"(theme song playing)" "The director wanted me." "Larry Vander to see you, Mr. Barlow." "Send him in, Miss Gibsone." "Thank you." "Sit down, Lawrence." "Formal, cold, tone of impending doom." "I like you better when you're friendly enough to call me by my last name." "Lawrence Vander, international reporter, author, commentator." "More than a bit distressing to have to add to that," ""Lawrence Vander, liar."" "It becomes obvious I might as well level with you." "I am not here researching a feature story on Space Associates Ltd." "I gathered as much from your magazine editor when I called and checked with him." "The last he heard of you, you were in Germany covering a trade conference." "Cliff, I'm close to what could be the biggest story in the past 15 years." "You remember Max Kleinerman?" "Max Kleinerman." "One of the top Nazis in Hitler's Germany?" "Only vaguely." "The Allies caught him and before they could even photograph him or fingerprint him he escaped?" "Supposedly he was killed in the Battle of the Bulge?" "Yes, yes." "I have proof in black and white" "Max Kleinerman was not killed in the Battle of the Bulge." "What?" "After he escaped, somehow in the confusion of the fighting, he substituted identification and uniform with a dead soldier and he got away with it." "Max Kleinerman is in the United States in Los Angeles, an executive working in your company." "It was something he saw, something he heard at the office." "As if..." "As if the sky were about to fall down on him." "When he came home from work, I was startled." "I told him he looked like he'd seen a ghost." "All he could say was... was, "Yes, if the dead past is a ghost," "I've seen it."" "How long ago was this?" "Two weeks." "Mr. Mason, my husband hasn't been the same since." "He hasn't slept;" "he jumps at noises." "He keeps looking behind him as if someone were about to reach out and grab him." "Mrs. Merrill, exactly what do you want me to do?" "I think something in his past has caught up with him, and he plans to... to..." "To leave you?" "That... or he plans to commit suicide." "Your husband and I are strangers." "I'm an attorney, not a psychiatrist." "He must think you can help him or he wouldn't be coming to see you." "I saw the notation on his desk." "That's why I came early." "He has an appointment with you this afternoon." "What time was that, Della?" "2:00, Harlan Merrill, Space Research." "That's my husband, Mr. Mason, Harlan Merrill." "BARLOW:" "Harlan?" "Mr. Merrill?" "Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Barlow." "I should like the sale of the American Division of Space Research Associates Ltd to be a smooth and orderly transition." "This, I suspect, will require the fullest cooperation of everyone." "Harlan, you and our treasurer, Mr. Fillmore, will have the financial records ready." "How soon will the bonding company's accountants finish the audit on that shortage, Emery?" "I would say by the end of next week, Cliff." "Fine." "Now, our plant supervisor," "Buck Osborn." "Arthur Hennings, chief engineer." "The production staff of the new company will be in on Monday." "Yes, Miss Gibsone?" "There's a gentleman waiting in Mr. Merrill's office." "He says it's important." "Excuse me, please." "Miss Dunbrack, on the matter of the security checks..." "All the executive checks are in, down through the departmental foreman." "Good." "Now, before I forget, for those of you who signed up for the retreat tonight, the weekend schedules are ready." "I'll have traveling directions available for anyone who needs them." "Forged passport, phony identifications to match." "The money, please." "Bon voyage, Mr. Smith." "Hey, wait a minute." "These papers, are they..." "Good as gold, Mr. Smith." "Good as gold." "In the birth of new citizens of the world," "I'm an expert midwife." "You'll find the birth certificate in there is a work of art." "Good luck." "Oh, excuse me." "Only take a minute of your time, Mr. Merrill." "I'm getting up some material on the war background of the company's executives." "Where did you serve, Pacific?" "I'm sorry..." "Or was it Germany," "Normandy, Battle of the Bulge?" "I'm very sorry but there's an important meeting." "They're waiting for me." "Perhaps we can discuss this later." "Excuse me." "Mr. Merrill?" "Yes." "How do you do?" "I'm David Gideon." "How do you do?" "Uh, your receptionist was good enough to suggest that I wait in the law library." "I hope you don't mind." "No, not at all, sir." "Uh, Mr. Mason was unexpectedly detained in court, will be for an hour or so." "He asked me to apologize for him." "He'll be back as quickly as possible." "Well, I-I..." "I can't wait." "I haven't got