 The Equitable Life Assurance Society presents This Is Your F.B.I. This Is Your F.B.I. The official broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation presented transcribed as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. Nobody likes to take unnecessary risks. That's what the word assurance in the name of the Equitable Life Assurance Society means to its millions of members. Some members are assured that their wives and children have future security, that their youngsters will get a good education. Others are assured of owning their home free and clear, or of a comfortable and independent old age. Others are assured of all these things combined. If you need such assurance, any or all of it, then call your Equitable Society representative. In about 15 minutes, I'd like to tell you more about this friendly, helpful neighbor of yours and how he may be able to help you enjoy the freedom from worry that comes with membership in the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Tonight, the subject of our F.B.I. file, Flight to Avoid Prosecution. It's titled, Roundup. Who is a criminal? How does he get that way? What does he look like? Is he a snarling delinquent with a gun? A slick swindler working the society parties? A big-time racketeer dealing in bribery and protection? Every year, law enforcement agencies contend with cases of otherwise honest, substantial citizens who, under heavy emotional or financial pressure, try for some easy money. Too late, they learn that in the half world of crime and violence, there is no easy payment plan. That stolen funds bear a high rate of interest, collectible in the coin of worry, discomfort, fear, imprisonment, or sometimes of life itself. Tonight's F.B.I. file opens at a rodeo near a small southwestern city. A slender girl mounted on a pinto mare races after a squealing cat, expertly whirling a loop lariat over her head. Roaster cat! Skeet! Yes, she is. Come get her. Oh, I'd want much to watch today. Well, I thought it was fine, just fine. Here, oh, let me help you, miss. Hey, you better walk Dragon Lady out easy. She's about as hot as the rest of us. I look after her. Thanks. You go take a rest. You got a cigarette, Mesquite? Got the vacans. Well? Yes, yes, of course. Let me see. I hold the paper in this hand. Yeah? And I put the tobacco pouch between my feet like this. Oh, no, no, not that way. How many times do I have to tell you? You curve the paper like it was a cradle, see? Oh, this way? Oh, no, no. Here, here, hand it over. It's like this, and this, and then you twist. See, that's all there is to it. Oh, it looks easy when you do it. I think maybe you better go back to that pipe. Well, I'd sure like to learn, though, rolling your own somewhere western. Oh, what have you got in that pocket? Oh, nothing, I guess. Oh, yes, I thought so. True western stories, wild west adventure stories, range and ride on. Honest, you don't read these, Mesquite. Howdy, folks. Oh, hi, cowboy. Hey, how'd you do? I wore out a wreck on the bulldog them 19 seconds. 19 seconds? That's good. Well, it won't be good enough to win me no prize money. I just can't seem to get into the money-know-how this season. That's too bad, Dex. It isn't fair. Yeah. I had some tobacco here somewhere. Boy, here it is. The old timer, how about rolling me a cigarette? Why, sure. Roll your old tax. You better take dragon lady back to stall, Mesquite. She's cooler now. All right, Miss Idiot. I'll give her some sugar, too. Fine. Now, what did I do? I was just asking him for laughs. Yeah, for laughs. Now, wait a minute. I didn't mean nothing. Didn't you? Now, look, I- You look to the little girls in the pigtails sitting up there in the back row. You may be a big hero in cowboy boots, but to me, you're just- Start upgrading your hair, Ganna. Looks pretty cute. Do you want me off the old man tax? Sure, sure. I ain't got nothing against him, honey. It's just that- Well, you don't fit in. That suit he's wearing, for instance. He must have been in the chips. Wonder why he hooked up with this outfit, anyhow. Could be lots of reasons. Could be? Bet it's quite a story, huh? That's his business, ain't it? Yeah. All same, I'll bet it's quite a story. Approximately 2,000 miles east by north at the FBI field office in the New England industrial city, Special Agent Jim Taylor is seated at his desk studying some engrossing material. They went that