 Journalist Wolfe Kaufman claimed that he coined the word "whodunit" around 1935 while working for "Variety" magazine.However, an editor of the magazine, Abel Green, attributed it to his predecessor, Sime Silverman.The earliest appearance of the word "whodunit" in "Variety" occurs in the edition of August 28, 1934, in reference to a film adaptation of the play "Recipe for Murder," as featured in the headline, "U's Whodunit