"He's Really a Nut"

"Wrong Victim."

By W. Delos (?-?).

First appearance: Manhunt, June 1961.

Short short short story (5 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE) and SFFAudio (HERE).

(Note: Text very faded.)

   "I killed her. I admit it, so why don’t you arrest me?"

ARMED with his formidable Razor, William of Ockham cautioned the world not to multiply entities beyond what is necessary. The question is, will the South Baltimore Falls Bureau of Detectives, locally known as "the three blind mice," avoid being cut by William's philosoph-ical weapon? Because there is something really odd about the killer's confession, the oddest aspect of it being confirmed by doctors that the "murder victim" died of natural causes . . .

Principal characters:

~ Chief of Detectives Joe Marcato ("Why'd you kill her?"), Detective Sol Arnold ("none of these prints belong to the woman we've got in the morgue!"), Detective Len Douglas ("They put one on Baker’s car when they serviced it Friday. They marked the mileage—56,240. Baker’s speedometer reads 56,358 right now"), Ike Baker ("She had to be punished"), Herb Anson ("says Baker was a good worker if left alone. He did his job and Herb left him alone"), and Doc Gertmann ("Baker must have hated his wife. She may have been cheating, as he says in his confession").

Typo: "Its giving us a lot of trouble".

Resource:

- We have no idea who "W. Delos" is or was; "Wrong Victim" is his/her only FictionMags entry.

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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