Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
gonna bring you this week's episode of Yours truly Johnny Dollar.
But first I want to encourage you. If you're enjoying
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Johnny Dollar air dot com first. But now, from June
twenty eighth, nineteen fifty nine, here is the Miling Buddha
manner from Hollywood.
Speaker 2: It's time now for Johnny Dollar Mardi Bruce Johnny at
Worldwide Mutual. Oh hi, Marty, how are you? Did you
ever hear of the mailing Buddha? Nope, I'm afraid I never.
It's probably the most valuable piece of jade.
Speaker 3: There is a little statue not more than three three
and a half inches high, made during the Meiling dynasty, and.
Speaker 2: You've incured it yes, how much forty thousand. What's happened
to it? I don't know. I don't know if anything's
happened to it.
Speaker 3: But if nothing's happened to it, I'm not even sure
of that that nothing's happened to it.
Speaker 2: Come on over here, let's talk about it. Huh Yeah,
And they got better Bob Bailey in The Exciting Adventures
of a Man with the Action in fact expense account
America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator are truly Johnny Dollar expense
account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to the Worldwide
Mutual Insurance Company home office, Hardford, Connecticut. Following is an
account of expenses encourage during my investigation of the Mailing
Buddha Meta expense account. I don't want a dollar ten
for a taxi from my little apartment to the office
of Worldwide Mutual, where Marty wasted no time in getting
to the point.
Speaker 3: Sure if it went for that knuckleheaded Ray Kermer who's
he one of our contment got back from the European
vacation just this morning, But being so stupid, I ought
to fire him. He knew we did ensure that Jade,
Buddha and when he saw it over there in Paris
a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: He should have looked into it, found out what it
was doing there, doing just exactly where Marty in a
dingy little antique shop, somewhere on the route to something
or other. He didn't even have sense enough to get
the address or the name of the place. Where was
it supposed to.
Speaker 3: Be locked up in the home of the late Darryl
Harcourt up in Boston.
Speaker 2: And of course it isn't. Well, that's the point. I
don't know. There's been no report of effect. Well, if
somebody seen it in Paris, is that Buddha pretty well
known among collectors and so on.
Speaker 3: I told you it's probably the most valuable piece of
jade in the whole world.
Speaker 2: And let me use your phone. Sure here, but if
we don't even know what shop or where it is
in all of Paris, leave it to me. My phone
call was to a slimmy little character whose name is
de Marsac, but who calls himself with Chagri, the great cat,
who knows the Paris underwear like the back of his hand.
He's been a lot of help to me some months
before and locating a painting that was stolen from my
good friend and the actor and I collector Vincent Pride
certain one. If you are willing to pay me, well,
if you can dig up the information I want, I'll
maybe you a check for one hundred bucks American immediately, Johnny,
only two hundred what you call bucks for my in
the scheme of both services? Okay, two hundred. Now listen,
there's a little idol the mailing Buddha. I know it
will Oh, I saw it only this morning here in
Paris where patty shop of Monsieur Dubuisson on the Rue
de Parte l He was smuggled in only a few
weeks ago. And the price on it, well, for such
aware and exquisite piece. Oh, how much you thirty two
million francs. That's around eighty thousand dollars. So it must
be the McCoy you wish me to.
Speaker 4: Shall we see obtain it for you?
Speaker 2: You mean steal it? What a purch was you? But
for a price? No, no thanks, I'll send you a check.
You're giving him two hundred bucks just for back, a
lot cheaper than my flying over there. Well, yes, so
now i'd better check at the home of this what
do you say. The name is Darryl Harcourt in Boston.
Speaker 3: I'll put down the address for you, sed about two
years ago.
Speaker 2: Home's in charge of his.
Speaker 3: Old housekeeper and missus Mary Pascal, and I take it
his property, his final tapestries and the furniture.
Speaker 2: Yes, will to various museums here, everything but.
Speaker 3: The contents of Missus Haskell's Roman to study the ladder
he willed to a nephew, Charles Curtis, to be given
to him the day he finishes at Harvard. Well, that's
a funny sort of arrangement. Harcott was a funny man.
The Buddha was the only thing of real value in
that room, and he figured it was enough to get
his nephew started in the business of some kind.
