David Clark received a package in the post. Inside was a man’s left-arm. Clark repackaged the arm and sent it to Roger Miller. After looking at the arm, Miller sent in onto Martin Butler. When he received it he burnt it in the fire. What had happened in the past to make these people behave in this way?

You will need to ask questions to solve this mystery. If you have already heard the story before, please do not immediately post the answer.

Can I ask multiple questions?

1) Is it a real arm (ie. a human arm that came off a body)?
2) Were any of these men part of a plot to kill someone and the arm is evidence?
3) When Martin Butler burnt the arm - was it to get rid of evidence?

1) Yes.
2) No.
30 No.

Are the names of the persons involved important, or could you have used different names for the people in this story with the same result?

The names are unimportant.

Was the arm originally part of Martin Butler's body?

Is there a significance of the arm being LEFT? If so, has it got anything to do with the ring finger/ring?

It is very significant that it was not a right arm.



No.

No. But you are getting warm.

Was it the arm of any of the other mentioned men?

No, but they knew whose arm it was.

Is the owner of the arm still alive (is this significant) ?

Left arm is significant...hmm....

Was the person who's arm got taken off left handed or needed to use the left arm for something in particular like sports?

The man who sent the package and all the men who received it were right-handed. That is an important clue.

Were all the parties involved one-armed or two-armed?

I'm thinking it's quite possible for a one-armed person to open a parcel and then re-package it.

Are all of the men friends? Have they known each other since childhood?

They all had only one arm.



They all became friends six months previously. If you can work out how they became friends, you will have a good idea of what was going on.

Were they all involved in an accident which resulted in their having only one arm?

Did they become acquainted in hospital waiting for amputations?

Do they all possess a left arm or a right arm?

On the same lines as the others with an "accident"

Did the person's left arm, cut it off himself after an accident/incident where all the others lost their left arm because of something he did (and he felt guilty about it).

Either that or he made a bet/deal with all of them that they would all lose their arm because of something.

It was an incident rather than an accident. All but one lost their left arm. He lost his later.



The all had a right arm.

They all had their left arms removed by someone else. You have to work out why these men willingly had their left arms removed.

I'm stumped (excuse the pun).

Burning the arm in the fire is the part that confuses me, but I'm confident the answer to this riddle lies therein.

Were they all surgeons, by any chance?

Only one. The man who sent the original parcel.

He's the one who cut off all the other arms. A crazed surgeon cut off their arms and then cut off his own arm which he sent in the post to taunt his former victims.

Bingo.

The man who mailed the parcel in the first place was the surgeon who had removed the arms of the other three. The parcel contained the surgeon's left arm. You stated earlier that they all knew whose arm it was. He botched the minor surgery on the other three, resulting in amputations being necessary in those cases.

In order to avoid an expensive medical malpractice suit, the surgeon agreed to have his left arm amputated and presented for inspection as recompense.

He paid his debt. The only remaning evidence of this unusual and illegal undertaking was quickly destroyed.

Surely this was based on a true story.

You have solved this part of the puzzle. What you have to work out why he removed their left arms in the first place. It has nothing to do with botched operations. In fact, he did a very good job given the circumstances (that is in itself a clue).

Hi Mark!! Good job solving part of this!!
Now will you do me a favor??
When you are done here, pop on over to the Sevenoaks Tunnel thread and jump right in!!! I am stumped!!!!
Kathy

I went online and peeked at the answer -- wish I hadn't. It's a really good puzzle. Keep going Mark, you'll solve it if you continue along your current line of thinking.

Thanks Kathy and Mark for your kind words.

It must have been an industrial accident, trapping the arms of the three men and requiring immediate amputations. The surgeon hurriedly performed the amputations.

Am I on the right path?

He did but far from being crazy he was acting in a logical way. You now have to think of a situation where it is logical for people to willingly want to have their left arms removed.

Were they on a stranded boat (or a place where there was no food) and had to eat their left arms to survive? Mind you, I probably would have taken one of the legs to eat instead as there is more meat to eat. After the surgeon removed each of their arms and was about to do his own, someone rescued them so he didn't have to lose his arm but they had already agreed before that they would all lose their left arm so he carried out the agreement.

?

The discharged army surgeon only became crazy later due to the post traumatic stress following the explosion which necessitated the amputations. Later his medication and 'the voices in his head' led him to misinterpret the NRA propaganda he subscribed to and compelled him to fulfill what he saw as a commandment that all are entitled to keep arms. So he provided his own to the others to share. By the time the fourth received it, it was so decomposed that he, in disgust, chucked it in the fire.

That is the right answer.

What the....?

Anyway, it was fun.

Anyway, nice work Kathleen.

You should consider participating in the JFK debate. You too, Kathy.

What about solving this one?:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=8914

YAY!! I got it right ! (and didn't cheat). I just for some reason started to think of those people whose planed crashed on a mountain and they had to start eating each other (lucky for them they had "dead" people who they could eat and not have to saw off their arms/legs).

Right...to the next puzzle..

I would've never guessed this in a million years!!!!!!

Glad I wasn't eating when I read this--yuk!!! (Note to self--no Simkin puzzles till after lunch or dinner!)

BTW,I spend time over at the Jfk debate. I'm kind of a Harvey and Lee person.
Kathy