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 The Big Story.
But first, if you are enjoying the podcast, please follow
us using your favorite podcast software, and our listener support
and appreciation campaign continues. You can become one of our
ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as two dollars per month.
Just go to Patreon Great Detectives dot net. But now
a March ninth, nineteen forty eight, here is respected chemist dead.
Speaker 2: The Big Story.
Speaker 3: I was up on the road near the dam when
this happened. All of a sudden, there was an explosion.
Speaker 4: Then I saw this car down here.
Speaker 5: Burn Take it slow, mister Wellia. I'm trying to write
this down on my report.
Speaker 6: I ran right down here, but the heat drove me back.
Speaker 3: Then I called you Sleep police quick as I could.
Speaker 7: There as I can make out, someone must have gotten.
Speaker 5: Out of the car and staggered over here to the river.
What happened to him?
Speaker 3: What do you think? Oh, the body it went over
the dam.
Speaker 2: If he was lucky, it was dead when it happened, all.
Speaker 5: At water, thousands of tons of it, pouring down like
a rain of steel.
Speaker 2: We'll never find his body now never a big story.
Here is America. It's sound and its cury, It's say
in its sorrow, As faithfully reported by the men and
women of the Great America Newspapers, Cleveland, Ohio, from the
pages of the Cleveland News, the authentic story of a
reporter who found that death can make a piece of
fiction come to life, to night. To Ike mcinally of
the Cleveland News, goes the pell Mell Award for the
Big Story. Now the story as it actually happened.
Speaker 8: Ike mcinally story as he lived in Cleveland, Ohio. Every
city seems different, except when you get down real.
Speaker 3: Close to it.
Speaker 8: Then you know that they're all alike. A city lives
because of its people. And in the stories that you
Ike mcinally right for the Cleveland News, you tell what
happens to them, sob stuff, laugh and heartbreak, the obituaries
and the birth notices side by side. And on this
cold December day, as you head for an interview with
the wife of doctor David Wagner, the whole picture of
the city suddenly narrows down. The one small frame or
in the window of the Wagner house is a reef
of Christmas, and below the name played on the door
is a wreath of black.
Speaker 9: But nor can I tell you, mister Nathan.
Speaker 3: Now your husband's actions, Missus Wagner. They identified his car
with a license plate, but the way it exploded, the
police can't figure it out.
Speaker 10: Doctor Wagner was a camel. I know he was on
his way to Philadelphia to demonstrate a new process for
purifying water. There are chemicals in his car in some
way that it must.
Speaker 9: Have caught fire.
Speaker 4: Bump on the road, broken bottle, and his luggage.
Speaker 3: Any one of a dozen takes for the time he
was to keep time.
Speaker 9: I love him so much. It says if he still
he was always plumbing the children, that we all go
away on a long diacas he had so little time.
Speaker 4: I say, I shouldn't mind my own business. But why
don't you go away with the children. There's the insurance.
Speaker 3: No, you mean the doctor didn't carry a policy. He
fifty thousand dollars, But you just said.
Speaker 9: The insurance company. He has no truth. Our broker, mister Murry,
has been arguing with him, but I.
Speaker 3: Don't get it. They found the car but they.
Speaker 8: Didn't find my husband an under company rules, who have
to wait seven years before being paid my husband?
Speaker 3: Just me, it's a locking deal.
Speaker 4: A man works to make sure that his wife and
kids will be taken care of.
Speaker 3: It's not it's not right to let it all go
for nothing.
Speaker 4: Excuse me, of course, company forget about people.
Speaker 3: Remember the rules.
Speaker 9: Hello, just an, it's for you.
Speaker 3: Thank you guys, right, hello, oh grab a just.
Speaker 11: Pick something off the ap wire. Seems a guy went
into a Philadelphia bank and cash five brand worth of traverse,
so that interviewing that you may not be widow aff
The guy who passed the checks identified himself as doctor
David Wicker.
Speaker 4: Look, Murray, if anyone knows Wagner's business, it's you. You
handled his insurancely travelers checks. Well, didn't Wagner sign these checks?
It looks like.
Speaker 7: His signature mcinally, but I don't see how it could be.