Speaker 2: I see this Curtis boy at the house too. No, No,
that goes to Missus Haskell. After Curtis gets the contents
of that one room. Well, look as though i'd better
hie myself up to Boston and make sure that Buddha's
really gone. I had him too. The two hundred dollars
check to my informant in Parrots, who was sure he'd
seen the mailing Buddha was sure it had only arrived
there recently. But if so, why hadn't it been reported
missing from the home of the late Darryl Harcourt up
in Boston. I had him three fifty bucks to posit
on a rental car. When I reached Boston, I headed
west on Deacon Street a couple of miles beyond Kenmore Square,
and there, on a little side street found the Harcourt Hall.
It wasn't much of a place anymore. The lawn and
garden had been neglected, and the building itself was in need.
Abir pair was the old fashion time. Yes, missus Haskell,
I'm Johnny Dollar insurance investigator.
Speaker 5: Oh, of course, do come in, mister Dallas rather dismal.
Speaker 2: That's what you live here all the time.
Speaker 5: I am responsible for this house until the terms of
the will I've fully met.
Speaker 2: That's when Charles Curtis finishes school.
Speaker 5: Yes, of course, my own quarters at the back or
its tide is there's always been, and mister Harcourt studies
exactly as it was when he passed away.
Speaker 2: I want to see that study.
Speaker 5: No to be left as it is until master Charles
opens it to play his inheritance.
Speaker 2: You're talking about the mainling.
Speaker 5: Buddha, furniture, books and things.
Speaker 2: How long since you've seen that little jade idyl?
Speaker 5: Well, not since mister Harcourt died. I locked the door
and it hasn't been open since.
Speaker 2: Except that is well. I'm sorry, but I have to
look around in there.
Speaker 5: But you have the key, of course, keep it on
this chain about my neck at all times.
Speaker 2: Let me have, mister Dallas. I can get a court
order if necessary, but it would only waste time.
Speaker 5: Am I to nose?
Speaker 2: You're even? Well? That is here, my creatacious I'm a
fully authorized agent of the company that ensured that Buddha,
but i'm responsible. Has it occurred to you, missus Haskell,
that the mailing Buddha might possibly have been stolen? That's impossible,
is it? Okay, where's the study.
Speaker 4: I'll go with you and I'll open the door.
Speaker 2: No, mm hmmm. This door looks a couple of inches thick,
just like.
Speaker 5: The one to the library. Mister Harcourt kept all his
lovely pastry.
Speaker 4: Dear, look at all that dust.
Speaker 2: Dust is right? It was on everything, the accumulation of
a couple of years. On the desk that shares the
open floor, bookshelves and tables. They're almost dark and glooming.
Speaker 5: Yes, it looks just the same except for all this
horrible dust. But as I told you, mister Dalla, this
is the first time the door has been opened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now where is the Oh? Oh, I hope you
didn't hurt yourself. I just didn't see it.
Speaker 5: But he always insisted on keeping the electric fan on
that little table next to the door.
Speaker 2: Now where's the Buddha?
Speaker 5: The little wooden casket on the desk?
Speaker 2: I must seem ah wow, I was afraid of this,
afraid of what.
Speaker 4: Oh no, it's gone. The Buddha's gone.
Speaker 2: Oh no. I searched the room thoroughly and found no
trace of the mailing Buddha. Somehow someone had got in
that locker room and stolen it. Must have happened recently.
A piece as valuable as that wouldn't be allowed to
lie around for long. If Issaka told me had arrived
in Paris only a few weeks ago, and I had
no reason to done it, How could anyone possibly have
got in there without leaving marks in the dust that
swirled about our feet every time we moved. That showed
a clear imprint of every step we made. That left
a mark on everything I touched.
Speaker 4: Oh dear, oh dear, this is terrible.
Speaker 2: You're sure you have the only key to this room,
missus hask Yes, it was.
Speaker 5: In trusted to me to prevent this very thing.
Speaker 2: Oh dear, what about the nephew, Charles Curtis.
Speaker 5: No, I'm sure he's never had one.
Speaker 2: You think he could have got hold of yours and
had a copy made impossible?
Speaker 4: In Oh dear, where that's school at Harvard?
Speaker 2: I think i'd better see that boy.
Speaker 5: Certainly you can't think that Master Charles did this.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to think yet. Tell me you're
absolutely sure you've let no one in here since mister
Harcourt died.
Speaker 5: You can tell by the dust over everything that no
one has been in here, not for years, absolutely, except
for the federal tax man of course. The appraiser for
the estate was that a month or so after mister
Harcourt passed away.
