Friends!
Why did Mr Jenner start at 270?
Reason I ask is, in a little while we're going to get this:
Mr. JENNER - May we take these curtain rods and mark them as exhibits and we will return them after they have been placed of record?
Mrs. PAINE - All right.
Mr. JENNER - Miss Reporter, the cream colored curtain rod, we will mark Ruth Paine Exhibit 275 and the white one as Ruth Paine Exhibit No. 276.
(The curtain rods referred to were at this time marked by the reporter as Ruth Paine Exhibit Nos. 275 and 276, for identification.)
Why did Mr Jenner start at 270?
Friends, there is a pretty simple explanation for why Mr Jenner decided to start at what otherwise looks like an
entirely random number:
270...
Why not just start at 'Ruth Paine Exhibit No. 1'----as had been the policy with 'PaineMichael Exhibit No. 1'?
Because Agent Howlett had told Mr Jenner he needed to contrive a way of naming the 2 curtain rods 'Ruth Paine Exhibit No. 275' and 'Ruth Paine Exhibit No. 276' .
Why would this have been important?
Because of this notation in the Crime Scene Search Section document (which Agent Howlett had signed):
Lieutenant Day wrote 'marked 275 & 276'
eight days before the 2 curtain rods were formally designated as such!
Agent Howlett noticed Lieutenant Day's notation when signing the document and decided to establish a link between the curtain rods he had given to Lieutenant Day for fingerprinting and the curtain rods he was to 'find' in the Paine garage!
For Mr Jenner to start at 'Ruth Paine Exhibit No. 275' by heading straight for the curtain rods in the garage on March 23 would have been a
little too obvious. Much better to start at 270 and work one's way, as though by happenstance, to the magic numbers 275 and 276 by the time the 2 curtain rods were to be entered as exhibits:
This also explains why the curtain rods could not be entered as a single exhibit!
Contrast the brisk efficiency of: