 The Equitable Life Assurance Society presents, This Is Your FBI. This Is Your FBI, the author of the broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Presented as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. S-O-A-H-O. When my husband died, A-H-O saved our home for the children and me. A-H-O stands for Assured Home Ownership. It's the name of a unique plan created by the Equitable Life Assurance Society. A low-cost first mortgage is combined with life insurance protection. So the homeowner gets extra security during his lifetime. And if he should die, his widow inherits her home free and clear. In just 14 minutes, the Equitable Society will give you further information. Please listen carefully for more details on this ideal plan for homeowners offered by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Tonight's FBI file, The Bogus Bankrupt. Run through their course. And so perhaps it is time to stop and examine what they have brought in the way of developments in the war against crime. Last year saw more major crimes committed in the United States than had ever been committed in the long history of the nation. And unfortunately, it is necessary to report to you at this time that while the figures are still incomplete, it is safe to say that there has been no cessation in the activities of the American criminal. He is still the scourge of the country. And by his cheating, robbing and killing, he is costing the people a sum that runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Whether we can afford such a loss year after year is something for the economists to decide. But a fact has been revealed about the American crime bill, a bill paid for by each of you law-abiding citizens, which should give you some insight into its size. That fact is that in the past 12 months, the crime bill for this nation exceeds that spent for education. That is not a random comparison, for there is a definite connection between those two figures. Improve the facilities for education. See to it that teachers are not paid $500 a year, as some of them were last year. And you will have struck a blow against crime, a blow from which it would have difficulty recovering. Tonight's file opens in a dingy store located on a waterfront street in a large eastern city. Across the fly-spect window is written a single word, tattoo. It is late at night. An elderly man is seated in a battered chair testing a tattoo needle. Hi, Doc. What? Oh, Pete, will you stop sneaking in here? You're always creeping around scaring people after death. Oh, wear a bell around my neck. Yeah, be a good idea. Uh, you expecting a customer? Nope. What do you got the needle out for? I just put a new one in. I wanted to see how it works. You like to try it out maybe on me? I would not. But as long as you try a new one... There'll be no more pictures on credit. The ink costs too much. Besides, I've got a job to start tomorrow morning. I'm putting Washington Cross in the Delaware on a man's back. It's worth $300. $300? You call that money? You invent a new name for it? No, but I got a way we can both make more than $300 and we don't have to move. Oh. You know anybody can knock over a warehouse? I got friends that have been in one one for twice. One day wasn't supposed to be. It's an easy job. One watchman. I don't like that time. Why not? I don't like to put my friends in those soft ones. Something always goes wrong. They get shot or arrested. And they take it out on me. Doc, Doc, take my word. Nothing can go wrong with this. What's in the warehouse? FERS. It's loaded with them. You've been there? I just walked by. Where is it? Right here on Water Street. Three blocks down. 627. How much do you want for the tip-off? 50%. Do you know better than that? Make it 40. Nope. 30? I'll give you 10. 10% and I'll finish the American flag on Iran. Okay. Who are you going to get for the job? I have somebody. Who is he? Al Perkins. I don't know him. You never heard of showboat Perkins, the guy who works off a barge? Oh, yeah. Well, I'll see if he wants it. If you take it and we'll cut us both in, I'll make the deal. Call me later tonight and I'll let you know. Hurry up, we're going to eat and get to the theater on time. Oh, let me relax for a minute, Ruth. We'll eat after the show. Okay. One drink? Well, I better not with a stomach. Well, we'll maybe want a short one. Sit down, baby, I'll carry it. Thanks. Where have you been all day? At the pool room. Again? Uh-huh. Say when? When? Here you are, honey. Thanks. Remember, I told you I planted the tip about the warehouse at the pool room? That it could be robbed so easily? Mm-hmm. I had to meet the fellow tonight, but I gave the word to. Did he buy? Like a whale. When are they going to rob the place? Tonight, about