Speaker 1: Come in Welcome. I'm e. G. Marshall. Our story is
about a man named Will Crawford, imprisoned for a daring
theft which he did not commit. Can you imagine being
confined to a cell for years, thrown in with thieves, phelans,
addicts and dangerous criminals? What would you think about? How
would you preserve your sanity? And what would you do
if you were released? Will Crawford new our mystery drama,
The Corpse wrote shorthand was written especially for the mystery
theater by Roy Windsor and stars Mandel Kramer. It is
sponsored in part Bysteren Lossages and view It Motor Division.
I'll be back shortly with that one false arrest, false imprisonment.
Within ourselves, each of us in imagination can visualize just
about anything that can happen to another person. We can
dream about love because it has touched us, about hate
because we have hated about success, failure, hunger and pain.
But I, for one, cannot imagine being arrested and imprisoned
for a crime I didn't commit. And that is what
happened to one honest man named Will Crawford.
Speaker 2: He will change your mind, I've explained, Mom, yes, you
certainly have.
Speaker 3: All right, I'll drive about the last. I'll explain couldn't
take the day off. He'll understand.
Speaker 1: Shoot, you make me feel like I don't care? Do
you care?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: Sure, it's just well, I'm new at this job and
I don't like to have to ask for a day
off to drive up there.
Speaker 3: It's not so bad up there, nick, I've been going
up once a week for five years.
Speaker 1: I know I've been up too. It's just it just
makes me feel funny.
Speaker 4: Hotty because if the prison.
Speaker 3: Well, sure that I understand you.
Speaker 4: You will be.
Speaker 3: Here when we come home.
Speaker 1: Who sure? I wish you wouldn't make me feel this way, Mom.
I am not guilty of anything, No worry about it.
It's just that it's been so awful. Mom. You don't
know what I went through. Kids in high school, boy,
they can be pretty nasty. You think i'd stolen the money.
My senior year just fell apart, you remember.
Speaker 3: Yes, I do.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: It's heartsick when he left.
Speaker 1: So as your father, well, help you go on to
college and for one lousy job after another, couldn't get
a decent one. I'd say, I'm Mick Crawford, and that's it.
You're the son of a man who stole all that
money from the Pendleton Bank. Well, I made a lot
of laws. No one worried i'd steal that power mowers. Nick,
you should have left River Falls and gone someplace else,
changed our name started.
Speaker 3: Fresh, Nika, I must get ready.
Speaker 1: You still believe, don't you? Mom?
Speaker 3: I know your father. He's an honest man. He says
he did not and does a little money from the
Penderson Bank, and I believe him.
Speaker 1: What happens now, I don't know. Why don't we sell
a house, move away.
Speaker 3: And admit your father's guilt.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, he was found guilty. He was the bookkeeper.
The books have been tampered with. Over one hundred thousand
dollars is mincing and someone has it, but not your father.
What's he gonna do when he comes home? He can't
get a job in River Falls. Who take a chance
on him?
Speaker 3: I believe your father is innocent.
Speaker 1: Nick.
Speaker 3: That is giving me the strength to hold my head
up to all those customers who come into the Variety
store and buy out and ends and give me kitty
and looks. I know you've been embarrassed by what happened
to your father. So you don't have to be here
when I came home.
Speaker 1: Now I'll be here to say hello, and then I
think I will clear out. I I just can't go
on living like this, Mom, I I just can't. Uh well,
wish to Crawford. You're free, so I am. I'm glad
to see you get out. Not that you ever gave
me any trouble. That's not what I meant. I know.
And if you thought i'd bet a man like you.
The kind of mission is to Crawford. But it's been
there five years now, commuted to five for good behavior.
Now it's gonna do. Now, what would you do if
you'd been sentenced to prison for a crime you didn't
commitsh still saying that it's true. Yeah, I'd like to
believe you, but I don't know I had up at
the time. And how they proved you jubbed your book.
Someone juggled the books. I didn't. If you say so
much the Crawford. Let me ask you again, if you'd
been sentenced to prison for a crime you didn't commit.
What would you do if I'd been given a bum
rap and then got out, I'd go after the double
cost they've committed the crime and bring the truth out
of it. MM, guess what I'm going to do. Yeah,
I can see it in your eyes. I don't care
if it takes the rest of my life's planting. I
didn't embezzle the money from the bank. I have never
seen a hundred thousand dollars. I don't know where it is,
where it went, but I'm going to find out and
when I do. Yeah, I've been labeled a thief. I've
been in prison for five years. Think about this is
done to my wife and to my son, how they've suffered.
