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Bluffing the Murderer

506 statements
96 feature instances
103 referencing feature instances

Bluffing the Murderer	type	FeatureClass
Bluffing the Murderer	label	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer	page	BluffingTheMurderer
Bluffing the Murderer	comment	Our Hero is certain they know who committed the crime. Unfortunately, there isn't much evidence, so the hero maneuvers the criminal into panicking in a way that's likely to be self-incriminating. Some variants include: Police announce they will be making a search of a particular area. The killer feels forced to remove some weak evidence from the place first. The police actually already had that evidence, and now they have the strong evidence that the killer knew about it and tried to conceal it. Tricking a criminal into revealing the location of a key piece of evidence (such as a body). One unlikely version is that the police forge some evidence to make it seem the victim's been seen around; killer goes to check on the place where the body is hidden; cops follow him there. Allegedly Truth in Television: police used a clever ruse to get the murderer of John and Phoebe Harries to reveal the location of the body. The most dangerous kind: a character is put into a position where they're dangerous to the murderer's schemes. A common way of doing this is trying to blackmail the murderer. In any case, when the murderer attempts to kill this new obstacle, the police burst out from hiding and the murderer is caught red-handed (though for a new crime). This trope is particularly common in armchair detective fiction, where the hero often has only determined the culprit through a long chain of interlocking deductions and subtle observations which would never hold up in court. Compare Engineered Public Confession (which plays off the villain's overconfidence rather than their panic), Perp Sweating, Framing the Guilty Party, and the more general Lying to the Perp. Will occasionally result in I Never Said It Was Poison. Often a supertrope of You Just Told Me. Note that spoilers will abound in the examples. Examples
Bluffing the Murderer	fetched	2024-03-21T08:00:32Z
Bluffing the Murderer	parsed	2024-03-21T08:00:32Z
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Bluffing the Murderer	processingComment	Dropped link to SexualExtortion: Not an Item - FEATURE
Bluffing the Murderer	processingComment	Dropped link to StrangersOnATrainPlotMurder: Not an Item - FEATURE
Bluffing the Murderer	processingComment	Dropped link to TheDragon: Not an Item - FEATURE
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Bluffing the Murderer	processingUnknown	Memory
Bluffing the Murderer	isPartOf	DBTropes
Bluffing the Murderer / int_10bc0a19	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_10bc0a19	comment	In Night Watch, Vimes uses the ginger beer tricknote (the exact nature of which is never specified in the text, but is said by Word of God to be shaking a bottle of carbonated drink, opening it, and stuffing it up the victim's nose, an actual torture technique in some countries) on two of the Cable Street Particulars in order to get the third to talk. It turns out to have been an elaborate bluff involving the popping noise made by a finger in the cheek, someone hissing through their teeth, and Fred Colon's "tendency" to give bloodcurdling screams at random intervals...
Bluffing the Murderer / int_10bc0a19	featureApplicability	1.0
Bluffing the Murderer / int_10bc0a19	featureConfidence	1.0
Night Watch (Discworld)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_10bc0a19
Bluffing the Murderer / int_111d19bd	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_111d19bd	comment	In The Overstory, the police already know that Douglas had committed a serious crime, but they exaggerate their knowledge of the identities of his accomplices in order to get him to name them. He sees right through it when he notices that among the pictures of his real friends and crimes he committed are people he doesn't know and crimes he had nothing to do with.
Bluffing the Murderer / int_111d19bd	featureApplicability	1.0
Bluffing the Murderer / int_111d19bd	featureConfidence	1.0
The Overstory	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_111d19bd
Bluffing the Murderer / int_1365bf02	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_1365bf02	comment	TACK: An occasional solution to the group's cases. Most notably used when Abby tricks one of her classmates into revealing that they wrote the poison pen letters to their teacher.*
Bluffing the Murderer / int_1365bf02	featureApplicability	1.0
Bluffing the Murderer / int_1365bf02	featureConfidence	1.0
TAC*K	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_1365bf02
Bluffing the Murderer / int_17293dfa	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_17293dfa	comment	Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: This is a game mechanic, in the form of 'lie bullets'. They function just like normal 'truth bullets' (pieces of evidence), except they mean the opposite of whatever the original truth bullet did and can be used to bait the killer into making a mistake or undermine their current argument. For example, in the third trial, the argument is brought up that Tenko committed suicide. To disprove it, you have to lie and say that the reason she was quiet during the seance when she was stabbed (which was really because she was told that making noise would interrupt the seance, and Tenko was determined to make it work) was because she died instantly, when Maki's examination proved she hadn't. The confirmation that Tenko was in fact murdered prompts the killer to try to divert everyone's attention to solving Angie's earlier murder (since the rules of the game state that only the first victim counts for class trials), and confessing to Tenko's murder to throw people off that trail- which is what ultimately gets them, because while there wasn't enough evidence to be sure of who murdered Angie alone, there was evidence that Tenko's murderer had also killed Angie, leading to the killer being nailed.
Bluffing the Murderer / int_17293dfa	featureApplicability	1.0
Bluffing the Murderer / int_17293dfa	featureConfidence	1.0
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_17293dfa
Bluffing the Murderer / int_1785d9d5	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_1785d9d5	comment	In the Brother Cadfael novel A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, Cadfael makes use of the superstition that a murdered body will bleed more if the murderer touches it by getting the daughter of the murdered man to ask the suspect to place a crucifix over his heart. The man panics and confesses, but it turns out that he only stuck an arrow through the murdered man when he was already dead, and didn't murder him.
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Brother Cadfael	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_1785d9d5
Bluffing the Murderer / int_20409a03	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_20409a03	comment	In The Defenders (2010), while pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against a construction company, Nick gets a developer to fess up to bribing city safety inspectors by painting a group of audience members (actually stage magicians they consulted for Pete's Case of the Week) as members of the inspection department.
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The Defenders (2010)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_20409a03
Bluffing the Murderer / int_22211d68	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_22211d68	comment	In one episode of Bones, they suspect that a guy helped his friend with the murder and also tried to kill his friend, who was currently in a coma, but don't have enough proof. Instead, Bones bluffs that his friend ratted out on him and when he demands for her to say something his friend would say, she calmly tells him that his friend made a comment that he had difficulty putting on the sleeve on the corpse, proven by the corpse's broken arm. At that point, the guy promptly told her everything in order to get back at his friend.
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Bones	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_22211d68
Bluffing the Murderer / int_22e7c6e9	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_22e7c6e9	comment	Probe: "Black Cats Don't Walk Under Ladders (Do They?)": During The Summation, Austin uses the killer's own knowledge against them, causing them to believe that they've been affected by the same poisoned tea that was used to kill Marty Corrigan. He has to do it because until the killer confessed, he wasn't sure which of the suspects had done it. "Now You See It....": At the climax of the episode, Austin James has recreated the murder method that was used to kill the previous two businessmen. He confronts his prime suspect with the situation (which includes an empty elevator shaft covered by a Hologram) and tricks him into confessing. The murderer does, but then tosses Austin down the empty shaft. Serendip's CEO and several police come out from around corners to arrest him. (Austin is fine, having anticipated this, lying safely on a crash cushion.) "Plan 10 from Outer Space": Because he didn't have any evidence to determine if Trish or Helga committed the murder, Austin has to trick the murderer into confessing, by using the victim's sunglasses, which he says created a photonegative when the victim was electrified. When the murderer sees herself on the wall, she immediately starts trying to defend herself.