Speaker 3: Why not the clerk who gave him the money identified
him perfect. He could be wrong.
Speaker 7: Five people can look at one man and.
Speaker 3: He can give a different description of it.
Speaker 4: But they all couldn't forget a signature like this.
Speaker 12: No, the prisons are full of men who could write
your signature blind for you.
Speaker 4: Know Wagner signed these chicks, Murray, why don't you admit it?
Speaker 3: Look, McAnally, you're not just that need to verify his signature.
You want me to say that David Wagner is alive.
Doesn't this prove it?
Speaker 7: McAnally? Will you listen to me for a minute.
Speaker 3: I want to see David Wagner. I have as much
as anyone else.
Speaker 7: But to go on such flimsy evidence as a check
that could have been forced to raise a woman's hopes
that her husband is alive.
Speaker 4: They're reasonable, Maraye. I don't know what Wagoner's up to,
but since he's on a disappearing actor sometime, well.
Speaker 3: I don't see it. I don't see it at all.
What reason could he have for making believe he was dead?
I don't know. That's what I have to find out.
Where do you begin?
Speaker 8: Where do you find the reason for a respected, successful
man suddenly vanishing without a trace? Somewhere in this man's life,
they must be an answer. They have to pure and hidden,
But you know it has to be there. You ask
the woman who's closest to him. If anyone holds the key,
it must be his.
Speaker 9: Why no, No, there's nothing. You're all wrong with methan. No,
it isn't so if you're alive, you do with me.
You can come back. It was home and his children,
but he is alone.
Speaker 3: He hasn't come back.
Speaker 9: It has to be bad. David would never stay a
where he's sick. He has to be.
Speaker 3: Sometimes, Missus Wegner, things get so real you can't believe.
They swell up the big right in front of your eyes.
But you don't see them.
Speaker 13: Because you don't.
Speaker 3: No would try to understand. I say, your husband's alone?
Why hasn't come home? I don't mean that you've got
to help with.
Speaker 8: Sunday the wind from the lake whipped sharply against the window,
and the cold comes into the rooms. You want to
run outside and get away, but you can't. You have
to sit there and watch as part of a woman's life.
Speaker 3: I slept away.
Speaker 9: I've tried to think of a reason, but there doesn't
seem to be in except except for something I might
have done.
Speaker 4: I don't think tell name, Missus Wagner, was your husband
is dead? Perhaps trouble at sometimes?
Speaker 9: I don't think you could find time for trouble?
Speaker 3: What do you mean?
Speaker 9: Seemed to be busy every minute that it is worth it.
Athletic Club is taking moment.
Speaker 3: Yes, this portrait on the wall, I've been looking.
Speaker 9: At it, that's one of theys. Isn't it good? Very
The Willard argus in once to have an exhibition.
Speaker 6: Is just his word.
Speaker 3: The ways the place of this girl almost lifelike. It
seems to me I might know her. Do you know
her name? Missus Wagner?
Speaker 9: I don't know. She told him my husband a few times.
I'm sorry because you so much trouble mister Matthanhun.
Speaker 4: I guess it the other way around.
Speaker 3: It's become just a little more than a story to me.
Speaker 4: I mean this all all away, let's finish.
Speaker 3: Who are you mcinally? I'm with the Cleveland Music.
Speaker 6: Just taking a pearl or something?
Speaker 4: Can I come in?
Speaker 9: Okay?
Speaker 3: Miss Jenny Logans.
Speaker 6: The right buttons?
Speaker 3: I need to sell, Nae.
Speaker 4: I'm doing a little research and a guy named David
Wagner see art agency.
Speaker 3: Dave your name?
Speaker 6: What kind of resist? I just modeled for him a
few times.
Speaker 3: You heard about his accent? That yeah, rough on his
wife's kid?
Speaker 13: You do that? Oh?
Speaker 3: Now does this make come as a shock? N David
Wagner is still alive.
Speaker 9: You're crazy.
Speaker 3: The paper already was strong, but they never found the body.
Wasn't all that water going over the daint?
Speaker 9: What happened.
Speaker 3: Over the boil? Over on the store?
Speaker 6: And finally it's coming to me like.
