 The Equitable Life Assurance Society presents this is your FBI. This is your FBI, the official broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Presenter transcribed as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. Many people in tonight's audience are listening in by special requests. Yes, by mail, by telephone, they received invitations from the Equitable Society representatives. These men and women were selected because they are the tight destined to go places in life. People sure to be interested in the Equitable Society's plan for men and women on the way up. In about 14 minutes, I'll give you full details on this special plan for men who don't intend to stay put. It is offered by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Tonight's FBI file, ladies of larceny. The Latin word extortus means to twist or wrench out, which makes it an obvious parent for the English word extortion, for the English word which is the name of one of the most vicious crimes on the statute books. In ancient times, the penalty for extortion was death, and it remained so until comparatively recent days. But while the laws change, man doesn't. And what was true in every era before this is still true today. There are people who try to benefit because they have some knowledge another person does not want made public. It is doubtful if in any age there was ever any justification for the extortion victim to pay his tormentor. But if ever there was such a reason, it does not exist today. For throughout the nation, there are law enforcement agencies within a telephone calls distance. Agencies who will come running at your slightest hint of an extortion scheme. The police would like to remove from circulation every criminal of any description, whether they be purse lifters or killers. However, it is safe to say that every officer in the country, and this goes for all of them from the small town one man force, to the special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, would pick one particular criminal to exterminate first if he had his choice. That criminal is the callous merciless vulture who practices extortion. Tonight's file opens in front of an office building in a large Midwestern city. It is late afternoon. FBI agent and charge Fulton has just emerged from the structure as... Mr. Fulton? Huh? Oh, hello, Jim. How you doing, sir? Fine, I'd appreciate it. You on your way home, sir? Yes, yes, I am. I'll go right by there. Get in. Thanks. Well, Mr. Fulton, I understand that congratulations are on others. Well, thanks, Jim. 25 years with the building. That's quite a record. Well, they've been 25 five years. I guess you've seen a lot of change. Indeed I have. Where were you first assigned to this town right here? Oh, really? Of course, I had plenty of transfers before I arrived back here again. How big was our office here then? There were just seven of us. Hey, Mr. Fulton, can you remember your first case? Indeed I can. What was the crime? Extortion. And from a very unusual source. Now, what do you mean? Well, the extortioner was a woman, and she operated from the inside of prison. You mean she was a prison inmate? That's right. I can't believe it. Things were much different here 25 years ago, Jim. They said he reeked with corruption and grats. Yeah, I saw her. Local law enforcement officers were completely shackled. Or was this woman's father? Well, I'll see if I can remember the facts. We got into the case when the wife of a wealthy oil man in the neighboring state committed suicide. Two extortion notes were found among her papers threatening her life if she didn't pay her some of money. And these notes were mailed from the prison? No, but they were mailed here in town. I believe they requested that the payoff be made to a certain post office box. We contacted the post office, found that the box had been rented by a woman named Bum C. Ann Merchant, I think it was. We checked on her. She had no record. So the box was put under surveillance, sir. And we went to work on the notes. They're written by hand of tribes. Neither. Each word had been clipped out of a paper and pasted on the stationery. The print of the type was the kind we'd never seen before, so we tried to locate the source. You had no idea at this time that the woman in prison was mixed up in this. Oh, no. And by the same token, she had no idea that we were checking on her. Gladys, can I talk to you a minute? What is it, Shirley? Something awful has happened. You've got trouble with the warden again? No, this is personal. Oh, you sent away a quarter and some great big company didn't send you samples. No, Gladys. It's that store where they caught me shoplifting. They sent me another bill for the stuff. It came to my house, and my mother mailed it here to the prison. The store says, unless I pay, they'll sue me. Why don't you write in time to take it out of your salary after all you make a half a bucket, eh? Oh, Gladys, you don't have to pay. Oh, hi, Betty. Just finished talking to Ann. Did she get the money from the Spencer Dane? No, that's what she called about. The Dane committed suicide. What? Ann wanted to know what to do. Is the warden in? No. I can use the phone. Good. Call Ann and tell her not to go near that post office box. The cops might be watching it. Yeah, OK. Shirley. Yes, ma'am? If anybody asks you why any file is missing, you don't know what happened to it. Yes, ma'am. And when you're finished work this afternoon, bring some more files to myself. We got to find ourselves a new sucker. What was the lead that took you to the person? The type that was used in the notes. Oh. I went to the printer. He told me it was the kind that none of the local papers used. He suggested that I contact some job printing houses, the kind that prints high school and organization newspapers. Oh, you can turn left here, Jim. Yes, I know, sir. Well, one