 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 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 If you listen fairly frequently to this program You've probably noticed several things about the commercials. They're interesting. They appeal to your intelligence They help you solve personal or family problems Tonight for instance the Equitable Society is going to present some very timely facts on why it pays to give your children a college education We'll then outline a simple workable money-saving plan the painless way to pay for those four years in college If you want your children to get ahead in life You'll be vitally interested in this information from the Equitable Society Coming in about 14 minutes tonight's FBI file the vanishing witness The job of the professional law enforcement officer is never an easy one for the war against crime is full-fledged battle However, it is true that some criminals present less of a problem than others Take the ordinary crime of auto theft for example in the past 12 months Almost 72,000 cars were stolen representing a total value of more than 56 million dollars Yet the record also shows that more than 94% of those automobiles were returned to their legal owners often within a period of 24 hours Swindlers may enjoy momentary success But the files at the Federal Bureau of Investigation reveal not a single important confidence man who has failed to serve at least one prison term Go down the line and you will find the same thing to be true with almost every type of criminal However, there is one big exception to that rule One kind of lawbreaker always difficult to arrest on the weight of evidence Fortunately, he is not in every city in the country The overwhelming majority of men in public office being decent responsible human beings But this leech among us the politically protected racketeer is present in too many sections of the nation and where you find him You will find crime on the increase with almost everyone profiting handsomely Hoodlums enjoy steady employment The criminal machine is kept well oiled by a constant flow of loot and the crooked politician is able to retire wealthy situation One group composed of you the people Tonight's file opens in the corridor of a courthouse located in a large Midwestern city Detective Roy Williams of the local police stands near the door of the grand jury room as FBI special agent paler approaches Hello Roy oh hi Jim you come up to here Caswell on the stand y'all my agent in charge wants to see if there's anything in this case That'll give us jurisdiction. Well, I don't think there is but stick around and listen. You'll enjoy it. Are you that sure? Yeah, yeah that story about the race and why are being a legitimate news service won't hold water this trip No, we'll prove Caswell knows the service is going to bookmakers. Are you gonna do that right? Oh, we've got the big witness Oh, who's that an old man named on slow who's Caswell's bookkeeper? Hey, that reminds me where is the old boy? He's supposed to leave the hospital a half hour ago Hospital yeah, he's been sick, but the doctor okay. He's coming up here to testify How about something to the examiner mr. Caswell? Sorry boys no comment on now wait a minute. Can't you give me one quote? I'm sorry. Not a copy. Well, look how about a picture? What do we get inside? Charlie over here with the camera It looks pretty confident Roy. Yeah, Roy. Yes, Nick We were just down to the hospital to pick up old man on slow Well, where is he two men posing as cops took him out of the place five minutes before we got there The following morning at the local FBI field office special agent Jim Taylor returns to his desk from the teletype room to find Detective Roy Williams waiting Looking for me. Yes, Jim. I was in to see your agent charge and he put you on that missing witness case You mean old man on slow mm-hmm turns out he was kidnapped and taken across the state line You got any idea where to well only the direction friend of Onslow's called headquarters this morning to report He saw the old man yesterday on the Hudson Street ferry You come up with any identical neither of the kidnappers none at all I don't have to tell you Jim without Onslow's testimony the grand jury can't bring back an indictment How long to think they'll wait till tomorrow morning We don't produce on slow by that time they'll start here in another case So much time. No make it worse the term of this grand jury expires the end of this week You've covered the hospital, haven't you? Yeah, but I drew blank Wasn't there any police guard and they took him out of the play. He was called to the hall telephone What about this friend who saw on slow on the ferry yesterday? I got his name and address here on this sheet of paper She Andrew Harper 29 Maywood Street, you want to interview him Jim? Yeah, sure Hey, where you going back to the hospital some of the floor workers who were on duty at the time of the kidnap and weren't Too back till this morning washing. I'll meet you back here at your office Good morning, girl. Hi Little early few to hit the office. Yeah, I couldn't sleep stomach again. Yeah, it's murder every time There's one of these investigations my also start playing handball you take anything What can I take with the grand jury's customers beefing they've been calling all morning? Why don't I go into a legitimate business? That's another beef. I'm not here Mr. Caswell's office is he there Phil? Yeah, hold it. Phil wants to talk to you. I'll take it on the other phone I'll give you right with you Hi Phil, how's it going over there? No good. No good. That's all I hear from everybody Look, we've been working on the old guy for hours. You won't change his story. No Put him on the phone. He's out cold Much time we got he's due on the witness stand tomorrow morning. I've got an idea What's that? Been taking some