When he had finished, Judge Lankershim said, “Under the law, the Court is called upon to examine the jurors for prejudice. It has never been the policy of this Court, however, to restrict the questions of counsel. Therefore, the Court has always permitted counsel to interrogate the jurors in the usual manner. But, under the circumstances of this case, the Court feels that it is incumbent upon it to see that no member of the jury is prejudiced for or against either side.” Whereupon, the judge asked a few searching, but impartial questions, and said to Hamilton Burger, “The defendant has waived both challenges for cause and peremptory challenges. Do you have any challenges?”
Burger shook his head.
Mason turned to smile at the jury. Gradually it dawned on the courtroom that the ultimate effect of the entire procedure had been to accomplish what Mason had proposed in the first instance, namely, that the first twelve persons called should sit as jurors.
The jury smiled back at Mason.
Hamilton Burger made a brief statement to the jury, outlining simply what he expected to prove, followed that up by saying, “I will call as my first witness Helen Kendal.”
Helen Kendal, obviously conscious of the eyes of the spectators in the crowded courtroom, came forward and was sworn. She gave her name and address to the clerk, looked at Hamilton Burger expectantly for questions.
“You have occasion to remember the thirteenth of this month?”
“I do.”
“I will call your attention to the evening of that day and ask if anything unusual happened.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What?”
“In the first place, my kitten was seized with spasms, and I rushed it to a veterinary, who said it was . . .”
Burger held up his hand. “Never mind what the veterinary said. That’s hearsay. Just state what you know of your own knowledge.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, at about the time the kitten became ill, did anything else unusual happen?”
“Yes. I received a telephone call—from my uncle.”
“What?”
“I received a telephone call.”
“From whom?”
“From my uncle.”
“You have two uncles?”
“Yes, sir. This call came from Uncle Franklin.”
“And by the words Uncle Franklin, you refer to Franklin B. Shore?”
“Yes, sir.”
“When had you last seen Franklin B. Shore?”
“Some ten years ago, shortly prior to his disappearance.”
“Your uncle, Franklin Shore, had disappeared mysteriously some ten years earlier?”
“Yes, sir.”
Hamilton Burger said to the Court, “I am asking leading questions on some of these points which are not disputed, but which I want to get before the jury.”
“No objection,” Mason said.
“What did your uncle say to you over the telephone?”
“Objected to,” Mason said, “as hearsay. Incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial.”
“If the Court please,” Burger announced, “I am not seeking to adduce any facts which will bind the defendant as to this conversation, but only as to show the condition which existed there that night, and as to that only to the extent that it will be considered a part of the res gestae, explaining the moves of the various parties on that night.”
“I will overrule the objection,” Judge Lankershim said, “but will later limit the purposes for which the answer may be considered by the jury.”
“What did your uncle say?”
“He asked me if I knew who was speaking. I told him that I didn’t. He then told me his name and went on to prove his identity.”
“That’s a conclusion,” Hamilton Burger said hastily. “That may go out. What did he say?”
“Well, he called my attention to certain things that only my uncle would have known about.”
“What I am after particularly,” Hamilton Burger said, “is what he told you to do.”
“He told me to go to Mr. Perry Mason, the attorney, and then to go to the Castle Gate Hotel and ask for a Mr. Henry Leech, who, he said, would take us to him. He told me that I wasn’t to take anyone else into my confidence; that, particularly, I wasn’t to let my Aunt Matilda know anything about it.”
“Your Aunt Matilda is the wife of Franklin Shore?”
“Yes.”
“And later on that evening, in company with Mr. Mason, did you make any effort to get in touch with Mr. Leech?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“We went to the Castle Gate Hotel. We were advised that Mr. Leech wasn’t there. A note was delivered telling us where we could . . .”
“Just a moment,” Hamilton Burger said. “I’ll produce that note and ask you if this is the note.”
“Yes.”
Burger said, “I’ll ask that it be received in evidence as People’s Exhibit A, and I will then read it to the jury.”
The document was duly stamped, and Burger read it to the jury.
“Now,” he asked Helen Kendal, “what did you do with reference to that. In other words, what was your next step after you received that document?”
“We went to the place mentioned.”
“There was a map with it?”
“Yes.”
“I will show you this map and ask if this is the one.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I ask that this be received in evidence as People’s Exhibit B.”
“No objection,” Mason said.
“So ordered,” Judge Lankershim announced.
“And you went to the place indicated on that map?” Burger asked the witness.
“Yes.”
“What did you find there?”
“It was up in the hills back of Hollywood. There was a reservoir. A car was parked near the reservoir. A man was sitting in the car, sort of slumped over the wheel. He was dead. He . . . he had been killed.”
