History Main / BluffingTheMurderer

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' sees plenty use of this trope. A particularly good example is from the first Case Closed movie, in which Conan tells the suspect that he found the disguise he used while conducting his bombings. (He actually made it himself out of stuff he found in the room.) The bluff succeeds and the suspect says "But I left those in the study." Oops.

* The "place all the suspects together near the murderer's hidden time bomb, forcing the murderer (as the only one who knows about the bomb) to reveal himself in order to save his own life" variant was used twice on the 1954 Franchise/SherlockHolmes TV series -- once with actual explosives and once with arsenic candles.

* Subverted in [[Creator/AgathaChristie Dame Christie's]] ''Theatre/TheMousetrap''. All the witnesses/suspects are asked to to re-enact the murder, but to do so playing the part of one of the other witnesses. It seems an exceedingly clever ploy (or a bold bluff) to effectively catch the murderer. [[SpoilAtYourOwnRisk And that is all we're saying about it.]]

*** Tenmyouji also bluffs [[spoiler: Dio, claiming the bomb detonator he's holding is a fake, causing ''just'' enough hesitation for Tenmyouji to get close and knock the detonator away. [[{{Foreshadowing}} This is basically]] the same trick that Junpei pulled on Ace in the first game.]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgrO_rAaiq0 In the opening to season 5]], two bluffs are used on a perp named [=DeShawn=]. First, Bunk makes claims that they took [=DeShawn=]'s accomplice to UsefulNotes/McDonalds as a reward for cooperating (when he in fact refused to talk), and then has Detective Crutchfield escort said accomplice past the interrogation room with a bag of [=McDonald=]'s food in hand, which scares [=DeShawn=] accordingly. Then Bunk and Jay Landsman trick him into thinking a photocopier is a lie detector. In reality the copier has several pages preloaded, some of which say true, and one that says false. The cops ask harmless questions until they run out of "trues", then ask about the crime, and when the kid tries to lie about it, "false" comes out.

** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in the season 5 finale of ''Criminal Intent''. A couple is murdered, and one of the cops on the case tells the couple's troubled son that the mother lived long enough to name him as the perpetrator, after which the son breaks down and confesses. Logan is suspicious, however, and eventually uncovers the truth: the son was high on the night in question and can't remember what he did, so when he was told that his mother implicated him, he thought he must have done it in that case, not realizing it was a ploy. Logan then finds evidence that proves the son's innocence.

** {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in the season 5 finale of ''Criminal Intent''. A couple is murdered, and one of the cops on the case tells the couple's troubled son that the mother lived long enough to name him as the perpetrator, after which the son breaks down and confesses. Logan is suspicious, however, and eventually uncovers the truth: the son was high on the night in question and can't remember what he did, so when he was told that his mother implicated him, he thought he must have done it in that case, not realizing it was a ploy.

* Done accidentally in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain", when the local Mensa group goes to complain to Mayor Quimby about a gazebo they'd reserved being used by someone else. [[OneDialogueTwoConversations However, they phrase their complaints in very vague, accusing ways]], insisting that the document they're carrying (gazebo reservation bylaws) will "blow things wide open". Quimby, thinking they're referring to [[CorruptPolitician one of his countless other, more serious crimes]], freaks out and immediately flees the city.

* ''Literature/NickVelvet'': Nick does this in "The Theft of Santa's Beard", when he points at the murderer as he is leaving the police station and yells "He's the killer and I can prove it!" The killer panics and tries to flee, and is immediately grabbed by the cops. Nick doesn't actually have any hard eveidence, but knows tat the police will probably find it if they search the killer's office.

** When a stage magician drowns while performing a Houdini-style escapology routine, Mark announces his plan to re-create the trick, with the exact same props and a female suspect standing in for the victim. It appears he's decided she's the killer and wants to give her ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine by putting her into the same situation as the villain... but the real killer is in love with the woman, panics and tries to halt the trick early.

** The Yellow Box gambit warrants particular attention, being a variant of #3 which bears striking similarities to [[spoiler:The Adventure of the Empty House]].