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Probe	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_22e7c6e9
Bluffing the Murderer / int_261c8d3f	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_261c8d3f	comment	Done accidentally in The Simpsons episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain", when the local Mensa group goes to complain to Mayor Quimby about a gazebo they'd reserved being used by someone else. However, they phrase their complaints in very vague, accusing ways, insisting that the document they're carrying (gazebo reservation bylaws) will "blow things wide open". Quimby, thinking they're referring to one of his countless other, more serious crimes, freaks out and immediately flees the city.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_2858b08a	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_2858b08a	comment	In Full House, Jesse's cousin from Greece came to visit. He was a model citizen in front of Jesse, but he was a deviant, from trying to seduce Jesse's girlfriend, to rigging a charity drive that would actually fund his trip to Disney Land, among other things. Becky, Jesse's girlfriend, ends up trying this to get Jesse to believe his cousin is a dirtbag. It fails, but it's the thought that counts.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_2ab52cee	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_2ab52cee	comment	In The ABC Murders, the killer confesses after Poirot mentions he left a fingerprint on his scapegoat's typewriter. Discussing the case later with Hastings, Poirot admits that there was no fingerprint: "I put that in to please you, mon ami."
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_2ba48a26	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_2ba48a26	comment	Not surprisingly, done several times in Castle. Some notable instances: Beckett/Castle and Esposito/Ryan are investigating different murders, which they determine are related in a Strangers on a Train scenario. While interrogating the suspects separately, Beckett/Castle rush into Esposito/Ryan's interrogation room to announce that their suspect confessed first, prompting the second suspect to immediately confess everything and blame the first guy (who hadn't confessed to anything). Castle gets his own in a Moment of Awesome: a stuck-up rich kid has killed his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, framed one of his friends for the murder before killing him too, and is convinced that Beckett has no proof (he's almost correct â€” it's slim). Castle launches into an extended, sinister-sounding "he had it coming" routine on behalf of the killer, who responds with "Exactly." In another case, the victim's husband mistakenly thought the victim, a model, was cheating on him with a photographer, when actually the photographer was trying to extort sex from her and she was trying to record and expose him. Beckett plays the recording of the proposition and the part right after that where the husband confronted her, then pauses the file, hoping he'll confess rather than hear himself murdering his wife. With some prompting from Castle, it all comes pouring out. We then learn Beckett didn't actually have a recording of the murder: the battery died on the victim's smartphone beforehand.
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Castle (2009)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_2ba48a26
Bluffing the Murderer / int_35bceb50	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_35bceb50	comment	In Hamlet, this is the entire point of The Murder of Gonzago (the play within the play). Hamlet has a suspect (Claudio) and a method of murder (pouring poison in the victim's ear), but he isn't sure if the apparition of his father is the real deal. So he contracts a troupe of actors to replay the murder scene, reasoning that if Claudio was innocent, he'd just see it as a mildly unrealistic plot point, whereas if Claudio was guilty, he'd recognize the similarities and react either out of guilt or the implication that someone else knows how the old king died.
Bluffing the Murderer / int_35bceb50	featureApplicability	1.0
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Hamlet (Theatre)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_35bceb50
Bluffing the Murderer / int_3bbb1a1b	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_3bbb1a1b	comment	Nash Bridges has done this a few times, usually pretending that a now deceased suspect is still alive.
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Nash Bridges	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_3bbb1a1b
Bluffing the Murderer / int_41547877	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_41547877	comment	In Towards Zero, Amateur Sleuth Angus MacWhirter claimed to have seen the killer swim across the creek and climb a rope into the victim's room at the time of the murder. He actually saw no such thing, but he stumbled across the murderer's jacket, found the wet rope in the house attic, connected the dots, and provided his (unproven) deduction as eyewitness account, forcing the killer to confess.
Bluffing the Murderer / int_41547877	featureApplicability	1.0
Bluffing the Murderer / int_41547877	featureConfidence	1.0
Towards Zero	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_41547877
Bluffing the Murderer / int_439a65b3	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_439a65b3	comment	In Doubt, Sister Aloysius bluffs Father Flynn by claiming that she had spoken to a nun at his previous Parish that had confirmed his pattern of child abuse. But she didn't make that call, and she takes the Priest's resignation as a confession.
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Doubt (Theatre)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_439a65b3
Bluffing the Murderer / int_44a41eaf	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_44a41eaf	comment	In King City, Sgt. Wade confronts his suspects in the murder of a pregnant housekeeper, and evokes a lot of incriminating accusations and comments by holding up a night gown he found in her storage locker and falsely claims that heâ€™s done lab tests and like Monica Lewinsky she saved it to preserve semen samples of her lover. No tests had actually been done and that was just guesswork. Interestingly, this is probably true but Wade has simply been unable to conduct tests due to not having access to the crime lab (as the result of sabotage from the vindictive police chief).
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_46196a4	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_46196a4	comment	One of Kindaichi's favorite tactics is to put the suspect in a position where they'll be killed by their own death trap unless they take action (and thus implicating themselves, since an innocent person wouldn't know about the trap).
Bluffing the Murderer / int_46196a4	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Kindaichi Case Files (Manga)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_46196a4
Bluffing the Murderer / int_468bebb0	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_468bebb0	comment	Discworld: In Feet of Clay, Vimes confronts Dragon King of Arms and hints that he's being surrounded by holy-water-infused candles, in a way that should only makes sense to Dragon if he was behind the plot to kill Vetinari with arsenic-infused candles. In Men at Arms, Carrot spreads a rumour that they have Edward D'eath in custody so that the villain goes to the place where they found Edward's corpse. In Night Watch, Vimes uses the ginger beer tricknote (the exact nature of which is never specified in the text, but is said by Word of God to be shaking a bottle of carbonated drink, opening it, and stuffing it up the victim's nose, an actual torture technique in some countries) on two of the Cable Street Particulars in order to get the third to talk. It turns out to have been an elaborate bluff involving the popping noise made by a finger in the cheek, someone hissing through their teeth, and Fred Colon's "tendency" to give bloodcurdling screams at random intervals...
Bluffing the Murderer / int_468bebb0	featureApplicability	1.0
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Discworld	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_468bebb0
Bluffing the Murderer / int_47607004	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_47607004	comment	The Closer had a variation on this. They left two criminals handcuffed in a police car outside their house while the team searched it. By listening in on their conversation, the team not only got the confession they were looking for, they also found all sorts of incriminating evidence. In another episode, they tell the victim's family (which they already know includes the killer) that they have a witness who saw the gun they believe to be the murder weapon being thrown from a car somewhere along the freeway, but that he wasn't sure exactly where since he wasn't local. They also tell them that they'll have patrol officers find the gun, but that it will take about two weeks since it's a pretty long stretch of road to search. In reality, they've already found the murder weapon, and thus just have to stake out the place along the freeway where it was found and wait for the killer to show up and try to remove it before the police can find it. In yet another episode, a dead body is found in a cooler that's been sealed with duct tape. By the end of the episode, they have four suspects but no way to prove who is the actual killer. To find out, they get four coolers, put a GPS tracker and a camera inside each of them and seal them up with duct tape, making sure that they look exactly like the one the body was found in. Then they mail one to each of the suspects. The idea is that the three suspects who are innocent will have no idea why someone has sent them a strange box, and will open it to find out what's inside. The fourth suspect, who is guilty, will think that he already knows what's inside and will try to get rid of it without opening it. It works.