“That man was a stranger to you?”
“Yes.”
“Who was with you at that time?”
“My uncle, Gerald Shore, Mr. Perry Mason and Miss Street.”
“By Miss Street you mean Miss Della Street, the defendant in this action?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And what happened next? What was done immediately after that?”
“We three remained near our car while Mr. Mason went to telephone the police.”
“Then what happened?”
“The police came and asked questions and then my Uncle Gerald drove us home. After that, we went to a hospital to call on Aunt Matilda, and then Uncle Gerald drove me home again.”
“By home, you mean to the Shore residence?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then what happened?”
“They let me out at the residence. The others went to . . .”
“Never mind stating where they went, because you don’t know—only what they told you. But the others left, did they?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happened?”
“A friend came to call on me.”
“What was his name?”
“Jerry Templar.”
“He was a man with whom you had been quite friendly?”
“In a way, yes.”
“And who was in the house at that time?”
“Komo, the servant, was sleeping in the basement. Mrs. Parker, a cook and housekeeper, was in her room over the garage. Mr. Templar and myself were in the living room.”
“What happened?”
“We heard a peculiar sound coming from my Aunt Matilda’s bedroom, a sound as though something had been tipped over. Then we heard the chatter of her caged lovebirds. Then, after a moment, we heard a peculiar noise which sounded like my aunt walking.”
“Is there anything peculiar about her walk?”
“Yes, sir. She drags her right foot when she walks, and uses a cane. The thump of the cane, and the peculiar drag
ging noise of the right foot are very distinctive.”
“And this walk sounded like your aunt’s walk?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then what happened?”
“I knew that my aunt wasn’t in the house. I told that to Jerry. He immediately walked down the corridor and opened the door of the bedroom. Jerry had always been so big and strong that I guess I considered him invincible. I never realized the danger in which I was placing him. I . . .”
“What happened?” Burger asked.
“Someone in the room shot twice. The first bullet just missed my head. The second one . . . hit Jerry.”
“What did you do after that?”
“I don’t know. I dragged Jerry away from the door, and then he recovered consciousness. He was unconscious for some little time. I don’t know just how long. When he opened his eyes, I told him I must get an ambulance and a doctor. He said we could get a taxicab quicker, and I telephoned for a taxicab. We rushed him to the hospital, and an hour or two later on, Dr. Everett Rosllyn operated on him.”
“You remained at the hospital?”
“Yes, sir, until after the operation, and until after—after I’d seen he was going to be all right.”
“Cross-examine,” Burger snapped.
Mason said, “You don’t know how long Jerry Templar was unconscious?”
“No. It was all a nightmare to me.”
“You don’t know how long it was after the shot was fired before you got to the hospital?”
“No, sir. I can’t tell you the time.”
“And you don’t know exactly how long it was after we left you at the house that last time before the shooting took place?”
“Well . . . it might have been . . . it might have been an hour. It might not have been more than half an hour. It was perhaps somewhere between half an hour and an hour.”
“You can’t fix it any closer than that?”
“No.”
“You were about fourteen years of age when your uncle disappeared?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Can you fix exactly the time when the kitten was first taken sick—that is, with reference to the time of that telephone conversation with your Uncle Franklin?”
“It was immediately after I had hung up the telephone that I noticed the kitten was sick.”
“Did you notice that?”
“My attention was first called to it by my aunt.”
“By your aunt you mean Matilda Shore?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What did you do with the kitten?”
“I took it to the veterinary.”
Burger said, “Just a moment, Your Honor, one important question I forgot to ask. I would like to interrupt to get it in the record.”
“No objection,” Mason said affably.
“After dinner that night, did you go back to see the veterinary?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And what was the condition of the kitten at that time?”
“The kitten seemed to be well, but weak.”
“What did you do with him?”
“I took him with me. The veterinary suggested that . . .”
“Never mind what the veterinary suggested.”
Mason said affably, “Oh, go ahead, let her tell it. I take it, Miss Kendal, the veterinary suggested that if some person were trying to poison the kitten around the house, that it would be better to take it away from the house, and so you took it down and left it with Thomas Lunk, the gardener, did you not?”
“Yes, sir.”
Mason said, “That’s all.” And Burger nodded.
Hamilton Burger called Lieutenant Tragg to the stand. Tragg testified in the close-clipped, efficient manner of the police officer who has been on the witness stand on numerous occasions. He testified to receiving a telephone call, to going to the hills back of Hollywood, finding the body, identified the articles which were tied up in a handkerchief near the body, and testified as to the identity of the body.
