"I Sometimes Defend Men Who Are Accused of Crime"

"The Case of the Irate Witness."
By Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970).
Found in Collier's Weekly, January 17, 1953.
Collected in The Case of the Irate Witness, A Perry Mason Mystery and Other Stories (1970) for sale HERE.
Short short story (5 pages).
Starts online HERE and finishes HERE (scroll down to page 39).

"Perry Mason refused to believe the proof against his client. The district attorney was too smug. The evidence was too good . . ."

As it turns out, the witness has a right to be irate when Perry Mason proves he's in possession of payroll money stolen from a large corporation's safe:

. . . "They're laying for you up there," Paul Drake warned. "Better watch out, Perry. That district attorney has something up his sleeve, some sort of surprise that's going to knock you for a loop."  . . .

. . . "I'm going to issue the subpoena," Judge Haswell said, testily, "and for your own good, Mr. Mason, the testimony had better be relevant."  . . .

Resource:
- We recently encountered our author writing about real life crime HERE.

Artwork by Mort Drucker

Category: "Perry Mason" says it all