 by transcription we take you now behind the scenes of a police headquarters in a great american city we're under the cold glaring lights we'll pass before us the innocent the vagrant the thief the murderer this is the line up only got 15 in the line tonight huh we're singing uh here you can't rather pass this final exam yeah you're gonna be pestered with choir let's see who might be put in for more this all right i think i grab a scene okay i'll see you later now have your attention please do people on the other side of the wire in the audience room may i have your attention please thank you my name is carter sergeant pete carter i'll explain the lineup to you each of the suspects you will see will be numbered i'll call off the number their name and charge if you have any questions or identifications please remember the number assigned to the prisoner they call his name if you're sure not too sure the suspect had him held questions i see suspects are merely to get a natural tone of voice so they're not pay too much attention to their answers as they often lie all right bring on the line all right boys moving to the end of the stage now turn your face front hand to your side now i call your number step out looks straight ahead and talk up talk up loud enough so the people in the back of the room can hear okay number one harry connor's robbery where do you live harry you're 65 14 mellon avenue shop what do you work i don't what was your last job stevedore what i was your stevedore stevedore who did you work for uh black star shipping company how long ago is that about two months ago louder harry how long two months two months why'd you quit i had to why oh it's bad my back any weapons when you arrested yeah i didn't automatically what kind hey army 45 who's a belong to the army and get the army okay step back number two peter sanchez assault where do you live pete we're my wife and kids where the hell what happened what number uh 618 north why'd you hit him when he's still my kid i can hit him for a long answer the questions pete why'd you hit him cause it's not good what you hit him with my arm what you have in your hand um where'd you get it from his mother what was she doing with it she was going to hit him through any other recipe yes what for we're here in his mother lose your supper pretty easy don't you think only when i get mad okay step back number three george donnan dropping disorderly step out where do you live george very 427 west the heart of the helix street where you work oh i work for myself i'm sorry now what kind of work a plumbing contract where are we arrested i remember what do you remember now what's up just got a call from jones' pawn shop there's a kid down there trying to pawn a five thousand dollar necklace how old again jones says he can't be more than 10 i would have to wait for my wife before i could give him any money he seems to believe me he looks like a nice kid seems nice but the necklace you have it on you here these are all perfect diamonds cinnamon weighs one and three quarter carats that's two thousand right there you stay here mr john come on ashen let's have a talk with a boy right bobby what's yours then what are you doing here bobby waiting for mrs jones to come in so i can get my money for your money what for i sold mr jones a necklace where'd you get the necklace why do you want to know bobby i'm lieutenant guthrie this is sergeant asher we're policemen i didn't do anything bobby where did you get the necklace i found it at home why do you know who it belongs to yes sir belongs to my mother does your mother know you have it no but she wouldn't mind if she did is your mother home now no i don't know where she is what's your last name bobby no sir where do you live 2116 stamper avenue do you have a phone there yeah park 9087 fork asher call us folks let him know where he is and what happened to the necklace there's nobody home only my little brother and he's too small into the form well give it a try anyway there right you ever taken anything from your mother before oh no sir i wouldn't have taken mom's necklace only i know i could get some money for it you know how much the necklace is worth five dollars tell me bobby uh what do you want a lot of money for i just want to get some food for me and daddy that's your brother uh mom would mind she wouldn't want to have enough money to get something to eat that's all you wanted the money for sure nobody home do you know where your mother and father are no sir maybe they're out looking for you in the necklace they're not looking for me i'm looking for them what do you mean son i haven't seen mom or dad for a long time or is there someone watching after you while they're going not Danny you're all alone he's been crying because he's hungry you know that your folks just up and left you two kids you just take care of yourselves i guess so we got up on one and you're both gone how long ago was that we all went to the movies last saturday that was the last time i saw them they didn't leave you any money to buy food with no sir i guess they had to stay away long and we expected that's why i don't think mom would mind if i sold her necklace where does your father work bobby he sells used cars at opportunity corner downtown asher gotta check on my father see if he's been around the car lot the last week you have a gun sure big one ever shoot anybody what's your father's full name uh seems mine bobby i mean uh robert mercer is your brother all right at home alone i don't know i didn't want to leave him but he was crying i wanted to get something for him to eat when was the last time he had anything to eat yesterday morning we had a candy bar where did you get it well that's all it wasn't like stealing daddy was hungry and so was i come on bobby let's go over to your house huh what about mom's necklace i sold it to mr joan wouldn't you rather find your mother and father are you gonna find him for me well sure try wait you