* In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', Vimes confronts [[spoiler:Dragon King of Arms]] and hints that he's being surrounded by [[spoiler:holy-water-infused candles]], in a way that should only makes sense to [[spoiler:Dragon]] if he was behind the plot to kill Vetinari with [[spoiler: arsenic-infused candles]].
** Another Discworld example; in ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', Carrot spreads a rumour that they have [[spoiler:Edward D'eath]] in custody so that the villain goes to the place where they found [[spoiler:Edward's]] corpse.
** Yet another, in ''Discworld/NightWatch'', Vimes uses the ginger beer trick[[note]](the exact nature of which is never specified in the text, but is said by WordOfGod to be shaking a bottle of carbonated drink, opening it, and stuffing it up the victim's nose, an actual torture technique in some countries)[[/note]] on two of the [[SecretPolice Cable Street Particulars]] in order to get the third to talk. [[spoiler:It turns out to have been an elaborate bluff involving the popping noise made by a finger in the cheek, someone hissing through their teeth, and Fred Colon's "tendency" to give bloodcurdling screams at random intervals...]]

* The hero in the French movie ''Le Bossu'' uses this to unmask the murderer.

* The entire plot of ''Rehearsal For Murder'' is one of these... sort of. [[spoiler:The twist is that the "cop" in the supposed EngineeredPublicConfession is the real killer whose knowledge of the contents of desk drawers after a staged killing prove that he was at the crime scene. It turns out to also be an actual EngineeredPublicConfession of a REAL cop hidden elsewhere in the theater. All the supposed suspects were in on it (the bluff I mean).]]

* Performed in ''Film/MurderMystery'', where all of the remaining suspects are brought into the room for a summation of evidence. [[spoiler:It fails. First, they learn one of their assumptions was wrong, then the accused killer admits they're the lost heir, but cooly denies the murder, and the Interpol detective rightly points out that there's no solid evidence.]]

** A bombmaker is tricked into thinking that her own car is rigged with a bomb, forcing her to talk Mark through the procedure for disarming the device.
** When a stage magician drowns while performing a Houdini-style escapology routine, Mark announces his plan to re-create the trick, with the exact same props and a woman the killer is in love with standing in for the victim. The killer panics and tries to halt the trick early.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'' has this trope appear frequently during trial scenes. Since all of the characters are there, getting the murderer to admit evidence is often necessary to solve the cases.

# The most dangerous kind: a character is put into a position where they're dangerous to the murderer's schemes. A common way of doing this is trying to {{blackmail}} the murderer. In any case, when the murderer attempts to kill this new obstacle, the police burst out from hiding and the murderer is caught red handed (though for a new crime).

* In ''Manga/DeathNote'' L tricks Light with one of the aforementioned variants very early on. Light usually reacts coolly as part of his acting skills later on. Of course, this being ''Death Note'' this happens something along the lines of every episode, and is probably one of the most common {{plan}}s used.
** The Yellow Box gambit warrants particular attention, being a variant of #3 which bears striking similarities to [[spoiler: The Adventure of the Empty House]].

* Parodied in ''Manga/Yuria100Shiki''. A boy who's recently watched a show called ''[[{{Expy}} Bolumco]]'' discovers a close-up photo of a vagina on his father's hard drive. He has no idea what it's a photo of, so he shows it to his friends, and his female friend (who thinks it looks vaguely familiar, like she's seen it from a different angle) shows it to her foster father. He immediately denies all knowledge of what it is, so the boys bluff him and pretend they've figured out its location--and of course, he immediately looks in the direction of the girl's crotch.

* During Part 3 of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'', Jotaro and co. are trying to suss out an enemy stand user aboard a ship full of seaman and a stowaway. With the captain of the ship within earshot, Jotaro makes up some fact about how cigarette smoke (he had lit one up moments earlier) makes a vein on a stand user's nose bulge out. Everyone in Jotaro's party checks their noses...including the captain (though he reveals that he had no idea who the stand user actually was, and was planning on using the same trick for every individual crew member.)

* A Marvel issue of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has Kirk implicated in the murder of a planet's ambassador with whom he inadvertently crossed as a cadet. On the planet's surface, Spock uses deductive reasoning--or as Dr. [=McCoy=] termed it, "bluffing"--to reveal the real murderer.

