Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from
boy Seataho. This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment,
we are going to bring you this week's episode of
the Big Story. But first I do want to encourage you.
If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
favorite podcast software. And I also want to encourage you
to check out our other podcast and today I am
highlighting the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio, where you
can listen to two different great adventure stories every week.
Check it out at Great Adventures dot info or wherever
you get your podcast from Now. From December sixth, nineteen
fifty here is dictionary and telephone line Lead to a Killer.
Speaker 2: The Big Story.
Speaker 3: Hello, Denveris Rollins Shiels still waiting, Thank you, Go ahead,
mister beckwist your offer.
Speaker 4: Night desk, Beck with awe yet Robinsville back on my hills.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 4: In the middle drawer of the desk, you'll find an
envelope marked hold yeah, yeah, got it good, Open it.
Speaker 5: Read it the story I've been working up on my
own time.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 4: There are only two phone lines into Dendliness Town. One
is being held open for the police. The other I'm
holding starting right now. This comes through, it'll be exclusive.
I'll start reading that story. I'll hang on here. Any
questions as you go, ask me.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, what are you waiting for? It up there?
Speaker 5: The end of the story, if it comes, it'll be.
Speaker 6: Murder Denver, Colorado, from the pages of the Denver Post.
The story of a reporter who sewed up a telephone
line to lock up a killer, Denver, Colorado. The story
is it actually happened? Bernard Back with the story as
he lived in.
Speaker 2: Best one.
Speaker 6: You, Bernie back with, reporter for the Denver Post, have
been piecing together on your own time, and now it's
ready to pop. You'll hold up in the one long
telephone exchange of Rollinsville, waiting. You've sewed up the only
remaining trunk line in the Denver just in case the
opposition gets wind of the story and tries by phone
to cash in on your work. But the operator has
got something to say about that.
Speaker 3: I can't hold the line open for you unless you
actually you.
Speaker 4: Everybody's got the whole story in the office operator. I'm
just waiting till the police come back.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I just can't hold the line up right all.
Speaker 2: Right, all right, I'll talk it. What's that book there?
Prediction is okay, let me have it. I'm going to
keep this line busy. All right, here goes.
Speaker 4: It isn't much of a story. But hey, the first
letter of the English alphabet and one of it's five
vowels one any scene in some particular kind.
Speaker 2: Of as he saw.
Speaker 6: Yes, you'll keep it up all night if necessary, to
keep this line open. It wasn't much of a story
when you started. Just a little notice on the official police.
Speaker 4: Bullet missing persons. Betty Gray, female, Rollinsville, Colorado, aged twenty
four five, one hundred and twenty six pounds, medium, bill, etc.
Speaker 2: Hey, sorry, I got anything on this.
Speaker 6: Betty Gray husband reported a missing routine Betty.
Speaker 4: Oh, say she lives in Rollinsville. How is it her
husband didn't report to the sheriff up there instead.
Speaker 2: Of down here in Denver?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 2: Beats me?
Speaker 5: Why don't you go asking yourself?
Speaker 2: It's not worth the trouble. Betty? Give me his name anyway?
Speaker 5: All Paul Gray?
Speaker 2: You compenter? All Gray? Okay, Sorry, thanks? Come on.
Speaker 6: By coincidence, a week or so later, you're under the
sheruff of the Rollinsville area down in town on a case,
not meaning much, not expecting much. You ask him, Paul
Gray's wife turn up yet?
Speaker 7: Ready?
Speaker 5: What do you mean turn up?
Speaker 6: Isn't she still in Chicago?
Speaker 2: Chicago? She's supposed to be in Chicago.
Speaker 5: For sure, visiting her sister.
Speaker 2: Who says, so, oh you know him? Sure all my life?
Oh okay, skip it Chicago.
Speaker 4: Just tell me this one thing, mister Gray. Why didn't
you tell your friend.
Speaker 2: The sheriff your wife was missing. Why did you spread
that story about her going to Chicago to visit her sister?
Speaker 6: Well, you know how it is Amanda's life to go
advertiseing to his friends around his own hometown and his
wife's run out on him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's natural. And just one little thing more, miss Gray.
