Murder Mystery Dinner

There was a group of about 25 of us that became good friends over the last several years. We were a very diverse group that might never have met on our own without our mutual interest in volunteering, historic preservation, and just plan good fun. We met each Friday night to work together on various projects at our local historic village. Once that evening's work was completed...we would gather for dinner on the front porch of one of the historic homes and we would have a great time of fellowship together. It was an easy time of conversation, forging new friendships and collaborative work. (A Bob word!)

Alas, good times do come to an end...but a small group of us decided to continue our "get togethers". We settled on a format of a monthly dinner group. We rotate homes each month. and the host home provides the meat while the other members provide appetizers, side dishes and desserts. It's a wonderful opportunity to test new recipes, taste different foods and just have a great time!

We don't specifically have a theme each month...but one of the members of our group hosted a Murder Mystery dinner! She purchased all the "clues" rules, etc. When we received our invitation it contained specifics as to who we were, suggestions of "dress" and a little back ground as to our character. We had only enough details about our "alter self" to know how we should look when we came to dinner.

There was also a "blurb" about the other guests and a small write up about their character...so we at least knew who we would be having dinner with that evening.

As each of us arrived at our host home we were given a name tag with our character's name, a booklet that contained the rules, set the scene, and had all the personal information about our alter self we would need to stay in character throughout the evening.

As you can see from my name tag I was Stockard Ann Bonds (Stock) for short. The title of our Murder Mystery was "The Wall Street Scandal" (how appropriate for this day and time.)

We have an odd number in our dinner group, so it was the perfect opportunity for our hostess to be our narrator and general "keeper" of all information. (She also made sure we stayed on track.) Kathy played her part perfectly as the maid, "Fanny Mae", to our social climbing group of suspects.

Our booklet explained how the game was divided into four rounds. We were not to turn the pages until instructed by Fanny Mae. As each round progressed we were given additional information about our character that we were to reveal, as well as other other information we were to try and conceal from the others.

I took notes as people spoke about themselves and revealed information...I was out to catch a murdered!

Here is the suspicious cast of characters...Corey Pratt Bonds (Stock's brother, and son of the deceased.)Portia F. Olio (Countess Portia F. Posure Marie Emm Olde Olio) Portia's daughter, Lolita X. Posure (Photography career)

Abercrombie Trage (Financial wizard at Bonds & Trage)

Cassandra Antell (society columnist for a major New York newspaper.)

Robert Ublynd (Lawyer at NY law firm of Biggs, Borrow, Steel & Ublynd)
Wirth Les Bonds (adopted brother and NY's youngest senator)

Countess Portia with her daughter Lolita

Stockard Ann Bonds (Abercrombie "Arby" and Cassandra in the back ground.) Reading our parts and getting into character.

Dinner was a time to be aggressive, be inquisitive and be very suspicious of everyone!
Lies and cover ups were served up by everyone during dinner!

Kathy kept us on track as we moved through the clues.

Everyone had ample opportunity to ask questions and press for more information.And...each person had the same opportunity to lie and cover up their activities around the time of the murder.Some lied better than others... and some just tried to keep track of all the lies!Everyone played their part perfectly... But in the end we were out to catch a murderer...and the murderer was.....Countess Portia!


I would say we all had a great time! A big thanks to Kathy & Dennis for a fun evening of food and entertainment...all supplied by us! I thought the best part was everyone arriving (and staying) in character for the whole evening.

It was such great fun, if anyone is interested in hosting a murder mystery for your next dinner party...check it out!