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
going to bring you this week's episode of Yours Truly
Johnny Dollar. But first I do want to encourage you.
If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
favorite podcast software, and remember, as you're making your travel plans,
check Johnny Dollar air dot com. Johnny Dollar air dot
com is a price line affiliate link, so part of
your purchase price supports the Great Detectives of Old Time
Radio at no additional cost to you. So remember when
making your travel plans check Johnydollar air dot com.
Speaker 2: First.
Speaker 1: Now we find ourselves actually in the middle of one
of the biggest gaps through Johnny Dollar. After last week's program,
ten of the remaining twelve nineteen fifty eight episodes are missing,
which makes it the single biggest block to have missing episodes.
The only one rivalrying it is the nineteen fifty two
hole in the Edmond O'Brien era, win ten of eleven
are missing. Today's program actually aired on November the sixteenth,
nineteen fifty eight, and it's the Double Trouble Matter.
Speaker 3: From Holleywood. It's time or Dollar Earl Foreman, Johnny Hi Earl.
I think it's sunny Florida. I think I'll move to California.
What I mean, get away from this grazing insurance business.
As far as I can. You sound like you have
a problem. I sure have a real wild one trying
to get rid of sixty five thousand dollars. That's a problem.
That's insurance on a policy bought and paid for by
one Albert Skyler Kingdom. Well, he died and left the
money to his only child's son, Henry Worsavanna. Can't you
find him? My name? That's just the trouble, Johnny. I've
found two of them. Bob Dailey in the Exciting Adventures
of the Man with the Action packed Expense of God
America is fabulous. Freelance insurance investigator. Yes, truly, Johnny Dollar,
no act one of yours, truly Johnny Dollar. Expense account
submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to the Tri State
Life and Casualty Company, Sarasota, Florida, following us an account of
expenses incurred during my investigation of the Double Trouble matter
expense A count itam one eighty three twenty Plain Fair
and Incinental's Hartford to Tampa to Sarasota, Florida. It him
two a bus seventy five for a cab to Earl
Portman's office in the Conroy Building. That's right after waiting
twenty years for this sole beneficiary to show up. Twenty years.
Like I told you, the insured was Albert Schuyler King
sixty five grand. Yes, he was a widower, lived up
near Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and he had a son
named Henry. Henry was his sole heir and beneficiary of
his polace. Okay, and you say that kingman died twenty
years ago, Yes, douring that big hurricane back in thirty eight.
Remember it did about forty million dollars damage up and
down the coast. Oh. I was a mere child at
the time. Oh sure, Oh was Henry? Well, he was ten,
just a kid. Anyhow, it was several days before the
old man's body was fine, and the boy no trace
of him disappeared in due course of time because of
the statute of limitations. The old man's estate was well,
I guess it went to the state, but not his insurance. No, No,
we kept the matter of the insurance open company policy
requires a lot of legal finagling, but in the company's
history they turned up beneficiaries as much as fifteen eighteen
years after death by advertising. And that's what accounts for
the sudden appearance of two Henry Kingman's, each claiming to
be the beneficiary of Albert Kingman's policy, and each having
a logical, legitimate story, each saying he didn't know about
the insurance until he saw the ad. Where are these
boys right here in Sarasota. They arrived yesterday. They arrived together, no,
a couple of hours apart, unknown to each other. They say,
I hope you made it perfectly plain that one of
them has to be a phony, and that when he's
found out, it's gonna go pretty rough with them, naturally,
But Johnny, I can't find anything wrong with either of
their stories. You know, their background, where they've been and
so on. Where they're staying, a couple of dingy little
motels on the edge of town. Now, look, here's the
file on them, or rather on the old man. Well,
I don't know that that's gonna be much help. There's
information about not only Kingman but his wife who died
before him. There's a lot of miscellaneous information about the boys,
I mean the boy where he went to school and
Sunday School, who his teachers were, the names of some
of his friends. There's a lot of stuff here. Well,
then maybe i'd better go through it. Sure now, look
it's getting like you're gonna stay with Gertrude and me
as huge. Sure that is necessary, which he'd killed me
if I didn't bring you home. So come on, we'll
drive on out to the quay, have cocktails and some dinner,
and you can spend the evening pouring over that material.
Come on, con tails and dinner were great, they always
are with the poets. Only poor man is a misnomer
that Homer. Theirs on Saint Aman's Key is not only
big and new, but beautiful. They have their own private
dock and speedboat on the bio directly back of the house. Yeah,
and they own a couple of spanking new, fancy air
conditioned cars. I decided that if I ever get enough
to retire, this will be the kind of a setup
for me. It was nearly ten o'clock by the time
I got around of the folder on Henry Kingdom, but
by two am, so help me I knew more about
him than he himself could. Yes, I was all set
to expose one of these claimants as a phony, a fraud.