I can't give them back those five years of humiliation,
but I can create a future for us. All I
have to do is discover who friends. Good luck, mister Crawford,
Thank you, plancy y. You know whether Wharton's up? Oh sure, sure,
I'll see him and listen to his little speech. You
uh committed a crime against society for which you were
tried and found guilty. You've paid your debt. Now you're
a free man again. Then he wished me good luck
and give me some money. He's performed his job. Next
game doesn't make any difference so that the person was
guilty or innocent. The warden makes the same speech. It's
like dealing with a machine. It performs a function, but
it has no judgment, no heart, just punctures you in
or out. But he's not a bad guy, mister Crawford.
I know that he's just a cipher in our equation
of justice. Goodbye, plenty, so long, mister Crawford. If I
sound bitter, it's because I am. I've been robbed of
five years in my life. I can't get them back,
but somebody's going to pay for starting.
Speaker 2: Now, old help mod Stone may have times I can't help.
Speaker 1: You'll get us thrown out of explains it?
Speaker 3: It doesn't. I I can't believe you'll see I'm not duly,
what the look fright and stuff?
Speaker 1: You just dry your eyes and listen to me and
let me try and explain it. Of course, first I
thank God for you. Oh well, no, let me finish.
I do thank God for a wife like you. I
know what you've gone through, like I paced that celebrity
for five years, knowing what life was like for you
here in River Falls, having to work and meet the
sulfarch as hypocrites who were curious about or missus Crawford,
how she could hold her head up after her husband
was sent to prison friend besling a hundred thousand dollars
in the bank. I know, don I know the embarrassment
and the hurt, and still you believed in me. You're
the only one who did yes. Does thank your doughter?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: You you don't have me crying again?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no more crying Stone. I didn't make
that speech to make your cry. I just wanted to
say something you except to you and Nick and what
I've done to both of you. I wouldn't have cared
if I had a lot of the death in that prison,
cause I love you and I can deeply about both
of your art. From this very time, I had one
goal in my life. I'm going to prove my innocence.
I'd rather be dead. Well, don't fight in it. I'd
rather be dead than be marked for the rest of
my life as a thief. I didn't embezzle that money.
Speaker 2: I know that.
Speaker 3: Don't dwell on it, though you're fraid. Together that's what counts,
that's what take point.
Speaker 1: And that's not enough for me or for you or Nick.
But we've talked all this out before. I didn't know
we have.
Speaker 3: I ain't know it and.
Speaker 1: How I don't quite know how.
Speaker 3: I know in my heart that you didn't dilate money,
because I know you, But how do.
Speaker 1: We prove it?
Speaker 3: Somebody took the money?
Speaker 1: Who that is?
Speaker 3: A know all the dependences attired? His sound is the president?
Now it's a long time ago in age. I thought
about it night after a.
Speaker 1: Lone light about poor Darling married to a fall guy.
Honest Will Crawford set up for a fall right into
wood prison, Celler I could kill the swine hood goodness
to us. I'm gonna find him. Still, I'll find him
when I do.
Speaker 3: You know, let's cux saint, I am talking.
Speaker 1: No, you're not.
Speaker 3: Those of us are angry. Let let's just look at
the fat coldly. You were accused and tried and convicted
by a jury.
Speaker 1: Yes, because some securities were found to be missing them,
because someone had made false entries in my books.
Speaker 3: You didn't and there's a lot money.
Speaker 1: But how was it done? I think, well, there are
two ways. At least what about the security. Adam Rossano
a contracted I tried it. Rossano borrowed seventy thousand dollars
from the bank and gave us securities this collateral about
ninety thousand dollars moving when he paid off his loan,
he wanted his securities returned. They were missing, they'd been sold.
They were traced to a book of Johnson, New York,
but the seller couldn't be found.
Speaker 3: You wrote that check for seventy thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: That's right, and I placed the securities in the safe.
Speaker 3: And when the investigation began, the auditor also found that
your books are overdrawn by almost ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: I can't deny that. Styll Now, what happened?
Speaker 3: I mean, what do you think happened?
Speaker 1: Someone? Some officers probably stole the securities.
Speaker 3: But then what about your overdrawn books?
Speaker 1: Still, let me get an example of embezzlement. Now, a
teller can enter a deposit and put the money in
his pocket, but nothing as large as ten thousand dollars. Now,
it must have been a series of false centuries. Well,
how well, let's say somebody mails in his paycheck for
say two hundred dollars from the part using. That amount
is entered in that person's account, but clerk reports the
deposit to me and I under it in my books. However,
but clerk does not stamp the check for a deposit.
