A BRIDGE TABLE MURDER

KANSAS CITY , MISSOURI , SEPTEMBER 1929

Myrtle Adkins first decided that she would marry John Bennett when she saw his photograph at a friend's house, although she did not meet him until much later. She recognised Bennett, who was dressed in officers^' uniform, on a train during the First World War, approached him and explained about the photograph. They were married in November 1918. Myrtle Bennett fired the gun that killed John Bennett after an argument at the bridge table.

At the time of his death, Bennett was a prosperous 36-year-old perfume salesman. He and his wife lived in a large Park Manor apartment on Ward Parkway in a salubrious area of Kansas City with Myrtle's mother, Alice Adkins. "Their bridge opponents on the fateful day, Charles and Myrna Hoffman, lived in the same apartment building.

On Sunday 29 September, the Bennetts and the Hoffmans made up a foursome for golf during the day and then arranged a bridge game for small stakes in the evening. During the first hour or two of bridge, the Bennetts took a healthy lead. As the game wore on, however, the Hoffmans pegged back the points. When it came to the crucial hand, there was little to choose between the two pairs, except that the Bennetts were doing far more arguing.

The three survivors later agreed on the bidding up to Four Spades, but the sources are divided about whether Charles Hoffman doubled. The survivors were uncertain about the composition of the actual hand when a reconstruction was attempted later, but that did not stop this hand from becoming legendary.

Charles Hoffman led ♦A. Myrtle Bennett laid down her dummy and then retired to the kitchen to prepare for the next morning^'s breakfast.

Did John Bennett thank his wife? I do not know, but Mrs Hoffman later described the dummy as 'a good hand' and experts later claimed that her bid of Four Spades could not be criticized. But what about John Bennett^'s opener? Bennett had bid with ten points and a bit of shape. and his wife had expected a little more.

Having lost the first trick to ♦A and then faced a switch to  ♣J on the second trick, Bennett had the problem of how to proceed. Experts would later point out that Four Spades was makeable. Unfortunately, by the time experts assessed the hand, John Bennett was dead after going down.

One expert advised a finesse in clubs but not in spades, as the percentage play was for ♠Q to drop in two rounds. That is, cash ♣A and run ♣9 from dummy. Then, if not covered, ruff the losing diamond and end-play. Declarer is short of an entry in dummy unless the trumps break two–two. West was fairly marked as holding ♥A.

Bennett is believed to have gone down by not taking the trump finesse (or by taking it wrongly) and then wasting two good clubs after setting them up and cutting himself off from dummy. Bennett lost four tricks (♦A. ♥A, ♠Q and ♥Q).

After the hand had been played everything went wrong, according to Mrs Hoffman in her evidence at the later trial.

'You overbid.' John Bennett accused his wife.

'You're a bum bridge player.' said Myrtle Bennett. and the argument escalated before John Bennett reached across the bridge table and slapped his wife in the face several times. Then he folded up the table.

'Nobody but a bum would hit a woman in the presence of friends.^' said Myrtle Bennett.

'I^'m going to spend the night at a hotel,^' said John Bennett. 'And tomorrow I'm leaving town.'

John Bennett went to the bedroom to pack a suitcase. Myrtle Bennett went to her mother's bedroom to pack a loaded gun.

When Bennett saw the gun, he ran to the bathroom and locked the door behind him. His wife fired twice. The shots missed. Bennett darted out of the bathroom by another door and fled for the apartment's front door. He never made it. His wife shot him twice and he staggered to a chair to utter his last words – 'She got me' – and then collapsed dead.

Well, that is one story.

When Myrtle Bennett was charged with first-degree murder, another story was told at the trial (seventeen months later) by her defence attorneys. It went something like this.

Mr and Mrs Bennett were like sweethearts and she would rather be dead than have caused the death of her husband. When John Bennett said he was leaving town, Myrtle Bennett dutifully went to get the pistol that her husband normally carried on out-of-town business trips though one must wonder how he carried it on an airoplane. Unfortunately she stumbled into a chair and the pistol accidentally went off. The wounded John Bennett then tried to grab her arm to take the weapon, but the gun went off again, causing the fatal wound. During the trial Myrtle Bennett is estimated to have shed more tears than Jane Cowl did in an entire season of Common Clay^', according to one contemporary report, referring to a sensational soap opera of the day. Ely Culbertson, editor of the Bridge World. was an expert witness at the trial.

He said, We have heard of lives depending on the play of a card. It is not often that we find that figure of speech literally true. Here is a case in point. Mr Bennett had overbid his hand. Of that there can be no doubt, but even with this, so kind were the gods of distribution that he might have saved his life had he played his cards a little better. Mr Hoffman opened the diamond ace, then shifted to the club suit when he saw the dummy void of diamonds, and led the club knave. This Mr Bennett won with his king and started to pull the adverse trumps. Here again he flirted with death, as people so frequently do when they fail to have a plan either in the game of bridge or the game of life. He still could make his contract and save his life. The proper play before drawing the trumps would have been to establish the club suit, after ruffing the last diamond in the closed hand, upon which to discard losers in his own hand. Suppose Mr Bennett, when he took the club trick with his king, had led his last diamond and trumped it with one of dummy^'s small trumps. He could then lead a trump and go up with the king. ...Now he would lead the club ten, and, when Mr Hoffman followed suit, his troubles would be over. He would play the ace of clubs and lead the nine or eight. If Mrs Hoffman put up the queen, Mr Bennett should trump and let Mr Hoffman over-trump if he pleased. If Mr Hoffman. after winning his trick, led a heart, the contract and a life would be saved. If he led a diamond the same would be true. A lead of the trump might still have permitted the fatal denoument but at least Mr Bennett would have had the satisfaction of knowing that he had played the cards dealt him by fate to the very best of his ability.

The jury decided the death was accidental and Myrtle Bennett was acquitted. The jury was out for eight hours and three jurors tried to learn how to play bridge. Had four mastered the game. we can assume the jury would have been out for several days.

The background to the verdict was explained by a juror: She was only a woman, unused to guns. We reckoned that if she'd really been trying to hit him she would have missed.^' And so Mrs Bennett was able to collect on an insurance policy worth $30,000 (£6,150).

One outcome was a sick joke — shooting a bad bridge partner is justifiable homicide — but a better anecdote came from Alexander Woollcott, when he followed up Mrs Bennett a few years later: She has not allowed her bridge to grow rusty, even though she occasionally encounters an inexplicable difficulty in finding a partner. Recently she took on one unacquainted with history. Having made an impulsive hid, he put his hand down with some diffidence. "Partner,^" he said, "I'm afraid you'll want to shoot me for this." Mrs Bennett, says my informant, had the good grace to faint.'

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