Speaker 1: And now mystery the.
Speaker 2: Come in.
Speaker 3: Welcome.
Speaker 2: I'm E. G.
Speaker 4: Marshall, curator, as it were, of this Museum of the Macabre.
What is a witness? Literally, a witness is one who
has seen, therefore one who knows, And therein, of course
lies the difficulty. If our knowledge is based on what
we have seen, how well may we trust the evidence
of our eyes? This is a problem that confronts all
of us every day. Reasonable people may solve it peaceably
Quarrelsome folk may settle it violently, And then we have
those particular situations that seem to have no solution at all.
Speaker 2: Junior, you've got to help me out.
Speaker 3: Sure, who is this time?
Speaker 2: Mister Hoffman?
Speaker 3: You gotta take care of him because I already to
carry him.
Speaker 2: Mister Hoffman's dead. I can't believe you go back on
your promise.
Speaker 3: Hoffman was buried a month ago. He's back in the store,
but the Star has been closed shut down. He's there now,
he can't be He's waiting on customers. You know, it's
hard to believe it is mister gear I'm telling you
what I saw.
Speaker 2: What's happening now? Would you believe me and take care
of him?
Speaker 3: Yes? Sir, the customers always right.
Speaker 4: Our mystery drama, The Final Witness was written especially for
the Mystery Theater by Sam Dan and ours Lou Jacobi.
For many of us, life follows familiar, even routine pathways.
Speaker 2: Occasionally we may be.
Speaker 4: Temporarily dislocated by a war or some natural or man
made disaster, but all in all life takes on the
rhythm and tempo of the oceans. After the most violent storm,
the sea becomes quiet and the air is calm. The
key word for so many of us is predictable. There
is no ecstasy, but merely amusement, and no tragedy, just irritation.
Meet the Gearharts, a married couple approaching middle age, Oliver
and Cassandra Gearhart. It is after dinner, or as they
would call it, supper in editing room.
Speaker 5: Callie, will you turn that stupid thing?
Speaker 3: Damn?
Speaker 2: It's a good picture about World War Two?
Speaker 6: How would you know?
Speaker 2: It's the third time I've seen it?
Speaker 6: I s damn.
Speaker 2: You got a kid that's swell as sleep right away.
This guy's gonna step on a landmine. Watch how they
blow him up.
Speaker 6: I need a quarter milk here it.
Speaker 2: Comes now, capo, Hey, what did you turn.
Speaker 5: It off for you had your big moment. Go get
the milk.
Speaker 2: Whatever you say, Cassandra, and.
Speaker 6: Don't call me Cassandra either.
Speaker 2: What a couple of names we got, Oliver, Cassandra.
Speaker 6: Just go down for the milk.
Speaker 2: I hate it when people call me Ali. On the
other hand, you want to be called Cassie.
Speaker 6: Go down to South Maine where they got a milk machine.
Speaker 2: But half minutes closer.
Speaker 6: Hoffman charges a nickel.
Speaker 2: Moore is a nickel.
Speaker 5: Gonna break us a nickel here and nickel there.
Speaker 6: Anyhow, you go to Hoffman's, you hang around for hours
and chew the fat.
Speaker 2: Mister Hoffman is an intelligent man.
Speaker 5: He's a funny duck. Besides, he's a foreign.
Speaker 2: Everybody in this country is a foreigner, except maybe the Indians.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean by a foreigner. Go get
the milk.
Speaker 2: Okay, Cassandra, and don't call me Cassandra.
Speaker 4: Ah, mister Gearhart, mister Oliver Gearhart, good evening.
Speaker 2: How are you doing, mister Hoffman. Well, let us examine
the situation.
Speaker 4: I'm drinking a glass of wine, I'm listening to a
Mozart concerto, and a good friend has just entered my establishment.
Could a king be more happily occupied?
Speaker 1: Let's see what did I come in for?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, oh no, Only barbarians rush headlong into their
business transactions. First, I must pour you a glass of wine,
and we shall consider. Excuse me, my friend, while I
tend to this gentleman. Yes, sir, may I do something
for you?
Speaker 3: Then you do something for me?
Speaker 6: Yes, sir?
Speaker 2: What may I do for you?
Speaker 3: I heard you the first time.
Speaker 2: Pop.
Speaker 3: Now, what you and this other clown here can do
for me is to put up your hands.
Speaker 2: It's it's a stick up.
Speaker 3: You are a very bright person.
Speaker 4: Not shut up, you, young man that revolver. Please, it
isn't at all necessary. Here I'll open the cash register, see,
and you just help yourself.