* In ''Theatre/{{Doubt}}'', [[spoiler: Sister Aloysius bluffs Father Flynn by claiming that she had spoken to a nun at his previous Parish that had confirmed his pattern of child abuse. But she didn't make that call, and she takes the Priest's resignation as a confession.]]

* In ''Film/{{Crossfire}}'', Montgomery kills Floyd, the only witness to his murder of Samuels. Detective Finlay, who has no hard evidence against Montgomery, devises a ruse. Leroy, another soldier, leads Montgomery to believe that Floyd is actually still alive, then shows Montgomery a paper with the address of the boarding house Floyd is at. Montgomery then shows up at Floyd's room, claiming to have been sent there by Leroy—except that Leroy gave him the wrong address. Montgomery's arrival at the right room proves that he was there before and catches him out as the murderer.

** Another Discworld example; in ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', Carrot spreads a rumour that they have [[spoiler: Edward D'eath]] in custody so that the villain goes to the place where they found [[spoiler: Edward's]] corpse.

* Not a murderer, per se, but in the Creator/IsaacAsimov short story "Galley Slave", Dr. Calvin bluffs a strongly anti-robot professor, who had ordered a type-editing robot to make horrendous errors. She badgers and rattles the professor, damaging their defense, but at the climax, the robot stands up and the professor screams "Damn you, you were instructed to keep your mouth shut about--" Dr. Calvin points out, later, that the professor had only to keep quiet since the robot was about to defend the professor, in accordance with the First Law.

** Sherlock pulls one of these in ''The Valley of Fear''. Deducing that some vital evidence has been dumped in the moat, he announces that it must be drained - then catches the murderer [[spoiler: (actually the victim, who overpowered and switched identities with his would-be assassin)]] when they come to move the goods. Pure bluff, in that it was impossible to actually drain the moat.

* In one of Jill Paton Walsh's detective novels the police inspector states that they almost never get enough evidence to perfectly unambiguously convince the jury and win a trial, instead they get enough evidence to convince the murderer that they could, at which point they confess.

* This is how Elijah Baley solves the case of roboticide in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheRobotsOfDawn'', getting [[spoiler: Amadiro to blurt out that he had had contact with the robot]]. He does the same in a more cruel way in ''Literature/TheNakedSun''.

* [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]] bluffs ''himself'' into this position by attacking Will Graham in a very self-incriminating way-- little did Lecter know Graham had no real evidence on him, and knew he was the Chesapeake Ripper only because his own Lecter-level intuitive imagination led him to the conclusion. %%um, which book is this in?

** Conway Jefferson in ''The Body in the Library'' and Madame Renaud in ''Literature/TheMurderOnTheLinks'' make it known that they are changing their wills the following day, [[spoiler:to [[TheBait induce the killer to attempt an assassination]] during the night, when the police will be waiting for them.]]

** Although not quite a murderer, the [[spoiler: telepath gets the location of a DamselInDistress from someone by making it float to the top of his mind: "It is vitally important that you don't think about anything else [...] or where [The victim] is now"]].

** [[spoiler: But they let him get away with it since he was a poor Korean kid who said they "were all so rich".]]

** Castle gets his own in a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: a stuck-up rich kid has killed his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, framed his friends for the murder, and is convinced that Beckett has no proof (he's almost correct -- it's slim). Castle launches into an extended, sinister-sounding "he had it coming" routine on behalf of the killer, who responds with "Exactly."

* In ''{{Hamlet}}'', this is the entire point of ''The Murder of Gonzago'' (the play within the play).

** In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', Sigma uses this technique against [[spoiler: Dio, by pretending to be someone sent by "Brother", the leader of the Myrmidons, the terrorist group he suspects Dio is a member of. While trying to deny it, Dio says that he doesn't know some "old fuck" called Brother. Sigma then points out that he never mentioned Brother's age. Dio also slips up by instantly denying that he knows _"who"_ the Myrmidons are, before Sigma had mentioned that the name refers to a group of people.]]

** In ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', Sigma uses this technique against [[spoiler: Dio, by pretending to be someone sent by "Brother", the leader of the terrorist group he suspects Dio is a member of. While trying to deny it, Dio says that he doesn't know some "old fuck" called Brother. Sigma then points out that he never mentioned Brother's age.]]