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Frame-jobs are a common element of murder mysteries. After all, there needs to be misdirection in the middle of the story, and an innocent (or, at least, innocent of this particular crime) patsy is a good way to flesh out the midgame. In fact, the typical Castle episode runs through several "not the real killer" suspects before hitting the real one, some of which were intentionally set up for a fall by the real killer.
But (and I think Castle has done this at least once), it's even more effective if the real killer is the first prime suspect, planting some sort of later-refutable evidence pointing at them and then getting cleared. This is a particularly useful thing in a practical sense if the victim had a lot of enemies and the real killer doesn't want to look like he's benefitting too much from the death (i.e. if the cops never bother you, maybe Rocco decides you're the one framing him and has the boys go have a talk wit' ya). Obviously, this generally ends up backfiring in fiction ("You forgot one little detail..."), but I could see it working in formats where there doesn't have to be closure at the end of the story (i.e. comic books or arc-based TV shows where the killer can get away with it this time, only to get caught on something else later).
But (and I think Castle has done this at least once), it's even more effective if the real killer is the first prime suspect, planting some sort of later-refutable evidence pointing at them and then getting cleared. This is a particularly useful thing in a practical sense if the victim had a lot of enemies and the real killer doesn't want to look like he's benefitting too much from the death (i.e. if the cops never bother you, maybe Rocco decides you're the one framing him and has the boys go have a talk wit' ya). Obviously, this generally ends up backfiring in fiction ("You forgot one little detail..."), but I could see it working in formats where there doesn't have to be closure at the end of the story (i.e. comic books or arc-based TV shows where the killer can get away with it this time, only to get caught on something else later).
