The Diamond Bullet Murder Case

The Inspiration for Perry Mason! Erle Stanley Gardner used to read the Gillian Hazeltine courtroom mysteries, as an attorney himself, they inspired Gardner to create his own lawyer sleuth, Perry Mason. Now read the original!! Although the unusual aspects of The Diamond Bullet Murder Case fascinate the great criminal lawyer, Gillian Hazeltine, he refuses to take the case--convinced the defendant cannot possibly be saved, for the defendant's fiancée, Nellie Hearthstone, a terrified orphan, confesses to Gillian that her lover, Jim Truman, actually did kill her brutal employer, Amos Grundle. Nellie, taken out of an orphanage in the town of Clinton by farmer, Amos Grundle, publicly respected as a "charitable man," discovered his secret side, barely managing to defend herself from his amorous advances and cruel beatings. When Grundle boldly proposed to kill his wife and make Nellie his new wife and heir, she fled and confessed the details of her life at the Grundles to Jim Truman for the first time. Truman insisted that they marry at once, and was slipping his mother's diamond wedding ring on her finger when Grundle appeared. The enraged farmer snatched the diamond from the ring and dropped it in his gun, saying he was going to shoot it into a rock. Truman grabbed the gun and shot Grundle, who fell into the flooded quarry. Later, the "diamond bullet" is recovered from Grundle's body by Dr. Vollmer, the local coroner.