Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, Follow us on Twitter at
Radio Detectives, and check us out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash
Great Detectives. If you're enjoying this podcast, please follow us using your favorite
podcast software. And as you're making your holiday travel plans, remember Johnny Dollar
Air dot com first. Johnny Dollar Air dot Com is a price line affiliately,
so part of the purchase price supports the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio
at no additional cost to you. So remember when making your travel plans,
check Johnny Dollar Air dot com first. Well, now it is time for
the conclusion of this week's Yours truly Johnny Dollar Cereal the original air at AGS
June thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth, nineteen fifty six. It's The Laughing
Matter, Episodes three, four and five. From Hollywood. It's time now
for Johnny Dollar copy Dan davidro Police. Oh hi, Paran, I tried
to call you a few minutes ago. We've had a shooting out here at
the hotel and somebody no, no, nobody's dead. The bullet missed.
Somebody fired a shot from the terrace in one of the rooms. I am
flush with the red lights. I make this siren. I'm gone like the
wik god. But would you do me one thing before you blow up a
storm. There's a man missing from his room. Here, a friend of
the man who was shot at. He must be around town somewhere. He's
an Americano. About forty five names. Frank Maltz, Frank mars Buena.
We're finding. I'm going to make one APC d B. I mean ap
B see APB like on radio and los of stalars. All right, have
to it, parrel senor what it is? This APB toodnight and every weekday
night Bob Bailey In the Transcribed Adventures of the Man with the Action Pact Expencer
count America's Fabulous Freelance Insurance Investigator US Truley Johnny Dollar. From Special Investigator Johnny
Dollar, location, Incinnata, Mexico to the home office, Union States Casually
Company, Hartford, Connecticut. Assignment the Laughing Matter expense account continued. Item
six one dollars A pot of coffee from the hotel kitchen special. It was
one am. I've been half asleep when the shot was fired, and I
hope the coffee would help get me at least half awake. I hadn't expected
it to happen that way, and neither had Good Old Lovable Charlie Burton,
America's favorite TV comic. According to his press agents, Charlie had called it
a joke, but he wasn't laughing now, and neither was I. Charlie's
life was in short for a half million bucks payable to his sponsor. Where
he senor These man who was get shot, He didn't get shot, Parral,
he got shot at We see. It's what I wished to say.
But the tongue is not make English do good. You're doing fine. The
manager gave Britain another room side away from the terrace. Here, he's probably
got the door locked and the furniture piled in front of it. Monday.
I mean he's scared, very scared. Come Brindley. Oh see see yeah,
I guess so now. According to his story, he was asleep here
on this side of the bed. Someone fired the shot from outside on the
terrace. It broke the window there and the bullet lodged here in the bed
about six inches above Burton's head where he was lying on the pillow. And
see and then he is wake up quick, he is. He is no,
see nobody, senior, He's no, here's nobody. No, he
was too scared to know. He jumped out of bed, ran down the
inside corridor and banged on my door. I searched the terrace right away and
didn't find a thing. And these other people, which I worked for him
to make the television, they are also having room which are close to these
parral. Your tongue may not make the English too good, but there's nothing
wrong with your head. Monday's Day. I mean you're okay. He you're
a good cop. Grassies. Yeah, yes, yes, any one of
them could have fired that shot. And they're big. Which ones these people?
Well, there's Frank Maltz. He's the producer of the Charlie Burton show.
He's the one who was missing from his room, the one I asked
you to look see, you say. Then there's Gloria Dale, she's the
feminine star of the show. She's in the third room down. She is
in the room of her when the shoot was fired. Yeah, yeah,
she'd gone to bed. I had to beat on the door the waker.
She hadn't even heard the shot. She'd been pretty upset. She well,
she'd been drinking earlier. See it's always this and this American as ladies which
have contents are not always there drink too much. You may be right anyway.
The third member of the group is al Schreiber, second room down.
He's an actor too, and where he is when these things happen? In
bed? So he says, the shot woke him up and he came out
into the corridor while Britain was banging on my door. And these are all
Senor. Yeah, that's the bunch. Which one you think is not like
this Charlie? Every single one of them hates him. Then there's another possibility
to that girl I asked you to check on earlier, the maid who works
here at the hotel you see Lasgura Morales. Boys, we're looking, but
we are not find her yet. Hey, I know it's then she are
not at her house, sen you see Neil Marita Toco is also the how
you say her husband is gone your you're still looking for her, aren't you?
