1 00:00:35,716 --> 00:00:38,150 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, 2 00:00:38,552 --> 00:00:40,918 and Doctor Watson, wherever you are. 3 00:00:46,893 --> 00:00:48,690 Tonight's case is... 4 00:00:52,666 --> 00:00:55,897 Tonight's case is called, "The Perfect Crime." 5 00:00:56,803 --> 00:00:59,363 I'm not sure who it was who said, 6 00:00:59,439 --> 00:01:04,172 "A perfect crime is exactly the same as a perfect marriage. 7 00:01:04,644 --> 00:01:09,411 "Their being perfect depends on your not being caught." 8 00:01:10,183 --> 00:01:12,151 Tonight we plan... 9 00:01:13,754 --> 00:01:16,780 This is exactly why I never take my pipe to bed. 10 00:01:16,857 --> 00:01:19,917 If you fall asleep, you could be bubbled to death. 11 00:01:22,662 --> 00:01:24,721 And now join me, if you will, 12 00:01:24,798 --> 00:01:28,029 while we contemplate the perfect crime. 13 00:02:40,340 --> 00:02:41,671 Good evening, Mr. Courtney. 14 00:02:41,741 --> 00:02:43,675 I know it's late to be calling uninvited, 15 00:02:43,743 --> 00:02:47,110 but I just returned from abroad, the ship was late docking, 16 00:02:47,180 --> 00:02:48,306 and I just saw the newspapers. 17 00:02:48,381 --> 00:02:49,780 Haven't I seen you somewhere before? 18 00:02:49,850 --> 00:02:50,839 I'm John Gregory. 19 00:02:50,917 --> 00:02:52,316 Oh, yes, of course. Do come in. 20 00:02:52,385 --> 00:02:53,443 Thank you. 21 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:54,817 My man is off this evening, 22 00:02:54,888 --> 00:02:57,015 so, if you don't mind, I'll just put your coat here. 23 00:02:57,090 --> 00:02:58,079 All right. 24 00:02:58,158 --> 00:02:59,147 Won't you come in and sit down? 25 00:02:59,226 --> 00:03:00,454 Thank you. 26 00:03:00,527 --> 00:03:04,827 I was just sitting here enjoying the solution of my last case, 27 00:03:04,898 --> 00:03:07,298 and, of course, some brandy. Would you join me? 28 00:03:07,367 --> 00:03:08,356 Thank you. 29 00:03:08,435 --> 00:03:11,802 You know, I've seen you on at least four separate occasions 30 00:03:11,872 --> 00:03:14,272 in the courtroom, defending... 31 00:03:14,941 --> 00:03:18,570 Let me see, there were the State of New York 32 00:03:18,645 --> 00:03:21,409 versus your client Richards, 33 00:03:21,481 --> 00:03:23,813 and then you represented Braverman, 34 00:03:23,884 --> 00:03:28,412 and then, if I recall, Flanagan, and finally Kowtowski. 35 00:03:28,488 --> 00:03:30,854 No, it was Kowtowski, then Flanagan. 36 00:03:30,924 --> 00:03:33,051 Flanagan was the last one, just before I went abroad. 37 00:03:33,126 --> 00:03:35,219 Then you weren't here when he was executed? 38 00:03:35,295 --> 00:03:36,319 No. 39 00:03:37,063 --> 00:03:38,360 I tried to be out of the state 40 00:03:38,431 --> 00:03:40,058 when all four of them were killed. 41 00:03:40,133 --> 00:03:43,000 Executed, my friend, by due process of the law 42 00:03:43,069 --> 00:03:46,630 and the inevitable grinding of the mills of the Almighty. 43 00:03:48,775 --> 00:03:51,573 Now there is Exhibit A for the prosecution 44 00:03:51,645 --> 00:03:54,478 in the matter of your last client, Flanagan. 45 00:03:55,248 --> 00:03:58,217 Do you like Brahms, Mr. Gregory? 46 00:03:58,685 --> 00:04:01,518 Ordinarily, but not when it turns out to be a death march. 47 00:04:02,756 --> 00:04:03,848 I see you keep souvenirs 48 00:04:03,924 --> 00:04:05,915 of your success as a detective. 49 00:04:05,992 --> 00:04:07,653 I know only three great detectives. 50 00:04:07,727 --> 00:04:10,252 One is now in London. The second in Paris, and the third is... 51 00:04:10,330 --> 00:04:12,355 The third, or should I say the first, 52 00:04:12,432 --> 00:04:13,865 is here in this room right now. 53 00:04:13,934 --> 00:04:16,596 No point in false modesty, now, is there? 54 00:04:16,670 --> 00:04:19,230 Some sportsmen decorate their walls with the head of a lion 55 00:04:19,306 --> 00:04:20,864 they once shot in Tanganyika, 56 00:04:20,941 --> 00:04:23,239 or some poor unfortunate rhino 57 00:04:23,310 --> 00:04:25,175 caught sunbathing in the Congo. 