 Kathy and Elliot Lewis on stage. Kathy Lewis, Elliot Lewis, two of the most distinguished names in radio, appearing each week in their own theater, starring in a repertory of transcribed stories of their own and your choosing. Radios for most players in radios for most play. Ladies and gentlemen, Elliot Lewis. Good evening. May I present my wife, Kathy. Good evening. And before we start tonight, thank you all very, very much for the letters and cards and telegrams wishing us well on our wedding anniversary. We do appreciate your thoughtfulness. We're very grateful. Tonight we're going to please some of you and make others of you angry because the story we're going to do is written for us by E. Jack Newman. And whenever we've done one of Jack's radio plays we find that you have a remarkable reaction. You're either completely charmed by the party and Eddie and Casey at the bat or you take a violent dislike to his plays. Now we hope to get a new reaction as we present E. Jack Newman's new radio play, Statement of Fact. Yes. This is the long distance operator, sir. Evanston calling. My party will speak with anyone at this number. Who's calling? Mr. John Bradford. All right, operator. Just a moment, please. Mr. Bradford, ready with your call to Evergreen 31291 in Jackson. Hello, Chris. Here's your party. Go ahead, please. Thank you. Hello. Hello, Chris. This is Bradford. I'm sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night. She said you're calling from Evanston? Yeah, that's right, Chris. The sheriff here picked up Ellen Dudley half an hour ago. She was hiding in the restroom in an all-night bus station. Ellen Dudley? Yeah. Friend of mine with the state highway patrol was in on it, gave me a ring. Just a lucky accident and I found out about it at all. She's being held in Communicado, Chris. Your friend on the highway patrol, does he have... Ah, just a patrolman, Chris. Ah, that's out. What is it, dear? There's something... Hold on. John Bradford. Oh, there's something wrong? Uh, Chris. Yeah? We have to work fast on this one. I know, I know. Dear, care whatever it is, wait until morning. Doesn't he realize you need your rest? Just keep quiet for a minute, will you, Ann? Sorry, dear. Has she sent for anyone? No, I don't think so, not yet. What do you want to do, Chris? Wait a minute. What time is it? Uh, 335. I can drive there by 415. What's the sheriff's name? Walter Marrow. Can you get to him? I can try, Chris. Get to him. And tell Sheriff Marrow that the district attorney will hold him personally responsible for the conduct of his office and his offices in this situation. Remind him that the accused is the state's prisoner. Well, Chris Ligley, he can hold it for 48 hours. Let me worry about that part of it. You make certain he understands what I just told you. I'll do my best. Right. See you in a little while, John. I think it's terrible that he should call you... They picked up Ellen Randall Dudley out in Evanston. They'll make a spectacle of this thing or it can be done right. Where's my blue shirt? It's in the laundry, dear. I sent it out this morning. Oh, listen. Aren't you going to shave? No time. Would you like some coffee? I haven't time, Anne. Chris, you can't just rush out of here without... Anne, Anne, stop. Please. A million things on my mind. I'm only trying to help you, dear. I know. I'm sorry. Here. Why do you always have to handle these things? Huh? When something has to be done right, you seem to be the only one they can count on. Maybe it's because you're the only one who'll get up in the middle of the night. Cut flinks. Cut flinks. There. When will you be home? Oh, no. I'm going to nap at the club this afternoon. Don't worry. There was a time when you told me about these things. I just haven't time now, dear. Where's my billed... Who's Ellen Randall Dudley? Would you read the papers? Yes. That's her. She's a very beautiful woman, isn't she? So they say. Coat. Coat. What's she done? I thought you read the papers. I just noticed a picture on the front page. I didn't read it. Goodbye. I wish I had some idea what it is. Read about it, dear. It's all over the papers. The whole story. All you have to do is read about it. You don't have to ask me. I'll do that. So long, Ann. Chris? What now? We aren't very happy these days, are we, Chris? I don't know what we are. Bye. Bye. Hey, W.E. and Mrs. Dudley issues when Christian gets through with it. Hold him, Mr. Christian. How about a statement, Mr. Christian? No comment. Is she crazy? That's not for me to say. We'd like your opinion, Mr. Christian. I have never met Mrs. Dudley, pardon me. Will