mrs. collins. my deepest condolences on your loss.
yes.
but he was identified, was he not?
it never does. i lost a daughter to polio five years ago. there's not a day goes by i don't think, i should mention this to claudine.  then i remember she's not here.
which is why i'm doing this pro bono. it would be my honor to defend your honor, mrs. collins. in my fifteen years as a lawyer, i have never seen anyone fight as long or as hard as you have, in what is so clearly in the cause of justice.
of course. where downtown?
my name is s. s.
let me be clearer. either you open those doors and produce the people named in that court order, or you will find yourself on the other side of those bars. without a key.
mrs. collins, could you come across the street with me for just a moment?
i think there's something you should see. puzzled, curious, christine gets up and exits with hahn.
-- the police decided it was best to keep this off the main docket in order to avoid exactly the sort of chaos we have across the street.
where mrs. collins told you the boy was not her son.
but as subsequent events have demonstrated, she was correct. so what prompted you to send her for psychological evaluation?
just like that. you snap your fingers and an innocent woman is thrown into the psycho ward.
every home in this state is in grave danger when a police captain can take a woman into his office and, five minutes later, have her thrown into the psychopathic ward on his own authority!
what was that, captain?
escorted, thrown, the verb doesn't matter, captain. what does matter is that her incarceration was ordered without a warrant.
i am holding a carbon copy of the affidavit of insanity that was issued in the case of the state of california vs. christine collins. who signed the affidavit?
and what is the date on this document?
but mrs. collins was incarcerated on september 6th.
yes, so it would appear. the bottom of the page is reserved for recording where and when the warrant was served. but it has not been filled in. may i assume from this that the warrant was never served?
let me see if i have this straight. a woman was thrown into the psychopathic ward without a warrant, because no warrant existed, and when it was finally written six days later, there was no need to sign it or go to a judge because
because she questioned you.
because she was fighting for the life of her son! a boy who may have still been alive while you were wasting valuable time denying you had done anything wrong!
and in the end, that's what happened, isn't it? at some point, while all this was going on, walter collins died along with as many as nineteen other youths on the northcott ranch in wineville. is that correct, captain?
no further questions.
mrs. collins.
i know. that's. why i wanted to see you.
it's about walter. we had. well, we received a very strange telegram.
gordon northcott. he's. he's asked to see you.
he said he knows you're still looking for your son, and before he dies -- he says that he lied when he testified that he didn't kill walter. he's willing to finally admit that he did it. he says that if you come up to see him, in person. he'll tell you the truth, to your face. so that you can get on with your life and have some peace.
as you know, he's set to be executed the day after tomorrow at san quentin, so.  you don't have a lot of time.
took me most of the morning to make all the arrangements. turns out you're the first woman in thirty years the state has allowed to visit a serial killer on the night of his execution.