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Gentlemen of the Jury

by Tim Lieder

Gentlemen of the Jury, we are here to decide not only the fate of the defendant but the entire judicial system. The question we put in front of you is simple. Will we allow the architect of a heinous crime to roam free? My esteemed colleague will tell you that the defendant is not responsible for the actions of his creation. My esteemed colleague will argue that Victor Von Frankenstein is merely the victim of circumstance and hubris. According to honorable Herr Rosenblatt, Doctor Von Frankenstein deserves pity not consecutive life sentences.

That Herr Frankenstein is a man of above average intelligence I do not dispute. As many of you know, this very court convicted his creation and accomplice Lucifer Adam Frankenstein only months before. Herr L.A. Frankenstein's story matches Herr Von Frankenstein's account to the letter. Doctor Von Frankenstein's ability is not on trial. The sheer amount of tenacity that Herr Frankenstein mustered to create such a being taxes the imagination. Victor Von Frankenstein, seated before you, is an intelligent dedicated man; however, these attributes only serve to make him a remarkably intelligent murderer.

In order to understand this case you must read Exhibit J, the so-called confessions of Victor Von Frankenstein. My esteemed colleague will use these confessions as a basis for an acquittal. Yes. Herr L.A. Frankenstein confessed to the murders. His confession conforms to the physical evidence. We do not dispute Herr L.A. Frankenstein's role; merely the story that Herr L.A. Frankenstein concocts to claim sole responsibility.

It is the contention of the state that Victor Von Frankenstein conspired with Henry Clerval in order to craft a being capable of the murder that he was too cowardly to undertake personally, i.e. the murder of Frau Elizabeth Frankenstein, a woman whose only sin was to desire marriage to a man who preferred the company of his companion, Henry Clerval, to any woman. It is true that he agreed to the marriage, but his consent derived from family pressure; nothing more.

Note his confession and how he beatifies his dying mother: "On her death-bed the fortitude and benignity of this admirable woman did not desert her" indeed. After she orders the defendant to marry his victim, Elizabeth, she dies "calmly" with her countenance expressing "affection even in death." And what does Herr Frankenstein do when faced with an impending wedding? He flees to Ingoldstadt where he can't wait to desecrate the morgue. Amidst a carnage that would repulse you or I, he claims that "a light broke in upon him." This is where he claims that he conceived the creation of Herr L.A. Frankenstein. I quote: "A new species would bless me as its creator and source … No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs."

Naturally, our ghoulish doctor, who happily spent his idle hours among the dead, becomes a blushing violet when confronted with a nauseating L.A. Frankenstein, the same L.A. Frankenstein that he painstakingly put together in his room. He claims that he abandoned his creation due to fear and disgust. He goes to great lengths to horrify the listener with cant about "yellow skin that barely covers muscles and arteries" and hair that's "lustrous black and flowing." He even condemns his golem for having "watery eyes … shrivelled complexion and straight black lips." Now gentlemen of the jury, if you have yet to see Mr. L.A. Frankenstein, you will ascertain his countenance when he sits at the witness stand. Until then, let me assure you that he's a handsome fellow. He exercises regularly. His skin is dry but he's certainly not the deformed Chinaman that would cause anyone to flee, much less a man who enjoys pilfering limbs from charnel houses.

Yet, for the sake of argument, let's pretend that Victor Frankenstein is telling the truth. Upon the creation of Herr L.A. Frankenstein, the defendant fled from the room, fell asleep in an adjoining bed and, after discovering that he had gifted his golem with the ability to walk, fled to the courtyard. Then shortly thereafter, his "friend" Henry Clerval arrives to note that he's "thin and pale", and "trembling" excessively. Henry Clerval, who has no medical training or nursing background—and in fact the defendant admits that "languages were his principal study"—nurses Herr Frankenstein through a "nervous fever".

After two years of "nervous fever", Herr Frankenstein learns that his brother William is dead. Several witnesses can place Herr Frankenstein in Ingolstadt at the time of William's demise. The courts convicted one Justine Moritz, because she stole a necklace belonging to Elizabeth. Nota bene, gentlemen; this necklace will become important. Herr Frankenstein, in the very document written to extricate himself from the murders, immediately fingers his golem as the culprit.

During this case we will call witnesses stating that during the alleged nervous fever, they saw Herr Frankenstein in relative good health strolling about botanical gardens and sipping Turkish coffee with the unfortunate Henry Clerval.

Let's assume that our witnesses are mistaken. Perhaps Herr Frankenstein had a functional nervous fever. How does our guilt-ridden defendant react to his brother William's funeral and Justine Moritz's execution? Proclaims that "Justine died; she rested and I was alive" and goes mountain climbing. I'm sure that Mont Blanc is lovely. I would certainly love to climb it. Probably not shortly after a beloved brother's funeral, but then I'm not a Frankenstein.

Our "thin and pale" defendant climbed these mountains with nary a care in the world until Herr L.A. Frankenstein not only noticed him, recognized him from the five minutes he allegedly spent in Herr Frankenstein's presence and ran to him. Why? All for the sake of "confessing" this crime.