didn't try how many days have your folks been gone three i think well we'll get you something either as soon as we see danny i'm in here i guess he's asleep downstairs by the i took a look around call an ambulance along with danie yeah he's sick bobby maybe it would be better if we got him right into the car yeah i might be a good idea we'll wrap that blanket around them gosh i guess it was my fault you go along with sergeant asher bobby come on bobby who are we going to take care of dany and get you something to eat what if mom comes back she doesn't find it well i'm gonna stay here bobby i'll tell her where you are if she comes back come on bobby we gotta hurry okay i'll check with the neighbors right i'll call and tell them you're coming okay sure bobby sure emergency hospital please you two go on in and see what you can turn up in the house you know there's gotta be something wrong parents wouldn't go off and leave two kids to start i can't find out much none of the neighbors seem to know anything about it i'm gonna check that house uh i called with a father works opportunity corner yeah he hasn't been to work in three days uh let's see what we can find the house and there's no car in the garage i've got traffic checking that now i'm going across the street okay i'm a police officer i've been watching you going around to the other houses something wrong with the nurses we're checking on them they seem to disappear three days ago and left the children alone left those two little kids that's right i didn't know the kids were alone i i've seen the oldest one going out of the house now i'm in but i had no idea that the family wasn't there and you know the mercies were very well no they just moved in about a month ago you think something's happened well we don't know both the kids are hungry little one's pretty sick gosh if i know what kind of people were the mercies well like i said i didn't know them very well it seemed like nice folks i guess well what kind of a car did they drive a kid he was a cd in black one i think he's in the huge car business they ever have any arguments yeah they had a couple of good ones well who doesn't and when was the last gosh i don't know did you see them leave the house three days ago three days ago yeah saturday no i don't think so they took the kids to a show well maybe my wife did well where's your wife having her hair done crazy deans get all their hair cut off i'll call her no no that's all right i'll check with her later did you find anything in the house not yet i hope nothing's happened to him well thank you mr bishop stand bishop i work at the fidelity insurance company on spring stayed home to figure out my income tax playing a little hooky well thank you very much mr bishop i'll stop by later to talk to your wife yeah sure i'll tell her how we think she's been strangled who did it we don't know yet her hug but we don't know yet stick around no no thank you for the identification sure well you may want to talk to you again sure nash is on his way over lab boys with cars should be here too hello oh hello they're downstairs in the basin sounds like gash and uh yeah i know uh who are you i'm a neighbor asher yeah coming right down then that boy's right behind me should be in about five minutes neighbor just identified her strangle looks like and i took barbie over to the juvenile authorities what about the younger one he's gonna be all right but it's lucky we found him when we did oh i checked at the used car lot mercer was part on him made pretty good money um well it counts for the expensive necklace boys on the lot say they haven't heard from him in three days what about his car oh it's a black Cadillac sedan 1950 series 62 you get a license number 77j8843 it's one of the cars from the lot i put out an apb for mercy on the car oh come on team what are we going want to talk to barbie mercer again what are you going to say to i don't know what do you say to a kid whose mother's been killed i shut the door pig come on in for the life to get out of this come on in don't you want to come in see sure barbie how do you feel i feel good well danny's going to be fine he was just uh a little sick worse mom and dad did they come home well we uh we can't find your father oh but you found mine did she come home why didn't she come see me can i go home barbie uh look how'd you uh did you like a candy bar barbie okay where's mom barbie uh do you have any idea where we might find your father oh but why don't you ask mom she'd know well or she didn't know barbie he'd be lost or something yeah yeah something like that you know that i'd like to be a policeman when i get grown up barbie yeah barbie you you can't go home right away why not well your mother she's uh what's wrong with mom she's not wrong with mom you see barbie sometimes things happen what's happened to mom she's sick no no no she's not sick wait a minute oh no no no no come on in i got the live report hey barbie you're a big boy who isn't half as big when i was your age i want to see mom you're you wonder is that an accident barbie barbie listen come on barbie you've got to be a big fellow i can't do it your mother's your mother's dead barbie you'd better take him back sure speaking i just heard about mrs robert mercer's death on the radio what i'd like to talk to you about it i know mr mercer can you come out here of course miss lake what's your address 752 west palm 752 west palm medicine far as par yes that's right at the end of palm thank you miss lake i'll be right out i'm lieutenant guthrie oh come in thank you this sergeant cargan how do you do hello sit down oh thanks thanks are you the one i talked to yes ma'am well i don't know quite how to start you said you heard a news broadcast about robert mercer well yes you know robert mercer yes if i know him well you wanted to tell us something about him i didn't know he was married you didn't i didn't know he had a wife and two kids we'd like to question him if