Speaker 1: Come in. We're welcome. I'm e. G. Marshall. Do you
ever think of exactly what the word mystery means? Something
beyond human comprehension? Is part of Webster's first definition the
supernatural the Gothic, which is ghosts the ghouls, of course,
but the word has a wider meaning. It is also
defined as an enigma, often used retrospectively of what has
been but is no longer unexplained or unrevealed. And this
story is summed up in that statement, more or less
exactly er our mystery drama, The Hanging Judgment was written
especially for the Mystery Theater by Ian Martin and stars
Mandel Kramer and Leon Janney. It is sponsored in part
by Ludden's medicated cough drops and Buick motor division. I'll
be back shortly with that one murder, perhaps the greatest
and most inexplicable mystery of all. How can one human
being ever take the life of another? Bad enough in
the heat of anger, but outrageous and sickening when it
is in cold blood? Yet that particular riddle of the
crime of murder is not the only one. We all
know the others, How, where, when, and in so many
cases the most baffling Who, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
I now present to you the problem of solving that
in the case of the state against doctor Samuel Grant
and missus Cheryl Stafford.
Speaker 2: Who's that had?
Speaker 1: It's me, Barbara, sam What are you doing here?
Speaker 3: You don't belong here anymore.
Speaker 1: You know we've made a day tonight to talk over
the divorce.
Speaker 3: You did knock me?
Speaker 4: Get out of here?
Speaker 1: Who's that with you? I said I'd bring Cheryl along here.
Speaker 3: You get that slop out of my house and off
my property.
Speaker 1: What I've gone away? What give me the gun? Barbara?
Speaker 5: I have?
Speaker 2: Give you what you deserve?
Speaker 3: You kicking?
Speaker 4: Lying?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 3: Who shots.
Speaker 5: Hell out of Lieutenant KINSELLA, Mister district Attorney.
Speaker 1: I kind of expected to see you earlier.
Speaker 7: At the scene of the crime.
Speaker 5: As we say, wanna fill me in on its Grant case.
Speaker 1: M let's go into my office.
Speaker 7: Looks like murder.
Speaker 1: One killed shot close range, probably thirty eight.
Speaker 6: Such thanks well, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Could have been a prouder of the woman Barbara Grant
were separated from her husband even though they find no,
we haven't been able to reach him. A Swedish maid
was waiting by the shots and calls us in. See,
thinks doctor Grant might be out of town. Who made
his uh her maid the dead woman?
Speaker 5: He said they separated, Okay, so how would she know
about the doctor's comings and goings? Eh, sit down, Al,
I got.
Speaker 1: A hunch you don't have to be nervous over this one.
Speaker 6: That's what you mean.
Speaker 1: I looked over a couple of pictures of this doctor
Samuel Grant lover her boy. How do you figure? No chase?
Her final breakup of the Grants was over a secretary.
He had a babe named Cheryl Stafford to pick her up.
And as I'm waiting on that, seems missus Grant made
enough noise so the doctor fired her and she moved
back to her hometown, Las Vegas. MM.
Speaker 5: And if doctor Grant is out of town, that's where
he might be.
Speaker 1: Figures, we shouldn't know any moment, like maybe right now? Yeah?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 1: Well you don't say? Well, how about that? I hold
it minute. I guess who just walked into the station.
Speaker 5: Not our prime salespect, Nana, the the good doctor Grant himself.
Speaker 1: And I was out of town on special business when
I heard her report on radio, So I flew back
here to Los Angeles right away and came straight to
the precinct house. We appreciate that, doctor Grant, but you don't.
But you can't think that I have anything to do
with the murder of my wife. I never even suggested
that you are bringing it up, No matter what you
might suspect, I couldn't have. I parked my car at
the airport day before yesterday and flew to Las Vegas
for a medical meeting. I didn't return till early this morning.
I'm sure the airport parking lot of employees can vouch
for that. Federill be checked well, I mean, I ask
what is being done about whatever power or whoever he was,
who who murdered my wife. First off, we're checking on
the bullet that killed her, and there was a gun
beside her, a thirty two. It had been fired once,
But that couldn't have been what killed her, could it.
We'll have to wait for ballistics to decide that in
the meanwhile, Now, just for the record, since you were
virtually offered the information at the time of the murder,
which was between six and eight pm on the night
of Argust twenty ninth, do I understand that you are
out of town, to be more specific, in Las Vegas, Nevada,
strictly off the record. I think I won't answer that
question until I have found me a lawyer.
