Murder in the Museum

The Sphere Museum, which bills itself as "the world's largest collection of natural and unnatural wonders," boasts among its attractions a cannibal, a fortune-teller, an armless artist, a Mexican knife-thrower and female shimmy dancers. When rival mayoral candidates Blair Newgate, a city councilman who has been crusading against dope peddling and other vice, and Brandon, the police commissioner, arrive to inspect the museum, Professor Mysto, a conjurer, worries that they might close down the operation. The museum's manager, Alfred Carr, is also nervous because narcotics were brought in the previous night and at present are in the back room. At the start of the tour, Brandon's niece Lois shows up, as does Jerry Ross, a reporter for the Times Herald , who finds himself attracted to Lois. As part of the inspection, Newgate and Brandon view a shimmy dance, which has been toned down by having the dancer, Fatima, gyrate not herself but a clothesline on which women's undergarments hang. After Newgate expresses outrage at the swindle, he goes back into the main hall and is shot and killed. Brandon leaves to call for an ambulance, while Ross, excited about getting a scoop, comforts Lois. The police then uncover a .45 calibre revolver and arrest its owner and three "hop heads" working at the museum. At police headquarters, the gun owner claims that the revolver actually belongs to the armless artist, who was using it in a novelty act. He also reveals that the Mexican knife-thrower, Pedro Darro, is a crack shot who rode with Pancho Villa in 1915. After a ballistics expert ascertains that the bullet that killed Newgate was a .32 calibre, suspicion falls on Brandon, who owns a gun of that calibre. Jerry is sent by his editor to interview Brandon and offers to help Lois find the guilty party. Thinking that the murderer might come back to the museum to destroy evidence, Jerry plans to rent the room above it and drill a hole in the floor so he can spy on the happenings below. Jerry first goes to question Professor Mysto, whom he finds in his room reading Schopenhauer. The professor suggests that the armless artist shot Newgate by mistake while aiming at Darro, with whom he held a grudge, and states that the murder occurred precisely at 2:34 P.M. Because the switchboard operator at the police station says that the call about the murder came in at 2:29, Jerry believes he now has proof that Brandon could not have committed the murder because he was with Newgate and another man, Judson, before they arrived at the museum. However, Jerry learns from Judson that on the way to the museum, Brandon stopped in a cigar store to make a telephone call. When the museum opens the next day, Jerry moves into the room above and, after boring a hole in the floor, sees Darro sneak into the manager's office. Lois, who has demanded that she be let in on the investigation, then looks down and sees the eyes of a mummy in an open casket start to glimmer. When Jerry sees them blink, the man, wrapped in a cloak, tries to escape, but Jerry begins to fight him. Hearing the struggle, the police burst in as the man is choking Jerry. The man escapes, and after Jerry revives, he receives a letter from Professor Mysto stating that Carr, who earlier had escaped from the police, plans to meet his narcotic distributors that night at his headquarters, an old mansion that has been vacant for fifty years. In the professor's room, Jerry finds Darro and questions him as to why he went into Carr's office. Darro explains he saw a man enter whom he knew years earlier in Mexico and whom he did not want to see. That night, Jerry investigates the mansion and is seen by the fortune-teller, who hides behind a curtain. As Carr and another man carry Darro into the room, accusing him of betraying them to a rival mob, Jerry jumps into a cedar chest. The men place Darro in the chest without seeing Jerry and go into another room, after which Jerry sneaks out of the chest and overhears a plot to kidnap Lois. The fortune-teller then reveals Jerry to the crooks, and he is captured and tied up. Before Lois is kidnapped, however, the rival mob appears, and a shootout ensues. Carr escapes the gunfire, but is later attacked and killed by a female employee whom he had earlier betrayed. Jerry then discovers that Professor Mysto has invented a device that enables a .45 calibre gun to fire a .32 calibre bullet. Thus revealed, Professor Mysto confesses that he committed the murder out of revenge and kills himself. Brandon is vindicated, and Lois and Jerry reunite.