Speaker 2: Shut up?
Speaker 6: Here, take the mines.
Speaker 2: Shut up.
Speaker 6: Don't be nervous.
Speaker 3: I want to be nervous. I'll be nervous if I
want to be, I'll be whatever I want to be.
Speaker 6: Just take the money.
Speaker 4: You don't have to kill anybody.
Speaker 3: I want to kill somebody. I don't kill somebody.
Speaker 2: I can do whatever I want to do.
Speaker 4: You know why.
Speaker 3: Please I'm talking. Never interrupt me when I'm talking. I'm
the boss. What I say goes I can do whatever
I want because.
Speaker 2: I'm holding this and you know what this is. Don't
interrupt me.
Speaker 3: It's a sand fed Valentine's Special forty five caliber revolver.
Speaker 6: Interrupt me again.
Speaker 3: I'm the boss. Now look at me. The door of you.
You know who I am on God, and right now I.
Speaker 5: Can strike your dad.
Speaker 6: Here's told you not to interrupt.
Speaker 3: You will never interrupt me again.
Speaker 6: Never, never, never. I told you, I told you don't
go to Hoffman's. But no, don't listen to me.
Speaker 2: I'll never understand why I wasn't killed.
Speaker 6: Where did you have to go to Hoffman's.
Speaker 2: This guy he just kept shooting me and all like
you see in the movies. I don't know if he
was aiming at me or not, but poor old mister Hoffman,
he's dead.
Speaker 6: I kept telling you not to go.
Speaker 2: The cops come in. This detective says to me, Can
you describe it, mister Gerhart, Well did you?
Speaker 1: Well? Sure?
Speaker 6: To a t Oh, that was smart, that was brilliant.
If there's a stupid thing that needs doing, you could
always be trusted to do it.
Speaker 2: What did I do that was stupid?
Speaker 6: Just shut your mouth off.
Speaker 2: All I did was describe the guy.
Speaker 6: All you did was stick your neck out.
Speaker 2: I was there, I saw the guy. Am I suppose
to say? I don't remember what he looked like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what you're supposed to say. How could I
say that you were scared to death?
Speaker 6: You were in a state of shock. The whole thing.
It's gone from your mind.
Speaker 2: What's the matter with your Cassandra?
Speaker 6: What's the matter with you?
Speaker 5: You got a wife, a family, and this killer friends.
Speaker 6: Maybe they won't like the idea that you want to
identify him.
Speaker 5: Do I have to spell it out? Well, something's not
your business. You don't get involved.
Speaker 2: What kind of a country would it be if everybody
was like you?
Speaker 5: If everybody minded their business like me, we'd be a.
Speaker 6: Lot better off.
Speaker 3: And mister Gerhard, I'm Edward Spurlock, the district Attorney. Yes, sir,
Misus Spurlock, thank you for your excellent description of the killer.
Speaker 2: Well about that.
Speaker 3: In my twenty years, I have never seen a more accurate,
a more detailed delineation. Have you ever had any police training?
Speaker 2: Well, no, sir.
Speaker 3: There are veteran police officers for whom attention to detail
as a profession who couldn't match your account of the gunman.
Speaker 2: Is that so?
Speaker 3: Yes, your description is almost scientific in its precision. I
shouldn't be surprised if it's used as a model in
training courses. Well, thanks to you, we had no trouble
running down the killer.
Speaker 2: You got them already with.
Speaker 3: Your kind of description. Now look through the window. It's
one way glass. You can see into the next room,
but the people in there can't see you.
Speaker 2: I know, I saw this exact setup in the movies.
Speaker 3: Well, we try to follow them in every detail. Now,
those four men standing on the platform.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's the lineup.
Speaker 3: Is one of them? The gunman is one of them.
Speaker 2: The guy, no, sir, he isn't there.
Speaker 3: Berrigan, get rid of the one on the left, bringing Ellsworth. Now,
mister Gearhard, you remember your description.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he was six feet tall. He was thin,
with a kind of a pot belly, down sport jacket
with white flecks, light yellow turtleneck shirt, tan pants, down
cowboy boots, red hair, high forehead like he's getting bold
blue eyes. The right one had a kind of a
cast in it. Tap two on the back of his
left hand. The one that held the gun, a bright
red heart with three drops of blood and the word
mama in blue letters.
Speaker 3: Any wonder that description is the talk of the department.
Speaker 2: Well, I was standing right next to the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Hardly lasted a minute.
Speaker 2: Well it may have been a minute, but it felt
like an hour.
Speaker 3: Now, now, mister Gearhard, look at the young fellow who
was just brought in.
Speaker 2: The last one on the left.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's the guy you sure, definitely you got him.
You'll testify to that affect in court, Yes, sir, I
assure you will ex and the fullest protection to you
and your family protection.
Speaker 1: What do you mean, just in case?
Speaker 2: In case?
Speaker 3: The man's name is Woodrow Ellsworth Junior. He's one of
Mama Ellsworth's boys.
Speaker 1: Literally, he's your son, Mama Ellsworth.
Speaker 3: Yes, Mama is the leader of a little group that
specializes in confidence games. You mean a mom Oh no, no,
they're careful to avoid violence. What the kid did was crazy.
It has nothing to do with her operation. I tell
you this because you have.
Speaker 1: A right to know a gang leader.
Speaker 3: No, no, nothing like that. They just work swindles. Now,
what you must remember is that you, your magnificent description,
forms the cornerstone of our case.
Speaker 2: Why without you?
Speaker 3: So now now can we depend on you to testify
to do your duty as a citizen.
Speaker 2: Well, sure, sure you can depend on it's my duty
as a citizen, Cassandra.
Speaker 5: How about your duty as a husband and a father.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's almost time for the eleven o'clock news.
Speaker 6: Who cares?
Speaker 2: I'm on it? Can you imagine me on the news?
They come by the shop lunch hour to tape it.
You should have seen everybody, I mean even mister Perkins.
He was impressioned. Oh sure, For the first time in
my life, I felt I was somebody.
Speaker 6: Oliver if Hoffman was someone we knew, like a friend
of ours.
Speaker 2: I knew him, he was a friend of mine.
Speaker 6: It was such a weird guy.
Speaker 2: What do you mean weird?
Speaker 6: He had crazy ideas, He talked like a nut. And
another thing, you ever asked yourself? What was he doing
around here?
Speaker 2: He was running a grocery store.
Speaker 6: A guy like him, who do you want to run
a grocery store for? I never trusted him.
Speaker 2: What does this have to do with mine?
Speaker 6: Holly? People like us, we can't afford to get involved.
Speaker 1: Hold the cops and everybody.
Speaker 2: What'll people think of me?
Speaker 6: Like they say in the movies? You want to know
the bottom line? Okay, the bottom line, you identified this
guy at the trial. A couple of weeks, a couple
of months, maybe a year later, they find your body
in some alley or maybe in the trunk.
Speaker 5: Of a car.
Speaker 6: Not to sound don't call me, Cassandra. You mean it
don't happen, and it'll be in the papers and everybody
will say, oh, yeah, that's Oliver Gearhard who testified at
that murder trial. What a jerk. He should have kept
his mouth shut.
Speaker 2: You mean it's right for a guy to come in
and just murder, mister.
Speaker 6: Hoffman, I don't say it's right.
Speaker 2: You gotta admit that's wrong.
Speaker 5: What he comes down to ali is right or wrong.
We can't afford to get.
Speaker 7: Involved, Rocky.
Speaker 4: What a pleasant surprise my boss sent me over, Mama
professional courtie.
Speaker 7: Oh well, I'm deeply touched, Rocky.
Speaker 4: My boss wants to offer is anything he can do
for you in this hour of your What was.
Speaker 6: The word he use, a tribulation?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: That sounds like a good one, though.
Speaker 3: My boss is very unhappy about your son, Junior.
Speaker 7: Oh yes, I was afraid it might come to something
like this, and I tried so hard to raise him.
Speaker 2: Properly kids today. There's not a thing you can do
with them. Yeah, you're telling me.
Speaker 4: The truth is you're outfitting geared for conditions like these.
I mean, you ain't got a halfway decent button man
in your whole entire organization.
Speaker 7: That's true, but we specialize in other aspects.
Speaker 4: My boss understands this witness that DA's got, this clown,
Oliver Gearhart.
Speaker 2: He don't have to be no problem at all. He
can disappear.
Speaker 7: Oh, Rocky, Well, thank your boss for me.
Speaker 2: Well, off the record, it ain't just a favor for you.
Speaker 4: This could make pigeons everywhere think before they sing that.
Speaker 1: The boss used their great word.
Speaker 7: He said, would be therapeutic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that. All you got to do is
give a not.
Speaker 7: Well, you tell that, dear kind man, I'm maternally and
is dead, and I may accept his offer, but only
is a last resort.
Speaker 4: Well, there ain't no last resort. How are you going
to keep this sphink from getting on the stand.
Speaker 7: Oh, but I want him to get on that stand.
