****SPOILERS**** It's when insurance company investigator Harry Folsom, Vaughn Taylor, came across the fact that this artist George Hollister, Ross Elliott, is really the dead but very alive George Beaumont who was killed in a plane crash over the Atlatic he opened up a can of worms that he wouldn't be able to shut. It's in his effort in blackmailing Beaumont into him not reporting his being alive where his wife Laura, Jeanne Cooper, ended up getting a fat insurance pay-off from his death Falsom demanded big bucks some $7,000 worth of them, to keep his big mouth shut.
It's was George Beaumont's girlfriend Ruth Whittaker, Joan Camden, who without George's knowledge came up with the blackmail money to pay Falsom off! But as Beaumont was now ready to turn himself in and face the music he also planned to return to his wife Laura leaving poor Ruth out in the cold and out of his life! After a violent spat with George at the motel he was staying in Ruth walked out in tears on him. It's later that Beaumont was fond stabbed to death just hours after Ruth had it out with her now ex-boyfriend and arrested for his murder!
***SPOILERS*** Taking on Ruth's defense Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, slowly and meticulously works on blackmailer Harry Falsom on the witness stand getting him to admit his shake down of the late, this time for real, George Beaumont in order to be paid off not to reveal that he's in fact alive as artist George Hollister. Not that Falsom murdered Beaumont but by bringing out the fact that he was in fact alive brought him to get back to his wife Laura and thus drop Ruth as his lover.****MAJOR SPOILER*** And what's more it lead to his murder by Laura's now boyfriend who was about to marry her by thinking that her husband George Beaumont was already dead and thus now making sure this time around that he is!
It's was George Beaumont's girlfriend Ruth Whittaker, Joan Camden, who without George's knowledge came up with the blackmail money to pay Falsom off! But as Beaumont was now ready to turn himself in and face the music he also planned to return to his wife Laura leaving poor Ruth out in the cold and out of his life! After a violent spat with George at the motel he was staying in Ruth walked out in tears on him. It's later that Beaumont was fond stabbed to death just hours after Ruth had it out with her now ex-boyfriend and arrested for his murder!
***SPOILERS*** Taking on Ruth's defense Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, slowly and meticulously works on blackmailer Harry Falsom on the witness stand getting him to admit his shake down of the late, this time for real, George Beaumont in order to be paid off not to reveal that he's in fact alive as artist George Hollister. Not that Falsom murdered Beaumont but by bringing out the fact that he was in fact alive brought him to get back to his wife Laura and thus drop Ruth as his lover.****MAJOR SPOILER*** And what's more it lead to his murder by Laura's now boyfriend who was about to marry her by thinking that her husband George Beaumont was already dead and thus now making sure this time around that he is!