midnight. Oh, honey, that's wonderful. Mm-hmm. I just happened to think. Wouldn't they be surprised to know they're robbing my warehouse? Next morning at the local FBI field office, Special Agent Jim Taylor approaches the desk of Agent Ray Brown. All right. Oh, hi, Jim. You're a stranger over in this part of the office. Now on, we're working together. Fine. What's the deal? Bankruptcy. Oh, one of those, huh? Mm-hmm. A man named Tom Henderson started a men's clothing store in the Midwest eight months ago. He got $46,000 worth of stock on consignment, and shortly after the goods arrived, there was a bad fire. That sounds familiar. Yeah. Well, Henderson went through bankruptcy, and it wasn't until he was gone that the fire department reported that, so far as they were able to ascertain, the store had been empty at the time of the fire. Any of the clothes been recovered anywhere else? No, not yet. The office out there is still working on that angle. Yeah. How do we get in on that, Jim? Well, the office got a lead that Henderson came here when he left town. Have hotels and rooming houses been checked? Well, they've been contacted now, but I doubt that we'll get anything right. Why? Well, if he came here to repeat his pattern, he'll take an apartment someplace or possibly rent a house. This build-up takes a little time. Yeah, that'll make him tougher to find, all right. Well, Ray, we've got a lift of every real estate agent in town. Henderson may have rented a place for one of them. Uh-huh. So let's cut the list in half and start alerting him. Well, I can't stay long. If you've got my end of the cake handy, I'll just... I want to talk to you about, uh... Hmm? What do you mean? Doc, you know me a long time. That's right. You know I don't like jokes. Uh-huh. Who gave you the tip on the warehouse? Wyatt. Wyatt, a customer. Who was it? Guy named Pete Webster. Where'd he get the tip? I don't know. You should have asked him. If you want references to showboats, you better get another guy to steer for you. You know where to get a hold of Pete Webster? Sure, sure. He practically lives in the pool room over on Broadway. Get him to come over to your place. I want to see him. Why? Somebody double-crossed us. Those boxes I moved out of the warehouse were empty. What? Yeah. Maybe Webster can tell us something about them. Well, showboat, if I tell him there was no loot and he has no cut coming, he won't come down. He only moves for money. Then don't tell him. Say I got 10 Gs worth. Tell him you've got his 10%. Tell him to come and get it. Just see that he's in your place at 10 o'clock tonight. Check my list of real estate agents, Ray. No luck. I drew a blank, too, Jim. All that picture we requested of Henderson came in a little while ago. Good. Maybe that'll be some help. Well, I spoke to the SAC about giving it to the papers. He put thumbs down on the idea. Why? Well, he doesn't want Henderson to know that we have any notion that he's here in town. It might scare him off. I see. By the way, is Henderson married? According to the report we got now. Is he traveling with his wife? As far as we know. How about a description on her? No, it got one, a bad one. All the report says is that neighbors described her as being a tall blonde. That's not much help. We might have a picture of her in a few days, though. From where? Well, the report said they were newlyweds. So? So I sent a request to the Office of Origin asking them to check all photographers and the chance that one of them took some wedding pictures. That might work. Ray, something else just occurred to me. What's that? If Henderson engineered that fire in his store and previously removed the stock so he could sell it elsewhere after his bankruptcy, he must have had some place to store the stock. Yeah, I'll go along with that. And now if he's following the same pattern, maybe he's got a warehouse rented here. That could be. Okay, let's get a list of all the warehouses. See that the owners of every one of them gets a copy of Henderson's picture. Unless he's changed his appearance, we might get a break. Really to collect. Lay that G in my pond, doc. I'll trust you on account. You'll be paid in a minute. First, I want some information, Pete. What kind? Where'd you get the tip on that warehouse? Well, a friend of mine. What's his name? Come on, doc. Hit me with a dough. I come down here to get paid, not grilled. I have to get this info first. Otherwise, no pay off. Who says so? Showboat. Showboat? What does he get off telling me what to do? Look, doc, you tell him that I made a... Tell him yourself. Okay, okay, I will. Tell me now, Pete. Huh? Well, go ahead. I'm waiting. Look, showboat, I didn't mean anything. Honest, I wasn't putting a knock on you. I was only saying