Bluffing the Murderer / int_47607004	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Closer	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_47607004
Bluffing the Murderer / int_4d6ad22f	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_4d6ad22f	comment	In Virtue's Last Reward, Sigma uses this technique against Dio, by pretending to be someone sent by "Brother", the leader of Free the Soul, a religious cult associated with the Myrmidons, the terrorist group Dio is the leader of. While trying to deny it, Dio says that he doesn't know some "old fuck" called Brother. Sigma then points out that he never mentioned Brother's age. Dio also slipped up by instantly denying that he knows who the Myrmidons are, even though Sigma hadn't mentioned that the name refers to a group of people. Tenmyouji also bluffs Dio, claiming the bomb detonator he's holding is a fake, causing just enough hesitation for Tenmyouji to get close and knock the detonator away. This is basically the same trick that Junpei pulled on Ace in the first game (making for some nice foreshadowing for the later reveal that Tenmyouji is Junpei). However, this turns out to be a bad idea because the detonator is set to automatically activate if it gets more than a meter away from Dio.
Bluffing the Murderer / int_4d6ad22f	featureApplicability	1.0
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Virtue's Last Reward (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_4d6ad22f
Bluffing the Murderer / int_4e9e9863	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_4e9e9863	comment	In Arsenic and Old Lace, the hero Mortimer tries to bluff his Ax-Crazy brother Jonathan into leaving by threatening to introduce the cops to his latest murder victim. Subverted when Jonathan then threatens to tell the cops about the murders his kindly old aunts have committed, and then doubly subverted when Mortimer arranges to have his aunts committed to a mental institution and Jonathan gets arrested anyway.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_4f847312	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_4f847312	comment	Nero Wolfe does this more often than he doesn't.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_514489e5	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_514489e5	comment	Porfiry of Crime and Punishment tries this many times on Raskolnikov. One particular instance involves Porfiry directly asking Raskolnikov about a detail at the crime scene when Raskalnikov is talking about his presence at the scene before the murder.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_5320ab5e	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_5320ab5e	comment	This is basically Columbo's modus operandi. More than half the episodes have him pulling this one, a few times even involving tricking the murderer into trying to kill him.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_58c5259c	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_58c5259c	comment	In an episode of The Rifleman, a photographer is on trial for murdering a man. The photographer has good reason to want the man dead (he was a prisoner of war and the dead man was the cruel camp commandant), but swears he is innocent and only fired in self-defense. Lucas comes back into court with a photo plate, saying he developed the picture the photographer took just before the shooting and it shows the real murderer. Before he can say anything else, the dead man's business partner jumps up and blasts the plate out of Lucas's hand. After he confesses, Lucas admits he didn't have the proof because he doesn't know a thing about developing pictures.
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The Rifleman	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_58c5259c
Bluffing the Murderer / int_60f95f8	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_60f95f8	comment	Nick Velvet: Nick does this in "The Theft of Santa's Beard", when he points at the murderer as he is leaving the police station and yells "He's the killer and I can prove it!" The killer panics and tries to flee, and is immediately grabbed by the cops. Nick doesn't actually have any hard evidence, but knows that the police will probably find it if they search the killer's office.
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Nick Velvet	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_60f95f8
Bluffing the Murderer / int_6209177d	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_6209177d	comment	Perry Mason. He always does this, and he always does it in the courtroom, when the murderer is on the witness stand. (Which may be why that variation is known here as The Perry Mason Method). 32 movies (at least!), 245 television episodes, 11 years of radio shows, and 80 novels and short stories worth of Bluffing The Murderer. Which gets confusing when said murderer is a fan of Mason and it still works. You'd think that, when he got called to the stand, he'd just confess and save everyone some time. This was spoofed in Playboy with their cartoon series "Little Annie Fanny". Annie is accused of something and has to find a lawyer. As soon as she hires Mason someone jumps up screaming "I did it! I killed him!", leading Annie to say "I didn't even kill anyone."
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Perry Mason (Franchise)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_6209177d
Bluffing the Murderer / int_625e571	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_625e571	comment	Law & Order: Criminal Intent does this a lot. One good example was the Season 2 finale, where Goren manages to pin a murder meant to discredit him on Nicole Wallace through a complicated routine involving anthrax samples and her supposed immunity. Another variant came when they realized that their initial suspect was being framed by her husband. Since both were lawyers, they couldn't inform the ADA without both the wife and the culprit finding out. This results in the detectives lying to the wife, the real suspect, and the Assistant District Attorney Carver in order to obtain a confession. They've done that last bit twice, and on at least one occasion he wasn't too happy about it, as indicated by his "oh. I see" and calm Glasses Pull. In fact, the first time Carver said that if Detective Goren did it to him again, he would have Goren's badge. The second time, he said, "I will get back to you, detective." Eames assured Goren, "He'll get over it." In yet another Criminal Intent episode, a hitman/family man who kept the bodies in a giant freezer in the garage (under the ice cream!) was undone after Goren convinced the medical examiner to report that one of the people who was murdered had lost a cap from his tooth. The hitman tore his garage apart all night trying to find it, and in the morning, when the cops came around, he blurted out how he hadn't made a mistake, there was no cap, and they arrested him. Deconstructed in the season 5 finale of Criminal Intent. A couple is murdered, and one of the cops on the case tells the couple's troubled son that the mother lived long enough to name him as the perpetrator, after which the son breaks down and confesses. Logan is suspicious, however, and eventually uncovers the truth: the son was high on the night in question and can't remember what he did, so when he was told that his mother implicated him, he believed that if she said that, he must have done it, not realizing that she never said anything and it was all a ploy. Logan then finds evidence that proves the son's innocence. The original Law & Order pulled a similar gambit on a woman they suspected of hiring a hitman to kill her husband. They discovered a crucial piece of evidence (a jailhouse informant) after they had rested their case. In the US criminal justice system the prosecution is not allowed to introduce new evidence on rebuttal unless it undermines something in the defense, and the defendant cannot be forced to testify. So they made up a cock-and-bull story, claiming that the wife killed the hitman out of revenge (which they knew to be false) and which the defendant could have only refuted by testifying. The attorney puts his client on the stand to defend against the false charge, giving McCoy the opening to introduce his informant to prove the real one. On an early episode of Law & Order, ADA Ben Stone gets a man to confess to his crimes by telling his Russian-born lawyer his client would have him immunity in New York County. He repeats that several times because he knows the man does not understand that "New York County" is just the island of Manhattan. After he confesses he is arrested by the Brooklyn (Kings County) ADA. In another episode, a man is convicted by the DA's office of murder, only for the detectives to uncover proof that he didn't do it. Everyone immediately suspects that the man's wife is the one who framed him, and set up a trap. They make up different evidence that proves the defendant's innocence, and say that as long as the murder weapon remains unfound, the charges will be dropped. The very next day, the defendant's wife "miraculously" finds the weapon and tries to turn it in to the DA in order to "prove her husband's innocence". The DA then explain that only the killer would know how to find the weapon, and the defendant quickly realizes that it was she who set him up.
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Law & Order: Criminal Intent	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_625e571
Bluffing the Murderer / int_6272adf3	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_6272adf3	comment	Dutch tries this all the time on The Shield, with varying degrees of success. Claudette is also pretty good at it, but her moment also comes back to bite her in the ass. She gets a confession out of a serial killer by fooling him into thinking that his sister is dead, and that they will convict him for that crime. He returns the next season, representing himself, and manages to raise enough doubt about Claudette's credibility to get the DA to drop the death penalty. (He was going to spin the Bluff as a hallucination caused by her Lupus medication).
