Who moves first?
Date: June 25th 1941
Police Constable Report
After a call from the University of Cambridge at approximately 8
a.m., we made our way straight to Trinity College Dormitory, to room
11A, to find the deceased, a Mr. George Burleigh head down on his
desk. He had been shot in his back from close range as he was reading.
On the desk was a newspaper article describing Germany’s invasion
of Russia of the 21st of June 1941. The drawers of his desk and some
of the shelves had been emptied. The body was found by the cleaner
at approximately 7.32a.m. Time of death is approximately midnight.
His bottle of vodka had been drugged with sleeping pills to make the
assassination easier. There were no finger prints found in the room
and the door was unlocked. He had £500 pounds in cash in an envelope
in his left pocket.
George Burleigh was an excellent economics student and former member
of the Fascist Association at the university. In fact, he spoke
fluent German. The Association was dissolved in 1939 as the war
started. He loved the theatre and was a keen drama student. George
was described as outgoing and popular by all at the university, even
those with differing political views. He was also known to be
homosexual.
Signature…………………………………………………
Suspect
Name: Emily Parks Age: 24 Nationality: English
Info: Daughter to an RAF Officer. Ex-girlfriend to George. They
split up twelve months ago. They hadn’t met for a year but Emily
was seen at Trinity College on the night of the murder. She says
they spoke in George’s room after dinner at approximately 9:30p.m.
She never forgave George for stopping the relationship, especially
for another man. She never accepted George’s homosexuality. A
jealous woman. She claims that, in truth, the relationship finished
for other, more serious reasons, but would not say what. She says
someone was following her all day at the university.
Suspect
Name: Phil Bryant Age: 21 Nationality: English
Info: Phil was once one of George’s best friends. They both studied
economics. He was part of the Communist Association at the
university. He had become increasingly angry at George’s insistence
with the Fascist Association despite Germany declaring war in 1939,
(The Association continued to exist underground in the university.)
Their relationship changed from that moment. They were seen
ferociously arguing the evening of the murder on the grass outside
the Dormitory. Heavy drinker. Phil slept in the room opposite
George’s room. Homosexual.
Suspect
Name: Henry Schmit Age: 24 Nationality: German
Info: Joined the university five months ago and has become a leading
member of the Communist Association at the university. A brilliant
student of politics. Won a scholarship to study at Cambridge. His
father is German and his mother English (She has friends in high
places and was able to convince the university to accept her halfGerman son to the university.) His parents are ashamed of his
communist position. Henry lived on the same floor as the deceased,
George Burleigh. Henry was George’s secret lover. They were both
in the same Drama Society at the university. He says George missed
the Drama class that evening and had seemed distressed in the past
two or three days.
Suspect
Name: Peter Humbry Age: 22 Nationality: Scottish
Info: Peter’s Room is next door to George’s. He was very upset as
he was George’s secret partner for twelve months. He says George
has been unfaithful recently and this caused arguments and fights.
Peter has a cut under his eye caused by their fighting. Peter says
he heard voices in George’s room at 11:45 p.m. Says he doesn’t
know who George was seeing behind his back. Peter is not part of
any political group. He studies pharmacology. He says he heard Karl
Lowbonoski speaking Russian on the telephone in the corridor of
the Dormitory every night from the 21st of June (He smoked outside
the fire escape and so could hear the telephone conversations in
the inside corridor.)
Suspect
Name: Professor Karl Lowbonoski: Age: 57 Nationality: Russian.
(Moved to England during the Russian Revolution of 1917.)
Info: Lowbonoski slept in the Dormitory using Trinity College as
his base. Lecturer in International Politics. Consultant to the
government and MI6 in Foreign policy. Lowbonoski was a close friend
of George’s, helping him to develop his political ideas. Lowbonoski
was seen more and more with George in the past three days. They
met in George’s room until late at night all week. The professor
admits to giving George the £500 pounds found on the victim but
refuses to say what for. Says he saw General Harold Burleigh,
George’s father looking very stressed in the courtyard of the
College after dinner and that he was armed. Says he saw Peter
Humbry following George’s ex-girlfriend, Emily Parks on the day of
the murder. Admits he has a pistol in his room.