Speaker 4: Rocky, Mama, he gets on that stand and Junior is
lost forever.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 7: Now, if mister Oliver Gerhardt gets on that stand in
the proper manner, Junior is saved forever.
Speaker 4: We live in a world of changing concepts. Even the
last bastion is crumbling motherhood. Mama is breaking out all
over out of the kitchen, away from the apple pie.
Speaker 6: But this is neither no unique.
Speaker 4: After all, mamas used to rule mighty tribes and conquering
confederations of warriors. Are we approaching new dimensions of motherhood?
Just you listen to Mama in action when I return
with Act two.
Speaker 1: It isn't easy.
Speaker 4: It was never easy to be a witness for the truth.
As a group, people who bore such witness found their
reward in personal satisfaction, because other rewards have traditionally been
quite scanty, to say the least. Indeed, speaking out for
the truths can be one of the most hazardous and
least remunerative of all occupations. However, from time to time,
say points the finger, and the selection or the election
to witness can happen to anyone at all, even to
Oliver Gearhart.
Speaker 7: Oh excuse me, so do you mind if I share
your table?
Speaker 2: Help yourself?
Speaker 7: I had no idea this cafeteria would be so crowded.
Speaker 2: Well, it's lunch hour. If it ain't going to be crowded.
Now when is the guy going to do a business.
Speaker 7: That's a very sage observation, But then again, your powers
of observation are legendary.
Speaker 1: Mister Gayhart, how do you know my name?
Speaker 7: I recognize you. I've seen you on the news. Oh, you, sir,
have become a celebrity.
Speaker 2: Hell I wouldn't go so far as.
Speaker 7: Actually, you've become a household name. No, I wouldn't say, well,
you are in our household. Oh sorry, I forgot to
introduce myself. My name is ESMERALDA Ellsworth Ellsworth and they
call me mama. I don't know why do I impress
you as the maternal type?
Speaker 2: You mean your mama Ellsworth? You're the mother of that
that killer?
Speaker 7: Killer is a harsh word.
Speaker 2: What do you want?
Speaker 7: Just an opportunity to chat about? What about my son,
my wayward boy? You simply don't know how much trouble
I've had with him, and now this.
Speaker 2: He's he's a maniac, he's a manaster society? What do
you want from me? Already gave the cops the description, Well.
Speaker 7: When an unfortunate event occurs, we cannot undo what has happened.
But what we can do is make the very best
of it. Now, Woodrow Ellsworth Junior did murder a mister
ference Hoffman, My dear Oliver, would I insult your intelligence?
We know who Woodrow Ellsworth Junior is, But who is
Farence Hoffman?
Speaker 2: Don't you not, mister Hoffman. I mean he might have
been a foreigner and all that, but he was my friend.
Speaker 7: Yes, and as his friend you have a responsibility to him.
Speaker 2: Oh well, then what are you trying to do?
Speaker 7: Hoffman? There were many things about him that you may
have been unaware of.
Speaker 2: Look, nothing you can say about old mister Hoffman cou
justin me.
Speaker 7: Mister Hoffman was a saint, a great hearted man whose
life was dedicated to helping others. Now, like many people
of his kind, he died penniless. His widow will try
to support herself and an invalid daughter on a meager
social security pension. Now, doesn't mister Hoffman deserve better? Surebout
probing further into the affairs of our good mister Hoffman.
Did you know that he was practically in the terminal
stages of an incurable disease?
Speaker 2: What are you saying?
Speaker 7: At most he had three or four months to live
now suppose my son had not shot him.
Speaker 2: Look, you're going too fast for me.
Speaker 7: Life is going too fast for you, Oliver. You must
catch up with it now. Had death claimed him due
to natural causes, his unfortunate family would be forced to
exist in penury.
Speaker 2: I never knew he had a fami.
Speaker 7: Instead, my poor boy Junior can now literally become their savior.
Speaker 2: I don't follow you.
Speaker 6: I would be.
Speaker 7: Willing to compensate for Junior's rash action. I would gather
and tee the Hoffman family a comfortable monthly income.
Speaker 1: What's the catch, you catch a condition?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I would expect you to forget the description of
the gunman at the trial I did. You would be
doing this as a favor to your dear departed friend.
Speaker 2: A favor. I do him a favor when I don't
describe the killer, A favor.
Speaker 7: By achieving what would be precious to him above all else,
the security of his family. Now, Oliver, once we probe
beneath the surface of any action, we begin to learn
that things are not at all what they seem. Yes,
on the face of it are senseless brutal killing. But
who died A man whose life would have died in
the midst of horrible suffering.
Speaker 5: Perhaps what Junior did may have been for the best
after all.
