Speaker 1: Come in.
Speaker 2: Welcome. I'm e. G. Marshall. Murder we are told will
out as will. I believe truth, which is to say
that most murderers, though not all, are eventually exposed and
made to pay for what is considered certainly the most
heinous crimes of all, the taking of another's life. Such
was the case with the charming, debonair and totally amoral
Greg Manchester, who felt sure he had committed the perfect murder,
only to discover you're arresting me for murder. Lieutenant, you
can't be serious, very serious, mister Manchester. On what grounds? Yes,
I shot and took my wife, but it was an accidents.
No accident, mister Manchester. Cold blooded murder, and we can
prove it. How can you prove murder when there was
no murder, It was an accident. I tell you, I
only wish to have been a witness to prove what
I say.
Speaker 3: There was a witness, Greg, a witness who can prove
it was murder.
Speaker 2: Oh, Sandy, tell me who the corpse? Greg?
Speaker 1: The corpse?
Speaker 2: Our mystery drama, The Eye of Death was written especially
for the Mystery Theater by George Lowther and stars Joan Hackett.
It is sponsored in part by sign Off the Sinus
Medicines and Onenheuser Busch Incorporated brewers of Budweiser. I'll be
back shortly with that one. When it comes to murder,
it sometimes seems to me that the cleverer a murderer,
the more certain he is to be caught, for, as
the annals of Crime reveal, he tends to outsmart himself.
Doctor Crippen Landrew, George Joseph Smith to mention, but a few,
all without exception, flattered themselves on having committed perfect crimes,
when in truth they had trapped themselves by overlooking one single, minor,
little detail, as did a certain gentleman named Gregory Manchester. Listen, murder.
You are accusing me, Sandy, of planning the murder your mother.
Is that what you say?
Speaker 3: Don't twist my words, greg I said it wouldn't surprise
me if she had a fatal accident and died suddenly. Oh, Sandy,
don't even speak of such things. Just the thought makes
my heart skip a beat. I'm sorry, Rose, how is
your heart?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Same mother thinks I ought to see another doctor, Sandy.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry you feel about me as you do. I
hope when I married your mother, that you'd become as
much my friend as your sister has. Why if you
could have heard me talking about you at my club,
how proud I was going to be to have the
famous photographer Sandy Oaks for a stepdaughter.
Speaker 3: Can we be friends, Sandy friends? M Sorry, Greg, but
your charm is wasted on me. You charmed my mother
into marrying you, charmed her into turning over all of
the money to you, charmed into taking out one hundred
thousand dollars life policy with you as a beneficiary.
Speaker 2: But now, my dear, why not? After all, Sandy, I
am her husband and a.
Speaker 3: Fast worker, irid less than a month said, I haven't
wasted any time getting this marriage to pay off for you.
Speaker 2: Oh now you're accusing me of marrying your mother for
her money? Is that it, my dear?
Speaker 3: You can believe it? Oh now, Sandy Rose, it's true.
And I'm telling you straight out, this clothes horse with
his blonde hair and his Sir Walter roly Man as
there's nothing more than a sharp operator, a con artist.
And that's what I've come here to tell my mother,
and I will tell her she ever gets out of
that bathroom comes down here say you're all upset, said,
I'm steaming, and I've been steaming ever since I heard
about this new life insurance policy. When mother phoned and
said that you'd just taken out one hundred thousand dollars
policy with dear Greggy as a beneficiary, I could have
What is that?
Speaker 2: What it's a stain in the ceiling. It's a water staining.
The bathroom is just above us. Oh, now, don't tell
me the tubs overflowed. If your mother's had another of
her fainting spells in the bob come.
Speaker 3: On fainting spills. But there's never had a fainting spell
in the wrong there Sanday.
Speaker 2: She never told you, But she's had a number of
them sudden blackouts since your father died. The shock of
his death, I don't know. And she's had two since
we married a month ago. God brand she hasn't had another.
I'm gonna take you. I don't hear me on.
Speaker 3: Oh no, he killed her, Joe, he killed her? Now, sweetheart,
did he drowned her in that tub? All of that
talk about sudden fainting spells black out's no way, Joe,
no way. Ow.
Speaker 2: Look, my dear lovable bride, to be. I don't like
Gregory Manchester any more than you do, and I couldn't
agree more that he's the phony you claim he is.