of the printing houses recognized the imperfection of the type. It had come from one of their machines. They then told me that the only newspaper they printed was the one circulated at the woman's prison. That must have been quite a surprise. Oh, not too much, Jim. I told you what the city was 25 years ago. And there was no reason why there should be any less corruption in the woman's prison than there was in City Hall. No. No, I guess not. What? Hey. Well, I guess he wants both lanes. Yeah. Well, where's the next development? This woman who was the contact, the one we set up a surveillance for at the post office was picked up. Oh, you didn't mean for her? No. All we knew was that the extortioner was someone in the prison. But that still left us 1,100 suspects. And it left our extortioner glad it's free to continue our operation. There are these boxes. What in them? New uniforms. More new uniforms? No, we've got a shipment of new prisons coming in tomorrow morning. Where are they going to sleep? Oh, it depends on how much they can afford to pay me. All right, let's take them out of the boxes and pile them up on the shelves. Hey, Gladys. Yeah, buddy? I've been going over the files. I think I found a new customer. Good. What's the story? Banker's daughter. She did a six-month bit two years ago. What was the rep? Well, they nailed her with some hot jewelry. According to the record, she got mixed up with some guy. And when he got nailed, she took the file with him. She's probably back home now, hoping Pop take care of the bank. Shirley. Yes, ma'am? You know those forms you got up in the fire room? Huh? The ones where the warden asked the parole board for a report on somebody who used to be here. Uh-huh. Get one. Find out where this dame is now and what she's doing. How? Just bring it up to the warden's office. Betty will fill it in and sign it. OK. And then you take it down to Alice in the mail room and don't forget to tell Alice to keep an eye out for the parole board's answer. Oh, I won't. If we can get lucky with a few more dames, we can leave this joint real rich. How'd you finally narrow down that list of suspects, Mr. Bolton? Well, that took time to him. Time, patience, and cooperation. Cooperation from home? The man who was chief of police here then. No. No, I gather he wasn't part of the machine. No. No, I went to him, told him the whole story. We both decided that the best way to handle the case was from inside the prison. That must have presented quite a problem. It did. We knew we wouldn't get any place questioning the inmates, so we hit on an alternative. Planning a policewoman in the prison to see what she could find out. But that had its drawbacks, too. Why? Well, a political boss here was a man named Shelby. He had pipelines everywhere. And the chief knew if he sent a policewoman into the prison, Shelby would find out about it within an hour. Was the chief afraid of the Shelby? No. He wanted a great case. He knew if we could get a federal conviction against somebody in that prison, Shelby couldn't help them. And without his help, they might start talking all the way up the line to Shelby himself. What is it, the lights? Change them. Oh, yeah. What did you finally decide? We gambled on planning the policewoman. Following morning, when a new batch of prisoners arrived at the jail. Come on, keep this line moving. Hello, girly. Blouse? Huh? What size blouse do you wear? 38. No 38, Slip. Take a 40. But I'd like a 38. You can buy one for me later. What size skirt? 32-way. Oh. Here. Size shoes. 8C. Wait a minute. There's some 9s. Now go over there. Put on these clothes and bring back the ones you got on now. Buddy, where's them blouses? Right here. Hey, nice stuff she was wearing, Gladys. Yeah. I should get at least a fin for a dress. Shoes will bring another fin. Come on, girls. Keep this line moving. Size 34 blouse, 24 skirt, and 6B shoes. You talk like you've done this before, sister. I've been around. Um, are you big, Gladys? Yeah. I understand you run this joint. Who told you then? I've been around. Can I talk to you? About what? I, uh, got some information. See that thing at the end of the line? The one in the brown dress? Yeah. What's your information? She's a cop. How do you know? She arrested me three years ago. Thanks. Here's your clothes. Go change. I'll see you later in the recreation yard. That's a date. Gladys, you think she's on the level? I haven't taken any changes. What are you going to do? You're going upstairs and cross Shelby. Tell him to get that dame out of here unless he wants a dead police woman on his hands. We'll return in just a moment to this exciting file which shows how your FBI helps protect the security of America. Now let's take time out to glance at the future of America. What is the economic forecast for the 1950s? According to the experts, there is good reason to be optimistic. Most past decades of American prosperity have been associated with one single industry with railroad building or automobiles or radio. During the next few years, we will have not won but scores of new fields to develop. Atomic energy, prefabricated homes, television, air conditioning, small private airplanes. These are a few of the industries that may well make the America of the 1950s more than ever the land of opportunity. For people who expect to be leaders in this dynamic age we are now entering the Equitable Life Assurance Society has created a special insurance program. It is known as the equitable plan for men and women on the way up. If that describes you, if you believe that your income is due to increase substantially in the next few years, then this plan offers you three important advantages. First, as your salary goes up, your insurance can keep pace with it. When you get that better job or that big promotion comes your way, you can adjust your insurance to measure up to