How in the world did he manage to get away with all the things he did, especially with having an unknown woman pass as his wife and having all those witnesses (many according to that moron detective)??? How is it possible that only Jefferies and Lisa were convinced that he was guilty? I realize that the detective was an incompetent know-it-all, but this seems a bit far-fetched.
shareJeff spied on his neighbors out of boredom. The other neighbors didn't sit in front of their windows all day in a wheelchair.
shareStill, there should be more people that witnessed what happened with Thorwald and his mistress.
shareThere's a theory that people "see" what they expect to see. Some people claimed they saw Mr. and Mrs. Thorwald — they had never seen the mistress and thought it was just Mr. Thorwald accompanying his wife to the train station. Also, it was early in the morning and people tend to be less alert in the morning, and some of them probably went without much sleep because of the heat.
I agree about the detective. He was patronizing and used used illegal methods. Did he ask Thorwald about the whereabouts of his wife? No, but he illegally retrieved mail from the Thorwalds' mailbox. He also had the trunk opened, and there is no mentioning that he had a court order to do so. The right thing would have been to wait until someone would come to pick up that trunk and ask that person for proof of identity.
You may cross-examine.