Speaker 3: The know how it is. I just have to check
up on everyone. By the way, you seemed to be
kind of hipped on, misteries yourself. What are you miss
a book you've got here? Living?
Speaker 9: Or don't you open that book?
Speaker 6: Why don't you mind your own business?
Speaker 14: I didn't ask you to come up here and go
swooping around.
Speaker 9: Now get out of here before I call the super
you hear me?
Speaker 15: Get up?
Speaker 4: Get up?
Speaker 3: Oh miss? Did you help me?
Speaker 6: He tried to the lady's happening?
Speaker 3: Sorry, Now what is it?
Speaker 9: You wanted?
Speaker 3: A book?
Speaker 9: Naturally? That's such fun.
Speaker 3: It's just cheap little detective name The Living Court The.
Speaker 10: Living Court.
Speaker 9: Service by Leo Tolst story it is, of course, it's
a wonderful story.
Speaker 8: Don't you know.
Speaker 3: I'm afraid not.
Speaker 9: It's all about a well established man who takes his
own death so.
Speaker 6: That he can escape from a wife.
Speaker 9: You know, long's here for. Then, by taking on the
moon name, he goes away with his teeth hat to
begin life a beautiful story.
Speaker 10: But don't you walk the book.
Speaker 7: The door quietly?
Speaker 6: Cash Man, one way to get to New York and hurry.
Speaker 3: Joying someplace, Jenny.
Speaker 2: We'll be back in just a moment with tonight's big story.
Speaker 12: This is Sy Harris returning it to your narrator and
the big story of Ike McAnally as he lives it and.
Speaker 8: Books you Ike Mcinally, if the Cleveland News should now
find yourself in the middle of the strangest story you've
ever come. You know that doctor David Wagner made it
appear that he'd been killed. For a while, the idea
doesn't make sense. Wagner was living in a secure, respected life,
married in the two kids. Why should he want to disappear?
But then you hit upon an answer, the famous book
for the plot that gives you the read.
Speaker 3: Going Someplace, Jenny, You were an awful hurry Jenny always
at the cabs stand, remembered you, Well.
Speaker 6: You could have brought me a box of candy. That's
all I'm going on my vacation.
Speaker 3: That's in the waiting room.
Speaker 14: It's not so noisy, okay, I can give you a minute.
That's well that's on your mind.
Speaker 3: That book Jenny a living corpse, but toll sat David
Wagner gave it to you. He gave it to you,
and now you're leaving the meeting.
Speaker 6: You're crazy. I haven't seen him in months.
Speaker 3: You're lying.
Speaker 4: Wagner's in lovely.
Speaker 6: Why don't you let me alone?
Speaker 3: That's between you and Wagner.
Speaker 4: He's got a wife and kids.
Speaker 3: Remember, what can I do about it? You can let
him alone, come back where he belongs.
Speaker 9: You don't know what he is. Something you can't stop.
Speaker 15: Jump in front of a train and see if you'll
even slow it down. This is the same way David, me, you,
and his wife. None of us can do anything about it, and.
Speaker 3: You are in love with you.
Speaker 6: Hum this is the thing I want to lie about.
It's something too good for that.
Speaker 3: Taking a man awaiting me, oh, leaving a wife and
children without a dime. You can't call that good.
Speaker 6: David left to you. Sure, fifty thousand dollars, but.
Speaker 3: The company won't pay off.
Speaker 6: We've got a right to our lives to do what
we want.
Speaker 3: If you don't hurt anyone by doing it.
Speaker 6: You can't stop us. We're not breaking any law.
Speaker 4: But I can't spread your pictures over every front page
in the country.
Speaker 3: They'll be known everywhere.
Speaker 4: You'll never get a minute's rest.
Speaker 3: You right, all right?
Speaker 6: What do you want me to do?
Speaker 3: Promise me that whatever wherever you and Wagoner go, you
let us know where you are the names you're using.
Speaker 13: We will, we will.
Speaker 3: I want your promise that Wagner will always provide for expanding.
I can't stop you from going to it, but I
can't make you give me a word on.
Speaker 6: That takes chamiy some.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry to bust in on you like this, Miss Wagner,
but it's important.