He or she steals the check and neither cashes it
or deposits it in a secret account in some other bank.
That bank cancels the check and returns it to the
depositors employer.
Speaker 3: But what about what about the endorsement must stamp.
Speaker 1: In a number both look official and hardly ever would
be challenged.
Speaker 3: But a she as well, how could a scheme like
that ever be traced?
Speaker 1: Well, I'll hand out Anon. Both the securities and the
cash have vanished, just us.
Speaker 3: No, it's not billan or how do you begin?
Speaker 1: Very carefully?
Speaker 3: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1: Still? Someone work that's frame up on me, maybe more
than one person. I'm gonna ask questions. I'll pick up
a astray of Marquere or another there, and in time
I'll put them together and I'll have an indication of
who's behind the embezzlement. Then I'm I'll invest to get it.
Oh well, let see, oh hope, let's sell. When I
was in prison, I read something. It stuck in my mind.
Forget where I read it or who wrote it. And
it's just a line. But what it is is, you know,
really just cause the weak conquered or strong, I believe that. Still,
it may take a long time, but I'll get the truth. Oo.
Those lines from Shakespeare's A Fellow come to mind? Who
steals my purse? Steals trash? Did something nothing? Cause mind
is his and has been slaves a thousands. But he
that fo shows from me my good name, robs me
of that which not enriches him and makes me poor. Indeed,
Will Crawford's sentiment exactly, I'll return shortly were that too,
and then we will find out if the former bookkeeper
can exonerate himself. The title of our play, The Corpse
wrote Shorthand a provocative title. What in the world can
it mean? Will Crawford was in prison for embezzlement, then
what's this about a corpse? And how in Heaven's name
could a corpse write shorthand? Well, an honest story should
have an honest title. Let's find out just what this
title means. Good morning, mister Pendleton. Ah Crawford, thank you
for seeing me. Yes, I must say'm surprised by your visit.
My father tried to visit him, but he refused to
talk to me, So I'm grateful to you for these
few minutes. Ah. Yes, yes, I saidam how much time?
Thank you? I came home last night. Yes, there was
a scripting of Forlim yesterday that you had been released.
What did you to me, Crawford? I should think it
would be embarrassing for you to walk him to the bank.
Not at all. I spent many productive years in the
bank as you're a bookkeeper, and I have nothing to
be embarrassed about. You don't, No, I didn't embezzle that money.
I'm a forgiving man, Crawford. That I am not stupid
and arrogance makes me angry. You made a mistake and
have paid for it. I'm willing to forget the damage
you did to the bank's reputation. But when you declare
bluntly that you did not embezzle, you sound demented. I'm
telling the truth. You were arrested, tried, and convicted.
Speaker 5: How dare you waste my time in saying that you're innocent?
Speaker 4: Now, if you'll.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, if I've told those all in securities and
juggled my books for ten thousand dollars, where is it,
mister Pendleton? Where is the one hundred thousand dollars? So
that's your game? The money will turn up. Oh, not here,
not in River Falls. Now that you've been freed, you'll
leave town. But wherever you go, you'll be watched and
the money will be recovered. I'm not leaving River Falls
and you're going to starve to death. Just what do
you propose to do? Crawford that has some ideas. I
was a victim of a clever's scheme. Some person or
person's tween me, and I'll find out who they were.
You astonish me, Please leave and don't come back. One question?
What happened to Doris Conroy? Who the assistant bookkeeper? She's
no longer with the bank. Doris Conroy, I don't really remember. Well,
that's surprising. I beg your pardon. When you were second
vice president you worked with her a lot. Rather pretty girl,
dark haired, nice skin. You were the loan officer at
the time. Oh go go yes, yes to put it
under her. All about her? Well, I just I could
talk to her, that's all. She was my assistant. I
have no idea what happened to her. When did you
leave the bank? I don't know. That's mister Baker and personnel.
You'll oh, I don't. Well, thank you for your time,
mister Pendleton. Good morning. Hello will I Tim, Hey, I
really appear go thanks you good news. It may be
a story in it for me, that's my business. I uh,
I got the information you wanted. You know where I
can find Dorris connel in. Yeah, but it won't do
you any good. She's dead. Oh oh, I didn't know.
I'm sorry. Yeah. Two years ago she left New York
on her cruise with the Caribbean. They found her body
in the hunt and she fell overboard. That's the story.
