 From Hollywood, it's time now for Edmund O'Brien as Johnny Dollar. This is Willis Dunnell, Mr. Dollar. I took Marvin Shields place at the Plymouth Life Insurance Company. Oh, yes, yes, I read about that in the journal, Mr. Dunnell. I'm glad to hear from you. Thank you. I'm told you've done a lot of work for the company. Yes, I've handled a few things. I have an assignment for you now if you're available. I have an appointment at 10, but I'll be free by noon if that's all right. What's the case? Well, a policy order of Millard Ward was stabbed to death. He was a bosson on a ship and according to the cable the crewman killed him is being held. His name is Lewis Ratnick. Sounds open and shut, Mr. Dunnell. Is there an insurance angle? Possibly, yes. Something about Ratnick and the dead man's wife. The ship is due in New Orleans tomorrow afternoon and we'd like you to go down and look it over. Edmund O'Brien in a transcribed adventure of a man with the action-pact expense accounts. America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Expense accounts submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to a home office climate insurance company Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting of expenditure during my investigation of the Millard Ward matter. Expense account item one, $118.40 air fan incident hose between Hartford and New Orleans. When I got there the newspapers were bannering the expected arrival of what they called a debt ship. And at four that afternoon I was standing with two homicide men on the edge of a crowd of maturias. And the squad freighter knows it's the Harmony Street Wall and there's more. Then the homicide men and I went aboard. I'm Lieutenant Trace in New Orleans Police. You're one of the officers of the ship. Yes, sir. The captain's in his quarters. I'm the chief mate, sir, Edward Donovan. This is Sergeant Ratnick. This is Mr. Dollar from Ward's Insurance Company. How are you, Mr. Donovan? I guess you know how it goes. Ward's body's in the isolation room in the hospital and Lewis Ratnick's in the brick. What about the knife that we use? We left it where it was. In the body? Yes, sir. You want to talk to Ratnick? I planned on waiting till we got him a sure. What about you, Don? I guess it's not important, Don, but I would like to see where it happened. Sure, it's just forward here in the 40s. Let's take a look then. Will you stay with the gangway ride? Wagon should be here in town. Which way is it? Up here, sir. Shipped plenty messy, but we put the men in their quarters until this was taken off our hands. What does Ratnick have to say about it, Mr. Donovan? Nothing. He wouldn't open his peep after it happened. It hasn't since. It hasn't said a word. Must have said something? Nothing that wasn't out and not evasive. It happened during my watch, 408. Ward had some men up here on this deck. This was last Saturday morning? Yes, sir. They were chipping and red-letting some rust. And Ward took Ratnick into the forepeak to get some more paint. Ratnick came out alone and fell to again without saying anything. Then when somebody asked him, he said Ward must have stayed below. That's right down here. How long was that after Ratnick came out, you know? About 20 minutes is as close as we could come. When was Ward found then? It wasn't for about 40 minutes. You know how men are. They figured they could take it easy as long as the boss was out of sight. The ship's carpenter finally showed up, and that's where he was. He found him and reported to me. You want to go down now? Yeah, I think we'd better look at him. Well, watch the ladder, huh? It's pretty sheer. I'll go and get some lights on. Go ahead, Lieutenant. We were taking some seas this morning. Now, this is where it happened. He was lying across here. Where was his head? Well, his head was right here, his feet over there. He was lying on his side and the knife was in his chest. Did Ratnick admit that the knife was here? It wasn't his. We saw the twine and rope down here and kept the knife handy. Well, Ratnick admitted being here with Ward, didn't he? He didn't say it, but we all knew he was. I tell you, he didn't say anything. When I asked him, he said, he's dead, isn't he? If you think I killed him, lock me up and leave me alone. I'll talk to the police when I get ashore. The four beakers, small compartment in the very forward part of the ship, seemed to hold little else in the way of information. As we left, the chief made explain that there obviously had been bad blood between Ratnick and the dead bosom, and one crewman had allegedly once heard them arguing about Ward's wife. For the permission of the lieutenant while he and the coroner arranged for the removal of the body, I went to the airless cabin that served as a brig and met the accused man, he was 23 years old. I've been saying that I talked to the police and nobody else. I still mean it, and that goes for you. That's your privilege, Ratnick, but when you talk to the police, you'll be talking to me, too. We're working together on this thing. I don't get it. I told Jarvis and I about Ward's insurance company. I want to find out if his policy had anything to do with your killing him. Who told you I killed him? It seems to be pretty widely accepted. Did anybody see me do anything like that? The men knew you hated each other. How much does that mean? It seems to have been something between you and Ward's wife. That's a lie. Why should anybody lie about it? Who said that? I don't know who it was. One of the men who heard you and Ward arguing about it. No, break his neck if I find out who it's a lie. For your sake, I hope it is. She's being pulled into questioning this afternoon. You can see that if there was something between you, it would be better if you told us. There wasn't anything. I hardly know her, but for some crazy reason Ward thought there was. I think it was because he was older and those guys are always like that. How old did you know her? Well, just to talk to, have a few drinks together. Well, he was out on a trip. Yeah, well, he was out. I guess I should have figured that. Okay, what you make it sound like, there wasn't anything wrong. He and I sailed with the company for quite a while, most of the time on the same ship. Early this summer I got sick and missed a trip. That's when I met her. Well, in a bar. There wasn't ever anything between us. Ward never would believe it, but it's true. What made Ward think you did? I don't know. I tried to find out who was talking to him, but he never said. Somebody in a bar? Or you say you met him? I don't know. He'd never say. Where's the bar? The International, mostly. When there was the Oakland up on Common. Good. Why'd you kill him, Radnick? Self-defense? I didn't kill him. Everybody thinks I did. I didn't. How did he die then? I don't know. When I left him, he was still alive. I brought a bucket of lead and went back on deck with the rest of the guys. I didn't hear that he was dead until everybody did. That's your story. It's no story. I don't have to make up a story. All I have to do is tell the truth and that's it. If it is, you'd be better off to lie and claim self-defense. Nobody's gonna buy it the way it stands now. I heard him repeat his statement a few minutes later to a blank-faced Lieutenant Tracy. When the prisoner had been styled on his way to police headquarters, we did what checking we could through the crew. Everyone agreed that the two men openly hated each other. Radnick had always been given the dirty or dangerous work. There had been nothing threats from both. It was a situation they explained that would naturally grow out of all proportion about a ship, and there was no escape from facing one another every day. We left the ship in Lieutenant Tracy's office and they met the widow, a plain girl obviously a northerner in her early twenties with too much arch, penciled into her eyebrows, too much red on her mouth. But hardly enough emotion showing to fit the circumstances. Sit down, Ms. Ward. Sure. Thanks. Mrs. Chan. Oh, thank you. I want to tell you something before we get any further. Lori Radnick didn't kill him. Everything we've learned so far says just the opposite of that, Mrs. Ward. I don't care, Louie didn't kill him. Why makes you so sure, Mrs. Ward? Because he didn't have any reason to. I know my husband thought there was something going on between Louie and me. He knocked me around enough trying to get me to say so. But there wasn't nothing. We weren't any more than good friends. We understood that you saw quite a bit of him while your husband was away. I didn't see quite a bit of him at all. Once in a while I'd go crazy in that crummy room where I live and I'd leave. Go have a drink at the International or the Oakland. And a few times I ran into Louie and talked to him. It never went any further than that. We never even left together. Don't you have any other friends? Not many. I don't seem to get along with the people down here. But Louie's different. You don't like the ones? Not from the minute I got off the train from New York. Louie's Radnick's from up north, too, isn't he? That's right. Chicago. Why'd you stay here if you hated it that way? I don't know. I was always going to leave just for a visit anyway. But I never did. Well, I suppose you're thinking on leaving now, huh? Yeah, I think I will. With your husband dead, there's no more reason for you to stand in town you hate. If you think you can make anything out of that, go ahead and try. You can't. I mean, Arthur, I bet it looks pretty bad. I don't care how it looks. You can't make anything out of it. You're cop, so you've got to push people around in pride. Well, I'll save you the trouble. I was sick and tired of being married to that fat slob I hated him. Why didn't you leave? It wouldn't have lasted much longer. Well, this way you might get some insurance money. Did you tell Louie Radnick how you felt? We never talked about my husband. We talked about New York and things like that. Louie didn't kill him. He didn't have any reason to. Okay, Miss Warden, let's, Mr. Dollar, have something more you can go. I can leave? Sure, as far as I'm concerned. Can I see Louie? He's not seeing anybody but a lawyer right now. There'll be a coroner's inquest tomorrow morning. I think it'd be a good idea if you come to that. Yeah. Where do I go and what time? Sergeant outside will tell you. Thank you for coming down. Please accept our sympathy and your grief. You're sweet. Both of you. What do you suppose that pitch was for? I thought maybe she's trying to clear herself of any part of it. If she and the boy did plan it. If he admits it, she can just keep on saying what she told her. Yeah. Well, I think I'll check the two bars that she mentioned. She said they never left together. I'd like to know how that holds up, wouldn't you? There's been quite a