The Ecphorizer

Murder at the EG (Solution)
compiled by the Staff

Issue #28 (December 1983)

Solution to the
Murder at the Ecphorizer Gathering

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John was done in by the paper clip that held the two pages of the letter together. One end of it had been bent upwards, sharpened to a needle point, and coated with a lethal toxin. When John reached the end of the first page, he had naturally detached the clip with his right thumb, pricking himself in the process. Thus the writer knew that by the time John read to the bottom of the second page, the poison would already be working in his body. The clip itself (complete with a drop of blood on the fatal point) lay in a dish on John's desk, visible to all who examined the scene.

The murderer said that John still had a chance. That was because the murderer had antitoxin and a hypodermic to administer it with. (In fact, later that evening the syringe was discovered in the murderer's possession). But John would have had to discover who to ask. The clues lay in the numbers mentioned in the letter. Certain paragraphs contained two numbers; the first always referred to an issue of THE ECPHORIZER, the second to a page. The first letter of the title on that page was a letter of the murderer's name. For example, paragraph two of the letter yields the numbers twenty and five. On page five of issue number twenty of the magazine, the title begins with M. Proceeding down the letter, the references spell Malina. It was she, a disgruntled fortune teller dispossesed of her crystal ball, who had sought revenge on the crusading editor. She had given him a chance to solve the puzzle only so she could bargain with him for the substance that could save his life. Truly, an editor's job is hard. 

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Miscellaneous Epitaphs

Issue #28 (December 1983)

By David Garrick

Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll,
Who wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll.


"What a sad world we live In!" Scandal cries.
I own it will be better when he dies.


Here lies Parker Ball, and what is more rarish,
He was born, bred, and hanged in St. Thomas's parish. 

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