Boys? You are no thing that It's no big town and Sara,
we are find her too soon now I think. As for me, your
creo, I'm tell the manager I was here, La see Capitan Vid Parral,
don't they wellbeing yeah? This manures have disappeared, and Frank Moss now
be found. Where is he is some cantina. A nightclub is called the
Eventono to you know? Where is it in town? Somewhere? You see?
It is the how you say, Senora, it's one big hot spot.
It am seven to one dollar taxi into town. Parral stayed at the
hotel to talk to Charlie Burton and the others. I thought I might do
some good, at least by keeping them off balance. Regardless of his knowledge
of English, Parral was a smart lad and his eyes never missed a thing.
Leventa may have been a hot spot earlier, but at this time of
night it was almost deserted. There were a few weary be girls drowsing at
the bar, a scant handful of lancetch patrons, and Frank Maltz alone at
the table, glowing with mellow geniality and bottled health. Well now another night
oil and some that tastes for dives. Pull up a chair, John,
Thanks been here long forever, at least for years and years. I am
part of the place, my boy, These worm eating rafters, the crumbling
walls, this musty aroma of ancient tequila that was spilt on these tiles long
before you were even born. I see, you see. The place was
built by the conquistadores. And I dropped in the very next day. I've
been here ever since, Martz. Look, Sean now speaks softly, softly,
friend, This is hallowed ground. This is the meeting place. This
is the crossroads you see for two separate worlds. The tourists I'm trapsing down
from Beach Boulevard up there, they call it slumming. And the townsfolk come
up from Gastellum and Balbo, and they all meet here and they drink tequila
and they dance the fandango. Hey, Migo about playing a fandango. M
No, he can't hear, you know, because he is dead. We
are all dead here, Johnny. You know something, Martz. You're not
nearly as plastic as you're pretending to be. I know that journey. Have
you been here all evening here in the vendor? You know? Now?
Do you like that name or it means it's twenty one. Yeah, I
know, I know. Have you been here in the twenty one all evening?
Oh? No, I've been in all of them. I just ended
up here. Never see a better place to end up. Johnny, Where
were you around twelve forty tonight? What are you driving at? Somebody took
a shot at Charlie Burton tonight. Woak up My fingers crossed it. No,
No they didn't. Well, maybe they'll have another check not if I
can prevent it now, that's why you were checking times on me. Huh.
You think I maybe made a clay pigeon out of that rat, did
you? Johnny? I left the hotel at ten o'clock. I have been
a lot of places since, but not back there. I don't know where
I was at twelve forty Maybe some bartender around Tonnell, though I have seen
them all tonight one time or another. This lush stuff seems to be a
habit with all of you, including Glory. We'll stick around Burton a month,
you'll know why. So why do you stick around him? Me?
Personally? There's a couple of reasons. I guess I'm trying to help somebody
else. For one, well, myself at the same time, of course,
meaning Al Schreiber. The kid is great, Johnny, he really is,
and it'll be his show next year if we can hang on and for
the same sponsor, with you, producer. That's right. They're fed up
with Charlie Burton, and they've got reason to be. He's a phony named
Johnny, nothing else. It's a fake, it's a build up. They've
got to spend more on press relations now than it costs to produce the show.
And with Charlie out of it, you and l would be in.
Is that the way it sticks him? That's right. You said you had
a couple of reasons for staying on. I'll forget it. The second one
is not important. It's it's a sob story. It won't be the first
one I've heard tonight. I'm married, you see, Johnny, twenty three
years now, and for the last day my wife has been completely paralyzed,
utterly helpless. She's in a sanitarium upstate. She has to have special care,
special treatments, and it costs three hundred and fifty dollars a week,
fifty two weeks a year. So I stay on with Burton, and I
go on hating him. And whenever the hate gets too bad, I go
up and see her. Or she doesn't know me, she doesn't know anyone.