Gentlemen of the jury, rest assured that you will have plenty of time to read the golem's confessions. It is a comic masterpiece. Allow me to relate a few highlights. The rest of the world also viewed him a deformed Chinaman. He not only learned perfect German by watching a French noble family in exile, but he managed to read Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives and The Sorrows of Young Werther. When this alleged family—and gentlemen of the jury, police found no villages within 100 miles that entertained rumors of a deformed Chinaman stalking their woods—drove Mr. L.A. Frankenstein away, he just happened to encounter the defendant's little brother and strangle him.

It is our contention that Doctor Von Frankenstein did not flee from his creation; rather he and Henry Clerval spent two years training the unfortunate patsy. Herr Frankenstein inadvertently tells us all we need to know when he relates that I quote: "languages were his principal study." When Herr L.A. Frankenstein takes the stand you will hear an articulate, naïve individual who has benefited from a University education. You will not see the brutal autodidact of Victor's tale.

With William dead, Henry Clerval must have become a liability. If Henry willingly agreed to murder Elizabeth Frankenstein, he most assuredly balked at the dispatch of the two innocents. Facts suggest that Henry Clerval was ready to come forward and confess everything.

Not content with the nervous fever, Herr Frankenstein and his "friend" Henry Clerval took a tour of England and Scotland in order to avoid Herr Frankenstein's impending marriage to Elizabeth. He confesses that even after two years the very idea of marrying Elizabeth filled Herr Frankenstein with "horror and dismay". Instead of planning the wedding, he took Henry to watch the sunsets in—I quote: "Fairy Land". Somewhere in this tour, the subject of William must have arisen. Just as Herr Frankenstein and Henry arrived in Scotland, Herr Frankenstein abandoned his companion.

When Herr Frankenstein returned to seek Clerval, he states that Irish magistrates greeted him with the news of Henry Clerval's death and that Mr. Kirwin sympathized with him as he raved in his grief. We will call Mr. Kirwin to testify regarding his alleged sympathy towards Herr Frankenstein. We will also call medical experts specializing in opium addiction to discuss this new outbreak of Herr Frankenstein's beloved "nervous fever."

Having dispensed with his co-conspirator, he proceeded to his intended victim. We have established that Herr Frankenstein fetishized his mother's death, treated Henry Clerval as a lover and reacted to intimations of normal marriage with "horror and dismay." Allow me to reiterate. The object of Herr Frankenstein's murderous rampage was always Elizabeth.

Now consider the unfortunate William Frankenstein again. You will note that Justine Moritz was hanged due to her possession of a necklace, yet according to the letter of Alphonse Frankenstein, "William had teased [Elizabeth] to let him wear a very valuable miniature that she possessed."

I submit to you that when Herr Frankenstein and Henry conspired to eliminate Elizabeth from their lives, the necklace served as Herr L.A. Frankenstein's only identification for Elizabeth. Victor Von Frankenstein had no pictures of Elizabeth in his possession. Herr L.A. Frankenstein was not terribly adept at human anatomy. When Herr L.A. Frankenstein realized that he had murdered the wrong victim, he proceeded with the contingency plan of planting the necklace on the first woman he saw. He had no reason to believe that he had framed the wrong woman until he met Herr Frankenstein on Mont Blanc.

Thus Victor and L.A. Frankenstein needed another plan. After dispatching the one witness that could condemn them, Herr Frankenstein proceeded to marry the unfortunate trusting Elizabeth. I have no doubt that Mr. L.A. Frankenstein said "I shall be with you on your wedding night." After I present state's evidence you will see clearly that it wasn't a threat. It was a promise.

This is the only scenario that explains how Herr Frankenstein's strange behavior on the night in question. In his confession, he describes everything including the carpet, yet he does not record performing his spousal duties. He stays fully clothed and paces around the room until he makes an excuse to exit. By his own admission he "continued some time walking up and down the passages of the house" inspecting every corner in order to establish an alibi. Once he heard Frau Frankenstein screaming, he rushed back to her bedchambers and fainted just long enough for the other guests to see that he had not laid his own hands upon his bride's neck.

However, Herr Frankenstein's convenient alibi finally proved too suspicious even for the country folk that he dazzled with erudition. Supposedly wracked with sorrow and fainting spells, he had enough energy to flee to the farthest north once questions began to surface.

You will hear about how Herr Frankenstein found himself trapped on an ice-locked ship, wrote the confession, conveyed its contents to his golem co-conspirator and took enough laudanum to induce a death-like state. He fooled the crew. Had they not attempted to set him on fire, he could have escaped to America or some other lawless land.

Gentleman of the Jury, I trust that you will not allow yourselves to be swayed by the Defense attorney's appeals to mercy. The defendant that sits in this court room is a remorseless killer whose innovative method of creating his own accomplice should not distract us from administering justice for poor Elizabeth and his other victims.

Thank you.

Tim Lieder has been published in Everyday Fiction, Silverthought and the upcoming anthology Under the Rose, edited by Dave Hutchinson. He also owns and operates Dybbuk Press through which he's published Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre and The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill.