfect crime and get away with it? Leave your guess in the comments and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a book from my library!
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none” inject=”#bookgiveaway”]Did the doctor commit the perfect crime and get away with it?[/tweet_box]
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Comments 49
#4
Author
A vote for #4. Thanks for dropping by, Ellen!
2. Husband probably got sentenced for wife’s death/ murder but not the lover’s husband’s.
Author
Hi Mindy! I like your reasoning…we’ll see next week if you’re correct. Thanks for dropping by!
#3 is false
Author
Another vote for #3, Tori! We’ll see next week. Thanks for dropping by!
I think #2 is false because those signs would/should have been noted. I love these.
Author
Wow, Delores–#2 is getting a lot of votes this week. We’ll see next week. Thanks for dropping by!
I’ll say #2.
Author
Jackie, another vote for #2. Thanks for stopping by!
#2
Author
Hi Rosalyn! So you think the doctor slipped up there? 🙂 Thanks for dropping by!
4
Author
I’ll add you to the #4 column, Brittany. Thanks for dropping by!
#2 is false. Sentence is life for murder of wife.
Author
Hi Lucy. We’ll see next week if it’s #2! Thanks for stopping by!
#4
Author
Hi Suzanne! I’ll put your answer in the #4 column. Thanks for dropping by!
I am going with #2 this week.
Author
This was a strange case, Gloria. We’ll see if the correct incorrect answer is #2 next week. Thanks for stopping by!
Number 3 is false. The doctor went to prison for the murder of his wife.
Author
Hmmm, Edward. Number 3 is talking about the lover’s husband… We’ll see next week what the correct answer is.
#2 is false
Author
And another one for #2. Shelia, thanks for dropping by!
#2
Author
Another #2! Thanks for stopping by Linda.
I believe #2 is false.
Author
Paula, #2 is getting a lot of picks…I like it when the answers are spread out. 🙂
#3
Author
Hi MS Barb! We’ll see next week what the correct answer is! Thanks for stopping by.
I’ll go with #4.
Author
Faith, #4 has lots of picks, too. Looks like a race between 2 and 4…we’ll see next week if it’s either. 😉
I hope we’ll get to hear more about your research trip! I’ll guess #1, just because I like to be contrary and have absolutely no idea, but my first thought was wouldn’t the body be too shrivelled after a month and a half to find a needle poke? Of course if the poke was somewhere really odd like between the toes that would be really suspicious. 🙂
Author
Great sleuthing, Sandra! I’m not sure if the body shrivels that much if it’s been embalmed, though. So glad you enjoy my little mysteries. 🙂 And I will report on my research next week! With photos. Unfortunately, I only get an afternoon and a few hours Friday morning to absorb Natchez…but I will return! This is just a scouting trip.
This is so hard because they all seem probable!! I’m saying he killed his wife for insurance money and #1 is false, because I would think something in addition to a needle prick had to indicate he was guilty of murdering his wife. Since I’m speculating the rest of the answers are true, he was aquitted for the his lovers husband since answer 3 indicates it. The end
Author
Love, it Jessica! You are a great sleuth. Maybe you should be a mystery writer???
I really have no idea, so I’m going to pick #3, since this said he was acquitted on the husband’s murder and you asked what the outcome of the trial was. I’m just going to say he was found guilty on both.
Author
Hmmm. Interesting, Colleen. We’ll see Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by while I was in Natchez.
#4
Author
We’ll see, Deb…we’ll see.
#5
Author
We’ll see, Caryl. Not long to wait. lol
I’m going with the popluar #2 this week and I’m not good at guessing why…so I’ll leave that to the professionals, lol!
Thanks as always for the fun mystery questions!
Author
I’m so glad you like them, Trixi! And we’ll see next week if it’s the popular #2!
Perhaps one day, but for now I am content with reading them :).
Author
I can definitely see you writing, Jessica.
Awww, thank you! The desire is actually there. These past couple of years I have started stepping out of my comfort zones and accomplishing more than I had dared to dream. Writing is but another dream I am working on making into reality. Thank you for words of encouragement!!
Author
Jessica, just keep stepping out of your comfort zone! The hardest step is the first one. 🙂 And I hope you do start your writing journey.
Thank you! 🙂