58 00:04:25,245 --> 00:04:27,406 These, Mr. Gregory, are my trophies, 59 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:31,382 perfect memories of so very many imperfect crimes. 60 00:04:31,451 --> 00:04:34,079 Believe me, they are not monuments to my brilliance, 61 00:04:34,154 --> 00:04:37,590 but tombstones to the stupidity of criminals. 62 00:04:41,294 --> 00:04:44,786 What's the empty space for, there in the center? 63 00:04:45,432 --> 00:04:47,332 For the perfect crime. 64 00:04:47,767 --> 00:04:50,327 For 15 years I've kept this space 65 00:04:50,403 --> 00:04:53,099 in the hopes that I might come to grips with a killer 66 00:04:53,173 --> 00:04:55,368 who had plotted a perfect murder. 67 00:04:55,442 --> 00:04:57,808 As you can see, it's still empty. 68 00:04:58,078 --> 00:05:00,808 Well, if it were perfect, how would you know the criminal? 69 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:02,780 What souvenir could you place there? 70 00:05:02,849 --> 00:05:04,248 The trouble's more basic than that. 71 00:05:04,317 --> 00:05:06,842 I simply can't find a real challenge. 72 00:05:07,287 --> 00:05:10,814 Murder never seems to evoke the best efforts of the best minds. 73 00:05:10,890 --> 00:05:12,790 And yet, murder it must be. 74 00:05:12,859 --> 00:05:15,020 Oh, would you care for some more brandy? 75 00:05:15,095 --> 00:05:16,562 Yes, thank you. 76 00:05:16,630 --> 00:05:17,654 Oh, but tell me, 77 00:05:17,731 --> 00:05:21,030 why must the perfect crime necessarily be a murder? 78 00:05:21,101 --> 00:05:23,160 Well, is it not the most reprehensible? 79 00:05:23,236 --> 00:05:25,136 Human life is what we prize most, 80 00:05:25,205 --> 00:05:27,139 what we do our best to protect. 81 00:05:27,207 --> 00:05:30,005 To take a life with a skill that eludes detection 82 00:05:30,076 --> 00:05:33,409 is unquestionably the ideal criminal action. 83 00:05:33,947 --> 00:05:36,211 Now, you make it sound pleasant. 84 00:05:36,282 --> 00:05:39,115 Well, surgeons talk of beautiful cases, don't they? 85 00:05:39,185 --> 00:05:41,244 Well, that's precisely my attitude. 86 00:05:41,321 --> 00:05:45,155 Now, if it's to be murder, then it must be the purest kind. 87 00:05:45,625 --> 00:05:47,456 Rule out the crime passionnel. 88 00:05:47,527 --> 00:05:49,961 Hot blood begets innumerable blunders. 89 00:05:50,030 --> 00:05:53,022 No, the perfect crime must be a work of art, 90 00:05:53,099 --> 00:05:55,966 like the ceramics I make here in my own workshop, 91 00:05:56,036 --> 00:05:59,301 done for art's sake alone, not for gain. 92 00:05:59,372 --> 00:06:03,866 There is only one kind of murder that I consider pure. 93 00:06:03,943 --> 00:06:05,342 That's the murder of elimination, 94 00:06:05,412 --> 00:06:07,277 the murder in which the sole object 95 00:06:07,347 --> 00:06:10,009 is to remove the victim from the world. 96 00:06:10,684 --> 00:06:13,414 For instance, take that case which I mentioned when you came in. 97 00:06:13,486 --> 00:06:14,783 Oh, what case would that be? 98 00:06:14,854 --> 00:06:16,617 The Harrington case. 99 00:06:16,756 --> 00:06:20,157 He really should have tried to get rid of West's body. 100 00:06:20,527 --> 00:06:22,427 The absence of a corpus delicti 101 00:06:22,495 --> 00:06:24,258 is curiously troublesome to the police. 102 00:06:24,330 --> 00:06:26,798 Although, even if he had tried to dispose of it, 103 00:06:26,866 --> 00:06:29,767 I should have caught up with him nonetheless. He was much too careless. 104 00:06:29,836 --> 00:06:32,930 It was Harrington I came to talk to you about. 105 00:06:33,006 --> 00:06:34,496 But he's not one of your clients. 106 00:06:34,574 --> 00:06:37,509 No. I was away or I might have taken the case. 107 00:06:37,944 --> 00:06:39,502 But I know him quite well. 108 00:06:39,579 --> 00:06:43,106 And West, and Mrs. West even better. 109 00:06:43,983 --> 00:06:45,416 Lovely woman, I understand. 110 00:06:45,485 --> 00:06:46,509 Yes. 111 00:06:46,586 --> 00:06:48,144 Yes, she and West are separated. 112 00:06:48,221 --> 00:06:49,518 She's been living in Europe. 113 00:06:49,589 --> 00:06:51,056 Yeah, I know. 114 00:06:51,391 --> 00:06:54,485 I'd like to hear how you tracked down Harrington. 