Speaker 2: Jakaj justsin In associates.
Speaker 1: I'd like to doctor, mister Justin only after calling this
is doctor Samuel Grant.
Speaker 2: Could you hold it a moment, doctor, Let me check it.
Mister Jackson is in the office. Oh that one miter,
Samuel Grant whose wife was just murdered and.
Speaker 1: He wants me to represent him.
Speaker 2: I presume he didn't say so, but why else would
he call?
Speaker 4: Are you in or out?
Speaker 1: What else can I be?
Speaker 2: He needs me because he's guilty.
Speaker 1: I only down that judgment.
Speaker 2: Will you read the papers? JC?
Speaker 7: Just like me?
Speaker 2: You know everything points against this guy being.
Speaker 1: Innocent, and if it does, he still deserves the best
legal defense he can find.
Speaker 5: That's a basic lawyer's ethics.
Speaker 2: If he gets you, he's got it. Does he have
you make an appointment.
Speaker 1: For me to say him as soon as possible today
without fail?
Speaker 2: Yes, their boss, but me, I don't think he deserves you.
I'm Sandy Russell girl Friday to j Carr Justin, I'm
twenty five. I want a home, children, a happy marriage.
But that's not what any girl could expect from Justin,
especially not as Friday girl.
Speaker 4: Working for Justin is like eighteen.
Speaker 2: Wild, exhilarating, exhausting hours every day.
Speaker 4: You either love him or hate him.
Speaker 2: Know in between his top tinations, seeing his own way, tender, compassionate,
who he has to be because day in day out
people put their lives in his hands.
Speaker 4: Guilty of innocence, he said, lots of desk defense.
Speaker 1: So, doctor Grant, you told the police that at the
time of your wife's death you were in Las Vegas.
The attendant at the parking lot. Were you in Las Vegas?
I had a speaking engagement. Where did you stay? Stay?
You spent overnight there? What hotel? Oh, it's silly, I
don't recall some motel it should be How did you
get to the motel? Well, how does anyone get to
a motel by car? Only yours was parked in the
Los Angeles airport. Remember, uh, Well, I could have gone
by cab or rented a car. Sure, but if you
went by cab, the motel would remember if you managed
to remember the name of it, And if you rented
a car be a simple matter to check who side
did you want? Mine? Of the police, I represent you yours.
I'm just giving you a little taste of the kind
of questioning that you're going to have to face up to,
either from the police or prosecuting attorney. I see now
it wouldn't hold up. That's better. Now, what is true? Doctor?
I was there when my wife was murder was shot?
Did you shoot her? No? Who did? I don't know.
Were you alone when it happened?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: There was someone with me who my ex secretary Ryl Stafford.
The medical meeting was only an excuse to fly to
Vegas and see her. You're in love with her. We
intend to be married, but my wife won't uh wouldn't
give me a divorce. M How much of this have
you told the police? None of it. I used the
alibi I mean about my car child. Why well, I
was afraid of how it would look if I mean Barbara,
that's my wife and I've been having trouble. I didn't
want to sue for divorce in California because it might
disturb a alone. I was negotiating, and there's the problem
also of community property. But in spite of that, she
had started soup. That's why I was there the night
before last with Cheryl to ask her to be reasonable
and not ruin all of us. If you didn't shoot her, doctor,
who did Miss Stafford? Good lord, No, I want you
to represent Cheryl both of us. We're innocent, and Miss
Stafford testified to the fact that you are. You could
ask her yourself. She's waiting in the car downstairs, but
you don't have to or for me to testify for her.
Why not? Because there were two shots. One my wife
fired at me, the other came from another gun and
hit her in the back. I swear to you, I'm innocent. Doctor.
How much did you say to the police, Nothing beyond
claiming the alibi? All right, if you want me to,
I'll represent you, but I must warn you, doctor that
if it goes to trial, I'll be expensive. How much
is expensive, Well, if you're not invited, nothing. If it
goes to trial, my expenses and fifty thousand dollars. You're right,
you're not cheap. NEI there is life, doctor like you.
I hope. I'm an expert at preserving it.
Speaker 2: Jacar Justin an associate, just Jake Carr will do.
Speaker 5: Honey, you can tell him it's District Attorney Herman on
the wire.
