“Could you make it any closer than that?”
“Not from a standpoint of accurate evidence, no. I would be somewhat inclined to fix the time of death as approximately twenty-four hours before the body was discovered.”
“And the body was discovered at about eight-twenty on the evening of the fifth?”
“As to that, I know only by hearsay. I know that I performed my autopsy at seven o’clock on the morning of the sixth; and I would generally fix the time of death as from twenty-four to thirty-six hours previous to my examination.”
“Can you tell whether the body had been moved after death?”
“In my opinion, the body had not been moved after death unless it had been moved almost immediately after the fatal shot had been fired.”
“What causes you to have that opinion, Doctor?”
“Because of postmortem lividity. After death, the blood becomes discolored and settles in the lower part of the body. In other words, after the heart ceases to function, the forces of gravitation take over and the blood has a tendency to settle in the body and become discolored. There was a well-defined postmortem lividity here, indicating that the body had not been moved — unless it was moved very shortly after the fatal wound had been inflicted.”
“I think that’s all at this time,” Dillon said.
“Did you form any opinion as to the caliber of the fatal bullet?” Mason asked.
“These things are very, very tricky,” Dr. Clinton said. “My personal opinion is that the bullet was a thirty-eight-caliber bullet; but the skin is elastic during lifetime and it is difficult without examining the fatal bullet itself to be sure as to its caliber.”
“And there was no fatal bullet in the body?” Mason asked.
“No. The bullet had emerged from the upper left chest, as I stated in my earlier testimony.”
“Thank you, Doctor. That’s all.”
“Now, then, I’ll recall Lieutenant Tragg,” Dillon said.
Tragg again took the stand.
“When did you arrive at 1635 Manlay Avenue, Lieutenant?”
“At eight forty-seven on the evening of the fifth.”
“You made an examination of the premises?”
“I did.”
“Did you meet the defendant there at that time?”
“I did.”
“Did you discuss with her what she had observed and why she had gone there?”
“Generally, yes.”
“And, at that time, your inquiries were simply general. You had not determined upon the defendant as a suspect at that time.”
“That is correct.”
“Did she tell you anything about her time of arrival?”
“She said that she had come there with Mr. Perry Mason and Miss Della Street, Perry Mason’s secretary; that they had found the woman dead and had promptly called police.”
“Did she say anything at any time about having been there earlier?”
“No, sir. She gave us to understand this was her first visit to the place in some time.”
“Did she say anything to you about having taken a diary or any other personal property from the premises?”
“On the contrary, she said they had left things just as they found them.”
“Did you try to develop latent fingerprints?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Were you able to develop any?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Were you able to identify any of the latent prints you developed?”
“Yes, sir. There were fingerprints of the decedent, of course; there were fingerprints of some individual who has not been identified; and there were fingerprints of a man named Ralph Corning, who is — so to speak — a boyfriend of the decedent and who had been there earlier in the week but who was out of town on the third, fourth and fifth.”
“Any other fingerprints?”
“Those of the defendant,” the witness said, “and some others that were smudged — but many good fingerprints of the defendant.”
“Where did you find them?”
“Generally, we found them on the bureau drawers, on the doorknob, on the woodwork, on the glass panel of the front door.”
“Inside or outside?”
“Inside. We also found latent fingerprints of the defendant where she had pressed her hands against the glass of the front window.
“I have here a set of photographs all properly identified by markings upon the backs of the pictures, showing the various localities in which we found the fingerprints in question and some enlargements of the fingerprints themselves.”
“Did you at any time, at any place, find a diary which apparently had been kept by the decedent?”
“We did; yes, sir.”
“Where did you find that?”
“We found it in the post office at the General Delivery window on the morning of the sixth.”
“Did you identify it at that time?”
“No, sir; we simply asked for mail that was addressed to the defendant, Ellen Adair. When we found that there was such mail, we secured a search warrant; then we made arrangements with the federal post office authorities and eventually got an envelope open which contained a diary in the handwriting of the decedent.”
“What was the address on that envelope?”
“Ellen Adair, General Delivery.”
“Do you know whose handwriting that was in?”
“I cannot qualify as an expert on handwriting,” Lieutenant Tragg said, “but I have had some experience. The handwriting generally appears to be that of the defendant. I believe it has been submitted to a handwriting expert who will testify later on.”
“You made photographs of the location of the body?”
“We did. Here they are.”
“We ask that all these photographs be introduced in evidence,” Dillon said, “and that the clerk be instructed to give them appropriate exhibit numbers.”
“So ordered,” Judge Elwell said.
“Did you find a revolver in the possession of the defendant?”
“There was a thirty-eight-caliber revolver found in the glove compartment of the defendant’s automobile.”
“Was that revolver loaded?”
“There were five full cartridges and one empty cartridge chamber in the cylinder.”
“No exploded cartridge in that one chamber?”
“No, it was empty. The shell case had been removed.”
“You personally made tests with that gun?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What was your opinion as to when it had been last fired?”
“It had been fired within three days of the time we picked it up.”
“How did you determine that?”
“Chemical analysis of the residue of cartridge primer, residue of gas, condition of the barrel, and the smell of exploded smokeless powder.”
“I think you may inquire on cross-examination,” Dillon said.
Mason said, “There was no bullet found in the body?”
“No, sir.”
“And no bullet found in the room?”
“No, sir.”
“But the bullet had gone entirely through the body of the decedent?”
Lieutenant Tragg, who had evidently been anticipating this series of questions and was fully prepared for them, smiled affably. “Yes, sir. This was one of those cases of which, unfortunately, there are too many — where there is no recovery of the fatal bullet.”
“What do you mean by that?” Mason asked. “What do you mean there are altogether too many such cases?”
Tragg went on glibly with his explanation. “The average cartridge case,” he said, “contains powder which, upon ignition, is used as a propellant. The amount of powder is such that in the average weapon with a barrel of three to five inches the explosive energy is almost all expended in forcing a bullet through the body of a human being, so that quite frequently we find cases where the bullet has gone entirely through the body but has been stopped by the elasticity of the skin when it starts to emerge from the inner tissues and the bullet is trapped just beneath the skin of the decedent.