Written by Mr. Mouseburger 2nd Apr 2006

Kindly submitted by Kooshmeister

Hal Petersham is one of Dexter Cornell's fellow professors at the university, and is the man responsible for his impending death by making him ingest radium chloride.

Hal, you see, was so impressed with Dex's student, Nick Lang's novel that he decided to kill Nick and steal the novel for himself. However, this involved doing away with anyone who knew that Nick was the original author, including Dex. All of this remains concealed until the very end of the film as up until that point, Hal has been portrayed as Dex's best friend.

After discovering the traces of radium chloride in the coffee mug Hal had poured some whiskey into for him to drink, Dex phones Hal and summons him to his office, where he accuses Hal of poisoning him. Hal is very forthcoming about his illicit activities but fails to realize Dex has the pistol belonging to Bernard the butler. But Dex is forced to lower his guard when he goes into a coughing fit as a result of his poisoning, and at this point, Hal makes his move.

A struggle over Bernard's gun ensues, and the pistol is cast aside while the two men engage in a bout of fisticuffs. Hal tries to kill Dex by shoving his face into spinning fan blades, but Dex knocks him off. Hal then grabs a typewriter and lifts it over his head, intending to hit Dex with it, but Dex has reclaimed the gun. With it, he shoots Hal in the chest. Amazingly, the blast is sufficient to launch Hal, typewriter and all, right out the window, whereupon he plunges to his death, lands right where the chalk outline of Nick Lang's corpse was from the day before.