115 00:06:54,894 --> 00:06:56,555 Simplicity itself. 116 00:06:58,098 --> 00:07:01,226 I chose this small revolver 117 00:07:01,301 --> 00:07:04,065 to recall the various aspects of the case. 118 00:07:04,370 --> 00:07:07,771 Of course, I could have selected a tire with a blister, 119 00:07:07,841 --> 00:07:10,969 but I fear it would have been rather troublesome fitting it in there. 120 00:07:11,044 --> 00:07:15,481 Or I could have exhibited the thread ends from a tweed suit. 121 00:07:15,548 --> 00:07:17,140 Now, you knew Ernest West, 122 00:07:17,217 --> 00:07:20,152 so you know he was a millionaire, Wall Street. 123 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:23,250 He had a lodge near Smithtown on the island 124 00:07:23,323 --> 00:07:25,951 and he used it as a base for duck hunting. 125 00:07:26,025 --> 00:07:29,051 During the season, he used to go down there almost every weekend. 126 00:07:29,829 --> 00:07:32,161 West kept only one servant at the lodge, 127 00:07:32,232 --> 00:07:35,030 a housekeeper who had grown old in his service, 128 00:07:35,101 --> 00:07:38,537 but the one woman absolutely devoted to him. 129 00:07:38,605 --> 00:07:40,300 He'd let her off the previous evening 130 00:07:40,373 --> 00:07:42,671 to spend the night with her daughter in Jamaica. 131 00:07:42,742 --> 00:07:45,677 She came back early to prepare his breakfast 132 00:07:45,745 --> 00:07:49,078 and found West shot through the heart. 133 00:07:49,983 --> 00:07:53,578 It was as if he'd been relaxing when death took him suddenly. 134 00:07:53,653 --> 00:07:55,644 There was no sign of a struggle. 135 00:07:56,256 --> 00:07:58,816 I was called in by Homicide at once. 136 00:07:58,892 --> 00:08:00,553 West was an important man, you know, 137 00:08:00,627 --> 00:08:03,095 and the Department wanted immediate action. 138 00:08:03,163 --> 00:08:06,894 Inside the house I found only one item I thought useful. 139 00:08:07,734 --> 00:08:10,134 In analyzing the dust in the gunroom, 140 00:08:10,203 --> 00:08:13,001 I came across several tiny thread ends 141 00:08:13,072 --> 00:08:16,041 that had obviously come from a tweed suit. 142 00:08:16,709 --> 00:08:20,145 These threads could not be matched in West's wardrobe. 143 00:08:20,213 --> 00:08:22,545 Outside there was more to go on. 144 00:08:22,982 --> 00:08:25,314 The ground had been damp the previous night 145 00:08:25,385 --> 00:08:27,876 and two sets of footprints were visible, 146 00:08:27,954 --> 00:08:29,819 a man's and a woman's. 147 00:08:30,223 --> 00:08:31,918 Excluding the police's, of course. 148 00:08:31,991 --> 00:08:33,015 A woman's? 149 00:08:33,092 --> 00:08:34,992 Yes, the housekeeper's. 150 00:08:35,361 --> 00:08:36,350 I see. 151 00:08:36,429 --> 00:08:38,624 The prints were difficult to identify. 152 00:08:38,698 --> 00:08:41,861 The man had walked up and down the lane outside of the house 153 00:08:41,935 --> 00:08:44,836 and had trampled every one of the woman's prints. 154 00:08:44,904 --> 00:08:46,201 Well, doesn't that seem odd? 155 00:08:46,272 --> 00:08:47,398 Not at all. 156 00:08:47,473 --> 00:08:50,135 You see, he couldn't decide whether to run or stay, 157 00:08:50,210 --> 00:08:53,008 even though he had a car waiting for him at the end of the lane. 158 00:08:53,079 --> 00:08:55,570 So he paced back and forth, 159 00:08:55,648 --> 00:08:58,116 calming his nerves and collecting his thoughts. 160 00:08:58,184 --> 00:09:00,345 You say he had a car waiting for him? 161 00:09:00,420 --> 00:09:02,445 Yes, a heavy touring car. 162 00:09:02,989 --> 00:09:04,581 The tracks were perfectly plain. 163 00:09:04,657 --> 00:09:07,626 But there was one unique feature about these tracks. 164 00:09:07,694 --> 00:09:10,629 A large, hard blister on one of the treads. 165 00:09:10,697 --> 00:09:13,598 It made a perfectly defined indentation in the mud 166 00:09:13,666 --> 00:09:15,725 every time it came around. 167 00:09:16,669 --> 00:09:18,864 You still haven't told me how you got on to Harrington. 168 00:09:18,938 --> 00:09:20,428 With all the evidence, all that remained 169 00:09:20,506 --> 00:09:23,134 was to relate the clues to one suspect. 