time." "Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Merrill, but the delay was something" "Mr. Mason really couldn't help." "Look, uh, Mr. Gideon," "I'm gonna have to go away tonight and I'll be gone for a long time, and there's some things that I must absolutely get done before I go." "Do you suppose you could help me?" "Me?" "Well, I'll do whatever I can, but I'm not a practicing attorney yet." "All right." "Look, here's a complete list of my assets-- property, insurance, securities." "I want everything put in my wife's name right away, just as if I were never coming back." "Well, there's no problems with that." "There are regular transfer instruments." "Of course, you need your wife's signature." "No, no, without her knowing." "Oh." "Oh, that's different." "Uh..." "Well, in that case, you'd need quitclaims deeding your interest in real property." "And on the insurance, you'd have to cash the policies and buy securities, listing your wife as legal owner." "And on securities, that..." "No, look, that would take days, weeks." "I told you, I haven't got time." "I must be gone by tonight." "Oh." "Yeah, well, there's still a way." "A power of attorney in Mr. Mason's name." "He could do all of it for you acting on your behalf." "Could we, uh, do it right away?" "Well, yes, yes, I suppose so, sure." "If you'll wait in the next office," "I'll have it drawn up in a few minutes." "Good." "Thank you." "I'm very sorry, Mr. Mason, but if I had known about his wife," "I certainly would have kept him here until you got back." "But he was in such a hurry, he was almost, well, almost desperate." "This was a mistake, David." "You mean I was wrong about the power of attorney?" "No, not wrong." "If that's the way he wanted his problems handled, this is fine as far as it goes." ""As far as it goes"?" "I must have a letter of instructions with it." "Specifically detailing his desires and intent." "But he told me." "And you told me." "Now, suppose he changes his mind." "Suppose there are prospective heirs or other interested parties who'd want to contest these actions." "We'd be legally responsible and liable." "I see." "Your next appointment is waiting." "Did you get ahold of Paul?" "No, he's out on another case." "But he's supposed to call in, in an hour or so." "Mr. Mason, please, all this is my fault." "Maybe if I hurry, I can catch Mr. Merrill before he leaves and get that letter." "All right, David, catch him." "But bring him back here, I want to talk to him." "As for the letter, I know you meant well, but just for the time being, suppose you leave the practice of law to me?" "What do you say, legal beagle?" "Yes, sir." "Thanks." "(door opens, closes)" "HARLAN:" ""Tonight. 6:00." "Here."" "(door opens)" "Mr. Merrill." "What do you want?" "Sorry, sir, but I've got to talk to you about that power of attorney." "Forget it." "Forget it." "I said forget it." "Oh, no, see, Mr. Mason wants to talk..." "Please, Mr. Merrill, you don't understand." "It's very important..." "I'm gonna take care of that." "I'm gonna take care of it myself tonight." "Don't try to stop me!" "Della, David." "Is Mr. Mason in?" "When will he be back?" "No, no, no," "I'll come back to the office and wait for him there." "All right, bye." "Thank you." "* *" "Oh, it's you." "Well, of course it's me." "Well, wait a minute, where are we?" "Is this some sort of a resort hotel or what?" "Resort hotel?" "No, this is the St. Francis Retreat." "A small group of us from the office come here regularly on weekend retreats." "You haven't been with the company long or you'd know about it." "Then it could be any of you." "What?" "What's wrong with you, Harlan?" "Look, may I stay here with you, Mr. Barlow?" "There's nothing I can do about it, Harlan." "You'll have to speak to Father Paul." "He's the superior." "Go inside and take the stairs to the left." "Good luck." "Mr. Merrill, you're here for the first time." "Most of the 90 men making the retreat have been here before." "It's an experience they look forward to, has a great deal of meaning for them." "I'm sure you wouldn't want to spoil it for them or for yourself." "You're of a different faith." "But for the next 50 hours, you'll be like most of the rest of them in the chance to stop and take a sort of personal inventory, to think instead of to speak." "find a little rest for the body, and if we're lucky, maybe a little tonic for the soul." "Mr. Barlow will be your retreat captain." "I'll see that a room is prepared for you." "Thank you, Father." "Mr. Merrill, we never did get to talk about Germany and the Battle of the Bulge, did we?" "(bell clangs)" "BARLOW:" "The dinner bell." "Just a reminder, after dinner, except for the Franciscan fathers, we're