"(theme song playing)" "(thunder rumbling)" "(wind howling)" "(Eastern European accent):" "Inanimate objects can reveal their history." "They give us pictures of their surroundings, of persons with whom they have been connected, even when those persons are dead." "You will know when I am ready." "At that time, you will place object you wish me to read in my hands." "(shallow gasping)" "Helen." "Love." "Much love." "Unhappy mother." "She has lost her husband." "No, no, no." "Husband dead many years." "She has..." "recently lost her son." "I hear his name." "Tho..." "Thomas." "Leslie Walker." "Hmm, message." "He has message for Mother." ""Dear Mother..."" "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "Why can't you be honest?" "Why must you lie to me and cheat me?" "That glove..." "That-that glove that you say can put you in contact with my son-- well, my son never saw that glove in his whole life." "I bought that glove myself this afternoon!" "(thunder cracks) Oh!" "What is it, Mother?" "Oh!" "Michael, we'll take her to her room." "(sobbing)" "Helen..." "get rid of that-- that woman." "And call Dr. Younger at once." "(doorbell buzzes)" "(without accent):" "Well, look who's here." "Go away." "I had enough of you and your bright ideas last night." "Beat it." "Now, now, Princess." "Drinking spirits, instead of talking to them?" "Now, look here." "You get out of here." "I had enough..." "Money." "I... eh..." "Lots of money." "$500 in crisp, new bills." "Close the door." "Last night was an unfortunate mistake." "The old lady's smarter than I thought." "Princess, there are a couple of things I'd like to know." "First of all, everything I can find out about a routine called automatic writing." "And most important, your expert help on exactly how to fake a trance." "Sylvia, dinner was delicious." "Thanks for having me over." "Arthur, you're a humbug and a fraud." "You keep me an invalid only to cadge free meals and collect your preposterous fees." "Well, just don't tell the medical association." "At my age, I wouldn't know how to start earning an honest living." "(all chuckle) Good night, Sylvia." "Good night, Arthur." "Bonnie, see that your mother takes her medicine." "Good night, Doctor." "Uh, Doctor, let me get your coat for you." "Amazing woman, your mother-in-law, amazing." "Dr. Younger?" "Yes, Michael?" "Is she really all right?" "Bonnie and I have been worried sick about her fanatic preoccupation with contacting her dead son." "And-and these people she finds to help her." "She's much better." "The change is really remarkable." "Bonnie tells me there's been no reference to Tom, nor any attempt to contact him for two weeks now?" "Once she accepts the fact that her son is dead," "Sylvia Walker will be fine." "Just fine." "WOMAN:" "Doctor!" "Oh, Dr. Younger, there's something wrong with Philip!" "Go look at him quickly." "How long has he been like this?" "I don't know." "I haven't seen him since dinner." "He's not sick, Doctor, I'm sure of that." "He's-he's acting almost as if he were in a trance." "Don't touch him, Arthur." "D-Don't touch him, you hear me?" "Helen, go and get the planchette and the board." "Quickly." "Sylvia, I've warned you, your heart won't take any more of this." "This all-consuming compulsion to contact Tom is-is unwholesome, it's sick, it has to stop now." "Thomas Leslie Walker is dead, dead and gone." "You're a blind fool, Arthur." "If it hasn't been documented with chapter and verse in one of your precious medical books, then it must be nonsense." "Well, the truth sometimes exists, Arthur, beyond the next hill, out of sight." "Or buried in the larcenous brain of some charlatan who's using your belief in spiritualism as an excuse to rob you." "Thomas was Philip's cousin." "A blood relative." "The same age, and the same literary ambitions." "He may... he may come through." "This, good doctor, is what is hopefully called automatic writing." "The spirit of the dead guides the hand of the living." "A ghost-to-ghost telegraph company, so to speak." "Be quiet, Michael, or take your sarcasm elsewhere." "(grunts, sighs)" "Look." "Look, he's writing." "He's writing." "(planchette lightly scraping)" "(sighs)" "(soft gasp)" ""Death's omnipotence, gloom casting pall on high or low." ""Man is flesh-- to yearn, to seek, to lust, to crave..."" "Stop." "Don't read any more." "The day before he died, my son," "Thomas Leslie