pills. They gave him at the hospital. They've run out. So he claims if he don't get some more He'll kick over Should I see if he's telling the truth? No, you better get him the pills, but you want him on your side I want him on my side alive Well, we'll go to work on him again. No way off the muscle. What else is there? Yeah, I'll think of something When I do, I'll call you I Got a small lead at the hospital gym. What's that Roy the two phony cops signed the visitors register Oh, here's the page with their signatures The names that they use Richard Jones and John Smith They used a lot of imagination. Yeah, I think your lab can get anything on these well I'll have it checked for handwriting and late in print. Oh say one of the elevator operators remember bringing Hans-Lo and the two men down He said both kidnappers were tall and wore hats with the brims pulled very low It's almost as good as a mask. I showed on slow specter at every cab driver who works the line in front of the hospital But none of them remembered him. Well, that figures not much point in taking a cab from the hospital with the ferry Right across the street. Hey, how about the man you interviewed? Well, they said two men were with on slow, but he couldn't describe them The only details he recalled was that he was wearing slippers instead of shoes and that the ferry left here at 140 p.m Yeah, those things might help if we had time, but Only about a half a day left. Yeah, Caswell's probably watching the clock too. Yeah, except the deadline favors him Yeah, I know no Roy I checked with the ferry company the boat that pulled out of here at 140 yesterday afternoon was the James Chris You get it scheduled for today. It's do out again in 20 minutes. Let's get on there Roy and take a ride I thought I had something for a minute. What's that? I just talked to the gateman down at the other end He recognized Hans-Lo's picture, but he didn't remember seeing anybody with him. Well, I didn't even do that Guess there's nothing to do but take the next one back all we managed to do was use up a couple hours of valuable time Hey, Roy, hmm Where you going? Yo shoeshine Okay, right with it Shine mister. Yeah, I'd like a shine and some information. Well, I do the best I can on both right foot first, huh? Okay Were you on this boat yesterday? Yeah all day well in your line of business You generally notice what kind of shoes people are wearing don't you most of the time? Yes, sir Do you remember seeing anybody on this ferry yesterday who was wearing slippers slippers? Yeah, sure. I do. He was an old guy Take a look at this picture That's him sure that's the guy you remember who he was with Let's see. Yeah, I think I do he was with two other guys I gave them both shines one was wearing brown shoes the other black what they look like Now would you recognize them if you saw them again? Yeah, I think I would I'll be coming to police headquarters with us and looking through some pictures Sure, thanks a million Roy if he can make an idea for us on the floor might still get before that grand jury in time Have a chair mr. Taylor My secretary said you were with the FBI. That's right. You're my credentials. Thank you, sir Hmm You don't mind if I look at them closely You can't be too careful, you know take all the time you want I Don't have to be anywhere to 10 30 tomorrow morning to be in order Now what was it you wanted to see me about about two men who posed as police officers and kidnapped a grand jury witness Who was prepared to testify against you mr. Ronslow. That's right. Well, I heard he was missing of course But not that he'd been kidnapped That just shows you never know about these quiet little men who'd think he had enough money to be worth kidnapping Oh, he's not being helpful ransom No, no You see we know who kidnapped you You FBI men are really amazing. You mean you already know who did it the names of Phil Newland and Paul Adams Well, then you've got no problem. Have you all you've got to do now is find those men and arrest them That's why I came here, mr. Caswell. I Don't quite understand it's common knowledge that both Newland and Adams work for you Newland Adams Well, I don't think so but just a minute. I'll check Look at our payroll record. Mr. Sheridan see if we have anyone working for us named What were their names again, mr. Taylor? Phil Newland and Paul Adams. Oh, yes, Phil Newland and Paul Adams Maybe janitors irrelevant in some of the real estate I own you know, I doubt that you'll find them in that category Well, perhaps they work in my construction company muscle man, mr. Caswell muscle men. Well, I'm afraid Yes, mr. Sheridan Thank you Well, there's your answer mr. Taylor Caswell. Let's stop kidding each other. You know those men work for you and you know They took on slow. You're the only one who'd benefit by his absence Look, are you charging me with kidnapping? No, not yet Any other charges you want to make not till I can prove them Well come back when you think you can I will mr. Caswell That's a promise Now a special message from the equitable life assurance society to fathers and mothers of young children Let's turn the calendar ahead for a moment to the year 1960 or 65 To a day when that youngster of yours comes to you and says Oh dad, I'm all set. I passed my college entrance exams. Yippee Your boy has three good reasons for feeling on top of the world First college men and women earn more money. Look dad in this morning's newspaper It says college men are in $72,000 more during the years They worked and the fellows who miss out on a college education second college men land the bigger job And listen to this dad out of every 16 men earning $10,000 a year and up 15 are college guys That's odds to 15 to 1 in favor of college third college men get more out of life Their general culture their appreciation of art and good books Gives them poise and