you present the indictment against her? No. Will you file the indictment, Mr. Christian? An indictment can only be presented and filed by the grand jury. Take your hand off my arm. Oh, I'm sorry. Does the state have sufficient evidence against Mrs. Dudley to get a conviction? That is a matter for the jury in this period court to decide. How about one more picture, Mr. Christian? Oh, John. Oh, hello, Chris. How'd they get in on this? Sheriff Morrow, I told him you were on the way and he called the papers. Publicity, huh? Yeah, afraid so, Chris. It's the only important arrest he's ever made here. And he could clear everything with these kind of shenanigans. How long has he been in office? Oh, 10 years. Where is he? In there. Where's Mrs. Dudley? She's in there with him. What? I told you this was something for him here. Mrs. Morrow sent over a tray of the accused and Sheriff Morrow having a snack together, I'll have you know. Come on. Where's she been these last three days? I don't know. You mean any calls yet? No, I'm sure of that. Somebody's going to try and get to her. Just a minute. Sheriff Morrow left orders. He's not to be disturbed. What's your name? I'm Deputy PJ Thaler. Mr. Thaler, I want you to go and stand by that door over there. No one absolutely no one is to come through that door until I say so. I'd take my orders from Sheriff Morrow. Hey, I thought I told you I didn't want anyone around here. You're Sheriff Morrow? Yes, who are you? Dale Christian. Oh, Mr. Bradford here explained you were on the way. We can handle this situation. All right, Mr. Christian. Is Mrs. Dudley in there? Yes. Is she guarded? No need to guard her. Yeah, there, John. Don't take your eyes off. Yeah, all right. Now look here. Now look here, Sheriff. You're going to do what I say. Just a minute there, Bradford. He has no right to go into my office. He has every right to go in there, and I'll show you why. Here, you see this? It's a warrant issued yesterday afternoon for the arrest of Ellen Randall Dudley. When you see that seal and that signature, your authority is automatically superseded. No one comes in here and tells me how to run my job. I'm telling you. You're trying to get your name and picture in every newspaper in the country at the expense of this case. You've already jeopardized the state's position. I'll have no more of it. This is no pressman's holiday. If you have any brains at all, you'll take Mr. Thaler here and go outside and get rid of those reporters as fast as you can. I'll take action against you for this, Mr. Christian. See if you can get Bert Peloton out of bed, Thaler. This man has overstepped his bounds. Ellen Randall Dudley? My name is Christian, Mrs. Dudley. I'm the Deputy District Attorney. All right, John. What are you going to do? Just take a few notes, Mrs. Dudley. What kind of notes? Well, Mr. Bradford's also from my office. He's here to take notes on what you say to me, Mrs. Dudley. I'm obligated to warn you that whatever you say right now may be used later in the court. You don't have to talk to me unless you want to. Do you understand that? Yes. A little later on, they'll take you into Jackson and you can get some sleep. I suppose you're tired. Yes, I am, Mr. Christian. Well, this won't take long. I'd just like to have your story and your own words. Pardon me? Yes. I don't understand you, Mr. Christian. You just told me that anything I tell you may be used against me in court? Yes. Then I really shouldn't tell you anything. Mrs. Dudley, listen to me. Listen carefully. Yesterday afternoon, I attended a coroner's inquest held in Jackson. It was an inquest into the death of your husband, Robert Ames Dudley. Yes. A coroner's jury there determined that Mr. Dudley came to his death as the result of wounds inflicted by you, his wife. A hatchet was presented as evidence. Mr. Thomas Unger of the police crime laboratory positively identified it as the murder weapon. He showed the coroner's jury that samples of the blood found on the hatchet matched with specimens of your husband's blood. Sergeant Victor Manning also testified and explained that several fingerprints on the murder weapon belonged to you. Two witnesses, your maid, Etha Lee Barth, and a neighbor, Mrs. Frank Thompson, gave testimony that further incriminate you. Enough evidence was presented for the coroner's jury to recommend that you be taken into custody and held for the action of the grand jury. Do you understand what I've just told you? Yes, I think so. In a few days, the grand jury will meet and charge you with murdering your husband. There is no doubt that they will make that