Speaker 4: Yes, just one moment. Give Ah Herman on the line.
Speaker 2: She sounds particularly smug.
Speaker 3: Today, always a bad sign.
Speaker 2: Put him on, mister Jackson will talk to you now,
mister Herman.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Hell well, al Well, I just thought you'd like to
know the grand jury handed down indictments against your clients,
doctor Grant and Missus Stafford. I'm just having warrants issued
against them, both for first degree murder and conspiracy to
commit murder.
Speaker 1: You know that's going to be a waste of time. Al,
You don't say, I just did. Ballistics showed that Missus
Grant was killed with a bullet from a gun other
than the one i'm a scene of the crime. That
gun has disappeared. Al without it, you have no case.
Speaker 6: You wouldn't want to bet on that, would you.
Speaker 1: I'm not a betting man.
Speaker 5: It's just as well. I've got a nice little surprise
to spring on you, just for once. See in cart Al.
Speaker 1: But you got j such me. I'm more worried about
what I may have got. Well, like they say, a
bull by the tail. So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
the crime is laid out, and you have met all
the principal characters, some of them very briefly. The motive
is established, opportunity in a sense, and the wavering finger
points said doctor Grant and his enamorata Eryl Stafford, or both,
or since the vital link is missing the weapon, perhaps
to someone else as yet unidentified, I shall return shortly
with that too. The awful suspense of a murder trial
has begun. The wheels, once set in motion, cannot be
halted until a jury renders a verdict. A woman is dead,
life snuffed out by unnatural causes. The whole organization of
society demands that an explanation or some vindication of her
ceasing to live must be forthcoming. George Ellen B Prince
presiding the trial has begun and is in progress. The
district Attorney is questioning Lieutenant Kinsella on the stand.
Speaker 5: Hi, Lieutenant, may we get turn to your description of
the crime, or rather I should say, what's your investigation?
That night of the twenty ninth of August and subsequent
follow up investigations.
Speaker 1: Revealed yes, sir, in response to phone call from Miss
Turnham at three three four nine Ventura Boulevard West, Covington
Central sent out a code eleventh. Sergeant Barrassini and his partner,
Patrolman Kaufman, were first on the scene, responding to a
general bulletin on murder. I I arrived there myself or
early in the morning of the thirtieth, about four a m.
And why did you discover, Lieutenant, a body of a
woman didn't fight as Missus Barbara Grant was lying before
the garage door, a revolver lying near her right hand.
Speaker 6: Had this revolver had been fired?
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, once did the bullet discharged result in the
death of Missus Barbara Grant?
Speaker 6: No, sir, What was the cause of death.
Speaker 1: As a result of ballistics check? Subsequently, a slug from
a thirty eight revolver almost certainly a police positive.
Speaker 5: Was this gun found at the scene of the crime? No, sir,
Has it been found anywhere else since? No, sir, is
it not true, Lieutenant Kinsella, that, at your request, the
Police Department of Records and Licenses substantiated the fact that
two years ago a permit was issued to a doctor,
Samuel Grant, he was entitled to carry a gun.
Speaker 1: That is correct, sir.
Speaker 5: Just one more question, Lieutenant, the type of slug which
killed missus Barbara Grant did come from a police positive
thirty eight or absolutely, and it could have gone from
this particular weapon not You know, you don't have to
answer that. The question was really unnecessary. You witness calculate.
Speaker 1: Well, let's complete that question, lieutenant can sell him. Could
the flug have come from this particular weapon? What weapon?
Does that? Mysie? Ah? But that's just the point, isn't it, Lieutenant?
This particular weapon is only a theoretical one, isn't it.
I'm not sure I know how to answer that question.
I have no tricks, Lieutenant, I have nothing up my sleeve.
I'm merely trying to establish that this phantom gun is
not established. It exists at the moment only as a speculation,
an inference drawn from a bullet that caused the deathness
is Grant. Is that not correct, Lieutenant, Yes, sir, it's
correct as fire as gold. Obstantially, what you have in mind, Lieutenant,
is that the death bullet could have been fired from
exactly the sort of gun that the defendant, doctor Samuel Grant,
was licensed to own and carry. That is just what
I meant. Well, we can go into that a little later.
A couple of more questions, if you will, Lieutenant, Yes, sir,
Now the gvernment was found by Missus Grant had been fired.
