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Murderer.": Dedicated

The document discusses a series of murders of jurors from a trial where the defendant was found not guilty. An investigator narrows down the possible suspects to two people, a physical culture enthusiast or a secretary, by establishing alibis and finding a small Greek cross left at each crime scene as a signature.

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Prabhat Ray
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41 views

Murderer.": Dedicated

The document discusses a series of murders of jurors from a trial where the defendant was found not guilty. An investigator narrows down the possible suspects to two people, a physical culture enthusiast or a secretary, by establishing alibis and finding a small Greek cross left at each crime scene as a signature.

Uploaded by

Prabhat Ray
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In our lab we matched the rope ends. In other words.

all three of the


ropes had come from the same length or coil." He paused a moment. who has taken it upon himself to balance the scales ofjuetiee. He
"You stayed in your apartment the entire two weeks?" could be any one of a milhon people."
I nodded. Most people travel on their vacations because they feel Possibly." Ralph said. "But on the other hand. looking closer to
guilty about havmg all that free time and doing nothing But I never home. we find that the Winkler jury members were practically at
feel guilty about having time off." I pondered the cue for a moment. each other'e throats alter live day: of deliberation. The eight who
"You naxd that during his escape attempt, kaler ran into another voted for Winklera eonvictwn felt quite strongly that It ween miscar-
car and killed the driver." riage ofjustlce not to [ind kaler gullty of mum."
James Bellmgton. Age twenty-eight. A steam litter and plumber. I nodded judtciouely. One of thou eight )urore must be our
Married. No chlldren. He was the only one In the car." murderer."
lemiled. "Ralph. If you search Bellingtons garage. or basement, Ill "We were able to eetablish that each of the murders must have
wager you WI" fund a coil of rope whose end exactly matches one end occurred between ten and twelve in the evening. And If we assume
of the rope used on the third juror. My theory is that his Wife was so that one person committed all three of the murdere. we can eliminate
traumatlcally alTected by his death that she systematically hunted six of the Jurors for one reason or another. They have solid ahble for
down every one of the jurors responsible for the" one. two. or all three of the murders.
"We searched." Ralph aald. "No mpe. Besides. Bellmgton and hi- I rapidly subtracted six from eight. Ralph. I believe weve nar-
mfe were separated and in the process of gettmg u divorce. She was rowed It down to two persons.
minimum sad about hll death. especially since she was still hll Ralph agreed. One of them is an Elmer Pouloe. Age twenty-eight.
llfeqmurance beneficiary." Phyelcal culture enthuexast. Works in a florist shop at the Mayfmr
"What about gnevmg relativee'! Brother, sister, patents? Girl shopping center. The other is Deirdre OHenneseey. She's twenty-tive
fnend?" and has a Job as a secretary in a construction firm.
None. Bellington's parents are dead and he had no brother or Ralph," I said, "when we have a cham of murder: like this, the
listen Also no girl fnend." murderels insufferable ego usually impel: him to leave something In
I tried agam. "What about the man Winkler shot? Who wan unduly the nature of a signature at the scene of each crune. Something more
lifected by his death? personal than Just matchmg rope ends."
"Nobody. Hurley ran away from an orphan asylum at the age of Ralph nodded. "Good for you. Henry. After we decided it was
lifteen. No relatives and no friends, except for the man who shot him." murder. we went over everything again with a line-tooth comb. We
I stroked my chin thoughtfully. "And yet It appears that someone found a small cross, about half an inch m ewe. scratched on the
has been commemorating the date of Bellmgton's death by executing underside of each of the chairs supposedly used by the auicxdee.
a juror on the name day of succeeding months. Clearly someone II Hmm. I said. "What kind ofcroee was It. Ralph? Latin" Lorraine?
Celtic? Maltese?
laying that If it weren't for the hung Jury. kaler would have been
safely stowed m a maximum-secunty state prison rather than In our Just a plain ordinary cross. He drew one on I sheet of paper.
Humy county jail when he had the opportunity to escape and subse- "Ah." I said. "The Greek cross. Unless, of course. you txlt It forty-
quently cause the death of Bollington." l frowned. "Smoe we cannot flve degrees to either the Ian: or the right. In which case. it becomes a
find anyone personally devastated by Bellmgton'e death. we must Crone of St. Andrew's."
assume that somewhere out there m this city theme 15 a dedicated nut Ralph and I went downstairs to the police garage where we picked
up our car and drove it to the Mayfair Shopping center. At the llonst

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