that... Stop talking. About what? Who gave you the tip? I don't know his name. Do you believe him, doc? Nope. Neither do I. I don't like guys with bad memories. Well, I can't help it. I don't remember. You told Doc he was a friend of yours. You mean you got so many friends you don't remember who they are? No, I don't miss that. Wait, wait, wait. Tell you... Defy isn't how that helped his memory. All right, let's share it. His name is Tom Gregory. He's from out of town. I don't know where. I met him two weeks ago at the pool room. We got to be friends. He told me about the warehouse that he couldn't do it. It wasn't his kind of a job. He said it was easy. It was full of furs. Well, it's off like a slot machine once you get started. Maybe you know some more. No, no, no. I swear. Well, that's all I know. Doc, what? I might not be able to check on all this tonight. You got a place where I can leave until I finish. Well, there's a room in back of the shop. Will it hold him? There's no windows. He gets out. He'll have to be through a crack in the wall. That sounds okay. All right, now look, fellas. We got new quarters. You're staying in them until I check your story. But you can't. It ain't true, Pete. You better make arrangements with Doc to have him tattoo you a tombstone. We will return in just a moment to tonight's file which shows how your FBI protects American citizens and American homes. Now a word about the plan which not only safeguards the owner during his lifetime, but also continues to protect his widow if he should die. Here's a typical example. A widowed mother writing a letter to her boy in college. Dear John, it was wonderful of you to offer to leave college so that you could help support your little brothers and sisters. But you won't have to. Your father had an equitable, assured home ownership plan on our house. I knew if he should die, the mortgage would be canceled and I'd own my home free and clear. But I didn't realize the equitable society also returns every cent. Your father paid them to reduce the mortgage during his lifetime. Today I got an unexpected check for over $5,000. So you see. Her husband didn't have just an ordinary mortgage. His equitable society assured home ownership plan combines a low-cost first mortgage with life insurance protection. In addition to safeguarding a man's family, the equitable society's plan offers him many other advantages. First, a growing cash fund is created. It is there to use whenever serious illness or unemployment threatens home ownership. Second, this cash fund may be employed to cancel the mortgage well ahead of schedule. Equitable society records show that many 20-year mortgages have been completely paid off in just about 15 years. Finally, the mortgage interest is only 4%. And there's a liberal allowance to cover title search, lawyer's fees and other closing costs. So for many reasons, a man may consider himself lucky if his health, age, income and the location of his home enable him to qualify for an equitable, assured home ownership plan, combining a low-cost first mortgage and life insurance. For full information, see your Equitable Society representative or write the Equitable Life Insurance Society of the United States. And now back to the FBI file, the bogus bankrupt. In tonight's case from the files of your FBI, you meet five criminals. From the standpoint of society, they are all equally reprehensible, for each of them is contributing to or directing the commission of a crime. And yet, an examination of the past records of these five people reveals something which your FBI has pointed out many times on this series of official programs. Their records show that each of them came from a different background. Each of them underwent a different process of growing up. The strains and stresses of living as part of a community attacked these people from different angles. And yet, at this particular segment of time, they are met and joined together in crime. The fact the Federal Bureau of Investigation wishes you to take away from this program is that any five criminals chosen at random from the millions upon millions of records in their criminal fingerprint files could easily prove to be five equally dissimilar people. There is no such thing as a criminal type in appearance, in background, in speech. This quintet has little in common except for one thing. One thing they share with every person who tries to break the law. That common possession is a grim future. This file continues at the local FBI field office. Ray, a photographer, was found who had taken some pictures of Henderson's married ceremony. Oh, good. Our office back there took the photos to their local police gallery. They found a picture. She had a record too. Yeah? What