Is that correct, yes, sir? Once what caliber was that
thirty two? Sir? Was that bullet farm, yes, sir, in
the back wall of the garage, and the bullet from
her thirty two was fired in the direction of doctor Grant,
who was inside the garage at the time, Yes, sir, yes, sir.
But there were definitely two shots. Well, of course there
was one right after another. The mad the house hurt them.
Where was Missus Grant shot in? What part of her body?
Speaker 7: She was shot in the back?
Speaker 1: In the back? Thank you very much, Lieutenant. That's really
all I need.
Speaker 2: That's what Justin does. That is so great, Tony Ander.
You run, get everyone cooled off, and the lack and
then wham's home of Zener. That makes the jury sit
up and that stays planted in their minds. It's like
a a baseball game, a trial, inning after inning, each
side striking out of or scoring.
Speaker 6: What Justin just did a Dodger.
Speaker 5: I asked you to describe the events of the night
of the twenty ninth leading after the death of your wife.
Speaker 1: All right, to the best of my ability, my wife
against an agreement I thought we had had taken action
tossume me for divorce. I'd called her from Las Vegas
and asked her to reconsider, and we had made a
date to meet that evening.
Speaker 5: In your own words, Could you tell us what happened
when you arrived, I.
Speaker 1: Can try sheryld of Miss Stafford and I had driven
there in her car. We parked at the downhill parking
lot and walked up the two blocks to my I mean,
to Barbara's house.
Speaker 6: Why didn't you just drive up and park in the.
Speaker 1: Drive Well, that's a difficult to explain. The houses perched
on the side of a hill, the cliff. Really, the
driveway is difficult to maneuver, So I built this parking
space on our property just below. Unless you were planning
to drive into the garage itself, we usually left our
cars there.
Speaker 5: Your own car, your own house.
Speaker 1: My wife and I were separated pending at divorce agreement.
It was her house.
Speaker 6: You considered it that I.
Speaker 1: Was willing to grant her that privilege.
Speaker 5: After you and Miss Stafford had walked up to the garage,
what did you find?
Speaker 1: Well, there was no one home. I had still had
my keys, and I had just let Miss Stafford and
myself in when my wife drove up. We'd come in
the back door and it was just a dusk, so
I didn't bother to put on any lights. Cheryl and
I just went through the inner door to the garage
about the same time as Barbara opened the garage sliding door.
Speaker 2: Who's that hate it?
Speaker 1: It's me, Barbara, Sam.
Speaker 3: What are you doing here? You don't belong here anymore.
Speaker 1: You know we made a date to night talk over
the divorce.
Speaker 3: You did not me.
Speaker 4: Who's that with you?
Speaker 1: I said, I'd bring Cheryl along.
Speaker 2: You get that sluck out of my house and off
my property.
Speaker 1: Barbara put that gun away. Run Cheryl, run, give me
the gun. Barbara, I'll give you what you deserve.
Speaker 2: You cheating, lying?
Speaker 1: No, you're wrong? Are you crazy?
Speaker 7: Whoa who?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: I'd knucked down behind the lawn tractor in the garden tools.
Even with the headlights on, I couldn't see anything. All
I knew was there was a a second shot, and
that Barbara had been hit. I went to a right away.
Speaker 6: Was the gun sill in your hand?
Speaker 1: Well? What gun?
Speaker 6: Someone shot your wife?
Speaker 5: If it wasn't you. Are you suggesting it was Miss Stafford?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: I I mean, well I don't. I didn't even know
where Miss Stafford was at the time.
Speaker 6: I see.
Speaker 7: So you went to your wife and what happened?
Speaker 1: Barbara? Are you all right?
Speaker 6: And did she reply?
Speaker 7: Yes?
Speaker 1: She s she said, I I love you. I should've
listened to you. Take care of the children.
Speaker 6: Your son and daughter, yes, who were not home at
this time.
Speaker 1: No, they were away at school.
Speaker 6: There was no one in the house.
Speaker 1: Yes, uh uh a maid or miss Kenelm. I could
hear her moving and I imagine calling a police.
Speaker 6: And then what happened?
Speaker 1: I panicked?
Speaker 6: I'm sure you did. What did you do? In your panic?
Speaker 1: Ran down the hill to the parking lot where.
Speaker 7: You found Miss Stafford waiting for you.
Speaker 1: Yes, with the gun? What gun?
Speaker 7: A gun that shot your wife?
Speaker 1: Cheryl had no gun?