170 00:09:23,977 --> 00:09:27,708 Such times I let my mind wander. I set it free. 171 00:09:28,948 --> 00:09:32,645 It occurred to me that I might find my answer in Wall Street. 172 00:09:33,353 --> 00:09:35,719 And sure enough, I discovered 173 00:09:35,788 --> 00:09:37,847 that in the three weeks prior to West's death, 174 00:09:37,924 --> 00:09:41,451 a certain common stock had risen 57 points. 175 00:09:42,428 --> 00:09:45,693 Two days after he was shot, it dropped back 63 points, 176 00:09:45,765 --> 00:09:47,824 so I searched further. 177 00:09:47,901 --> 00:09:51,701 I found that a man named Harrington had, on the day that West was murdered, 178 00:09:51,771 --> 00:09:56,299 been short 132,000 shares of that particular stock. 179 00:09:56,376 --> 00:09:58,776 He had been selling short all the way up, 180 00:09:58,845 --> 00:10:00,972 and West had been buying all that was offered. 181 00:10:01,047 --> 00:10:03,242 So he simply eliminated West. 182 00:10:03,716 --> 00:10:05,809 It was murder for millions. 183 00:10:06,719 --> 00:10:08,619 Now the rest was routine. 184 00:10:08,688 --> 00:10:11,589 In a loft in the garage of Harrington's country place, 185 00:10:11,658 --> 00:10:14,218 the police discovered three perfect tires 186 00:10:14,294 --> 00:10:17,058 and a fourth with a large, hard blister. 187 00:10:17,597 --> 00:10:20,532 The thread ends matched one of Harrington's suits. 188 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:23,865 And in his wall safe we found this. 189 00:10:24,404 --> 00:10:27,464 West had been killed by a single shot from this gun. 190 00:10:27,540 --> 00:10:30,338 So Harrington, of course, confessed at once. 191 00:10:30,977 --> 00:10:32,569 And the press... 192 00:10:33,346 --> 00:10:37,976 The press, I fear, made far too much over my part in the affair. 193 00:10:38,051 --> 00:10:41,509 Mr. Courtney, I haven't held that gun, have I? 194 00:10:41,587 --> 00:10:42,645 I don't follow you. 195 00:10:42,722 --> 00:10:46,783 Since I've been here tonight, I haven't seen the gun except for the barrel. 196 00:10:46,859 --> 00:10:49,919 Isn't that correct? I mean, I haven't seen the handle. 197 00:10:49,996 --> 00:10:51,964 No, don't, don't. Keep it covered. 198 00:10:52,031 --> 00:10:55,558 But tell me, is the handle slightly chipped on the right side 199 00:10:55,635 --> 00:10:59,571 and does a crack run all the way up on the left side? 200 00:10:59,639 --> 00:11:02,574 Yes, it does, but how did you know? 201 00:11:02,642 --> 00:11:04,837 Harrington did not kill West. 202 00:11:05,411 --> 00:11:07,606 You caught the wrong person. 203 00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:10,478 The wrong man died in the electric chair. 204 00:11:11,351 --> 00:11:13,319 Harrington was innocent. 205 00:11:14,587 --> 00:11:17,852 How can you... How can you say such a thing? 206 00:11:17,924 --> 00:11:21,758 I not only can say it, Mr. Courtney, I can prove it. 207 00:11:41,247 --> 00:11:43,374 Do you realize what you're telling me? 208 00:11:43,449 --> 00:11:44,541 I do. 209 00:11:46,686 --> 00:11:49,154 Careful of it. It's still loaded. 210 00:11:49,222 --> 00:11:52,555 The four of us were target shooting at Davos in Switzerland. 211 00:11:52,625 --> 00:11:54,252 Alice dropped this on a rock. 212 00:11:54,327 --> 00:11:55,692 Alice West? Mmm. 213 00:11:56,162 --> 00:11:57,686 That's how it got chipped. 214 00:11:57,764 --> 00:12:00,358 Well, what do you mean, the four of you? 215 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:03,896 Alice, West, Harrington, and myself. 216 00:12:04,404 --> 00:12:06,634 We were all stopping at the same hotel in Switzerland. 217 00:12:06,706 --> 00:12:07,866 When was this? 218 00:12:07,940 --> 00:12:10,568 My first trip over, four years ago. 219 00:12:11,210 --> 00:12:12,871 And this was Alice's gun. 220 00:12:12,945 --> 00:12:14,572 Why, then she gave it to Harrington. 