The Finishing Stroke Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Sebastian Sr. set up support for his disowned second son

John Sebastian Sr. and his wife Claire were a wealthy young couple celebrating New Year's in New York City in 1905. Claire was eight months pregnant and despite the snowy weather and icy conditions, John Sr. insisted on driving home. He lost control of the car and crashed. Claire was badly injured and went into premature labor. She gave birth to a healthy son but died while giving birth to a second son. John Sr. disowned the second son because he believed his birth caused Claire's death. Dr. and Mrs. Hall (who had delivered the babies) agreed to adopt the second son since they always wanted a child but could not have one. John Sr. agreed to this arrangement and to set up financial support for the second son. However, he died before he could do so. He did live long enough to rewrite his will in favor of his first son, John Jr. who was set to inherit his fortune on his twenty-fifth birthday which would occur on January 6, 1930. In the event John Jr. died before his 25th birthday, Arthur Craig, John Sr.'s business partner would inherit.

Because the Halls never legally adopted the second son, they told no one about his existence, although they did file the birth certificate with town hall.

Answer: No one knows who it is in the costume

The members of Arthur Craig's Christmas party were all baffled by the sudden appearance of the Santa Claus since it was only the twelve of them and three servants in the house, and all were present when the Santa arrived. The Santa gave each of the twelve guests either a money clip (for the men) or a brooch (for the women) in the shape of their zodiac signs. By pure coincidence (or perhaps not) each of the twelve guests had a different zodiac sign.

Answer: An ox, a house and a camel

Beginning on Christmas night, John Jr. started receiving strange gift boxes with messages that played on the "Twelve Days of Christmas" carol. In the first box he received a small ox, a doll house and a miniature camel. No one understood the meaning of these gifts and as the days went on, John Jr. received more baffling gifts that seemed to have no meaning whatsoever.

Answer: An unknown old man

Just like with the Santa Claus, no one in the house will admit to knowing who the dead man was. Moreover, all of the labels were removed from his clothes and the dead man had no wallet or ID. The discovery of this corpse made many of the guests change their minds about John Jr.'s mysterious gifts, which had been played off as a joke until then.

Answer: John Jr. doesn't remember them

One day, Ellery and Ellen, John Jr.'s sister, come across an argument between Marius and Rusty Brown, John Jr.'s fiance, in which Marius begs Rusty to leave John Jr. for him. Rusty tells him no. John Jr. overhears this argument and almost punches Marius but the fight is broken up. Later that night, John Jr. wonders why Marius is apologizing to him and keeps asking everyone to tell him about this fight he was supposedly a part of.

On another day, John Jr. is cornered by Valentina Warren in the stable where she professes her love for him and tries to kiss him. At that moment Rusty walks in and catches Valentina trying to kiss her fiance. But again later that day, John Jr. wonders why Valentina and Rusty aren't speaking to each other.

Answer: The twin died two weeks after he was born

Ellery came to the conclusion that John Jr. must have a twin hidden in the house because John Jr. did not remember certain events. Ellery also was suspicious of John Jr. because the two men had a conversation in the den of the house after which Ellery left the room and went upstairs. While on the stairs, Ellery saw John Jr. on the landing above. Ellery could not figure out how John Jr. got ahead of him when he had left him in the den. In addition, Ellery had previously asked his father to look into the zodiac gifts the guests received from the mystery Santa and learned that Rusty (who designed the gifts) had ordered two Capricorns, John Jr.'s sign, on her fiance's request.

When Inspector Queen and Velie arrived to tell Ellery about John Jr. having a twin, Ellery told him he already knew that because the twin was at the house party. Velie corrected him and informed Ellery that the twin has been dead for almost 25 years so he couldn't be switching places with John Jr.

Answer: John Jr. walked through the front door, very much alive

Ellery figured out that John Jr. was actually the oldest of triplets, not twins. John Jr. explains that the dead body in his bedroom is John III, the youngest triplet. The Halls never mentioned the third son to John Sr. because he was furious with the second son and feared what reaction he would have if he found out there was a third. John Jr. said John III (both sons were named John) found him in New York City and wanted his claim to his father's fortune which John Jr. would receive on his twenty-fifth birthday: January 6, 1930. He agreed to willingly split the money in half with his younger brother. They came up with the prank of having the twins both pretend to be John Jr. for the fun of it. No one noticed, even Arthur Craig, who raised John Jr.

Ellery points out that there is no way to prove if John Jr. is telling the truth or if he is really John III pretending to be John Jr. so he can claim all of the fortune for himself. The problem is solved when it is discovered that John Jr. has a scar on the back of his head and his barber confirms his identity. The dead body is really that of John III whom the murderer killed, mistaking him for John Jr.

Answer: The ancient Phoenician alphabet

Although Ellery figured this out in 1930, he does not explain it to the reader until 1957. The first box John Jr. received contained an ox, a house and a camel. These represented the first three symbols used in the ancient Phoenician alphabet. The ox was "alep" or A.

The house was "bet" or B and the camel was "gimel" or G, which was considered to be the letter C in those days. These symbols continued in order of the English alphabet equivalents (not Phoenician order) until the last day. The dagger that killed John III represented "zayin" or Z. Ellery figured this out after the nineteenth gift/letter, but was too late to save John III.

Answer: Arthur Craig

Ellery saw that the use of the Phoenician alphabet was meant to indicate someone associated with letters and lettering. Arthur Craig, being a publisher, was the most likely person indicated by it. Ellery knew this meant Arthur was being framed, so he kept his mouth shut.

Moreover, Ellery noticed the name of Arthur's publishing company was ABC Publishers, another allusion to the alphabet.

Answer: Arthur Craig

One day in 1957, Ellery got a call from Sergeant (now Captain) Devoe who was the lead investigator in the murders. He asked Ellery if he wanted any of the evidence from the case before it was thrown out, still unsolved. Ellery said yes and when he went through the evidence again, he instantly solved the case.

Ellery had forgotten that on the back of some the notes attached to the gifts the murderer had left little doodles. Ellery determined that these were left subconsciously and that they are all an editor's code, such as how a carat (two of which looked like camel humps) means "insert word or letter here". Ellery realized that Arthur Craig framed himself for the murder in the hopes that Ellery would would see that he was being framed and not say anything, which is what happened.

Arthur Craig, who by 1957 was over 90 years old, admitted to killing John III and the old man in the library (who was Dr. Hall). Craig had lost all of his money in the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and tried to earn it back by gambling John Jr.'s inheritance, of which Craig was guardian. However, Craig lost it all and wanted to kill John Jr. before he would inherit it. Craig was set to inherit the money if John Jr. died before he turned 25. There was no money left for Craig to inherit but that was fine; at least he would not go to prison for embezzling John Jr.'s money.

Arthur Craig was forced to sell all his possessions in a hurry when he learned he actually killed John III. He made it look like the money John Jr. inherited was actually his father's and not Craig's. This left Craig a poor man who lived in a shack in San Francisco, living on the money Ellen sent him from time to time.