Speaker 7: Then you had it. What did you do with it?
Speaker 4: Your honor?
Speaker 1: The district attorney is obviously trying to put words into
the mouth of the defendants.
Speaker 2: Not quite, mister Justin. But I do feel mister Hermann,
you have not established the existence of the gun up
to this place.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, I say, it doesn't matter your honor.
Speaker 5: The bullet that lodged in missus Rand's heart has established
that such a gun existed.
Speaker 6: You're witness, mister Justin.
Speaker 1: Mister Grant, I beg your pardon, Doctor Grant. Can I
take you back for a moment to the night of
May the fourteenth? Would you be good enough to tell
the court what took place at your home on Ventura Boulevard.
Both my wife and myself were away. It was miss
Trenham the major night out we were robbed. Now I
have here a certified list from the insurance company of
all the things that were taken, the stereo equipment, TV sets, jewelry,
et cetera. Among those items is one very relevant one
was a thirty eight caliber police positive revolver also removed. Yes, sir,
and did you immediately, in the course of the insurance
investigation notify the police of that fact? I did? And
did you subsequently seek a license for a new gun
of any sort? Not for myself. By that time, I
was in the course of separating from my wife, since
she was afraid of being in the house alone. I
arranged to get one for her and have it licensed.
The thirty two, which is an exhibit here and with
which she fired the bullet at me? And you have
no knowledge who might have fired the bullet that killed
your wife? No, sir, could it have been miss Stafford?
Why would you suggest that your wife was shot on
the back You were facing her, were you not? Yes?
But good Lord, Cheryl was sketted death of firearms. She
didn't know anything about gun. She's the last person who
could have been responsible for my wife's death. I have
no further questions, thank you, doctor.
Speaker 2: But there were the DA went after doctor grant on redirect,
tooth and nail and.
Speaker 4: Worse than that.
Speaker 2: Oh, I've been around court long enough to know that
when Cheryl Stafford got understand she was in for help.
Most of all, I couldn't understand JC. If you work
for a man long enough, love him too much like me,
and you know too much about him not to know
he wasn't putting out his best effort here.
Speaker 1: I called him on it, Alexandra, don't ask questions. That's
my business.
Speaker 2: I get the put down, and he can you call
me Alexandra?
Speaker 4: Oh, but I can't let it go, JC.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, now, Look we're skating on a
lot of thin ice, and I am supposed to be advocate,
not judge. Now, why don't you just leave me be
and let what is to be to take its natural course.
Speaker 2: Okay, if you think your clients are guilty, do you.
Speaker 1: It's a basic rule to try and consider my client's innocent.
Speaker 4: Oh but the way things are going, you're going and lose.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a very absolute term.
Speaker 2: It's the way it's going. Like well, if things go now,
one of them killed missus Grant well, and since she
was shot in the back, it's Sheriff's scattered. But it's
still collusion and both of them are guilty.
Speaker 1: That's the way it may look, my love, but not
enough hard facts to pin it down. That should worry
al Hermann, But you notice that it doesn't. He still
has something big to hit us with in this case.
So let's go grab some dinner.
Speaker 4: In some personal life, Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I wonder about you whether you care about winning,
no about how you win, and if it's right that you.
Speaker 1: Do, Sandy, you have to make your own judgments on that,
like anyone else. Everything in its time. Let's wait until
all the cards are in. As J. Carr Justin knows
from experience, there is no drama more tense, more uncertain
in its outcome than the arena of the courtroom, And
no theater in which the incredible surprise, the shocking factor
that follows. No law dramaturgy simply pops up to turn
upside down all the facts which you've gone before. So,
ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it will be with
some startling new evidence that I return with Act three.
Everyone in the trial, of course, was waiting for the
appearance of the fam fatal, the other woman, Cheryl Stafford.
But before her appearance, the surprise witness suddenly appeared on
the chair, a witness guilelessly entered, used by Cheryl's brother
who was testifying as a character reference for his sister,
a witness named William Aliisius Brodie.
Speaker 2: It's not often Ja car Justin is blindsided. At this
time he was, and the BA had said his trap. Well,
William Brody was a complete surprise to us.
Speaker 4: And to the jury.
Speaker 2: Just listened to the unflappable muscleman on the stand.
Speaker 4: In the midst of the.
Speaker 5: Story he had to tell, mister Brody, you actually discussed murder.
