- Fact: The boarding school was "old" and "covered in vines," indicating insufficient funds for routine upkeep, even though matriculants appeared, from well-tailored clothes and gifts of "toys and candy and [a] dollhouse," to be affluent.
- Fact: Matriculants slept in an axially-oriented room with "two straight lines" of beds along the long (assumed east and west) walls of the room. Double-doors opening upon a second-story hallway or landing occupied the center of the assumed north wall of the room. A curtained window opening to a balustrade occupied the center of the assumed south wall of the room. See graphics inscribed "and went to bed" (first) and "Little Madeline sat in bed ...."
- Fact: The matriculant initially diagnosed with "an appendix," (subj. name "Madeline," aliases unk., blonde, approx. 40" tall per description as "the smallest one") occupies the bed at the assumed northeast corner of the sleeping quarters. See graphic inscribed "Little Madeline sat in bed ...."
- Fact: During "Madeline's" time in the hospital, the empty bed is at the southwest corner of the sleeping quarters. The northeast corner bed, formerly occupied by "Madeline," remains occupied (by brunette, approx. 40-44" tall). See graphic inscribed "and went to bed" (second).
- Fact: Matriculants again rearrange their quarters, vacating subj. "Madeline's" northeast corner bed and reoccupying formerly vacant southwest corner bed. This rearrangement required complicity of more than one matriculant, since new occupant of southwest corner bed (blonde) is not former occupant of northeast corner bed (brunette). See graphic inscribed "And all the little girls cried, 'Boohoo.'" Assumption: This change was an attempt to escape detection by correcting prior error.
- Fact: As described above, alleged doctor's (subj. name "Dr. Cohn") diagnosis of subject Madeline was "an appendix." As most persons are born with appendixes, this is not a known medical diagnosis. It is akin to diagnosing a person with "a muscle" or "some skin." Assumption: "Dr. Cohn" was not actual medical personnel.
- Assumption: Headmistress (Subj. name "Miss Clavel") is an unreliable witness. She twice describes waking "in the middle of [the] night," though graphic evidence demonstrates that these events occurred at only approximately 9:55 p.m. See graphics inscribed "In the middle of one night ..." and "In the middle of the night ...." Although Miss Clavel claims to have acted posthaste in both instances, documentary evidence shows an unexplained three-hour gap between Miss Clavel's first awakening and Dr. Cohn's attendance at the boarding school. See graphic inscribed "'Nurse,' he said, 'it's an appendix!'" Documentary evidence demonstrates that before running "fast and faster" upon awakening a second time, Miss Clavel first paused to attend to her appearance. See graphic inscribed "And afraid of a disaster." Subj. Clavel's credibility is further impaired by her failure to notice (or, at least, to acknowledge) the aforementioned bed-shuffling and her refusal to provide information in response to follow-up questions, insisting that "that's all there is -- there isn't any more."
- Assumption: Other textual details may be unreliable as a result of compromised investigating personnel. The file is written in uneven meter and inexact rhyme, likely in an attempt to create the appearance of translation from an original French account. Investigating author Bemelmans, however, was American. Note also the Americanized spelling of "Madeline."
- Fact: After the initial appendix removal, remaining matriculants demanded removal of their appendixes.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
COLD CASE FILE: MADELINE: The following summarizes my research in the evidence collected in the odd case of the appendicitis cluster in a Parisian girls' boarding school in 1939. While the evidence has been poorly-preserved and is incomplete, I believe that it reasonably supports the thoughts below.
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