not permitted to speak with anyone for the balance of the retreat." "Remember, no talking, gentlemen." "(footsteps approaching)" "It'll be 10:00 in a few minutes, Mr. Merrill." "Time for lights out and bed." "I was gonna look for you, Father." "I-I wanted to talk to you." "That story you told me to get in here, a little less than the truth, wasn't it?" "I'm sorry." "I..." "That bad?" "Oh, I've..." "I've fallen so low, dug a hole for myself so deep there's-there's no place to go." "I knew a man once who had an amazing philosophy." "He always used to say if you dig straight down, you'll reach the center of the Earth." "Keep on digging, you continue in the same direction, but now you're climbing up." "Up from what to what?" "From fear, Mr. Merrill, possibly to hope." "Oh, not what-what lies behind me." "The past doesn't have to make the future impossible." "Unafraid... courage to face the impossible." "No, Father, your St. Francis, hair shirt or no, did not have to face the living hell that faces me." "They had to cauterize his eye." "Sear it with a white-hot iron lifted from the fire." "I'm sure he was afraid, Mr. Merrill." "But they say that he smiled and spoke softly," ""Brother fire, God made you beautiful," ""strong and useful." "I pray you'll be courteous with me."" "(bell clanging)" "Lights out." "I'll go pack and leave." "Oh, you don't have to go." "Would you still say that, Father, if you knew that I came here to kill a man?" "Sleep well, Mr. Merrill." "Hey, what are you doing?" "!" "I don't know what's going on here, but remember where we are." "DRAKE:" "You know what road this is and where that exits, don't you, Perry?" "St. Francis Retreat." "GIDEON:" "A man runs away to a retreat." "A desperate man knowing someone is ready to expose him either removes himself by running away or else runs to that someone if he knows who that someone is..." "And removes him." "(tires screech)" "MASON:" "He dead, Paul?" "Yeah." "Is this Harlan Merrill?" "No." "He's a well-known newspaperman." "His name's Lawrence Vander." "Your client, Mr. Merrill, fought with Vander and said he came here to kill a man." "All right, Mr. Mason, suppose this unfortunate death were not accidental." "You spoke to Merrill?" "Do I think he's a murderer?" "Mr. Merrill's a funny sort of paradox." "A man who believes he's deeply in debt, knows he can't pay his debt, yet goes on and on hoping to pay it anyway." "You're describing a man obsessed with guilt about his past." "Yes, Mr. Mason." "Regardless of what Mr. Merrill might have been in the past," "I was not describing a man who is a murderer now." "MASON:" "Hello, Andy." "Father Paul, this is Lieutenant Anderson of Homicide." "Lieutenant." "Father." "Perry." "Father Paul, I'll take my men away in just a few minutes, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to leave some plainclothesmen behind." "They have orders to stay out of everyone's way." "We'll be back Monday when the retreat is over." "Thank you, Lieutenant." "That's very considerate." "I would like to talk to the men from Space Research, away from everyone here on the retreat, if that's possible." "Very well, Lieutenant." "ANDERSON:" "Arrangements have been made at the conclusion of the retreat to escort you all back to the offices of Space Research." "We will see you there and talk to you then." "You may as well know now... we've discovered from notes in his suitcase that Lawrence Vander was a newspaperman on the trail of a long-missing" "Nazi war criminal." "Someone he believed was one of you five men." "Secondly, Lawrence Vander did not die accidentally." "He was dead before he fell." "Murdered." "David, where did you find this?" "On Mr. Merrill's desk." "The second sheet of a pad." "Someone used the top sheet to draw a map." "The impressions went through." "Someone else was clever enough to use graphite dust to make those impressions legible." "That's how you got here." "How we got here." "And someone was careless enough to use this second sheet to write you a note." "I don't know what you're talking about!" ""Merrill, the deadline is past." "You didn't pay." "Now I talk."" "I'm gonna have to turn this over to the police." "Do you understand what that means?" "Mr. Merrill, I can't help you by illegally suppressing the truth." "But I can help you by seeing that the truth is brought out." "Now, you were being blackmailed." "Yes." "By Lawrence Vander?" "Oh, I don't know." "I, uh..." "There were four notes like that, just like that." "The first two were just, well, nasty notes that said that somebody knew who I was and then... the third one ordered me to take $5,000 out of the company's safe and-and-and leave it at a certain place." "And