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The Shield	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_6272adf3
Bluffing the Murderer / int_647aeede	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_647aeede	comment	Error of Judgement: After Dr. Stiehl's testimony about his removal of healthy organs, Dr. Prince tries to argue that it isn't conclusive proof, before they threaten to call another doctor from the hospital who resigned in protest over the lenient treatment he got. Defeated, Prince backs down, only for it to be revealed that they hadn't been able to find the contact information for that doctor, and aren't even sure if he's still alive.
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Error Of Judgment	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_647aeede
Bluffing the Murderer / int_654ebc56	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_654ebc56	comment	During Part 3 of Jojos Bizarre Adventure, Jotaro and co. are trying to suss out an enemy stand user aboard a ship full of seamen and a stowaway. With the captain of the ship within earshot, Jotaro makes up some fact about how cigarette smoke (he had lit one up moments earlier) makes a vein on a stand user's nose bulge out. Everyone in Jotaro's party checks their noses...including the captain (though he reveals that he had no idea who the stand user actually was, and was planning on using the same trick for every individual crew member).
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_68ea0c85	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_68ea0c85	comment	The heroes of Bakuman。 write a manga "Detective Trap" around this trope.
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Bakuman。 (Manga)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_68ea0c85
Bluffing the Murderer / int_6c4df4aa	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_6c4df4aa	comment	The "place all the suspects together near the murderer's hidden time bomb, forcing the murderer (as the only one who knows about the bomb) to reveal himself in order to save his own life" variant was used twice on the 1954 Sherlock Holmes TV series — once with actual explosives and once with arsenic candles.
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Sherlock Holmes	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_6c4df4aa
Bluffing the Murderer / int_6cbac6bb	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_6cbac6bb	comment	Characters in The Moving Finger and A Murder Is Announced pretend that they saw the murder committed and know the identity of the murderer. In each case, once again, this induces the murderer to attempt another murder, and be caught.
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The Moving Finger	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_6cbac6bb
Bluffing the Murderer / int_72e7d7f6	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_72e7d7f6	comment	In the Lord Peter Wimsey novel Strong Poison, Lord Peter eventually gets the murderer to confess in part by pretending to feed him arsenic-laced food; the murderer had committed the crime by becoming immune to arsenic and sharing a poisoned meal with the victim.
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Lord Peter Wimsey	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_72e7d7f6
Bluffing the Murderer / int_73383fee	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_73383fee	comment	Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has this trope appear frequently during trial scenes. Since all of the characters are there, getting the murderer to admit evidence is often necessary to solve the cases. Ishimaru managed to do this on complete accident during the second trial, by theorizing that the victim and the killer wore matching tracksuits. And while this was a genuine moment of Insane Troll Logic on his part and not a bluff, the killer is ultimately caught because he defended himself by saying that his tracksuit was black while the victim's was blue... when the only people who could have known that were Celeste (caught a glimpse of the suit in the victim's bag earlier that night), Makoto (the only person Celeste told this to), and the murderer (the only person who would have seen the victim wearing the tracksuit). One moment in the final trial establishes that the person who earlier attacked Makoto at night was not Mukuro because she lacked a distinctive tattoo Mukuro had on her hand. Kyoko keeps quiet about the point that maybe they couldn't see the tattoo because it was covered with makeup until a later point in the trial when they determine that Mukuro had been posing as Junko and used foundation to cover the tattoo, at which point she thanks the others for not noticing and allowing her to bluff the mastermind by omission.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_74fb542e	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_74fb542e	comment	Spoofed in a sketch of That Mitchell and Webb Look, which begins with the detective finishing up what's implied to be a string of deductions incriminating one woman ("... and the two shades of lipstick were identical!"). Once the accused breaks out in "the Evil Voice", he admits that he hoped she do "the Evil Voice" as he didn't actually have any evidence, whereupon she promptly tries to take it back. The situation ultimately culminates in the murderer ending up shooting herself, whereupon the detective remarks, "It is better this way. Some courts, they do not accept the Evil Voice as evidence."
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_752e198c	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_752e198c	comment	The Silence of the Lambs: Hannibal Lecter bluffs himself into this position by attacking Will Graham in a very self-incriminating way â€” little did Lecter know Graham had no real evidence on him, and knew he was the Chesapeake Ripper only because his own Lecter-level intuitive imagination led him to the conclusion.
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The Silence of the Lambs	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_752e198c
Bluffing the Murderer / int_7d5e591c	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_7d5e591c	comment	In the graphic novel Camelot 3000, Merlin has been betrayed by one of the reincarnated Round Table knights. King Arthur orders the suspects to hold Excalibur and attest to their innocence, claiming his sword will magically strike down anyone who lies while holding it. The guilty party panics and confesses, after which Arthur admits that Excalibur has no such power.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_7e4805b6	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_7e4805b6	comment	In Knives Out, Benoit Blanc announces that Harlan Thrombey's autopsy showed no morphine, clearing Marta of responsibility and allowing her to take full possession of the estate and all its holdings. Marta then claims that Fran has recovered from her own case of morphine poisoning. This prompts the would-be murderer to unleash their frustration at their plan's total failure while also gloating that they can get away with everything since their attempted murders failed—and then Marta pukes all over the perpetrator's face, revealing that she was lying about Fran's condition.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_81692f99	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_81692f99	comment	A Marvel issue of Star Trek has Kirk implicated in the murder of a planet's ambassador with whom he inadvertently crossed as a cadet. On the planet's surface, Spock uses deductive reasoning â€” or as Dr. McCoy termed it, "bluffing" â€” to reveal the real murderer.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_82212fb0	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_82212fb0	comment	The Mrs. Hawking play series: At the conclusion of the third installment Base Instruments, they catch the murderer Yulia Sherba by tricking her into think Justin Hawking wants to leave the country with her, thus luring her to meet them with the immigration papers that prove she killed Raisa Sergeyeva in hand.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_84bbf8df	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_84bbf8df	comment	In Death on the Nile, Poirot causes one of the killers to break down and confess by springing the truth on them.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_89f6bbe1	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_89f6bbe1	comment	A Shot in the Dark. Clouseau has no idea who the killer is, so gathers all the suspects for a Summation Gathering and arranges for his partner to turn out the lights, hoping the guilty party will panic and flee. Clouseau drags things out for so long the murderer confesses as does everyone else and the meeting instead dissolves into an enraged argument between all the suspects, with Clouseau staring helplessly into the camera before the lights go out.
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A Shot in the Dark	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_89f6bbe1
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8ba4613a	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8ba4613a	comment	In Death Note, L tricks Light with one of the aforementioned variants very early on. Light usually reacts coolly as part of his acting skills later on. Of course, this being Death Note, this happens something along the lines of every episode, and is probably one of the most common plans used.
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Death Note (Manga)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_8ba4613a
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8d814070	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8d814070	comment	In MAS*H, Hawkeye unveils a thief by tricking him with this sort of ploy. He tells a group of people that the last object stolen had been treated with a substance that would turn the thief's fingers blue. When one of the people tried to hide his hands, Hawkeye knew he was the thief. But they let him get away with it since he was a poor Korean kid who said they "were all so rich".
