Who killed roger rabit

1. The simple answer: Judge Doom killed Marvin Acme in the film

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the 1988 film) presents a noir plot in which Marvin Acme is murdered and the evidence is planted to implicate Roger Rabbit; the villain Judge Doom is revealed to have killed Acme and engineered the frame-up as part of a broader plan to seize Toontown ^{[1] [2]}. Multiple encyclopedic and plot summaries of the film identify Doom as the mastermind who employs toon henchmen and Dip to try to erase Toontown ^{[1] [6]}.

2. But the source novel tells a different murder story

Gary K. Wolf’s 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is darker and structurally different: it contains a literal murder of Roger (and related murders) and a supernatural element — a genie — that kills in the book’s climax; the film adaptation substantially changed suspects, motives, and perpetrators ^{[3] [5]}. Reporting and comparative coverage emphasize that the movie’s clean identification of Doom as killer departs from the book’s more ambiguous and grimmer plot ^[5].

3. Script development shows competing suspect theories

During screenplay development the writers tested multiple villains: early drafts reportedly considered Jessica Rabbit or Baby Herman as antagonists before creating Judge Doom as the final villain ^{[4] [7]}. This history explains why the film’s mystery feels like a classic whodunit with red herrings — the production deliberately moved suspects around until settling on Doom ^[4].

4. What “killed” Roger Rabbit vs. who framed him: film vs. book confusion

Many summaries and fan accounts conflate the novel’s murder of a Roger-like character and the film’s framing of the cartoon Roger; the film’s Roger is framed for Marvin Acme’s murder but is not the killer, whereas the novel includes an actual death of Roger via supernatural means ^{[3] [8]}. Secondary articles and retrospectives point out that the change from a murdered Roger in the novel to a framed-but-living Roger in the film was a major tonal shift ^[5].

5. How the film ties motive to land, money and the “Dip”

In the movie Judge Doom seeks to erase Toontown to build a freeway and consolidate power; Acme’s missing will (which would bequeath Toontown to the toons) and ownership stakes are central to motive — Doom kills to secure land and to eliminate toons who stand in the way, using Dip as a weapon ^{[1] [7]}. Summaries emphasize that Doom’s plan required both legal manipulation and physical eradication of toons ^{[1] [2]}.

6. Disagreements and adaptations: alternate readings remain

Sources show disagreement across media: the novel’s supernatural killer (a genie), the film’s human-turned-toon villain (Doom), and earlier drafts with other suspects (Jessica, Baby Herman) present competing narratives; critics and retrospectives note the film’s decision to simplify the culprit to Doom for cinematic clarity ^{[3] [4] [5]}. Fan discussions and essays continue to explore what was lost or gained in moving from the book’s darker mystery to the movie’s detective-fable resolution ^{[5] [9]}.

7. What reporting does not say / limits of available sources

Available sources do not mention any real-world crime tied to the fictional case beyond entertainment coverage; they do not provide new evidence beyond the film and book texts about who “actually” killed anyone outside those narratives (not found in current reporting). My synthesis relies on plot summaries, production histories, and comparative reporting contained in the cited sources ^{[1] [3] [4] [5]}.

If you want, I can supply a concise timeline of on-screen events in the film (who does what, in sequence) or extract specific passages from the novel and scripts summarized in these sources to show exactly how the killers differ between versions.