But you're no fool, Sandy. A camera nut maybe with
that camera of yours always slung around your neck.
Speaker 3: But Joe photography, he is my business. And I don't
know how many pictures I have missed if I didn't
keep this high powered instamat ready at all times. And really,
I don't know why it bothers you.
Speaker 2: It's nothing. Oh excuse me, yes, yes, yes, have them.
Come right in Manchester and your sister.
Speaker 3: I'm going to try to get Rose to move in
with me now that mother's gone.
Speaker 2: Come in, Rose, mister Manchester, thank you. Hello, Sandy. Hello,
how are you feeling? Rose?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: I want to talk with you privately after the reading
of mother's will. What about Sandy later, Dear, Well.
Speaker 2: We're all here, so I'll get started. I Geraldine Oaks, Manchester,
a resident of the city.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, Joe, Yes, Geraldine Oaks, Manchester.
Speaker 2: Your mother made a new will after she married mister Manchester.
Didn't she tell you? No?
Speaker 3: But she told me she was going to She didn't,
I'm sure I.
Speaker 2: Know why another slap at me? Sandy? Are you implying
I changed her mind about telling you.
Speaker 3: If the shoe fits?
Speaker 2: Great?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: Now hold it? Please. We're here for the reading of
a will, and I suggest we get on with it.
I Geraldine Oaks, Manchester, a resident of this city. Lastly,
I hereby revoke all former wills and constiles to wills
heretofore by me made in witness thereof I have here.
I'm two, set my hand and seal this tenth day
of October, Signed Geraldine Oaks, Manchester, and witnessed, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera. Well, mister Manchester, you've inherited quite
a fortune.
Speaker 3: Plus one hundred thousand dollars in insurance, while Rose gets nothing,
Nor do I.
Speaker 2: As your mother stated in her will, Sandy, she trusted me,
implicitly trusted me to see the girls was well cared for.
Speaker 3: And you I don't need mother's money. But Rose, oh Sandy,
you can trust greg mother? Did I do?
Speaker 2: I know? You do? Rouse?
Speaker 3: You trust everyone you always.
Speaker 2: Have, possibly because she hasn't let the world make her
as cynical as it has made you, or not just
a manut. Mister man.
Speaker 3: I can take care of myself, Joe. More important, I
can take care of Rose and I mean too. But Sandy,
I'm going to be all right. Greg will leave you
to starve, if I know, Greg. But he isn't going
to because I'm not going to let him. I'm going
to break this will, Sandy. I mean it, Joe, he
can't mother and he fleester. Well, You're not going to
get away with it.
Speaker 2: Greg.
Speaker 3: I'll break this will if it's the last thing that
I do.
Speaker 2: And may I ask exactly how am I.
Speaker 3: There by proving you murdered my mother and meant to
murderer from the start?
Speaker 2: Have some more from creole Florence.
Speaker 3: Oh, Greg Darling, I couldn't I simply couldn't you know
I want to die?
Speaker 2: Oh nonsense. This is no time to say on a diet.
In the first place, it's many draw wied. For the second,
I brought you to the finest restaurant in or Oh
you dear delightful. And in the third place, why anyone
with your figure feels you the need the diet that
baffles me up?
Speaker 3: You are a dear and delightful man, Greg Manchester, you
are almost as I know.
Speaker 2: I'll say it.
Speaker 3: You are as dear and delightful as my late husband.
Oh Greg, I'm so glad we met, So glad, Florence.
Speaker 2: You know, only a week ago I was the lonest
man on earth, lovely and the way only the bereave
can be lonely. Even though it's months since Jardine passed on,
I thought I would never get over the loss. And
then well, then, my dearest, you don't mind if I
called you my dearest? Of course not well I met
you and life became worth living again.
Speaker 3: Graig, do you know that seems exactly the way I
felt feel.
Speaker 2: I thought as much. We've known each other only a week,
my dear, but what a week it has been. And
for my part, Florence, I you won't be offended. No, no,
for my parts. You're the woman I've been looking for
since my own dear Geraldine caused, the woman I felt
sure I would never never find.
Speaker 3: Oh Greg, Greg, you dear man, then you're not offend.
Speaker 2: It wouldn't be if I well, I find if you want, darling,
if I asked you to become my wife, oh dear,
I have offended.