221 00:12:14,647 --> 00:12:17,639 No, I doubt it. As much as she loved him, I doubt it. 222 00:12:17,717 --> 00:12:20,618 He probably took it away from her, but too late. 223 00:12:20,686 --> 00:12:22,779 Now you're talking in riddles. What do you mean? 224 00:12:22,855 --> 00:12:26,518 Simply that this little weapon helped to execute an innocent man. 225 00:12:26,592 --> 00:12:29,459 Now look here, Gregory, you of all people should know 226 00:12:29,529 --> 00:12:33,659 how precise, how painstaking, how objective I am about evidence. 227 00:12:33,733 --> 00:12:37,464 You can't pop in here in the middle of the night and drop a bombshell like this. 228 00:12:37,537 --> 00:12:41,439 Four years ago in Switzerland, Harrington fell in love with Alice West, 229 00:12:41,507 --> 00:12:42,906 and she with him. 230 00:12:42,975 --> 00:12:46,604 West played dog in the manger, refused to give her a divorce. 231 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:51,446 Of course, she left him, but that didn't help her towards marrying Harrington. 232 00:12:51,751 --> 00:12:53,184 I was in on the affair from the first. 233 00:12:53,252 --> 00:12:54,810 I tell you, he even behaved very badly. 234 00:12:54,887 --> 00:12:56,946 Well, under the circumstances, why shouldn't he? 235 00:12:57,023 --> 00:12:59,491 He hadn't loved Alice for a long time. 236 00:12:59,559 --> 00:13:04,792 And he simply made up his mind that no other man was going to have her, legally at least. 237 00:13:05,698 --> 00:13:07,825 Then she began to drink. 238 00:13:07,900 --> 00:13:09,731 I'm afraid she's become a hopeless alcoholic. 239 00:13:09,802 --> 00:13:13,636 This last trip, I saw her in Monte Carlo at her hotel. 240 00:13:13,706 --> 00:13:16,106 We'd been talking about her husband's murder. 241 00:13:16,175 --> 00:13:19,110 I'd been speculating as to who could have done it. 242 00:13:19,178 --> 00:13:21,510 You hadn't yet arrested Harrington. 243 00:13:21,581 --> 00:13:25,745 I asked her if she and Harrington weren't going to be married soon. 244 00:13:25,818 --> 00:13:28,616 What distressed me most was her listless attitude, 245 00:13:28,688 --> 00:13:32,089 as though some terrible thing had possessed her mind. 246 00:13:36,195 --> 00:13:38,629 She went to her purse and gave me something to read. 247 00:13:38,698 --> 00:13:41,997 A letter. The last letter her husband had sent her. 248 00:13:43,636 --> 00:13:47,800 It was cruel, sadistic. It told her how he intended to keep her tied up 249 00:13:47,874 --> 00:13:51,469 until she died a bitter old woman, alone and unloved, 250 00:13:51,544 --> 00:13:54,775 that he would come and laugh over her as she lay in her coffin. 251 00:13:54,847 --> 00:13:56,906 There was a lot more, but it made me sick. 252 00:13:56,983 --> 00:13:58,610 I didn't want to finish it. 253 00:13:58,684 --> 00:14:01,881 She said, "What would you do to a man like that?" 254 00:14:01,954 --> 00:14:05,754 I found myself answering, "Kill him. Kill him!" 255 00:14:05,825 --> 00:14:08,055 And then, all at once, she screamed the words back at me 256 00:14:08,127 --> 00:14:11,460 until I got her to stop. 257 00:14:11,531 --> 00:14:16,628 Then, as calmly as I could, I pointed out that someone had already done just that. 258 00:14:17,003 --> 00:14:18,561 I'll never forget the way she looked at me 259 00:14:18,638 --> 00:14:21,129 or the change that came over her face. 260 00:14:22,341 --> 00:14:24,741 "It's funny," she said. 261 00:14:25,278 --> 00:14:28,304 "You can shoot the heads off all the innocent bottles you like. 262 00:14:28,381 --> 00:14:30,212 "No one says a word." 263 00:14:31,984 --> 00:14:36,182 "But if you kill a human snake, " she said, "they'd burn you for it." 264 00:14:36,255 --> 00:14:39,281 "And I don't want to burn, thank you very much. " 265 00:14:40,526 --> 00:14:42,391 Do you follow me, Mr. Courtney? 266 00:14:42,461 --> 00:14:44,395 There was no reason for Harrington to borrow Alice's gun 267 00:14:44,463 --> 00:14:45,862 to kill West, now was there? 268 00:14:45,932 --> 00:14:47,490 Borrow it? He had access to it. 269 00:14:47,567 --> 00:14:49,296 You said so yourself. He simply took it. 270 00:14:49,368 --> 00:14:51,768 Why? He had quite a little arsenal of his own, hadn't he? 271 00:14:51,837 --> 00:14:55,295 Well, yes. We did find a couple of service revolvers and a heavy automatic. 