Murder in the Time World

by Malcolm Jameson

Release: August 1940
Format: Short Story
Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery and Crime
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Karl Tarig plans to murder his kindly cousin, Dr. Claude Morrison, who took Karl in when nobody else would. Then he'll toss cousin Claude’s body into the time machine that Claude built. Lastly, he’ll sell all of Claude’s valuables and run away in time with the indomitable Ellen Warren. The perfect crime!

— Michael Main

To hell with the law! For he had thought out the perfect crime. There could be no dangerous consequences. You can’t hang a man for murder with a body—a corpus delicti. For the first time in the history of crime, a murderer had at his disposal the sure means of ridding himself of his corpse.

DEBUT

“Murder in the Time World,” Amazing Stories, August 1940.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1940 to 1949: starting time.
Circa AD 1950 to 1959: Destination for Warren and Morrison
Circa AD 1960 to 1969: Destination for Tarig

Time Travel Methods

Time Catapults

Groupings

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From Morrison’s lab, August 1940 ⋙ to same spot, 1951. Note: Ellen.
From Morrison’s lab, August 1940 ⋙ to same spot, sixteen hours later. Note: Morrison’s paper message.
From Morrison’s lab, August 1940 ⋙ to same spot, 1953. Note: Morrison.
From Morrison’s lab, August 1940 ⋙ to same spot, fifteen hours later. Note: Higgins.
From Morrison’s lab, August 1940 ⋙ to same spot, 1963 or so. Note: Tarig.