The Panther's Claw
Year: 1942
Plot: Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt (Sidney Blackmer) and his assistant, Anthony Abbot, are called to investigate a bizarre case of a blackmailer who targets members of an opera company. The blackmailer, who calls himself "The Panther," sends letters demanding money, each marked with a distinctive panther's claw pawprint. The investigation intensifies when one of the opera company members, who had received a letter, is murdered. The case soon focuses on a meek wigmaker named Everett P. Digberry, who is caught sneaking out of a cemetery after trying to pay the ransom, and all the evidence begins to point toward him as the culprit for both the blackmail and the murder. Colt must use his deductive skills to unravel a complicated web of lies and frames to unmask the real killer.
