Found the Killer, Lost the Murderer: Difference between revisions

Then, before the killer can be questioned, he's taken out of the scene: he escapes custody, or is killed trying to escape, or bites down on a [[Cyanide Pill]], or otherwise arranges things so that the murder still goes essentially unsolved, despite the killer's discovery. Particularly common is for them to give in, say, "[[His Name Is--]]" and then a sniper [[Boom! Headshot!|pops his head]]... [[Your Head Asplode|sometimes right off his shoulders]].

A subtrope of [[Yank the DogsDog's Chain]], as it allows them to tease the audience with resolution ("This week, we find the identity of Leonard's father's murderer!") while at the same time preserving the tension of the unresolved mystery ("...but not why!").

* This happens ''three times'' in ''[[Castle]]''. The first time, Castle and Beckett find the man who murdered Beckett's mother and find that he's a hired killer, but Beckett has to shoot him in order to get Castle out of a hostage situation. The second time, Beckett manages to capture another hired killer, a sniper, who was hired by the same person(s) who ordered her mother's murder. This sniper is still alive by the end of the episode, but indicates with a stone-faced glare that he'll never inform on his clients. The third time involves a key person involved(really, really complicated) with her mother's murder- {{spoiler|'''''Police Captain Montgomery!'''''}} She gets to talk to him uninterrupted, and he knows who the mastermind behind the conspiracy is, but refuses to say the name anyway, saying that [[Do We Have This One?|the mastermind is so rich and powerful]] that giving her his name would get her killed as certainly as if he'd shot her himself. He dies minutes later. {{spoiler|And Beckett is shot during his funeral, making it a [[Senseless Sacrifice]].}}

* The Hydra assassin in ''[[Captain America: theThe First Avenger (Film)|Captain America the First Avenger]]'' does this as well after his submarine getaway doesn't exactly turn out as planned.

* ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)|Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]: Justice for All'' has a complete Inversion during case 4 in which the this trope is turned around. At first the killing seems like a straight forward murder. It however turns out {{spoiler|the one who did the actual killing was a hired assassin. The one who hired the killing however is the one who eventually gets caught, while the one who did the actual deed is never give his just deserts.}}

* Lee Harvey Oswald. [[Who Shot JFK?|Shot JFK]], but was killed by Jack Ruby before he could be interrogated further. Perhaps if he had not died so soon afterwards, less people would speculate as to if he did it on behalf another person or organization, who perhaps put out a [[Contract Onon the Hitman]] to avoid him ratting them out to the authorities, or any of the other theories behind JFK's assassination.

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