Had the whole situation right in the palm of my hand,
I thought, But brother, I had no idea of what
was coming. Believe me, act too of yours, truly, Johnny
Dollar in a moment.
Speaker 4: And now for another episode in the life of Sergeant
Donald's Belwick.
Speaker 2: My husband, Reba, Rebar what is it?
Speaker 5: Donald?
Speaker 3: Confound and read by can't find the fountain pen. I've
looked all through this desk.
Speaker 5: Here it is, dear. You must have used it as
a marker when you're reading this book. See this great
literary classic Six Sults.
Speaker 3: All right, never mind about my reading habits. Just look
at the coverage we're going to get with this new
auto accident policy.
Speaker 4: Let's see collisionteen fifty dollars, doctor fire, the public, livebuilding,
property damage, medical benefits. In other words, we have complete coverage.
Speaker 3: That's right. Of course, it's going to cost us money.
I'm sending the company a check right now. Gee. It's
too bad we don't live in Rhode, Rhode Island, Oh,
because on our rate should be lower Rhode Island has
less accidents per capita than any other state.
Speaker 5: Oh, which state has the highest?
Speaker 3: Me? See? Yeah here it is Nevada, by Gellan. Nevada's
second highest. Alaska has the most.
Speaker 5: Really, I didn't know that.
Speaker 4: You know, it's just too bad we can't eliminate traffic
accidents completely. Not only would it save life and land,
but it's a lot less straight on the pocketbook.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's for sure. These automobile accident policies get more
expensive every year just because there's so many costly accidents.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm glad we've got some good insurance coverage, Donald,
but just remember one thing.
Speaker 2: Oh what's that?
Speaker 5: Well, some auto accidents ruin a fender and some ruin
a family.
Speaker 3: That's true, very true.
Speaker 4: But as far as I'm concerned, I don't want any
of your old insurance money. I want you here at home,
safe and sound. You could always drive carefully.
Speaker 5: Won't you?
Speaker 3: Hmmus, I will do.
Speaker 5: That's my Donald, that's my doll, No.
Speaker 3: Act too, if yours? Truly? Johnny Dollar and the Double
Trouble matter. The next morning, in the cheap little motel
on the north edge of Sarasota, I'd spent nearly an
hour carefully questioning Henry Kingman number one, and I was
getting nowhere. Obi O'Brien, sure, mister dollar. He was one
of the kids I used to play with back in
Elizabeth City, He and Bobby Tank. Uh. You see the
scar on my arm right here, that's where Obi hit
me with a stick one time when we were playing caddy. Yeah,
I see. If you know where Obi is these days,
you asked him and you'll probably remember scared him to death.
He thought he'd busted my arm. Now, let's see, how
about Miss Albertis Albertas Yes see, I don't remember any
Miss Albertis his Sunday school teacher. They're in Elizabeth City. Listen,
I was only ten years old, but I remember my
Sunday school teacher real good. Her name was Miss Griswald,
and she was Look, are you trying to trick me
or something? Yes, I am, because Henry, why did you
call me Hank? Everybody else does the Frank remains Hank?
That one of you two claimants to the insurance is
a phony. Well, believe me, it's not me. Everything you've
told me about your childhood checks perfectly with the information
I have. Well, of course, mister Donner almost too perfectly. Listen.
Where did you live and go to school after the hurricane? Well,
I'll be honest, I didn't have much school. Where did
you live, mister Dollar? I wandered around more than Little
rap and Annie, all over North Carolina than up north?
Did you live anywhere long enough to be well really
be recognized as Henry Kingman? And I'm afraid I was
just a bum and all anybody ever knew me by
I was Hank. You saw the ad about the unclaimed
insurance in New York, Yes, sir, I was working on
the doc Steve Adoring saw that ad in the Times,
and I decided that if I had that much money
coming to me and I could get ahold of it right,
maybe I could amount to something, get an education maybe
or whoa Hank. All the insurance company has to go
on as your memory, or what you say is your
memory of your childhood. What I've told you is true, sir.
But if the other claimant comes up with the same
kind of a story, but he can't because don't you
sees her, I'm really Henry Kingman. I've told you all
about my father and the house, and the hurricane and
the people I knew about what's happened to me. Yeah,
it's because I am Henry Kingman. Ah huh, we'll see.
