So, Was the Araber Guilty or Not?

[A***@aol.com]

After having watched "Three Men & Adina" for the first time last night, I
was struck by how inconclusive it all was. In fact, it was so inconclusive
that my mother came away convinced that the Araber was innocent! I, on the
other had, tend to agree more with Pembleton that the Araber did do it,
but I can't say that with any real certainty.
The scene that convinced me that the Araber was probably guilty was when
the Araber zeroed in on Frank as being a "500" with such energy and
vehimence, despite the fact that Frank and Tim had been interrogating him
for something on the order of 10 hours! That whole scene showed that the
Araber was a deeply angry man capable of committing a crime as hideous as
Adena Watson's murder.
But what do the members of a.tv.HLOTS think? Did the Araber do it, or not?
--
Ian J. Ball | Want my TV episode guides or rec.arts.tv FAQ?
Grad Student, UCLA | http://members.aol.com/IJBall/WWW/IJBall.html

Innocent (of the crime) other than his thoughts

[Christine Reilly]

I watched Three Men and Adena again on Youtube.

First of all, I forgot just how powerful the performances are. Moses Gunn, who played the Araber, died later the year the show aired. I believe it was his last acting gig.

As others have said, the evidence was not very convincing. Even if it was true that Adena's skirt had soot marks consistent with the Araber's barn, the Araber did say she had been there the Sunday before she died. If it was a wool skirt I can imagine she hadn't been able to clean it right away and even though she was a neat person (as was brought out in the interview) some soot could still have remained on her skirt from Sunday. That was the strongest evidence, other than the mother's unease with the Araber.

When the Araber breaks down and cries that he never touched her and admits his embarrassment that he loved her and knew it was pathetic, I believed him.

I suppose he could have done it, but it seems equally plausible he didn't and the evidence just wasn't there. You can't convict somebody because of how you feel about them.

But that's the beauty of the show. Like life, sometimes you never get to find out.

An episode like this shows how 12 hours of intensive interrogation and mind games with no sleep could get a person to wonder what is real or not and cause false confessions. I watched the episode which is less than an hour, and I felt pummeled and exhausted.