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_8d81bb26	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8d81bb26	comment	NCIS uses this quite frequently. Team Gibbs probably bluffs more suspects than they legitimately manage to nail. They usually lie about forensics that aren't in yet or aren't conclusive.
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NCIS	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_8d81bb26
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8d81f086	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8d81f086	comment	Monk has done this in several episodes: "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room" and "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" use variant 1. Also inverted in the episode Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather, where Monk actually did think the FBI Van parked nearby recorded the killer's confession, but it turns out they hadn't because Monk inadvertently wrecked the bug (he had the tie washed in a washing machine due to a stain earlier in the episode), although the killer did end up begging to be arrested anyways, namely because he didn't want the mafia to commit revenge against him. "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" has Monk bluffing Lester Highsmith, who is about to shoot an armored guard, into letting his guard down through use of a Walter P38-water pistol.
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Monk	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_8d81f086
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8dfbdff2	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8dfbdff2	comment	The original Law & Order pulled a similar gambit on a woman they suspected of hiring a hitman to kill her husband. They discovered a crucial piece of evidence (a jailhouse informant) after they had rested their case. In the US criminal justice system the prosecution is not allowed to introduce new evidence on rebuttal unless it undermines something in the defense, and the defendant cannot be forced to testify. So they made up a cock-and-bull story, claiming that the wife killed the hitman out of revenge (which they knew to be false) and which the defendant could have only refuted by testifying. The attorney puts his client on the stand to defend against the false charge, giving McCoy the opening to introduce his informant to prove the real one.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_8e8ed866	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_8e8ed866	comment	Probably more episodes of Knight Rider than just this have employed the trope.
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Knight Rider	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_8e8ed866
Bluffing the Murderer / int_938e19ec	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_938e19ec	comment	Fraggle Rock: In the episode "Inspector Red", the Fraggle Horn, which is used to summon Fraggles to meetings in the Great Hall, is missing. Red takes it upon herself to determine what happened. Henchy, Beleaguered Assistant to the World's Oldest Fraggle, gathers all of Red's suspects together. Red then accuses herself of stealing the Fraggle Horn. Henchy, unwilling to let someone who's innocent take the blame, immediately confesses to having stolen the Horn. He had done so to try and put a stop to the meetings, since the World's Oldest Fraggle tends to preside over them and is always bonking Henchy with his cane.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_97bf0ec3	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_97bf0ec3	comment	Parodied in Yuria 100 Shiki. A boy who's recently watched a show called Bolumco discovers a close-up photo of a vagina on his father's hard drive. He has no idea what it's a photo of, so he shows it to his friends, and his female friend (who thinks it looks vaguely familiar, like she's seen it from a different angle) shows it to her foster father. He immediately denies all knowledge of what it is, so the boys bluff him and pretend they've figured out its location â€” and of course, he immediately looks in the direction of the girl's crotch.
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Yuria 100 Shiki (Manga)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_97bf0ec3
Bluffing the Murderer / int_9a67b688	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_9a67b688	comment	Case Closed sees plenty use of this trope. A particularly good example is from the first movie, in which Conan tells the suspect that he found the disguise he used while conducting his bombings. (He actually made it himself out of stuff he found in the room.) The bluff succeeds and the suspect says "But I left those in the study." Oops.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_9aac0273	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_9aac0273	comment	In Men at Arms, Carrot spreads a rumour that they have Edward D'eath in custody so that the villain goes to the place where they found Edward's corpse.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_9d34190a	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_9d34190a	comment	The Elder Scrolls games have an in-game short story, ''A Game at Dinner'', which uses a variant of this: Helseth implies to his assembled dinner guests that he put poison on the cutlery of someone spying against him, then invites any spies present to take a dose of the antidote, kept in a tureen at the centre of the table. One of the spies loses his nerve and drinks, only for Helseth to reveal that no-one's cutlery was poisoned. The poison was, in fact, the 'antidote' the spy was just bluffed into drinking.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_9df2bf92	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_9df2bf92	comment	Conway Jefferson in The Body in the Library and Madame Renauld in The Murder on the Links make it known that they are changing their wills the following day, to induce the killer to attempt an assassination during the night, when the police will be waiting for them.
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The Murder on the Links	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_9df2bf92
Bluffing the Murderer / int_9f78fda3	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_9f78fda3	comment	If a given Murder, She Wrote episode doesn't end with this, it'll end with Engineered Public Confession. Most often, it's both: Jessica tricks the murderer into returning to the scene, confronts him/her alone, and then the police turn out to be hiding in the wardrobe after s/he confesses. Jessica's most favored method was showing a piece of paper she said contained the evidence to prove the killer's guilt. This was openly lampshaded when, after the killer confessed, the chief of police checked the paper out and just chuckled.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_a6eb2668	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_a6eb2668	comment	Nighthawks. New York cop DaSilva sees a man whom he thinks is the international terrorist Wulgar, but he's been altered by plastic surgery. So he stares at Wulgar until the terrorist notices him, then shouts out "Wulfgar!" as if he's just recognised him. Wulgar's instinctive response is to draw his gun and start shooting.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_a825da3e	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_a825da3e	comment	Magic: The Gathering: During the Murders at Karlov Manor storyline, multiple high-ranking figures on Ravnica are targeted for assassination. At the end of the investigation, Great Detective Alquist Proft summons all of the relevant parties for a Summation Gathering, declares that the culprit is among them, but that he needs to interrogate each of them in private before he can solve the case. He starts with one of his fellow investigators, Kaya (herself a skilled assassin), and proceeds to ask her absolutely nothing. The culprit is using Mind Control to make others commit the killings on their behalf, taking care not to do so with any witnesses around. Proft figured that if he isolated himself with Kaya, the culprit would attempt to mind control her to silence him, allowing him to catch them in the act.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_ad56da28	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ad56da28	comment	The Law According to Lidia PoÃ«t: In 1x1 Lidia tells a man whom she suspects actually murdered Adele that fingerprints which will show who her murderer was will be lifted from the crime scene, and then lays a trap for him when he arrives to remove them, proving that he's guilty.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_ad8541c9	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ad8541c9	comment	This is a common tactic of Encyclopedia Brown.
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Encyclopedia Brown	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_ad8541c9
Bluffing the Murderer / int_b29621f3	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_b29621f3	comment	In Feet of Clay, Vimes confronts Dragon King of Arms and hints that he's being surrounded by holy-water-infused candles, in a way that should only makes sense to Dragon if he was behind the plot to kill Vetinari with arsenic-infused candles.
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Feet of Clay	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_b29621f3
Bluffing the Murderer / int_b4afdc3c	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_b4afdc3c	comment	In Crossfire, Montgomery kills Floyd, the only witness to his murder of Samuels. Detective Finlay, who has no hard evidence against Montgomery, devises a ruse. Leroy, another soldier, leads Montgomery to believe that Floyd is actually still alive, then shows Montgomery a paper with the address of the boarding house Floyd is at. Montgomery then shows up at Floyd's room, claiming to have been sent there by Leroy â€” except that Leroy gave him the wrong address. Montgomery's arrival at the right room proves that he was there before and catches him out as the murderer.
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Crossfire	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_b4afdc3c
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ba2df16b	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ba2df16b	comment	In Klute, Donald Sutherland has figured out who the killer is, but has no evidence. So he makes up a story, telling the bad guy that he's about to acquire an incriminating address book, in order to smoke the bad guy out.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_ba5d4fd1	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ba5d4fd1	comment	In The Murder at the Vicarage, Miss Marple suggests a trap to make the killer believe someone overheard a telephone conversation.