I tried to trip him up in a dozen ways,
but with no success. He had a logical, reasonable answer
for every question about his past and present. As for
not being able to produce anyone who could identify him
as Henry Kingman, but it was simply because of his
rather aimless life spent wandering from city to city, never
having any close friends. Because he chose to go to Law,
a tall, well built lad with a mop of blonde
hair and clear blue eyes. And I must confess I
kind of liked him his open frankness. Do you know something?
I could have been awfully wrong.
Speaker 6: Although most men by nature don't feel in a combat
mood much of the time, there are some who just
can't get enough of a good fight, particularly if there
is good sound reason for him. In July nineteen hundred,
when American fighting men were protecting the rights and liberty
of their fellow countrymen during the Boxer Uprising, the battle
was a furiously forught affair.
Speaker 3: Army Private Robert H.
Speaker 6: Von Schlick, serving with Company C of the ninth United
States Infantry Division was in the thick of the frakers.
Speaker 3: Although he had been wounded previously.
Speaker 6: While carrying a wounded comrade to a place of safety,
he rejoined his command, which partly occupied and exposed position
on a dike. Private von Schlick remained there after his
company had been withdrawn, and, in spite of the hail
of bullets around him, single handedly continued to fire into
the enemy ranks. Oblivious to the fact that he was
a conspicuous target. He refused to leave the fight until
he was literally shot off his position by the enemy.
Robert von Schlick earned the Medal of Honor for valiant
devotion to duty and added heroic background to the Code
of Conduct of American Fighting Men.
Speaker 3: Now Act three of yours, Truly, Johnny Dollar, I got
into the car that Earl Proman hat lonely and drove
to the motel east of town to see Henry Kingman
number two, all dark and well dressed. He was terse
and to the point, and he answered all my questions
with the same ease and conviction as the other boy,
in only one major respect in his story. Oh so,
I can't name you a single person who can identify
me as who I really am, Henry Kingman. And for
a very simple reason, what's that Henry? It's Henry, mister dolla.
And the reason is that right after the hurricane I
was adopted by a family they just moved into nearby Bridgton.
Their name is McGovern, so I took their name, come
up to Bridgeton and ask them show them my picture
anything you like, Well, I'll tell you I'm Henry McGovern.
Only my foster parents knew that I was really Henry Kingman.
They both died about seven years ago, and they told
nobody else who you really were, now, even the preacher.
They'd wanted a son for years. Now they had a son,
and they didn't want anyone to come along and take
me away from them. Then how did you find out
that you're Henry Kingman? If you are, I'll liken that
last part of your question was a dolla. They didn't
tell me until my twenty first birthday. Bridgeton. Isn't that
the little town up near kur Tuck that was completely
destroyed by fire a couple of years ago?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yes, of course I forgotten there. It's a living soul
up there anymore. Oh, but I'm sure a man like
you could track down some of the people who lived there.
When were you last in Bridgeton? I went up law
rather of my parents, my foster parents died. As I
told you, I've been living in working in New York.
I'll look here, mister dollar. Wow, Hasn't everything I've told
you checked perfectly with what you know about my father,
my childhood? Everything? Hasn't everything I've told you proved to
be true? Isn't it proof that I'm Henry Kingdom? There's
only one trouble. What's that You're not the only one
who has that kind of proof? There here, Johnny has
some more of this baked seat craft.
Speaker 5: Oh no, thanks, sir, Johnny, You've hardly touched a thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, Gerturne. I'm sorry. I will have another
cup of coffee though. I'm sure.
Speaker 5: So you haven't got very far in your investigation.
Speaker 3: I'm afraid not. I told you, Johnny. The store worries
of those two boys check out perfectly unless the information
the company's been collecting for the last twenty years is
all wrong. But both of them can't be Henry Kingman,
so one of them must be lying. But which one?
What I suppose, just for example, that the blonde is Henry. Yeah,
then how would the other have got hold of all
that information? Unless, well, you suppose they've known each other
sometime in the past. They certainly don't like each other,
I mean each other's being here. I asked them, merl
and they both deny having ever seen each other until
they came here within a few hours of each other.
Speaker 5: I didn't see the blonde boy, but the other came
here to the house. I just didn't like him, the
dark haired one. I mean, hey, wait a minute, Yeah,
what is it, Johnny?
Speaker 3: The description of the father and that folder? Excuse me?
Can I help you? No? No, no, thanks, I got
it right here. Huh why did they listen? Doctor? Just
still live out the street? Sure? Do you want me
to drive you over? Now? Thanks, I'll walk, Johnny, what'd
you find? I'll see? Walking out that street? And there
was no moon? Turned out to be a big, fat mistake.
