How to Commit a Not so Perfect Murder

Willie Guldensuppe wanted Augusta Nack from the day he moved into the Nack home as a border, and so he got Mr. Nack moving out of his own house in disgust. Augusta fell in love with another boarder, Martin Thorne, and Willie gave him a beating and booted him out of the house. But Augusta and Martin kept seeing each other in secret and began thinking of how they could finish Willie.

Willie Guldensuppe had a little summer cottage and the lovers decided to commit the Perfect Murder in this dainty dream house. Martin would be hiding in the closet with a revolver, and - just in case - a butcher knife, a bottle of carbolic aid and a rope for hanging. When Willie opened the door of the cottage, he was shot dead. Martin and Augusta lugged his corpse in the bathtub. All they had to do now was to cut up the body and get rid of it piece by piece. The torso of Willie Guldensuppe was fished out of the East River on June 28, 1897, but there was no possible way to identify the victim, so the lovers thought they were safe.

Now, if you want to commit the perfect murder - especially when your victim listens to the name Willie! - you have to check and double-check if your plan is as flawless as it seems. In this case, a farmer started wondering why his ducks were turning red. He couldn't figure it out until he found them swimming in the nearby pond of the New Yorker who had built there a little dream cottage. The plumbing of the cottage was incomplete, the water lines were in but the sewer pipes were not, and the bathtub merely drained into the pond...