The Case of the Demure Defendant

A young woman under the influence of the "truth" serum sodium pentathol confesses to her doctor that she poisoned the older man in whose house she had been living. After the man's death, she says, she threw the bottle containing the poison into a lake. The doctor, armed with this information and a recording of the session, consults Perry Mason, bringing the famous lawyer into the case. The police have no knowledge that anyone has been murdered. The possible victim's cause of death was put down to natural causes years before when he died. Now, though, the police get wind of the confession, and Mason finds himself racing against time to determine whether a crime has been committed at all. He goes to the lake and succeeds in finding a bottle that, thankfully, does not contain poison. Apparently, the case is at an end. The "confession," he thinks, was just a product of the woman's imagination and guilty conscience. However, just when Mason thinks he can rest easy, the police recover a second bottle. Now, not only is Mason's client back in hot water, but Mason himself is also facing legal trouble. The police, it seems, suspect Mason of having planted the first bottle. There is not much new in this Perry Mason tale. It is the same competent, completely readable, and thoroughly enjoyable mystery Garner produced time after time. Hamilton Burger, the district attorney who always seems out to get Mason, is at it once again, and Mason must fall back on his wits and hope to pull the proverbial rabbit out of a hat to save his and his client's skins.

The Case of the Demure Defendant Nadine Farr had emotional problems, and visited a psychiatrist. She is given sodium pentothal and her answers are recorded on tape. During the questioning she admits to poisoning her Uncle. Dr. Denair consults Perry Mason to find out if this is confidential, or must be reported to the police. Perry points out a confession to a crime is not confidential, but the statements of a drugged person are not reliable in a court of law since they may be imagined. Dr. Denair brings Nadine Farr to consult with Perry Mason. But the nurse present at the treatment tells this to her policeman boyfriend, and the tape recording is obtained with a search warrant by the police. The story is that Nadine threw away the poison. Perry recovers the bottle and has it analyzed - a sugar substitute! But the police do their homework and find a second bottle with the poison. We learn that Nadine's boyfriend says he found that bottle and flushed it away. We also learn that Jackson Newburn also threw away the poison! The case goes to court, Hamilton Burger accusing Perry of substituting false evidence. This looks like a slam-dunk for Burger until Perry personally inspects the evidence and notices a detail that will clear Nadine Farr of murder, Perry of fabricating evidence, and get a confession from a witness pointing to the real murderer. The scandals that generated this crime are mentioned at the ending.

The Case of the Demure Defendant, by Erle Stanley Gardner The importance of legal medicine is how it can prevent guilty persons from getting away with murder and innocent persons from being wrongfully convicted. This book is dedicated to Dr. Daniel J. Condon the Medical Examiner of Maricopa County Arizona who consulted on a Court of Last Resort case. Nadine Farr had emotional problems, and visited a psychiatrist. She is given sodium pentothal and her answers are recorded on tape. During the questioning she admits to poisoning her Uncle. Dr. Denair consults Perry Mason to find out if this is confidential, or must be reported to the police. Perry points out a confession to a crime is not confidential, but the statements of a drugged person are not reliable in a court of law since they may be imagined. Dr. Denair brings Nadine Farr to consult with Perry Mason. But the nurse present at the treatment tells this to her policeman boyfriend, and the tape recording is obtained with a search warrant by the police. The story is that Nadine threw away the poison. Perry recovers the bottle and has it analyzed - a sugar substitute! But the police do their homework and find a second bottle with the poison. We learn that Nadine's boyfriend says he found that bottle and flushed it away. We also learn that Jackson Newburn also threw away the poison! The case goes to court, Hamilton Burger accusing Perry of substituting false evidence. This looks like a slam-dunk for Burger until Perry personally inspects the evidence and notices a detail that will clear Nadine Farr of murder, Perry of fabricating evidence, and get a confession from a witness pointing to the real murderer. The scandals that generated this crime are mentioned at the ending.

Nadine Farr was a troubled young woman. Under the treatment of Dr. Denair, she revealed under drugs that she had killed her uncle with cyanide, then tossed the bottle into a lake, weighed down with shotgun shot. Unfortunately for her and her doctor, there was a tape recording of the drug-induced interview... and the nurse's boy-friend was a police detective.Dr. Denair laid out his problem to Perry Mason, who put together a plan to carefully investigate the matter. In the end, he recovered the bottle from the lake... and it only contained a harmless sugar substitute.However, the nurse blabbed to her boy-friend, and the police became interested. Then the D.A. found a SECOND bottle in the lake, filled with cyanide. Mason found himself stuck with a client who had confessed under drugs to a crime... and found himself accused of tossing one of the bottles into the lake. It all comes down to a legal showdown as to whether the drug-induced confession, combined with the recovered bottle, can be admitted as evidence. Surprisingly, Mason reverses position and agrees to allow it all in evidence, despite the strong legal arguments which could prohibit it. It's the trap he puts Hamilton Burger in, and clears both himself and his client in the clear.