The personnel man at the bank, mister Baker, said that
she left the pendicltuon bank just about two years ago.
What's important to you about Doris Conroy, Well, she was
my assistant at the bank for one thing, for another,
Why why would she quit her job? And for the
third times upon her is that she could afford to
go on the crudes. Uh huh. You sounds skeptical, Well
maybe a little wine. Look at it this way, Will, Yeah,
everyone's convinced you embezzled the money. Okay, you say you didn't,
but are you sure you aren't trying to create a
mystery where there isn't one. Doris Convoy saves her money,
quits her job, goes on a cruise, she falls over board.
She's drowned. A tragedy, but to a natural one. Maybe
she had too many drinks. Dolls didn't drink. Oh, I
forget about Doris Conroy. I guess you'll have to with
that unless you can communicate with her in the grave
in Rose Hill Cemetery in Oakton. Yes, that's what she
was from oakon one. If her mother's still alive, well
that's easy to find out. No, tim, hold it, I'm
gonna drive up and talk to her. Well, unless her
mother's dead. Oh, I couldn't be that. I'm lucky.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: The mother's name is missus fred Convoy A eight hundred
hillside drive, hillside Dunn. That's pretty fancy, dun, the best.
Speaker 5: Hm.
Speaker 1: What's it mean? Hey? Down? What are you thinking? Oh?
I'll tell you later. Just a little idea, I tell him. Yeah,
h Mr Pebbleton and River Falls told me that.
Speaker 3: I oh, yeah it cat he considered it.
Speaker 1: Man, you come in, thank you.
Speaker 3: Oh we can talk in the leading room.
Speaker 1: I don't know he's here.
Speaker 3: Identicate the city here very much?
Speaker 1: Which a lovely room?
Speaker 4: Oh skeept you can't it now, mister Kendrington. A gentleman.
Speaker 3: She's got nice of him, just sending you out.
Speaker 4: Oh he must think my kind of picky.
Speaker 1: I do wonder I wasn't for.
Speaker 4: Your fire, so considerate to warn me.
Speaker 3: I I love forget.
Speaker 1: Oh we all are from time to time. Oh, ain't
got to choose.
Speaker 3: Oh, mister Pendleton chick, is that embassilor called on me?
Speaker 4: I why didn't you talk to him?
Speaker 3: I see he said he's crazy.
Speaker 1: Oh I guess he is. Oh he's crazy?
Speaker 4: Or I teach you never stole the money? He got
out of prison, and now he's trying.
Speaker 1: To stir up trouble.
Speaker 4: Is that right?
Speaker 1: Is that why mister Penderton sends you out to suming
he's trying to stir up trouble? Alright?
Speaker 4: Oh, I've had nice share of trouble.
Speaker 1: I know you have your poor daughter. She got down, Yes,
I I remember. I was awfully sorry to hear about that.
Speaker 3: But I couldn't Label look after her.
Speaker 1: Uh yes, neighbor, Well, I I really don't know.
Speaker 4: Label was all broken up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mabel maybel I I I can't seem to remember
Mabel's last name.
Speaker 4: Now I've godfully remember him. Oh, every once in a while,
I thinking that he gone.
Speaker 1: Mabel Scully of course, of course do you ever see her?
Missus gonnod Wall.
Speaker 4: She sends me a Christmas card every Christmas.
Speaker 3: I never seen her?
Speaker 1: No, nice? Does she still live in Oakton?
Speaker 2: This is dad?
Speaker 4: She fell off that boat.
Speaker 1: Yes, we're all still very sad about that, including Mabel Scully.
Speaker 4: Oh that text me to talk about?
Speaker 1: Don I understand? Well, I'll be on my way.
Speaker 3: She's such a nice room.
Speaker 1: Does like this room?
Speaker 4: She had her friends over and they liked it very much.
Mabel liked too.
Speaker 1: Hello Darling, Oh well can you kiss m my faithful,
trusting wife. You know something.
Speaker 3: We haven't got much, but we got each other.
Speaker 1: That's enough for me.
Speaker 3: Nick not home.
Speaker 1: No, we don't worry about it. I mean there, I understand.
He telephoned that he'd be late. I see most and why,
and I can't blame him. I'm an embarrassment to him.
You know this is going to get worse before it
gets better.
Speaker 3: Still, you know what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1: Well? I imagine that Tim Dieger at the Forum will
have a story about me and tomorrow's paper.