What was your wife wearing when you saw her last?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 6: I've never won much for noticing women's clothes, but sort
of a blue coat, blue shoes, pocketbookers, black hat?
Speaker 2: Yes? Or she wait, is a feather hat?
Speaker 6: Bought it on our honeymoon that is only five months ago,
you know, yeah, five months married?
Speaker 2: Na?
Speaker 6: Yeah, the last thing I saw is the train pulled
out of the Denver Union Station. Was that a little
feather hat? What train was that put her on the
four to ten for Chicago. Beautiful trains, big brand new
zephyrt California Zephyr they call it. Got one of them
swanky new cars.
Speaker 5: With the domes on the roof.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, yeah, they Vista Dome. That's it, Vista domes.
Last I saw her.
Speaker 5: Well, maybe she'll have a change of heart and come
back to me.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I can always hope.
Speaker 6: Well, it's a perfectly open story that is in the newspaper.
Police thence no story. But one day, about a few
weeks after that, one of the men on the stab
comes in from a lecture in Chicago.
Speaker 2: A nice trip, Bernnie, better than driving any day. What'd
you take, Larry? Anything?
Speaker 4: Emphr Yeah, the first time I'd ever been in one
of those Vista domes.
Speaker 2: Of course it was mostly a night ride, but you
can see some night ride. Yeah. When does she leave
Denver Zephyr? Seven pm?
Speaker 4: And you know trains, Larry, there's the four o'clock for Chicago,
a Vista Dome. There's the four o'clock Zephyr, four o'clock Zephyr. Yeah,
so Janamo, there's only one California Zephyr through Denver, and
that's at seven pm, and it's the only train passing
through here with the Vista dome.
Speaker 6: Now it begins to look like a story, but not
for the paper yet, not till the police take all.
So you point out the discrepancies in Gray's story. The
Denver detective, the lieutenant says, Bernie are being too suspicious.
But just then somebody turns up with the belie that
was left in a locker at the Denver station around
about the time Betty Gray first disappeared. The lieutenant opens it, woman's.
Speaker 2: Clothes, any name on the volice.
Speaker 6: No no way of finding out who left it.
Speaker 2: The old days, when the issue checks.
Speaker 6: It was easier, But now with these tents in a day,
Keith that you wait.
Speaker 2: Laund remarks no initials, so on a monogrammar he looks
like E R.
Speaker 6: Y E or Betty Gray, Betty Gray or.
Speaker 2: No, just the same.
Speaker 5: I think it wouldn't hurt to call Gray in for questioning.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll do.
Speaker 6: They do, and Gray reels off the same story he
ran out on him. He chased her into Denver, foundering
a motor can, argued with her, finally at his best
to give her own head and let her go away
for a while, put her on the train. Haven't seen
her since, heard from her, No any idea what she
might be.
Speaker 2: Well her sisters Chicago, that is.
Speaker 6: Have I write and try to find out?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 6: I know, why not?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 6: I figure if I made out, I didn't care too much,
didn't write, she might kind of miss me, you know,
mister Gray.
Speaker 4: Asked mister Beckery, do you recognize these clothes? No, sir,
they don't belong to your wife, Betty. No, sir, where
did he come from? Well, since they're not hers, it
doesn't matter. But about this sister in Chicago, would you
mind if we communicated with him?
Speaker 2: Well, not at all.
Speaker 5: Betty sent a telegram from the station.
Speaker 4: Might have been to her, probably, and this would clear
up the whole thing. And what's your sister's name?
Speaker 2: Ridgeway? Martha Ridgeway?
Speaker 4: And your wife's maiden name was Elizabeth Ridgway, not Betty,
but Elizabeth E. R. Okay, you take over, lieutenant, it's
yours from here on out.
Speaker 6: The clothes whereas wife's all right, Naddy finally admits, And
so you finally have a story commona held in connection
with wife's disappearance, not held for just held in connection
with nothing really to go on, but the fact that
she's gone, the fact that she's gone without her suitcase
of clothes and one other things. An answer to a
checkout in.