Walker, wrote a poem." "Since that day, it's been inside that box, in the safe, and no other eyes but mine have ever seen it." "Arthur, will you read it, please?" ""Death's omnipotence, gloom cast..."" "Well, go on, Doctor." ""Death's omnipotence, gloom casting pall" ""on high or low." ""Man is flesh-- to yearn, to seek," ""to lust, to crave." ""What meaning, then, to need, to want?" ""But yet to know the beginning is the end." "My hopes, like me, are for the grave."" "Helen, will you read what Philip wrote?" ""Death's omnipotence, gloom casting pall" ""on high or low." ""Man is flesh-- to yearn, to seek, to lust, to crave..."" "(Philip groans)" "SYLVIA:" "Philip?" "Philip, are you all right?" "Aunt Sylvia?" "Yes." "Everything's going to be all right, Philip dearest." "Everything's going to be all right." "This is the bedroom suite Mother wanted you to have." "We'll try to make you comfortable." "You, uh, resent my moving in here, don't you?" "This was my brother's room." "You make it sound like a shrine." "The late Thomas Leslie Walker-- embryo poet, accomplished drinker and a truly gifted philanderer with the women." "I shall breathe the hallowed air in here with proper reverence." "You seem to know a lot about Tom, for somebody who never met him." "Cousins by blood, friends by correspondence." "I would've liked him." "Shame he died before I moved out here from Canada." "In your correspondence, from one budding author to another, did he send you copies of his poems?" "Like the one you supposedly dredged up from the dead downstairs!" "He did, didn't he?" "That whole thing was an act, a fake." "I'm going to be comfortable in here." "Very comfortable." "Hey, what's that boarded up there?" "The closet with the family skeletons?" "An elevator." "Tom's elevator." "It goes to the bottom of the hill in a small underground garage." "Tom was killed in an elevator accident, wasn't he?" "It went out of control, dropped five stories and crashed... less than a year ago." "Tom was trapped inside." "Get it fixed." "But Tom was..." "Get it fixed." "Or should I speak to Aunt Sylvia about it?" "I'll have it fixed." "Now, that's better." "See, you can be nice, can't you?" "And you're so pretty when you're angry." "(panting)" "Good night." "Well, what did I tell you?" "We moved in, didn't we?" "And to stay." "Elaine, baby, that's only the first step." "Come on, come on." "She's my cousin." "Yes, ma'am." "Only the first step on the way to 50 million bucks." "(thunder rolling)" "I just don't know why I waited so long to ask for your help." "I thought maybe he'd go away, but he hasn't." "That man's lived in this house for six months now." "Six months, Perry." "He-He practically owns the house." "And Mother, too." "She just lives for those make-believe trances of his, and... well, it's getting worse all the time." "(thunder rolling)" "I know Dr. Younger's worried about her." "Oh, Perry, you've just got to make her see what a fraud he is." "Oh, help us, please." "Well, look, your breaking down won't help, will it?" "You know, frauds have a way of ultimately tripping over the truth." "Just don't worry." "All right, Perry." "Good." "Now, suppose we go in and participate in this imitation séance." "(thunder crashing, wind howling)" "It's no good, I tell you." "Can't... can't... possibly do anything tonight." "The spirit just isn't in me." "(rain falling)" "Mr. Mason!" "Welcome to the threshold of the beyond." "Perry, what are you doing here?" "Well, I..." "I bumped into him downtown this afternoon and invited him to drop in." "Yes, as a matter of fact, we ran into each other in a bookstore." "Life After Death:" "The Posthumous Poetry of Thomas Leslie Walker." "You know, there's been, um, fantastic interest in how you produced Walker's first poem and the rest of the poetry that seemingly came through from a dead author." "Quite an accomplishment, Mr. Paisley, to make a book of poetry into a bestseller." "You must be proud." "Sure." "Sure." "I was hoping you'd autograph a copy for me." "Real smart, huh?" "Autograph it, huh?" "You don't want my signature, Mr. Lawyer Man." "You get Thomas Leslie Walker to sign it, that's who." "That might be a little difficult." "Oh, yes, there's something else you're to be congratulated for-- the Thomas Leslie Walker Memorial Foundation." "I understand it's been most generous in helping struggling young authors." "It's nothing." "It's