In the first place, I almost bumped into a palm
tree in front of the house. In the second place,
I didn't see what stepped out from behind the next
palm tree until it was too late. Huh do you want?
Times have changed? And so has the man. Through the ages,
man has advanced both physically and mentally. Prehistoric man's concept
of war living is like that of an animal. His
implements were crude, his knowledge simple. It was survival of
the fittest. From his club and stones to bows and
arrows and spears, from muskets and sabers to atomic rifles
and missiles. Man has progressed in the art of attack
and defense with each new phase. Man's knowledge has developed. Today.
The warrior, but he can be called such, is not
a stone thrower, a bowman, or a swordsman. He's a
technician who needs knowledge of all that science has developed.
He's a sonarman, a radar man, a rifleman, or a
torpedo man, a missileman, or a pilot. But whatever his job,
he needs the skill and the technical know how to
do the job and do it well. As times have changed,
so has the man now act for off yours? Truly?
Johnny Dolly decided maybe I'd better drive him over anyway, Doc,
And that's when I found him lying out there by
the palm tree. Well, it's lucky you did, Earl. I
thank you's smelling sauce. Bring around whoever attacked. You must
have seen you coming and forward. It's okay, Johnny, Yah
wants Doc Crutcher suck me. You don't know, Johnny, You
sure don't. Brother. I have a suspicion a couple of them. Here,
good hot tea gee, sure get him. It's like a brandy. Oh,
only make it scotch, good man, Doc, you feel okay?
Now listen, Yeah, get on the phone. Call the hotels
where those boys are staying. Tell them to get over
here immediately. Better still, I'll drive over and get him meantime. Doc, Yeah, here,
here's your scotch.
Speaker 5: Johnny.
Speaker 3: Thanks, and if you want some more rest a minute.
Woman wears mine.
Speaker 5: Of course, Doc, I'm sorry like me.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: Listen, Doc, I want to ask you a couple of questions.
What about heredity? Heredity?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Okay, shoot, all right, Just to keep things straight, I'll
call you Hank, sure, mister Doner, and you I'll call Henry.
Well it does happen to be my name. Now, Ell
tells me he found you both in Hank's motel. Just now,
that's right, sir. Comparing notes, I went over there to
tell him that he's a phony. But if he doesn't
get out of towel. Sure, sure, he let me see
your hands. Huh oh, sure here sir, what about the look? Doc?
I ally you're right right about what sir? How did
you bruise these knuckles? Well, it was kind of clumsy,
but my hands slipped trying to open one of the
windows in that cheap motel. Don't you believe it, Johnny,
he's the one who's laid them. Man, this one has
a bruised knuckle too. Ah. Now, what's your excuse, Henry? Well,
you can believe it or not. Such yourself, but exactly
the same thing happened to me. You ask me, Johnny,
they both attect you. On the other hand, early, they
may both be telling the truth about this truth sir,
What did you mean about this? I mean that at
least one of you was lying about being the son
of Albert Skyler Kingman. Well, pipe down for a minute.
I suddenly realized that the laws of heredity could solve
this case a lot quicker than detective work. So I
checked with doctor Crutcher to make sure I was right.
Then I checked descriptions of Henry Kingman's father and mother,
did you, sir? Both of them had brown hair and
brown eyes. So what were both parents have identical color
hair and eyes. Any offspring will have the same, Hank,
your hair is so blind it's almost white, and your
eyes are blue. Your hair is almost black. Your eyes
are also blue, and crazy fool, I told you this
wouldn't work, crazy fool. If you let me come here along, yeah,
then you'd never have cut me in.
Speaker 2: Of course, I got suspicious. I could get that out
all the way.
Speaker 3: I got here first at night.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know you were coming.
Speaker 3: All right, Oh it is all right, dog, Come on,
I'll put that thing down.
Speaker 2: Come no, go ahead, john Did you.
Speaker 3: Get back?
Speaker 6: Get back?
Speaker 3: Johnny? You outdrew that Henry like wow, Yeah, take a
look at what happened to Hank. Huh? Is everything all right?
Speaker 2: Boy?
Speaker 3: Holy Gertrude, what did you hit him with?
Speaker 5: L I never did like that old base anyhow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my heredity gag was just that, a gag, but
it certainly brought things to ahead and hurry. How did
they know so much about the real Henry Kingman? We'll listen.
As soon as we locked them up, I called the
National Press Services had them put the story of this
attempt at fraud in the headlines all over the country
self a phone called the head of an orphanage where
the real Henry had been taken in as a child,
where he still lived. And yeah, the phonies were a
couple of kids who'd run away from that orphanage after
he'd piled around with them, told them all about himself.