272 00:14:55,374 --> 00:14:59,310 Exactly. He would never have used a toy to kill West, not in a 1000 years. 273 00:14:59,378 --> 00:15:01,812 That he would or would not have used a.25 caliber 274 00:15:01,881 --> 00:15:04,611 is merely an assumption on your part. 275 00:15:04,684 --> 00:15:06,845 It's certainly non-conclusive. 276 00:15:06,919 --> 00:15:09,217 Why, he might have used a pointed stick or a boomerang, 277 00:15:09,288 --> 00:15:10,846 for all anybody could have... 278 00:15:10,923 --> 00:15:13,118 Granted. But he never would've committed murder. 279 00:15:13,192 --> 00:15:14,989 He's far too level-headed. 280 00:15:15,061 --> 00:15:19,361 Three years ago, I tracked down a fine, upstanding young CPA 281 00:15:19,432 --> 00:15:22,765 and brought him back here to face a jury of his peers. 282 00:15:22,835 --> 00:15:25,497 His defense attorney made the same argument. 283 00:15:25,571 --> 00:15:28,870 "My client is much too level-headed to have killed his wife. 284 00:15:28,941 --> 00:15:30,340 "He's not the type. 285 00:15:30,409 --> 00:15:32,309 "Why, he had never made a mistake in his life, 286 00:15:32,378 --> 00:15:35,040 "even in long division when he was back in school. 287 00:15:35,114 --> 00:15:38,709 "He was secretary of this and chairman of that and president of everything. 288 00:15:38,784 --> 00:15:42,185 "Calm, cool and collected was this young man." 289 00:15:42,255 --> 00:15:46,351 Well, you can imagine what the district attorney made of that phase of the defense? 290 00:15:46,425 --> 00:15:48,052 Yes, I know. 291 00:15:48,127 --> 00:15:52,723 District attorneys are not noted for their understanding or their charity. 292 00:15:52,798 --> 00:15:56,256 May I ask you a question, Mr. Courtney? 293 00:15:56,335 --> 00:15:58,769 Was Alice West in Europe when her husband was killed? 294 00:15:58,838 --> 00:16:01,170 Don't you suppose we checked? Of course, she was. 295 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:03,504 I'm afraid your check wasn't very thorough. 296 00:16:03,576 --> 00:16:07,342 Alice West was in Montreal the month her husband was killed. 297 00:16:07,413 --> 00:16:10,075 And Montreal isn't too far from Long Island. 298 00:16:10,149 --> 00:16:11,309 Impossible. 299 00:16:11,384 --> 00:16:12,817 She told me so herself. 300 00:16:12,885 --> 00:16:15,183 She registered at the Ritz Hotel in Montreal. 301 00:16:15,254 --> 00:16:17,814 The French police verified the fact that she was in Europe. 302 00:16:17,890 --> 00:16:18,982 We have the cables. 303 00:16:19,058 --> 00:16:23,392 Oh, she was in Europe, all right, before the murder and just after. 304 00:16:23,462 --> 00:16:24,656 But did you check her passport, 305 00:16:24,730 --> 00:16:26,425 her entry dates through customs? 306 00:16:26,499 --> 00:16:31,334 Well, we assumed, what with the cables from the French authorities, that... 307 00:16:31,404 --> 00:16:33,304 Well, what I mean was it never occurred to us. 308 00:16:33,372 --> 00:16:35,863 Before I tell you, let me say something, Mr. Courtney. 309 00:16:35,941 --> 00:16:37,636 Something about you. 310 00:16:37,710 --> 00:16:38,734 Me? 311 00:16:38,811 --> 00:16:39,903 Yes. 312 00:16:40,846 --> 00:16:42,780 For some inexplicable reason, 313 00:16:42,848 --> 00:16:46,045 maybe because I can't really understand men like you, 314 00:16:46,118 --> 00:16:48,052 I've always wanted to learn about you. 315 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:50,020 But it's impossible. 316 00:16:50,089 --> 00:16:54,321 Just below that surface of studied courtesy, Mr. Courtney, lies a cover. 317 00:16:54,393 --> 00:16:57,851 And the real Charles Courtney lives beneath that cover, 318 00:16:57,930 --> 00:17:00,524 impervious, untouched and unmoved. 319 00:17:00,599 --> 00:17:02,658 You're being ridiculous. 320 00:17:02,735 --> 00:17:05,863 You live in a quiet little place all of your own, don't you? 321 00:17:05,938 --> 00:17:09,840 Shut off from the rest of the world like some lost tribe of aborigines 322 00:17:09,909 --> 00:17:13,208 in a forgotten quarter of the globe. 