Speaker 6: With Cheryl Stafford.
Speaker 5: You called him ma'am and she named the victim.
Speaker 1: Yeah, his grand name.
Speaker 5: Well, I must admit that I'm caught a little out
of my death here. But uh, would you describe in
your own words just what you mean?
Speaker 1: Well, it's no big deal. Like I say, I'm at
this party and the kid I know named Stafford gives
me the big intro to his sister here her, So
who's gonna back off? She's a real good looking dame.
And one thing leads to another, and I get an
invite to come up to her apartment like the next night?
Did you go? Why not? What kind of guy pass
it up?
Speaker 6: Please? Continue?
Speaker 1: You? Sorry? Well, I rigged myself out in some fancy
threads figure, and this is a score, and I ain't
got no reason to change my mind. When she opens
the door, I mean, she's, like you say, undressed for action,
and a welcome sign is out. It's a big hello,
a big drink, and this kid is I think the
picture is graphic enough. I suppose you just tell us
simply and directly what happened?
Speaker 3: Can I get you some more to drink?
Speaker 1: Uh? No, babe, I'm closing easy now. Your kid brother
told me you want to favor Uh, that's right. Try me,
I deliver.
Speaker 3: Supposing I wish to tell you I want someone I
I mean I I want someone out of the way.
Speaker 1: Out of the way you mean total wiped up, I
mean killed dead. Okay, you don't have to draw pictures,
just name numbers. How much?
Speaker 3: Say two thousand dollars?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 1: Oh, you gotta be kidding. I wouldn't touch it for
under a five.
Speaker 7: I haven't.
Speaker 3: I I mean I don't think I could raise that much.
Speaker 1: Uh, who's a pigeon anyway?
Speaker 3: But if I tell you can make a deal. Three
thousand is my top figure. It's all I've got, all
I can get.
Speaker 1: Mm. So we got a deal. Give me a name.
Speaker 3: Her name is Grant, Barbara Grant. She's married to my
ex boss. But it wouldn't be hard. They're separated and
she lived alone.
Speaker 1: So lay the bread on me. Two thound, advanced third
on delivery.
Speaker 4: And you.
Speaker 5: Actually contracted to kill missus Grant.
Speaker 1: You kid, this was all con as far as I
was concerned.
Speaker 6: Did she pay the money?
Speaker 1: I took the money and blew. I was only doing
her kid brother a favor.
Speaker 6: But you took money and promised a killing.
Speaker 1: Look her that. Cheryl Stafford says, to me, missus Grant
has given us a bad time, causing us a lot
of grief. If you don't take care of her, Sam
will have to do it himself. So I wanted to
make her feel better.
Speaker 5: And when the date came, you were supposed to deliver
what happened? When nothing happened.
Speaker 1: I gave it the wide eyed I said, I took
her out with a shotgun in the chest and I
hit her behind the convent.
Speaker 6: That was her reaction.
Speaker 1: I never saw her so happy. Then she calls us
doctor Grant. He levels with her. His wife is still
alive and kicking.
Speaker 6: What was Stafford's reaction?
Speaker 1: She said, you must have shot somebody else.
Speaker 5: And you said, maybe I'd go if I made the wrong.
Speaker 1: Hit, I'll go back and do it again, but I
need more money, And Miss Stafford said, there isn't any
more money this time. We'll handle it by ourselves.
Speaker 6: Thank you, mister Roddy. No more questions, your witness, counselor.
Speaker 1: Ah no, mister Hummon, not mine. You turned over your
own rock to produce this spec.
Speaker 2: You know better than to make a remark like that.
Speaker 4: Counselor, my mind.
Speaker 1: Does your honor?
Speaker 7: My throat?
Speaker 1: Just throw it up involuntarily?
Speaker 2: Are you courting in this trial by exhibiting prejudice towards
a witness?
Speaker 1: My apologies to the court.
Speaker 2: Do you intend to cross examine?
Speaker 1: I think not, your honor, I would prefer to wait
from the Stafford side of the story. Oh, perhaps just
one or two questions?
Speaker 2: Who the witness is yours?
Speaker 1: Would you repeat your name? Please? Uh? Brody? William Brody,
William Aloisius Brodie?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, But like man I dropped the middle go
around in high school, you also drop your other names?
What other names? Or? Don't be alarmed if you have
any aliases? I don't know about them. I just mean
the various public nicknames that people have hung on you,
such as dream Man and the treasure check. I can't
cool it?