for? Oh, petty larceny mostly. Did you get a copy of her picture? It's being sent on airmail. We should have it in the morning. Oh, any word in on that distribution of Henderson's picture to the warehouses? No. Jim, you suppose that men's clothing store bankruptcy was his first job? Oh, I'm inclined to doubt it. He worked everything too smoothly to be an amateur. Hey, hey, I just thought of something. What? Well, that picture of Henderson's wife comes in. We can check milk companies, all outfits that handle home deliveries. If they're living in an apartment or a house, they must be getting things delivered. Yeah, yeah, I'll check on that first thing in the morning, Jim. I'll partner it. Yeah, yeah. Special Agent Taylor speaking. Yes, that's right. Yes, Captain. You did wear it. Oh, where do I copy down that address, huh? There, got it. Yeah, Memorial Hospital. All right, thanks very much. I'll get right over there. Yeah, bye. That was Captain Ryan at the 9th Precinct, right? They found the warehouse. Where is it? Uh, 627 Water Street. We're a little late, though. The place was held up last night and cleaned out. Oh, fine. Watchman was slugged. He's at Memorial Hospital. Ray, why don't you go to the warehouse now? I'll see what you can find. Okay, Jim. I'll go over to the hospital and talk to the watchman. I'll meet you back at the warehouse. Right where do you show, folks? Get rid of him. I can't right now. Why not? Well, I'm putting Niagara Falls on his chest, and I haven't got the water on it yet. Tell him to wait. Yeah. Okay. I'll be with you in a minute, Mr. Johnson. Bye. Oh, he's still in the back room. You want to see him? No, no, no. Leave him there. Well, how did you make out? I went to the pool room, asked about this guy, Gregory. He'd been around all right. With Pete? I couldn't find anybody who'd seen him together. Did you get any dope on Gregory? No, no. Not in the pool room. But I called the warehouse. I asked for him. Was he there? No. And I found out that he rented the joint. He rented it? Then tipped us off to stick the place up? That's right. Well, I don't get it. I do now. What do you mean? Well, it bothered me that a guy should want to rob himself. Then I remembered an old angle of bankruptcy touch. Palomine worked it out of Cleveland. What is it? You get yourself robbed or have a phony fire. But before you do, you have the real stuff that's in the warehouse stashed away someplace else. Then you declare yourself broke. And go bankrupt? That's right. Well, how do you know that's what this guy did? I had somebody check on who's gone bankrupt. Gregory's name was on the top of the list. Well, he really put one over on this man. He just thinks he did. I'm not playing suck over anybody. We'll catch up with the guy. How? I don't know yet, but we're going to dig it. Look, get rid of that customer. I've got to finish with him first. Tell him to come back. Now, showboat. That would be very unprofessional. Tell him they put a dam on the falls. Tell him it's dry this year. Just get rid of him. Yeah, honey. Who was that on the farm? The mechanic of the garage. There's a customer over there waiting for me. To buy the first? Uh-huh. What are you asking for, then? 20,000. Oh, honey, those are beautiful numbers. Well, according to the mechanic, the guy is loaded with cash. Well, that means a quick sale. Right. How did he know about the stuff? I got to a couple of fences. I told him I was looking for discreet customers. Well, it'll take you a long to pack. To get out of this town? I should say not. Well, get with it, then. We'll leave town right from the garage. Oh, honey, that's pressing it close. I tell you what. Why don't you go over, close the deal, and then pick me up? Honey, let's do it my way. Go on, start packing. I tried 10 doors before I hit one that was open. Well, we find anything? No. Gregory apparently kept no files here. The papers of any kind. How did you make out at the hospital? Well, I talked to the watchman. I'm now looking for two men instead of one. Oh, what was his story? He was alone last night, and sometime between 11 and 1, a truck pulled up at the front door. He went to see who it was and got slugged. Did he get a look at the man? Yes, and for a change, we got a complete description. That's good. I took it back to the office and asked the folks in our file room to check descriptions of hijackers. Could they help? Yeah, they had quite a few men answering the description, so I got a picture of all of them who went back to the hospital. The watchman went over them. He picked out a picture of a thug named Al Perkins. I don't think I know him. He found his aliases showboat. He's in our files. He was arrested for breaking into a government warehouse earlier this year. And he's out walking