From the Incident to Arrest
June 30, 1954
The dead body of a woman was found in an apartment building of a Los Angeles suburb.
The victim's name was Vivian Promnight (age 21).
The first person to discover the body was Harry Powell (age 36, at time of incident).
Harry, who lived in the same apartment building as the victim, returned home at 11 a.m. From the adjacent room, Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La Traviata" could be heard playing. From the moment he arrived home, Harry realized that the needle on the record had been stuck on the same passage, repeating it over and over again; but after an hour, seeing no sign that the music would stop, Harry, annoyed, went to the adjacent room, where he found the woman's body.
When he discovered the body, Harry commented, "It looked artistic...like something from an El Greco painting".
Vivian's body was positioned upright in the center of the room, wrapped in a shroud while holding a baby doll in her arms. In this position, she looked like a portrait of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child; to keep her corpse from falling, and to maintain her pose, several piano wires had been strung from the ceiling, holding her body upright like a marionette.
Completely naked, a red shroud wrapped about her hips (it was discovered later that this shroud was drenched in large quantities of the victim's blood), the body itself was extremely beautiful, her blonde hair and white skin standing out prominently given the light in the room.
Moreover, her lips and vagina were painted pitch black using lipstick of the kind used for stage theatre, with the same lipstick being used to draw a black tear from her right eye downward across her cheek.
For Heaven's Sake catch me. Before I Kill more. I cannot control myself.
This was the message from the perpetrator, written on the wall. As a result of careful judgment, it was determined that the implement used to write the note was the same black lipstick used on the body.
After determining that the victim died where the body was discovered, time of death was placed at some time between the hours of 2 am and 4 am that morning.
Though Vivian's body suffered a countless number of stabbing wounds from a blade of some kind, the autopsy determined that these were all shallow, superficial wounds and that the killer had skillfully avoided vital organs, making it impossible to determine where the fatal wound took place.
The victim had been completely drained of all blood, and from track marks left in her upper left arm, it was determined that the murderer, or the victim herself, had gradually drained her body of all her blood using a syringe.
Due to this, it was assumed that the severe drop in the volume of her internal blood was what ultimately caused her death.
Therefore, it was decided that the murderer had intended to maliciously kill Vivian by slowly draining the life out of her.
Also, due to evidence found in the bathroom of the body being cleaned, it was assumed that the murderer wished for the body to be beautiful at the time of death, without regard for the hemorrhaging that would be caused by the wounds inflicted in her back.
Moreover, traces of semen were found on the floor, suggesting that the murderer masturbated at the crime scene.
Blood type B.
The authorities are optimistic that the perpetrator will be found quickly, due to the easy conjecture that the murderer must be an acquaintance of Vivian's who holds a grudge against her as well as the multitude of evidence left behind at the scene. However...
Is the murderer an acquaintance of Vivian's, holding a grudge against her?
1. Vivian's residence is located on the highest floor of the apartment building. This top floor only has two rooms. The room directly below Vivian's is vacant.
2.The first person to discover the body, Harry Powell (next-door neighbor) is a California state attorney, officially on a month-long business trip until the day the body was discovered.
3. At the time where it is supposed that the murder was committed, Harry was not in the area.
4. It would have been absolutely necessary for the murderer to stay for quite a long while in Vivian's residence, due to the amount of time between the murder itself and the preparation of the crime scene.
5.It is extremely likely that the murderer already knew points 1-4.
6. It is supposed that the murderer brought the body, as well as the piano wires and other materials necessary to fabricate the crime scene, inside the apartment.
7.The weapon, nor the black lipstick or syringe used at the scene have been found, so there was nothing from which to lift fingerprints.
8.Though there is evidence of the victim's hands and feet being bound, there are no signs of resistance or injuries inflicted in self defense anywhere on the body.
9. There were two teacups placed on the table at the scene. There was milk tea in both of them, and at the time the body was discovered, one appeared to have been drunk from, while the other remained virtually untouched.
10. From points 5, 6, and 7 it can be determined that the murderer is systematic in the execution of the crime. Points 8 and 9 suggest a high probability of the murderer being acquainted with the victim.
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