Speaker 4: Chicago, Martha Ridgeway reports no where from sister Elizabeth since
January first, nineteen fifty. Andre says he put her on
the train March sixth, and it's now May tenth.
Speaker 2: But that isn't normally said. He blurts out the rest
of the.
Speaker 6: Pathetic hotels of his marriage to you and the Lieutenant. Well,
from the first it didn't work out so good. I
had twenty one years on her. You see, you know,
a young woman live in a little town like Rollinsville,
not much to do.
Speaker 2: I must stay at home. She was more than get
up and.
Speaker 6: Go out by we had.
Speaker 1: When she run out on me.
Speaker 6: I give her ahead a while, then tried to persuade
her to come back.
Speaker 2: But she liked it and did.
Speaker 6: I agreed to let her stay in town for a while,
gave her some money, begged her at least to write
to me, let me know how she's getting along.
Speaker 5: It is the least she could have done.
Speaker 2: And did she sir right to you, yes, or she
did a lot too.
Speaker 5: She wasn't a mean girl, you know. She wanted me
to understand you.
Speaker 6: I have those letters, Oh yes, lieutenant, every last one,
and where are they?
Speaker 2: Up? In my cabin? Hid away? But I'd hate for
him to come out of I mean, there's things in him,
what kind of things? Private things?
Speaker 6: Mister Beck was in a man's own private letters from
his own wife. Mister Gray, speaking as a law officer,
it's only fair to tell you that this has gone
a little beyond the missing person's case, and for your
own protection, I think you'd better let us see those letters,
especially if they back up.
Speaker 2: Your story that your wife has left you, just left you.
Speaker 6: The fact is, mister Grey's begins to look like murder. Here,
Grays delaid you on the law of the letters. You
go along with the police. There was cabin in the
back hills of Rollins.
Speaker 2: Now all right, now? Just where are those letters, mister Gray?
Speaker 6: I believe I got him in a mason jar in
the pantry here.
Speaker 2: Nope, not here. I come on, mister Gray, where are they?
Aren't there any letters at all?
Speaker 6: But I got him, I got them, but I just
can't remember where exactly they well, they might be.
Speaker 2: In this chest or in this here little table.
Speaker 5: I keep things in this drawer.
Speaker 2: Right, what's that done? Don't be a fool, Gray.
Speaker 6: This is Cy Harris returning into your narrator.
Speaker 7: And the big story of Bernard Beckwith as he lived
it and wrote it.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 6: Bernard Beckwith of the Denver Post, had worked up a
story on your own time, a story for who's ending.
You are now waiting by an open telephone line. Get
started with a woman reported missing by her husband, managed
to persuade the police to question him, and had gone
with him and then to his cabin in Rollinville. And
there he pulled a gun from behind.
Speaker 5: Lookout yourself.
Speaker 2: He wasn't shooting at me, crabbed that pone, get a doctor.
Speaker 6: The poor jerks killed himself, No, not killed himself, just
creased his own head. Funny how they can miss at
such close range.
Speaker 2: Now he lies in.
Speaker 6: The prison hospital while you and the law wait outside
and second guess the whole deal. That's all my fault, Bernnie.
Should I guess it had a gun hidden there?
Speaker 4: Not necessarily, lieutenant. We really had nothing solid on him.
I got a weird idea for the grandstand playing how's
that well, if he really wanted to kill himself, if
that range he couldn't have missed. Now, I think he'll
come to and ask to see you, then start spending.
Speaker 2: Some yarn about oh well, how's it going do? I
ain't just scribed? Can we see him? By?
Speaker 5: The first coherent thing he said was let me talk
to the law.
Speaker 2: For Nader batting a dozen? Well, come on, let's see
what it comes up with this time. Huh. In the
minutes to reporter come asking questions.
Speaker 6: I knew it was just a matter of time before
I get caught, So I I want to.
Speaker 2: Tell the truth. Everything else was live. This is how
it really happened.
Speaker 6: After so much fighting, squabbling those first five months was married,
I finally agreed it is best for us to break up.