Speaker 10: Sounded so excited on the phone.
Speaker 3: I should have now here.
Speaker 7: Look at this a money order paying the premium due
on your husband's insurance.
Speaker 3: I don't understand who's this Charles Arnold who signed the
money order?
Speaker 7: Ida, there's something funny about this?
Speaker 3: What's the matter?
Speaker 9: It's the money order?
Speaker 3: You recognize it?
Speaker 6: The letter?
Speaker 15: Why see it's the place where the line he breaks
off and the V how the side of.
Speaker 9: It's ins out. This is type down my husband's machine.
Speaker 6: I know it's a portable he took away.
Speaker 5: With him, and this clue makes the signature on the
travelers checked mean something.
Speaker 7: Now I'm convinced that mcanally's right.
Speaker 6: Your husband is alive, and with this we're going to
find him.
Speaker 3: My apologies, Ike, here's some evidence.
Speaker 8: To prove you are right.
Speaker 4: Thanks Mary.
Speaker 3: You're sure this type checks for your husband's machine, Missus Wagner,
Of course it does.
Speaker 9: I'm certain, mister Mthana, Well, what.
Speaker 4: Do you make of it?
Speaker 3: I think David Wagner is still alive, naturally he is.
But where?
Speaker 4: I hate to disappoint you, Murray, but I don't know that.
Speaker 7: The money order was sent from New York track him
from there? What's the matter with you? Don't you want
to find him?
Speaker 4: I don't think McAnally you're out of your mind.
Speaker 9: I'm sure mister McAnally knows what he's doing.
Speaker 3: This is Wagner. I think you've known all along that
I was right Your husband was a liar.
Speaker 9: Yes, I've known.
Speaker 3: I've found out why you went away, and I want
you to know that too.
Speaker 7: Have you been holding out on us?
Speaker 4: You're just a price tender, Marina, Keep quiet, all right?
Speaker 3: Go ahead. I wouldn't tell you, Missus Wagner. I didn't
think you'd.
Speaker 13: Understand and accepted I'll try.
Speaker 3: Where is the place? I don't know. It's not important now.
The real thing is why you went away. I think
he was crazy for doing it.
Speaker 9: You haven't told me why your.
Speaker 3: Husband went away, missus Wagner, because he fell in love
with another woman. Did you have to tell her that
she wants to live with a truth? It would you
wanted to tell you, didn't you?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I guess I did, all right? Who's the girl? Who
is Jenny Logan, one of the models for that pa?
Where is she the girl? She confirms that idea and
you let her go to it. No one could have
stopped her, and she loved David.
Speaker 9: She would have gotten to him some way, yes, but she.
Speaker 3: Was the only trace to your husband.
Speaker 5: Macannally, you've deliberately let her go. You threw away our
only chance of finding him.
Speaker 3: Aurry listen, saw you listen?
Speaker 5: You've been going around crying how sorry you were for
missus Wagner, and how rotten the company was not to pay.
Speaker 3: Off the insurance. I'm trying to hell. Oh sure you are.
Speaker 5: That's why you turn this girl loose to break up
her family. McAnally, You're a fake. You just want a story.
You don't give a second thought to this family.
Speaker 9: What's the sense of it is?
Speaker 6: Even if David did some there, he'd always been lost
to me.
Speaker 8: Now it's three miles back to the office, and you
walk every step of it. You think of Jenny Logan
in the promise she'd made. There should have been some
word by now. He had plenty of time. I'd like
David wag Now.
Speaker 3: She too had disappeared. And as the weeks and months
go by, the pot of for get that, it was
you who'd better go.
Speaker 4: McAnally, This is Murray.
Speaker 3: I've got some news for you. What's up.
Speaker 11: I just thought you'd like to know that David Wagner's
insurance policy expires.
Speaker 3: Tonight at twelve o'clock.
Speaker 11: Accordingly, premium hasn't been paid.
Speaker 3: Nothing's come in since the last money I showed you.
Now you're telling me, why didn't you let me know sooner?
Speaker 4: I could raised the money, says Wagner told me not
to return. Problem, she said, and just between us mcinally,
I don't think she cares anything.
