CRIME: Case Solved

In 1928 James Eugene Bassett of Annapolis, Md., just out of the U. S. Naval Academy, was transferred to the Pacific Fleet at Manila. He drove across the U. S. to Seattle. There he put an advertisement in the newspapers to sell his car. An unsmiling 63-year-old woman named Mary Eleanor Smith and her crippled son, Earl, answered the advertisement. James Bassett drove out to their house. Mrs. Smith engaged him in conversation while Earl hobbled up behind and hit him over the head with a hammer. Then they cut him into pieces,...

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