The Witness

In The Witness, you are a police detective working near Los Angeles. The year is 1938, and on this stormy February night a wealthy but frightened man has asked you for protection. In spite of your best efforts, a death will occur, and you will have twelve hours to solve the mystery and try to arrest the killer. If you think you have enough evidence against one or more suspects to convince a jury of their guilt, you can arrest them and conclude the case. Your ever-helpful assistant, Sergeant Duffy, will assist you in taking the accused into custody. (He will also offer help before the arrest if you ask him for it.) You can expect to receive a letter from your superiors about the outcome of the grand-jury investigation -- and, if the District Attorney gets an indictment, of the trial itself. If the jury does not convict, your higher-ups will probably tell you where you may have erred, so that you can profit from your mistakes. Because the State cannot win the case unless it can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, you are expected to establish the three traditional ingredients to an ironclad case for the prosecution: the accused must have had a motive, a method, and ample opportunity to commit the crime. There are many possible endings to this case, and the one you reach is determined by your actions and by the deductions you draw from the evidence you gather. But one ending fits the facts better than any other, and you will know it when you reach it.

Overview

Game Statistics

Packaging Details

The re-release of The Witness used the standard box format which consisted of a grey box with coloured horizontal stripes. It contained the February 1938 issue of "Nat'l Detective Gazette", Virginia Linder's suicide note, a Western Union telegram from Freeman Linder, a matchbook of "The Brass Lantern", and the February 1, 1938 issue of Santa Ana's "The Register".

The release of the Classic Mystery Library included The Witness, Suspect, and Moonmist each in their own standard box. The boxes were contained in a specially designed trilogy slipcase.