the ending of 'The Tyrant of the Tin Pan Alley'

I wouldn't call it weak, exactly.. but it did seem (although I never got it at the time) that they were a little more obvious than in other episodes about dropping clues. In this case though I seem to remember another character specifically mentioning something the killer was famous for doing, and that event, specifically.

That's why I have such fun with Ellery -- maybe I'm slow, but I don't think I EVER got who dun it when the show ran in prime time. I just remembered I loved it (especially Jim and David) and liked all the guest stars.

By the time I saw the show in the 90's (re-runs somewhere) I had forgotten the mysteries - and even John Hillerman -- remembered Simon Brimmer, but had no idea it was the same actor that showed up almost every week on Magnum. That time around, I only figured out the murderer once - the same murder Richard Queen figured out!

Then I lucked into a home-made set of the DVD's only a few years ago,(I think they were recorded off Sleuth, but were missing the opening teaser) and just was happy I had all the episodes -- and still wanted the real thing when it finally was released!

As for what happened with the killer in Tyrant, I think what made Ellery figure out it was them is they said specifically where they were going ... and of course that's where the missing article comes into play.

Reading the posts here I got to chuckling.

On Ellery Queen, I never figured out the telltale clue, sometimes guessed who did it, but didn't "figure" anything out. On repeat viewings, I don't fare any better.

Years ago, I would watch the old Charlie Chan movies on late night TV. I won't say I "never" picked the right killer, but I do know that there was usually one person I thought was the guy--on my repeat viewings. What I figured out was that my subconscious remembered something about suspect "C" and when it turned out not to be him, I had to conclude that what my subconscious was actually remembering was that "C" was the guy I picked on an earlier viewing.

In other words, I could see the movie three times in, say, three years and each time pick the same, wrong, person as the killer. My mind didn't remember him from being the killer, but that I had thought he was before.