 From Hollywood, it's time now for Johnny dollar Ralph Stiedler Johnny dollar liability. Oh hi Ralph. What's on your mind poetry you Philistine? The Bard's immortal words which words full fathom five thy father lies of his bones or carls made Those are pearls that were his eyes What's the case Ralph robbery a pearl necklace life insurance? $75,000 worth of bones down on the bottom of the deep blue sea or so they say so who Say the insured's wife the insured's best friend. Oh, they're quite positive about it But you're not is that it Johnny if I'm gonna be stuck for 75 g's at least I ought to get the straight dope shouldn't I All right, I'll get it for you. Give me the who and where it happened in Miami Beach Check with the DA's office there the insured was a man named William Markey and the beneficiary his wife poor retch Oh, you're biased Ralph. Sure. I'm paying alimony So look it over Johnny and keep in touch Tonight and every weekday night Bob Bailey in the transcribed adventures of the man with the action packed expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar From special investigator Johnny dollar to the home office delta liability Hartford, Connecticut The following is an accounting of expenditure is during my investigation of the fathom five matter Item one 143 dollars and 40 cents transportation tips and incidentals Hartford to Miami Purpose of assignment aside from a chance to get a look at the sun To check into the death of one William Markey Or to find out if there was a death and how it happened and where was the body And if not why not and if so how or rather to determine Well, anyway, the deputy investigator from the DA's office a man named Barney Wilson was at least as confused as I was And he'd had a two-day head start We're going on an assumption of course the man is dead But legally you understand the fact hasn't yet been established Meaning exactly what mr. Wilson was pretty strong evidence, but no corpus delicti not so far anyway Maybe you'd better start at the beginning and that would be where mr. Donner How much do you know about the case? Well, uh very little The dead man if he is dead was named William Markey He was uh 46 years old owner of a consulting engineering firm in new york He'd been married to his present wife for three years Her age is 30 and she's the beneficiary of his insurance and I might add a charming and lovely young woman They've been down here for about a month And three days ago markey was killed or allegedly killed in an accident Drowned as I understand it when a fishing line sank a mile or two offshore and then But you can take it from there mr. Wilson now Your responsibility in the case is primarily to the insurance company. Is that right mr. Donner entirely not primarily Why what do you mean? And it would be to the company's advantage if markey's death were not legally established, huh? They wouldn't have to pay the claim if that's what you mean Then it's reasonable to suppose since the whole case is uh pretty vague at present that your efforts will be devoted to Creating doubts as to whether markey is really dead mr. Wilson I think it's reasonable to suppose that I can't very well answer your questions without knowing exactly what has happened All right, then Briefly, this is it Apparently markey came down here to bid on a construction job Manufacturing plant we didn't get the job But he stayed on he and his wife and the young fella that was with him What young fellow name of danny hains He worked for markey a draftsman or engineer Evidently a personal friend of the markeys The three of them took the house down the beach south and spent all the time together night clubbing one thing and another I see and now well three days ago Markey and young hains went out fishing together Hired a charter boat small cabin cruiser named the fathom five And headed south long coast working the offshore banks whose idea was the trip markeys According to young hains In fact, all the rest of the story is according to hains Nobody else saw what happened And what did happen? Well hains says they anchored off the reef and both of them fished from the dinghy for a while Then markey decided he'd go back to cruiser and fix some breakfast Haines put him aboard and took the dinghy out alone He says he fished along the reef for about 30 minutes before he looked back and saw the cruiser was afire It was nearly a mile away according to his story And by the time he got back the boat was a pillar of flame He didn't see any sign of markey. No he says not He couldn't get aboard because of the flames and uh few minutes later cruiser sank No one else saw it there were no other boats around No, it was early morning and there weren't many others out It had rained during the night and there was a fairly heavy fog The only mile and a half or so offshore so hains rode in with the dinghy and reported it Tell me what was the depth of the ocean where the cruiser sank? Oh, it was only about 50 feet I've got a salvage company working now to raise it get a diver down. Yes, but he didn't find out much He couldn't get inside the hole That's about the size of it, huh? Mm-hmm it is Until they get that cruiser raise so we can take a look at it and of course it may not tell us the thing What about the currents along the reef where that boat went down? Oh, they're pretty bad strong and erratic Somebody could be carried through the reefs and on out to sea and never be found Well, I was uh thinking more of the possibility of a good swimmer getting into shore You said they were anchored only a mile and a half out Yes, well, it's possible, but not very probable You'd have been seen by hains or somebody else. There was a heavy fog, wasn't there? Mm-hmm fairly heavy and of course hains could be lying. Maybe he did see him. I said it was possible But that's not the line. I'm planning to take mr. Darling. So I got it They'll bring that hull to the surface sometime tomorrow. Maybe we'll have some evidence then Or maybe mark his body. He'll turn up in the next 48 hours and if not Then mr. Dollar, I will petition the probate court to declare him legally dead I suppose you've got some reason for all this rush. Yes I want the fact of death established in order to file a murder charge Danny hains. Who else? It's the old old story, isn't it two men go out and only one comes back Unwitnessed accident nothing new about it. No, no, and it's never been an easy one to prove Well, it'll be a lot tougher a year from now If you people put up a fight and force the