Friday, December 4, 2015

"So You Think I Couldn't Commit Murder?"

"Murder."
By Don Knowlton (1892/3-1976).
First appearance: Scribner's, April 1929.
No known reprintings.
Short short story (7 pages).
Online HERE.
"I found her stretched upon the floor in a puddle of blood, with a pair of scissors stuck through her neck.
Some people just can't help it; they have to brag:
. . . "Yes," he went on, "it was a wonderful trial—wonderful. And you didn't read all about it? Well, well. Say, some of the most prominent people in the United States followed every word of that trial. You should have seen some of the society women that came to see me when I was in my cell—brought me flowers, too. I got letters from some of them."  . . .
. . . which is all fine and dandy, until that moment when . . .
. . . I found myself looking right into the muzzle of a revolver.  . . .
Resources:
- Wikipedia is HERE and FictionMags is HERE, the latter showing that Don Knowlton had some stories published in EQMM in the '60s and '70s.

The bottom line: Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag.
— John Steinbeck

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