"The Case for the Defence" is a short story by Graham Greene which is about a case which takes unusual turns. Published in 1939, it is a part of the short-story collection Twenty-One Stories.
Summary
"The Case for the Defence" tells the story of a case known as the "Peckham Murder", in which an old woman named Mrs. Parker has been murdered in the middle of the night by a heavy stout man named Mr. Adams. There are several witnesses, the main one being Mrs. Salmon, who glimpsed Mr. Adams' face after seeing him on the steps of Mrs. Parker's house hiding a hammer. At the trial, Mrs. Salmon presents her account firmly and honestly, and, it is confident that the heavy man in the dock is Mr. Adams. She presented her testimony with honesty, care, and concern. This leads to a positive appearance towards Mrs. Salmon. However, she becomes flustered when the man's counsel presents to her an identical-looking man at the back of the courtroom, who is revealed to be his twin brother. None of the other witnesses can swear that the Adams twin in the dock is the Adams they had seen on the night of the murder, and both twins have alibis, that each was with his wife at the time. The twin in the dock is thus acquitted for lack of evidence. Then, as the twins are leaving the courtroom, a freak accident sees one of them pushed in front of a bus and killed. Divine vengeance?,thus deepening the mystery of the "Peckham Murder".The author concludes the story with the question: "If you were Mrs. Salmon, could you sleep at night?"
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Witness for the Prosecution is a 1957 American legal mystery thriller film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton, and Elsa Lanchester. The film, which has elements of bleak black comedy and film noir, is a courtroom drama set in the Old Bailey in London and is based on the 1953 play of the same name by Agatha Christie. The first film adaptation of Christie's story, Witness for the Prosecution was adapted for the screen by Larry Marcus, Harry Kurnitz, and Wilder. The film was acclaimed by critics and received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It also received five Golden Globes nominations including a win for Elsa Lanchester as Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Additionally, the film was selected as the sixth-best courtroom drama ever by the American Film Institute for their AFI's 10 Top 10 list.
Lord Edgware Dies is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Thirteen at Dinner. Before its book publication, the novel was serialised in six issues of The American Magazine as 13 For Dinner.
Ariadne Oliver is a fictional character in the novels of Agatha Christie. She is a crime fiction novelist, the creator of the fictional Finnish detective Sven Hjerson, and a friend of Hercule Poirot.
George Joseph Smith was an English serial killer and bigamist who was convicted and subsequently hanged for the murders of three women in 1915. The case became known as the Brides in the Bath Murders. As well as being widely reported in the media, it was significant in the history of forensic pathology and detection. It was also one of the first cases in which striking similarities between connected crimes were used to prove guilt, a technique used in subsequent prosecutions.
John Bodkin Adams was a British general practitioner, convicted fraudster, and suspected serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, 163 of his patients died while in comas, which was deemed to be worthy of investigation. In addition, 132 out of 310 patients had left Adams money or items in their wills.
Bess Flowers was an American actress best known for her work as an extra in hundreds of films. She was known as "The Queen of the Hollywood Extras," appearing in more than 350 feature films and numerous comedy shorts in her 41-year career.
Edith Jessie Thompson and Frederick Edward Francis Bywaters were a British couple executed for the murder of Thompson's husband Percy. Their case became a cause célèbre.
"The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" (1927), one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and a Selection of Entrées is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 24 October 1960. It is the only Christie first edition published in the UK that contains stories with both Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, the writer's two most famous detectives. It retailed in the UK for twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6) and comprises six cases. It was not published in the US although the stories it contains were published in other volumes there.
Sad Cypress is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in March 1940 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at eight shillings and threepence (8/3) – the first price rise for a UK Christie edition since her 1921 debut – and the US edition retailed at $2.00.
The Clocks is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 7 November 1963 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. It features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The UK edition retailed at sixteen shillings (16/-) and the US edition at $4.50.
Poirot's Early Cases is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by Collins Crime Club in September 1974. The book retailed at £2.25. Although the stories contained within the volume had all appeared in previous US collections, the book also appeared there later in 1974 under the slightly different title of Hercule Poirot's Early Cases in an edition retailing at $6.95.
The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a series of radio dramas based on Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes. Written by Bert Coules as a pastiche of Doyle's work, the series was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002, 2004, 2008–2009 and 2010. There are sixteen episodes, all of them produced and directed by Patrick Rayner of BBC Scotland. Clive Merrison stars as Holmes, having portrayed the detective in a 1989–1998 BBC radio series of dramatisations of every Sherlock Holmes story by Doyle. Andrew Sachs appears as Dr. Watson, replacing Michael Williams after Williams died following the Radio 4 run of Sherlock Holmes adaptations. Each of the stories is based on a throwaway reference from an actual Doyle short story or novel. The first two series are repeated regularly on BBC Radio 4 Extra.
R v Adams [1957] is an English case that established the principle of double effect applicable to doctors: that if a doctor "gave treatment to a seriously ill patient with the aim of relieving pain or distress, as a result of which that person's life was inadvertently shortened, the doctor was not guilty of murder" where a restoration to health is no longer possible. Such medicines are among those sometimes used in palliative care, most commonly for the most severe pain.
Three Blind Mice and Other Stories is a collection of short stories written by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1950. The first edition retailed at $2.50.
Witness for the Prosecution is a play adapted by Agatha Christie from her 1925 short story "Traitor's Hands". The play opened in London on 28 October 1953 at the Winter Garden Theatre. It was produced by Sir Peter Saunders.
This page details the books featuring the fictional character Hercule Poirot, created by Agatha Christie.
Arthur Henry Douthwaite was a British medical doctor, Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians and a prolific medical textbook writer. He was described as the foremost expert on heroin in Britain in the 1950s, or as a leading authority on opiates and he was called as an expert witness for the prosecution in the trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams for the murder of Mrs Edith Morrell.
Zenith Jones Brown was an American crime fiction writer who also wrote for a time in England. She wrote under the pseudonyms David Frome, Leslie Ford, and Brenda Conrad. She is perhaps best known for her novels featuring the fictional Grace Latham and John Primrose, though some of her earlier standalone work has been praised.
The trial of Kate Dover of February 1882, before Mr Justice Cave, was a major event at the criminal court in Leeds Town Hall, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was attended by many people, and attracted much newspaper publicity. It followed the death of Kate Dover's 61-year-old employer and lover, Thomas Skinner from arsenic poisoning. Known as the Queen of Heeley for her fashionable taste in clothes, Dover was 27 years old at the time, and was Skinner's housekeeper. She was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to penal servitude for life, which she served at Woking Female Prison. By 1901, she was out of jail. She lived her remaining years with her sisters in Rotherham.
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