Murder Mystery Dinner Party

    murder mystery party

We are at the Windgate Manor on the shores of beautiful Lake Geneva, WI. Eighty-three old beer baron Phineas T. Windgate was found dead this morning in his canopied bed, with his own silver handled letter opener thrust through the bedsheets and into his chest. His body was discovered by Nellie Couche' at 9:30 this morning when she went to give him his morning backrub. He had been dead at for at least 10 hours. Although Phinneas owned the huge Northland Beer Company, Wisconsin Weevils Football Team, and was probably worth in excess of 40 million dollars, nothing meant more to him than his 60 cats. His most beloved cat, Tanya, was found dead too.
From left: Nellie Couche' and Marlene Freud
 Background on Nellie Couche':
Up until a few months ago, Nellie worked as a playguy hostess. She met the rich Phinneas at a yachting party. He took a shine to her and bought her "poor small town girl who got caught up with the wrong folks" act. He invited her to live in his home and for an occasional backrub, she lived a very good life. Life could be a bit boring around the manner so Nellie had affairs with Lionel, Wiggins and Marlene the brewmistress. Lionel is insurance for Nellie, as he is the principal heir of the estate.

Background on Marelene' Freud:
Marlene is the brewmistress of Northland Beer. She and her late husband Otto are from Vienna. Her husband Otto had been promoted to brewmaster 25 years ago. About a year ago, Northland profits began to fall and Phinneas ordered Otto to take some cost cutting measures which cheapened the beer, in particular, using cheaper hops. This made Otto furious. Six months ago after having another fruitless argument with Phinneas, Otto's blood pressure blew and he collapsed and died in Marlene's arms. She blames Phinneas for her husbands death.

From left: Wiggins and Lillian Windgate
 Background on Wiggins:
Wiggins has been the butler at Windgate Manor for 18 years. He stands to gain a large legacy when Phineas dies, which has kept him from quitting. For the last 5 years he has been having a secret affair with Lillian, which they both knew Phinneas would not approve of. Recently, they concocted a plan to knock the old man off by lacing the brownies with rat poison. The plan failed. Someone beat Wiggins and Miss Lillian to it.

Background on Lillian Windgate:
Lillian is Phineas' sixty year old niece. She has lived at the Manor all her life. She has never married and has very little of a social life. In the recent attempt to kill Phineas, Lillian's job was to implicate Lionel, Phineas' only son. She hid the rat poison box in Lionels underwear drawer.

Lionel Windgate
 Background on Lionel Windgate:
Lionel is Phineas' 33 year old son, his only son. Phineas had always derided Lionel calling him "his only major miscalculation". To pay him back, Lionel led a wild and dissolute life becoming the son no one could ever be proud of. He had no money of his own, however lived quite nicely off the old man's bucks. Two weeks ago, Phinneas cut Lionel off. Now that the cash had stopped coming in, Lionel was desperate to obtain his drugs. He began stealing tranquilizers from the in-house vet, Dr. Gables. While searching for drugs that night, he discovered peices of cats in jars in Dr. Gables freezer. He decided to tell his father in the morning, after his evening with Nellie, whom he did not love. He had only a strong interest in her body and thought she was a fortune-hunting little tramp.
Cornelius Desmond
 Background on Cornelius Desmond
Three years ago, Phineas lured Cornelius away from a promising criminal law practice by offering her an enormous salary to completely manage his business's legal affairs and his estate. She was his attorney, business manager, and personal advisor rolled into one. Cornelis had a rare disease called the Cluckers Syndrome causing her to act like a chicken. She had to travel to Milwaukee once a week for treatments from a specialist. When this specialist discoved who she worked for he began extorting money. Phineas found this out and gave her an immediate 50% pay cut to begin paying back the moeny she had embezzled. She was under close scrutiny by Phineas at the time of his death.
Rupert Windgate Gridley
 Background on Rupert Windgate Gridley:
Because Rupert is the grandson of Phineas' first cousin, whom he loved very much, he installed Rupert as the headcoach of the Weevils, which he stands to inherit upon Phineas' death. Since his taking over the team, they have gone from bad to worse. Rupert has had a gambling problem for years and cannot afford to pay back his recently accrued debts. In order to earn the money to pay this unsavory characters back, Rupert has started to bet against his own team. Phineas noticed the decline in the team and called Rupert into his room the night he died. He told Rupert to start winning or he'd replace him as head coach. This left Rupert with a choice: Lose a limb or lose his job and meal ticket.
Dr. Gus Gables
 Background on Dr. Gus Gables:
Two years ago, Dr. Gus Gables had a successful vetrinary practice. He became obsessed with the theory that cats really did have nine lives, and was determined to find out where those lives were hidden in cats bodies. He performed hideous experiments on some of the cat patients. He was found out, lost his license and was jailed for six months. When he was released, he changed his identity and moved to Lake Geneva, WI. Two years ago, Dr. Gables saved one of Phineas' cats. As a reward, Phineas set him up in the Manor as the house cat-doctor. With all these cats, his expiriments continued. When Dr. Gables discovered that Lionel knew his secret and that Phineas and Wiggins were aware of the missing cats, he smothered Phineas with poor Tanya, crushing her in the act. He then tried to cover up the murder.