Extra! Extra! The murder of Ebenezer Scrooge has been solved!
Thanks to the deductive minds at the American Legion Murder Mystery Fundraiser Dinner

[December 07, 2023]   LINCOLN - On Saturday, December 2nd, the American Legion Post 263 in Lincoln hosts a Murder Mystery Dinner as a fundraiser for the post. There was a large crowd in attendance for the evening, all of whom ended up being an integral part of the evening’s entertainment.

Upon arrival dinner guests were given badges to wear with the names of different Charles Dickens characters on the front side. On the back of the badges were descriptions of the character and instructions for the bearer to follow before and throughout the evening.

In several cases, the instruction included seeking out other characters in the room, asking key questions and recording the answers and also forming alliances for possible partners in crime.

On this particular night, the famous Ebenezer Scrooge had been murdered by one of four different shady characters, but the mystery and the murder have gone unsolved.

There were two actors who led the events of the evening. The two would roam around the asking questions and instructing dinner guests to act out their assigned roles. The goal was to eventually have enough clues to reveal the murderer.

For some of the guests, there was a certain amount of tension as they pondered who the murderer could be based on the clues revealed and sat with fingers crossed that they would not be one of the assigned characters called on to “act” for their supper.

When a character was called out, the bearer of that badge would stand and answer questions from the guides or repeat instructions that had been given earlier. This would lead to group participation where that everyone had a hand in acting out the mystery play.

There were trigger words that cued certain responses from the room. For example, when the word “murder” was spoken aloud there was a group of people who were to suddenly stand and for dramatic effect, recite the singsong-dirge often associated with drama and suspense “dum-dum-duuuuum!”

Throughout the evening, guests had to pay attention and stay alert to what was going on around them during the entertainment.

The two actors who were guiding everyone along were swift and cunning, startling people and bringing the entire room into the fun with lots of self-degradation and laughter as the guests turned actors stumbled through the fun of finding the murderer.

At the end of the night, guests were to have collected enough information to determine who the murderer was. Only two were able to accomplish this task successfully.

The evening of fun and laughter was broken into segments by a multi-course dinner starting with salad, then an excellent meal and a wide variety of desserts all furnished by Lincoln Land Caters.

After the fact, organizers of the fundraiser with American Legion said that the event was so successful, and they heard many good comments. They are in fact thinking about an encore performance in the early part of 2024.

[Karen Castelein]