She just lies there and breathes. But I look at her and I
remember how she was and how I loved her. I still love her,
Johnny. So that's the way it is. I left him there in the
canteena with his love and his hate, and walked out into the street,
empty and silent under the waning stars. In the soft dark night, A
long dog sidled past, gray and gaunt, intent on some mission of his
own, and faded into the shadows. And the town slept its own loves
and hates put aside until morning. Quiet town. Then the emptiness was filled
with sound, and a flashing red light slashed the darkness. Parral of the
Ensinnata Police. He said, the maid from the hotel Velena Morales had come
home. One of his sergeants was waiting there with her. The tiny room
was lit by a flickering oil lamp and a candle burned beneath the crucifix on
the wall above the bed. Cement floor and adobe walls bear and clean,
like the cell of a nun and a convent. She was young, pretty
at the moment, very frightened hotel balbo k. This is consignor an Americano
and Senor Carlos Burton should talk, you know, crying Charlie Burton, Lovable
Charlie had been bothering her, annoying her at the hotel. She tried to
avoid him, but it made the mistake of telling her husband. He'd been
furious and had come to the hotel earlier in the evening. That's when I'd
see the two of them arguing on the terrace. She hadn't seen him since.
So send you a dollar. What is it you think? I think
you better find her husband and find him quick, Johnny Dollarlie Burton speaking,
Oh morning Burton, So you're still alive? Huh? That was an adeptive
humor. It was entirely out of place. Well let's here yet. I'm
the comedian and I'm the jokes. Your job is to protect my life.
Don't tell me you've been shot at again this time of morning. Boy,
whoever it is, really must hate you, Briton. Help me, so
help you nothing. You may be good old lovable Charlie the forty million television
viewers, but to me, you're just a pain in the neck. I
my clients are worth a half million bucks because he was fool enough to write
an insurance policy on your life, but not to me. My priss on
you is a fast three cents give it to take a couple. My life
has been threatened, sure, and that's why I'm here. But yesterday,
when I tried to get you to cooperate, you called it a practical joke.
I'm that now. No, because somebody tossed a bullet at you last
night and scared the living pants off of you. Well call Captain Parola,
the Insinata Police. Mister, look, I need another hour's sleep, so
don't phone my room again before nine o'clock. Goodbye from Special Investigator Johnny Dollar
location at Sonata, Mexico to the home office Union State's Casualty Company, Hartford,
Connecticut. Assignment. The laughing matter expense account continued it do Hm ten
fifty cents room service on a glass of orange juice. Another hour's sleep was
out of the question. Just hearing his voice on the phone left me too
mad to relax. One of America's most popular comedians, a living legend,
and yet his whole cast the people down here with him on location, hated
the ground he walked on. Personally, I was on their side, But
my job was to protect his life from some unknown enemy who'd sent him a
threatening note, and last night the threat had become action in the form of
a shot fired from the darkness. It was my job to see that the
killer didn't get a second chance. And that's what I was being paid for.
And the fact that Charlie Burton was a class A stinker was irrelevant.
Frank Moltz, executive producer of the Charlie Burton sh oh and practically the only
early patron of the hotel breakfast room, was sitting at a table alone morning
Johnny. I left him sitting at almost the same position at two o'clock in
the morning, only the table then was in a back street canteen, and
Tom he was apparently remembering it, and he avoided my eyes until the waiter
had brought my coffee and gone away. I guess I made quite a fool
of myself last night. Oh I was that nice of your gyes, Johnny?
Hmm, this is good coffee. Oh you'd been making the rounds last
night for whatever reasons, and you felt like talking. But I wouldn't call
that making a fool of yousef all right? Thanks, you were sober enough
when I left you. Oh sure, you just sat there and let me
talk it out. Where'd you go? Anyway? I came out of the
canteen A few minutes later, you disappeared. Captain Perral and Sinata police picked
me up in a prowl car. He'd located that maid from the hotel here.
We went to her home and talked to her. So well for the
moment at leash, you and al and Gloria Dale are apparently off the hook.
Oh, the maid says Burton was always annoying her whenever she was on
duty here he was, I told him to lay Oh well. Her husband
found out and came out here to the hotel yesterday evening. I saw him
and his wife arguing out there on the terrace just after dusk, but I
didn't know what it was all about at that time. Anyway, That's the
last she saw. He didn't come home last night, and he's still missing.
I just talked to her out on the phone. They've got half the
police force looking for him, and you figure he's the one who took a
shot at Charlie last night kind of adds up, doesn't he? Well,
I guess so. I hope they find him Johnny, before he finds Charlie
again. I'd hate to see a poor devil take a rap for killing a
Laus who isn't worth it. Yeah, I know what you mean. Well,
the chances are they were. Didn't neither one of you fellas ever get
the bed last night? Not for long morning, I'll Oh my goodness,
Frank, you look awful man. You must have slept on your face.