Speaker 2: But mister Hoffman, he didn't want to die.
Speaker 6: Who does.
Speaker 7: Oliver? She forgives him, She forgives Junior, missus Huffman. I've
spoken to her, She says, there has been misery enough.
Speaker 2: Well, what do you want me to do?
Speaker 6: But before you.
Speaker 7: Do anything, just talk to missus Huffman. Yes, yes, Parens
spoke of you. He would say that Oligerhart, there there
was a human being.
Speaker 2: He was a great man.
Speaker 1: Missus Huffman.
Speaker 7: My husband's life was a tragedy. It is fitting his
death should be tragic too. I forgive the boy we
are commanded to forgive. But I have a daughter, my
poor Magda, so ill. She needs so much help. And
the lawyer looked at the paper missus Ersworth wants me
to sign. It is so generous.
Speaker 2: Well, look, I feel pretty bad. I gave my promise
to the dah.
Speaker 7: It is so painful for all of us. We must
not tell further. If I can forgive him for taking
Perence's life, can you not also forgive him for sparing jaws.
Speaker 2: Look, I'll go to the Da. I'll tell him I
might have made a mistake.
Speaker 7: No, no, no, you must not tell anyone, not until
the district attorney places you on the stand and asks
you directly.
Speaker 3: Now, mister Gearhard, at approximately ten pm on the night
of January third this year, you were in mister Hufflin's
grocery store.
Speaker 1: I was the door opened, A man entered.
Speaker 3: He held a forty five caliber Sanford Valentine's special revolver
with which he shot mister Hoffman dead. Is that what happened?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Now, that man, that man who wantonly killed poor mister Hoffman.
Did you see him?
Speaker 2: Yes, you got a good detailed look. Yes, you could.
Speaker 3: Identify that man if you saw him again. Yes, beyond
all shadow of a doubt. Yes, the defendant in this
trial who was sitting at the table, is he that man?
Speaker 1: No, mister Gerhard, No.
Speaker 3: But you positively identified that.
Speaker 2: I was wrong. I made a mistake, Oliver.
Speaker 5: I got to talk to you.
Speaker 6: Where's the money?
Speaker 2: What money?
Speaker 6: The money you took to forget what the killer looked like.
Speaker 5: I'm only saying what everybody else is saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what everybody keeps saying.
Speaker 2: All right, way, what it ain't true?
Speaker 6: You had the identification Damn Colt. What made you change
your mind? Oliver?
Speaker 5: You were paid off? How much did you get?
Speaker 2: I didn't get anything.
Speaker 5: Do you expect me to believe that?
Speaker 2: Yes, Son, you're a four. You're the one. You're the
one who kept saying, don't get involved, don't identify him.
Think of the safety of your family.
Speaker 5: You also had a duty as a citizen.
Speaker 2: Now you're hopping on that bandwagon.
Speaker 6: What bandwagon?
Speaker 2: Before the trial, you were saying to me, Ali, you're crazy.
They're going to fish your carcass out of the river.
What are you getting mixed up in it for? Okay?
So I backed off, and now everybody said, on account
of guys like you, crime is gonna take over the country.
How much did they pay you to keep your mouth shut?
Speaker 6: That's what I want to know.
Speaker 2: How much nothing? I told you? Nothing?
Speaker 5: Then why did you do it?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Okay, somebody has to believe me. Somebody should know why
I did it. And it wasn't for any money.
Speaker 5: What was it for?
Speaker 1: Come on, I'll show you.
Speaker 2: Here's why I did it. For a poor old lady and.
Speaker 1: A crippled kid. Here's the address.
Speaker 2: It's just a little two room, cold water flat right
on the ground floor. I want you to meet them.
Speaker 6: Somebody.
Speaker 2: Huh, there has to be somebody home. The kid is sick,
she can't move. The door's open. I hope nothing's wrong,
Missus Hoffman, Missus Hoffman.
Speaker 5: There's nobody here.
Speaker 2: Maybe they had to go out for something.
Speaker 6: I mean, there's nobody. Yeah, nobody lives there anymore.
Speaker 2: I was here the other day, just before I had
to go on the standard.
Speaker 6: There's no furniture. This place is empty.
Speaker 2: Missus Hoffman.
Speaker 6: Missus Hoffman, what kind of trick are you trying to
pull on me?
Speaker 2: Oliver? But I tell you this is the place A
partner one B forty eight hundred South, Jefferson.
Speaker 6: Missus Hoffman, Ali, there is no Missus Hoffman, So save
your breath. Now. How about the money?
Speaker 2: I tell you there is no money, mister Gerhart, So
kind of.