Speaker 3: No, no, Oh, You've made me so happy.
Speaker 2: I think I'm ready to cry. But I know of him. Uh, Greig,
is something wrong? No? No, no, but excuse me a moment, Clarence.
I'll be right back. Well, Sandy Oak School, photographer, camera
and all.
Speaker 3: Greg Manchester, con artist and murderer, next victim and all?
Speaker 2: What are you doing in New Orleans.
Speaker 3: Marty Grove week, I'm covering it for Cosmopolite.
Speaker 2: You're lying. You found out I was living in New
Orleans and you followed me here.
Speaker 3: I care to see my press credentials.
Speaker 2: If Cosmopolite sent you, you asked for the assignments. How right
you are? Now you listen to me. Any more trouble
from you, and I'll make you know what trouble really
is trouble?
Speaker 3: What makes you think I'm out to give you trouble?
Speaker 2: Because you followed me here? Because I suddenly spotted you
snapping a picture of me and Missus Chapman.
Speaker 3: I took more than one before you noticed me, Greg,
they may come in hand.
Speaker 2: It I don't see how Well. Then look over there, Greg.
Speaker 3: See that sign.
Speaker 2: One of that reads Marty growling?
Speaker 3: Exactly from that angle I caught not only you and
Missus Chaplin, but that sign hanging behind you on the wall.
So what the time element, Greg and the place? I
can hear district attorneys saying.
Speaker 2: To you at your trial for murder.
Speaker 3: Quote, you did know the widow, missus Florence Chapman as
early as Mardi Gras week, didn't you? In New Orleans?
Wasn't it?
Speaker 2: Unquote my murder triumph.
Speaker 3: You are going to kill her, aren't you? For her
money after you marry her? Tell me does she have
any children? You can leave penniless as you did my
sister Rose.
Speaker 2: She went to live with you. You're very successful, honey
of doll. You'll take care of her.
Speaker 3: I am, I'm also going to take care of you now, Sunday.
I want cool it, calm man. I am not my
mother that you're talking to now, or my sister Rose,
or that lovely victim of yours.
Speaker 2: Over there.
Speaker 3: A photographer gets around you, think of the cleverest thing
that ever happened. You are, But buster it's your cleverness
that's going to put you behind bars, because somewhere, somehow
you're going to think you're so clever that you'll make
one little mistake, one staint, a little mistake, and when
you do, I'm going to be there.
Speaker 2: Be smart and get out of my life and stay out.
Speaker 3: Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but Greg, dear,
won't you introduce me to that very attractive friend, dear.
Speaker 2: Mail DearS as, of course, sir Sandy Oaks my stepdaughter.
Speaker 3: Oh you're not the daughter of that poor woman who
who drowned accidentally. Yes, Missus Chapman, I am you know
my Oh Greg told you no. I've been watching you
and mister Manchester ever since he met you a week ago.
Speaker 2: Watching Greg Darling. What does she mean? Oh, never mind
finds she's a trouble maker. She tried to stop me
from marrying her mother.
Speaker 3: I tried to stop you from murdering my mother.
Speaker 2: Oh gracious, that's talk.
Speaker 3: You're in a restaurant, and missus Chapman, let me give
you a tip, a tip.
Speaker 2: That will save your life.
Speaker 3: Say goodbye right now to this charming, well dressed murderer.
Speaker 2: Say goodbye and go on living.
Speaker 3: Greg, Greg, I believe you're right this well, I don't
know what she is. What she is, I'm sorry, I
came over.
Speaker 2: I'll wait for you at our table. Yes, yes, yes,
of course, Vond's well.
Speaker 3: You'll see she's as naive and as trusting as my
mother and my sister or others you've murdered.
Speaker 2: Oh so it's others now, look Sander, you said I'm clever. Well,
I am clever, a hell of a lot cleverer than
you are. Now, I guess the only way to get
you off my neck is to prove it. And just
how will you do that? The only way I know? Murder?
Don't get me all choked up. I know you ready
for anything.
Speaker 3: You try murder me, You don't have much of a chance,
mister Manchester.
Speaker 2: Oh murder you? No? No, no, not you? Who then,
mister Rose, who you love so much? Who else? Inevitably
it had to come to this, the challenge, the squaring off,
the gauntlet flung down between a cold blooded murderer and
a self sufficient girl like Sandy Oaks who's been around?
