Perry Mason. A name that can strike the fear of God into the heart of any prosecutor. For any defendant accused of murder, he was the supreme "ace in the hole." From September of 1957 to October of 1966, Perry Mason tried 270 murder cases on television. How many cases did he lose? Believe it or not, he appears to have lost two.

In "the case of the Terrified Typist" a jury returns a guilty verdict against Perry's client, and the prosecutor, Hamilton Burger, gets goose bumps thinking he had finally beaten his nimbuses.

But Mason's most famous "loss" occurred in "the case of the Deadly Verdict." It is a strange episode. The show opens in the courtroom, a decision is being handed down. Perry's client is found guilty of murdering her aunt for money, and is sentenced to die in the gas chamber.…