few of the patrons at the International in the open, both that afternoon and again that evening. I added to three people who remembered Mrs. Warden and Rodnick being together. And one, a waiter, was quite definite in saying he had seen them leave separately, but never together. On one hand, it did nothing to clear Rodnick, but on the other, it made it look like any premeditated motive was going to be hard to prove. Tenants at the Ward's rooming house didn't help either. None of them remembered ever seeing a man of Rodnick's description in the building. That's the way it stood at 10 the next morning when the coroner's inquest got underway. But, Massey, please. Right here. Will you stand up, please, Mr. Massey? Yes, sir. Mr. Massey, you're employed as a ship's carpenter on the same ship Millard Ward worked on? Yes, sir. I've been on it four years now. Is it true that you discovered his body? Yes, sir. Would you tell it during your own work how that happened? Yes, sir. I knew that Warden had some men doing maintenance work on the floor. Actually, I wanted to borrow a tool to help me for a minute with some work I was doing. The men told me he was in the forepage, so I went up. Mr. Massey, who told you Warden was in the forepage? All of them, I think. Did Lewis Rodnick say so? I think he did. Anyhow, I remember somebody said he went in the forepage with Rodnick and must have fell asleep. It was Carl Nixon, I think. All right, and then what happened? Then I went up and found him. He was lying there with a knife sticking in him. Was he moving? No, sir. He was dead. Then what did you do? I felt for his pulse and then I came back up on the deck and reported to the chief officer, Mr. Donovan. Did you say anything to the man? No, sir. I went down the other side of the deck and onto the bridge deck of the officer. Donovan reported to me. After the testimony of the ship's carpenter, a little more was heard from a few of the crewmen. None of it seemed to change the picture, but the reports from the autopsy surgeon together with the one from the police laboratory did. A, the knife had entered Ward's body at such an angle that the fatal wound could have been self-inflicted. B, there were no fingerprints on the handle of the murder weapon. C, Ward was wearing leather gloves when he died. And finally, the possibility of suicide was strengthened by the fact that there were blood stains on the right glove. Everything was still indefinite, but I wondered how Rodnick would react to the news. And after the inquest, I went to his cell to find out. Still trying to save the insurance company some money? I do when I can. I just came from the inquest, Rodnick. I understand I could have saved the taxpayers some money on that. How come? They don't have an inquest when there's a confession, do they? What confession, Rodnick? I killed him. That's what everybody wants to hear, isn't it? Wait a minute. What brought this? I killed him because he was trying to kill me. And that's going to be my plea. I killed him in self-defense. What's the matter? Don't you like that story, either? We'll return you to yours truly, Johnny Dollar, in just a moment. Vaughn Monroe's back from vacation. Yes, on most of these same CBS radio stations, you can again make the Vaughn Monroe show a singing, dancing date every Saturday night. Vaughn, the Moon Maids, the Moon Men and Ziggy Talent, plus singing guests will be very truly yours just a little later this evening on CBS radio. Don't miss them. Now with our star, Edmonds LeBron, we bring you the second act of yours truly, Johnny Dollar. The crew said we hated each other. You can ask him how that crazy guy was riding me all the time and giving me all the dirt aboard. Wait a minute, Rodnick. I was a guy on the output side when we were painting davits. He was trying to kill me then, waiting for me to fall over the side. Well, I didn't. So he got me in the fork peak and tried to brain me. So I stuck a knife in him. He was off his head and I had to keep him from killing me. Are you through? I told I was through it. Why didn't you tell us this in the first place? Because I didn't want to. What made you change your mind? I got sick of lying. Have you hired a lawyer? I got a right to, haven't I? He counted all the evidence against you, figured in the fact that there wasn't an eyewitness and decided to play it this way. Why not? Everybody knows I killed him, don't they? We want to be sure why. I told you self-defense. What are they trying to hit you with? Took a swing at me on his fist. Then he picked up a can of paint. Did he swing that at you? Yeah, he started to. Then I backed up and got the knife. Then when he swung again, I figured there was only one way to stop him and that's what I did. Did you try to get away? He was between me and the body. Didn't you yell or anything? I didn't have time to think of anything like that. He'd gone off his head. Over you and his wife? Oh, but nothing except what was going through that crazy mind of his. There wasn't anything else, nothing between her and me. But he tried to kill me, so I had to kill him to save my life. Who's your lawyer, Anthony? His name's Waterman. Where'd you get him? He does a lot of work for the Union. You should have stuck to business problems. What do you mean by that? I don't think you'll get to first base with the play. Well, that's what happened. Sure, it's happened before when there weren't any witnesses. This