Is she right? Will Greg Manchester make that one fatal mistake?
She says, you will. Perhaps we'll find out when I
return for Act two. Much has been written on the
psychology of murder and murderers, and although experts disagree, when
have experts ever done anything else? There seems a little
question that the common motive for murder is personal gain
in any case. Assuredly, that's what it is with Greg Manchester,
who you might say marries for murder. But now Sandy Oaks,
veteran freelance photographer, has set out to prove that Manchester
murdered her mother, even as Manchester threatens that if she
doesn't leave him alone, he will kill her invalid sister, Rose, Sandy,
your mother drowned in her bath after suffering a black out.
Speaker 3: Oh mother never had a blackout of fainting spell in
her life. Manchester spread that story to cover himself.
Speaker 2: But you can't prove it, and until you can, I'm
warning you drop it.
Speaker 3: I'm not afraid of a suit for libel or slander
if that's what you mean.
Speaker 2: What I mean is I'm afraid for your life, if
what you say is true. Cruise is life.
Speaker 3: I'm worried about if anything happened to me, she'd be
alone and penniless.
Speaker 2: You don't ever have to worry about Rose while I'm around.
You know that, of course not.
Speaker 3: But good lord, I didn't realize it was this late.
I've got to rush.
Speaker 2: Why just when I was about to invite you to lodge.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, darling, but I'm due with the Metropolitan Photographic
Exhibit in half an hour. I promised to advise the
committee on how to hang the prize exhibits, oh.
Speaker 2: Including one of yours, which reminds me I owe you
an apology, an apology because I want a prize. Well,
I'm always kidding you about carrying that fancy camera of yours,
but if you hadn't had it with you and shot
from the hip that day, you'd never have caught that
picture of an old man being mugged.
Speaker 3: And the muggers off the cops nail. And because of
what I photographed, which reminds me, I've got to see
Lieutenant McCoy at headquarters after the photo Exhibit four four.
The information I dug up in New Orleans about Greg Manchester, Now,
it may not mean anything to you, darling, but I'm
hoping it will mean plenty to Lieutenant mc boy.
Speaker 2: It means nothing to me, Sandy, nothing at all. But Mac, Sandy,
I checked it out. Yeah, sure Manchester was married before
he met your mother. I'm sure his wife died of
an overdose of sleeping pills, but the coroner's verdict was
death by accident.
Speaker 3: Oh, Mac, you put me away, You really do.
Speaker 2: I don't get you.
Speaker 3: His wife dies of an overdose of sleeping pills, and
he inherits over fifty thousand dollars. He marries my mother,
she dies by drowning. He inherits. Every century has plus
an insurance of one hundred thousand dollars taken out less
than a month before. Two deaths, two so called accidents,
and Greg Manchester hits the financial jackpot. That doesn't strike
you as fishy, Yes, but now he's going to marry
this other wealthy widow, Florence Chapman, less than three months
after my mother dies, Sandy. Oh, And he threatens to
kill my sister Rose if I don't lay off. And
you sit there and you tell me that you don't
think that Manchester is a cold blooded murderer.
Speaker 2: Hard and so I said, he's clean. Sammy as a cop,
I got a player by the book the rules of Evans.
Maybe Manchester did kill your mother and his previous wife,
but I haven't got a shred of evidence to proby did.
And the ear of you, well have you no? No?
Speaker 3: But I'm going to get it sooner or later. Manchester
is going to make one slip, one victial slip. And
I'm going to be there when he does.
Speaker 2: Taking pictures of him as he does.
Speaker 3: I'll bet it isn't funny.
Speaker 2: Mac. I'm just cracking wise about you and your trusty
companions that camera. Laugh.
Speaker 3: But it caught you a couple of muggers, and Mac,
it may catch me a murderer. There's a venturers want?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 3: For a while?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: No, standing there, im, you're excited to sit still. You're
too excited, period. I'll be all right.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's such a thrill for.
Speaker 3: Me just to get out of that apartment. But on
top of that, these wonderful pictures Holsman, Eisen, Sat, Kepler
and you.
Speaker 2: That's what I call.
Speaker 3: Really sisterly love, putting me in that class. Oh you
want a first prize, yes, but in photojournalism, and there's
nothing already about my stuff. The first prize is a
first prize, and I'm not going to argue.
