The Benson Murder Case quotes

Moreover, he was resolute both in his avoidance of any attitude that savored of credulousness, and in his adherence to cold, logical exactness in his mental processes.

“Until we can approach all human problems,” he once remarked, “with the clinical aloofness and cynical contempt of a doctor examining a guinea-pig strapped to a board, we have little chance of getting at the truth.”

Vance led an active, but by no means animated, social life—a concession to various family ties.

“Come, get a move on, you orchid,” the other urged. “This affair is no joke. It’s damned serious; and from the looks of it, it’s going to cause an ungodly scandal.—What are you going to do?”

“Do? I shall humbly follow the great avenger of the common people,” returned Vance, rising and making an obsequious bow.

He rang for Currie, and ordered his clothes brought to him.

… Still,” he added, “I deplore the inability of my layman’s untutored mind to accept the two conditions as identical.

My trousers are at the dry-cleaners; therefore, I am at the dry-cleaners, what?

”

“How do you account for that?” Markham was becoming impatient.

“I can’t account for it,” she said, “except by the passage of time. Time does fly, doesn’t it, Mr. Markham?”

“By your attitude you are only working detriment to yourself,” Markham warned her, with a show of irritation. “Can you not see the seriousness of your position? You are known to have dined with Mr.

“We women are such impulsive creatures—always doing things we shouldn’t. … But I know what you’re thinking:—if I had intended to shoot him, that would have been a natural preliminary. Isn’t that what’s in your mind?

I suppose all murderesses do go to dinner with their victims first.

”

“Didn’t I, now?” Then he added sorrowfully:

“Life is so full of disappointments, y’ know.”

Really, y’ know, the fact that a man has a motive is no evidence whatever that he’s guilty—such motives are too universal a possession of the human race.

Suspecting a man of murder because he has a motive is like suspecting a man of running away with another man’s wife because he has two legs.

The reason that some people kill and others don’t, is a matter of temp’rament—of individual psychology. It all comes back to that. … And another thing:

Your theory, d’ ye see, would be quite all right if everyone had the same amount of the various internal secretions. But they haven’t. …

Really, y’ know, you shouldn’t send a man to the electric chair simply because he’s deficient in endocrines. It isn’t cricket.

”

“I dare say you’re right,” yawned Vance. “

But society doesn’t int’rest me particularly. And I inf’nitely prefer good manners to righteousness.

”

“I’m not so sure, Sergeant,” ventured Vance lazily. “

Women are too sane and practical to make such foolish gestures; but men, y’ know, have an illim’table capacity for idiocy.

”

“Loosely put, my dear Markham,” criticized Vance. “

There are no mysteries originating in human beings, y’ know; there are only problems.

And any problem originating in one human being can be solved by another human being. It merely requires a knowledge of the human mind, and the application of that knowledge to human acts. Simple, what?”

Moreover, he was without collar or tie, and attired in an old smoking-jacket and bedroom slippers! Picture the spectacle, my dear fellow. … A man does not look fascinatin’ without his collar and with his shirt-band and gold stud exposed.

Thus attired he is the equiv’lent of a lady in curl-papers.

… How many men do you think Benson knew with whom he would have sat down to a tête-à-tête in this undress condition?”

I’m rather proud, y’ know, of my case against Mrs. Platz. I’m sure you could convict her on the strength of it. But, like the whole theory of your exalted law, it’s wholly specious and erroneous. …

Circumst’ntial evidence, Markham, is the utt’rest tommyrot imag’nable.

Its theory is not unlike that of our present-day democracy. The democratic theory is that if you accumulate enough ignorance at the polls you produce intelligence;

Platz. I’m sure you could convict her on the strength of it. But, like the whole theory of your exalted law, it’s wholly specious and erroneous. … Circumst’ntial evidence, Markham, is the utt’rest tommyrot imag’nable. Its theory is not unlike that of our present-day democracy.

The democratic theory is that if you accumulate enough ignorance at the polls you produce intelligence; and the theory of circumst’ntial evidence is that if you accumulate a sufficient number of weak links you produce a strong chain.

”

The Major is cool-headed; he’d take big chances, and he could lose his last dollar without turning a hair. But when he is finally cornered, and sees ultimate defeat, all his repressions of a lifetime, having had no safety-valve, will explode physically.

When a man lives without passions or emotions or enthusiasms, there’s bound to be an outlet some time.

Some men explode, and some commit suicide—the principle is the same: it’s a matter of psychological reaction. The Major isn’t the self-destructive type—that’s why I say he’ll blow up.”

But when he is finally cornered, and sees ultimate defeat, all his repressions of a lifetime, having had no safety-valve, will explode physically. When a man lives without passions or emotions or enthusiasms, there’s bound to be an outlet some time.

Some men explode, and some commit suicide⁠—the principle is the same: it’s a matter of psychological reaction.

The Major isn’t the self-destructive type—that’s why I say he’ll blow up.”

We had smoked in silence for half an hour or more, when Vance, as if giving articulation to his thoughts, remarked:

“And it’s stubborn, unimag’native chaps like Heath who constitute the human barrage between the criminal and society!⁠ ⁠… Sad, sad.”

“We have no Napoleons today,” Markham observed. “And if we had, they’d probably not be detectives.”

“And it’s stubborn, unimag’native chaps like Heath who constitute the human barrage between the criminal and society! … Sad, sad.”

“We have no Napoleons today,” Markham observed. “And if we had, they’d probably not be detectives.”

“But even should they have yearnings toward that profession,” said Vance, “they would be rejected on their physical measurements. As I understand it, your policemen are chosen by their height and weight;

As I understand it, your policemen are chosen by their height and weight; they must meet certain requirements as to heft—as though the only crimes they had to cope with were riots and gang feuds.

Bulk⁠—the great American ideal, whether in art, architecture, table d’hôte meals, or detectives. An entrancin’ notion.

”

“Consider, for a moment, the characteristics—the outstanding features—of the crime. Just before the shot was fired Benson and the murderer undoubtedly had been talking or arguing—the one seated, the other standing. Then Benson had pretended to read: he had said all he had to say.

His reading was his gesture of finality; for one doesn’t read when conversing with another unless for a purpose.

The murderer, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, and having come prepared to meet it heroically, took out a gun, aimed it at Benson’s temple, and pulled the trigger. After that, he turned out the lights and went away.