did you?" "No, I..." "I couldn't." "That's when I decided to disappear, run away again." "And I came to your office and I met Mr. Gideon." "The fourth note, this one?" "I found it on my desk when I was clearing it off." "The impressions were deep and I..." "The blackmailer had been careless." "You thought you could find him and put an end to the blackmailing for good." "Yes." "By killing him?" "No, Mr. Mason," "I-I swear I didn't kill him." "Why were you being blackmailed?" "I can't tell you that." "Who are you?" "Mr. Merrill, if I just know the truth, I can help you." "Mr. Merrill?" "I was an American officer in Germany." "And in the Battle of the Bulge, my outfit was run over." "No sleep for days and nights." "They were coming at us from everywhere, and I..." "I panicked and ran and deserted my men and left them there to die." "I-I was running down this road." "There was a rolling barrage coming behind me and the bursts were getting closer and closer and..." "I fell off the road into-into this field, then came the explosion." "When I came to, my dog tags had been clipped and..." "I was laying there in a field of dead men." "And I was marked the same as the rest of them." "Your name?" "Lieutenant Philip Kuyper, First Lieutenant, Infantry." "0-1-6-3-8-1-6-6," "Army of the United States." "(sobbing)" "Merrill, or Kuyper, stayed hidden in France." "Then, after the war, he left the country on a tramp steamer and jumped ship in Mexico." "And then he crossed the border back into the United States and started a new life with a new name." "And then about a month ago," "Space Research hired him here in Los Angeles." "A man like Merrill must've found it hard to live with himself." "Knowing that he had run away like that." "Well, looking at him and listening to him, you just knew that he had died inside a million times since then." "Perry, something's puzzling me." "The inconsistency of the blackmail?" "That puzzles me, too." "Well, Vander couldn't have known the truth." "He must've thought that Merrill was the missing Nazi." "Merrill, aware of his past, allowed himself to be blackmailed, to be pushed into running away." "But the blackmailer was completely fooled." "He thought he had Kleinerman." "Then Barlow, Osborn, Hennings or Fillmore-- one of them must be the Nazi." "And the murderer." "Sure, if Merrill isn't both." "Mr. Drake, you're absolutely sure of that name, serial number and organization?" "Absolutely, Colonel." "Then there must be some mistake." "The story you told me is backwards, completely false." "What?" "These are authenticated division records." "Lieutenant Kuyper didn't abandon any platoon." "Quite the contrary." "He showed extreme heroism by running out in face of enemy fire to bring back a wounded soldier." "Oh, no." "What's more, we have eyewitness statements from two of his own men, both of whom survived, who saw Philip Kuyper killed in action." "Mr. Merrill, would you come inside, please?" "You, too, Perry." "Thank you, everyone, for your help." "Sorry if we inconvenienced you." "You're free to go now." "Mr. Merrill, I think you know why I couldn't let you go with the others." "One moment, Andy." "Are you aware that Harlan Merrill claims he is not the Nazi Lawrence Vander was looking for?" "Perry, we know who Harlan Merrill isn't, and we know who he is." "Are you also aware that a bonding company is auditing the books because $50,000 may have been embezzled from Space Research Associates?" "Not $50,000, Perry." "$55,000." "$5,000 of which we found carefully hidden in Harlan Merrill's suitcase, in the trunk of the car in which he obviously planned to run away." "Mr. Merrill, you're under arrest for the murder of Lawrence Vander." "Death was due to composite occipital fractures inflicted by three penetrating blows of a jagged rock on the head of the victim." "There was direct laceration of the cerebellum." "Contrecoup lacerations of the undersurface of the temporal and frontal lobes with massive subdural hemorrhage." "Doctor, I show you now, this rock, marked People's exhibit three, which was found by the police on the rosary path above the road where the body of the deceased was discovered, and I ask if you have examined it." "Yes, sir." "We found on it blood, skin tissue and hair matching that of the decedent." "The shape of the rock exactly matches the destructive markings of the penetrating wounds." "The wounds themselves contain mineral traces identical with the material composition of the rock." "This was the murder weapon, Mr. Burger." "Thank you, Doctor." "BURGER:" "Now, Mr. Barlow, let me get this straight." "You said that Lawrence Vander was not doing a magazine article about Space Research Associates." "That