We got in the car and I agreed the driver
as far as the hotel in Denver, but instead I
kept on going south.
Speaker 3: Paul, if you passing motor camps, aren't you going to stop?
Speaker 6: Not for a while, betting not for a while, But
you promise. I know, I know, honest, I'll stop believe me.
Speaker 3: Every time you say that, I start not believing you.
I wouldn't be in this mess of it happens. And
see you if I hadn't to believe you see in
your lives about Denver being a hot little town, and
all the time it was rollins Bill you lived in, yeah,
and your big contract in business, and all the time.
Speaker 5: Was just a little old carpenter and your lodge in.
Speaker 3: A month, baby, and all the time it was that
coming old shop.
Speaker 8: Believe me, I wouldn't believe you of yourself.
Speaker 3: I was snowing, and I was standing in the middle
of a blizzard. When are you gonna.
Speaker 5: Stop and let me off?
Speaker 6: Colorados Springs, honey, Colorados Springs?
Speaker 5: Where are we going?
Speaker 3: When are you gonna let me off?
Speaker 2: Square blow, baby, square blow?
Speaker 3: When are you gonna let me off?
Speaker 2: Where are we going?
Speaker 5: Las Vegas?
Speaker 2: Sweetheart? Las Vegas?
Speaker 3: Look, I'm kicking tired of this driving all day. I'm
doing all the way, lion, Lion, lion.
Speaker 2: The way you're behaving.
Speaker 3: If you don't let me off at the very next stop,
the very next town, I'll never come back.
Speaker 5: Where are we in?
Speaker 6: The Alba CERTs just across the Rio brand and we'll
be an albat cerque.
Speaker 3: All right, albatz eating, But no fot.
Speaker 6: I never took her into Albuquerque. I never meant to
all that driving is just to get up my nerve.
When we come to the Rio Grande, I said to myself,
that's the place.
Speaker 2: So we crossed the bridge. I pulled off the road.
She started nagging me again, and I choked her. I
choked her to death. Her body in the river. She
was wearing blue dress, blue shoes, black pocket books. Hat, No,
no feather hat, feather hat feather Oh yeah, yeah, a
little feather hat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it looked at it. Would you come over
here a minute later? What are you thinking your first
hunt was ready?
Speaker 2: He killed us? Yeah, well he's a.
Speaker 4: Very smart cooking comps the body in the river, he says,
don't you see he knows there's no case without a
corpse of a lease full of clothing.
Speaker 2: That's not murder evidence.
Speaker 5: You need a body, you.
Speaker 4: See the real grin how a Cirkie could drive this.
And that was three months ago, before the spring flood.
They won't find anybody, but I've got an idea.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, try it. What have we got to lose,
mister Gray?
Speaker 6: Yes, so you want me to sign that later, mister Gray,
Just a couple of little questions first, Now the bridge
you said you drove over the bridge that tried it
is on the other side the Albuquerque All right, all right,
now we're going to check that, of course, on and
would help if we knew where to drag your wife's body,
if you could.
Speaker 2: Actually prove your cross that bridge. Now, the toll taker,
the man in the booth who takes your tool. Is
there any reason he might remember the.
Speaker 5: Man in the boot?
Speaker 2: No, I don't think he would. Well did he say anything,
for instance, like thank you are nice? Yes?
Speaker 5: Thanks?
Speaker 2: He said, thanks?
Speaker 6: Sure, not that I really remembered, you know, But now
you mentioned it, of course, he said. Thank Then you
drove on that's right and off the bridge?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: Left or right? Oh, let's see. Well, we're just trying
to find out where you pushed her body in. I mean,
above the bridge or below? Oh yeah, well, let me
see it.
Speaker 4: There's a turnoff to the right down the river road.
That's right, right, We turned right off the bridge to
the right, and there you choked her to death and
pushed her into the river.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Thanks, mister Gray. You're welcome any other information I
can give you. I mean, now it's off my chest.
Speaker 2: He'll be glad.
Speaker 5: To cooperate anything you wanted on one thing.
Speaker 2: We want Gray, the truth, but change the.
Speaker 5: Truth, and that is the truth. I admit everything else's lies.