Speaker 3: Who can blame her?
Speaker 4: But that policies are one protection you can't temple.
Speaker 3: Oh but the company can. Sorry, Maybe now you know
what a mess you've made of things?
Speaker 6: Why is David?
Speaker 13: We're celebrating jenny last day in Vienna? And now now
where do we run to another city?
Speaker 9: What name shall we use there?
Speaker 13: Cheer up Jenny if you like, We'll keep the ones
we have. Now there's the truth, Joanna and George.
Speaker 6: I don't think I complained.
Speaker 16: It's been wonderful all of us.
Speaker 6: I've seen all the places I used to.
Speaker 13: Read about, and the clod the justice, beautiful lady said
they were I saw you, pack man. I'm sending in
my kid sister to be crazy about you, dear little Jenny.
They were thinking about.
Speaker 6: Home and you have you forgotten?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 13: I remember.
Speaker 6: It's like that that you gave me. The people in
it tried to forget. They tried to build a world
between themselves and the past.
Speaker 13: That they couldn't everything.
Speaker 6: And I think, Davie, we just too.
Speaker 13: But our lives back home have also ended.
Speaker 16: And I keep thinking about what that reporter said to you.
We've got to write to our own lives to do
what we want. As long as you don't hurt anybody's ideas, you.
Speaker 13: Keep your class. I'm taking care of everything of a woman.
Speaker 9: And that's.
Speaker 3: What shall I do about it.
Speaker 9: You decide.
Speaker 13: I'm not afraid, then we'll all.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 13: Look out of the wind again, the beautiful world, and
but for you, I'd never seen.
Speaker 3: I love you and.
Speaker 7: M h.
Speaker 3: Together.
Speaker 8: Oh the news comes back, and you've got the story
of a girl who believes in paying off on a bargain.
The words you write come slow and hard, but this
is a story that touches the lives of everyone around it.
On a warm spring day in Viennam it ended Jenny
Logan and David Wagner, but be you and the others,
it will always live in memory.
Speaker 2: In just a moment, we'll read you a telegram from
Mike mc and elly or the Cleveland News with a
final outcome of tonight's big story. Now we read you
that telegram from Mike mc and elly or the Cleveland News.
Speaker 4: Subsequent investigation into night Fix story revealed fact that David
Wagner left evidence in his room in Vienna as to
his and Jenny's real identity. The double suicide took place
an hour before midnight, the day the insurance policy was
to expire, so that missus Wagner could colect the fifty
thousand dollars Aye sincere appreciation for the Night's Palmel Award.
Speaker 2: Thank you, mister mcinally. The makers of pell Mell so
proud to have named you the winner of the Pell
Mail five hundred dollars Award for notable service in the
field of Journalism.
Speaker 12: Listen again next week, same time, same station, when Pell
Mell will present another Big Story, A big Story from
the front pages of the Seattle Times Byeline Don Magnuson,
a big story about a reporter who made a winner
out of a three time loser.
Speaker 2: The Big Story is produced by BERNARDJ. Pote with music
by Line them z Linski. The night's program was written
by Alvin Varitz. The narator was Bob Sloan and Sydney
Smith laid by the Mike Mcanala. In order to protect
the names of people actually involved in Tonight's authentic Big Story,
the names of all characters in the dramatization were changed,
with the exception of the reporter mister mcinally. Saturday, March
twelve mark the thirty seventh birthday of the Girl Scouts
in the United States. This is Girl Scouts Week.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. Sydney Smith is another one of those actors
who worked in a great detective series starring as Ellery
Queen for quite a while. In addition to mister Smith,
the cast included Amber, Agnes Young, Lyle Sudro, and Ted Alsborn.
I will say first off that our really don't like
this title because obviously the chemist was not dead and
there has to be something more appropriate. But it's one
of those cases. It's the second straight day I'm using
a title. I'm not crazy about. The issue with the
Larry Simons case. Yesterday was minor in that the spelling
really is Simmons that are on the files, but there
are too many ms if you listen to any appropriate
spelling of Simons. This is a little more gregious, But
again I'm not trying to compound confusion out there in
the larger old time radio collecting community by adding alternate titles.
