Franklin Clarke—Betty Barnard

Franklin Clarke’s relationship with Betty Barnard is a manufactured courtship that serves his murder plan. He approaches her as a personable man likely to attract her, arranges outings under the pretext that his supposed marriage requires secrecy, and kills her before midnight on 24 July so the crime will appear to fit the sequence he has constructed.

Courtship as a Method

Betty is described as a flirt who enjoys attention from an appealing man. In Hercule Poirot’s reconstruction, Franklin recognizes that she would be persuaded to go out with someone who could attract her; the apparent courtship is therefore not incidental but a practical means of approaching her. Poirot imagines that Franklin takes her out once or twice and claims to be married, explaining that they must meet discreetly. The supposed constraint gives their meetings a plausible cover while concealing his purpose.

The Murder and Its Staging

Poirot connects the manner of Betty’s death to the familiarity Franklin had cultivated. Betty is strangled with her own belt, a detail Poirot reads as evidence that she was killed by someone with whom she had been on friendly or affectionate terms. His reconstruction places the belt within a playful interaction, making the transition from flirtation to murder part of the calculated attack. Donald Fraser reacts angrily as Poirot describes this inference, underscoring the personal cost of turning Betty’s death into an explanation of the killer’s method.

Place in the Alphabetical Plan

Franklin’s approach to Betty differs from his preparation for the first murder. After choosing Andover and Mrs Ascher’s shop for the first killing, he changes tactics for the letter B, reasoning that women working alone in shops might have been warned. He instead frequents cafés and tea-shops, jokes with the young women there, and identifies a suitable target whose name begins with B. Betty’s willingness to go out with him enables him to select and approach a victim without relying on the same circumstances as the first crime.

The courtship also helps Franklin make the second murder serve the larger scheme. He sends Alexander Bonaparte Cust the Andover list and directs him to go there on a specified date, while sending Hercule Poirot the first anonymous warning letter. For Betty’s murder, Franklin takes the further precaution of killing her the day before the apparent date of the crime; Poirot concludes that she died well before midnight on 24 July. The false timing helps preserve the appearance of an orderly alphabetical campaign, while Betty’s relationship with Franklin supplies the opportunity the staging requires.