An American Tragedy

Heit discovers the multiple names that Clyde used along the way to Big Bittern. He sees the wounds on Roberta’s face and head. He finds Roberta’s bag but not the man’s. Witnesses come forward to say that they saw a well-dressed, nervous man on the road to the ferry to a town called Sharon. After reading Roberta’s letter, Heit concludes that he has a murder case and that Roberta was the tragic victim of a villainous lover. Heit keeps the letter to himself to slow down the investigation. The trial could give Orville Mason just the attention that he needs to win the Republican nomination for a judgeship, which might help Heit keep his own job. Leaks from the coroner’s office feed sensationalistic headlines and stories in the newspapers.

To curry favor with Mason, Heit tells Mason about the letter and asks him to break the news to the Alden family. Mason calls in his staff, including his legal assistant, Burton Burleigh. An injury to Mason’s face left a physical scar and “a psychic sex scar” (219) that made Mason self-conscious about his appearance but also ambitious to overcome it. He started as a reporter, work that brought him to the attention of the Republican Party and gained him a series of ever more important roles. He instantly grasps that “the probable publicity attendant on such a case as this appeared to be might be just what he needed to revive a wavering political prestige and might perhaps solve the problem of his future” (220).

Mason goes to Blitz to confirm Roberta’s identity. Mrs. Alden tells Mason that the only “C.G.” she knows in Roberta’s orbit is Clyde Griffiths, Roberta’s supervisor. The mail carrier and phone operator confirm Roberta’s communications with Clyde. Mrs. Alden returns with Mason to identify Roberta’s body. Mason is genuinely moved by Mrs. Alden’s plea to bring Roberta’s killer to justice, but he also thrills to the approving responses to his promise to Mrs. Alden.

Mason believes that sex, especially illicit sex, makes people do strange things. Mason develops the theory that Clyde killed Roberta to hide a forbidden affair with a subordinate. Mason has five doctors—all eager for a role in the coming case—observe the autopsy. During a search of Clyde’s room, he has his men break open Clyde’s trunk. Roberta and Sondra’s letters are in the trunk, alongside all of Clyde’s belongings. The letters confirm that Clyde is just a poor relation and that his motive for murdering Roberta was the promise of a life with Sondra.

The narrative returns to the hours after Clyde left Roberta to drown. Clyde hikes out on foot to get a boat that will take him closer to Sharon, after which he can get a ride out to Sondra at the Cranston summer house. He is frightened when he runs into three men on the road late that night. The only person who notices him on the steamship from Sharon is a country girl who is impressed with his fine clothes. Clyde is exhilarated to be with the Cranstons and Sondra in particular but terrified that someone will figure out what he did.

Even Sondra notices that there is some disturbance behind Clyde’s show of happiness. She thinks it may be that he doesn’t have enough money to socialize, so she gives him some cash. Sondra passes on a news story about a couple drowning in Big Bittern Lake. Clyde panics. One of Sondra’s friends is put out because he worries that the murder will interfere with their fun that weekend. Later that night, Clyde dumps the gray suit he wore on the boat with Roberta.

When Clyde gets his hands on the Albany newspapers, he is shocked by how much law enforcement knows already. He goes on a camping trip to Bear Lake instead of fleeing. Sondra’s baby talk isn’t enough to distract him. He is alone in the woods when Mason and his men capture him. Clyde pleads for Mason’s men to get his belongings back at the campsite: He doesn’t want Sondra to see him in police custody.

Mason finds Sondra strikingly beautiful—motive enough for a man to kill to keep her, Mason believes. When Mason questions Clyde, Clyde stonewalls him until Mason threatens to get Sondra. Clyde breaks down. He admits to each of the suspicious actions but claims that Roberta’s death was accidental; he ran because he knew he’d lose his job if the relationship came to light.

Mason returns to the campsite and tells everyone about Clyde’s arrest. He makes arrangements for Sondra to return to her family. Mason questions Clyde again later that night. Clyde has no good answer about the location of the gray suit that he wore out to Big Bittern. Mason is also curious about why Clyde claims that he lost the hat that the searchers found but is wearing still another hat. Throngs of reporters and ordinary people are waiting to see Clyde when he arrives at the jail in tiny Bridgeburg, the county seat of Cataraqui County. The newspaper articles have inflamed their curiosity. Clyde only has thoughts of Sondra throughout this period. He thinks about telling Mason that he meant to kill Roberta but changed his mind. This sounds like a lie even to him, so he says nothing. He remembers that among his letters in the trunk is one from his mother, who chastises him about the accidental killing of the little girl in Kansas City.