your increased income. Second, while you're waiting, your wife and children have the life insurance protection they need. This means that you have the peace of mind, the freedom from worry about your family that's essential to a man who wants to concentrate on getting ahead. Third advantage, the equitable plan is flexible at all times. It can expand or contract as you see fit and offers you many desirable options which your Equitable Society representative will be glad to explain to you. So why not get in touch with him right away? Phone him and ask for full details on the equitable plan for people on the way up or send a postcard care of this station to the Equitable Society. That's E-Q-U-I-T-A-B-L-E, the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. And now back to the FBI file Ladies of Larceny, a politically corrupt machine which controls an entire city administration with its many fingers of corruption constantly around the throat of every decent citizen such as is described in tonight's case. It is not something which has disappeared entirely from the American scene. Advances have been made in wiping out this evil. But it still exists in some sections of the country and the unpleasant truth is that it exists because of the lethargy of the decent people who hated most. If you doubt that, consider the fact that in virtually every one of those cities the fire department is run without political interference and yet control of the fire department is almost as desirable as control of the police. There are many jobs to be doled out. There are sweet treasures to be made through the purchase of inferior holes in efficient chemicals for equipment. Fire marshals and inspectors could make fortunes by conveniently overlooking fire hazards and yet the politician does not go near the fire department because the public simply wouldn't stand for it. Maybe that is because fire is visual, because you can see its danger, its hazards, because you know that fire once started is uncontrollable in many cases and one sort of hand can cost you your money, your home, your life. Yet the unfortunate thing is that crime to which the decent citizen pays so little attention costs him and you more money and more lives in a single year than fire has been known to destroy in any decade. Tonight's file continues in the recreation yard at Women's Prison. It is shortly after lunch. Daddy, did you call Shelby? Yeah, but he wasn't there. Uh-huh. Oh, God, I just got terrible news. I got another letter about the stuff from the department store. They're really suing me. Well, I'll tell you what you do, honey. When you get out, don't ever go in that store again. Hello, Gladys. Oh, hi, Fred. This is Betty and Shirley. Nice to meet you. Hi, hi. I need it. What are you in for? Jewelry store, huh? Um, Gladys, can I talk to you for a minute? Sure. Hello? Well, uh... I hear you've got all the jobs to give out. I'd like to buy a soft one. You got it on the house, kid. We owe you one. What do you figure you'd like to do? Well, I don't know. What does Betty do? Trusty in the warden's office. Sounds good. I can't put anybody else in there. How about Shirley? I'm in the filing room. That's full, too. Like the laundry? That ain't soft. Oh, you'd be the watcher. Just see that the stuff gets down. Ah, it's okay. It can start this afternoon. And if you keep out of trouble, maybe I can get you spring on parole. Can you do that? Sure. Well, why don't you get yourself springed? Are you kidding? We never had it so good. Jim, we were successful in getting our policewoman planted. Without the Shelby's knowing it? Yes. How did you manage that? We got policewomen in with the backs of prisoners. One of them was a new girl, somebody who wouldn't be recognized. Once they were inside, the new girl exposed the second one. Through those big gliders? Yeah. And it worked. Oh, if you go up this hill, Jim, you'll save a few blocks, huh? All right. What happened to the second policewoman? Shelby pulled strings and had her out within an hour. Well, it proved that he was tied in with a corruption. Yeah. So we got that tight and waited to hear from the woman who stayed. We got trouble. Why? There's another cop planted the joint. How does he know? He said that tip-off we got yesterday was a fix. What kind of a fix? Now, it was supposed to make us think we nailed a sink. But really, the sink is still here. And she came in with that mug yesterday? Yeah. Does Shelby tell you what her name is? I kind of find out. Over 100 names came in yesterday. Could be any one of them. Oh. Where's Shirley? Over there. Oh. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Has anyone been putting a vacuum on you? No, just Edith. The day I put in the laundry? Yeah. What did she want to know? Oh, about my job and stuff. She said she was in here for three years. It ended with me getting out in September. She thought maybe she could take my place. What did you tell her? Oh, what I did. Including the stuff about our using the files? Uh-huh. Oh, great. Well, she's the one, buddy. You think so? Figure it out for yourself. She tips us about the other sink, gets in good with us, and then tries to nail us. Gladness? Huh? Shouldn't I have told her? Oh, we're glad you did. Now get out of here. Get out. We've got to figure a way to take care of this thing. Of course, we didn't know the girl was in trouble, Jim. We've been getting reports from her right along. Reports on the corruption? No. Officially, we had no interest in that. All we wanted was the writer of those extortion notes. She had sent word to us that Shelley, who worked in the file room, was the weak link in Gladys' gang. Ah, just what was their pattern, sir? Well, they surely got the files, Gladys' victim-victim problem, and Betty used the warden's office to find out where the victim was located. I see. What gave you everything you