As for why they both appeared to make the claim,
sure each of them saw the company's ad and tried
to get in ahead of the other. Well, they weren't
all right for a long time. Expense account total inputing
incidentals in fair back to haydrid One save in the
age seventy Yours Truly, Johnny Dolla. Yours Truly Johnny Dollar,
starring Bob Bailey, originates in Hollywood and has written, produced
and directed by Jack Johnstone. Heard in our cast were
Virginia Gregg, Vic Perlin, Sam Edwards, James McCallion, and Parley Bear.
Be sure to join us next week, same time and station,
or another exciting story of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. This
is Dan commerly speaking, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar has been
a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio and
Television service.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. Some interesting twist on a pretty typical plot
for the era of someone claiming to be a long
lost heir, with two claimants, another actually being the rightful air,
and Johnny solving the case through one of his favorite methods, bluffing.
It means there's nothing to fact check because Johnnie was
making it all up and probably knowing that the argument
wasn't correct. After talking to the doctor and just making
the case, you know, I thought that this was the
way it worked, and if I thought it, they might
think it, and if they think it, then I might
find out whose line without having to go digging into
someone's background in great detail. I found the Bellweathers episode interesting,
and out of curiosity, I tried to locate similar stats.
I could not find a reliable source for just accident rates,
which was what they were comparing. However, I did find
a reliable source for traffic deaths, and even though much
has changed over the past seventy years, but Rhode Island
was still of twenty twenty four, the lowest or the
next to the lowest for rates of road deaths, depending
on whether you were measuring by desk per billion miles,
in which case Massachusetts came out ahead. But if you
were measuring for desk per one hundred thousand people or
per one hundred thousand drivers, Rhode Island came ahead. So
it's fascinating to me that apparently right so consistently for
so many, I guess decades. Now, well, now we turn
to listener comments and feedback, and we've got a comment
from Harrison regarding the Johnson payroll manner over on Spotify.
I swear I've heard this script before for Johnny Dowler.
Is this a reu script from a john Long episode?
Either that or I've heard this in the feed at
some point, perhaps at a special anniversary show. Either way,
I quite enjoyed the episode. As much as I enjoy
the fun adventure episodes. Some of the best dollar plots
are the ones where he has to be on the
hunt for someone or something. That's the one thing every
dollar iteration does well from what I've seen so far.
Up to Bailey, well, thanks so much. This was not
a reused script, at least not from the Lund era
or Johnny dol Er. Don't know if the writer ever
wrote anywhere else, but I will say that the payroll
robbery is a relatively common crime for Johnny to investigate
and there have been multiple payroll robbery cases across different
iterations of the character. And of course the reason this
is used so much is it's probably the thing of
all possible crimes, the one that you're most likely to
call in a high priced insurance investigator on, because these
are huge robberies that you may be thinking of another story.
Joey writs, I think the killer small talk was feasible.
He had to distract Johnny at the time. How was
he supposed to know Johnny would actually find out the
truth about the fish around there? Well, that's a fair point.
And when I went back and listened, Johnny started the conversation,
and really the answer about bass was probably even somewhat casually.
But then Johnny called up the point about catching bass
off the pier, and he probably realized, oh, this guy's
a fisherman. I got a cover. Uh yeah, yeah, there's
kelp around here, And that was enough to allage Johnny's suspicion.
So the guy knew a little bit about fishing, just
not enough about local conditions because he hadn't been fishing there.
So I guess an internstein interaction. And then we also
have some comments on YouTube. These are regarding the Wayward
Diamond matter, Sarge says love Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and
James shout out to our heroes from the Boxer Rebellion
and that was a nice little piece of history. And
I do really enjoy the bits of educational content we
get with those Armed Forces Radio Service or I should
say at this point Armed Forces Radio and Television Service recordings. Well,
now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
and I want to thank Phillip, Patreon supporter since December
twenty nineteen, currently supporting the podcast at the Detective Sergeant
level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or more per month.
Thank you so much for your support, Philip, 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 Friday with another episode
of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. But join us back here
tomorrow as we give way to the great adventurers of
old time radio and we introduce you to Counterspy, where.
Speaker 7: It's a clear cutcase of suicide mistiding. You're the chief
and let you say goes, but it's just the case
of a wealthy bachelor and poor health. I admit Mark
William Terres probably did commit suicide, but remember this World war.
They get stop or experts at making a murder appear
to be a suicide, then you're really going to investigate it.
I think I would leaves to ask a few questions. Yes, sir,
now the no arras left. Mark said he was committing
suicide because of ill health. I think I'll drop in
on his doctor and see how bad his health really was.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter, 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.