nothing at all." "I suppose the proceeds from this book are the funds being used to support the foundation." "Walker Industries is supporting it, to the tune of $1 million in less than six months." "Well, I am Walker Industries, Michael." "You're an employee." "Uh, well, now, actually, my purpose in coming here tonight was my great interest in seeing a demonstration of automatic writing." "Uh, Mr. Paisley, I believe that's something at which you are quite adept." "May I watch you?" "Not tonight." "That's a shame." "I was hoping..." "Not tonight, I said!" "Do you hear?" "No performance, Philip?" "I thought actors believe the show must go on." "I have had just about as much as I can take out of you." "Now, shut up, do you hear me?" "Shut up!" "But the poor beings in the beyond, Philip, deprived of an opportunity to... to come through and communicate with the living!" "What of them, Philip?" "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "You're so smart, are you?" "You think it's all an act, huh?" "Well, then... you do it." "Go ahead." "You do it!" "Bonnie, no!" "Oh, let me alone!" "Bonnie, don't!" "Please." "I'll show him!" "You're making yourself sick, Bonnie." "I'll show him right now!" "I forbid this, Bonnie." "You understand?" "I have..." "I'll... show him!" "(thunder crashes)" "* *" "(planchette scraping)" "(rain falling outside)" "(wind whistling softly)" "(wry chuckle)" "Can't read it." "I can't read it." ""The fraud whose hoax turned hope to dread shall take his place among the dead."" "What's that?" "Darling..." "What did he say?" "No!" "No!" "You!" "You, you're the fraud!" "I hate you all!" "I'm sick to death of all of you!" "(glass shatters)" "(elevator whirring)" "(whirring grows louder)" "(screams)" "(loud crash)" "(door creaks open)" "Sorry we have to keep you waiting." "I'm going to have to ask you all some questions, and I'd appreciate your cooperation." "Sergeant, my exchange has been calling me." "I'm needed at the hospital." "I know you investigate all accidental deaths, but, uh, surely any questions you have of me will wait till tomorrow?" "If it's an emergency, we won't hold you." "One of my men'll take you and bring you back." "Bring me back?" "!" "Now, look here, Sergeant..." "One moment, Dr. Younger." "Sergeant Bradley, this wasn't an accidental death?" "No, Mr. Mason." "Philip Paisley was murdered." "The murderer connected a long piece of piano wire from the top of the elevator cage to the field coils inside the motor housing above the elevator shaft." "Now, in order to do this, the murderer had to know quite a bit about electrical motors-- enough to hook up the wire, so that when the elevator started down, it pulled open what are called "shunt fields."" "That elevator just didn't fall five stories, it picked up extra speed the whole way down." "Do the authorities have any leads?" "They do." "When Philip Paisley moved in, it was Bonnie Craig who ordered the elevator restored to service." "According to the repairman, and I quote," ""She seemed unusually interested in how the elevator worked," ""what might conceivably go wrong with it, and what safety features it had."" "Paul, you can't convince me that a girl like Bonnie would be interested in an elevator just to use it to kill somebody." "Well, Sheriff's Homicide's easier to convince." "Especially when Dr. Younger admits that earlier last night he saw Bonnie Craig go into Philip Paisley's room, carrying a screwdriver and a pair of pliers." "Then the police must be sure that she's the one who fixed the elevator." "What are you doing here, David?" "Well, you gave him permission to use the law library today, remember," "Perry?" "Say, Mr. Mason, if you're talking about that murder last night, the one with the mediums and trances, then you ought to see Puharich at the Parapsychology Laboratory." "Puharich?" "Dr. Andrija Puharich" " I've known him for some time now." "He's one of the top ESP men in the country." "Extrasensory perception?" "That's right." "Thank you, David." "That's not a bad idea." "But first things first." "Paul..." "I want an investigation of everyone connected with this case, past or present, and a complete check on every person who was in the Walker home last night, with particular emphasis on whether any of their backgrounds include" "electrical training or experience." "(phone rings)" "Yes, Gertie?" "Hold on." "Bonnie Craig." "Put her