If you could solve any non-JTR mystery which would it be?

[AmericanSherlock]

This thread is reminding me why I think Julia Wallace is the best unsolved murder mystery ever. There are pretty much only 2 suspects, it is a closed sort of a structure to the case and while other perpetrators are possible, it seems unlikely.

So it is either Wallace himself or Parry and there is a strong possibility of 1 trying to frame or at least divert suspicion to the other. Also every piece of evidence can be seen in 2 ways thru this context. The most symmetrical mystery where it totally depends on how you view things, particularly since there are two parts to the story, a phone call the night before that set up either a planned murder or at least a criminal enterprise, and the following night when the murder took place.

Nothing is conclusive and it really requires some intense lateral thought. It is my belief thru careful examination, one can conclude that Wallace almost certainly had to be guilty in some capacity, but it is a remarkably tightly constructed puzzle. The most "brainteaserish" of any murder mystery I've heard of. Better than any Agatha Christie story and offering a mathematical sort of puzzle replete with various permutations, combinations, and probabilistic thinking.

I also like the "if...then" logic needed to fully realize the implications of small aspects of the case. Definitely a lot under the surface to analyze, details you might not have realized when first considering the structure of the story.

Pretty much every fact is accepted by everyone but it all depends on how one views it.

Does anyone know another case like this that is almost like a brain teaser?

[Graham]

One thing I feel very sure of is that Hauptmann wasn't acting alone. However, as he never said a thing about possible confederates in the kidnapping, this I suspect was taken as proof that no-one else was involved. Fisch, I think, was involved in some way, but as he died in 1934 shortly after returning to Germany he was, as far as I know, never questioned.

Graham

[Graham]

Hi AS,

Does anyone know another case like this that is almost like a brain teaser?

Ever read anything (and there isn't that much to read) about the Janice Weston murder in England, 1984? Maybe not as impenetrable a puzzler as Wallace, but just like Julia Wallace's murder nobody was ever brought to justice.

Graham

[AmericanSherlock]

Hi AS,


Ever read anything (and there isn't that much to read) about the Janice Weston murder in England, 1984? Maybe not as impenetrable a puzzler as Wallace, but just like Julia Wallace's murder nobody was ever brought to justice.

Graham

Graham,

Thanks I'm reading about it now.

Same initials as Julia Wallace.

It's a sign!

Just kidding

[Mayerling]

Hi AS,


Ever read anything (and there isn't that much to read) about the Janice Weston murder in England, 1984? Maybe not as impenetrable a puzzler as Wallace, but just like Julia Wallace's murder nobody was ever brought to justice.

Graham

Hi Graham,

It's less remembered than it's slightly younger contemporary case from Liverpool. In 1930 there was a murder in Manhattan. At the time there was a tailor shop owned by one Isidor Fink (not Fisch) in upper Manhattan, in what today would have been Harlem. Fink, to support his family, worked long hours in the shop past sundown. One day, when he had not come home, the police were called, and found him shot to death inside the store. But it was a small, tight little store, without windows and with only one door to enter and exit - and the door was locked from the inside! They never were able to figure out the solution of who killed Mr. Fink. It may be the perfect locked room mystery.

Jeff

[AmericanSherlock]

Hi Graham,

It's less remembered than it's slightly younger contemporary case from Liverpool. In 1930 there was a murder in Manhattan. At the time there was a tailor shop owned by one Isidor Fink (not Fisch) in upper Manhattan, in what today would have been Harlem. Fink, to support his family, worked long hours in the shop past sundown. One day, when he had not come home, the police were called, and found him shot to death inside the store. But it was a small, tight little store, without windows and with only one door to enter and exit - and the door was locked from the inside! They never were able to figure out the solution of who killed Mr. Fink. It may be the perfect locked room mystery.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

do you remember the 2nd Avenue Deli owner being murdered in the 90s? That was also never solved.

[Graham]

AS, Jeff,

never heard of the Fink Case. Must have a read. By the way, there's a Janice Weston thread on these boards, started by yours truly. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't yet attracted a full-scale investigation, just the occasional article here and there, but nothing for some time.

Graham

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff,

do you remember the 2nd Avenue Deli owner being murdered in the 90s? That was also never solved.

I recall hearing of this case, but I never followed it closely. I think the Deli finally closed (a sad loss for that area - maybe tied to the murder).