I look the same as I look every morning. I want some breakfast down.
No thanks, I'm skipping it. I'm going to try to get in
a dip in that pool before old Blubber tell me whoses out of his feather
bed. Oh. I don't think he'll be using the pool as more now
if he remembers what we're shooting today, it said castaway sequence, isn't it.
Yeah, we'll get that first, but later this afternoon, if the
light on the water is okay, I want to get those shots of him
swimming ashore. Good. Keep him on retakes till he gets water lives.
It's kind of a slapstick desert island thing. Johnny oh yeah, yeah.
You see, Charlie and I are supposed to have been on this yacht and
it sank and I just disappear. But to some stock shots at Charlie swimming
like crazy in a stock shot of a deserted south Sea island, and finally
Charlie comes crawling up under the beach. That's the sequence we're going to shoot
this morning. I see he's pooped, he's dying, you know. Then
I step out from behind a bush and I'm wearing a full dress suit,
white tie and tails. He thinks he's crazy or something. It starts building
from there then, Johnny, Hey, yeah, I get the end.
He's thirsty, see, So I reach under my coat and bring out a
soft drink, an ice cold bottle, and I open it and give it
to him. It says caught quality beverages on the bottle. Cott. Yeah.
Yeah. So Charlie asks is it any good? And I say it's
cot Man, and he says so what, And I say, so it's
caught to be good. You see, Johnny. It's out and out slapstick,
but it works pretty well on camera. Yeah. It keeps building,
you see. I keep producing things out of the bushes a table and chair,
tablecloth, dishes and silver caveat, bottle of wine, roast turkey,
then a string quartet, and finally a line of dancing girls and the payoffs
a shaggy dog. He says, look, we were shipwrecked together. How
you doing all of this? And I say it's easy. I got a
cousin in Congress. It's a lot better on film, Johnny, a lot
better than it sounds, you know, stripped down this way. Yeah,
well, I'm not exactly a fan of Burtons. Oh he's got some good
stuff and this one, mister Dollar. In fact, he's got all the
good stuff. Only thing I'm in there for is to feed him the lines
as usual. Of course, if I ever get a decent roll in his
show, I'll drop dead. Oh really, Potension, that's not funny,
Addies, I said it's not funny. You thought it was when you did
it on the show last month. May I remind you that your service is
going to be easily to good fire me. Oh, I could get out
of this lousy contract with you. I could start on the PCT tomorrow and
at five times what you're painting. Oh, by all means, they'll set
me up in my own show, and they'll put it in a time slot
right opposite yours in three months. Charlie, I could bump you clear off
the screen. You don't say I'll beat it, will you? Okay?
Frank, Sorry you had to get caught in the crossfire. Mister Dollar,
I think personal forget it. See you later, gentlemen, you'll be on
that set in the half hour, not a minute later. Yes, sir,
you certainly are one big happy family, aren't you. Dollar. That
kid was a nobody when I picked them up. You're wrong, Charlie.
That kid is a real talent and you know it. You see, you
see what I have to deal with. He's not as much for this show
in the past year as you have. You see, Dollar, I'm forced
to live in the very presence of my enemy. Who made them your enemies,
Burton. Look, my only concern has always been the welfare of those
less fortunate than myself, those who depict me for their professional careers, and
they're lively. I understand there's some difference of opinion about that, but it's
envy, nothing but envy. Would you like some more coffee, Johnny,
No, thanks, I've had about all I can stand. Yeah, so
have I may I ask what you're doing to protect my life, mister Dollar,
if anything at all. Oh, I've taken the usual routine precautions.
Routine. I demand more than routine. Not for me, you don't demand
anything. I'm working for the insurance company, and I'll complain to that.
God, God, why don't you cancel your policy at the same time?
Then I can get off this assignment. Couldn't cancel it if I wanted to.
My sponsors wouldn't allow it. It's for their protection, not mine.
I know that. I think you'd like to see me murdered. Oh no,
no, you're wrong there. That would mean i'd loust up an assignment,
and I take pride in my work, but you wouldn't care personally.
No comments. I'll demand protection from the local police. You've already got it.
Captain Barrall had two men on duty there last night after that shot was
fired, watching your room. I didn't see them. They didn't intend for
you to see them. If the worst does happen, ballistics can probably identify
the killer after we get the slug out of your body. Alr, this
is no laughing matter. Then why did you treat it like one? Why
did you tear up that threatening letter? Why didn't you call the police in
right then? Why didn't you cooperate with me yesterday when I got here?