Speaker 7: You to come calling.
Speaker 2: Listen, Missus Ellsworth. Everybody thinks I took money to to
forget what the killer looks like.
Speaker 7: Regrettable that people should always apply sinister motives to generous actions.
Speaker 2: I was worried about Missus Hoffman. I went there with
my wife and the place was empty.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 2: I went back again later and I spoke to the
jen and he said he said no such person ever
lived there with a crippled daughter, and that some lady
had rented the place, gave my month's friend, moved in
and out on one day. He couldn't understand.
Speaker 7: Well, Oliver, what can I tell you?
Speaker 2: You tricked me? There is no Missus Hoffman.
Speaker 7: There will always be a Missus Hoffman. She will live
forever in our imagination, yours and mine.
Speaker 2: What's gonna become of me? Like I say, everybody thinks
I got paid off, It.
Speaker 7: Will all blow over tomorrow. Another crime will take center stings.
Speaker 3: Hey, Mamma, you said I could buy a little kill.
Speaker 7: Say hello to an old friend, mister Gearheart.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, hey mister Geerhat here a terrific guy. Wow
you did a job on that da in the cartoom
here you killed him. I couldn't have killed him dead
with a gun.
Speaker 7: Mister Geerhart is leading.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, loove mister Gearhard come around anytime you need
something done like a guy gives you a fly.
Speaker 7: Good by mister, and don't do anything rash. Just think
about it. Huh. You owe me quite a bit for
what for the Listen, After all, you may be sadder,
but just think you are so much wiser.
Speaker 4: Sadder but wiser. A pity that many of us must
know sadness before we may acquire wisdom. I wish I
could say that we have seen the end of poor
Oliver Gerhardt's troubles. However, I am compelled to report that
they have scarcely begun, as you will see when I
return shortly with that three. If the road to Hell
is paved, as they say, with good intentions, then much
of the concrete for that highway has certainly been poured
by our friend.
Speaker 1: Oliver Gerhardt.
Speaker 4: A brutal killer, has gone free, cleared forever of a vicious,
wanton murder, simply because of Oliver's refusal to identify him.
But Oliver was convinced he was performing a noble act.
Speaker 2: However, a cynical world.
Speaker 4: Has other ideas, including Oliver's loving wife.
Speaker 2: Who is she? Who's who?
Speaker 6: The other woman?
Speaker 2: What other woman?
Speaker 6: The one you're gonna run away with?
Speaker 2: What are you saying?
Speaker 6: I figure you have to be planning on running away
because you haven't asked me for a divorce.
Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
Speaker 6: That's what You're going to use the money for? Another woman?
Speaker 2: There ain't no other woman.
Speaker 5: Don't lie.
Speaker 6: You never thought of running off with another woman?
Speaker 2: Sure, I thought about it, and you admit it. Every
man thinks about it. That don't mean I got one.
Speaker 5: If you're thinking about it, then you're holding onto the
money until you find one to run away with.
Speaker 2: I give up.
Speaker 5: I quit, Olly, I'm entitled to some of that money.
Speaker 6: I mean, look, you were all ready to be a hero.
I'm the one who made you think twice, wasn't I
I'm the one who made you see the light?
Speaker 2: Won't you even try to understand something inside?
Speaker 5: I'm your wife.
Speaker 2: There's no money.
Speaker 6: I'm warning you, Holly, you're not gonna pull a fast
one on me.
Speaker 2: Hey, where are you going out? Good evening, mister Gerhard?
Speaker 4: Good evening, mister.
Speaker 2: Gerhard, No, it's it ain't you.
Speaker 4: Good evening is there for you?
Speaker 1: You're dead.
Speaker 2: You're dead, mister Hoffman.
Speaker 4: Aren't we still friends? Mister Gearhart?
Speaker 2: I gotta be seeing things.
Speaker 4: It's been we week since you've come into the store.
I've been wondering have I done anything to displease you?
Speaker 2: Mister Hoffman. You're supposed to be dead.
Speaker 4: So tonight I decided to stand outside the store and
watch to see perhaps if you'd pass by on the
street the store.
Speaker 2: It ain't that it's open, it's light the store.
Speaker 4: Won't you come inside, mister Gerhart. I have a special wine,
rich sweet, the kind you like.
Speaker 2: And I'm standing here and I'm talking to you, of course,
and your store is open, like always, like always, don't move,
stay where you are, Just wait there, just stay there.
I'll be right back.
Speaker 5: What do you mean dragging me out on the street
this hour of the night.
Speaker 1: I saw him.
