The mystery of the murder in a closed room (4 photos)

If the murder is committed in a room locked from the inside, then this clearly suicide. But there are exceptions that make you break your head lovers of the detective genre.





30-year-old American Isidor Fink owned in New York small laundry room. That evening, March 9, 1929, he completed the business and retired to his laundry room to rest. After 10pm his neighbor heard the noise of a struggle. Then shots rang out. And came silence. The woman called the police.



The building where the events unfolded

The patrolman who arrived saw that the door and windows of Fink's room locked from the inside. To move a powerful bolt, I had to use assistant - a thin boy, since an adult could not squeeze through a narrow window opening.

Fink was completely and irrevocably dead. Confirmation served two bullet wounds in the chest and killed by a bullet in the same area wrist left hand. A thorough search of the room yielded no results: the gun was nowhere to be found. The version with a robbery was also excluded: in pockets owner and there was money in the desk drawer. Fingerprints other than those belonging to The finca was not found in the room.

Who killed Isidore Fink?



A survey of Isidor's acquaintances showed that the man was driving a quiet solitary life. Didn't have any enemies. True, he was terribly afraid of robbers, for every cent he earned cost him labor. Even buddies he marinated on the doorstep to verify the identity of the guest. AND only then did he push back the heavy bolt on the door.

The police were confused. First and completely the implausible version was the gutta-percha murderer-gymnast. Which squeezed through a narrow window, shot the owner and retreated the same way. But there was a neighbor nearby who didn't see anything like that.

The second suggestion was the murder from the hall. That is a man shot through a transom, having previously placed something at the window high. However, the nature of the burn around the wound on the arm was such that shot from a long distance was excluded.

Only in theory it was possible to build from improvised materials for the deadbolt to give the impression of being locked from inside the door. But there was no proof of this version. Yes, for her implementation would take time.



4 East 132nd Street, New York today

The investigation also had more abstract versions: mania persecution, secret ill-wishers, which none of the environment. Even the version of staging his own murder. But why was it necessary? Moreover, the neighbor clearly heard the sounds of a struggle, and the nature of the hand injury confirmed that the deceased had fought with the attacker, trying to pick up a weapon.

The case went down in forensic history, and the mystery of Fink's locked room remains unsolved to this day.