Speaker 3: Then he wasn't willing to see you. Oh, I'm glad
he's a nice man.
Speaker 1: Well, he's got an open mind. That's why he's a
good reporter. I don't know what he'll write, but I
I'm sure that it'll stir up trouble, you know, the
kind of thing. Crawford still insists he's innocent. People at
the store will look at you and know we're both
loose in the top story. Oh to that, forget it.
Speaker 3: But how it's time helpful.
Speaker 1: Okay. From the beginning, I saw see Palmer Pendleton there.
He'll let you come here. When I showed up at
the bank, I caused a big stir Most of the
persons I worked with are still there, and they looked
at me as if they'd seen a ghost. Get awful. Well,
it wasn't easy now, and some of them talked to
me as if I was contagious. One or two just
bury their heads in their work and ignored me. But
my arrival was disruptive. That's why Pendleton saw me, and
he was his old sanctimony itself, suggested that we leave
River Falls. He'd have an eye on us, of course,
to catch me with the money that I've got stashed
away somewhere.
Speaker 3: He got shape hit the crip.
Speaker 1: All of that When I told him I was staying
right here in river Falls, he got red and the
face told me flatly I'd never be employed again. Now
I asked him about Doris Conroy. Oh she drawn it. Well, yes,
I know that now, but I didn't till Tim told me, well,
I'm sure I must have told you. Well, maybe it did.
I guess I can remember. Maybe I've forgotten. If I
didn't know, it didn't mean it didn't give me at
the time, and now it does. Why. First I learned
that Doris had left the bank two years ago. Then
from Tim I learned that at the same time she
book the cruise to the Caribbean. Now, the night of
the sailing, she fell overboard and next morning her body
was I'm floating in the Hudson floating stell. Keep that
in mind. Now, I wanted to find out more about
what happened to Dart, so I went to see her
mother in Oakton. And you wouldn't believe it. We'll go on.
She thought Pendleton had sent me from the bank to
make sure that she didn't admit Will Crawford to her house,
and he must have telephoned her after I left his office.
She's so adleminded to a thing that she thought I'd
come out to reaffirm his advice.
Speaker 3: So now why I would tender and burn her against you?
Speaker 1: I wanted about that too. Does the old lady know
something that I shouldn't find out? The answer is no.
But and this is a very big but she lives
elegantly on Hillside Drive in a very fine house. Now
how can she afford it? The answer is that doors
could afford it. And with Donna's dead, Missus Conroy has
committed Darns's money because the setup just doesn't ran cool.
Speaker 3: Then then you think that Doris, how well, he was
mixed up in the indevil.
Speaker 1: That's my theory. Now I mean to pursue it.
Speaker 3: But how I I mean with doris dad and her mother.
Speaker 1: Well, that all depends upon what happens tomorrow. Tomorrow, dons
wasn't alone on that boat. She was taking the cruise
of a friend of hers. Now I dragged the name
out of missus Conroy. Doris's friend was Mabel Scully. She
lived in Oakton, and Tim's going to see her tomorrow.
Speaker 3: But what can you learn from her?
Speaker 1: I don't know off hand. But if you get a
person talking after the fact things come out. At the
time the drowning. I'm sure Mabel was hysterical of the
ship but the port and was saving out to sea.
Where was dons I mean, I C I can just
imagine the confusion on shipboard. Because it wasn't until the
next morning that the tragedy was discovered. Then it must
have been his hysteria.
Speaker 3: Yes, of course, what a frightful experience in Mabel Scully.
Speaker 1: Then she probably was questioned and browbeaten and then finally released.
Now that's two years ago. The hysteria of that moment
has passed. Two years have gone by. Now perhaps Mabel
Scully will be able to reconstruct what happened though Nightdwes
Conrad rowned, which she didn't What she didn't sell because
if she had, her body would have sunk to the
bottom of the Hudson and have been swept out to sea.
Now that we've established a corpse, what about that shorthand
curious story. Indeed, a man is judged innocent until he
is proven guilty. And here is a man proven guilty
who is innocent. How can that happen? In these wonderful
days of law and order? Read the newspapers On a
quite regular basis, I read about persons being released from
prisons who are innocent when imprisoned. Laws like cobwebs entangle
the weak, but are broken by the storm, as Will
Crawford is about to prove. I'll be back shortly with
that sweet One man's innocence simply must be another man's guilt.