indictment, Mrs. Dudley. From there, you will be arraigned and later on taken into a court and tried. Do you understand that? Yes. Fine. Now, a frank, honest statement on your part before all these things take place can save a great deal of pain on both sides. Such a statement from you right now may determine the disposition and the proper plea to be entered on your behalf. What do you mean, Mr. Christian? Proper plea? You murdered Roger A.M. Dudley on the night of the 13th. Now, the sooner you admit that, the better off you'll be. You make a full confession here. Mr. Bradford will take it down. You'll sign it. You enter a plea of guilty. And I promise you I'll do all I can for you with the court. Is that okay? Suppose... Suppose I... I don't admit anything. Then you can expect no clemency. That, of course, is entirely up to you, Mrs. Dudley, but I'm going to tell you that the death house and the state penitentiary has been filled with people who didn't listen to reason while they still had a chance. This is your chance, Mrs. Dudley. Right here and now. I don't know what to do. I've just explained what is best for you to do. You're hooked, and you're going to have to face up to it one way or the other. If you don't take my advice, they'll hang you. I promise you, Mrs. Dudley, they'll hang you as certainly as you're sitting in that chair in front of me. But what do you have to say now? You are listening to Kathy and Elliot Lewis on stage. Tonight's play, Statement of Fact. Another radio first for CBS radio's Wonderful Friday Night Music show, There's Music in the Air. Tomorrow night, there's Music in the Air for the first time by Dmitri Tiamkin and Ned Washington, Academy Award-winning songwriters for High Noon. There's Music in the Air will present their song, Return to Paradise, from the new Gary Cooper-Roberta Haynes movie of the same name. That's on most of these same CBS radio stations. Mr. Christian, the drug store is not open yet, but I did find a couple of emperors and tablets. Those will be fine. Here you go, Mr. Christian. Thank you. How's she feeling? She's all right. Oh, Mr. Christian. Yes? I thought I'd better tell you, Sheriff Maro ordered me to call Mr. Peloton. He ordered me to do it. Mr. Peloton's on his way over here right now. Thank you for the information. Mr. Christian, I worked out of here for Sheriff Maro ever since he's been in office. I think ought to tell you I'd be a little careful about the way you handle it, Mr. Christian. Thank you. I can handle Sheriff Maro. Oh, I'm sure you can, Mr. Christian. I never doubted that for one second. No, sir. I know you know your job. I know you're trying to get a job done here, and you don't want no hocus pocus about it. I guess I can't blame you one bit. I'd do the same thing if I was in your shoes and wanted a conviction as fast as I could get it. I just want you to know, Mr. Christian, that I'm on your side. I appreciate that. When you're made District Attorney and you're appointing special investigators, I hope you'll remember me, Mr. Christian. P.J. Thaler, Evanston Sheriff's Office. I'll remember you, Mr. Thaler. Feeling any better? I guess so. I'm sorry. Of course. Here, these will help. I hope you've decided to use your head about this, Mrs. Dudley. I want to, Mr. Christian. Sure you do. As far as you start right from the beginning. Yes. Do you have a cigarette? Oh, sure. Here you go. Thank you. You smoke my brand. Really? You were married to him eight years. Is that correct? Yes. I understand you met in Europe. Yes, in London during the war. I've read about you in the papers, Mr. Christian. They say you're going to be the new District Attorney. You don't look much older than Roger. He was 36. I'm 34. You and Mr. Dudley had been having trouble for some time? Oh, yes, for years. I imagine you've had some experiences being the position you are. You talked to many people in a situation like mine? Quite a few, Mrs. Dudley. Last July, you had Mr. Dudley arrested when he came home drunk and threatened you? Yes, but he got out of that very easily. They didn't do a thing to him. Roger was awfully good at talking himself out of things. You didn't prefer charges against it? No, it wouldn't have been that. No, it wouldn't have done any good. He would have gotten out of it anyway. He had a law degree too, you know. So I understand. Roger never went into practice. He didn't have to. He didn't have to do anything that was his trouble. His father left him quite a bit of money and he simply didn't have to do anything at all. Should we get on with this, Mrs. Dudley? It's past five now. I've been up all night