It was a dark and stormy night. A group of stormy people have gathered at a dark mansion to hold a seance. Perry Mason attends at the behest of his client, Bonnie Craig. She is worried that her mother has come under the sway of a charlatan psychic since the death of her son, Thomas, (Bonnie's brother) the year before.
PM: Frauds have a way of ultimately tripping over the truth.
Bonnie sits at the table with the mysterious writing device in order to prove that the psychic is a fraud. As thunder claps and lightning flashes, she enters into a trancelike state and the device begins to move. This is the message done by “automatic writing” that Perry holds up to the mirror in order to decipher:
The fraud whose hoax turned hope to dread shall take his place among the dead.
Sure enough the fraud dies a short time later when the house elevator that provides access to the basement garage falls five stories with him in it.
DS: Paul, you can’t convince me that a girl like Bonnie Craig would be interested in an elevator just to use it to kill somebody.
Now here's a smart idea.
PM: His drunken rages generally involved taking the elevator down and going for a fast ride.
Perry seeks information on the paranormal from a noted expert in the field.
PM: From a legal point of view, Dr. Puharich, what exactly is a trance?
Dr.: Nothing evidential that you as an attorney could or would want to take into court.
...
PM: Back to the river with no boat or no bridge.
The victim was a philanderer. Here is one of my favorite word pictures from the episode.
Victim’s wife: He said, "Sure, I just dropped my latest girlfriend like a hot potato and she’s boiling mad!"
Now we're in court and Perry is considering letting his client testify.
HB: What kind of a defense could you possibly put on, Perry? Spirit writing with a ouija board? Or maybe you’d like to materialize some nice ghostly ectoplasm right here in court.
PM: Oh, I don’t know. I may even put Bonnie Craig on the stand and let her tell her own story.
HB: What? And let me destroy that story on cross-examination?
Oh, Hamilton, hope springs eternal in your breast, doesn't it?
The victim wasn't the first person (or first philanderer) to die in the dark mansion by means of an elevator accident.
PD: Thomas Leslie Walker was a perpetual-motion Casanova. He just couldn't leave a pretty girl alone. He was always in hot water and always paying off... Paternity suits, settlements – you name it.
Perry arranges for a laboratory test under the auspices of Dr. Andrija Puharich. Earlier in the episode Puharich said scientific tests were available to determine if a person had a propensity for extrasensory perception. So perhaps there is a boat or bridge for Bonnie to use.
PD: Perry, is it really that important – if your client has ESP and the trance was genuine?
PM: Whether or not Bonnie Craig goes to the gas chamber for first-degree murder may depend upon those results.
One of the tests involved the subject trying to ascertain random numbers displayed by the Clary DE-60 computer. The picture at this website shows the cast around the equipment. Bonnie is the dark-haired woman seated at right. Below you see Bonnie's hands as she tries to match numbers using ESP. A curtain blocks her view of the numbers. She touches the prearranged number with her left hand and seeks out its twin with her right.
Stop over and read the Perry Mason addict's post on her blog. She mentions one difference in the uncut version (which must mean the DVD) and the aired version (the way they chop the shows up today to fit the commercial-break needs). Another reason to own the show yourself.
I noticed one difference between the 2010 Livedash transcript and the program I watched last night when I wanted to verify one of my favorite quotes (the potato). Last night's show had more than the one that Livedash caught. So who am I going to believe? My own lying ears, in this case.
PM: Frauds have a way of ultimately tripping over the truth.
Bonnie sits at the table with the mysterious writing device in order to prove that the psychic is a fraud. As thunder claps and lightning flashes, she enters into a trancelike state and the device begins to move. This is the message done by “automatic writing” that Perry holds up to the mirror in order to decipher:
The fraud whose hoax turned hope to dread shall take his place among the dead.
Sure enough the fraud dies a short time later when the house elevator that provides access to the basement garage falls five stories with him in it.
DS: Paul, you can’t convince me that a girl like Bonnie Craig would be interested in an elevator just to use it to kill somebody.
Now here's a smart idea.
PM: His drunken rages generally involved taking the elevator down and going for a fast ride.
Perry seeks information on the paranormal from a noted expert in the field.
PM: From a legal point of view, Dr. Puharich, what exactly is a trance?
Dr.: Nothing evidential that you as an attorney could or would want to take into court.
...
PM: Back to the river with no boat or no bridge.
The victim was a philanderer. Here is one of my favorite word pictures from the episode.
Victim’s wife: He said, "Sure, I just dropped my latest girlfriend like a hot potato and she’s boiling mad!"
Now we're in court and Perry is considering letting his client testify.
HB: What kind of a defense could you possibly put on, Perry? Spirit writing with a ouija board? Or maybe you’d like to materialize some nice ghostly ectoplasm right here in court.
PM: Oh, I don’t know. I may even put Bonnie Craig on the stand and let her tell her own story.
HB: What? And let me destroy that story on cross-examination?
Oh, Hamilton, hope springs eternal in your breast, doesn't it?
The victim wasn't the first person (or first philanderer) to die in the dark mansion by means of an elevator accident.
PD: Thomas Leslie Walker was a perpetual-motion Casanova. He just couldn't leave a pretty girl alone. He was always in hot water and always paying off... Paternity suits, settlements – you name it.
Perry arranges for a laboratory test under the auspices of Dr. Andrija Puharich. Earlier in the episode Puharich said scientific tests were available to determine if a person had a propensity for extrasensory perception. So perhaps there is a boat or bridge for Bonnie to use.
PD: Perry, is it really that important – if your client has ESP and the trance was genuine?
PM: Whether or not Bonnie Craig goes to the gas chamber for first-degree murder may depend upon those results.
One of the tests involved the subject trying to ascertain random numbers displayed by the Clary DE-60 computer. The picture at this website shows the cast around the equipment. Bonnie is the dark-haired woman seated at right. Below you see Bonnie's hands as she tries to match numbers using ESP. A curtain blocks her view of the numbers. She touches the prearranged number with her left hand and seeks out its twin with her right.
Stop over and read the Perry Mason addict's post on her blog. She mentions one difference in the uncut version (which must mean the DVD) and the aired version (the way they chop the shows up today to fit the commercial-break needs). Another reason to own the show yourself.
I noticed one difference between the 2010 Livedash transcript and the program I watched last night when I wanted to verify one of my favorite quotes (the potato). Last night's show had more than the one that Livedash caught. So who am I going to believe? My own lying ears, in this case.