Speaker 2: Whoa send me?
Speaker 3: Maybe I'd better sit down from a minute or two.
Yeses right there?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: How bad is it? It's not that sandy? Would you
open night back? And they got the bottle of nitropilia
just to say here a little moment, now here, we
are here, stay here, I'll get you a couple of wars.
Excuse me, please excuse me. I just want to get through.
Speaker 1: To the water cooler.
Speaker 2: We're here, Let me help you.
Speaker 3: Thank you you?
Speaker 2: Yes me?
Speaker 3: What are you doing here?
Speaker 2: Greg? Missus Manchester wanted to see the exhibits. She married
you then, and I wanted to see you. Thure you'd
be here. So I've got no time for you.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I've got to get a cup of water for my sister.
Speaker 2: Well, here's the cup, there's the water. I want a
word with you, Sandy a mount Would you get out
of my way? Excuse me?
Speaker 3: Please excuse me, Rose, Rose.
Speaker 2: Deer here you are.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Sandy, thank you?
Speaker 2: Are you better? Yes?
Speaker 1: Much?
Speaker 3: I think it would better, girl, Sandy, I haven't seen
everything yet. Your holdra at my heart. My first day
out of the apartment in weeks. I'm going to make
the most of it. I'm going to see everything there
is to see. Oh look who's here?
Speaker 2: Hello? Rose? Are you Greg lover? Better? You pretty well?
Thank you? I meant to call on you when I
got back to No. Orleans, but I have felt your
sister wouldn't approve.
Speaker 3: You're right, Greg Herster know you too.
Speaker 2: All Sandy and I I'm going to have a scene.
I only want to say hello, So if you'll excuse me,
I'll rejoin my wife. Goodbye, Rose, good Bye, Sandy. Oh,
give my regards to Lieutenant McCoy next time you'll see him.
Lieutenant McCoy, the police lieutenant you went to see this
morning about a certain little matter.
Speaker 3: How do you know that I want to see McCoy
and what I want to see him about.
Speaker 2: Or does it matter? I know? And I think it
was very foolish of you, Sandy, do you?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yes, very In fact, is I intimated to you in
New Orleans? It could even be dangerous, deadly dangerous, not
for you, not immediately for you. Well, goodbye for now, Sanny.
What was that all about? Nothing? Rose? Nothing? What did
Greg mean? It could be dead dangerous? It's so it's
nothing for you to worry about. Rose.
Speaker 3: Well, all right if you say so. Funny though, but
I'm worried somehow suddenly I'm I'm very worried.
Speaker 1: Joe.
Speaker 3: Oh, nice to see you come in.
Speaker 2: How are you right? Oh, I'm fine fine, No, Fibbs,
dear brother in law to be. I talked to Sandy
on the phone. She said, your heart gave you a
little trouble if the photography exhibitions.
Speaker 3: As oh nothing my nightrope pills couldn't handle and did.
Speaker 2: Oh good good where Sandy three guesses the doctor give
the man a cigar? Oh, would you rather have a drink?
A drink? And I'll make it. I'll make it. Sandy said,
you ran into Greg Manchester at the exhibition.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm wondered Joe about what. Greg said a funny
thing to Sandy. It seems he heard somehow she'd gone
to see police Lieutenant Lieutenant McCloy McCoy McCoy about something.
He didn't say what, and Sandy wouldn't tell me, But anyhow,
he said he thought she was very foolish to do
anything like that, and that it could be deadly dangerous.
Those were the words he used, deadly dangerous.
Speaker 2: I see Sandy didn't tell you, No, she didn't.
Speaker 3: But not for her. That was the funny part of
what he said, Not deadly dangerous for her. Not immediately.
Speaker 2: Rose, Rose, what is it.
Speaker 3: You are?
Speaker 2: Nacrosy sunny Sunday bedroom, I Rose, Let me get you
to the count Let's lay you down. Here are there?
Chris Midad Sandy, are yet yet.
Speaker 3: Here, he rose? Open your mouth?
Speaker 2: Are yet water?
Speaker 1: Joe?
Speaker 2: Hi, Joe?
Speaker 3: Here you are all right now, Honey, swallowed the pills.
Swallow it, dear, that's it. That's okay, all right, cheer
to be all right. No moment to two, Ruse, Louise, deal.
