# Short story ID please - juror acquits wife-killer, then marries him

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-please-juror-acquits-wife-killer-then-marries-him/968925>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** books-writing-myths\
**Created:** [August 1, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-please-juror-acquits-wife-killer-then-marries-him/968925 "2022-08-01T15:25:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-story-id-please-juror-acquits-wife-killer-then-marries-him/968925/1 "2022-08-01T15:25:10Z")

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I hope the story is famous enough that someone will recognize it, but I’ve got a bad track record discovering the ID of many old stories that rattle around in my head. More background (100% spoilers below):

- I read this as a kid in the early 1970s; it was a book of my mom’s which I assumed was at least 10 or 20 years old at the time.
- Short story length; not a novel; part of a collection of short stories.
- I always had an idea it was Ray Bradbury, but no longer think that.
- The story is about telepathy, and may have a reference to telepathy in the title.
- In it, an accused wife-killer is brought to trial. He’s pretty obviously guilty, but one woman juror has doubts. She stares into his handsome, handsome face and feels they have a telepathic connection – he is pleading with her to believe in his innocence.
- She is the holdout juror for acquittal, and successfully brings the rest of the jury around.
- She and the acquitted man marry. She is proud of herself when she reveals, after their marriage, that she has a fair amount of money, which she has carefully saved up despite a modest income. He is pleased but not surprised, because she is clearly frugal and prudent, which is why he loves her.
- In a moment of tenderness he accidentally, telepathically reveals that he murdered his first wife for her money, and is now about to do the same thing again.