Home›How we treat real cases
These were
real people.
Eight of the cases are real murders. That is the reason to play them and it is also a responsibility, so the rules are written down here rather than left to whoever is writing that week. If you think we have crossed a line, this page is the standard to hold us to.
Eight cases reopen real historical murders from 1876 to 1928. The rules: closed era only, no living families, no invented confessions attributed to real people, victims named and treated as people, and unresolved cases described as unresolved. The other eighteen party cases are original fiction and are labelled as fiction.
Six things we will not do.
These are constraints on what can be published, not aspirations. A case that fails any of them does not get made, and two have been dropped for exactly that reason.
- Closed era onlyThe most recent case is 1928. Old enough that the people involved, and their children, are gone. If a living person could recognise their own family in a case, it is not a case we will write.
- No invented confessionsA real person is never made to admit something they never admitted. This is the rule that most often forces a rewrite, because an invented confession is the easiest way to give a game a clean ending, and it is a lie about somebody who cannot answer.
- Unresolved means unresolvedMost of these eight were never satisfactorily closed. The game says so. Where there is a prosecution theory it is described as the prosecution's theory. Where a court acquitted, that is stated, and the game does not quietly overrule it.
- Victims are namedIt would be more comfortable to make the victim a fictional stand in. It would also make the case a body rather than a person. Charles Bravo, Eleanor Mills, Cora Crippen: they are named, and where the record preserves their own words, the case uses them.
- Evidence is not fabricatedDialogue is dramatised. Rooms, timings, statements, findings and the sequence of the night are taken from the record. A clue that would change the verdict is never invented.
- Fiction is labelled fictionEighteen of the twenty six party cases are original stories in period settings. Every one of their pages says so in the product description. A period setting is not a historical claim and we do not let it imply one.
Why these eight and not others.
The eight were not chosen for being the most famous. They were chosen because they are genuinely arguable. A case where everybody agrees what happened makes a bad night: the table works out the intended answer, feels clever, and goes home. A case the courts could not settle makes people argue at eleven at night, because there is nothing to work out. There is only what you believe.
Four of the eight ended without a conviction. One ended in a verdict that only Scots law offers. All eight are cases where a reasonable person in 1900 could have reached a different conclusion from the person sitting next to them, which is the entire point.
- The record has to be rich enough. Inquest testimony, contemporary reporting and a documented scene. Cases with a thin record cannot be played fairly.
- The question has to be open. If history closed it convincingly, there is no night in it.
- No living family. Checked before the writing starts, not after.
- Two cases have been dropped after research, both for the same reason: the surviving record was not strong enough to give a table a fair chance.
The words the site uses on purpose.
Small distinctions that matter when the subject is a real death. These are enforced in the copy rather than left to instinct.
| We do not write | We write | Because |
|---|---|---|
| The killer was X | The prosecution's theory was X | In most of these cases no court ever established it. |
| Solve the real murder | Reach your own verdict | The game cannot solve what history did not. |
| The truth is finally revealed | What the court found, and what has been argued since | There is no reveal we are entitled to make. |
| Based on a true story | Reopening a real case, with the real evidence | The first is a film poster. The second is a description. |
| Real historical case (on a seasonal file) | Original fiction, set in 1943 | A period setting is not a historical claim. |
When we are wrong.
Historical scholarship moves. A detail that was the settled reading when a case was written can be revised, and a case researched carefully can still be wrong. When that happens the fix goes into the game and into the case notes, and anything significant is recorded here with the date and what changed.
If you have found something, particularly if you know one of these cases properly, we would rather hear it than not. There is no correction log below yet because none has been needed, and that is a statement of fact rather than a claim about accuracy.
The policy, answered.
Are the murder mystery cases based on real murders?
Eight of them are. The eight Case Files reopen real historical murders between 1876 and 1928. The eighteen seasonal cases in the Christmas, Halloween and War Files are original fiction with period settings, and the site says so on every one of their pages. Only the eight are real.
How recent a case will you use?
The most recent is 1928. The line is closed era history with no living family, and it is a line rather than a guideline. No recent crime, no open police matter, and nothing where a person alive today would recognise their own family in it.
Do you say who the killer was?
Only where a court established it and history has not since unpicked it, which is rarely. Elsewhere the language is the prosecution's theory, the coroner's finding, or the most supported reading. Your table reaches a verdict; the game does not pretend to know one it cannot support.
Do you invent confessions or evidence for real people?
No. A real person is never given a confession they did not make. Dialogue is dramatised, because a party game is not a transcript, but no invented admission is placed in a real person's mouth and no evidence is fabricated to close a case the record leaves open.
What happens if you get something wrong?
Tell us and we correct it. Historical scholarship moves, and a case researched two years ago can be out of date. Corrections are made in the game and in the case notes, and significant ones are recorded on this page.
Do victims get named?
Yes, and that is deliberate. The alternative is a game about a body, and these were people. Where the record gives a victim their own account, the case gives it to them too.
Read the policy.
Then judge the cases.
Eight real murders, $29 each. Your table gets the evidence the inquest had and has to decide what it thinks.