And why the devil did you make a pass at an eighteen year old girl
in the first place and get her husband out gunning for you? You mean
you know who's trying to kill me if it's any satisfaction to your burton,
just in case he gets past us, you probably have been killed by a
man named Natcho Morales. His wife is a maid here at the hotel,
as you, no doubt? No? Uh? That little native girl?
Yeah, that little Native girl, both of you. I was wrong,
I admit it. I just just lost my head. I guess when a
man's under pressure all this time as I am, he doesn't always think straight.
Now, I didn't mean any harm toward her. Maybe you'll be able
to convince not you of that if he waits long enough to listen. No,
don't don't please. I know you hate me, all of you do.
But I'm not as bad as you think. You just don't know the
load of star has to carry. Now, why don't you tell us about
it? You frank, you don't think I'm being fair with Al. You
think I'm holding him back, not giving him a chance. Well you're wrong.
I'm actually carrying him, teaching him things I've learned over the years.
Oh he knows quite a bit now, Charlie. So you don't believe me.
You don't think I know what I'm talking about? All right, all
right, I'll show you. Al said he was written down in today's sequence.
He said that I had the great role. You heard him say it.
Oh, yes, then let him have it. I'll trade with him.
You mean that, Yes, I mean it. Let him change any
line he wants. If it is style, you can play it anyway he
likes. I'll take that role. He says, it's so bad, and
I will still come out to star. All right, all right, all
right, Charlie, will have a go at it. Fine, I'll see
you on the set unless somebody manages to kill me. First morning, gentlemen,
Oh, I never thought i'd live to see the day. Yeah,
that shot last night must have really shaken him up. Oh, that kid
will make him look sick, Johnny. He doesn't know what he's in for.
Well there's one way to find out. Wait a bitte, Johnny,
I've been thinking about something you said, Oh that made Morales's wife. Does
she speak English? Nope, just Spanish. But what about her husband,
same deal, only Spanish. Well, but the note Johnny, the murder
thread Charlie got that was written in English. Yeah, I know. The
south Sea Island set was built on the beach at the far end of the
bay. The technicians and the rest of the cast were already there when Maltz
and I arrived, and they started shooting fifteen minutes later. Florian Dale wasn't
in the sequence, so she slept in at the hotel. Some of Captain
Parral's men were on hand on the lookout for Nacho Morales, but he didn't
show. By three in the afternoon, they were nearly finished. They'd shot
the last scene once, but Maltz decided on a retakee so Hal sat down
again the fully laid table on the beach and they started to roll. He
poured himself another glass of colored water from the prop wine bottle and began to
carve the roast turkey while he exchanged lines with Burton. Then suddenly Al missed
Q faulted on a line and Maltz cut the cameras. Al pushed back from
the table, stood up slowly, then staggered and fell. I rushed toward
him, pushed through the crowd that was gathering, and kneel down beside him.
But he was already dead. Johnny Dollar, would you ask John oh
it is you? Was there some doubt about it? No? But I
was phoning Captain Brow. He's out of his office at the moment. What's
the matter of Burton? Somebody's shooting at you again? That's not funny,
mister Dollar, who was laughing? The man's been murdered. You know,
I don't think that's anything but a laughing matter. I said, who's laughing?
And except for the whims of fate, it might well be me lying
dead at this moment. And that's really why you're upset, isn't it,
Burton, Because it might have been you. You're not really concerned about Al's
death. I was extremely fond of the boy. You were no fonder of
him than he was of you. So save that good old lovable Charlie business
for your television audience. I never did buy it myself. Dollar. May
I remind you that your position, I know my position in it. I'm
an incinata to protect your life because some company was crazy enough to write a
half million dollar policy on you. All right, You're still alive, aren't
you? Goodbye Burton from Special Investigator Johnny Dollar, location in Sonata, Mexico,
to the home office, Union States Casualty Company, Hartford, Connecticut.
Assignment the Laughing Matter expense account, final page item twelve fifty cents. Two
bottles of beer, one for myself and one for Capitan Parral. We sent
an office and the Commandant Sea day Police and drank them slowly, and watched
the sun sink behind the headlands across the bay, and we waited. The
daytime heat reluctantly loosened its grip, and the town, pushing off the lethargy
of afternoon, stirred to the quickened pace of evening. A sprinkling truck passed
slowly sweeping the dusty, rutted street with a spreading broom of water. Gleeful
kids ran out behind it and splashed in the puddle, squealing happily Spanish squeals.
