The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

“Where were you on the night of the murder?”

“Las Vegas, Nevada.”

“And what were you doing there?”

“Arranging to juggle some bank funds around so that Mr. Addicks could confuse the issues and beat the income tax.”

“Do you know of your own knowledge that he was doing that to beat the income tax?”

The witness hesitated.

“Do you?”

“No, sir.”

“What you have stated is merely a surmise then?”

“Well, when a man starts juggling cash around the way he did, there’s bound to be a reason for it.”

“Exactly,” Hamilton Burger said. “And so, since if you were doing it, it would be for the purpose of confusing the issues for income tax purposes, you have assumed that was the reason Benjamin Addicks was doing it?”

“Are you,” Mason asked, “trying to cross-examine your own witness?”

“Well,” Hamilton Burger said, “perhaps the comment was extraneous, but after all Mr. Addicks is not here to defend himself.”

“Well,” Nathan Fallon said conversationally to Hamilton Burger, “perhaps you can give me a better reason.”

The crowd in the courtroom broke into laughter and even Judge Mundy smiled.

“Mr. Addicks did not take you into his confidence?”

“Mr. Addicks didn’t like me. I didn’t like Mr. Addicks. I think that my employment would have been terminated within a short time had it not been for Mr. Addicks’ death.”

“You left Stonehenge on Wednesday, the day of the murder?”

“Yes, sir.”

“At about what time?”

“I caught a plane for Las Vegas, Nevada, at two o’clock in the afternoon.”

“You had instructions as to what you were to do in Las Vegas, Nevada?”

“Yes, sir. I was to return with a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash.”

“You did that?”

“No, sir. I did not.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t care to carry that much cash with me unless I had a specific authorization. When I heard of Mr. Addicks’ death I took my cash to the bank and made another deposit to the account of Benjamin Addicks. I notified Mr. Addicks’ attorney over the telephone what I intended to do.”

“And Mr. Hershey left Stonehenge before you did?”

“No, sir. We left at the same time. Mr. Hershey drove me to the airport, and then he drove to Santa Barbara.”

“Who was at Stonehenge when you left?”

“Benjamin Addicks.”

“Who else?”

“No one else.”

“Wasn’t that rather unusual?”

“Yes, sir. That was very unusual.”

“Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said to Perry Mason.

“Why was it unusual, Mr. Fallon?”

“Because usually the animals required a caretaker, and the house required a supervising housekeeper and several servants who came in by the day.”

“But the house was unoccupied save for Mr. Addicks when you left?”

“That is right. Several days earlier Mr. Addicks had become dissatisfied with the manner in which the part of the place that we referred to as the zoo was being kept up. He discharged all of the persons who had the animals in charge.”

“Who was attending to feeding, cleaning the cages, and things of that sort after the trainers were discharged?”

“We were,” Fallon said with obvious disgust. “That was one of the things that brought about friction between my employer and me. I wasn’t hired for that sort of work.”

“And was Mr. Hershey helping you?”

“Mr. Hershey and Benjamin Addicks. The three of us.”

“And what about servants for the housekeeping?”

“There were no servants. There was no housekeeping.”

“Were there any accidents because of this program?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What?”

“Mr. Addicks was attacked by one of the gorillas, who pushed an arm through the bars, grabbed Addicks by his coat, and jerked him up to the cage. I shouted and beat against the bars of the cage with a scraper which I was using to clean out the cage, and Mr. Addicks flung himself back and kicked his way loose.”

“Any injuries?”

“Yes, sir. He had a badly wrenched leg, and he had some cuts and lacerations on his face.”

“When was this?”

“Monday morning.”

“That’s all,” Mason said. “No further questions.”

Hamilton Burger called a photographer to the stand who introduced photographs of the body lying on the bed, showing the manner in which blood had spurted from the neck wound over the wall and the carpet. There were also photographs of the face of Mr. Addicks, showing the injuries which had been inflicted by the gorilla.

“Cross-examine,” Hamilton Burger said.

“I notice that there are two different photographs of the face of the dead man,” Mason said. “One of them shows a very appreciable growth of stubble, and in the other the face is clean-shaven.”

“One of them was taken before the body was removed to the mortuary, and the other a short time after the autopsy. The undertaker shaved the face of the body in preparing the body for the funeral.”

“So you took pictures showing the features of the body, and then were sent back to take more pictures? Is that right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why were you sent back?”

“I don’t know.”

“But you were instructed to go to the mortuary and get some photographs which would show the features?”

“—Yes.”

“Clean-shaven?”

“Yes.”

“For purposes of identification?”

“I don’t know for what purpose. I was sent to get ’em and I got ’em.”

“Thank you,” Mason said, smiling. “That’s all.”