323 00:17:13,279 --> 00:17:14,473 Are you quite done? 324 00:17:14,547 --> 00:17:16,378 No, not quite. 325 00:17:16,449 --> 00:17:18,781 I'm going to tell you what really happened at West's hunting lodge 326 00:17:18,851 --> 00:17:20,819 the night he was killed. 327 00:17:20,886 --> 00:17:24,151 Alice West and Harrington went down to see West together, 328 00:17:24,223 --> 00:17:27,249 to see if they couldn't get him to change his mind after all. 329 00:17:27,326 --> 00:17:29,726 They only succeeded in amusing him. 330 00:17:29,795 --> 00:17:32,593 But Alice had come prepared, Mr. Courtney. 331 00:17:35,067 --> 00:17:38,935 She held that tiny gun on West just long enough to find the heart. 332 00:17:39,004 --> 00:17:42,269 You can imagine Harrington's utter shock at this catastrophe. 333 00:17:42,341 --> 00:17:44,571 If only he could have breathed life back into West, 334 00:17:44,643 --> 00:17:46,338 he certainly would have done so, 335 00:17:46,412 --> 00:17:49,210 no matter what the price to himself. 336 00:17:49,281 --> 00:17:53,274 But now there was nothing left but to help Alice, and this he did. 337 00:18:04,263 --> 00:18:06,697 You were right about Harrington's walking back and forth, 338 00:18:06,766 --> 00:18:10,065 but not out of nervousness, not to calm his nerves. 339 00:18:10,736 --> 00:18:14,467 He deliberately trampled out every one of Alice's footprints, 340 00:18:14,540 --> 00:18:17,031 so all you could find were those made by him and by the housekeeper 341 00:18:17,109 --> 00:18:19,669 when she returned that next morning. 342 00:18:22,481 --> 00:18:24,676 Then he drove away with Alice. 343 00:18:25,951 --> 00:18:27,282 As soon as they got back to New York, 344 00:18:27,353 --> 00:18:30,345 she left him alone to face the consequences. 345 00:18:31,390 --> 00:18:33,119 It was like him to do what he did. 346 00:18:33,192 --> 00:18:35,558 If ever a man loved a woman, he loved Alice West. 347 00:18:35,628 --> 00:18:38,995 And, I daresay, she loved him, too, in her own fashion. 348 00:18:39,064 --> 00:18:42,727 But she loved her own precious white skin even more. 349 00:18:42,802 --> 00:18:44,599 Harrington, poor devil, wanted to save the woman. 350 00:18:44,670 --> 00:18:47,332 Even though she wasn't worth saving, to him she was. 351 00:18:47,406 --> 00:18:49,067 You have no proof. 352 00:18:49,141 --> 00:18:50,301 Proof? 353 00:18:50,843 --> 00:18:53,676 The record of customs of her visit to Canada. 354 00:18:53,746 --> 00:18:56,044 The hotel register in Montreal. 355 00:18:56,348 --> 00:18:58,441 The fact it was her gun. Her accuracy with it. 356 00:18:58,517 --> 00:19:01,452 I've seen her shoot the tops off dozens of bottles. 357 00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:04,648 The letter that West sent her, her hatred of him. 358 00:19:05,458 --> 00:19:07,619 I wanted you to know, Mr. Courtney. 359 00:19:07,693 --> 00:19:10,025 I wanted you to have something to live with through the nights, 360 00:19:10,095 --> 00:19:12,791 through the long, long nights. 361 00:19:12,865 --> 00:19:16,995 The taste of defeat that we've known, you will now know. 362 00:19:17,069 --> 00:19:18,969 But it has no bitter taste, does it? 363 00:19:19,038 --> 00:19:21,802 It has no taste, no taste at all. 364 00:19:21,874 --> 00:19:26,709 But it has something else. A weight. It has a pressure all of its own, 365 00:19:26,779 --> 00:19:28,974 and you can feel it pulling down on you. 366 00:19:29,048 --> 00:19:30,276 You think I made a mistake? 367 00:19:30,349 --> 00:19:31,475 I know you did. Impossible. 368 00:19:31,550 --> 00:19:33,142 That won't bring Harrington back. 369 00:19:33,219 --> 00:19:34,880 I don't make mistakes. This time you did. 370 00:19:34,954 --> 00:19:36,922 My reputation does not permit mistakes. 371 00:19:36,989 --> 00:19:38,217 Then your reputation will have to change. 372 00:19:38,290 --> 00:19:39,780 Nobody must hear of this. Do you understand? 