Speaker 2: And he showed up in Paris on.
Speaker 5: I was within mister Dollar, and so was the attorney attorney,
mister Howard Bancroft in town.
Speaker 2: Do you have his address?
Speaker 5: Office is just off Copley Square, And I've.
Speaker 2: Got two people to see Charles Curtis and Howard Bancroft.
Speaker 4: Mister Dollar about master Charles, he's a good boy.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker 5: Simply ants thinks that he Anyhow, no one could have
gotten here without leaving a trail.
Speaker 2: I want you to close up this room again and
leave it close. I'll be back, please, how about childs
listen to me? Maybe later, Missus Haskell later, Yeah, after
I've talked to him. One thing puzzled me. If young
Charles Curtis did steal the Buddha, why did he do
it after a few months more at Harvard to get
it anyway, and he'd be able to sell it on
the legitimate market for a lot more than it would
ever bring on the Paris black market. On the way
and to look him up, I stopped at the office
of the lawyer Howard Bancroft. I can't believe it, mister
donne Well. The fact remains, mister Bancroft, that the Buddha
is not only missing from the Harcourt home but has
turned out in Paris. But the only person who had
access to that room with Missus Haskell. In accordance with
mister Harcourt's wish, that room hasn't been added for years
until today. And yet if the Buddha has shown up
only recently, I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir. Mister
Harcourt willed it to his nephew, didn't he. That's right,
Charles Curtis, when he finishes school, and he willed the
house to missus Haskell, didn't he? Yes? And it will
be little enough reward for her years of service to him?
How do you mean mister Harcourt paid her very little
during all those years? She and I I too, quite frankly,
felt she was entitled to a great deal more. You see,
his will be valuable things. The collection of tapestries he
willed to various museums Soderston. They were kept in an
her medically sealed room, the library her medically sealed practically.
Didn't you notice the tremendous doors on the study and library,
the sealed windows? Then? How could any dust but about
Charles Curtis, mister bangrust, admirable young man. In addition to
the money his uncle always gave him, well, his own
family is very wealthy, you know, No, I didn't know. Yes,
they've given him everything he wants and it hasn't spoiled him.
A bit even during college. He's an excellent, hard working student.
He's going to be a lawyer, mister Dollar, and you'll
be a good one. And maybe my thinking about him
has been wrong or definitely by mister Dollar, He's planned
to donate the mailing Buddha to a museum when it
comes into his possession. You see, AH has just that.
After handing more or less straight insurance cases for so
many years, I almost instinctively suspect anyone close to the
well of the problem in hand in this case, Young
Charles Curtis, even Missus Haskell, maybe even you. I beg
your pardon, but I guess I'd better just shake the
dust out of my brain and tackle this as a
plain ordinary Wait a minute, just eh, it's a little
matter of dust that really has me stopped. That makes
it impossible for that added since tapestries you said I mentioned,
of course, how blind can I be? Look? You better
get ready for some legal action and be having your client,
the late mister Darryl Harcourt. I'm going to play a
hunch with the bankroft. Maybe it's all wrong, maybe it's crazy,
but I'm going to play it to the hilt. No
mister doller, you can't do this. You have no right.
I'll see about that. These are my own personal things.
I don't believe you're and then should investigate her whatever
you like. Have you a warrant to search my room
this way? No?
Speaker 5: No, you're just some tea some.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, this bank book your name? No, you
give me that some twenty years of a balance that
never got above six or seven hundred dollars. Give me
that here two months ago, single deposit of twenty one thousand.
Speaker 5: That was money that either.
Speaker 2: That was the money you got from some crook. We'll
let the police run him down. Some crook who smuggled
the mailing Buddha over to Paris after you stole it
out of the study.
Speaker 5: That's impossible, and you know it.
Speaker 4: That study hasn't been open for.
Speaker 2: Nearly two years.
Speaker 5: You saw the lair of dustin there yourself.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, you pointed it out to me half a
dozen times. I should have caught on. Then, come on,
we're going into that study you need to keep No,
I won't. I don't have to rip it off that
chain your neck all right? Here?
Speaker 4: You saw for yourself.