If Will Crawford did not embezzle fifty thousand dollars from
the Pendleton Bank, who did? He was found guilty and
imprisoned for five years, and the money still hasn't been found,
and he insists he is innocent, Well, we have a
corpse on our hands. One that writes shorthand. Is that
the clue mister Crawford needs to understand before he proves
his innocent. His reporter friend Tim is going to try.
Thanks for seeing me, miss Gully.
Speaker 4: Oh that's all right, I'll break it down, mister g Right.
Speaker 1: Scandal Manga Supreme for the River Falls Forum. Though most
of our scandals pretty much of a yarn. Now he's
crazy have here.
Speaker 4: Oh it's all right.
Speaker 1: I got the stuff with the settlement, ah and took
back your maiden name.
Speaker 4: And you didn't ask to see me. You talk about
me and the egg. Uh it's almost six and nine days.
Speaker 3: Take up it happened?
Speaker 1: How sorry, missus Scully. A man has just been released
from prison after serving five years. Were in battle.
Speaker 4: Yeah, will cross it. I read your story and it's happened.
Speaker 3: His papers change is anything, no way.
Speaker 1: He's trying to find a way and I am in't
trying to go along with him. Now that's where you
wented a picture me. Yeah, you and Doris Convoy.
Speaker 4: Oh Dorry. Oh, yes, that was horrible.
Speaker 3: I can imagine shipped halfway down the Hudson and I
was still looking for Dolly.
Speaker 4: It wasn't until the next morning that we found out.
They found her body floating in the Hudson.
Speaker 1: She groaned and that's what they said at the time.
Speaker 4: Well that's what happened.
Speaker 1: I wonder. Apparently she fell overboard, her head hit something
and she that drying. Of course, Uh, drownd isn't quite right.
How now she died from that smash on the head.
There was no water in her lungs. If there had been,
she might have been swept out to sea. Oh it's
so ugly even could think about could become uglier still,
what does that mean? Well, let me come to that
in the moment. I'm here because I hope you will
weakenstruck that night.
Speaker 4: For me, it's very good at a tell.
Speaker 1: Now, you and Doris had been friends for a long time.
Speaker 4: Ride We knew each other since high school.
Speaker 6: She went to business school and got a job in
liver Falls at the penalty bank, and I attended junior college.
I went to work here in Oakton and the officers
of hometown in Shoance I'm still there.
Speaker 1: And you went on the cruise two years ago. Yes,
And Doris quit her job at the same time, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she did. I never knew why.
Speaker 6: I asked her, of course, but all she'd say was
that she was tired of being an assistant bookkeeper and
she had plenty of money.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know about that. Believe what you must have.
Speaker 2: For you.
Speaker 4: Doris and her mother lived in a four room flat
above a grocery store. Then he bought that place on
the hillside.
Speaker 6: Oh that's a really fancy residential eliot, those houses off
a long Did missus Conroy have money, Oh no.
Speaker 4: No, no, she worked at a dress shop. Mister Conroy
died about four years ago. But oh, I can't imagine
him leaving a bundle of inchurince.
Speaker 1: So how did Doors and her mother move into that
your fine house? Where'd the money come from? Oh? I
do know? And two years later Doris quit the job,
goes on a cruise. You get to admit it. It's
all pretty strange.
Speaker 4: Well, I know it did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think about it us and no, then it
goes out of my head.
Speaker 4: I don't like to dwell on what happened?
Speaker 1: What did happen? Miss Kelly? I mean, looking back now, calmly, well,
what do you remember about that night on the ship?
Who instance w What do you remember about the cabin? Oh?
Speaker 4: Which was lovely?
Speaker 1: Had both of you unpacked?
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, no, we left our bags.
Speaker 4: And went right up on deck to watch the ship's sail.
Speaker 1: Had friends come to see you off? The older bonvoyage guardy.
Speaker 3: Now, just the man I made the mistake of marrying
a Door.
Speaker 4: Stayed out of the way, though she did a load
of him, but then she sort of dripped it off.
Speaker 1: That's the last I heard of her, And no one
came to see her off.
Speaker 4: No, her boss expected to, but he was in Providence.
He's got a telegram. I gave it to the police.
Speaker 1: Now you also turned over to them the teeth pack
watch with the engraving on it. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 4: Oh boy, that watch must have cost a fortune.
Speaker 3: On the back it said with gratitude Charlie.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, who is Charlie? Stood to me?
Speaker 4: I saw that watched that night for the first time.
Speaker 3: I don't know what Dora did for him, but that
watch was a lot of gratitude.
Speaker 1: There's so much gratitude. I'm a little suspicious of it.