Speaker 4: But never mind the butt's Gray, there's plenty wrong with
this truthful story of yours. In the first place, there
is no toll on that bridge, not since nineteen forty seven. Place,
there's no river road turn off anywhere near the bridge.
Speaker 5: Now, come on, Gray, let's have.
Speaker 2: The proof, all right. The truth is I killed her,
but we know. But where's their body?
Speaker 6: It's it's up in the hills. I buried her back
in the hills. All the rest is live. I killed
her in the hills, and I.
Speaker 2: Bury her there. You're sure it was right here?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, Lieutenant, right here, I'm sure it is by
this creek. I mean the creek wasn't running yet, but
I buried her right here. You didn't find anything, boys, Oh.
Speaker 2: This ground's never been drug off all later that.
Speaker 5: It's all rocks. But I'm sure it is right about here,
right here.
Speaker 7: You're sure about the other two places, to the creek,
bottom of the rock out crop.
Speaker 5: Full Oh, it is here. I'm sure that tree, I
remember that. What do you say.
Speaker 2: Otherwise goose chase. We'll keep this up. We won't find nobody,
We'll find gold goal.
Speaker 6: The magic word rings a bell. Go these hills a
pot with mind working, Go to try one last hunch,
one last gambit in this crazy stalling game. This crazy
killing husband is playing leading the law all over the.
Speaker 4: Lot, mister Gray, Yes, sir, A couple of notes from
my story an if I ever get around to writing it,
And you're a name.
Speaker 2: Even in these parts.
Speaker 4: No strime from Utah way, oh I see came up
here as a prospector. Maybe No, sir, I never had
the gold fever, but I made my living off those who.
Speaker 6: Did as a carpenter. Yes there's a carpet. I let
the other fellows dig for this stuff. I built their
shacks and their house, and their shafts and their chafts
and their offices and all that. But if you want
to put me down as a gold prospector, will make
your story any better?
Speaker 2: Way? Thanks, you've helped a lot, Lieutenant.
Speaker 6: What does a bernie forget the shovels?
Speaker 4: Try one of those old mine shafts. I know there
are hundreds, but try them off.
Speaker 2: Do you know both? There is a body down a
mine shaft. I'll lay to that they take off.
Speaker 6: Determined to check every mind shaft in the ward Rollinsville area,
and it takes all night, and now you burn it
back with I'll hauled up and Rollinsville's combined Telephone Exchange
police station, holding the wire open to beyond night desk,
determined to keep it open until they come in with
the end of your story. That is, if they come
in with a story. And if you have to read
the dictionary over the phone from.
Speaker 4: Now the doomsday a verse unwilling, not favorable to turned
away from the principal axis a version for it dislike
an object of dislike Vernie.
Speaker 2: Hey, Hey, hey, hey, Bernie, Bernie, Bernie O. Hi, well
this Oh did he identify? He didn't have to?
Speaker 6: He did it you twice? She was wearing it, didn't
he a little feather hat with a bullet.
Speaker 2: Hole in it?
Speaker 4: Here, Hey, desk, I'll give you the lead in a second.
Speaker 6: Okay, looking at where with the body like you said,
done a mind chef, you'll do drop my.
Speaker 4: Hey, that's my phone, you can't take it out, and
holding that line to tell.
Speaker 6: Them, hey quiet a second. Hello, Hello, this is Detective
Higgins of the Denver police. There's another angle for your story.
With this in your man, Becked with aig was so
invaluable to this investment.
Speaker 4: Oh listen, let me get my withour the investigation might
have bogged down what.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, you certainly can qurte me.
Speaker 6: Now we read you that telegram from Bernard Beckwith of
the Denver, Colorado Post killer.
Speaker 4: And Tonight's Big Story. Finally signed seventeen page statement of
true story of wife's murder. He pleaded guilty, waived jury trial,
and was sentenced to fifty years to life, from which
there is no appeal.