time we're too close to a motive. I think a jury will fill in what we don't have. I guess that's a chance you gotta take. I guess so. I'll see you later. Oh, uh, that can of paint he was swinging. What did he do with it when you stabbed him? He dropped it, I guess. I wasn't noticing things like that. Okay, I just wondered. I wouldn't be able to give Ward's wife all the details of your new story. If you had nothing to do with it, he was crazy, that's all. He's not alone. And he's sane, man. What have admitted a self-defense killing like you described right after it happened? And you shouldn't have wiped off the knife. I didn't wipe it. What was that? I said all I'm going to say, now leave me alone. Sure, you better work on that story. And I don't think a new lawyer would hurt. I don't care how full of holes it is. We've got to find more than we have now. I know that. I'm not guilty. I want to hand in some evidence that says so and nothing else. You better go back to the ship. Yeah, I think so too. Go over to the same other killing again. Seems to me we ought to be able to settle that can of paint he says Ward was swinging. I don't want to wear another. That would help. Where's that ship's carbon? Are you... Suppose he went back aboard? I hope so. If he'd discovered a body, he ought to be able to fill in some details. That's right. You know, uh, what's his name, Massey? Herbert Massey. Probably the same thing going through your mind. That the last person we think saw Ward alive isn't too far separated from the one that says he's the first person that saw him dead. You weren't thinking that boy is innocent? Not necessarily. How about you? He was, and whatever things stacked up against him the way it is, that lawyer could have figured it was safer to have him take a self-defense plea. I think you better go back to the ship, don't you? Massey? You remember me and Lieutenant Tracy? No, sure. From the spawn of the inquest. That's right. This is Mr. Dollar, insurance investigator. Hello. How are you, Mr. Massey? We came back to talk to you, Mr. Massey, because we still don't have enough evidence to make a decent charge of murder against Radney. But sure, I'll do anything I can to help the police. Sit down, why don't you? Thank you. You know, all I can say is, what I saw, I found Ward, that's all. Sure, we know that. But you did know that they didn't get along too well, didn't you? Well, I heard more about that after it happened than I heard before. Now I'm worked it over, Ward. I don't work much with a crow. Afterwards, I'm talking about it. Mr. Massey, how clearly do you remember things the morning you found Ward dead? I don't know what you mean. Do you remember exactly what you saw and what you did? Well, sure, I think so. Are you sure he was dead? Sure, I told you that. I felt for his pulse. What made you do that? I don't know. I guess I just remembered that's the way to tell. Where did you feel for it? You remember that, huh? Yeah, sure, I do. When I saw him lying there, I called his name first, and then when I saw the knife, I leaned over him and saw his eyes open. Then I felt for his pulse. How long did all this take, do you think? Well, I don't know. Not very long. I came up on deck right away. What's so important about that? We just want to get everything straight. What do you remember about the forepeak, Mr. Massey? Was everything in order? I don't quite know what you mean. Well, do you remember anything unusual, anything out of place? No, I didn't notice anything. Why do you ask me that? It's important. Do you remember a can of paint rolling around on the deck? Can of paint? What's a can of paint got still with it? Do you remember seeing one? No. What would I be doing looking for a can of paint at a time like that? When you saw he was dead, weren't you startled and didn't you look around? I would have. No, all I thought was going to the old man or the mate and telling him. Why are you asking me this kind of question? We told you we don't have enough evidence against Radnick and we thought you could help us. We've got to be sure he killed Ward. I'm sure he did. How do you know that? Oh, everybody knows it all. Nobody saw him do it. Everybody knows there was trouble between them, don't they? Everybody knows they went after paint together and Ward didn't come out. And when you come out, that's when it turned out that Ward was dead. Yes, sure, that's right. You didn't notice any signs of a struggle? No, I didn't notice anything but Ward. I'll tell you the way it stands. Radnick said he didn't kill him. Then he must be lying. That's what we thought too. Everything that anybody said made it look like he was lying. Why, sure he is. But then he changed his story. Then he said Ward had tried to kill him and that he stabbed him in self-defense. He said Ward picked up a heavy can of paint, tried to brain him. I don't know what happened. If I'd like that, what would have been heard and what would have been things knocked around. You say you didn't notice anything and the men say they didn't hear anything. I don't know anything about that. I was on the after deck so I didn't hear anything. And I didn't notice anything because I just didn't look around. We don't think there was a threat. We think either Radnick just stabbed him or did somebody else kill him. Everybody knows Radnick did it. It could be that everybody just thinks he did. Everybody knew there was trouble between