What do you mean, well, had Doris become engaged as
some rich guy you No, she didn't go with anyone,
and still someone gives her a watch that probably cuts
to what eight hundred dollars?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: What does that to get to you? Miss Cully?
Speaker 4: I oh, I can't believe it.
Speaker 1: I can blackmail. I'll get it a self. That might
be Tim Yeager ah luck yeah, funny. I think come
on and buy your drinks. So I'm taking a drinks
one for you too. Maybe we've got something to celebrate. O.
Speaker 3: Tim, Do you have any news?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's a mixed bag.
Speaker 3: Oh hee, you pick don We're very grateful, so you
tend to take it. That's an anxiously wealth case.
Speaker 1: Who I'm happy I did now I know he's an
innocent man. Oh cheers. Why all this wasn't gone into
at the time of her death? I don't know. Somebody
should have seen the connection.
Speaker 3: Well wait a year you lost here, said Jod thanks him.
Speaker 1: Teams can say why didn't anyone see the connection between
Doors Conroy's mysterious death and the embezzlement charge against you
will waiting? No, wait, slow down? What is the connection?
Where are several? First? About four years ago, Doris and
her mother moved from a dump over a grocery store
at a hillside drive. That means money run sect. Doris
quits her job just at the time she decided to
go on a cruise. Third, there's a bon voyage message
from Providence in her stateroom from her boss, see Palmer Pendleton,
hold it, I got it, I got the watch. Watch
what are you talking about? The eight hundred dollars he
put the company named Charlie gave to her and in
great We're glad to be back there. Charlie, Judge, Charlie
is the sea in c Palmer Pendleton. Then it was
Pendleton and DAWs Conroy who embezzled the money and set
me up for the ball guy.
Speaker 4: I never would have greened.
Speaker 1: Thedleton and Doris the car. I'm gonna pin this on
that sanctimonious money lender and send him up the liver
for a way long string. I want that more than
anything in life to him. But how are we going
to do it. You're saying that he murdered Doris Conroy?
Speaker 4: Why would you do that?
Speaker 1: My great stockpile of cliches? How about this one? Thieves
fall out and go to blackmailers. Pendleton spood with Doris,
then she wanted more. He could stand just so much
pressure and danger. He killed her and made it seem
like accurdled round it, which it wasn't. That smash on
her head was not made by something she hit when
she fell into that Philly doc tyed water. Pendleton hit
her with something and jumped her over the side. All right,
but the telegram in the case. But he was in problem.
Yeah not well, well that's the stickler. Let me dig
into it. The forum's got all kinds of connections. I'll
go after the telegram company first thing in the morning.
And what you might do will is to go to
New York trace that teeth put to the jeweler a
jove a picture of Pendleton, asked him if Pendleton's the
guy who bought it? And all? Not a word about
this to anyone. We don't want a bird to fly
the coop. Yeah, oh I, I is it too?
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 1: From the bank, Hello, missus Conroy, may we come in?
Who's that mister Yager from the River Falls Forum, friends
and newspapers? Yes? Oh, what do you know? Oh?
Speaker 3: Peas, come in? This too weird?
Speaker 1: Miss Conroy. I'm afraid we have some bad news for
you about your daughter Doris.
Speaker 3: Oh she's good, she said off a boat.
Speaker 1: Yes, and we think that maybe it wasn't an accident
and we're investigating her dank.
Speaker 3: Oh, mister Pendleton has always been so kising well.
Speaker 1: The police now suspect that maybe somebody pushed her over
the side of the boat.
Speaker 3: Doris was a good swimming.
Speaker 1: We think that Doris had an enemy and knew it really, so,
I wonder if Doris left anything behind her about this
this enemy of hers. Have you kept all of her things,
missus Conroy?
Speaker 3: Holtely?
Speaker 1: Just the way it was when she went away two
years ago? Could we see the room? Well?
Speaker 4: Well, come quickly, good heaven. He's got easy.
Speaker 1: We've got her diary, Estelle Will says, you read shorthand
can you make some sense out of this fort Who
got Conroy's It's a five year diary going back to
nineteen seventy. Now, maybe some place in this thing there's
a true to her relationship with Pendleton. If there is,
we've got the factual proof to reopen my case. And
we've got a hurry, Estelle, missus Conroy just may take
it into her head to telephone Pendleton. We don't want
him to skip. We want to confront him.
Speaker 3: I do my death, but nice, sure we got a ruste.
Speaker 4: She needs a lot in this guy.