he admitted to you that he was actually searching for a notorious long-supposed-dead former Nazi named Max Kleinerman." "Is that correct?" "That is correct." "Vander stated that the Nazi had assumed a new identity and was actually one of the executives of my company." "BURGER:" "I think that'll be all, Mr. Barlow." "Thank you, sir." "Your witness." "MASON:" "Mr. Barlow, did the decedent tell you why he believed Kleinerman was an executive of your company?" "Yes, sir." "Vander was on assignment in Berlin when he learned that Max Kleinerman's wife had died." "He went out to her place and accidentally stumbled across a letter she'd received." "From Kleinerman." "Did he show you that letter?" "Yes." "Did the letter say where Kleinerman was, what he was doing, who he was?" "No, not... not exactly." "Even though the contents proved it was obviously written by a husband to his wife, the letter was unsigned." "A rather moving statement by a man who had found for himself, at least, religious peace of mind." "It had reference to a series of talks with a Father Paul." "It was postmarked the same zone as the St. Francis Retreat." "MASON:" "So, Vander must have investigated all the people that participated in those retreats." "Yes." "The only organized group at the retreat that weekend of the murder who had been there before Max Kleinerman's letter had been postmarked, was a group of Space Research executives." "Mr. Barlow, aside from the weekend of the murder, had the defendant Mr. Merrill ever been at even one of those retreats?" "Why... why, no." "No, he was new to the company." "That was the first retreat he ever attended." "I see." "That's right." "Lawrence Vander had access to the files and studied them at his own request." "I show you an authenticated photocopy of a security check report on one of the executives of Space Research." "I ask if you can recognize it, Miss Dunbrack." "Yes." "It's a copy of the security check on Harlan Merrill." "I put the original of this in the files about an hour or so before Lawrence Vander went through the files." "Then it's possible that this particular report was removed from the files before it was even seen by any of the executives of Space Research." "Yes." "BURGER:" "Aside from this report that you're holding in your hand, was there anything unusual in any of the reports on any of the executives of Space Research?" "No, sir." "Would you mind reading this report to the court, please?" ""Impossible to grant clearance to subject Harlan Merrill." ""Birth place, school records fictitious." ""No verifiable material further than 15 years back in subject's life."" "BURGER:" "Thank you, Miss Dunbrack." "I think that'll be all." "Mr. Fillmore, we heard from a previous witness that Lawrence Vander had access to the company files." "That he may have taken the defendant's records from those files." "Did Lawrence Vander know about the money embezzled from Space Research Associates?" "Yes, sir, he did." "He overheard me telling Mr. Barlow about it, but he promised to keep it as confidential information until after the bonding company had finished their audit." "BURGER:" "But did he ever ask you any questions about the stolen money?" "Yes, sir, he did." "Knowing that I was treasurer of the company," "I had access to the funds and the books of the company." "He wanted to know if there was any other person that had such access." "And what did you tell him, sir?" "Well, I told him there was one other person, the assistant to the controller," "Mr. Harlan Merrill." "Mr. Harlan Merrill, the defendant, in whose car $5,000 of that stolen money was found." "Thank you, Mr. Fillmore." "That'll be all." "The two of them were fighting" "Harlan and the dead man." "Oh, I separated them, then I went back to bed." "Thank you, Mr. Osborn." "That'll be all." "Your witness." "No questions." "JUDGE:" "You may step down, Mr. Osborn." "I call Arthur Hennings to the stand, please." "That night, the evening talk so stimulated me," "I was unable to sleep." "It was late, past midnight." "I went downstairs to the library for a book." "The doors to the patio were open." "I could hear what sounded like two angry voices outside." "There was an outcry." "Then silence." "I saw a man coming away from the rosary path." "He stopped, tossed something into the bushes, and then rushed away." "I was curious." "I went down to see what it was that he'd thrown away." "It was the rock that was used to kill Mr. Vander." "And who was the man, Mr. Hennings?" "The man who threw that rock into the bushes and then ran away?" "It was the defendant," "Harlan Merrill." "He had no right to do it." "I don't care what anybody says." "Who had no right to do