 Reconstructing the event, they discover that he put the poison in the whisky glass for Max, but when something hit the window during the demonstration outside, the whisky glass intended for Max was confused with the consul's own brandy glass, so Baumer mistakenly drank from the glass he meant for Max.The play "Margin for Error" was based on an incident that occurred in 1938, when New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed Police Captain Max Finkelstein to head a special squad of Jewish officers tasked with protecting the German consulate in the city from protestors.The police officer character's name was originally Max Finkelstein but was changed to Moe Finkelstein after the real Finkelstein's suicide in May 1940.