decision up to the superior court Suppose hains himself fights. I wish he'd try be the next thing to an admission of guilt Oh, mrs. Markey. She has legal status in the case. She could do it, but she won't Hey, you're probably right. She wouldn't be likely to throw away $75,000 Well, I can't tell you what we'll do yet. Mr. Wilson I'll have to look around first talk to the people involved get my feet on the ground Get my feet on the ground. Fine. Would you just do that? Here? I'll give you the addresses Mrs. Markey is still at the beach house young hains has moved into a hotel near there All right, thanks Say, how did the three of them get along during the month they've been here? Like peas in the pod from all appearances Of course what was going on behind the scenes might have been another story Usually is I think that's where we'll find the motive not that mrs. Markey encouraged hains at all She's a fine woman. I know and she's beautiful and this is the south. How's that? So long mr. Wilson. I'll keep in touch Expense account item two three dollars and 35 cents telegram to hartford requesting an investigation of the markey firms financial status both currently and over the past three years And a similar check of markey's personal financial status Item three four dollars and 10 cents taxi to the pompadale beach hotel to talk with the da's prime suspect danie hains Look mr. Dollar. I've been over the whole thing with the police a half a dozen times I'd still like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind they've got the whole story all I know about it They had a stenographer to take it down. Why don't you go to them with your questions? Maybe I got different questions. I told them everything I know about it Look danie, you don't have to talk to me, but if you're smart you will why so Because the police already have their minds made up or at least mindy wilson has sure he's out to prove I killed mr. Markey. Well, look my mind isn't made up yet. So you can't lose anything by talking to me Unless of course you did kill him that happened exactly the way I told him All right, what do you want to know? How long did you work for markey two years you get along with them? All right, sure It was a good job. No complaints. You got to be pretty close personal friends. I understand Well, I used to go to their apartment in new york once or twice a week for dinner drinks And then the three of you came down here together on a vacation. It wasn't a vacation. Mr. Markey came down to bid on a job Did he need you along for that? Well, he thought there might be some sketches or plans to draw up and were there Well, no as it turned out they weren't necessary Funny markey wouldn't know that ahead of time being an engineer Well, actually it was sort of edna's suggestion of mrs. Markey. I mean I see Yeah, now I see now look don't get the idea. There's been anything between us. She's been swell to me. She's Well, she's just wonderful. That's all right. All right So the three of you came down on business and within a few days the job contract was awarded to another firm But you still stayed on for three more weeks. That was markey's idea. I don't know why exactly I know he'd counted a lot on getting that job But I was getting a free vacation. Why should I argue? So I'll have you just relaxed and lift it up Yeah, that's about it. Mr. Markey too. No apparent worries on his mind Well, he was moody sometimes went off by himself But that wasn't too unusual. He was like that quite a lot He and his wife seem to be getting along all right. Sure as far as I noticed why Well, let's talk about that accent for a minute. Danny Whose idea was it to go on the fishing trip? Mr. Markey's He woke me up at five in the morning said he'd already phoned and hired the boat the fathom fire Yeah, the same one we'd had a couple of times before Well, I wasn't much for it. It was misting out with a heavy fog But he was real hot on the idea and I couldn't very well argue. He was the boss was mrs. Markey up when you left No, but she knew we were going she'd packed the lunch I guess they talked about it the night before all right She took the boat out then and followed the reef south and what happened Well, we anchored as close as we could get to the reef and went out in the dinghy for about an hour No luck at all Then mr. Markey decided he'd go back on board and fix something to eat I let him off and then rode back along the reef I figured as long as I had had to come I might as well try for a strike or two at least And a while after that I looked back and saw the cruiser was on fire. Was it still foggy then? Yeah about the same I could just see the glow I couldn't even be sure what it was until I got close I tried to get on board but the flames were too high I kept yelling but there was nobody around and you didn't see or hear any sign of markey No, I guess he was already dead Then not more than five minutes later the cruiser sank Yeah Danny do you have any theory as to what caused the fire? Well, it was a hot plate on board A gasoline pressure rig. It was an old one in pretty bad shape. We talked about it before I think it may have leaked into the bulkheads in the bilge And when mr. Markey went to light it to fix breakfast the whole boat just went up in flames. I see Tell me something Danny Do you think markey could have committed suicide? Suicide why for what reason? Oh Maybe losing that contract you said it was pretty important to him Or maybe he thought he was losing his wife What do you mean? Well, maybe he misinterpreted your friendship with it. You're crazy. You're in love with her, aren't you? That's my business. I told you there was nothing between us. All right, all right But didn't markey know that Look, you're the same age she is and he was 15 years old or a man like that might get them wondering knock it off dollar Nobody's private life is going to be dragged into this You better stop and think Danny while you still got time A defendant in a murder trial doesn't have any private life Now here's our star to tell you about tomorrow's intriguing episode of this week's story tomorrow A lady weeps a lover curses And a strange grim relic is brought up from the sea Join us won't you? Yours truly johnny dollar Yours truly johnny dollar starring bob bailey is transcribed in hollywood Written by less crutchfield. It is produced and directed by jack john stone Be sure to join us tomorrow night same time and station for the next exciting episode of yours truly johnny dollar Roy rowan speaking