But beyond that, I thought this was a really solid episode.
Most of the time, it is pretty straightforward on this
series to just solve whatever the case is, but this
one portrayed some of the complexities that can enter into this,
particularly when you're dealing with a case. Where As he said,
there's no crime, so you can't make these people do anything,
and so all McNally could do was bring some pressure on,
which is what he did. And I really thought it
was a great scene where they confronted him and he
told the wife about the affair, and it's just such
a great conflict, you know, where she wants to know
but she doesn't, And you know, I think it's very
realistically written, particularly within the guidance of the times, and
I think it's a bit more of a complex case
from both a moral and emotional perspective. Now terms of
the story itself, it's pretty close to what actually happened
in the core facts. The time frame is a big difference.
The actual disappearance happened in late nineteen twenty nine, which
would be important now. By this point mcinally had actually
moved on to the New York Daily News, but back
in nineteen twenty nine, he had been on the Cleveland
News and wrote about the disappearance of doctor Ernest Waltsall.
One minor difference was that the lover was Waltsall's private secretary,
but she also did modeling, and she also disappeared, and
she was married and her husband actually sued Waltsall for
loss of affection, even though he could theoretically be dad
now doing this in nineteen twenty nine probably assured the
result of the suicide because essentially they ran on like
a worldwide track. They went to New York and got married,
obviously not legally, and then they fled to Canada, they
nearly got caught, and they went to Tokyo and then
to India couldn't find work, and then they went to Europe.
And again we're quoting from the stories behind the big
story here, doctor Joe Webb, and so they got fake
passports and ended up in Austria, and the money that
he'd been carrying with him began to run out, and
so then you had this more or suicide, and it
was done on the day that the next premium was due.
Now there's no information here in doctor Joe Webb's analysis
that it was done as mcinally said in the episode
an hour before midnight. That sounds really dramatic, but it
raises some key question because an hour before midnight the
end of time is not an hour before midnight Cleveland time,
you know, Eastern I believe, or New York time, depending
on I guess on where the insurance policy was at.
So as dramatic as the whole last hour was, I
don't think that's justified at all.
Speaker 15: Now.
Speaker 1: The biggest inaccuracy, though, did not actually come from the
news reporting or from the narration of the story.
Speaker 11: It came.
Speaker 1: Our librarian. Now, if you'll recall, I thought that The
Living Corpse was some sort of like pulp novel, but
it was actually by Leo Tolstoy and it was a play,
And she didn't correct him on what it was. But
here's how she described the play. Well, it's all about
a respectable, well established man who fakes his own death
so that he can escape from a wife he no
longer cares for. Then, by taking on a new name,
he goes away with his sweetheart to begin a new life.
It's a beautiful story. I don't want to be a poser.
I am not some expert on Leo Tolstoy, but as
someone who has been educated at all, I think had
some in high school and had something I had to
read with him from human college. I mean, that sounds
like a harlequin romance novel, and so I looked it
up and no, that is not the plot of the
play The Living Corpse at all. But I do understand
why it was referenced, because the story does parallel both
what happened in this episode as well as the real
life incident. The man runs away, not primarily to be
with the sweetheart, but because he can't deal with responsibility.
He runs away from it, and the relationship with the
woman he'd fallen for pretty much falls apart, and he
runs away from that too when her family doesn't approve
of him. But his lack of responsibility isn't something that
only has effects on him, As it turns out, his
wife actually believes he died, and then she marries again,
but then somebody finds evidence that he's still alive, and
she gets charged with bigamy, and the play ends with
him committing suicide, and his re emergence and committing suicide
ends up ends up clearing her of the crime and
allowing her to avoid being sent to Siberia. And the
events of that story really do parallel here, and you
can kind of feel that when you get into the
final scene there is this sense, and the way the
actors play it portrays this exhaustion with the continual running away.
So the living corpse is a great analogy for this story,
and I think an inspiration for how the writer approached it.
