The burlesque comedy team of Witt, Watt and Who (now an accountant, a desk clerk and a bartender with a dark secret), a professor of the striptease, a tap dancer, the manager of a hotel for showfolk, a unicyclist - any one of them may have ""killed vaudeville"", but one of them certainly poisoned baggy pants clown Rags McGuire, who was about to be featured in an event at the Hollywood Bowl. But why was Rags killed? He only left a few small bequests and an old battered trunk that no one seems to want. But was that really all? Burke corners the killer at the Hollywood Bowl and almost brings the house down.

A sniper fires through the window of the suite of the richest man in the world, who is planning on selling an oil lease to one of several bidders, each of whom was an expert marksman. Burke is informed that the bullet missed its intended target and killed, instead, the multimillionaire's personal bookkeeper. The tycoon constantly berates Burke for not having solved the crime to his satisfaction and insists on sending his staff along on the interviews with the suspects. After a bomb attempt again fails to kill the tycoon, Burke is almost shot by the sniper, who runs and falls to his death. Who hired him? - the Texan, the big game hunter, or the crazy brothers?