The Case of the Grinning Gorilla

“But you do have access to the scientific data by consulting a reference library?”

“I do. Yes, sir.”

“And will you consult that library in case the Court takes an adjournment until tomorrow morning?”

“Oh, now come,” Hamilton Burger exclaimed. “This is going far afield if the Court please.”

“I don’t think it is proper for Counsel to suggest to a witness that Court should adjourn in order to enable him to answer a specific question,” Judge Mundy said. “Either the witness can answer a question or he can’t, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Very well,” Mason said, “I will now put my question directly to the witness. Are you prepared to swear on your oath, Mr. Groton, that the bloodstains which you found on the clothing of the defendant, and which you tested in the so-called precipitin test, were not stains made by the blood of a gorilla?”

The witness hesitated and fidgeted.

“Yes or no?” Mason said. “You’re a professional expert witness. You’re one who has qualified as an expert in dozens of cases. You’re supposed to keep up with what’s going on in the field. You’re supposed to know what’s true and what isn’t true, so go ahead and state now on your oath — absolutely fairly, can you state that the bloodstains were not the bloodstains of a gorilla?”

Groton ran his hand through his hair, glanced uncomfortably at the district attorney.

“Oh,” Hamilton Burger said, “I object, if the Court please. I think this has already been asked and answered. It’s entirely extraneous. Not proper cross-examination.”

“Objection overruled!” Judge Mundy snapped, his eyes on the witness.

Groton glanced again at the district attorney, then at the judge.

“No, I can’t swear to it,” he said.

“And for all you know the bloodstains may have been those made by a gorilla?”

“For all I know.”

“You do know that one of those gorillas that had been liberated had cut his foot on a piece of glass?”

“Yes.”

“And had done some bleeding?”

“I understand so. Yes.”

“Then, as I understand your testimony, you are not now prepared to swear that the bloodstains made on the garment which you inspected were human blood?”

“Well, of course, if they could have been gorilla blood, they wouldn’t have been human blood, that is, they might not have been human blood. And, of course, Mr. Mason, I’m assuming you’re correctly reporting Dr. Gradwohl’s experimental researches. Personally, well, I doubt if — I don’t know.”

“You’re an expert?”

“Yes.”

“You know you must testify on the strength of your own knowledge and research, not on what I tell you or what someone else tells you?”

“Well, yes.”

“All right then, answer the question. Are you prepared to swear absolutely that the bloodstains which you analyzed were the stains of human blood?”

“I’d like to have a little more time in order to answer that question.”

“Time for what purpose?”

“Time so that I can familiarize myself with the experiments of Dr. Gradwohl. You understand, Mr. Mason, that I am not a research scientist. I am a laboratory technician and a toxicologist. I follow the tests other persons have made, tests which have been published in authoritative books on the subject, and when I get certain results I evaluate those results in accordance with experiments and research work that has been made by others.

“If there is something new in this field of serology, and, now that you mention it, it does seem to me that I have heard the matter discussed recently... well, I feel that I owe it to myself and to the Court to make an investigation.”

“If the Court please,” Hamilton Burger said, “I don’t think it makes a dime’s worth of difference whether that was human blood or whether it wasn’t.”

“It depends on what value you put on a dime,” Judge Mundy snapped. “The Court is very much interested in this phase of the examination, and the Court wishes to beg Mr. Mason’s pardon for a somewhat natural assumption under the circumstances that this cross-examination was to be used as a means of securing a delay. Quite apparently Counsel has information of the greatest interest to this Court, information which certainly should be clarified. The Court is going to take a recess until ten o’clock tomorrow morning, and the Court is going to ask Mr. Groton to make every effort to ascertain the true facts in regard to these Gradwohl tests. Will you do so, Mr. Groton?”

“I certainly will. I’ll telephone Dr. Gradwohl personally, get the evaluation of his tests, and go to reference libraries and read his paper on the subject.”

“Under those circumstances,” Judge Mundy said, “court is adjourned until ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”

Chapter number 18

In the automobile, driving back from the courthouse, Della Street said to Perry Mason, “Chief, you certainly gave that expert something to think about.”