on, Gertie." "Yes, Bonnie?" "Perry..." "I need your help, please." "I'm being arrested... for the murder of Philip Paisley." "Interested in it?" "Well, of course I was interested in it." "I wanted to make sure the elevator was safe." "And that's the truth, Perry." "All right." "You didn't want another accident to occur, so that accounts for your interest in the elevator." "But what about those tools" "Dr. Younger saw you taking into Philip's room?" "Well, they had nothing to do with the elevator." "Then with what did they have to do?" "I knew Philip was a fraud." "I'd seen him one day in his room practicing the poetry and other bits of information he used in his phony trances." "They were written down and hidden in his room," "I was sure of it." "If I could just find those written notes," "I could prove he was a fraud." "So you went looking for the notes with pliers and a screwdriver?" "I-I'd seen a small locked metal box hidden in his room." "The notes had to be in there." "I wanted to make sure I could open it." "But he must have somehow known I'd seen it, because it wasn't in the room." "It was gone." "Now, when you went into his room with those tools, how did you know Philip wouldn't just walk in and surprise you?" "Well, I-I just knew he wouldn't come back upstairs until after the séance." "You just knew?" "How?" "(sighs):" "I deliberately got him drunk." "You got him drunk?" "Yes." "I kept serving him highballs that were almost all liquor." "With the appetite Philip had for drinking, it wasn't very difficult." "Did anyone see you preparing or serving him those loaded drinks?" "Oh, I'm not sure." "I suppose his wife could've seen me." "Or maybe Helen, Mother's secretary/companion." "The tools, getting him drunk-- all that looks pretty bad, doesn't it?" "That depends on the answer to one question." "I want the truth now, Bonnie, without equivocation." ""The fraud whose hoax turned hope to dread shall take his place among the dead."" "When you wrote those words, were you or were you not faking a trance?" "Perry..." "I'll take an oath on all that's dear and sacred to me." "I don't know what happened... or how I came to write those words." "I was not acting or faking, so help me!" "Philip Paisley was the only one who ever used that elevator." "He kept his car in a garage at the base of it." "Everyone knew that." "Also, his drunken rages generally ended in his taking the elevator down and going for a fast ride." "And the authorities believe" "Mrs. Craig tampered with that elevator?" "Exactly." "Now, this is the key to the whole problem." "Was her trance genuine, or was the trance and the writing-- like getting him drunk-- part of a deliberate attempt to murder him?" "Uh, what can you tell me about a trance, Doctor?" "Well, there are a great, great many sincere people who consider themselves spiritists." "To them, trance is a method of giving the subconscious mind an opportunity to express itself without the interference of the conscious mind." "From a legal point of view, Dr. Puharich, what exactly is a trance?" "Nothing evidential that you, as an attorney, could or would want to take into court." "So, it's legally impossible to prove whether Mrs. Craig's trance was genuine or faked?" "Trance may be a state of hysteria-- a way of releasing repressed or unconscious tendencies the person wouldn't express under normal circumstances." "Suppose, Doctor, we were dealing with an area of abnormality-- a person who had just set a murder trap, as Bonnie Craig is supposed to have done in fixing that elevator." "Would or could such a person openly express a threat to their intended victim?" "Well, actually, as you put it, no." "Mentally, there would be an impassable defensive block against self-incrimination." "Realistically, she could no more betray herself in a trance than a person under hypnosis can be forced to act against his own moral scruples." "As an expert, would you testify to that?" "Certainly." "So would any qualified expert... if" "Mrs. Craig were proven to have been in an actual trance." "Well..." "Back to the river with no boat and no bridge." "Maybe not, Mr. Mason." "What do you mean?" "If her trance were genuine, it might indicate the presence of some extrasensory perception on her part." "We could prove that legally, no more." "The backdoor approach." "If she has any ESP, perhaps her trance was genuine." "(phone ringing)" "Excuse