Speaker 7: Will you cool it?
Speaker 1: Man? Everybody has his own bag. I like to build
up the body right, anything wrong in that? To each
his own? By the way, what did you say, uh
that you do for living in mister brodian? I did
would you now this? Man?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 7: Man?
Speaker 1: I hang loose snow big deal?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: I think you much too modest, mister Brodie. I have
here a list dance hall, bouncer, Hill candy butcher, beach boy.
But I don't mean all of these. I mean you're
real profession since Jiggelow and ladies man man or a
little out of style, what shall recall you a professional?
Speaker 2: Project a sustain strike That last sentence from the record,
mister Justin, I am tempted to find you in contempt
of court. You know you cannot discredit a witness without
objective proof.
Speaker 1: You're on our respectfully, it is my contention that the
witness has already discredited himself, and when I bring miss
Stafford to the stand, he will be even further discredited.
Speaker 2: So at last it was the defense's turn, and finally
Sheryl Stafford was on the stand, small and slight, very
pretty in her quiet way, somehow defenseless to try to
puncture the obvious effects she had on the audience in jury.
The DA tore into her mercilessly.
Speaker 5: And you are not ashamed to face the woman whose
husband you had stolen.
Speaker 3: No, Sam, doctor had already left his wife before I,
before we fell in love.
Speaker 7: Why didn't you drive straight up to the house?
Speaker 3: Would Sam explain that.
Speaker 5: You didn't use that way to approach the house with
the object of surprising Missus Grant.
Speaker 3: Why should we she was expecting us.
Speaker 6: To discuss divorce.
Speaker 5: Yes, then will you tell me why it was necessary
for doctor Grant to take his bag up to the
house with him.
Speaker 6: He wasn't making a house call, was he?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: But rather well, now, were you aware that that bag contained,
along with the expected items you might think of, a
hank of rope, rubber gloves, a butcher's knife, and a
box of cartridges, perhaps even a gun, which was missing,
of course, by the time the police.
Speaker 7: Found the bag abandoned in the garage.
Speaker 5: Wouldn't you say that was less a doctor's bag than
a murder objection?
Speaker 6: I let draw a question.
Speaker 5: Now, let's skip to the moment Missus Grant arrives and
takes out a gun and fires at her husband.
Speaker 7: What did you do?
Speaker 3: I ran just as hard as I could, this the
way Sam told me to.
Speaker 5: And did you stop to see what was happening before
and at the moment the fatal shot was fired?
Speaker 7: Did doctor Grant run? And doc?
Speaker 5: Could someone else have approached and fired the shot into
Missus Grant's back?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 7: I only you admit the possibility.
Speaker 6: Can't you?
Speaker 5: Perhaps even a probability that it could have been you
who returned and fired that fatal shot to protect your
lover and to carry out the scheme you were both
agreed upon before you went there that evening of the
twenty ninth, to kill the only thing that stood in
the way of your happiness and your future. Since you
couldn't hire someone successfully to kill her, didn't you and
doctor Grant, by one means or another, carry out her
death sentence?
Speaker 1: Your Felmo. The coil of rope was only some left
over line that doctor Grant had used to secure a
bumper on his boat. Yes, and the so called butcher
knife was a simple kitchen or purpose knife which doctor
Grant had bought because you needed it to cut bread
and prepared salads and so on.
Speaker 3: Yes, it wasn't even that big.
Speaker 1: Couldn't be less important. And the rubber gloves, I think,
of course, are self explanatory. Just one question, why did
he lug that bag up the hill?
Speaker 3: Because when he talked to his wife she said she
was having her migraine headaches again. He thought he might
have something to relieve them.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move to another shield for a moment.
You've heard the testimony of William Brody I have was
he telling the truth?
Speaker 3: Mister Brodie is a liar. If you want the real
truth of what happened in our interview.
Speaker 1: Here it is well here I am babe. Let's break
out the booze and get the party gone.
Speaker 3: This is no party, mister Brodie. You were recommended to
me by my brother.
Speaker 7: Call on me.
Speaker 1: I delivered.
Speaker 3: I'm embarrassed about this. I don't quite know how to
say it.
Speaker 1: Hey, hey, don't run a fever. I'll lay it out.
You want a dame compromised enough to make a kiss
for her husband to sue for divorce.