The lines given to the librarian are way off the
A part of the challenge maybe that you're wanting to
tell a dramatic story, and if she actually explained what
the book was about, it would become off as heavy
handed and it would spoil the ending. I guess if
you want an in universe explanation, maybe she's one of
those battle librarians who wants to pretend she's read all
the books, but she's read whatever they had for cliff
Notes in nineteen twenty nine, or just saw the play
and is confusing it with another one. But she spoke
with authority. But then again, so many people who are
wrong do listener comments and feedback. Now and we go
over to YouTube where we have a comment regarding the
episode A Blond Date with Murder. Thanks so much for
your commentary. It adds to the enjoyment that these provide. Well,
thanks so much, And I try to add value for
each podcast that I do. I do think that the
Big Story is probably the one where the commentary is
the most helpful because there are so many sort of
real life things to look into and investigate and talk about.
So I definitely, I definitely enjoy doing these particular episodes.
Jeff comments regarding the same episode on Patreon might be me,
but why is the reporter going into two homes where
there have likely been shootings and dees totally compromises the
crime scene. Also, the child portion of this story, as dramatized,
feels cartoonish and unbelievable. May worse by some of the
inappropriate carnival like music. The whole episode feels off to me.
The music part is interesting, and I'm not and I'm
not entirely sure with the music used whether the stuff
that people have identified as circus music was something that
was original to the program. I wouldn't think so, because
I've not had any complaints about the music on the
Big Story being off, and there's no reason it should
be in this just in this particular episode. I'm suspecting
that this was added into the AFRs recordings because there
were rules about including advertisements, so they were including the
music to kind of transition apart where there was advertisements
or commercial sponsors. That's my best guess. The other question
that I could or well, I can't address, but I
want to address it by saying I can't address it
is the whole question of what was this reporter doing
and there are a couple of potential answers. There is
the radio production angle, where him going into these houses
before running into the killer is just simplified storytelling. You've
got only so much time, You've already got the entire
cast doubling up. You can't really introduce a policeman on
the scene without complicating your story. The other possibility is that,
keeping in mind when this occurred, the reporter actually could
have entered the crime scene. Police were not nearly stringent
in some places, particularly in this area, which I believe
was a suburb of Pittsburgh or on the outskirts of it.
And you also had the fact that journalism was a
bit of a Wild West situation, and there were a
lot of reporters who were willing to do things they
shouldn't in order to get a story. A reporter could
stand outside a place where a murder had occurred and
know that ideally he should probably call the police in
terms of civic duty, in terms of whatever understanding they
had about preserving a crime scene. I've talked to people
involved in crime scene investigation who insist the average patrol
men in the twenty first century sometimes aren't great at
preserving a crime scene or understanding what needs to be
done there. So the reporter could have gone in for
whatever reason, or it could be some where the radio
riters decided to take a shortcut, And unfortunately I don't
have that level of detail to say for sure, but
I do appreciate the comments so much. Well, now it
is time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
and I want to go ahead and thank Idell, Patreon
supporter since April twenty twenty one, currently supporting the podcast
at the Shawmus level of four dollars or more per months.
Thanks so much for your support, Idell, 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 read and review the podcast wherever you download us from.
We will be back next Tuesday with another episode of
The Big Story. Next Monday, we began our second run
through the Saint But join us back here tomorrow for
Broadways my beat.
Speaker 17: Where last weeks Last week my wife made me buy
tickets to a play well I could get was sometime
next June.
Speaker 13: She was sold out that far.
Speaker 17: Nice rists, you got your past, beautiful Danny, So I
never thought I'd stand so close to her.
Speaker 3: I said, yeah, yeah, how I got here?
Speaker 17: It was phoned in, Danny. Anonymous call said Lily Nelson
was in trouble.
Speaker 3: As anonymous, we got to trace her. By the time
you get back to the headquarters, maybe we found her
like this. Yeah, the door was open.
Speaker 17: I walked under all these crystal chandeliers, past all the
mirrors underlying in front of this one, just like that,
that material it's like a veil, Danny.
Speaker 3: It's no one with her. And I looked through the house.
Speaker 17: She leavening nothing, Danny, just the razor blade by his side.
That's Lily Nelson. You gotta go to ticket Scott's begging
to sell you a ticket over price to so you
can watch it.
Speaker 13: Where should she kill herself?
Speaker 3: For what?
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.