what, David?" "Burger producing a surprise eyewitness like a rabbit out of a hat." "Are you suggesting Mr. Hennings should not have been permitted to testify?" "No, no, not that, but we should have... you should have been informed before the hearing." "Burger acts as if the two of you were enemies instead of officers of the court, both trying to discover truth." "Not enemies, David-- adversaries." "When both sides properly prepare a case, the adversary system can effectively guarantee the revelation of all the facts bearing on an issue." "The more experience you have with it, the more you'll find it a surprisingly scientific method of trial practice." "Well, in my humble opinion, Mr. Mason, you're a courtroom genius, but where are you going to find a rabbit to pull out of a hat?" "(door opening) Right over there." "DELLA:" "Perry?" "Reports from Paul Drake's office." "The material on all the Space Research executives, plus another wire from Mr. Drake himself." "Has he located the two eyewitnesses the colonel spoke of?" "Just finished talking to the first, flying to Florida to see the second." "What did the first man have to say?" "He confirmed the colonel's story." "Said he personally saw" "Lieutenant Philip Kuyper killed in action." "I..." "I don't understand." "It's not a question of understanding, but of facing the truth." "Paul Drake spoke to an officer in the historical section of the War Department." "Records were carefully searched." "An eyewitness was interviewed." "But I'm Philip Kuyper." "Philip Kuyper is dead." "Well, there-there must be some mistake, Mr. Mason." "I-I'm telling you the truth." "In court, you heard a responsible," "God-fearing witness swear that he'd seen you at the scene of the crime disposing of the murder weapon." "I told you, I'm telling you the truth!" "Now, if you think I'm a liar and a murderer, all right!" "Harlan!" "With whom are you angry?" "Oh, I don't know." "I don't know." "Myself, I guess." "And it's not anger." "It's-it's-it's shame and disgust." "I'm sorry I talked that way..." "to you, Mr. Mason." "I..." "I know you did the best you could." "Hearing's only half over." "Why the past tense?" "Past tense." "The past has a way of becoming the present, doesn't it?" "When I ran away, I borrowed from the future." "Books have got to be balanced." "The bill is long overdue, and I got to pay it." "By... dying for a crime you didn't commit?" "You sound like you actually believe me." "Look... whoever you are, whatever you are, you're entitled to a fair trial." "You're entitled to counsel of your own choice." "As your counsel, I regard every bit of evidence, no matter how devastating, in the light of the assumption that you are not guilty, and will never be guilty until the verdict of a jury can be affirmed" "by the highest appellate court to which your case can be taken." "Harlan... that overdue bill-- maybe we can get an extension." "Extension of time?" "Mr. Merrill's creditor is himself." "The conscience deep down inside him." "Man with a conscience is a man who can be helped." "You know, Mr. Merrill's story is very much like another story I know." "This is the story of a young man who used to love to laugh and sing." "One day, he decided to go off and fight in the war." "He made quite a show of it, leaving to fight." "You might almost say he had a brass band to see him off." "Did he prove to be a coward?" "Mostly, I guess, in the eyes of his neighbors." "You see, a short distance out of town, he got sick." "Desperately sick." "He crawled back into town, oh, a figure, a ridiculous figure, in everybody's eyes." "And in his despair, he prayed?" "Yes, he prayed, Mr. Mason, and found an answer." "The church he was praying in was a dilapidated ruin." "He decided himself to rebuild that church." "Did he?" "In a funny sort of way, yes." "He was caught stealing materials from his own father to rebuild the church." "Now the poor boy was even more a source of ridicule than before." "Not just a phony and a coward, but a thief." "Sick, despised, disowned, discredited." "But that's not the end of the story." "No." "I guess, actually, it's the beginning." "You see, in his shame and degradation, the laughing, singing boy-- whose name was Francesco Bernardone-- found himself." "The world now knows him as St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of our Franciscan order." "Father Paul... you know the true identity of Max Kleinerman, don't you?" "We deal with men here on a confidential basis, Mr. Mason." "Don't pry, please." "But you know the man's heart." "I'm not after his name, just your opinion of him." "I'm afraid that leads in the same direction, doesn't it?" "You opinion as to whether or not he