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 3: Having any thing? Rose is the pain? Let him up? Rose, Rose, Joe.
Speaker 2: Here, let me two. She she's gone, Sandy, No, no afraid, so, sweetheart.
He's done it.
Speaker 3: He threatened he wouldn't.
Speaker 2: He has great Manchester.
Speaker 3: He said he'd kill her if I didn't lay off.
Speaker 4: And I didn't, and he has. Thank you, Mac, goodbye?
Speaker 2: What'd he say? McCoy?
Speaker 3: The toxicology lab tested the pills Rose took that I
gave her.
Speaker 2: Oh, Sandy, all right, come on now, honey.
Speaker 3: The pills. They found that they were triple strength, triple
the amount of necrogliss or I'm prescribed for Rose.
Speaker 2: That's impossible. No pharmacists would make a mistake like that.
Speaker 3: The pharmacists didn't. They got him out of bed, and
they met him at his place and checked his records.
He made no mistake.
Speaker 2: Well, Sandy, how gregg? Sandy, don't ask.
Speaker 3: Me how he did it. He got into the apartment
maybe while we were out. Rose and I. I don't
change the bottles.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter. All that matters to me is that
he did it. And I know in my bones, I
know that he did it. He murdered the woman he
was married to before he married my mother. He killed
my mother, he killed Rose. He'll kill Florence Chapman. He'll
kill me unless I stop him. He's got to be stopped, Joe,
stopped and put behind bars like any other animal. And
that's where I'm going to put him, with God's help, Joe,
That's where I'll put.
Speaker 2: Him for the rest of his life. Brave words, words
spoken under the pressure of emotion. Well, I think I
can tell you at this point that Sandy did put
Greg Manchester behind bars for the rest of his life
when he made that one fatal slip. He Well, I
was about to say that he overlooked something, but the
fact is he never saw it. But Sandy did, or,
to be more precise, her camera did. I'll return in
a moment for act three. You will recall my saying
earlier that the cleverer the murderer, the more likely he
is to make one fatal slip, something so minor he
never thought of it, never noticed it. What slip will
Greg Manchester make? So far he's got away with his killings.
Sandy Oaks doesn't know where Greg Manchester will make that
fatal slip, or when, or more particularly how, but make it.
She knows he will, and as I've told you, make
it he did. The question is what insignificant but very
final mistake did he make?
Speaker 1: You?
Speaker 3: D Dare show your face here.
Speaker 2: I came here to this funeral home to see Rose
for the last time. I am her stepfather, Sandy, and
have a ride.
Speaker 3: Murderer, Sandy, get him out of here, Joe.
Speaker 2: Sonny, Joe, I'm going. May I have a word with
you outside? Of course, Sandy put herself together. Well, Joe,
you're a lawyer. Would you give me some advice? What
am I to do with her? She hates me, has
hated me for the moment we met. I don't know why.
Chemistry aspose, not much I can say to that Greg,
except you're a liar. I beg your pardon. You're a liar.
It isn't chemistry between you and Sandy. It's Sandy's awareness,
her awareness from the first her trained awareness because she's
photographed so many people, that you're a phony. I agreed
with her about that after only short acquaintance with you, Greg,
but I didn't agree with her that you're a murderer.
I agree now. You can't mean you think I murdered Geraldine.
I think you murdered Geraldine and Rose. I think you
murdered another woman, in fact, probably other women. You can
stand there and through my face say it because it's
obvious there's such a thing as coincidence, Greg, that your history,
your married history, goes beyond coincidence. And you are calling
me a murderer. I thought I've made that plane. You're
skating on thin ice now and you're going to go
through it, and when you do, you're going to find
the water bitter cold, Greg, bitter cold. Won't you sit down,
miss Oaks? Thank you?
Speaker 3: Missus Manchester. Let me say I only agreed to see
you when you phoned and said you wanted to talk
with me alone.
Speaker 2: I only agreed because you are his stepdaughter.
Speaker 3: Missus Manchester, and I wanted to see you because someone
should warn you. Greg Manchester is a murderer.
Speaker 2: What are you saying?
Speaker 3: He murdered my mother. He murdered my sister Rose, he
murdered the woman he was married to before he met
my mother. He's going to murder you, my dear.
Speaker 2: Do you realize the gravity of this accusation?