me." "Dr. Puharich." "For you." "Mason." "Perry, I got something pretty interesting." "A phony ex-fortune teller named Princess Charlotte, who now bills herself as a spiritualist, which she isn't." "Anyway, she may have been involved in whatever swindle it was" "Philip Paisley was pulling on Mrs. Walker." "Also, Philip Paisley was a blackmailer, and get this-- he was blackmailing old lady Walker's son-in-law, Michael Craig." "Philip wasn't blackmailing me." "Not directly." "He was putting the pressure on Bonnie." "He found out about a business matter I was involved in." "Something of..." "questionable legality." "He made it rough on Bonnie, and he threatened to take the matter to the police, unless we agreed to..." "to arrange for him to become a vice president of Walker Industries." "The colossal nerve of the man." "Doctor, why did you go to Philip's room the night he was murdered?" "What?" "When you saw Bonnie go into his room with those tools." "Weren't you there to see him yourself?" "Why yes, I was." "You're right." "To ask him to leave here." "To stop torturing Sylvia with memories, before it was too late." "Tell me, how long have you been in love with Sylvia Walker?" "I've loved her ever since the day I first met her." "No, Mr. Mason, I didn't kill Philip Paisley." "As a doctor, my concern is with saving lives, not taking them." "But if I had wanted to kill him, if the thought had occurred to me," "I wouldn't have used an elevator." "I would have used my bare hands." "Sure." "Sure, you all hated him." "You all wanted to see him dead." "Why, this whole high-hattin' family is nothing but a bunch of phonies." "Yeah, phonies." "Just like Phil was." "But before I go, there's something I'm gonna tell you." "You may as well hear it right now, 'cause I already told the district attorney." "They didn't make no mistake when they arrested Bonnie." "No sirree, they didn't." "She and my husband were having themselves a little love affair." "When I told him I knew he was playing around all the time, he... he laughed at me, he admitted it." "He said, "Sure, I just dropped my latest girlfriend like a hot potato, and she's boiling mad."" "And maybe you think that won't sound nice and juicy when I tell it in court." "Good-bye... family." "Your Honor, the answers of this witness are not responsive." "Miss Garden, for many years, has been secretary-companion to the defendant's mother." "It's obvious that her loyalties are with the Walker family." "If the witness is not more responsive, the court will rule her a hostile witness and the prosecutor will be permitted to ask leading questions." "Proceed." "Very well, Your Honor." "Now, Miss Garden, it's been testified here that the decedent, Philip Paisley, was a frequent and a heavy drinker." "And further, that when he was drunk, if anything occurred to upset him that he always reacted in the same manner." "Now I ask you in exactly what manner he always reacted in the circumstances" "I just described?" "He'd take the elevator down to his car and go driving." "Did you ever have a discussion with the defendant, Bonnie Craig, to indicate that she was aware of this behavior pattern?" "Yes." "Did you ever see Bonnie Craig and the decedent embracing or kissing each other?" "GARDEN:" "Yes." "The day he moved into the house." "BURGER:" "Really?" "Now, Miss Garden, did you ever have a discussion with the defendant on the matter of the pressure placed on her or her husband by the decedent, Philip Paisley, to have himself appointed a vice president of Walker Industries?" "Yes." "Mrs. Craig was very angry and talked to me about where Philip Paisley was getting the information he was using to blackmail the family." "I assured her I had never spoken to Mr. Paisley about those matters." "Well, would you repeat the specific remark made by the defendant during this discussion concerning the decedent?" "Mrs. Craig said she'd see Philip Paisley... dead and buried before she'd let him ruin the family." "BURGER:" "Thank you." "Finally, one last matter." "During this hearing, the defense counsel, Mr. Mason, has consistently tried to give the impression that the defendant's so-called "trance"" "on the night of the murder was... (chuckles) genuine." "I ask if you ever saw the defendant simulate a trance." "Yes, once." "About a week before the murder." "But it was only a joke." "She... well, she was imitating Philip." "Making believe