you can help at all i met him about three months ago he sold me a car i see i didn't know he was married because he didn't say anything about it he never said anything about it we understand that i saw him quite a bit maybe a couple of times a week a couple of times a week for three months yeah well maybe not always a couple of times a week but who do you know what did you want to tell us about the mercy murder well he came back here three days ago saturday saturday uh yeah saturday that was the day his wife was killed he wanted me to go away with him he said he was going out of town he wanted me to go with him why didn't you well the way he was acting he he was acting kind of funny strange he was real nervous what did he say to you just that he wanted me to go away with him that he had to leave town on business and that he wanted me to come along just because he was acting funny wasn't the only reason i didn't go with him wouldn't look right i told him it wasn't you understand yes man did he say where he was going just out of town i would have gone with him even if he'd been asking all right you understand yeah you used to go up to a cabin sometimes on the weekend i i got maybe that was where he was going cabin yeah the cabin's at horseshoe lake and you know he's been up there before oh yeah just where is this cabin horseshoe lake or what part what's the location well i'm not sure it's off the highway i remember there's a general store just that's all right i really didn't know he had a wife and kids i didn't know no we understand if you go to the general store they can tell you where the cabin is does mr mercer own the cabin no he rents it i doubt if he'd be there with his name on all the newest cast oh he uses another name when he went for kids or what name is like robert smith if he's up there you won't tell him i told no we won't tell him you understand yeah we understand what can you do if i we're looking for a man named robert smith yeah is he in his cabin but i couldn't say and we were told you could tell us where to find him yeah i'll tell you where to find the cabin but if he ain't in it i can't help him uh we're police officers is mr smith living in the cabin and he has been for how long what you want him for we'd like to talk to him oh come on what you want him for what's he done we didn't say he'd done anything now you don't have to play cagey with me you fell from the city ancient that's right well now i sure don't figure that city cops have come all the way up here just to talk what'd you say your name was i didn't fan fisher mr fisher it's getting dark we'd like to find robert smith before he gets any darker might have a hard time shooting if it gets too dark and we're not planning on shooting anybody mr fish oh no for my answer he too far to treat me like i don't know nothing about mr fisher how long has robert smith been living in the cabin since saturday i rented it to him saturday this isn't the first time he's in it he's lots of times in the past couple of months he started coming up around let me see last january when was the last time you saw him about four this afternoon he came in to buy some groceries and he's been up here since saturday saturday night to be exact got me out of bed around 11 oh now come on fellas watch it all about eh what do you want him for where's the cabin mr fisher oh well it's up the road about three miles you come to a turnoff that has a sign paradise villa that's here up the road about three miles about that turn right now an ice villa that's right that's the name was cabin ain't nothing like a villa but that young fella i hired to paint the signs he got real fans well thank you mr fisher you don't want to tell me what this is all about sorry mr fisher we can't oh say look uh fellas yes mr fisher we're in a hurry mr fisher i didn't know as how i ought to tell you this before not but seeing as how you just want to talk to smith tell us what mr fisher well when smith was in the bar the groceries he bought himself a box of 30 30s i guess he must have a rifle i guess he must thanks mr fisher let a guy kill his wife leave two children to starve he looks like this guy did oh there's a sign yeah that's it paradise villain want to drive right up to the house no we'll walk up and take it easy snow and i wouldn't be a bit surprised that's funny how you miss street lights you know i can't see two feet how do we take them well there's probably a back door you'll find it and cover it i'll just knock at the front so there's a car black car okay go ahead i'll give you about 30 seconds good luck buddy out there but down the rifle mr marcia who are you police but down the rifle better come inside hey someone else my partner i wondered how long it would take you to find me jenny tell you this is my partner sergeant cargan you better both come in too cold to stand out here get the rifle pain yeah come on in i have to come back to town with us i heard the news broadcast this afternoon but i didn't think it'd be up here this soon i was thinking last night about going down and turning myself in did you kill your wife mr mercy yeah don't ask me why i killed her and i guess i had a lot of reasons but i can't seem to think of any good ones right now we better go the broadcast said the children were all right yeah they're all right i'm not their real father you know i married lucille oh what difference does it make that much i don't know maybe you do why does a man kill somebody i guess it depends yeah i guess it does before you pass the innocent the vagrant the thief the murderer listen again next week when we again bring you the lineup have your attention please you people out there on the other side of the wire in the audience room may have your attention please thank you my name is carger sergeant peak carger i'll explain the lineup to you each of the suspects you will see will be numbered i'll call up a number their name and charge you have any questions or identification