Speaker 3: The important thing is that you realize what I realize
is that you are a bitter and malicious young woman who,
for some reason I am totally unable to understand, wants
to malign a man who has never done anything but
good for you.
Speaker 1: Good?
Speaker 2: What do you mean?
Speaker 3: Your mother left him all her money, didn't she?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: He was also the beneficiary of her life insurance, wasn't
he yes? And all of this the fortune he might
have had he turned over to you and your sister.
Speaker 1: Is that not so?
Speaker 3: It certainly is not so. Gregg told then he lied.
He took my mother into giving him control of her money,
power of attorney and all of that, and then taking
out a hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy, and then
he killed her. Can you prove that? I can't? Not yet,
But whether I can or not, I think what you
should keep in mind is that at least two previous
wives have died suddenly and mysteriously after giving him control
of their money, have you.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 2: Well, yes I have.
Speaker 3: Oh but I can't believe this. I won't believe it.
My husband is one of the most dear and delightful
men I've ever met.
Speaker 2: Thank you, my dear, thank you for your trust in me. Greg.
We didn't hear you come in. I'm glad you didn't,
otherwise I'd not have overheard my stepdaughter's accusations. Certainly, I
must ask you to leave, and please don't come back.
Speaker 3: Goodbye, missus Manchester, and good luck.
Speaker 2: Well. I hope that's the last we see of her.
I'm sure you didn't believe the lies you must have
told about me. Why no, of course, snock, Greg. You
don't sound altogether sure of Florence. But yes, I am
only Greg.
Speaker 3: You told me you had handed all your former wife's
fortune over to her daughter's.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, what do you misunderstood me?
I said that I intended to do it, but I
haven't had time to get around with it yet. It's
quite involved, you know, certain megalities which take time. And
you don't believe me to you, no, no, no, no,
I do I do.
Speaker 3: Only I'm certain you said you had already given them
the money.
Speaker 2: Oh you're mistaken, my dear, Greg.
Speaker 3: Yes, that power of attorney I signed the other day. Yes,
don't be offended, dear, But just as a matter.
Speaker 2: Of interest, does it give you control over my money?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: That's an odd question, Franz, does it?
Speaker 1: Greg?
Speaker 2: What the power of attorney is just that it empowers
me to act in your behalf.
Speaker 3: In other words, you can sign checks withdraw money from
my account.
Speaker 2: That sort of thing. Yes, that sort of thing I see. No, no, no, no,
I don't think you do. For instance, you don't see
that you have just signed your death warrant. This warrant.
I want you to go into your bedroom, start packing, packing.
You're going to visit your sister in New Orleans midnight.
Make the call, Florence. Make it or I'll shoot you
right now.
Speaker 3: Hello, miss Oaks, this is missus Manchester. Yes, I've I've
got to see you right away. Could you come here
to my apartment? My fancy and I were just it's urgent,
miss Oaks, dreadfully urgent. Please please come of course, all.
Speaker 2: Right, thank you, goodbye, she's coming right over. Yes, Greg,
please don't kill me. I'm sorry, Farrence. I'll give you
my money. I've already got it, then why kill me? Pleasure,
my dear simple pleasure. I find a certain thrill and
murdering someone, especially silly women like you. When Sandy pushes
that door buzzer, listen to it carefully, Florence, it will
be the last sound you hear in this life.
Speaker 1: Greg, I.
Speaker 2: Must snap over the lights here in the bedroom. Oh good,
I'm coming, I'm coming, all right, help me, help me,
help me. We heard a shot in the bedroom. I
just had a problem.
Speaker 5: Picked dark in here the lights with oh yeah here,
oh good, lord, Florence Manchester, what oh no, oh no, Sandy,
for the love, this is no time for snapping pictures.
I wasn't even aware I was get to the farmer, call.
Speaker 2: The police and put that damn camera away.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, okay, I thought Florence.
Speaker 2: Was a prowler. I lost my head. I preferred into
the dark room headquarters.
Speaker 3: Give me a Lieutenant McCoy Is he there?
Speaker 6: Yeah, hurry, Sandy, Sandy, please look at it, Joe, look
at it and tell me what do you see.
Speaker 2: I see the body of Florence Manchester lying on her
bedroom floor. I have seen the body of Florence Manchester
lying on her bedroom floor for over a month now,
in blow up after blow up after blow up of
the pictures you snapped that night. This blow up, good lord, Sandy,
it's the biggest yet.