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The Murder at the Vicarage	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_ba5d4fd1
Bluffing the Murderer / int_bb7d6a95	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_bb7d6a95	comment	Duckman does this to humorous effect in thwarting one of King Chicken's plots. After Cornfed gets him exonerated of all the charges, Duckman then calls King Chicken to the stand and proceeds to "interrogate" him by rambling senselessly until a fed-up King Chicken finally confesses just to shut him up.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_bba9da2d	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_bba9da2d	comment	Zero Escape: In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Junpei learns that Guy X's killer has prosopagnosia, and needs to prove that Ace has prosopagnosia. So, he calls them all up to the hospital area where he claims to be Santa dressed in Junpei's clothing. Ace ends up confused, and falls for it. Furthermore, Junpei correctly deduces that Ace stole the Ninth Man's bracelet and used it to kill Guy X, so he tricks Ace into believing he has the bracelet, causing Ace to slip up once more. In Virtue's Last Reward, Sigma uses this technique against Dio, by pretending to be someone sent by "Brother", the leader of Free the Soul, a religious cult associated with the Myrmidons, the terrorist group Dio is the leader of. While trying to deny it, Dio says that he doesn't know some "old fuck" called Brother. Sigma then points out that he never mentioned Brother's age. Dio also slipped up by instantly denying that he knows who the Myrmidons are, even though Sigma hadn't mentioned that the name refers to a group of people. Tenmyouji also bluffs Dio, claiming the bomb detonator he's holding is a fake, causing just enough hesitation for Tenmyouji to get close and knock the detonator away. This is basically the same trick that Junpei pulled on Ace in the first game (making for some nice foreshadowing for the later reveal that Tenmyouji is Junpei). However, this turns out to be a bad idea because the detonator is set to automatically activate if it gets more than a meter away from Dio.
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Zero Escape (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_bba9da2d
Bluffing the Murderer / int_bec7dd6a	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_bec7dd6a	comment	Subverted in The Mousetrap. All the witnesses/suspects are asked to to re-enact the murder, but to do so playing the part of one of the other witnesses. It seems an exceedingly clever ploy (or a bold bluff) to effectively catch the murderer. And that is all we're saying about it.
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The Mousetrap (Theatre)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_bec7dd6a
Bluffing the Murderer / int_bf24c7bb	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_bf24c7bb	comment	In Chernobyl, Director Shcherbina asks plant manages Bryukhanov and Fomin "why did I see graphite on the roof?" even though he didn't actually see it for himself, Legasov did. Rather than answer, however, Bryukhanov immediately passes the buck to Fomin, who says unconvincingly that it's burnt concrete. This convinces Shcherbina that the two of them are lying to cover their asses and that the accident is much less minor than they've claimed.
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Chernobyl	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_bf24c7bb
Bluffing the Murderer / int_c1d20dfe	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_c1d20dfe	comment	Performed in Murder Mystery, where all of the remaining suspects are brought into the room for a summation of evidence. It fails. First, they learn one of their assumptions was wrong, then the accused killer admits they're the lost heir, but coolly denies the murder, and the Interpol detective rightly points out that there's no solid evidence.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_c675b3d7	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_c675b3d7	comment	Samuel Cogley of Star Trek Expanded Universe The Case of the Colonist's Corpse solved the murder with this method. The victim was the head of a Federation colony who was well known for preferring to write his reports in long-hand and then dictate or scan them into a computer instead of using the computer first. The Klingon accused of his murder seemed to have a perfect motive when they found a report accusing the Klingons of spying and of surreptitiously replacing their colonists to look better then they were. Cogley used the scanned report to bluff the murderer into thinking the victim's widow was the main suspect and dropped some very heavy hints about where the handwritten first draft was that had been scanned in the first place. He then arranged it so that the killer was caught on video breaking into the victim's house, finding the report and then destroying it with a hand phaser. The killer was then transported into the courtroom with a full squad holding phasers on him, the video of him destroying the evidence, and Cogley holding the original report which he then read aloud the real motive for the crime.
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Star Trek Expanded Universe (Franchise)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_c675b3d7
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ca08598f	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ca08598f	comment	The Wire played this straight many, many times, as the cops will use every possible means of tricking, lying to, or fooling suspects into talking. Bunk and McNulty try to break D'Angelo Barksdale (who recently became a father) by pretending that a picture of Bunk's kids is a picture of the children of a witness recently killed on the order of D'Angelo's uncle, the drug kingpin Avon Barksdale. (The witness didn't actually have any family.) After they go on talking about the kids now being orphans, and link it around to children getting killed as result of the drug trade, D'Angelo is visibly fighting back tears. While he won't talk directly, the detectives try to make him write a letter giving his condolences to the children, hoping that somewhere in the letter D'Angelo will inadvertently wind up Saying Too Much. Unfortunately for the cops, it's right then that D'Angelo's lawyer arrives and instantly sees through the ploy. In "More With Less", two bluffs are used on a perp named DeShawn. First, Bunk makes claims that they took DeShawn's accomplice to McDonald's as a reward for cooperating (when he in fact refused to talk), and then has Detective Crutchfield escort said accomplice past the interrogation room with a bag of McDonald's food in hand, which scares DeShawn accordingly. Then Bunk and Jay Landsman trick him into thinking a photocopier is a lie detector. In reality the copier has several pages preloaded, some of which say true, and one that says false. The cops ask harmless questions until they run out of "trues", then ask about the crime, and when the kid tries to lie about it, "false" comes out. Subverted in one case, where Bodie had to dispose of a whole group of guns from a shootout because a stray bullet killed a young boy nearby. Unfortunately when he tries to throw them off a bridge into the water below, the bag instead lands on a passing barge. When the cops bring him in, Cole and Norris show him the bag, lay out all the guns, and try to bluff that they found his fingerprints on one of the guns. Bodie cleaned all of the guns very meticulously, and thus knows there weren't any fingerprints left on them, so he challenges Cole to point to which one of the guns supposedly had his prints on it. When Cole picks the wrong one, Bodie just smiles, no doubt enjoying the irony since Cole had earlier accused Bodie of being too stupid to even realize that he was stupid.
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The Wire	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_ca08598f
Bluffing the Murderer / int_cac1f772	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_cac1f772	comment	Employed numerous times in CSI. In one example, the investigators determine that the victim's company-issued travel bag is missing and was probably taken by the murderer, but are unable to obtain a search warrant... so they obtain an identical bag from the company, hide a tape recorder in it, and bring it into their suspect's interview. The suspect immediately gives himself away by protesting that they must have searched his car without a warrant.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_ccf4b55d	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ccf4b55d	comment	Silent Witness. While investigating a murder in Zambia, Nikki Alexander convinces a group of villagers that she is using witchcraft to "speak to the bones" of a murdered woman. First she describes the victim (information obtained from the post-mortem) then she gets the villagers to lay their machetes in front of them. When flies are attracted to the invisible blood droplets on the machete used by the killer, she picks it up and declares that the spirits have told her the owner is the killer. He promptly flees in panic and is grabbed by the police.
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Bluffing the Murderer / int_d14bb14a	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_d14bb14a	comment	Tenmyouji also bluffs Dio, claiming the bomb detonator he's holding is a fake, causing just enough hesitation for Tenmyouji to get close and knock the detonator away. This is basically the same trick that Junpei pulled on Ace in the first game (making for some nice foreshadowing for the later reveal that Tenmyouji is Junpei). However, this turns out to be a bad idea because the detonator is set to automatically activate if it gets more than a meter away from Dio.
