"Mr. JUSTICE": Police Inspector Hank's Q.E.D. Proclamation
On July 19, a sudden message came to Police Inspector Hank from one Brenda Valentine (age 23), from whom he had previously obtained information. The woman had been one of Vivian's few female friends.
"Vivian had been troubled by something-she had been receiving newspapers every day, with the letters "L", "O", "V", and "E" circled in all the articles. She thought that it must be the work of the paperboy, and so when she ran into him, she shot him a dirty look; in return, he gave her this really strange smile...and then the next day, the circled letters had changed to "HATE". She had been upset, saying "It's just a misunderstanding," but until now I had forgotten about the incident, since Vivian had so many relationships where one minute she would be in a man's good graces, and the next they would resent her," the woman testified.
Inspector Hank immediately confirmed the existence of these newspapers containing the words "LOVE" and "HATE" by going through Vivian's personal effects. He regretted that he had not noticed them sooner, but this feeling of letting her down once again ignited the fire in Hank to solve the case.
The next day, the police inspector took newspaper delivery boy Richard Blainey (age 21) into custody as a material witness. With that, surprised by the information published by the media, the police were once again contacted by Harry Powell (the first person to discover Vivian's body). He was urging the chiefs of police to allow him to represent Blainey as his attorney and release him from questioning, since '[Blainey] did not seem like the kind of man who could commit such a brutal murder'. Harry mentioned that he knew Richard well and had become close friends with him not only during the times that he was delivering his daily paper, but also because they met practically every day since Blaine's newspaper route often overlapped with the one that Harry took jogging every morning. Special Investigator Mike also ordered his release, stating "Richard does not match the criminal profile of the person responsible for the Black Maria Incident."
The police inspector's opposition to his release went unheard, and reluctantly, Blaney was released from custody.
However, the state of affairs completely changed shortly after. Four days after Richard's release, the mutilated body of Brenda Valentine was discovered in her home.
The Police Inspector insisted upon a search of Richard's residence.
Several items were confiscated from his home as evidence, including a cosmetics case, piano wire, several decks of Bicycle playing cards, dozens of newspapers, and a list of names thought to be those of future victims. Special Investigator Mike contended that these items did not constitute physical evidence, but after confirming the existence of both Richard's fingerprints and Brenda's blood on newspapers on which the word "HATE" had been circled, the Inspector finally arrested Richard.
Following his arrest, the mass media published stories on him daily, hoping to expose his sinister nature. Story after story danced across the pages, containing such lies as "He was seen carrying dogs and cats covered in blood (animal abuse?)", "Richard's Complex Family Background (the divorce of his parents in his childhood, his mother's remarriage, the rift between him and his stepfather, and the abuse that followed)", and "The Black Maria Incident came about due to an abnormal attachment to his mother, raised starving for affection".
Harry Powell took on Richard's case as his defense attorney, and desperately took the department to court for falsely accusing his client, but the people of LA, as well as the whole American nation, had already built their own vision of Richard as a devious, cold-blooded killer who delighted in the bizarre; so the appeals of his defense went unheard by both the police and the public as they struggled against the voices that had shaped public opinion.
After a long process of investigations and appeals, Richard, who had professed his innocence from the beginning, finally broke down and accepted the charges against him.
Also, Police Inspector Hank officially submitted his Q.E.D., declaring the case closed simply on account that "You are the murderer, and I can prove it!"
