6 May 1929

The date 6 May 1929 is the day on which, according to the gramophone record played on Indian Island, Thomas Rogers and Ethel Rogers brought about the death of Jennifer Brady. This accusation, delivered by the disembodied Voice during the dinner party on the evening of August 8th, charges the Rogerses with a crime that, like nearly all the others on the island, had never been prosecuted. The date marks the specific moment of the alleged murder, anchoring the Rogerses' past in a concrete time and place and establishing the pattern of undetected or unpunished killings that the unknown host, U. N. Owen, has assembled.

The Accusation and Its Immediate Effect

The Voice states plainly: "Thomas Rogers and Ethel Rogers, that on the 6th of May, 1929, you brought about the death of Jennifer Brady." The effect on the Rogerses is immediate and devastating. Rogers drops the coffee tray he is carrying, and Mrs. Rogers, who has been stationed in the next room to start the gramophone, faints dead away. When she is revived, she is trembling and gasping, her face green, and she speaks of the Voice as "like a judgment." The accusation, tied to a specific date, strikes them with a force that no vague rumor could have achieved.

The Nature of the Crime

The crime itself is one that the law could not prove. Dr. Armstrong, after questioning Rogers about Miss Brady's health, deduces the method: Miss Brady suffered from a form of cardiac trouble for which amyl nitrite was used during attacks. If the amyl nitrite were withheld, the consequences would be fatal. Rogers had hurried through the night to fetch a doctor, but the doctor arrived too late. The doctor who attended Miss Brady, when questioned later by the police, says he cannot prove anything but believes there was "some funny business" and that she died as a result of neglect. The Rogerses inherited a legacy from Miss Brady "in recognition of our faithful services," as Rogers puts it, and the combination of motive, opportunity, and the impossibility of legal proof makes this exactly the kind of case that U. N. Owen has set out to punish.

The Date in the Pattern of the Novel

The date 6 May 1929 is one of several specific dates in the gramophone record's indictments, each tied to a death that the law could not touch. The Rogerses' crime, committed on this date, is the first of the "untouchable" murders that the novel explores. It is also the crime that most directly illustrates the method of the unknown host: selecting cases where guilt is morally certain but legally unprovable. The date itself, like the others, becomes a fixed point in the narrative, a moment in the past that the present action on the island is designed to avenge.

The Date in the Confession

In his manuscript confession, Lawrence John Wargrave reveals that the idea for the entire scheme was sparked by a doctor's casual remark about a case exactly like the Rogerses': an old lady whose death was due to the withholding of a restorative drug by a married couple who stood to benefit. Wargrave does not name the Rogerses in that passage, but the parallel is exact. The date 6 May 1929 is the date of the crime that first suggested to Wargrave the possibility of a grand-scale murder project, and the Rogerses are the first couple he selects as victims. Their crime, committed on that date, becomes the template for the entire enterprise.