Originally Aired: September 13, 1949
Philo Vance #62, "Checkerboard Murder Case,"
A mysterious masked robber in a checkered suit and gray hat terrorizes multiple victims across town in what appears to be an impossible crime spree. At exactly midnight, three separate crimes occur simultaneously in different parts of the city, all committed by a man matching the same distinctive description. The pattern is baffling: the criminal deliberately ensures his victims can describe him in detail, even forcing grocer Mr. Martin to look at him carefully before claiming to make himself invisible and vanishing into thin air.
When the reports flood into the police department, the desk sergeant is stumped by the bizarre contradictions. How can one man commit three crimes in three different locations at the exact same moment? And why would a criminal go out of his way to be identified and remembered? The case presents a seemingly supernatural puzzle that will require Philo Vance's keen analytical mind to unravel the truth behind the vanishing checkered bandit.