she was in one of his trances and... writing some of his poetry." "You saw the defendant, Bonnie Craig, pretending to be in a trance, and while she was in this make-believe trance pretending to be performing automatic writing?" "Yes." "BURGER:" "Thank you very much, Miss Garden." "That will be all." "Cross-examine." "No questions." "Witness is excused." "Does the prosecution have any further witnesses?" "No, Your Honor." "The prosecution has shown that the defendant had access to the death elevator at the time that it must have been tampered with, and that she was seen in the immediate vicinity actually carrying tools." "We have demonstrated two strong motivations." "First, that Bonnie Craig was a woman scorned-- cast aside after a sordid affair with the decedent." "And second, that Bonnie Craig was a woman desperate to protect her own and her husband's financial security." "And we have introduced testimony that under such motivation, she deliberately got Philip Paisley first drunk and then angry, and thus sent him to his death as surely as if she had held a gun against his head and shot him." "Your Honor, the prosecution asks that the defendant, Bonnie Craig, be bound over for trial in Superior Court." "Mr. Mason, do you wish to present a defense at this time?" "May it please the court, uh, defense requests a short recess for the purpose of consultation with the defendant." "All right." "The, uh, court'll stand recessed for 30 minutes." "What kind of a defense could you possibly put on, Perry?" "Spirit writing on a Ouija board?" "Or maybe you'd like to materialize some nice ghostly ectoplasm right here in court." "I don't know" " I may even put Bonnie Craig on the stand and let her tell her own story." "What?" "And let me destroy that story on cross-examination?" "Putting that woman on the stand would be like giving her a one-way ticket to the gas chamber." "No, you won't do that." "Perry Mason doesn't make mistakes like that." "Or does he?" "Perry." "I just heard what the prosecutor said." "You can't possibly let Bonnie testify." "That, Sylvia, will be my decision." "Or more important, Bonnie's decision." "Bonnie, I must know exactly what your relationship was with Philip Paisley." "Elaine Paisley was lying." "Then you never went out with her husband?" "Well, I..." "I want the truth, Bonnie." "All right, I went out with him once." "Just once." "I thought maybe I could talk to him-- make him understand-- even-even buy him off." "Well, he was drunk, ugly." "He tried to make love to me." "I-I hit him, and I ran away." "Perry, please believe me." "All right, Bonnie, I believe you." "Now, will you believe me?" "Trust me?" "Will you testify on your own behalf?" "Your Honor, it is our desire to present a defense in this hearing." "Toward that end, it will be essential to introduce an unusual demonstration." "I request, therefore, that the court and the necessary parties to the proceedings adjourn to the Parapsychology Laboratory of Dr. Andrija Puharich." "What's the nature of this demonstration?" "I'm sure the court is aware that a key issue in this case is whether or not, on the night of the murder, the defendant did indeed enter a genuine state of trance." "Oh, come now, Mr. Mason." "You can't hope to introduce evidence into a court of law establishing the validity of a so-called trance." "No, Your Honor, but I do intend to demonstrate scientifically and legally whether or not the defendant possesses that capacity known as extrasensory perception." "On the basis, I suppose, of an inferential assumption." "That if she does possess this extrasensory perception, that she could have, without faking, have gone into this so-called trance?" "That's correct, Your Honor." "No, Mr. Mason, I'm sorry." "I just can't..." "Your Honor, please." "Mr. Mason, in order to make this demonstration, will you put the defendant under oath as a witness?" "Yes, I will." "And, of course, I'll have the right to cross-examine her?" "Of course." "Your Honor, the prosecution has absolutely no objection to this demonstration." "Well, in that case, and since this is a preliminary hearing, the court will permit the demonstration." "Court is adjourned for the day, and will reconvene tomorrow morning at 10:00 at the Parapsychology Laboratory." "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." "Paying off?" "Ah, paternity suits, settlements, you name it." "A bad, bad