The autopsy reveals that Roberta drowned, despite the blows to her face and head—partial confirmation of Clyde’s story. Investigators find Clyde’s tripod. Clyde claims that he never had a camera and tripod, so he is caught in another lie. Burton Burleigh believes that the tripod held the camera that hit Roberta in the face, so he gets searchers to retrieve the camera from the lake. It doesn’t have any blood on it. When developed, the film reveals very faint pictures of both Clyde and Roberta. Roberta looks happy. Burleigh knows that Mason needs a murder weapon, so he plants some of Roberta’s hair on the camera without Mason’s knowledge. Mason takes this evidence to a grand jury immediately. Clyde’s indictment should come just in time to coincide with the Republican nomination process.

News of the coming trial is in newspapers all over the United States. Mason allows the papers to publish Roberta’s letters to Clyde, name and all, and does nothing to stop Mrs. Alden from giving frequent interviews. The interest in the story leads to questions about the rich young woman who inspired the crime. Sondra’s father gets the Finchleys’ lawyer—the chairman of the Republican committee that can advance Mason’s nomination for the judgeship—to tell Mason to protect Sondra’s anonymity. Mason keeps Sondra’s letters out of the press. The Cranstons and Finchleys leave their summer homes and refuse to make any comment to the press. Samuel Griffiths sends a trusted lieutenant to talk to Clyde. The report back is that Clyde might be guilty.

Gilbert reacts angrily to the report from the family’s representative and says that he always knew Clyde was trouble. Samuel takes the news more philosophically. He faults his family for how they ignored Clyde and agrees to pay Clyde’s defense lawyers.

Using a member of his staff, Samuel secures a firm of Democratic lawyers, Belknap & Jephson, to represent Clyde. He knows that the firm will mount a good defense because they want to damage Mason politically. Belknap takes the case for political reasons but also because he, too, got a poor young woman pregnant. His father had enough money to get an abortion for the woman, so Belknap got his happy ending: marriage with a woman of his own class. Belknap interviews Clyde. Clyde tells him everything, including about the accident that led him to run away from Kansas City. Belknap gives Clyde advice: be nice to everyone, go to religious services since the jury pool is likely to be religious, and act as unconcerned as an innocent man would. Although Belknap knows that Clyde is probably responsible for Roberta’s death, he is already working on an alternate narrative that Clyde can tell to avoid being found guilty of murder.

Ruben Jephson is the younger partner in the law firm. He is a hard, calculating man who is attuned to the politics surrounding the case. He had a rough start in life, but his ruthlessness has brought him success. He sees Clyde as a weak man, but he also sympathizes with him because of their shared class background. Jephson and Belknap interview Clyde but can’t figure out how to make him more sympathetic to a jury. Roberta was by all accounts a kind young woman and not promiscuous, so they can’t blame her for Clyde’s actions. An insanity defense won’t work because there is no history of psychological illness in Clyde’s family, and Samuel wouldn’t pay to have them advance this argument in any event. Belknap gets Clyde to reveal where he dumped the gray suit and has it dry-cleaned so that Clyde can wear it and claim that he never hid it. They can claim that the marks on Roberta’s face came from the boat or rough handling when Heit transported her body. Clyde is relieved that he has such competent lawyers but also shocked at the story they are concocting on his behalf.

Belknap and Jephson settle on a defense: Clyde had such a good time on the trip out with Roberta that he decided to marry her instead of killing her, even if it meant giving up his wealthy girlfriend. The capsizing of the boat was an accident. Clyde didn’t save Roberta and ran away both because he had a temporary break with reality and because he was a coward. He went to Sondra because he didn’t know what else to do and because she was the only woman left to him once Roberta died. Belknap and Jephson are very pleased with this narrative. Only Belknap has pangs when he considers that the story may all be lies. Jephson wonders if Clyde has enough fortitude to lie convincingly.