Speaker 3: I'm ashamed to say you're right.
Speaker 1: And could run in a real dough. You know who's
the name.
Speaker 3: Her name is Grant.
Speaker 7: She lives alone.
Speaker 1: She's gonna run five big one.
Speaker 3: Five thousand. I haven't got that much. Three thousands is
the best the most I could raise.
Speaker 1: No, okay, if that's what the traffic will bear. You
got a deal. You paid him, yes, but he just
took the money without delivering. You hated what you felt
you had to do, didn't you?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yes, then how could you have done it? Attempt to
compromise a woman as decent.
Speaker 3: And vulnerable as you are, because Barbara Grant wasn't like
that at all. She was cold and hard and calculating.
She didn't want Sam for herself. She was just determined
that no other woman should have him. She hadn't allowed
him to touch in over two years. She wasn't a woman,
just the machine. Look, that was the only way Sam
could get his freedom. I was willing to take it
because he's the gentlest, kindest man of the world. I
love him.
Speaker 1: One more question? Did you shoot Barbara Grant? Mister justin?
Speaker 3: I wouldn't even know how to fire or gun?
Speaker 1: Thank you, Miss Stafford. The defense rests.
Speaker 2: The Jerry's been out three hours, JC.
Speaker 4: What do you think.
Speaker 1: Mostly at a time like this, I try not to.
Speaker 4: Oh, I wish I could make my mind a blank.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 4: Because I love you and I don't know why you
took this case.
Speaker 2: Now, and don't give me the lawyer's ETHX line again.
Everyone is entitled to a defense. You know he's guilty
as health?
Speaker 1: Do I? Yes? And how do I feel about her?
Speaker 4: Well, that's not so easy.
Speaker 1: Excuse me. Yeah, they're coming out, Okay, we'll be right there.
Speaker 2: Did Jerry has a verdict?
Speaker 6: Yep?
Speaker 2: What do you think it'll be?
Speaker 1: All right, Ladies and gentlemen of the radio jury, what
was your verdict? Was a stolen gun just a cover
for doctor Grant to have a weapon to kill his wife?
Did they struggle so that she was shot in the back?
Did Cheryl fire the fatal shot? Or did the incredible
mister Brodie decide to earn his money by coincidence that evening,
it's your decision who killed Barbara Grant? I might add
that this was an actual case, only the names and
some locations changed, so you were guessing at an actual result.
Speaker 4: A hung Jerry, Ah, then you've lost.
Speaker 1: Well, it depends on the point. Now he conned me
into representing both of them. I had to fight for
doctor Grant as hard as I could to save a trusting,
if stupid little girl who gave her love not wisely
but to will.
Speaker 4: But he say to her, you got him off.
Speaker 1: No, no, no no. They'll be trying again, this time separately,
and this time I will represent only one, Miss Stafford.
Without her as a shield, he'll be convicted. She won't
get out of the clean. We all have to pay
for mistakes, but at least she won't have to share
the death chamber with him. Three months later, doctor Grant
broke on the stand and admitted that he had taken
advantage of the robbery at his house to pretend the
gun was one of the articles stolen. He had had
it with him in the murder kit bag, and in
struggling with his wife as she had turned to flee,
he had deliberately shot and killed her. He got life imprisonment.
Cheryl was convicted as an unwitting accessory after the fact.
She was sentenced to a two year term, but released
on probation on the basis of the facts. Would your
verdict have been the same? I'll be back shortly. How
does a nice young woman like that get mixed up
with a man like doctor Samuel Grant? One of the
oldest questions in the world, which people have been trying
to answer since time began. A few of them love
is blind. Two are more than woman to be wise
or perhaps to wind things up. A quote from mister Thackeray.
Every single woman I ever knew is a puzzle to me,
as I have no doubt she is to herself. With
no apologies to women's lib It's the way of the world.
Our cast included Mendel Kramer, Leon Janny Ken, Harvey, E. V. Jester,
Joan Shay, and Earl Hammond. The entire production was under
the direction of Hyman Brown.
Speaker 5: Radio.
Speaker 1: Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by Anheuser Busch Incorporated,
brewers of Budweiser.
Speaker 5: This is E. G.
Speaker 1: Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, Pleasant Dreams.
Tonight's Mystery Theater was brought to you in part by
Shopwrite Supermarkets, where you get a lot more for a
little less. The preceding program is furnished by CBS Radio