They were the Commandant seas off, the tourists beat and all the while,
somewhere back inside the building, an autopsy surgeon worked on a corpse.
Jens yestalisto the medical he is all finished. Now, well what's the verdy
pro? Is what we are thinking? Elsematopo Verneno. He was how you
say poison? What kind of poison? Ciura? How you call it cyanide?
Senor cyanide? And here also you are very much signed in this bottle?
What you has give to me? Yeah, yeah, I thought it'd
smell like it. He'll drank a glass and a half out of it and
then dropped dead right in front of the camera. And you are said,
the wrong man has drink it. The wrong one is get killed. That's
right. Charlie Burton was supposed to play that role himself, but this morning
at breakfast he agreed to let l have the part. I was there,
I heard it. So if he was not do that, he is one
who will be dead now sure, Charlie Burton himself. And it figures Parol.
He's been the target all along, that threatening note that was slipped under
his door, somebody firing a shot at him last night, see said Guru.
Then when they finally got their punch in they tagged the wrong guy.
I have no understand what has happened to this, Natcho Morales hmm Verlena's husband
they made at the hotel that Charlie kept annoying, and he said, no,
no, it's one big place. He's very small. This is down
and we all look every place any are, but we are now find the
man. I don't know Parol, and yet I got a hunch he's the
key to this whole thing. We find him. Say he's no way for
us, gave these down. We find him pronto. Now you bet your
life it am thirteen a dollar forty taxi back to the hotel. Lights were
coming on, a cool breeze was starting to blow in off the Pacific,
and the whole town was brightening up to the challenge of the Knights. But
not me. Technically, of course, the job I'd been sent here to
do was still under control. Big time comedian Charlie Burton, a great,
big, lovable scream to his public, had been insured by his television sponsor
for a half million bucks. Then Burton had received the anonymous note threatening his
life. So I was here to protect the insurance company's investments. I didn't
care personally what happened to Burton. It was just a job. But I
did care about how Johnny Oh Hello, Gloria. What is it? Johnny?
What happened? No one seems to know anything definite about it. Al
Shreiver's dead poisoned. That's all I know about it. Come on in the
lounge. I'll buy you a drink, all right? Johnny found that man
who is missing what's his name? Not your Morales? No, he's still
missing this table, all right? Sure anywhere? Waiting to Margherita's please.
Frank mast said something about Charlie and Al changing parts. Yeah, Maltz got
Charlie mad and he made the switch to prove a point. What point?
That Al wasn't ready for a starring role. Oh that's right. You didn't
come down for breakfast this morning. No, I wasn't in today's scenes,
so I just leapt in. It's just as well. It wasn't a very
pretty sight. It's a rotten shame. Al was a real swell guy.
Here are boy the irony in this world? Johnny? What do you mean?
Charlie Britton, who's been a rat all his life, makes his usual
crude play for the maid here in the hotel, and what happens? Her
husband hits back at the wrong man. Al gets killed a kid who'd never
harm anybody in his life. And Charlie gets off scott free. I was
with Captain Perral last night when he talked to the Morales girl, not his
wife. She doesn't speak any English, Gloria, and she says her husband
doesn't either. Really wouldn't need to? Would he to pull a trigger or
poison bottle? May we not? But he would in order to write a
threatening note in English? Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that. If
Nacho's in it, he's not in it alone, and I've got our hunt.
She's oh, thanks, Johnny Dollar, this is a cap what is
it problem? We have just found the good. I'll be right down.
But Johnny, do you think Frank Malls might not if he was after Charlie
Burton? He knew that now, not Burton was going to drink out of
that bottle. But didn't everybody know that? No, not everybody, Gloria.
You didn't. Nacho Morales was sitting alone in the starkly burned detention room
of the Commandantcia. He was a small man, maybe a few years older
than his wife, a field worker with narled hands and a bent back.
He was waiting patiently, quietly gripping the brim of his sombrero in his hands,
trying to hide the fear, the terror that lay just behind his eyes.
His eyes flickered slightly as Parral and I opened the steel grilled door.