Jeff

[Mayerling]

AS, Jeff,

never heard of the Fink Case. Must have a read. By the way, there's a Janice Weston thread on these boards, started by yours truly. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't yet attracted a full-scale investigation, just the occasional article here and there, but nothing for some time.

Graham

Hi Graham,

I'll try to find your blog on Janice Weston. It's a case I actually never heard of.

Jeff

[Harry D]

Hi Graham,

It's less remembered than it's slightly younger contemporary case from Liverpool. In 1930 there was a murder in Manhattan. At the time there was a tailor shop owned by one Isidor Fink (not Fisch) in upper Manhattan, in what today would have been Harlem. Fink, to support his family, worked long hours in the shop past sundown. One day, when he had not come home, the police were called, and found him shot to death inside the store. But it was a small, tight little store, without windows and with only one door to enter and exit - and the door was locked from the inside! They never were able to figure out the solution of who killed Mr. Fink. It may be the perfect locked room mystery.

Jeff

Fink was shot in the hallway and managed to stagger into his flat and locked the door behind him before he died. That was one theory posited by detectives and seems credible:

https://hubpages.com/politics/solving-the-locked-room-mystery

[Graham]

Fink was shot in the hallway and managed to stagger into his flat and locked the door behind him before he died. That was one theory posited by detectives and seems credible:

https://hubpages.com/politics/solvin...d-room-mystery

Astonishing! And no plausible motive was ever established?

There was a case I think early in WW2 when a man staying in a hotel in Edinburgh turned up at the door with a large part of his brain and skull missing by means of a bullet, yet who had walked from a local park after apparently shooting himself there with a large-calibre pistol in a suicide attempt. He died in hospital shortly afterwards. I read about this quite a long time ago, and I can't recall names or any other details. So it does appear that, even mortally wounded, it could be possible for a shooting victim to carry out tasks which on the surface would seem impossible for anyone so badly wounded.

Graham

[Mayerling]

Fink was shot in the hallway and managed to stagger into his flat and locked the door behind him before he died. That was one theory posited by detectives and seems credible:

https://hubpages.com/politics/solvin...d-room-mystery

Thanks for the site. I read the story and the solution that Fink bolted his own door before dying; and it is plausible. But we still don't know who shot him, and why?

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Astonishing! And no plausible motive was ever established?

There was a case I think early in WW2 when a man staying in a hotel in Edinburgh turned up at the door with a large part of his brain and skull missing by means of a bullet, yet who had walked from a local park after apparently shooting himself there with a large-calibre pistol in a suicide attempt. He died in hospital shortly afterwards. I read about this quite a long time ago, and I can't recall names or any other details. So it does appear that, even mortally wounded, it could be possible for a shooting victim to carry out tasks which on the surface would seem impossible for anyone so badly wounded.

Graham

I haven't read the original novel, but in the 1933 film, "The Kennel Murder Case" (with William Powell here not as Nick Charles, but as Philo Vance), a murder victim (after being fatally injured) thinks he is okay, walks up to his bedroom, locks the door, and sits down to undress because he thinks he can refresh himself by going to bed. But he drops dead, and the police find a "locked room mystery" as a result. I'm sure the author, Van Dyne, was not aware of that 1942 mystery at the time, but maybe he was aware of some current death like it that tipped him off as to what a damaged human body could still do. Odd though.

Jeff

[Graham]

One of my older colleagues at the time of my first job (in 1963) was former RAF bomber crew. He told me that another crew at one of the bases he served at got badly shot up over Germany one night, and it was obvious that the pilot was wounded but stated he was still capable of flying the aircraft. They got back to base OK, made a good landing, but when another relieved crewman went to offer his congratulations he found the pilot stone dead at the controls.
He just did what he had to do.....

Graham

[AmericanSherlock]

One of my older colleagues at the time of my first job (in 1963) was former RAF bomber crew. He told me that another crew at one of the bases he served at got badly shot up over Germany one night, and it was obvious that the pilot was wounded but stated he was still capable of flying the aircraft. They got back to base OK, made a good landing, but when another relieved crewman went to offer his congratulations he found the pilot stone dead at the controls.
He just did what he had to do.....

Graham

Were you in the British air force Graham?

Interesting story