Perry Mason Season 2 Episode 4 The Case of the Sardonic Sergeant ( Air Date 1958-10-11 ) Genre Mystery, Drama, Crime category. Overview "Major Frank Lessing, a payroll officer on an Army base, is found murdered and Sgt. Joseph Dexter is charged with the crime. The case hinges on a payroll robbery committed in the Phillippines years before. It seems as though some of the bills from that robbery were turning up on the base.".