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Call-Back	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_d14bb14a
Bluffing the Murderer / int_d4fe015f	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_d4fe015f	comment	QI discussed the subject in series C:
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QI	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_d4fe015f
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e1f8efe3	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e1f8efe3	comment	I've Got You Under My Skin: Rob Powell agrees to host a true crime centered around the murder of his wife Betsy and gathering all the notable suspects under his roof. On the night before filming is set end, Rob Powell publicly announces that he now knows who killed Betsy and intends to make this information public tomorrow. It's not clear if he really does think he knows the killer's identity, but either way he's clearly trying to make them panic. It prompts Rob's housekeeper Jane to try and kill Muriel, revealing herself as Betsy's killer. Rob appears genuinely shocked, as he had always thought it was his stepdaughter or one of her friends.
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I've Got You Under My Skin	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_e1f8efe3
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e2e19202	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e2e19202	comment	In Black Coffee, Hercule Poirot gets Raynor to confess by pretending to drink the drugged drink that Raynor gave him. What Raynor doesn't know is that Captain Hastings switched out the glasses when Poirot temporarily got Raynor out of the room.
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Black Coffee (Theatre)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_e2e19202
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e5feb1e	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e5feb1e	comment	In Ace Attorney: In case 3-1 of Trials and Tribulations, Mia Fey (the attorney the player controls in that case) proposes the theory that the real killer put poison into Phoenix's cold medicine in order to kill him. Said "real killer" dismisses these claims. Mia then dares her to take some of the cold medicine, stating that she should have nothing to worry about if the theory is not true. The killer then breaks down and refuses, therefore proving Mia's theory. In case 3-3 of Trials and Tribulations, Furio Tigre is about to walk off the witness stand when Phoenix pulls this on them. Phoenix presents a completely useless green plastic bottle (containing the victim's ear medication) with Tigre's fingerprints on it, claiming it contains the poison used to kill the victim. Tigre calls him an idiot, saying he should already know that the poison was in the brown glass bottle, not that one. Phoenix did indeed know that... but someone like Tigre, who hadn't been watching the court proceedings, shouldn't. Something like this happens in the first case of Apollo Justice, where the final piece of evidence proving Kristoph Gavin's guilt turns out to be a forgery Phoenix had made, since Kristoph had already disposed of the real one. This left Kristoph at quite the Morton's Fork: either let himself get convicted by the forged evidence, or say that it's forged and be forced to explain how he would know that, which would mean confessing his guilt and getting convicted anyway.
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Ace Attorney (Franchise)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_e5feb1e
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e6318baf	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e6318baf	comment	Midsomer Murders: In "Tainted Fruit", Detective Barnaby realizes that the killer has just planted the murder weapon in a Fall Guy's bag, so he tells them that he had searched the bag just before and found nothing incriminating. When he opens the bag and pulls out the weapon, the killer confesses. Afterwards, it's revealed that he lied about having already checked the bag.
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Midsomer Murders	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_e6318baf
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e7c67e0d	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_e7c67e0d	comment	The entire plot of Rehearsal for Murder is one of these... sort of. The twist is that the "cop" in the supposed Engineered Public Confession is the real killer whose knowledge of the contents of desk drawers after a staged killing prove that he was at the crime scene. It turns out to also be an actual Engineered Public Confession of a REAL cop hidden elsewhere in the theater. All the supposed suspects were in on it (the bluff I mean).
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Rehearsal for Murder	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_e7c67e0d
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ed0803a7	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ed0803a7	comment	In Star Trek VI, when the murderers of the Klingon Chancellor are themselves found dead on the Enterprise, Kirk and Spock have someone broadcast an order over the ship's P.A. system for a court reporter to report to sickbay to take statements from the two men. Naturally assuming that the men actually survived their assassination and are about to spill the proverbial beans, the assassin, Lieutenant Valeris, Spock's protÃ©gÃ©e, heads straight to sickbay to finish the job...and finds Kirk, Spock, and McCoy lying in wait instead.
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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_ed0803a7
Bluffing the Murderer / int_eeb094a8	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_eeb094a8	comment	The climax of the film A Few Good Men has the defense lawyer provoking the base commander into a rage in the hope that he would admit to ordering the beating that killed the Marine. It's the sequence that the very famous line does not come from. The bluff hinged on the base commander lying about the time of a particular flight. The defense attorney brought in two airmen that he implied were going to testify as to the actual time of the flight. Turns out that the airmen had absolutely no recollection of anything.
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A Few Good Men	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_eeb094a8
Bluffing the Murderer / int_eef69f10	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_eef69f10	comment	The Sherlock Holmes stories have a number of examples. Sherlock pulls one of these in The Valley of Fear. Deducing that some vital evidence has been dumped in the moat, he announces that it must be drained â€” then catches the murderer (actually the victim, who overpowered and switched identities with his would-be assassin) when they come to move the goods. Pure bluff, in that it was impossible to actually drain the moat. He pulls a type 3 on Colonel Moran in "The Adventure of the Empty House". He knows Moran was Moriarty's Dragon, and he also knows that Moran was responsible for a high-profile murder case. He's in danger as long as Moran is free, so he uses a wax replica of his head to trick Moran into shooting him. The police (who were alerted by Holmes) burst into the titular house where the Colonel was hiding and arrest him after he reveals himself.
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Sherlock Holmes	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_eef69f10
Bluffing the Murderer / int_efa49b17	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_efa49b17	comment	The Mentalist features this a few times, sometimes rather cruelly, such as pretending to dozens of people that they have been infected with a deadly biological weapon (which killed the victim of the episode) and that the laboratory will be bombed by the air force to prevent it spreading. The killer was known to have recently taken the drug which would protect them from infection and is the only one who tries to escape.
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The Mentalist	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_efa49b17
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f040c498	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f040c498	comment	This is how Elijah Baley solves the case of roboticide in, The Robots of Dawn, getting Amadiro to blurt out that he had had contact with the robot. He does the same in a more cruel way in The Naked Sun.
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f040c498	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Robots of Dawn	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f040c498
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f0c816fb	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f0c816fb	comment	Breaking Bad: Jesse, Hank, and Gomez set up this gambit in "To'hajiilee" in order to incriminate Walter, tricking Walt into thinking Jesse discovered his hidden money barrels in the desert so that Walt will rush to stop him from burning them. As Walt franticly pleads with Jesse over the phone not to burn the money, he brings up his involvement to several serious crimes (blowing up Gus, intentionally poisoning Brock, killing Emilio and Crazy-8, running over those two drug dealers), and ends up leading the three of them to the location of the drug money, giving Hank and Gomez all the evidence they need to arrest Walt and put him away. Unfortunately, the Aryans Walt had tried to call off came to his "rescue" anyway...
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Breaking Bad	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f0c816fb
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f12c8a56	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f12c8a56	comment	In one episode of Gunsmoke, a woman is raped, beaten, and left for dead. She tells Matt enough information to track down the suspects but not enough for a positive identification. Matt finds and arrests the three men suspected of the crime and brings them back to Dodge City making a notable stop at Boot Hill. Matt then describes in detail how he will show the men to the victim and the man she identifies will be buried here in shame along with the rest of the worst dregs of the West. One of the men panics and goes for his gun but Matt easily wounds him. Matt then reveals that the victim died of her injuries before he even left town and that the rapist (now murderer) has just outed himself.