373 00:19:39,859 --> 00:19:41,588 Look, I don't intend to advertise this, 374 00:19:41,660 --> 00:19:43,423 but if you ever try to slip the noose around the neck 375 00:19:43,496 --> 00:19:45,430 of one of my clients, that's something else. 376 00:19:45,498 --> 00:19:46,863 And with that slight exception, 377 00:19:46,932 --> 00:19:48,991 your reputation will be safe with me, don't worry. 378 00:19:49,068 --> 00:19:50,797 Providing our paths don't cross, you mean? 379 00:19:50,870 --> 00:19:53,270 I think we understand each other. 380 00:19:55,674 --> 00:19:58,165 This has been a terrible shock. 381 00:19:59,745 --> 00:20:04,114 But please, before you go, have a nightcap with me. 382 00:20:04,183 --> 00:20:07,050 And excuse me a moment. I'll be right back. 383 00:20:29,208 --> 00:20:31,574 I think that's got it, Mr. Courtney. 384 00:20:31,644 --> 00:20:34,613 Oh, Mr. Courtney, you were gone almost two years. 385 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:38,207 Is there any truth to the rumor that you plan to retire, to give up crime detection? 386 00:20:38,284 --> 00:20:40,275 I shall never retire, sir. 387 00:20:40,352 --> 00:20:42,343 All I needed was a long vacation. 388 00:20:42,421 --> 00:20:45,447 Which monument on your tour impressed you the most? 389 00:20:45,524 --> 00:20:47,424 I know you expect me to say the Taj Mahal, 390 00:20:47,493 --> 00:20:51,395 but actually, it was Angkor Wat in Cambodia that I shall never forget. 391 00:20:51,463 --> 00:20:54,091 Mr. Courtney, there was another rumor. Oh? 392 00:20:54,166 --> 00:20:56,134 The reason you left New York and were gone so long. 393 00:20:56,201 --> 00:20:57,225 That was? 394 00:20:57,303 --> 00:20:59,464 That you were searching for the master criminal, 395 00:20:59,538 --> 00:21:01,301 someone who could outsmart you. 396 00:21:01,373 --> 00:21:04,069 Well, now, there no need for modesty, is there, gentlemen? 397 00:21:04,143 --> 00:21:06,134 That man hasn't been born. 398 00:21:06,211 --> 00:21:08,372 Come along, and I'll show you where I do my ceramics. 399 00:21:08,447 --> 00:21:11,177 I'd like to take a shot in there if it's okay with you, Mr. Courtney. 400 00:21:11,250 --> 00:21:13,912 You know, it's sort of a hobby room where you go to let off steam. 401 00:21:13,986 --> 00:21:17,945 That's very apt of you, I must say, that reference to steam. 402 00:21:18,023 --> 00:21:21,584 You know, the secret of good ceramics is in the baking process. 403 00:21:21,660 --> 00:21:24,220 You must have a super hot oven. 404 00:21:24,296 --> 00:21:28,824 The one I have in there is a most efficient instrument, believe me, most efficient. 405 00:21:28,901 --> 00:21:31,597 Mr. Courtney, is this a souvenir of some crime? 406 00:21:31,670 --> 00:21:33,228 I see there's nothing on the label. 407 00:21:33,305 --> 00:21:36,968 That? Oh, no, not exactly. 408 00:21:37,042 --> 00:21:38,771 As a matter of fact, 409 00:21:38,844 --> 00:21:43,076 this particular vase was more or less of an experiment. 410 00:21:46,752 --> 00:21:49,585 I used a rather special kind of clay. 411 00:22:11,110 --> 00:22:12,600 I regret to inform you 412 00:22:12,678 --> 00:22:17,240 that Courtney did not retain his last trophy very long. 413 00:22:17,316 --> 00:22:18,840 He was caught. 414 00:22:18,917 --> 00:22:21,977 A charwoman knocked over the precious vase 415 00:22:22,054 --> 00:22:24,045 breaking it into pieces, 416 00:22:24,123 --> 00:22:29,083 a few of them identifiable as bits of Mr. Gregory. 417 00:22:29,161 --> 00:22:33,222 You see, the gold fillings in his teeth had resisted the heat of the kiln. 418 00:22:33,298 --> 00:22:36,028 But all the good doctors and all the good police 419 00:22:36,101 --> 00:22:38,729 couldn't put Mr. Gregory together again. 420 00:22:38,804 --> 00:22:42,900 As for the charwoman, she became the pride of the press. 421 00:22:42,975 --> 00:22:47,002 Here is where the real historical significance of the case lies. 422 00:22:47,079 --> 00:22:51,709 Ever since, cleaning women the world over have been knocking over vases 423 00:22:51,784 --> 00:22:54,309 trying to emulate her success. 424 00:22:54,386 --> 00:22:56,684 That's all until next time when we shall be back 425 00:22:56,755 --> 00:22:59,952 with another, though imperfect, crime. 426 00:23:00,025 --> 00:23:01,049 Good night.