Speaker 2: I saw him. I spoke to him like you.
Speaker 6: Saw and spoke to his wife.
Speaker 2: I'm not crazy, and I was dreaming. He was in
the front of a store. The place was open for business.
Speaker 6: The man is dead.
Speaker 2: See for yourself.
Speaker 1: It's just around the corner, and that'll prove.
Speaker 3: Proof.
Speaker 6: What mhmm?
Speaker 2: So, But he was standing here just a couple of
minutes ago.
Speaker 5: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: And the store the lights the lights were off. Sure,
believe me, You've got to believe me.
Speaker 6: I believe what I see. And what do I see?
Speaker 5: I see an empty store, been there way for weeks.
Speaker 6: There's a lock on the door. The windows are smeared
with grime, dirty. I can look inside and the counter
then on the shelves. Now, Allie, there's nothing but the meet.
Speaker 5: Only wakes senses.
Speaker 6: You're sitting on a nice pile of money for the
million time. There is no moment. As I was saying,
you're sitting on a nice bundle. You want to ditch me.
You figure if you can get me to what.
Speaker 7: Will you live?
Speaker 5: No, so you've been building.
Speaker 6: It up, first missus Hoffman and now mister Hoffman.
Speaker 5: But Allie, none of it can work.
Speaker 6: I'm not letting you off the heark. I'm your wife
and I'm entitled to some of that money. Holly, Hm,
what the phone?
Speaker 2: The phone?
Speaker 6: Can't you hear the phone?
Speaker 2: Who'd be calling me? If this hour of the night?
Speaker 6: You better answer it?
Speaker 2: Hello, mister Gerard, Yeah, good evening.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm sorry if I'm calling so late, but you
must forgive me.
Speaker 1: I'm an old man.
Speaker 4: And very lonely, and I do miss our interesting talks.
Speaker 1: Who is it?
Speaker 2: It's Hoffman, You're crazy, it's Hoffman. It's you, mister Hoffman,
ain't it? But of course who else would it be?
Get me off the hook? Will you tell my wife?
Tell her here? Cassandre, you talked to him?
Speaker 6: Hello? Hello, it's no one there.
Speaker 2: I just spoke to him.
Speaker 6: There's no one on the phone.
Speaker 2: Oh look, I know what I heard.
Speaker 6: I know what I heard too.
Speaker 5: I heard nothing.
Speaker 2: I ain't crazy.
Speaker 6: It won't work. I mean, you get somebody to ring
the number three four o'clock in the morning so you
can answer it and put on this act. It's not
an act. Who'd you get to down the number? Your girlfriend?
Speaker 4: I don't have a girlfriend, Allie.
Speaker 5: What's wrong with you?
Speaker 6: There's nothing wrong with me.
Speaker 5: I mean, you will never like this about money before.
Speaker 6: The only thing I can figure.
Speaker 5: Is it's so much money it must have turned your head.
Speaker 6: But I'll watch the use.
Speaker 4: Hello, mister Gearhart, what's that I said?
Speaker 6: Hello?
Speaker 4: Mister Gearhart?
Speaker 2: Hugh, how did you get in here?
Speaker 4: You really don't know a man until you see him
engaged in his profession, don't you think.
Speaker 2: Look, nobody's supposed to be in here unless he's authorized personnel.
Speaker 4: You're a machinist, a skilled craftsman.
Speaker 2: Mister Huffman, are you standing here?
Speaker 4: You see me? You speak to me?
Speaker 2: But why you're supposed to be dead?
Speaker 4: What does that mean? All it means is that other
people cannot see me.
Speaker 2: But why do you come around to me.
Speaker 6: I like you.
Speaker 4: I miss our talks. You never come around in the
evening anymore.
Speaker 1: How can I when you're in I'm open.
Speaker 4: I keep the store open late as usual. Promise me
you'll come to see me tonight. I do miss our
little talks.
Speaker 2: Promise yeah, yeah, I promise hash again tonight.
Speaker 6: You know what prices are today.
Speaker 2: Look, I need my strength.
Speaker 6: We could have steak every day, even three times a day,
if you gave me some of that money you got
star someplace.
Speaker 2: Oh, so that's how you're gonna play it. You're gonna
starve me. I'm wise to your little game.
Speaker 5: I'm wise to your little game too. You know who
called today? The foreman in the shop. Listen, miss Gearhart,
let me you better take Ally to see a doctor.
Speaker 6: Something's wrong with him.
Speaker 5: This afternoon.
Speaker 6: He shut down his machine and just stood talking for
ten minutes to a little man who wasn't there. Your game, Ally,
you're trying to get everybody to think you are nuts,
or maybe I'll believe it too.