away. Hello, Tom. Glad to see Uncle Sam's keeping you in reading, manager. Thrilling, Western adventure, huh? Life as an agent getting too tame for you? Well, these are out of the Corwell file. Oh, yeah. That's a rugged one. You're telling me. Six months now. We're still right where we started. You talked to that firm he embezzled from? The shore building alone, yeah. No leads? Chauncey Corwell was their most trusted employee. He'd been with them over 30 years. They'd even given him a gold watch. And one morning, no Chauncey, no watch. And according to the auditor, no $10,000. What about his private life? It's an open book and a dull one. Eight, 15 to town every morning, 6, 10 home every night. Read the Star Tribune, played gin rummy, smoked the pipe. Lived in the same town on the same street and in the same house for over 30 years. You must have had some vices. Yeah. Cowboy mazy. I wonder what made him do it. Well, his wife was sick. He had heavy medical expenses then after she died while he skipped. Must be pretty tough to start a whole new life after all those years. Yeah. Tom, I think you've got something. I have? Yes. A methodical man like Cowboy can change his name, his place of residence, the way he makes a living, but his habits are part of him. He's boundary-vert to one or more of them sooner or later. Makes sense. I suppose he goes back to well-reading the Star Tribune. I could find him throughout a town subscription. Could be. Or he smoked a local brand of tobacco. I could check on that. Sure. Only, uh... Only what? What if it's gin rummy? Made in Miss Elliot, all settled for you. Oh, thanks, Mesquite. How much time have I got? Well, I, uh... had my watch. I seem to have misplaced it. Is this what you're looking for, old timer? Huh? Well, yeah. Yes. Well, thank you. I found it down by the carrer. You look like it wasn't trampled. Yes, very lucky. It's a mighty fancy watch. That real gold 18-gathered must be worth plenty. I reckon it was a gift, huh? That's right. A gift. Found your wife? Yes, yes. I buy it. Now, if you'll forgive me, I'd better be... moving the law. You better keep an eye on that watch. It's kind of important to leave lying around. Yes, I will. And thanks again, Dick. Don't mention it. Glad to oblige. Ah! Wife, huh? Wife, huh? What'd you say his name was, boy? Oh, something like that. Thought so. Funny thing about that watch. It's got one of them neck-tricked backs kind of come open in my hand. Had some writing, said, uh... The chance to call, well, assistant treasurer in appreciation of 30 years of faithful service and had to name some outfit. He's sure of building the loan. I think it was something like that. He could have had a reason, lots of folks do. Yeah, sure could have. Assistant treasurer, huh? Now, now wait a minute, Tex. Just because he didn't tell the truth about the watch, it don't mean... I ain't saying it does. He don't want to talk about it, that's all. He quit his job when his wife died and he run away. I'll bet he did. Meaning? Nothing. Watch is worth more than the first money and you say you found it. By the corral? You're sure? You think I stole it from the old guy? What kind of character you think I am? To tell you the truth, Tex, I'm beginning to wonder. Meanwhile, at the Star Tribune, Special Agent Jim Taylor checked out of town subscriptions. 108 had been filed during the last six months. All suspicious signatures were sent to the FBI laboratory for study and comparison. Field agents in New York, Chicago and Cincinnati forwarded similar specimens called from the list of cowboy magazine subscribers. The entire close meshed scientific organization of your FBI was following Taylor's theory. Yes, sir. What may we do for you? Pipes, cigars, tobacco? That's it. We have some choice mixtures. We put them up ourselves. Would you care to try a pipeful? A friend of mine used to smoke something pretty nice. I think maybe it was here that he got it. Caldwell. Chancy Caldwell? Caldwell? Caldwell, I don't just recall... Oh, yes, now I remember. A little man with eyeglasses. I believe he used our Beacon Hill mixture. Delightful blend of light Virginia is just a trace of Latakia for excitement, you know. Here, just have a sniff. Uh-huh. Has he bought any lately? No, I haven't seen him for months. I understand he left town. What mail order? Well, we do ship quite a bit of Beacon Hill, you know, all over the world. But I don't seem to