A Classic For Monday Mystery...!

Sometimes you just can't beat the classics. whether it's plays, movies,or books...the classics are hard to beat!

I'd say that this play by Agatha Christie falls into the classic catagory, but it's sa that the inspiration came from a real crime. Here's the story found on Listverse.

The Mouse Trap

The world’s longest-running theatrical play is a murder mystery by Agatha Christie. The Mouse Trap has been running for over 60 years, and its plot is loosely based on a murder that shocked wartime Britain. In 1945, a doctor was called to a remote farm in Shropshire, England to examine a sick child. The doctor declared that the boy had been dead for hours, and a murder investigation began.

Reginald and Esther Gough were foster parents to both the dead 13-year-old Dennis O’Neill and his 11-year-old brother, Terence. Both brothers suffered from malnourishment that bordered on starvation, and both had ulcerated sores and scars that likely came from constant blows. When the coroner determined that Dennis had died from a beating, the Goughs were arrested.

At first, the Goughs’ story was that the boys’ injuries had come from fighting one another and that they were being treated for their ulcerated sores. But at the trial, Esther Gough admitted that Dennis was dead when she called the doctor and that she’d neglected the boys on her husband’s orders. He controlled the household, beating his wife and cruelly starving and beating the O’Neill boys nearly every night.

The jury was only able to give Esther six months for neglect because there was less proof against her. When Reginald was convicted of manslaughter, the public raised an outcry and an appeals court changed the verdict to murder. The public also called for reforms, since Reginald had a violent criminal record before the two boys were even put into his care. The failure to protect Dennis and Terence became a key to the mystery in Agatha Christie’s famous play. More importantly, it resulted in the Children Act of 1948, which established trained officers throughout Britain to ensure the healthy development of foster children and protect them from mistreatment.

It would seem to me that the biggest mystery here is one we still face every day. How can anyone mistreat children in this manner? It seems to me that it often takes the authorities way too long to find out about abuse, mainly because so many folks just don't want to become involved. Shame on those folks that won't speak out!

Coffee out on the patio this morning, alright?