the streets? Oh, he was acquitted for some strange reason. Have we any idea where to locate this Perkins? Well, the police are trying to help us in that now. The watchman also said that he looked into one of the packing cases just before the robbery, and there were no furs inside. That follows Gregory's pattern. Yeah. But our checkup showed he didn't read a second warehouse to hide the stuff. I know, Ray. He certainly would have had to use some of the space. He would have had to move the first. Hey, Ray, wait a minute. Let's get to a phone. You stay here. I'll try to make this a quick deal. Just bring out that cash. My name is Perkins. I came here about the first. Oh, glad to meet you, Mr. Perkins. I think you're on. Hello, Gregory. What? What's the matter, Mr. Gregory? What's he doing here? He just brought him along to make sure. Of what? That we had the right guy. You pulled a cute one on me, didn't you? Well, you ain't gonna get away with it. Let the bravery department, too, showboat. We ain't gonna let that happen. Now we can get down to business. I'm afraid I'm not interested in doing business with you, Mr. Perkins. I think it better be. We went to a lot of trouble finding you. Lucky you asked Pete to call you here one day with a little digging. He remembered the number. That doesn't interest me. It should. You see, I'm the guy who stuck up your warehouse. I'm the guy who fell for your plant. I want to get paid, Mr. Gregory. Why? Because you were stupid enough to fall for the plant? Now you can call it that if you want to. I'm not giving you anything. Gregory, I'm making the deals here, not you. I'm not impressed by muscle. Oh, no. Well, try some. Anyway! Oh! Oh! Would you like to get up and try some more? All right. Stay where you are. All right. I hope you're from the police. These men were robbing me. And you'd prefer the other way around. And right, Gregory? Hey, who are you? I'm a special agent of the FBI. You're all under arrest. And so all five criminals in tonight's case were apprehended on the waterfront garage. What led the two special agents there was Agent Taylor's reasoning that in order to move the furs, Gregory would have used at least one truck. He knew that Gregory would be unlikely to make an investment of enough money to buy a truck, so he called every truck rental agency in the classified phone directory. One of them revealed that they had rented a truck to a Tom Gregory and had delivered it to a garage of his for which they supplied the address. And that is the type of superior investigation for which the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become justly famous. Investigation which seldom makes the headlines, but which in its thoroughness is unparalleled. As unparalleled as are the results. Results which have made the mention of special agent, G-Men, or FBI, enough to strike terror among the enemy, among the army of criminals. In just a moment, we will tell you about next week's exciting case from the files of your FBI. Now, a word to the wives. Let's consider the equitable society's assured home ownership plan from the woman's point of view. While her husband lives, the home she lives in has extra protection from the plan's special cash fund, which can be used if sickness or unemployment threaten home security. If her husband dies, the mortgage is automatically canceled. For full information, see your equitable society representative without delay, or write care of this station to the Equitable Life Insurance Society of the United States. This week we will dramatize another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A case revealing the cunning manipulations of a gang of expert swindlers. It's subject to fraud. It's titled The Hungry Wrestler. The incidents used in tonight's Equitable Life Insurance Society's broadcast are adapted from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, all names used are fictitious, and any similarity thereof to the names of persons living or dead is accidental. Tonight, the music was composed and conducted by Frederick Steiner. The author was Jerry D. Lewis. Your narrator was William Woodson, and special agent Taylor was played by Stacey Harris. Others in the cast were Michael Ann Barrett, George Baxter, Wally Mayer, Charles Maxwell, Charles McGraw, and Sidney Miller. This is your FBI is a Jerry Devine production. This is Larry Keating speaking for the Equitable Life Insurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. And inviting you to tune in again next week at this same time when the Equitable Life Insurance Society will bring you another thrilling story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The hungry wrestler on this is your FBI. This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.