And then he waited, when as the ombre, when as the capitan to
are is not Morales, is good lad, senor as supposed Morales, senor
copaslac andmbre was locked off by the barrier of language. I watched while Parral
stopping now and then to translate. And then Parol asked the question that started
the avalanche, a corsa porco, Senor, why did you try to kill
that man last night? And answer to Parral's accusation, not your story poured
out in a flood of Spanish, and as I stood there listening to a
translated I began to feel side I'd been blind. All the facts were there,
all the evidence, and I'd still failed to spot the play. Not
your story was the key. It fit, and I knew he was telling
the truth. He'd been hiding out on a friend's fishing boat since the night
before. He knew he'd be accused because he had been at the hotel when
the shot was fired through Burton's window. He was hiding in the shrubbery by
the terrace, and he'd seen the whole thing. The shot had been fired
by Charlie Burton himself. Who is it, Johnny Dollar? I want to
talk to you, Burton? All right, just a minute? What is
it? Dollar? Have they caught that killer yet? Not your morales?
I mean yeah, Burrell picked him up about an hour ago. I just
came from there. Has he confessed, No, he hasn't. They ought
to beat it out of him. It's the only way to make that kind
talk. It is Sit down, Burton, I think you'd do for a
shock? What are you talking about? Not sure didn't try to kill you?
Then? Who did? Nobody? Crazy? What about al Shreiver?
I suppose he's not even dead? Oh he's dead? All right? You
want to know you killed him? That was your whole plan, wasn't it,
Burton? To kill Al Shrever and get away with it. Everything else
was a preliminary build up. That's very funny. You want to be on
television. Well, there's going to be an opening soon. You wrote that
threatening letter yourself, what and then tore it up after Maltz had seen it.
So it couldn't be traced back to you. You get better all the
time you fired that shot through your window from the terrace, There more build
up. Then you made your play that phony argument this morning, switching parts
with Al, putting him on the spot, making it look as though somebody
had tried to poison you and missed. It was fairly clever, Burton,
but you're still going to be tagged for it was parrall all this. Why
don't you ask him? I'll be glad to step all right, Dollar,
don't move, get your hands up now, real slow. Is that the
same gun you used last night? You're wrong, you know I'm not going
to be tired, relaxpert, and there's no capital punishment in Mexico. You
can star in all the prison shows. You're too smart, Dollar, You're
like Al, and you know what happened when he got too smart? You
would drop these guns. I started to tell you I'd be glad to call
him that he was listening out there on the terrace. He's gone, you
drop quick. No, hmm, Mira, Senor, I am not shoot
too bad? I think, No, No, not bad at all.
Bar well, yes for it. I am see he is going to pull
this trigger, so I ared to shoot much fast, bum bum bum,
and tell you he's look very surprised. Senor. Yeah, it's too bad.
He couldn't have seen the look on his face. A comedian would have
really appreciated it. Why he'd have died laughing it AM fourteen four hundred and
sixty two dollars and thirty cents. Hotel and miscellaneous and Ensnada and transportation back
to Hartford expense account total seven hundred and ninety one dollars and fifty five cents.
End of account and of report remarks Ray policy on the life of Charles
Z. Burton deceased Refer Clause thirty four sub paragraphs ce quote. If the
insured dies while committing a felony, this policy is null and void unquote.
The Superior Court of Baja California rules that Burton was shot while resisting arrest and
committing an assault with a deadly weapon. So you can keep you a half
million bucks. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Now here's our star to tell
you about next week's intriguing story. Next week, a frantic chase across the
country after a girl who couldn't possibly exist then suddenly turned up join us,
won't you Yours Truly Johnny Dollar? Yours Truly Johnny Dollar is starring Bob Bailey,
is transcribed in Hollywood. Written by Les Crutchfield, It is produced and
directed by Jack Johnstone. Heard in this week's cast were Virginia Gregg, John
Dayner, Lucille Meredith, Lawrence, gil Stratton, Harry Bartel, and Don
Diamond. Musical supervision by Amrigo Marino and Carl Fortina. Be sure to join
us on Monday night, same time and station for another exciting story of Yours
Truly Johnny Dollar. This is Roy Rowan speaking Welcome Back. The Laughing Matter
is a decent Johnny Dollar story with some really solid performances. Larry Dopkin in
episode three, as the producer, did a solid, very well balanced performance
that was really emotional, and I think that the plotline is also pretty good.