prestige in their social life Think that over father and mother and decide now that your children are going to have the big advantage of a college education Decide to make sure with an equitable education fund an equitable education fund Why what's that? It's the painless way to pay for your children's college education In this equitable society plan you start when your children are young Then each year you pay a sum of money that doesn't hurt an amount that scarcely makes a dent in your budget When your youngsters ready for college the money's all ready for him That's spreading the cost of education over 10 or 15 years Instead of taking a beating in four right now Suppose the father dies or becomes totally disabled then no more payments are necessary The fund becomes fully established When the youngster is ready for college he gets the same education as if his dad had lived So don't delay a day longer Let your equitable society representative show you how little it costs to start an equitable education fund Or right care of this station to the equitable society. That's e q y T a b l e the equitable life assurance society of the united states And now back to the fbi file the vanishing witness Every case chosen for dramatization on this the official broadcast from the files of the federal bureau of investigation Has a message for you listeners an important message Take this evening's case for example It concerns the boss of a machine which controls crime in a particular city There are probably some now asking themselves how this affects them Unless they happen to reside in just one place Here is their answer Look at crime for what it is An infection in the body of society Let it faster unchecked in one place and it spreads as any epidemic will The reason it spreads is that crime breeds dictators And therein lies the menace to you the decent citizen No dictator by the very nature of his position can afford to sit still Born of turmoil. He lives by chaos He must reach out for colonies For puppet states in a constant effort to expand In like measure the criminal dictator established in one community must spread out Must move to include new territories in his domain Eventually unless stopped he reaches you But those two words Unless stopped do not constitute a careless empty phrase The ed caswells of the country can be stopped as infection is by medicine In the case of crime the medicine is usually manpower More manpower for your local police Give them that weapon leave them politically untrammeled And your police will do the job Tonight's file continues later that evening at the local FBI field office Detective Roy Williams has just entered Did you get to see Caswell, Jim? Yeah, and that's all I did get What happened when you hit him with Newland and Adams? I claimed he didn't even know them I was afraid of that Jim, do you realize we have only 12 hours to find the old man? Yeah, I know Roy And we don't even know if he's still alive Oh, I think he's alive all right They wanted to kill him they'd have done at the hospital Roy has, uh, Onslow got any family? Well, no wife or children, but I gather there was a sister someplace Hmm? Yeah, at least there was a picture in his room at the hospital signed your sister Ethel Is this a snapshot or a portrait picture? Portrait, why? Well, maybe the photo studio can tell you who she is and where she lives Right, I'll get it and start checking Okay, and while you're doing that, I'll study Adams and Newland's records again And try and find a lead there That's where the jollies Oh, it just happened to feel good Hmm, that was a quick cure Well, I needed was a little luck, baby Puts the ulcers right to bed again Ah, the mail come in Hmm, it's right in front of you Oh Did the old man change his story? Not yet, but he's going to How do you know? Well, I happen to remember old man Onslow telling me that he had a sister named Johnson He gave me her phone number once and if he wasn't home, I could always reach him there So? So from the phone number, I got the address I gave the address to Phil, he went over there this morning to pick her up Do you mind very much if I don't get it? Phil brings the sister back to where he's keeping Onslow If he doesn't testify my way, she gets the treatment too Oh Have you been doing with our customers? They're still complaining Well, just tell them to be patient The horse will be back in use tomorrow Roy, did you locate Onslow's sister? No, I got an address from that photographer, but she'd moved six months ago And no forwarding address? No, but the department is checking every moving company in town Yeah Well, I spoke to my agent in charge He didn't think there was any chance of getting another continuance from the grand jury I know there isn't We either come up with Onslow in the next hour or else Hey Roy, wait a minute, I just got a thought What's that? We know the kidnappers had their shoes shined on that ferry, don't we? Now let's assume for a minute we're the kidnappers Now we, we spirited old man Onslow out of the hospital on to the ferry Now we had a car, would we get out and take Onslow for a walk so we could get a shine? Oh no, of course not Okay Now if we were taking Onslow any distance after we got off the ferry We'd need a car on the other side That's right Well in that case it would have been just as easy for us to use a car all the way and a whole lot safer Yeah Wouldn't that make it seem that the old man is hidden out someplace close to the ferry slip just across the river? Could be Jim But that district is crowded with tenements and cheap room and houses It'd be next to impossible to find anybody in that jungle We had days instead of minutes There's no point just sitting around here and letting the clock run out on us I'm gonna take the ferry and canvas of rooming houses, coffee shops, diners I sure wish I had jurisdiction over there