remember seeing Caldwell on the, uh, order list. Order list, huh? How about taking a look at it? Oh, no, sir. That'd be quite impossible. Our clients' tastes are kept strictly confidential. I'm a special agent of the FBI. Here are my credentials. I'd like to see that list. Oh. Yes, Mr. Taylor, I should think you might. Oh, hi, Jim. Thanks. You planning to get in some pistol practice? Yeah. I'm getting pretty rusty. You wish you could come that close to finding Chancy Caldwell. I think maybe I have. Really? Western magazine angle paid off, huh? No, seems he bought them from Newstown, so we did get a lead from that tobacco shop. Oh? Lab reports show the handwriting on three other blanks is a marked similarity to that of the fugitive. Sounds good. What about Nandberg? Three different cities. Cheyenne, Wyoming. Roswell, New Mexico. Tucson, Arizona. Mmm. Been moving around a lot. They'd give us a line on his occupation. I don't think that'll be necessary. Really? Yeah, the shop filled the last order for Beacon Hill Blend just three days ago. I've teletyped our resident agent in Tucson with any luck he should be able to pick up our embezzler. General delivery. Take it easy, man. To see you riding in the horse car, you came to check on Thunder? No, no, he travels good. There was something special you wanted? No, no, not exactly. Just thought you might like some company. Well, that's nice of you, Tex. Right nice. You like being out here in the West, don't you, Tom? Yes, yes, I do. Changed a lot, though. Ain't much like it says in their magazines you read. Who? I guess not. Time was, a man could come out past the frontier, lose himself, lose his past. Ain't so easy anymore. No? Well, I suppose it isn't. Got all kinds of new inventions, like long-distance telephones. Pretty handy gadgets and telephone. Didn't take me more than 10 minutes to get through to a friend of mine back east. Checking up on a fella. Fella named Calwell? Johnson Calwell. The way I hear it, this Calwell's got money. Quite a piece of cash. Near $10,000. You know anything about it, Meski? Do you? Yes. Then, what do you got to say? Call the police at the next stop. Well, I ain't planning to turn you in. What? I couldn't do a thing like that, you're a friend of mine. Of course, I think I ought to have something for my trouble, say about half. That makes $5,000, doesn't it? No, wait, wait. That's blackmail. Ain't a very friendly way to put it. I haven't got the money. No? I spent it on my wife. You're lying, Meski. No, Dex, I'm kidding you. Where's the money? I don't have it, I'll tell you later. You ought to tell me where it is, Meski. You really ought to... No, okay! Come on, come on, quit stalling, Meski. You was really going west. Return in just a moment to tonight's dramatic case from the official files of your FBI. But right now, I'd like to ask you a very blunt question. Is your family protected if something happened to you? If they are not, who will take care of them? That's a question that sooner or later, every good husband and father must ask himself. And that's the question Mr. Theodore Reuters asked himself. Before you became a member of the Equitable Society, that was your problem, wasn't it, Mr. Reuters? Yes, it was. I don't kid myself. Unless I strike oil, I'll never be wealthy. Now, if something happened to me, my social security would help. But it certainly wouldn't keep my family comfortable. So when I heard you talk about a plan that provided that kind of security, I got interested. That's our Equitable Family Security Plan. That's right. So as you suggested, I phoned our local equitable man and we talked it over. He didn't try to sell me anything. The first he gave me a chart. That's our famous Equitable Fact-Finding Chart for fathers and mothers. There's no charge for it, it's free for the asking. Well, it helped me a lot. It made it simple for my wife and myself to figure how much more income would be needed to keep her and the youngsters well-fed, well-housed, and well-clothed until our youngest was through high school. Yes, the chart was a big help, and our equitable friend was a bigger help. All of our men are selected for character, Mr. Reuters. You see, equitable men are real neighbors. They're interested first in your problems. So please remember, no matter what your insurance problems may be, talk them over with your local equitable representative. Ask him for your free