them. It was shaping up so when you found Ward dead, naturally everybody thought Radnick did it. That's right. Everybody did. You came out and told them that you found Ward's body and then everybody just naturally figured that Radnick could kill him. That's right. But what if he didn't, Massey? I don't know what you mean. If Radnick didn't kill him, who did? We just want to get it straight. If Radnick didn't kill him, who did? I don't know. Who else was in the forepeak? I was. That's what you mean, isn't it? I was in there. I found Ward in there. What you mean is you think if Radnick didn't kill him, I did. Isn't that right? Somebody killed him. I found him there. I tell you, he was dead when I found him. That's all I can say. That's all I know. Okay, Massey. You weren't planning on going any place, were you? No, you can't arrest me. I didn't do anything. We just don't want you to leave town. We want to talk to you again if we can't build anything better against Radnick. The Lieutenant put some men checking Massey's background for a motive in case we needed it and it looked like we might. And then we went back to Lieutenant Trace's office and looked at one another. Our circumstantial evidence was one thing, but we had nothing in the way of actual evidence. The information on Massey came in and it was incomplete and worthless. Wall came in on the association between Radnick and Mrs. Ward. All it did was make us wonder whether they were innocent or smart. There was such a complete lack of anything to put our fingers on that we decided on some pressure tactics to eliminate at least some of the possibilities. We want to know why you did. I don't know what you're talking about. Why'd you get us that stuff about killing Ward? What stuff? We think you're lying. We don't think you killed him at all. Are you crazy? We think it looks so bad for you that you and that lawyer decided the best thing to do was try self-defense, please. What are you giving me? Why did you give us? You said you killed him. Everybody else said I did. That's what we've run into, too. What do you want, then? The true story. Why did you give us that self-defense pitch? Well, it was like you said. Everything was against me. We thought it was the best way to handle things. Did you really kill him or didn't you? I'm not going to say any more until I talk to my lawyer. Why not, Radnick? We said we don't think you killed him. It's your chance. Why not talk? Because I think you've got something up your sleeve. We have. We've got more than you ever thought we'd have. I don't care what you've got. I told you what happened. What do you think Ward's wife told us? She had a good reason to double-cross you, Radnick. Without you, she doesn't have to split the insurance money. I don't know what you're talking about. She tried to make us think that she didn't have anything to do with it. She let it. She tried to clear herself. She thought she was saying something else. But what she really told us was that she was tired of her husband and wanted to get away from him. Then she told us you came along. You want to see her sign statement? What did she sign? A paper that says she asked you not to do anything. But you said you were going to get rid of her husband. You're lying. I got it right here. She's a dirty rotten liar. If she signed anything like that, she's a dirty liar. Yeah, but the state won't think so and it's building a case against you. But it's not true. I don't care anymore because I can see that even a lawyer was wrong. I don't have a chance and I'm sick of lying. Tell us about it then. It was her. After I met her, she asked me to do it. She said, kill him. She begged me. She said, with the money we'd get, we could leave New Orleans. Honest, I'm tired of lying and this is the real truth. She said, we'd go away together. I let him ride me the whole trip. Then when Ward and I were in the four peak, it was only two days from home. I knew I had to do something and I did it. He didn't attack you. You just stabbed me. I don't know what happened to me. We were there and I knew it was my last chance. I didn't know what I was doing. I just saw a chance and I took the knife and I stabbed him. I wish I hadn't. You'd planned it though, hadn't you? I wish I hadn't. I wish I'd never met her. I wish I'd never come to this town and met her. I don't know what happened to me. I don't know. I don't know. Expensive count, item two, miscellaneous, 183 dollars and 15 cents. Item three, same as item one, transportation back to Hartman. Expensive count, total, 419 dollars and 95 cents. Remarks? I don't think any are needed. It was a clear case of attempted insurance fraud. But if you can figure out where things like this start, what causes them and insure against them, you'll save a lot more money than you've saved on this matter. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Finally, Johnny Dollar stars Edmund O'Brien in the title role and is written by Gildowd with music by Wilbur Hatch. Edmund O'Brien will soon be seen starring in the Paramount Pictures technical production, Silver City. Featured in tonight's cast were Sidney Miller, Barton Yarborough, Bill Conrad, High Everback and Gene Bates. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar is transcribed in Hollywood by Jaime Delvalle. This is Dan Kerberle inviting you to join us next week at this time when Edmund O'Brien returns as yours truly, Johnny Dollar.