long. This makes four nights in a row. I've gone without sleep. As soon as we finish here, you can get some sleep. I don't feel one bit sleepy. When I first came here, I was dreadfully tired. I thought I could sleep for a week. Now I'm not the least bit tired or sleepy. Not funny. If you'll just start with the events that night. What is today? Friday. I'd be playing bridge this afternoon. There's a dog show tomorrow evening I wanted to go to, but I won't be able to go anywhere now. Do you feel sorry for me, Mr. Christian? I beg your pardon? Do you feel sorry for me? Well, it makes no difference how I feel, Mrs. Dudley. You're an accused prisoner. My job is to get a statement of fact from you. That's why I'm here. I've explained this once. I'm your friend here. In a courtroom, I'll represent the prosecution and I'll do everything I can to see to it that you hang. Unless you make a complete confession now, is that perfectly clear to you, Mrs. Dudley? Yes. And if you have a record of always getting a conviction, that'll help when you run for office, won't it? Mrs. Dudley, my professional career has nothing to do with us. If I weren't here talking to you, someone else from my office would be here. It's a job that has to be done. I happen to be the one who is doing it. But wouldn't it be better for you if you had more of an audience than Mr. Bradford over there? Wouldn't it be much better if you had me in a courtroom with reporters and... Mrs. Dudley, do you want to talk to me now? I don't mean to make you angry, Mr. Christian. If all you've told me is true about what happened at the coroner's inquest and what will happen when the grand jury meets, you can hang me right now. I certainly can. Yet you're here to get my story. You must be uncertain about something. I told you I'm trying to help you, Mrs. Dudley, but I warn you I am not uncertain about anything where you are concerned. Make no mistake about that. I have a duty to the people of this state. That is to learn the facts of this case and present them before the court. I intend to do that with or without your cooperation. May I talk to you alone? You understand why Mr. Bradford is here? Yes, but I'd like to tell it to you alone. It can't possibly hurt anything to talk to you first, can it? All right, John, wait outside. I'll send for you when I need you. Right, Chris. All right, Mrs. Dudley. I killed Roger. Tell me how it happened. I was having some people over for dinner that night. I was busy in the kitchen with the maid fixing the dinner. Roger came downstairs. I asked him to do a simple thing, just a little thing. I asked him to start a fire in the fireplace. It was pretty chilly out, and the fire always made that room look so warm and nice. Have you seen my house? Yes, Mrs. Dudley, go on, please. I heard him down in the basement getting things ready for the fire. When I looked at the clock, it was past seven. The fire hadn't even been started in the fireplace. Our guests were arriving at 7.30. I asked Roger to come up and make some martinis and let the fire go for a moment. He called me a name. Why? I never knew why he did things like that. I went downstairs to ask him why he was so angry. He called me another name. It wasn't just the name, or him being angry, it was all the things he'd done to me before, the arguing and fighting and the insults. When he started up the stairs, I picked up the hatchet and I hit him with it. He fell down. And what did you do? I ran upstairs and put on my coat and left the house. Where have you been these last three days? Right here in Evanston. I had a room at the Evanston Hotel until last night. Then I thought I'd try to get away, go to another city, Chicago or New York. I found out who I was at the bus station. Did you ever think about killing your husband before this? Oh, yes. Did you know you were going to kill him when you went down to the basement? Yes. Did he go out with other women? Not that I know of. Did he ever beat you? Oh, no. He gave you a nice home, all you needed. But he took my life away from me, Mr. Christian. What? He took my life away from me. He stole my life. I don't understand that, Mrs. Dudley. When I was going down the stairs that night and saw him standing there, I suddenly realized all he had taken from me. Everything that was young and fresh and wanting. He despised him for it. So I killed him. But why did you have to kill him? You could have divorced him, left him. Don't you see what he had taken from me, Mr. Christian? There was nothing left for him to steal from me or nothing left for me to give another man. Are you married? Yes. Then