Speaker 2: Uh Uh, I was talking to Yeah, I'm tired. I
gotta go to bed.
Speaker 6: Ollie. It's the door. Somebody's at the door. Huh, I said,
somebody's at the door, and it's after midnight.
Speaker 5: Who is it this time?
Speaker 2: We'll go see Okay, okay, good evening, mister Gerhardt, it's you.
Speaker 4: You didn't come by this evening. I thought perhaps something
might be wrong.
Speaker 2: Will you let me alone?
Speaker 4: We used to be such good friends. What happened?
Speaker 2: Is this how you're getting back at me?
Speaker 4: Back at you for what?
Speaker 2: For what I did at the trial? Is this what
you're gonna do to me? Drive me out of my mind?
Speaker 4: I don't understand. All I want to be is your friend.
Speaker 2: Hey, I just slammed the door for Why did you.
Speaker 6: Think I did? I just stand there talking into an
empty hallway? What do you want the neighbors to think?
Speaker 2: But he was Hoffman was okay right.
Speaker 6: Here, got the act. Put a stop to it.
Speaker 2: You're here, Yeah, I'll put a stop to it. I
know just how I can put a stop to it.
Speaker 3: Hello, Junior, Hey, it's mister God, my best buddy in
all our whole wide Well, I have a drink.
Speaker 2: No, I better not, and you better not either. No.
Why remember Junior, you said if I ever needed anything done,
if some guy was giving me the flat.
Speaker 3: You mean you want me to take care of a
guy for you, mister Year, hide me the year hid
any dime and he placed anybody?
Speaker 2: Do you remember where mister Huffman's grocery is?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: Can you meet me in front of the place in
exactly one half hour from now?
Speaker 3: Mister yehi, you got yourself a deal. Now why do
you want me to use? I got the forty five?
When I got a sleep fifty seven or a special
thirty eight?
Speaker 2: Use whatever comes natural?
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 7: Hello?
Speaker 2: Is this the district attorney? Yes?
Speaker 3: Thisurlock?
Speaker 6: Who are you?
Speaker 2: I want to report there's going to be a murder
at exactly ten thirty. Wait, wait, you familiar, and this
time you can get him? Get who the killer? You'd
be at eight ninety nine South Adams at exactly ten thirty.
Speaker 3: Hello, junior, Hey, mister Gear here, I am right on time.
Who do I knock off?
Speaker 2: Mister Hoffman?
Speaker 3: Mister mister Hoffman, But I already I know?
Speaker 2: But could you do it again?
Speaker 1: Look, mister gear see him?
Speaker 2: He's in the store. What's so right here? His grocery store?
Don't you see him? He's standing there behind the counter.
Speaker 3: But the store is it's done empty? You ain't nobody's
standing there?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: There he is see he's waving at us. Shoot him.
You promised me you take care of Yeah, but listen,
shoot him. He's driving me out of my mind.
Speaker 4: Shoot him.
Speaker 2: You don't even have to go inside. Just shoot through
the window. See him now, he's standing in the doorway
right in front of you.
Speaker 6: Shoot him.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's your party. You got him, You got it.
Speaker 6: Why is this the goss over here?
Speaker 2: But killer, he's over here. Listen, you're setting me up.
Speaker 6: Why you get it.
Speaker 2: I'll kill you, old head.
Speaker 5: He can't go any place.
Speaker 6: Listen.
Speaker 1: The Garhard's the Garhard.
Speaker 2: He he kills mister Hoffman. You saw it happen yourself.
Mister Hoffman was standing in the door and you saw
how he just shocked mister Hoffman. Now you got him,
You got him, haven't you.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, mister Gearhard, We we got him finally. Yes,
they had him.
Speaker 4: Not for the murder of mister Hoffman, but for the
murder of Oliver Gearhart. And there was a very inspiring
story in the papers of our plain citizen. A mister
Oliver Gearhart decided to make up for a momentary lapse
in the courtroom and help the police capture a notorious killer.
Speaker 2: I'll be back shortly. It's easy to condemn.
Speaker 4: Poor Oliver Geerhart, and yet how many people step fearlessly
forward to perform the duties of citizenship in the face
of danger, How easy it is to look the other way,
and how many millions have done it and still do it.
For it is said we turn away from our fellow
man because too often, when we look at his face,
we see our own. Our cast included lu Jacobi, Joan Lourie,
Briana Raeburn, Robert Maxwell, and Leon Janny. The entire production
was under the direction of Hyman Brown. This is E. G.
Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasant dreams.