Speaker 2: Yes, I saw it, all right, and I didn't have
sense enough to realize what kind of dust that was,
and look at it? Full of earth? What you talking
about about the old fashioned method of cleaning fine tapestries
with full of earth. That's the way mister Harcourt cleaned them,
isn't it. What difference does that man? And there's probably
a supply of it down on the cellar somewhere that
he always kept on. What there is that doesn't prove anything? Yeah,
I was blind, blind as a bat when I knocked
over this electric fan that didn't have any dust on it,
because it's what you use to spread the dust. The
fine particles are full of earth all over this room,
A little sackful maybe held in front of the fans,
and it left proof apparently that nobody's been in here
for a couple of years. Yeah, it had me fooled,
but not anymore. Better get your coat.
Speaker 4: No, No, I deserved far more from mister Hockcourt for
my years.
Speaker 5: Think of watching him squander his money on the idol ta.
Speaker 2: Nephew who had money of his own.
Speaker 4: Now I have money, gent.
Speaker 2: Gentlemen, more than I lived.
Speaker 4: I'm an old woman.
Speaker 2: Thank you. You're young. Perhaps you could use some.
Speaker 4: Perhaps ten or twelve thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: You will have to think of a better way out
than that. And you know something, I have a notion
you're going to have time to think about a lot
of things, plenty of times. Yeah, I know, the mainland
Buddha still has to be brought back from Paris. Maybe
I'll get the assignment. Maybe he'll go to one of
our regular foreign investigators. As for Missus Haskell, well, I'm
sure mister van Craft will lose no time in taking
whatever steps are necessary. So expense account total, including mileage
on my rental car and a few incidentals, Well call
it three hundred bucks, even yours truly, Johnny Dollar, now
here is our star to tell you about next week? Story?
Next week? Well, far be it from me. They get
up on a soapbox. But I hope he'll make a
point of listening to him. It concerns a lot of
money in the wrong hands, in the hands of a
bunch of kids too young to meet responsibility, too young
to realize that cutting loose from family before they're ready
can lead to trouble, in this case, murder. Yeah, I
think you'd better hear it, so join us, won't you
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Yours Truly Johnny Dollar is starring
Bob Bailey, originates in Hollywood and has written, produced and
directed by Jack John Starr. Heard in our cast were Virginia,
Greg Paul Duba, will write and Boris Lewis. Be sure
to join us next week, same time and station Well.
Another exciting story of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: It is tempting to wonder why Johnny would try to
give the Great Cat a low ball offer, But to
be honest, if the Great Cat didn't get an opportunity
to haggle Johnny up, he just would not have a
good day. This is a case where our criminal defeated herself. Now,
the point is that the room was sealed. It wasn't
in any meaningful way hermetically sealed, but there was very
little airflow and she had the only key. So she
goes into this room that has hardly any dust on
it and says, I want to make sure that no
one can tell I've been here, So I'm just gonna
coat this room in Fuller's earth to make it look natural.
Johnstone's stories often have this one does have an element
of social and moral commentary through the spate of Bancroft,
in which he says that essentially mister Harkhart has done
missus Haskell wrong. In life, he was very cheap in
how he paid her, and in death didn't really leave
her a good inheritance. And in some ways it might
be harder to grasp in today's world, where you have
a much more mobile workforce, where people will spend a
few years at a job and then move on to
another one. But you had, particularly among those who worked
for wealthy people who would work for them for decades,
and a housekeeper who lived with you and took care
of the house and looked after you for all those years.
You know, there's the old cliche. Yeah, she's just like
one of the family, which you can, you know, pass over.
But if somebody's been there, you know, twenty thirty years,
then that's a real natural feeling. And the idea Johnstone
is expressing here is through Bancroft is expressing, is if
someone is wealthy and they have someone take care of
them for decades of their life, they ought to take
care of the people who take care of them, both
in life and in death. And Harcourt clearly did not
do that. Well, now it's time to think our Patreon
supporter of the day. I want to thank Rose, Patreon
supporter since June twenty twenty three, currently supporting the podcast
at the Shawmus level of four dollars or more per month.
Thanks so much for your support, Rose, And that'll do
it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow
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We will be back next Friday with another episode of
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. But tomorrow we yield to the
great adventures of old time radio and hand it over
to Counterspy, where.
Speaker 2: Mister Peters call mister Harding right away. Mister Peters call
mister Harding right away. Yes, we do. Has anything come
in on the investigation of that benefit for the disabled?
There's not routine anymore. Bring whatever you've got to my office.
We've got to go to work fast.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime.
Send your comments to 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 from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.