might reveal his own identity, the fact that he was a former Nazi." "I don't understand." "If I make it clear to this man in court that his continued silence may cause an innocent man to go to the gas chamber, would he then reveal his true identity?" "At the close of yesterday's testimony, Mr. Hennings, you made a startling and unexpected statement." "That with your own eyes you saw the defendant dispose of the murder weapon at the scene of the murder." "Yes, sir, I..." "I saw it from the porch outside the lounge." "MASON:" "Let me ask you a simple question." "Is there any doubt in your mind, any doubt at all, that Harlan Merrill killed Lawrence Vander?" "Seems rather a strange question." "I told you what I saw." "Isn't it possible that when you saw the murder weapon, you visualized the whole sequence of events, so that in retrospect the defendant only appeared to have thrown something away?" "No, that's not what happened." "Couldn't you have been honestly mistaken in having seen him throw the murder weapon away?" "In, uh, seeing him on that path?" "I was not mistaken." "And I'm just as positive I'm not mistaken." "The defendant swears he's innocent." "And, Mr. Hennings, I believe him." "All right." "Let's try once more, Mr. Hennings." "Could there have been certain circumstances which made it necessary for you to claim that you saw the defendant on the path that night?" "I have no idea what you're talking about." "Well, isn't it true, that if Mr. Merrill were guilty, it would have solved a problem for you?" "Look at the defendant, Mr. Hennings." "That man is not a murderer." ""Grant that I may not so much seek to be loved as to love."" "I'm sure you know this portion of St. Francis' prayer, Mr. Hennings." ""For it is in giving that we receive," ""it is in pardoning that we are pardoned," ""and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."" "Mr. Hennings, you have the life of Harlan Merrill in your hands." "Now, did you see him throw that rock away?" "Did you see him on that path?" "No." "Very well, you lied." "Why?" "'Cause I was afraid." "I was afraid to face the truth." "I'm not afraid now." "I'll take what comes." "Lawrence Vander was looking for me." "My real name is Max Kleinerman." "(gallery murmuring)" "JUDGE (tapping gavel):" "Quiet." "Quiet in the courtroom." "Proceed, Mr. Mason." "Did you kill Lawrence Vander?" "No." "Do you know who did kill him?" "No." "Between the discovery of the murder and the time you told your story to Lieutenant Anderson, were you contacted by a blackmailer?" "Yes." "There was a note in my suitcase as I packed to leave the retreat." "MASON:" "What were the contents of that note?" "HENNINGS:" "Someone knew who I was and would expose me unless I told that story about seeing Merrill on the path with the rock." "Now please, Mr. Mason," "I honestly thought Merrill was guilty, or I would not have lied." "Believe me." "Who sent you that note?" "I don't know." "Your Honor, at this time," "I should like to recall Miss Winifred Dunbrack to the stand." "Are you married, Miss Dunbrack?" "No, I'm a widow." "I use my maiden name." "Keeping company with anyone?" "No, I'm afraid not." "Never had a date with Buck Osborn?" "DUNBRACK:" "Oh, yes." "Yes, just once." "Mr. Barlow?" "No." "Mr. Merrill?" "No." "Emery Fillmore?" "No." "No, Miss Dunbrack?" "Santa Barbara, three months ago?" "San Diego, two months ago?" "Ojai, one month ago?" "Shall I go on?" "Well, yes, we have been seeing each other." "We kept it a secret." "You see, we plan to be married." "That's very interesting." "May I ask what you plan to do with the wife and two children Emery Fillmore now has in Virginia?" "In discussing your marriage plans, that little fact apparently slipped his mind." "Miss Dunbrack," "Lawrence Vander did not take the security file as you suggested." "You took it." "Now, to whom did you give that file?" "I gave it to Emery Fillmore." "My wife and I have been separated for seven years, Mr. Mason." "Divorce is out of the question." "I'm afraid that the idea of a marriage existed only in Miss Dunbrack's imagination." "MASON:" "Giving you Mr. Merrill's security file didn't just exist in her imagination, did it, Mr. Fillmore?" "FILLMORE:" "No, it wasn't." "I asked for that." "Harlan Merrill had only been with the company a short while, when he mentioned a place that he had visited in East Germany." "And then later, when I asked him if it was during the war that he was in Germany, why, he almost became frightened, and swore up and down that he'd never been in Europe in his life." "Well, I forgot about the whole incident until I heard Vander telling Cliff Barlow there about his search for the missing Nazi." "So, you put