<Li> As Mr. Burns collapses on the sundial, it is seen that the gun he was previously carrying has gone missing . This was inserted as an intentional freeze frame clue . </Li> <P> Due to the amount of interest in the ending of this episode, David Mirkin wrote several "terrible endings" and, with just Harry Shearer, recorded several alternate endings . His original intention was to fool the production staff and also leak the endings to various media outlets, but much to his surprise he was unsuccessful . Several endings were animated that showed various characters shooting Mr. Burns . Several of the alternate endings aired during the clip show "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular". Various clips showed Apu, Moe, Barney, Tito, and even Santa's Little Helper as the gunmen . There was also a full - length conclusion that aired in which Smithers shot Burns and explained his doing so at Burns's bedside after Homer's wild chase, and fell on "W" and S" on the compass, Waylon's initials; Burns then decides to give Smithers a 5 percent pay cut for attempting to kill him . </P> <P> In the months following the broadcast of Part One, there was widespread debate among fans of the series as to who shot Mr. Burns . Fox offered a contest to tie in with the mystery where callers who dialed 1 - 800 - COLLECT were eligible and they then guessed who the culprit was . It ran from August 13 to September 10 and was one of the first contests to tie together elements of television and the Internet . Fox launched a new website, www.Springfield.com, devoted to the mystery which got over 500,000 hits during the summer of 1995 . The winner would be animated on an episode of the show . Due to contest regulations, a winner had to be selected out of a random sample of entries . The sample did not contain any correct answers, and so a winner (who had the wrong answer) was chosen at random . However, the winner, Fayla Gibson of Washington D.C., did not watch the show and opted to accept a cash prize in lieu of being animated . </P> <P> The contest is referenced at the end of the episode when Dr. Hibbert says, "Well I couldn't possibly solve this mystery...Can you?" </P>

Who won the who shot mr burns contest