needed, didn't it? Yes, except one thing. We couldn't prove it. I know that feeling, sir. However, the police woman felt that we might get Shirley to sign a confession if I questioned it. So, later that afternoon, I went over to the prison. Hi, Edith. Been looking all over the yard for you. What's wrong? I just wanted to talk to you. Well, don't. Huh? Don't talk to me, Edith. Why not? I got my reason. Is that your own reason? Edith, I don't want to trouble you, too. You mean us? Yeah. You both wanted the warden's office. Who are four, Betty? I don't know. Come on. Is this a regular thing? What? Getting called up to the warden? No, not unless you've been out of line. We didn't do anything. Hey, let's cut through here. But, Betty, this is the boy in the room. It's the shortcut, Shirley. You know that. Oh, come on. Go ahead. OK. Thanks. Hi, Gladys. Thanks for bringing her here, Betty. OK. Gladys, she wanted to ask me questions again. Yeah? What did you do? I didn't say a word. Good girl. What is this? Your badge is showing. I don't get it. I thought you were pretty cute giving us the tip on that other copper, didn't you? What are you talking about? We got word there was still a think in the joint. We were pretty sure it was you, and now we know. You know what? There's an FBI guy up at the warden. He wants to question Shirley here on the stuff she told you. But you're never going to get to tell him anything. Open the valves, Betty. OK. What's that for? For you, copper. As soon as those valves are all open, you're going to find out what live steam feels like. No, you don't. Let go of me. After you, let go of my hand. Come on. Break it up. Break it up, I say. What is this? I'm sure it's so fine next time, Mr. Poulton. Gladys, I thought no men were allowed in here. I had permission. I'm a special agent of the FBI. Mr. Poulton, do you mind if I ask you something? No, Jim. What made you leave the warden's office? I found out that the messenger he had sent was Betty Vernon. So I followed her. No. I saw her approach the two girls and take them into the boiler room. I guess I got there just in time. This is my house, Jim. I, too. All things have certainly changed around this town since Thursdays. Looks like Shelby and his gang have gone for good. They are if the people want to keep them gone, Jim. We didn't clean up this town. Neither did the police. The people cleaned it up. By going to the polls on election day. You know, in a country like this, the people get the kind of local administration they deserve. If they work hard at keeping their town clean, they get a good administration. If they take the defeat of that attitude, that there's nothing they can do about it. They open the door to cook it machine. Thanks for the ride home, Jim. You're welcome, sir. Good night. George Fulton commented, prison conditions in that particular city had changed for the better over that period of 25 years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also able to tell you that prison conditions in many other cities have likewise been improved. In many prisons today, a job of rehabilitation is done on prisoners, so that when they regain their freedom, they can take their place in society. Sometimes that job entails educating the prisoner, teaching him a trade so that he can earn a decent living in the outside world. The improvement has not come overnight, nor has it been brought about by an accident. It has been wrought by a group of men who have made a career of prison management who have dedicated themselves to helping fight the crime wave among those who committed the crimes. Your FBI would also like to call your attention to the fact that the policewoman in the file which has been dramatized for you this evening was only one of a very small number of her kind 25 years ago. Today, there are no big city police forces without female members. And of them, on this occasion, the Bureau takes the opportunity to say that their entrance into a field which was once exclusively a man's profession has forever disproven the bromide about there being the weaker sex. And the fair contributions to law enforcement have been welcome, worthy, and genuine. In just a moment, we will tell you about next week's exciting FBI file. Now one last word on the Equitable Society's plan for men and women on the way up. It's a plan for the man who may be sure that the day is coming when business associates will talk about him like this. I told you, Harry Drake was a man to watch. They just made him sales manager. If you're that kind of man, then the sooner you get in touch with an Equitable Society representative, the better. Ask him for full information on the Equitable Society's life insurance plan for men and women on the way up. Or send a postcard care of this station to the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Next week, we will dramatize another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a factual recount of the FBI's efforts to clear an innocent man. It's subject, Rand Larsenay. It's title, The Hollywood Frame Up. The incidents used in tonight's Equitable Life Assurance 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 Steinberg. 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 V. Benadiric, Francis Cheney, Ted Osborne, G. G. Pearson, Yvonne Petey, and Malapowers. This is your FBI as a Jerry Divine production. This is Larry Keating speaking for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. And inviting you to tune in again next week at the same time when the Equitable Life Assurance Society will bring you another thrilling transcribed story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Hollywood Frame Up on This Is Your FBI. The Adventures of Ozzy and Harriet, fun for the whole family, follows immediately over most of these ABC stations. Stay tuned. This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.