two and two together and decided to, uh, get Mr. Merrill's file from Miss Dunbrack." "What then?" "Well, nothing as far as I was concerned." "I gave the file to Vander." "And was it then you told him about the money you believed Mr. Merrill had embezzled?" "Oh, yes." "And I was right about that, too." "They found $5,000 of the money in his car, didn't they?" "Are you a, uh, wealthy man, Mr. Fillmore?" "Hardly." "Most of the money I make goes to take care of my family." "I keep out just barely enough to get along on." "Ever heard of a company called Bruce Electronics?" "Why, yes." "That's a little ol' company I organized a long time ago." "But it's inactive." "Completely inoperative." "Completely inoperative?" "Except that it owns 5,000 shares of Howts Milling Company, which in turn has a brand-new $10 million parts contract with Space Research." "A contract you were responsible for approving." "Well, I... 5,000 shares at ten dollars a share-- the exact amount of the still missing $50,000." "Now, you embezzled that money hoping your anticipated profits from Howts Milling would enable you to return it to Space Research before it was missed." "What upset your plans, Mr. Fillmore?" "The sale of the Space Research American Division and... the audit." "Practically had one foot in prison." "You needed someone on whom to place the blame." "Along came Vander... looking for a missing former Nazi." "And right at hand was the only other person with access to the money and to the books." "A man with a past he was hiding." "Conveniently perfect, wasn't it?" "But... well, I thought Merrill was the Nazi." "So you sent him anonymous letters, hinting at his past, frightening him." "Then you tried to blackmail him into stealing." "But it wasn't the money you wanted, was it?" "No." "No." "No." "I wanted him to steal from the company, then he would get caught." "But Mr. Merrill wouldn't steal." "So you decided to frighten him into running away." "And just before you sent him that last blackmail note, you stole another $5,000 and hid the money in his car, did you not?" "Well, yes, yes, yes, yes." "But I... but-but I sent Vander an anonymous note telling him about the money." "But Merrill went after you instead of running away from you." "And Vander became suspicious when Merrill showed up unexpectedly at the retreat." "What happened that night when Vander confronted you on the rosary path?" "Well... nothing." "What happened that night when Vander suddenly confronted you?" "!" "Well, nothing." "Nothing." "Except... well, he told me that he knew that Hennings was the Nazi." "That he'd figured out that... that I was blackmailing Merrill, because I had stolen the money." "And he threatened to expose me to the police." "I offered to make a deal with him." "Buy him off, give him my share of the stock, anything." "Any kind of a deal at all!" "And then he knocked me down and I picked up a rock and I..." "And then I figured that when I threw him over the cliff into the road that everybody would think it was an accident." "Sit down, Mr. Fillmore." "Well, everybody should've thought it was an accident!" "Sit down, Mr. Fillmore!" "If everybody had've thought it was an accident, they would've..." "they would've... they..." "Oh, I'm so sorry." "Why didn't the security check show something wrong with Hennings' background-- show that he was Kleinerman?" "Well, like so many others in the Hitler regime, he hedged against ultimate defeat by carefully planning his escape in advance." "He painstakingly created a new identity for himself in England, where he previously had spent years going to school." "Mr. Mason, would you arrange for Harlan to surrender himself to the authorities, and represent him at his trial?" "Now, Perry?" "Paul." "Uh, this, Mr. Merrill, is the second eyewitness to the death of Lieutenant Philip Kuyper." "Lou." "Lou Kouffman." "Yeah." "Hiya, Lieutenant." "I..." "I thought you were killed." "I-I thought you were all killed." "I-I ran away." "Sure, Lieutenant, we all ran away." "Including you." "But you ran the other way, right toward the Germans, to pick up Corporal O'Connor." "He was wounded." "Uh, don't you remember?" "Well, you picked him up and just then a mortar burst hit." "We saw it." "We saw the two of you blown through the air." "Gosh, we-we figured you were both dead." "Harlan, you suffered shock and concussion in that mortar blast." "When you came to, all you could remember was that you'd been running." "And in your dazed condition, running meant just one thing." "For more than 15 years, you've been living a lie you created in your own mind." "Paying a debt that didn't even exist." "Welcome home, Mr. Philip Kuyper." "(theme music plays)"