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A note was a piece of evidence in Phoenix Wright's investigation into the murder of Russell Berry. It was sent by Acro to Regina Berry as part of an attempt on the latter's life.

Contents[]

To The Murderer!

You haven't forgotten what
happened six months ago,
have you? I have conclusive
evidence of what took place.

Meet at 10:00 PM tonight
at the lodging house plaza.

Background[]

Six months before the note was written, Acro and his younger brother Bat were working as acrobats at the Berry Big Circus under the circus ringmaster Russell Berry. Bat developed a crush on the ringmaster's daughter, Regina Berry, and they would constantly play pranks on each other. One day, Bat made a bet with Regina that if he successfully stuck his head into a lion's mouth, Regina would go on a date with him. Unfortunately, earlier that day, as a joke, Regina had covered Bat's scarf with pepper to make him sneeze. The prank didn't seem to work at first since Bat didn't sneeze, but when the young acrobat stuck his head into the big cat's mouth, the lion sneezed instead and bit down on Bat, critically wounding him. Acro tried to wrestle the lion off his younger brother, but he was injured and became paralyzed in the process. Bat subsequently fell into a coma, Acro was confined to a wheelchair and Russell shot the lion and covered the incident up.

Murder plot[]

Main article: Turnabout Big Top

Regina, being too naïve to understand what really happened to Bat, quickly got over him and moved on. Angered at this, Acro devised a plan to kill her six months later. His plan was to lure her underneath his bedroom window and then drop a bust that the circus's magician Max Galactica had won at the Magician's Grand Prix. The statue had been stolen from its display by the kleptomaniac circus monkey Money and brought, along with all the other things Money stole, back to Acro's room. The bust was made of bronze and thus would easily kill anyone unfortunate enough to be underneath it. Acro created a pulley system so the murder weapon could be pulled back up again after the deed was done. All he had to do now was lure her to the lodging house plaza and he attempted to do so with a note that he slipped into her pocket while she was pushing his wheelchair about.

Unbeknownst to Acro, his plan quickly fell apart, since the same naïvety of Regina's that was causing his anger towards her in the first place meant that she had no idea that the note was intended for her. The girl proceeded to stick it on the cafeteria's bulletin board in the belief that the intended recipient would find it. To make matters worse, Russell Berry then came across it and immediately knew what it was about and who had sent it. He went bright red, tore the note from the board and stuffed it into his tailcoat pocket.

The tailcoat, with note still in the pocket, was placed on a stand in the Ringmaster's room during a meeting with Max Galactica. Then, at 10:00 p.m., the ringmaster excused himself and proceeded to the plaza to meet the sender of the note in Regina's place, wearing Galactica's trademark cape and silk hat as a disguise. Acro, being unable to see who was waiting below from his wheelchair, continued his plan and dropped the bust onto Russell's head, unintentionally killing the man who had been like a father to him. The bust was then brought back up and hidden in Acro's room, bringing along with it the cape the ringmaster was wearing that had become snagged.

Max Galactica was accused of the crime since a figure wearing his clothes was seen heading to the plaza. Further complicating matters was a witness's confused testimony about seeing Galactica fly due to the bust being hoisted up. Luckily for Galactica, his defense attorney, one Phoenix Wright, was able to find the two parts of the note. He then proceeded to find out what had happened both six months before and, eventually, that Acro was the true murderer of Russell Berry.

Note[]

  • The ringmaster's tailcoat can be examined any time the Ringmaster's room is accessible. If it is examined prior to presenting the note to Max Galactica, Phoenix Wright comments, "A scrap of white paper is sticking out of the coat pocket," and stops Maya Fey from looking at it.
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