Frederick Bosner, also known as Eric Leidner is the main antagonist of Agatha Christie's novel Murder in Mesopotamia.
Biography[]
One day, in 1918, he met Louise Leidner and married her. However, it soon became clear that he was a spy. He was arrested and had to be shot. However, he escaped and soon a mutilated corpse was found, allegedly belonging to Frederick (however, it soon became clear that this corpse belonged to the real Eric Leidner, whom Frederick had been posing as all this time). He began to intimidate Louise into not marrying anyone by writing her notes (he forged her handwriting to make Louise look crazy when she went to the police) and pretending to be a ghost. Then he remarried her (under the name Leidner). Then he and Louise went to Mesopotamia for excavations. There, Louise liked one of the architects. Out of jealousy, Eric-Frederick decided to kill her. He hired nurse Amy to watch Louise allegedly go crazy from the threats. Then, when Louise was alone in the room, he, being in the attic, hung down the mask that he had previously used to intimidate Louise, and when she looked out the window, he dropped a mortar on her. He needed Amy for an alibi (he wanted a person not connected with the expedition to confirm that he did not enter the room at the time of his wife’s murder). Subsequently, he also poisoned Miss Johnson with acid to prevent her from spilling the beans. He even gave her the mortar he used to kill his wife. However, Poirot still figured him out and Bosner did not deny it.
Personality[]
Frederick Bosner is a very jealous man. He wanted Louise to be his and only his. He bullied her for years and even wrote notes in her handwriting to discourage her from getting married. He even played a ghost. After remarriage, he wanted to pretend that Eric Leidner and Frederick Bosner were not the same person. To do this, he wrote her a couple more notes. He even caused a gas leak to do this. When he found out that his wife had cheated on him, he killed her. When Miss Johnson realized that he had killed his wife, he poisoned her with acid to keep her from spilling the beans. He hired Amy to confirm his "alibi". However, on the other hand, he sincerely loved his wife and repented of her murder. He is also genuinely friendly to his friends. In addition, he is very honest, since he had the dignity to admit his defeat. He admitted that Poirot was right when Poirot called him a murderer publicly.