you know what a man can take from a woman. Mr. Christian, am I somewhere you'd want to be married to if this terrible thing hadn't happened? Am I someone you'd be proud to have for a wife? You might be. That's all a woman needs is to be wanted. Am I old and ugly and unattractive? Am I shallow or flighty? Look at me, Mr. Christian. I am. No, stand up, please. Look at me. Close. Would you want to be loved by me? You're very lovely, Mrs. Dudley. Would you? Yes. Well, I was nothing to Roger Dudley, nothing. And my love was nothing to him. I was a fixture, a decoration, an animal. And he took all of it, my love and my life. And then he stood at the bottom of the stairway and called me a name. Listen to me. No one saw this happen. The maid was upstairs in the kitchen. She heard it from next door. Listen to me. You can claim that you did it in self-defense. Why? He came at you and you picked up the hatchet and you hit him with it to protect yourself. You tell it that way when Mr. Bradford comes back in here. There are a dozen good men in this state who'd be glad to represent you in court with a story like that. I'll be opposite them. You can get off. He made you kill him because it was either him or you. And you ran afterwards because you were frightened. In the end, you'll be charged with second-degree murder and at the most, you'll get a suspended sentence. Don't you understand what I'm telling you? You can be free. Yes. Yes, Mr. Christian. All right, let's have Mr. Bradford in here now, please. All right. Wait a minute. Hold it. I can never be free. You know what you're saying? You haven't understood anything I've said. He took my life away from me a long time ago. Can't you see, Mr. Christian, I don't have any life to live now. Mrs. Dudley, you have everything to live for. Look, you're young and beautiful and you want and need all of the things that life can give you. Too late, Mr. Christian. You'll get at least a life sentence. A few minutes ago, you were telling me about your duty to the people of this state, Mr. Christian. Tell me about it now. I wanted to talk to you alone like this to make sure I was right. You know better than he was, Mr. Christian. You'd take a woman and do the same thing to her that he did to me. Until you kissed me just then, I wasn't a person to you. I was an animal, a trapped animal. And if I let you help me escape from this trap, I'd just be escaping into a smaller one, a worse one with you. You're another Roger Dudley. Are you ready to make your statement of fact, Mrs. Dudley? Yes. All right, John, take it down. From the beginning, Mrs. Dudley. Just as you told it to me. Statement of fact. Starring Kathy and Elliot Lewis on stage. In a moment, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis will tell you about next week's play. This Saturday morning, it's a most unusual challenge for Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle. The famous adventurer of darkest Africa is a juvenile delinquent and encounters problems of a very different sort in Tarzan and the hot rod kid. You'll also want to hear the latest episode of Gangbusters, CBS Radio's exciting true crime cases that names names places and dates in thrilling accounts of police action against the lawless. Remember this Saturday night on most of these same CBS radio stations, Tarzan and Gangbusters. And now once again, Kathy and Elliot Lewis. And that was another of E. Jack Newman's searching studies of ourselves. This time set melodramatically. He's an excellent writer. Some friends new to on stage joined us tonight. Joan Danton, who was the telephone operator. Jack Krushan, who was special deputy Thaler. And Tyler McVeigh, publicity happy Sheriff Morrill. While Joseph Kearns played my assistant, John Bradford. Trudy Marston rejoined us to play your wife. And Byron Cain was the reporter. We thanked them all. This is spring and through the window we can see the sun and the green grass and the new flowers and the days that have gone by. We thought it a good time to present a story that suits the season. And so next week we're going to do a dramatization of a warm and charming book, almost forgotten now, that perfectly states the season for us. It was written by the late Leonard Merrick and it's called Conrad in Quest of His Youth. You'll like it. Until next week, thank you for listening. Good night. Music for tonight's story was composed and conducted by Fred Steiner. The Kathy and Elliot theme is by Ray Noble. And the program is transcribed and directed by Mr. Lewis. George Walsh speaking. America's 45 million radio families listen most to the CBS Radio Network.