Although I think that Gloria essentially seemed to fade out of the suspect list
after episode two. The big problem is that John Daner makes more incredibly unbelievable
comedian. Of course, comedians can be nasty and bullis, and there have
been some fascinating portrayals of twisted comedians. In media, but if you want
to make that work, a guy should at least have some level of mirth,
but with malevolence behind it. I could see Daner as like some sort
of dramatic ham gone mad with ego, but as a comic no, Charlie
Burton is a man without any redeeming value other than his ability to be flustered
by Johnny, which hardly counts for much at all. I think the story's
point is that there are entertainers who are entirely different behind the public veneer,
but you have to at least show the veneer they put up, and I
just couldn't buy Charlie Burton. The story does have a clever twist of Charlie
being the perpetrator rather than the target, that's undermined by him being such a
transparently awful human being. I actually think that while it was not as good
an overall story as this, the Laird Douglas Douglas of Heather Scope Matter was
more clever in that regards, because for four episodes we thought the killer was
an eccentric old woman, and the twist that she's actually this monster is quite
shocking. In this case, learning Charlie Burderton engineered in elaborate hoax as a
cover for murdering a young man with his whole life ahead of him so that
he could stay on television for an additional season. Was more like, yeah,
that makes sense. I can totally say that. Well, now we
turn to listener comments and feedback and Saysoff had a comment regarding Richard Krenna I
talked about a few weeks ago, and he says, Adam, here's a
bit of trivia about Richard Krenna which will drive you even more mad. From
nineteen fifty to fifty five, during most of the time he was playing geeker
Key, Walter Didton, he was a married guy. Yeah, think about
it. Walter Dientton as a married guy. Well, thanks so much for
the comment, saysov. It is an interesting bit of trivia. He was
married at the age of twenty four, which I don't think anybody would have
thought anything about at the time, though we would consider it kind of young
today. Again, I think it's television that exposes the weirdness, because you
could do all sorts of odd things over radio and it would be absolutely fine.
Eddie Firestone Junior on that Brewster Boy in a wide variety of other series
played much younger characters. Ezra Stone Guarded playing Henry Aldrich when he was twenty
left the series to go off and serve in the war, and continued to
play Aldrich until he was thirty four. Because certain actors have the ability just
to go into that sort of younger voice and be believable about it, but
you can't do that on camera. I had a birthday recently and one of
my presents was season one, volume one of Armis Brooks. My wife generally
doesn't watch old programs with me, but since it was my birthday, I
got her to watch the first episode of Armis Brooks on TV and she'd heard
a couple radio programs several years back, and the moment Richard Krennick came in
and opened his mouth and that voice came out, my wife was like,
what is this? What is he doing? And honestly, you know,
I think there are some actors who in their mid twenties can pull off looking
like a teenager. Just Richard Krenna wasn't one of them, particularly with the
Walter Ditton voice. I think of This was probably the second most awkward thing
transferring from radio to television The most awkward thing, of course, was Fanny
Brice trying to play Baby Snooks in cast Fume in a television appearance when Miss
Brice was in her late fifties, so it wasn't quite that awkward, but
Walter Dentton on television is very weird. Well, now it's time to thank
our Patreon supporter of the day, and I want to go ahead and thank
Russell. Russell has been one of our Patreon supporters since October twenty sixteen,
currently supporting the program at the Shawmas level of four dollars or more per month.
Thank you so much for your support, Russell, and that will do
it for today. If you're enjoying this podcast, please follow us using our
favorite podcast software. Be sure to rate and review the podcast wherever you download
it from. We will be back next Tuesday with another episode of Yours Truly
Johnny Dollar. But join us back here tomorrow for Dragnett where she spout the
guy that just came out, Yeah, I went up straight. Let's follow
him, hustling, spot him, then straight ahead about fifteen yards he's crossing
the street. Yeah, let's get up a little closer. We're losing sure
at the light change you. Come on, run for him. What's the
traffic light? Yeah, that was close, and let us spot at us
is going faster. Come on, Joe run, Yeah, don't lose him.
Croud not help him. Hey, hey, wait a minute, I
thought you're a cop. It takes him somebody like all my arms. They're
like, oh, you don't have to get tough, plugy coptic leer street.
I'm gonna wreck the Mays off. Come on, Joey's running for it.
Yeah, I see him. Watch the signal up ahead and hurry.
Joe almost up him into the parking lote. Hey you stop, look out
Joe a gun. I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
do send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detactive, start nett,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us out on Instagram,
Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho. This is your
host, Adam Graham signing off.