boy, the late Mr. Walker." "What about those electrical backgrounds?" "DRAKE:" "Well, we almost struck out there." "We barely had time to scratch the surface." "However, Michael Craig was a former Signal Corps officer with training in elemental electricity." "Bonnie's husband?" "Why would he want to kill Philip Paisley?" "Well, Paisley was supposedly romancing his wife and at the same time, supposedly blackmailing him." "MASON:" "Did you investigate that?" "Smoke, but not much fire." "The Walker company books had been juggled, and there was a substantial shortage of cash." "Now..." "Mike Craig may not have pocketed the dough, but it was his department and, consequently, his responsibility." "Michael Craig is the only one with electrical training?" "No." "There was somebody else who could've booby-trapped that elevator." "Your client, Bonnie Craig." "It seems that during college, she spent three summers working for one of Walker Industries' many subsidiary companies." "MASON:" "Electrical?" "Appliance-- and Burger knows it." "If he ever gets her on the stand, look out." "He'll get that chance tomorrow, Paul." "Oh, no, you're not gonna let her testify?" "Yes... (door opens, closes) I'm going to let her testify." "I must have checked every bar and roadhouse within a radius of 50 miles." "You were absolutely right" "I got five positive identifications of those photographs." "(phone rings)" "Perry Mason's office." "Just one moment, please." "Dr. Puharich." "Yes, Doctor?" "Is the, uh, faraday cage ready?" "Fine, we'll be right over." "What is a faraday cage?" "It's..." "Uh..." "Go ahead, David." "A way of testing for ESP." "Perry... is it really that important?" "I mean, if your client has ESP and if the trance was genuine?" "Whether or not Bonnie Craig goes to the gas chamber for first-degree murder may depend upon the results of this testing tomorrow." "Particularly on what happens with the faraday cage." "Uh, extrasensory perception-- ESP-- is the capacity with which some people are apparently able to perceive beyond the range of the recognized senses." "The tests to be run here are designed to discover and measure the degree of such capacity." "The prosecution has already stipulated as to the expert qualifications of Dr. Andrija Puharich, who has prepared and will evaluate these tests." "Now, another person is needed to participate with Mrs. Craig in the test to be run here." "Uh, Mrs. Paisley, would you sit down, please?" "Now, this computer is programmed to make one thousand random choices of numerals from one to ten." "As, uh, Dr. Puharich has constructed the test, he postulates that, uh..." "a person with ESP should be able to guess a scientifically predictable percentage of those random numbers." "Dr. Puharich?" "(low electrical humming)" "All right, Mrs. Craig." "(pressing keys)" "(pressing keys)" "(pressing keys)" "Elaine Paisley scored 93 correct choices out of one thousand." "Bonnie Craig scored 97 correct choices out of one thousand." "Neither score exceeds chance expectation." "This means no ESP indicated for either lady tested." "Mr. Craig, would you help us with this test, please?" "Of course." "Fold your arms, please." "Make no sound, no movement during the test runs." "Now, as your wife tries to match the correct symbols, concentrate just as hard as you can on the correct symbols as your wife's hand comes near them." "Doctor?" "PUHARICH:" "This, closest to you on the bottom, is the match row with your left hand on it." "This, on top, with your right hand on it, is the target row." "Choose any one of the top ten boxes you think matches the box you are touching in the bottom row and take that box out of the top row and place it in the middle matching row above the one on the bottom." "All right, Mrs. Craig?" "(box clacks into place)" "(box clacks into place)" "(box clacks into place)" "(box clacks into place)" "In this test, as in the first test, no extrasensory perception." "Well, Your Honor, I think this has gone far enough." "Mr. Mason has made-- or, rather, failed to make-- his point." "Yes, I'm inclined to agree." "Well, Mr. Mason?" "One more test, Your Honor." "Even where minimal, normally nonmeasurable ESP exists, uh," "Dr. Puharich's scientifically experienced contention is that the charged faraday cage technique will indicate it." "This will be our last test." "JUDGE:" "All right, Mr. Mason, you may go on with your