Speaker 7: In order to protect the names of people actually involved
in the knights Athetic Big Story, the names of all
characters in the drumdization were changed. With the exception of
the newspaper reporter. The Big Story has been a presentation
of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service, the Voice
of Information and Education.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. Well, let's start with the cast. List back
with was played by Vinton Hayworth, and then also in
the cast were Adrian Bien, Scott Tennyson, John McQuaid, Nap Pulling,
and Jason Johnson. I think this is the first episode
to feature a filibuster except It's not a filibuster on
the Senate floor. It's a filibuster of a small town
long distance line. And that could work in nineteen fifty
because a rural town like this, you know, you could
call your local neighbors, but there was only a limited
ability to call out, and if somebody else was using
the long distance you had to call again later. It
was definitely such a different time in terms of information
and telecommunicationations. The development of the case itself was also intriguing.
It highlights the fact that reporters just would get a
de loge of information. And the way beck With got
his big story was by having a fact that stood
out to him and following up as he got the opportunity,
not in any big formalized way to start. The whole
story that we were given may felt false right from
the word go, and it wasn't for the reason they
highlighted with them needing to break down his story. I
just found it incredible the idea that he would be
able to drive an adult woman all the way from
north of Denver to Albuquerque, against her will and with
her doubting his sincerity. If nothing else, he'd have to
stop for gas along the way, because that's a four
hundred mile trip at least, and you were not getting
that far without filling up, so she could have left
the car. In terms of the episodes, a real life
version this did actually occur in nineteen fifty, so a
pretty recent case, and the carpenter was named John Rice,
who murdered his wife, Emmeline, who he'd been married to
for four months. Probably the biggest change is the method
of attempted suicide. In tonight's episode, he tried to shoot himself.
In the real life incident, Rice tried to cut his
own throat. So the killer told a different series of stories.
But I'm not going to knock the big story writers
on that every thing he told them up until found
the body was a lie. He in real life, John
Rice tried to go even further once they found the
body in the mind shaft after he had told them
about killing her and leaving the body in the mind shaft.
They couldn't find physical evidence to link him to the crime,
so he said that he didn't know how the body
had gotten in there. Though eventually he did play guilty
and was sentenced to fifty years and passed away eleven
years later. Well Now it's time to thank our Patreon
supporter of the day and thank you to Bueno, Patreon
supporter since March twenty twenty three, currently supporting the podcast
at the rookie level of two dollars or more per month.
Thanks so much for your support. Why No, and that
will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast,
please follow us using your favorite podcast software and be
sure to rate and review the podcast wherever you download
it from. We'll be back next Tuesday with another episode
of the Big Story, but join us back here tomorrow
for broadways, My Beware.
Speaker 9: The face of the woman who opens the door, holes,
disappointment and dark beauty.
Speaker 8: I am very sorry. I thought it was my husband one,
but how good I think that since one would not not.
Speaker 2: My name is Danny Clover.
Speaker 10: I am senior, so please come in, Nicolas. We have
a visitor, Nicholas Senior Clover. Please just need to present
to you. Send Nicholas minach Or the manager of my host.
Speaker 7: How do you do?
Speaker 2: May I ask you whether your husband is homes No,
he's not.
Speaker 8: He's seeing your city of magnificence. I wait for him,
Nicolas and myself.
Speaker 9: I'm from a police there's been a murder of town.
There seems to be some connection between your husband and
a girl who was found dead in the barrier.
Speaker 2: Girl in the battle.
Speaker 9: That's why, a girl named eve Hunter. She was found
in a room rented by a man named Cadiz.
Speaker 2: Adiz. Of course we know one of the quadrillo, but
this girl is eve Hunter.
Speaker 11: You know her in Savilla, in Spain, I first saw
the Senorita eve Hunter, and in Barcelona, in Lisbon, in Cordo,
in these places and others, the flame of this girl
and that of my husband.
Speaker 9: You may nave Hunter followed your husband around, and why not?
Then you didn't mind the fact of this girl.
Speaker 8: One simple is to him, I am his wife, to
hold it close atin at this Bursday. I'm sorry, did
I know it? There will be other eve Hunters, nor will.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
send your comments to bar Brooks 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 boy Sattaho. This is your host, Adam Graham
signing off