Suspect
Name: Former General Harold Burleigh (father of George Burleigh)
Age: 53 Nationality: English
Info: The father of the victim was seen talking to George’s exgirlfriend, Emily Parks on the day of the murder in the university
library. They seemed very serious and Emily was crying. Harold
served in the British Army from the First World War (1914-18) to
1938. He served in Africa, Ireland and India in a prestigious
career. Describes himself as a true-Brit. Says he feels no remorse
for his son’s death, describing him as a disgrace to the country.
Admits he was armed on the night of the murder, as he always is.
He says that at about 8p.m. he disturbed Henry Schmit trying to
enter George’s room.
Miss Marple’s Worksheet
Suspect: Emily Parks
Age:
Nationality:
Married?:
Job:
Relationship to George Burleigh:
Suspect: Phil Bryant
Age:
Nationality:
Married?:
Job:
Relationship to George Burleigh:
Suspect: Henry Schmit
Age:
Nationality:
Married?:
Job:
Relationship to George Burleigh:
More details:
More details:
More details:
Motive:
Motive:
Motive:
Guilty or innocent?
Guilty or innocent?
Guilty or innocent?
Suspect: Peter Humbry
Suspect: Professor Karl Lowbonoski
Age:
Nationality:
Married?:
Job:
Relationship to George Burleigh:
Age:
Nationality:
Married?:
Job:
Relationship to George Burleigh:
Suspect: Former General Harold
Burleigh
Age:
Nationality:
Married?:
Job:
Relationship to George Burleigh:
More details:
More details:
More details:
Motive:
Motive:
Motive:
Guilty or innocent?
Key questions:
- Who killed George Burleigh?
- Why was he killed?
Guilty or innocent?
Guilty or innocent?
Teacher’s notes.
1. Tell the class they are going to play a kind of Cluedo game where students must discover who has
murdered a Mr George Burleigh.
2. Set up the context: It is June the 25th 1941 and Mr George Burleigh found murdered with a shot to
his back in his room at Trinity College Dormitory of the University of Cambridge.
3. Now, create two groups: 1. Miss Marple students: These will investigate to discover who the guilty
suspect is.
2. Suspect students: These will each be given a suspect card, ready to
‘become’ that suspect. They will become actors!
4. Give each group some copies of the Police Report. As a class, go through the description of the
victim so everyone understands clearly what has happened. At this point you can start getting the
class to think about the events.
5. Now, hand out a suspect card to each person in the suspect group. If some people have the same
card it doesn’t matter, just make sure the six suspects are all included. Students in this group must
now work to understand their role-play card. If there are doubles, the students can work together to
understand their character. Tell them they must be ready to act out this character. They must make
the information come alive with their performance. Tell them that they will answer the questions from
the Miss Marple students.
So here it is imperative to help the students understand clearly their character and help them express
this, putting the information into the first person.
6. At the same time, give out the Miss Marple worksheet to each person in the Miss Marple group.
Help them to understand what information they are going to have to find out from the suspects. If
needs be, get them to prepare some of the questions. Make sure they are ready before they start.
7. When you are all ready, tell everyone to stand up and imagine they are at Trinity College Dormitory
at the University of Cambridge, after the crime have been discovered and the initial police
interviews. Now it is the turn of Miss Marple to find out what really happened!
8. Monitor the class as they interact helping where possible. Sometimes Miss Marple students will find
a suspect they have already interviewed with another person. If this happens they can check the
information they collected was right or move on to another character.
9. Once the Miss Marple students have gathered the information required for all six suspects, the class
can sit down again into their two groups.
10. Miss Marple students can now discuss (in English) who they think is guilty and why, and fill in their
worksheet at the bottom appropriately. The Suspect students can now work together to see if they
can discover who is guilty and why.
11. When you are ready, ask the Miss Marple students to give their decisions. Let the suspect students
join in as well. Get these ideas on the board. You can propose further scenarios (see below) which
may mirror or not some of the students’ ideas. Attempt to generate ideas.
