Crime Clinic #3

When a powerful newspaper publisher decides to destroy Dr. Tom Rogers and his prison rehabilitation program, he seizes on a prison break as the perfect weapon—never mind that the trustee system Rogers pioneered actually proves itself in the chaos that follows. As the real story of what happened emerges, Rogers faces both vindication and the knowledge that his real battle with his enemies is far from over.

Dr. Tom Rogers takes on a puzzling case when a prisoner named Larry Baker is denied parole after a violent outburst he can't explain—one that seems connected to a wartime trauma Rogers suspects runs far deeper than a simple prison grudge. Through investigation and psychotherapy, Rogers works to uncover the haunting memory that's driving Baker toward destruction, hoping that confronting the past might finally set him free. This tale of war's invisible wounds and the fight to reach a troubled mind makes for a gripping look at how the mind can both protect and betray us.

Two street kids idolize the small-time hood Frank Purdy for his toughness, but the Padre at the local mission tries to warn them that Purdy's path leads nowhere but down. When the boys get pulled into a liquor store robbery and are arrested, they must choose between protecting their hero or saving themselves, only to learn a harsh lesson about who Frank Purdy really is.

When Dr. Tom Rogers visits a condemned man on death row, he discovers that William Brunton—a brilliant airplane designer—is inexplicably cheerful about his execution, obsessively tracking time and insisting his murdered partner John Sedgwick had to die. As Rogers investigates, he uncovers a sinister scheme involving a sabotaged test flight, forcing him into a race against the clock to prevent another tragedy before Brunton faces the electric chair.

When a murderer ditches his gun to cover his tracks at a filling station holdup, he figures he's home free—but he doesn't count on police laboratory science. Watch as forensic experts use ballistic analysis to prove that the rifling marks left inside a gun barrel are as unique and identifying as fingerprints, matching the recovered weapon to the crime scene slug and closing the case. This 1951 entry from Crime Clinic shows how "fingerprinting a bullet" became one of law enforcement's most reliable tools for catching killers.