Judge Hatch - known far and wide as The Hanging Judge - is seen striding rapidly and impatiently along the corridors of the Cyrus Blackstone Museum, in a quiet, residential section of New York. With the Judge is his young, and obviously puzzled daughter, Barbara, who doesn't understand why they're there - although she does understood that there is certainly a purpose. Suddenly, a shot rings out as her father is looking at an antique wooden box, and he falls to the floor. Dead.