test." "Very well, Your Honor." "Uh, Miss Garden, would you help us with this one, please?" "Um, just sit over there at the table." "Now, this time we will use two trays, one outside the cage." "Inside the cage, Mrs. Craig will attempt, on signal, to duplicate the sequential arrangement on her tray." "Oh, yes, we'll need, uh, one other person inside the cage with Mrs. Craig." "Uh, Dr. Younger, would you, please?" "Oh, one moment, Doctor." "I'd better caution everyone in this room, but most particularly the two people who will be inside the cage, that once the cage is in operation there are 22,000 volts of electricity on the copper surface." "Don't touch it." "And you're sending us inside?" "The chairs and the tables on the inside of the cage are mounted on glass insulators." "Keep your hands either on the tables or in your laps." "Now, all of you, either inside or outside the cage... 22,000 volts." "Do not touch the cage." "Isn't this unnecessarily dangerous?" "You're not worried, are you, Dr. Younger?" "(sighs) If I knew enough about electricity really to be worried, I should then have been expert enough to have tampered with the elevator motor that killed Philip Paisley-- is that what you mean?" "That's right, Doctor." "The murderer was expert in the knowledge of electricity." "But my warning was intended... merely as a safety measure." "MASON:" "Ready with the signal to the inside of the cage, David?" "GIDEON:" "Yes, sir." "MASON:" "Now, Miss Garden, completely at random, take any box from the bottom of the row and place it to your left at the top of the row." "Signal, David." "(clicks)" "All right, Miss Garden, another box." "Signal." "(clicks)" "Another box." "Signal." "(electrical crackling, clamoring shouts)" "(electrical crackling stops)" "Miss Garden... your back was to that switchboard when the electricity was turned on." "How did you know exactly which was the right switch to pull?" "Why, I-I just..." "I just..." "Just guessed?" "Oh, no, Miss Garden, you didn't guess, any more than you had to guess how to open the shunt fields on an elevator motor." "Now, if we check back far enough, before you went to work for Sylvia Walker, we'll find an electrical background, won't we, Miss Garden?" "Please, please, no." "Bonnie Craig wasn't Philip's girlfriend." "It wasn't Bonnie he dropped; it was you." "And it was you, as well as the Walker family, he was blackmailing, was it not?" "Yes." "Yes, Philip found out." "What was it he found?" "That you had been in love with Thomas Leslie Walker?" "That you'd committed a crime for him?" "Yes." "Tom and I were... were in love." "MASON:" "Tom was in trouble." "He was being sued by another woman." "You didn't know that, did you?" "All you knew was that he needed money, money you helped him get, isn't that right?" "I had... access to the books." "Books juggled not by Michael Craig;" "books juggled by you to raise cash for Tom." "When the shortage was discovered," "Tom was safe, but not you." "He laughed at me!" "He fooled me!" "He... used me to steal for him, and then he laughed at me!" "I wasn't going to jail for him!" "I..." "I fixed the elevator." "Tom was killed, and... it looked like an accident." "I thought I was safe." "MASON:" "Safe, until Philip Paisley came along and started digging-- digging for blackmail information." "He found out e... enough to guess what I had done in juggling the books, and... sooner or later, he'd find out I killed Tom." "And you were trapped." "Now there would be no safe job with your future well provided for." "Now there would only be a trial for the murder of Thomas Walker." "So you figured... there was just one thing to do." "I did it before." "I did it again." "I fixed the elevator." "I killed Philip Paisley!" "Even though Paul hadn't uncovered the history of her electrical training before the hearing, we were sure there had to be one." "Under pressure, and believing her own life in danger, she, uh, gave herself away." "And once the dam broke, everything poured out." "A confession to two murders." "But what about that trance of mine?" "Oh, I spoke to Dr. Puharich." "Uh, that partial test you took in the faraday cage, well, it seems you do have extrasensory perception." "Very latent, very mild, but present." "Well now, what in the world do I do with it?" "Uh, call yourself Countess Bonnie and give readings with an accent." "(laughter) Oh, Mike!" "(theme music plays)"