Tragg then stated positively that he had advised Mr. Mason that night, while the lawyer was at the Shore residence, that he desired the presence of Franklin B. Shore as a witness to appear before the grand jury, and that he stated to Mason the importance to the police of finding and examining Franklin Shore.
Tragg then went on to state his experiences at the Shore home later on that night when he had been summoned to investigate the shooting of Jerry Templar. He testified what he had found, calling particular attention to a writing desk on which a lock had been forced open. He identified photographs showing the condition of the bedroom when he had arrived on the scene. Burger introduced these photographs in evidence.
On cross-examination, Mason adopted a manner of good-natured affability.
“Lieutenant, referring to this handkerchief, I call your attention to a laundry mark. Have you made any effort to trace that laundry mark?”
“Well, yes.”
“And you found, did you not, that it was a mark given to Franklin Shore by a laundry in Miami, Florida, and that the laundry had been out of business for some six years?”
“That is right.”
“You’ll remember that when you first showed me the watch up in the hills back of Hollywood, I pointed out to you that, according to the indicator, the watch must have been wound at approximately four-thirty or five o’clock the day of the murder?”
“Yes.”
“Now, have you examined the fountain pen?”
“Yes.”
“And what was the condition of that fountain pen?”
Tragg said, “It was dry.”
“According to your observations at the scene of the shooting of Jerry Templar, the assailant had entered through a ground-floor window on the north side of the house. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“And, in entering the room, had knocked over a night stand or taboret which was by the side of Mrs. Shore’s bed?”
“Yes.”
“Then had picked up a cane which apparently was in the room, and had imitated the steps of Mrs. Shore?”
“I think that’s a fair deduction from the evidence. Of course, I don’t know that of my own knowledge.”
“But you did find a cane which was lying on the floor near the corner from which the shots had been fired?”
“Yes.”
“By the way, Lieutenant, you stated, I believe, that you took Thomas Lunk into custody at a downtown hotel where he was registered under the name of Thomas Trimmer?”
“Yes.”
“How did you happen to go to that hotel to make the arrest?”
Tragg smiled. “I am not going to divulge that.”
“It’s not proper cross-examination,” Hamilton Burger objected. “The witness certainly is entitled to protect the source of his information.”
Mason said, “I will withdraw that question and ask this in its place. Isn’t it a fact, Lieutenant, that you went to that hotel because you received an anonymous telephone tip from some person who told you where Lunk was, the name under which he was registered, and the number of his room?”
“Same objection,” Burger said.
Judge Lankershim deliberated the matter thoughtfully, then asked Mason, “What is the reason for asking this question, Mr. Mason?”
“It simply goes to show the entire res gestae,” he said. “As a matter of fact, Your Honor, it may be quite material. Suppose, for instance, that I had been the one who had given Lieutenant Tragg that telephone tip?”
“You don’t claim that you were?” Judge Lankershim asked.
“Not at present, Your Honor. But I think it’s only fair to the defendant that the witness should answer that one question.”
“I’ll overrule the objection,” Judge Lankershim said. “I doubt that it’s entirely pertinent, but I am going to give the defense the benefit of the widest latitude in cross-examination. The question doesn’t call upon the lieutenant to divulge in any way the source of his information. Answer the ques
tion.”
Tragg picked his words cautiously. “I received an anonymous telephone communication, giving me approximately that information.”
Mason smiled. “That’s all.”
“I call Matilda Shore as my next witness,” Burger said.
Matilda Shore, who was sitting next to the aisle, raised herself from the seat by clinging to her cane with one hand, the back of the seat in front of her with the other, and walked to the witness chair, where the clerk administered the oath. While she was walking, the jurors, as well as the spectators, had an opportunity to listen to the peculiarly distinctive sound of her steps.
When she had given her name and address, Burger lost no time in getting to the point.
“You are the wife of Franklin B. Shore?”
“I am.”
“And where is Mr. Shore now?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did you see him last?”
“Approximately ten years ago.”
“Can you give us the exact date?”
“January 23, 1932.”
“And what happened on that date?”
“He disappeared. Someone was talking with him in his study, someone who wanted money. The voices were raised for a while in angry altercation. Then they quieted down. I went to bed. I never saw my husband after that. He disappeared. I knew, however, that he wasn’t dead. I knew that some day he would show up . . .”
“Never mind what you felt or surmised,” Burger interrupted hastily. “I just want to establish certain things to prove a possible motivation for the entering of your house by a person who was interrupted before he could achieve the purpose for which he had come. For that purpose only, I’ll ask you if there were some checks which were cashed just before and after your husband’s disappearance?”
“Yes.”
“One of those checks was for ten thousand dollars?”
“Yes, sir.”
“To whom was it payable?”
The Case of the Careless Kitten Page 19