Speaker 3: Why Because these pictures prove Greg murdered Florence.
Speaker 2: That's why you keep saying that. But you don't tell
me what proved.
Speaker 3: Because I don't know because it's staring at me in
the face and I can't see it.
Speaker 2: Joe, look at it.
Speaker 3: Please just look at it.
Speaker 2: Look no, Joe, just look. I've had it, Sandy, all right. Maybe,
like you say, Greg's story of what happened with so
much eyewash. Maybe Florence didn't leave to visit his sister
in New Orleans. Maybe she didn't come back on actively
while he was asleep in his bedroom. Maybe he didn't
hear a noise in her bedroom. Think it was a
prowler panic and shooting into the dark in bedroom.
Speaker 1: Eye wash, all.
Speaker 2: Eyewashed, But h what is it? Eyewash? I wash? Give
me that boo ooh with pleasure. That's it, Joe, that's it.
What's what?
Speaker 3: The proof that he murdered? It the proof I've been
looking for but couldn't see. Joe, Florence Manchester's eyes.
Speaker 1: Look at her eyes.
Speaker 2: Manchester, you'd been booked on charge of murder, the murder
of your wife, Florence. Now look here, thanks to your
stepdaughter seeing the oaks, here we have positive proof that
you deliberately and with malice of forethought, shot Florence Manchester
to death. What proof? What proof? I told you she
hacked a bag. You saw it in the bedroom and
left the visitor, mister Norton let her come back unexpectedly,
according to your story, and I fired a shot into
her pitch black bedroom thinking she was a prowler. That's
what happened. That's the truth. And now no, it's a lie.
This photograph of your wife's body, Sandy took it within
a minute or two after the shot was fired. So
look at Manchester, Look especially at the eyes, the eyes
that are open and staring at the ceiling. What do
you see her eyes? What else am I supposed to
see the size of her pupils? Look at the pupils
of her eyes. Down't what you see? I see the
pupils of her eyes contracted contracted to the size of
a pinhead. I the human eyes is like a camera,
like that instament, Sandy always carries. The darker object or
a place, the wider the pupil of the eye expands,
the brighter an object or a place such as your
wife's bedroom, the narrower the pupil becomes contracts. What's more, Manchester,
When a person is killed instantly, as your wife was,
the pupil remains unchanged for two to three minutes. You'll
say you're saying it. The photo says it, not me.
You stated that you fired that shot into a dark bedroom,
killing your wife by accident. Her eyes contracted to pinhead
size proved that she died in a lighted room, a
brightly lighted room. If you have anything to say, make
it in the form of a confession, won't you? And
on second thought, I'm not sure we need bother. It's
all on film, Manchester. Our picture, they say, is worth
a thousand words. And so it would seem that Lieutenant
McCoy is right. No words of Manchester's in his defense
could possibly disprove the truth of his wife's dead accusing eyes.
I'll be back shortly, and Gregory Manchester is no longer
a name but a number at State's Prison. Sandy's name
has changed too, from miss Sandy Oaks to Missus Joseph
Norman hasn't changed her habit of carrying that camera wherever
she goes, however, but she seems to use it more
and more these days, snapping pictures of a baby named
Joe Junior. Our cast included Joan Hackett, ELpH Bell, Robert
Dryden and Joan Shay. The entire production was under the
direction of Hyman Brown and now a preview of our
next tale.
Speaker 3: Missus Tipton. It's really hard to see where I'd fit in.
I'm a trained social worker. That's how I make my living.
At least that was how I made my living. I
was discharged six months ago. They were cutting down and well,
I haven't been able to find anything in my field,
and I'm running short of money. So I'm willing to
take almost any kind of job if it's respectable, because
I'm not going to ask you to do anything you
wouldn't ordinarily do. Do you need a secretary something like that?
I think I could manage that maybe, or be a companion.
I want a secretary or a companion.
Speaker 2: Why would I? I never do anything and I prefer
being alone. Well, what is it that you do want?
I want somebody to live for me, to.
Speaker 3: Live for you.
Speaker 2: Radio Mystery Theater were sponsored in part by Onenhouzer Busch Incorporated,
brewers of Budweiser and sign off the Sinus Medicines. This
is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our
Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time,
pleasant dreams.