Use the possibilities below to stimulate debate (in English).
Possible scenario’s
Guilty: Emily Parks. Suffering with pathological jealousy after the
shock of losing George to a man, Emily confronted George on the day
of the murder. Later that evening she waited until midnight, entered
the Dormitory from the fire exit, and went up to George’s room.
George opened the door to her. As George sat down with his back to
Emily, he was shot in the back. She had taken her father’s pistol
to commit the crime.
Guilty: Phil Bryant: Since 1939 Phil and George have argued more and
more about politics. After lots of drinks the arguments often turned
violent, like on the night of the 24th of June. Phil was also in love
with George and jealous of George’s relationship to Peter Humbry.
After taking a pistol from Professor Lobonoski’s room, Phil,
extremely drunk and confused entered George’s room and shot his
‘friend’.
Guilty: Peter Humbry: His room is next door to George’s. Their
relationship was violent and Peter knew George was seeing someone
else. He studied pharmacology and so was able to drug the vodka in
George’s room. After taking Professor Karl Lowbonoski’s pistol he
entered George’s room, drugged the vodka, and continued talking to
George before he shot him.
Guilty: Professor Karl Lowbonoski: Unable to change George’s fascist
ideas and discovering from his contacts that George was a fascist
spy, Lowbonoski decided to kill George. The country was at war with
Germany so he felt it was justified. The vodka had been a present
from the professor, and was drugged. That night after a final
conversation Lowbonoski shot his victim.
Guilty: Former General Harold Burleigh: Discovering his son was a
fascist spy and homosexual from his ex-girlfriend, George’s father
came to Cambridge to confront him. They argued terribly in the
evening. That night the general returned and shot his own son. This
was war.
-
Let the students come up with different scenarios and only use these if
necessary to stimulate debate in English.
-
When ready, if nobody has guessed, you can explain what really happened,
why it happened and how. (See below)
Guilty: Henry Schmit: Henry Schmit was a fascist spy who came to
England to spy on the British and particular the communists within
Cambridge University. His cover was to become a top communist member
in the Communist Association at the university. On the 21st of June
1941 Germany invaded Russia pulling Russia into war. Russia was now
the enemy. Russia knew it had to protect its overseas spies from
German spies. Professor Karl Lowbonoski was a communist spy working
for Russia within the British Intelligence service and government.
Lowbonoski was ordered to prepare and send its top Cambridge spy to
Germany following Germany’s attack on Russia. This spy was George
Burleigh. The £5oo pounds he gave George were to help his transfer.
George’s fluency in German would be perfect. George used the fascist
Association as cover. (Remember he loved vodka!)
Only George’s ex-girlfriend knew that George was a spy. When Germany
invaded Russia, she worried for George and so came to the university.
Unfortunately she not only told his father, but she added that the
former General’s son was homosexual. Former General Harold Burleigh
was livid and confronted his son on the night of the murder. That
is why George missed his drama class. Harold Burleigh was seen by
Lobonoski with a gun at the College but this was normal for a former
Army General.
Schmit had clear orders to assassinate George before he left Britain.
Schmit had not only become friends with George thanks to their love
of theatre and Drama Society but they were also lovers. Schmit knew
George was a spy before he had even begun at Cambridge. On the night
of the murder he entered George’s room after earlier entering to
drug the vodka. George’s dad, former General Harold Burleigh had
caught Schmit trying to enter his son’s room on one occasion earlier
in the day. George had never told Lobonoski of his relationship with
Schmit as it had to remain a secret because they were homosexuals.
Lobonoski was too distracted during war time, with his work for the
British government and MI6 to worry about a young student in Schmit.
Schmit entered the room at midnight as friend and lover to George
Burleigh. George was drugged and was tired and confused. Schmit put
the newspaper article in front of Schmit and explained who he was
and what his mission was. George tried to react but was shot as soon
as he moved - in the back by his friend, his lover. Schmit then
removed files he believed were useful to the German cause from the
room. There were no fingerprints because Schmit was very very
professional. Two great spies, two great actors…