Hall realized Seth Motts had used the innocent clergyman to confirm a tale of kidnapping which never occurred as he reported it.
Motts had obviously stuck the balloon high in the oak as a prop. On a day without a wind, a balloon blown up by breath could never rise high enough to get into a tree that high.
As "the weather had been far below freezing for days," and the shack had a "broken window," the ink would have been frozen solid and impossible to draw with.
Hall knew that Long's story of hitting Smith and accidentally killing him while retraining him from drinking ocean water was false. If the supply of fresh water had given out "three days ago," as Long claimed, he would have been dehydrated, and therefore could not have wiped "the perspiration from his brow."
Although Jordan carefully built up the impression he had never visited the John house before, he knew while standing in the attic that the chime was from the back door.
Tony could not have gained 13 pounds in one day. He fought on the night of his death for the state middleweight -- 160 pounds -- title. When found, he had on someone else's clothing, for the card in his pocket gave his body weight as an impossible "173 lbs."
The woman dressed as a nun admitted being the lookout after Hall had seized her down the block.
Hall, too, had noticed the lipstick on her coffee cup and knew she was not a real nun, since nuns don't wear lipstick.
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