copy of the Fact-Finding Chart for fathers and mothers. Consult your local telephone directory for the name of this friendly, helpful neighbor, your local representative of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. And now back to tonight's FBI file. Round up. Just as ballad and legend have made semi-heroic figures of the brutal high women of the Old West, so certain forms of fiction have attempted to glamorize the modern criminal. Imputing to him a kind of group morality, based on the traditional notion of honor among thieves. Yet case after case in the files of your FBI prove that nothing could be further from the facts. Like the spotted hyena, the lawbreaker prays on the weaker of his own kind. In particular, the fugitive from justice offers a prime target for the more unscrupulous and more practiced denizens of the underworld jungles. Since the wanted man is unlikely to turn to law enforcement agencies for protection or redress, the vast majority of crimes in this category go unreported. Nonetheless, statistics in the FBI uniform crime reports clearly show that as in tonight's case. The runaway lawbreaker is very likely to find himself the victim of planned extortion, blackmail, assault, or even murder. Tonight's FBI file continues at New England Field Headquarters. Hello, speaking. This is Leo Sherman, Jim. Oh, hi, Leo. You're the resident on the colorwell deal, aren't you? That's right. Will that post office surveillance pick him up? No, it didn't show. Oh, that's funny. Local authorities ran a check. Nothing came in. We should have been in Tucson day before yesterday. How do you figure that? I've got a copy of billboard here on my desk. Hold on a second. You think he's in show business? No, no, not exactly. Here it is. Listen to this. Date Southwest Rodeo. America's top collection of top hands. Thrill, spills, chills. That's right. It opened Wednesday. Yeah. Well, there were rodeos in Cheyenne and Roswell, too. And the date's tally exactly. Makes sense. Come on. No, no, you'll spot him all right, Leo. The way I see it in a rodeo, Chancy Carwell ought to stand out like a pot of Boston baked beans. Well, it doesn't make sense, Tom. The rodeo people told Sherman that Carwell got on the train to Tucson, but he never got off. He never disappeared off trains before. Sure, but that's pretty desolate country. There's not many stops. Pretty slow sector, though. He might have jumped. Any sign of it? The railroad's cooperating with the field office, checking the right of way. But it still doesn't add up, Tom. A man doesn't leave a moving train without a pretty good reason. You think the rodeo people are concealing something? No, Sherman thinks so. There's no way of cross-checking it, though. Hey, wait a minute. Wasn't Carwell working as a groom? That's right. This job must be open. Maybe I could land it. Think you're going to handle it? Sure. I'm not known in that part of the country. What about the work? You know anything about horses? Well, when I was a kid, I used to ride one every weekend. Really? Cowpony? No, merry-go-round. I still think I can handle it. While resident agent Leo Sherman operated with railroad police in searching the area traversed by the train from which the fugitive, Chancy Carwell, had mysteriously disappeared, Special Agent Jim Taylor flew to the southwest and, under a cover identity, obtained employment with a great southwest rodeo company. A few days later, while a Bucking-Bronco exhibition is in progress, Agent Taylor is approached by a spectator wearing a typical western cowboy outfit. Hey, buddy, how do I get to the stable there? On past Crown, turn left. Oh, wait, I'll walk you over. Oh, you got something for me? Yeah, Jim. We found Carwell. Good. Where'd you pick him up? We're being by railroad and bank. About 10 miles north of the border. Do you have a statement? No, any more. Ah, get a corners report? Yeah, cause of death skull fracture. Jump from the train, huh? Doesn't look that way. Head and face are marked up pretty bad, but no bruises in the body. That means he was dead before he fell. That sounds like murder. That's the theory. I guess that means the local boys take over, huh? Not necessarily. What about the money Carwell took? Is it all shown up? About a thousand is still out. The horse has been cleaned. Found a satchel on the tracks, personal facts, no cash. Theft and interstate commerce, huh? Might have been the motive. Sure might. Got a lead? No, not yet, but I think I know where I can get one. Oh. Right from the horse's mouth. Hey, you working late? I thought I'd give Dragon Lady an extra rub down. Oh. Coat's pretty dusty. I brought an apple. She earned it this afternoon. Didn't you, girl? Sure is a sweetheart. I guess all the hands make a pet out of her, huh? Yeah. Hey, they tell me the fellow had my job before. Wasn't that about her? Miski? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. She was his favorite. Wasn't she, girl? Poor old guy. It's a rough way to go. What do you mean? I didn't you know they found his body yesterday? Body? Yeah, one of the wranglers is telling me. Seems like he's murdered on a train and tossed out in a ravine. Murdered? Uh-huh. Are you sure? I guess so. Seems the FBI is already on the case. I knew it. What? Here. You give Dragon Lady an apple. I forgot. I promise to meet her, fella. I forgot. Here by the stair pins? What's the matter? I got to talk to you. Sure. Why did you kill him? What are you talking about? The old man. Miski. He was murdered. He was tossed off the train. That's too bad, but it ain't got nothing to do. Oh, hasn't it? What about taking his watch? Checking up on him. Curiosity ain't no crime. You went to the baggage car that night, Tex. You passed my birth. I saw you. That don't prove nothing. Maybe not, but I'm going to call the FBI. They might make it prove something. I guess they might only. You ain't going to call them. Try and stop me. Let go, Tex. Let go. Wait. I figure you're going to have some kind of an accident. Oh, no. I made you figured wrong, Tex. You better keep out of this, fella. I'm sorry, cowboy. Thanks, mister. My name's Taylor, Miss Elliott. You were saying something about having a story to tell to the FBI? Oh, yeah. I was going to call them, and I... You mean you? You were really honest to gosh? That's right. Honest to gosh. No kidding. Tex was tried and convicted for the murder of the embezzler, Chauncey Caldwell, and received the death penalty. In the story you have just heard, life extracted from Chauncey Caldwell was a far heavier penalty for embezzlement than the law would have provided. Had he surrendered to the authorities and sincerely attempted to make full restitution of the money he had stolen, the courts taking into consideration his past record of good citizenship and the compelling motive for his action might have felt some compassion and dealt leniently with him under the terms of the statute. Instead, this man chose to become a fugitive, throwing himself on the mercies of Chauncey and dangerous companions. He learned too late that the penalty paid by the hunted does not always fit their crime and that men who live without the law live without justice. For this knowledge, Chauncey Caldwell paid with his life. Have you any idea what will become of you when you're in your 60s? If you're worried about it, there's one man you really ought to see. He's a neighbor of yours. He's your local representative of the equitable society. He can also show you how simple and easy it may be to provide for the future security of your family. To assure your youngsters a college education, to make it possible for you to own your own home free and clear years before you're expected to. Get acquainted with him. There's no obligation. Simply consult your local telephone directory for the name of your local representative of the equitable society of the United States. Next week, we will dramatize another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Its subject, auto theft. Its title, the hot sedan. 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 places or persons living or dead is accidental. Tonight, the music was composed and conducted by Frederick Steiner. The author was Robert Libet. Your narrator was William Woodson, and special agent Taylor was played by Stacey Harris. Others in the cast were Walter Catlett, Eddie Firestone, Alice Morse, Bob O'Connor, Vernon Rich, Victor Rodman, and Tom Tully. This is Your FBI is a gerrydivine 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 transcribe story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The hot sedan on This Is Your FBI. Stay tuned for the adventures of Ozzy and Harriet. There's fun for the whole family when Ozzy and Harriet come your way next. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is ABC Radio Network.