Well I'll get some local help Oh by the way, Roy, why was Old Man Onslow in the hospital? Some kind of blood disease Do you remember the name? No, the hospital could tell you Okay, I'll check with him Did you get Phil yet? Operators ringing him now Now, how do you like the new wardrobe? Businessman blues It looks a little square Sensational for juries maybe Makes me a very legitimate fella Hello Hello Phil, Ed wants to talk to you I was just gonna call him Here's Phil No Hello We got trouble, Ed No, what happened? I went to the sister's house, was crawling with cops Oh, and I guess they got the same idea They spot you You tell the old man she wasn't coming? The difference, Ed, he's a stubborn guy Well, I guess there's only one thing to do, Phil Kill him Don't think to park along here I'll pull past the courthouse That's where I parked yesterday Okay I hope Phil followed through You can depend on Phil I don't know why you didn't kill the old guy in the first place That's too crude, Pearl Having him testify for me would have been much better You'd think he'd have been willing to after having worked for me for so long Well, I guess I expect too much from people Oh, there's a spot to park Oh, yeah How am I on that side? Oh, that's fine, that's fine Now where are those cancel checks? In the briefcase What about the rent receipts? Yeah, they're in there too Well, okay, let's go Here come those newspaper characters Yeah, I see them Got a statement to make, Miss Caswell? Not right now, boys Oh, I got a deadline in half an hour Well, I got one sooner than that Can't you give us anything? Why don't you guys lay off? Now, honey, they're only doing their job See me when I come out, boys You'll have a good story then Okay Ed Huh? It's 10.30 Now there's no rush Look, they haven't even opened the doors yet Now there's the fuzz up ahead I see them Well, hi, Copper Oh, hello there, Mr. Taylor Have you still looked pretty confident, Mr. Caswell? Why shouldn't I? Take a look down the hall Where? See the man talking to the city attorney? Hansel Ed? Shut up You thought he was dead, is that it, Miss? I don't know what you're talking about You want to tell him, Roy? Sure, sure Your two thugs are at the city jail, Mr. Caswell They're just signed full confessions implicating you What? You got your choice, Caswell You can wait around here till Hansel testifies Or you can come to headquarters right now Ed Caswell, Pearl Sheridan, Phil Newland and Paul Adams were all tried in federal court on a charge of kidnapping Upon being found guilty, each received a sentence of life imprisonment Tonight's case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is another in the long line of illustrations of the value to every special agent of the course of training he receives at FBI headquarters in Washington before being sent to a field office What of that training teaches a student never to evaluate the various clues in an investigation For the one which seems most promising frequently leads to a dead end And the one which at first seemed just another useless bit of information develops into the lead with which a case is broken open For example, special agent Taylor was able to locate the hideout to which Ed Caswell's kidnapped bookkeeper had been taken because before starting his search he called the hospital where Anzlo had been a patient The doctor there informed him that the old man was suffering from acute leukemia which was being treated through the use of newly developed pills containing aminopterin The doctor also said he had written a prescription for the pills and given it to Anzlo in case he needed some while away from the hospital Special agent Taylor then proceeded to the district where logic had told him Anzlo was being held A visit to the neighborhood drug stores revealed one which had had a call for aminopterin and had delivered the pills to a certain address An address which turned out to be occupied by Phil Newland, Paul Adams and their kidnapped victim In that way another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was closed And a criminal dictator whose continued freedom had been a threat to every decent citizen was removed from circulation But even more important the life of an innocent person was saved An innocent person who is now a living tribute to the fact that the special agents of your FBI are vigilant tireless defenders not only of the liberties and properties of the American people but also defenders of their very lives Now one last word to fathers and mothers Of all the things you can do for your children there's no greater proof of your love for them than an equitable education fund They'll be grateful for it as long as they live Your boy or girl may only say a few words like Thanks mom and thank you dad But you know from the look in his eye and that ring in his voice that he'll never forget your foresight in starting an equitable education fund Right now make that wise resolution to see your equitable representative soon Next week we will dramatize another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation A case from the past that has great application today It's subject robbery it's title the black market hijacking The incidents used in tonight's equitable life for children societies 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 Steiner The author was Jerry D. Lewis Your narrator was William Woodson and special agent Taylor was played by Stacy Harris Others in the cast were Bill Conrad, Herb Ellis, Ed Gargon, Doris Nolan, John Sheehan, and Gil Stratton Jr This is your FBI is 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 this 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 black market hijacking on this is your FBI Stay tuned for the adventures of the thin man on an excitement for the whole family when the thin man comes your way This is ABC the American Broadcasting Company