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Gunsmoke	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f12c8a56
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f32e1ef2	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f32e1ef2	comment	Cards on the Table has Hercule Poirot hire an actor to play the part of a window cleaner who claims to have witnessed the murder through the window. He didn't really, of course, but Poirot reconstructed how it occurred from his imagination.
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Cards on the Table	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f32e1ef2
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f43b3a51	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f43b3a51	comment	Several episodes of Diagnosis: Murder have Mark Sloan expose the killer in this fashion. To cite a few examples: A bombmaker is tricked into thinking that her own car is rigged with a bomb, causing her to panic and talk Mark through the procedure for disarming the device. When a stage magician drowns while performing a Houdini-style escapology routine, Mark announces his plan to re-create the trick, with the exact same props and a female suspect standing in for the victim. It appears he's decided she's the killer and wants to give her A Taste of Their Own Medicine by putting her into the same situation as the victim... but the real killer is in love with the woman, and exposes himself when he panics and tries to halt the trick early. The victim is killed because the killer tampers with his medication, and the killer learns that Mark is looking for a discarded pill at the scene of the crime as evidence. She's caught red-handed at the crime scene, trying to find and dispose of the pill.
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Diagnosis: Murder	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f43b3a51
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f53fe2fa	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f53fe2fa	comment	Mission: Impossible: The IMF use this technique frequently, particularly in Syndicate-related episodes of the later seasons. Sometimes the target is led to believe there is incriminating evidence, such as a recording or film, which he obtains (aided by the team of course) and, upon realizing that it's patently inaccurate, actually incriminates himself by pointing out the inaccuracies that only the perpetrator would know about.
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Mission: Impossible	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f53fe2fa
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f6b79960	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f6b79960	comment	In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Junpei learns that Guy X's killer has prosopagnosia, and needs to prove that Ace has prosopagnosia. So, he calls them all up to the hospital area where he claims to be Santa dressed in Junpei's clothing. Ace ends up confused, and falls for it. Furthermore, Junpei correctly deduces that Ace stole the Ninth Man's bracelet and used it to kill Guy X, so he tricks Ace into believing he has the bracelet, causing Ace to slip up once more.
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Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f6b79960
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f6eed39	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f6eed39	comment	The Sopranos: In "Army of One", A.J. and a friend are suspected of cheating on their midterms (due to the fact their grades have otherwise been terrible), which they did in fact do by sneaking into the school late at night and stealing the answer sheets. The principal tricks them into confessing by saying the urine they found in the boiler room (while the two of them were waiting for the janitor to leave) was an exact DNA match for both of them. As A.J. was already had a suspended punishment from vandalizing the school swimming pool, this offence is an immediate expulsion. A.J. doesn't realize he was tricked until much later, when his sister tells him DNA tests take many weeks to complete (also the fact that urine usually doesn't contain useable DNA).
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The Sopranos	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f6eed39
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f74b5f80	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f74b5f80	comment	Babylon 5: Although not quite a murderer, the telepath gets the location of a Damsel in Distress from someone by making it float to the top of his mind: "It is vitally important that you don't think about anything else [...] or where [The victim] is now". Happens again later when the heroes are busting one of their own out of prison. They bluff their way in to talk to the guards and casually talk about cells and security codes. They then knock the guards out while their resident telepath plugs in the code to open the cell, saying "He thought of the number as soon as you mentioned it".
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f74b5f80	featureApplicability	1.0
Bluffing the Murderer / int_f74b5f80	featureConfidence	1.0
Babylon 5	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_f74b5f80
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ff2165b	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ff2165b	comment	Done unintentionally in Cold Case. In the episode "Spiders", the team has a witness brought to the crime scene where his mother was killed. They call in a woman whom the witness recognized. As soon as they mention there's a witness saying she participated in the murder, she quickly denies it, claiming it was impossible for anyone to see that night.
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ff2165b	featureApplicability	1.0
Bluffing the Murderer / int_ff2165b	featureConfidence	1.0
Cold Case	hasFeature	Bluffing the Murderer / int_ff2165b

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Bluffing the Murderer	processingCategory2	Crime and Punishment Tropes
Bluffing the Murderer	processingCategory2	Ending Tropes
Bluffing the Murderer	processingCategory2	Murder Tropes
Bluffing the Murderer	processingCategory2	Mystery Tropes
Bluffing the Murderer	processingCategory2	Older Than Steam
Bluffing the Murderer	processingCategory2	Perp Sweating
Bluffing the Murderer	processingCategory2	Truth and Lies
Camelot 3000 (Comic Book) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Red Goblin (Comic Book) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Reality Intrudes (Fanfic) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Sanza Salazar Saga (Fanfic) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
A Few Good Men / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Basic / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Crossfire / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Death on the Nile (1978) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Eye of the Needle / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Glass Onion / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Insomnia / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Klute / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Manhattan Murder Mystery / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Murder Mystery / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Nighthawks / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Psycho Beach Party / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Stage Fright (1950) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Negotiator / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Sons of Katie Elder / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Wolf of Snow Hollow / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Perry Mason (Franchise) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Albert Campion / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Bleak House / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Cards on the Table / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Castle Perilous / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Counterfeit Wife / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Encyclopedia Brown / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
4:50 from Paddington / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Giants Series / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Michael Shayne's Long Chance / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Myron Bolitar Series / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Nero Wolfe / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Rats, Bats and Vats / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Terror Is My Trade / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The ABC Murders / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Body in the Library / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Caine Mutiny / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Elder Scrolls In-Universe Books / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Han Solo Adventures / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Moving Finger / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Murder at the Vicarage / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Murder on the Links / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Naked Sun / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Overstory / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Robots of Dawn / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Three Investigators / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Valley of Fear / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Three At Wolfes Door / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Towards Zero / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
MAD (Magazine) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
MAD (Magazine) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
AshesToAshesSpoilers	seeAlso	Bluffing the Murderer
Micah	seeAlso	Bluffing the Murderer
Moriarty the Patriot (Manga) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Yuria 100 Shiki (Manga) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Yuureitou (Manga) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Gunsmoke (Radio) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Class Trials Experimental Trials Season 2 (Roleplay) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Class Trials Season 2 (Roleplay) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Class Trials Season 4 (Roleplay) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Against the Wall / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Burke's Law / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Campion / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
ČetnickÃ© humoresky / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Columbo / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Diagnosis: Murder / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Elementary / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Endeavour / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Forbrydelsen / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
4400 / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Foyle's War / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Furuhata Ninzaburo / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
In Justice / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
In Justice (2006) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Jonathan Creek / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Leonardo / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Miss Marple (1984) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
MonkTropesA-E	seeAlso	Bluffing the Murderer
MonkTropesS-Z	seeAlso	Bluffing the Murderer
Murder Rooms / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Murder, She Wrote / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Stargate Universe / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Closer / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Mentalist / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Shield / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Arsenic and Old Lace (Theatre) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto (Theatre) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Hamlet (Theatre) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Mrs. Hawking (Theatre) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Criminal Case: Mysteries of the Past (Video Game) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
The Last Express (Video Game) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney â€“ Trials and Tribulations (Visual Novel) / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
Sally Bollywood / int_de5e9f69	type	Bluffing the Murderer
bluffingthemurderer	sameAs	Bluffing the Murderer

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