Speaker 1: Just do the best you can of telephone Providence. Maybe
the paper up there has found out what I want
to know about the telegram? Hello Timmy agen River Falls?
Any luck where to locate him doing graduate work? I see? Yeah,
now he admitted sending the telegram. Why did he send it?
I get it? Yeah? Yeah, I think there's Jake about
shows it up. I I'm very grateful to your mark
and to the newspaper. Uh, I'll telephone you tomorrow morning. Okay, yeah, goodbye?
Speaker 4: And I liked him.
Speaker 1: We have got mister Pendleton. By that's what great.
Speaker 3: It's here, will I?
Speaker 4: I I found a boy and you had to marche
I hear it, though.
Speaker 3: The entry is stated March nineteen seventy, Dear Diary, after
for today, I had cocktails with mister Pendleton at the pub.
Speaker 1: I like him.
Speaker 3: He's such a considerate man. I almost fainted when he
told me about a plan he's been thinking about it.
I listened with a great deal of interest because there's
money in it for me, more money than I can imagine,
Dear Diary. M he's an officer in the bank, so
he knows just how to put his plan into his
set that he needs someone he can trust to work
with him and iron it. We can get our hands
on at least one hundred thousand dollars and the bookkeeper,
Will Profford won't be able to six.
Speaker 1: That's a big day for you, Will, Thanks to you, Tim.
That just another story to anyhow, if you hadn't believed
in me, let's go get you a high sign. Now
you need a talking it's your story. Good morning, mister Pendleton.
But I was told with the Yegger of the forum
asked to see me. Yes, I'm Jegger with this jailbird
doing with you. He wants to witness and record your admissions.
Mister Pendleton, what god here? If you don't always security
arrest you. There'll be an arrest, all right, but it'll
be yours for embezzling one hundred thousand dollars from your
father's bank and for murdering Doris because she blackmailed you.
You're insane.
Speaker 5: You and Doris stole the money and made me the
fall guy. Two years ago she put the bite on
you for more money, left her job and planned a cruise.
Speaker 1: You hit her on the head and tore her overboard.
Speaker 4: That's a lie, not a lie.
Speaker 1: You sent her a telegram from Providence.
Speaker 4: How can I murdered someone in New York?
Speaker 1: No heard, mister Pendleton. Your telephoned your son, a student
in Providence, dictated the telegram to him, and he sent
it for you.
Speaker 5: Both the newspaper and the police have checked that out.
Then you left River Falls and went to New York.
You met Doris on shipboard, murdered her and threw overboard.
Speaker 1: And you're the charlie whose name was engraved in the
back of our peacock watch along with ingratitude. You gave
it to Doris. The jewel identified you from a picture.
You proved those charges, the embezzling scheme in Doris's decision
to demand more money from you two years ago. Both
are written down in shorthand in her diary. Mister Pendleton,
the River Falls police are waiting outside for you. I
denied the embezzlement charges against me, mister Pundleton, but I
was jailed for five years. The charges against you can't
be denied. They're based on facts. The murder charges based
on circumstential evidence. By that statement, you just come yourself.
You've admitted that there is a murder charge. Tim asked
the police to come in. Oh. An ancient Roman writer
named Juvenile asked what man was ever content with one crime?
Mister Pendleton and Loris Conroy connived to embezzle a fortune.
She was not content with her share, so she resorted
to blackmail, and she was murdered. Many crimes are detected,
persons are prosecuted for them, but when an innocent person
is charged and sentenced, justice has miscarried. But an innocent person,
given time and courage, very often can clear his name,
as we have seen. I'll be back shortly. Modern justice
dates back to the year twelve fifteen, when the Magna
Carter guaranteed that no subject should be kept in prison
without trial and judgment by his peers. The Western world
has lived by that precept for almost eight hundred years.
Sometimes justice may be unjust or slow, but in the
long run, it is not only the sum of all
moral duty, it is also what makes each of us equals.
Our cast included Mandel Kramer, Joan Lovejoy, Russell Horton, Joan Shay,
and Barry Koger. The entire production was under the direction
of Hymon Brown Radio. Mystery Theater was sponsored in part
by Anhuser Busch Incorporated Booys of Budweiser. This is Eg
Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, Pleasant Dreams.
Good Night's.
Speaker 7: War Mystery Theater was also brought to you in part
by Toppright Supermarkets, where you get a lot more for
a little less. The preseeding program was furnished by CBS
Radio on the War Community Calendar. Tomorrow is the Big
day of Birmingdale's the War Children's Christmas Fun Party.