 Mr. District Attorney, starring David Bryan. Mr. District Attorney, champion of the people, defender of truth, guardian of our fundamental right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And it shall be my duty as District Attorney, not only to prosecute to the limit of the law, all persons accused of crimes perpetrated within this county. But to defend with equal vigor the rights and privileges of all its citizens. This is David Bryan. In a moment we'll bring you another case from the files of Mr. District Attorney. But first the word from our sponsor. Our David Bryan as Paul Garrett, Mr. District Attorney. A District Attorney knows that crime does not always end when the criminal is put behind bars. Some men reform, but others begin immediately to plot their next crime. This case started in the state penitentiary just after the weekly visiting hour. Your wife bring what I told you to get for me? Yeah. She brought it, Johnny. Here. Vitamin tablets and the razor blades. You know, we're not supposed to have razor blades. Yeah. If they find them on me they might put me in jail. What are you so jumpy about with your lousy year? Another five months and you'll be out. I'm doing life and my nerves are still better than yours. Look, Johnny, with good behavior credits I can get out in three months. I don't want getting no trouble. Lay off, will you? Are you telling me what I should do, your cheap place to me? I'm going to let you and your wife do me another favor. A big favor. Look, I got to be careful what I ask her. I can't upset her now. You know that. Oh, that's right. A baby is too soon, ain't it, Papa? Wouldn't want the kid to start out without an old man, would you? What are you talking like that for, Johnny? I wanted to see if your wife could get those razor blades in. She did. Next time she can bring in what I really want. What? A gun. No, Johnny, she can't. You don't think I'm going to end my life in here then think again. If I die in here, you die in here too. I can take one of these razor blades to your throat like that. No, no, Johnny, I... All right, Johnny, all right. I'll do it. I'll tell her to get it for you. Don't kid me. I can hear the wheels turning in that square here to yours. Next time the screw takes you out of here, you'll spill your gun. Oh, Johnny, I swear. I know you won't, and I'll tell you why. Because if you rat on me, somebody will slip a shit into you in jail or out. Remember that. Remember it if you ever want to see that kid. You don't realize what you're asking me to do. I'm asking. I'm telling. And if you decide to get brave with your own neck, remember, you can have your wife taken care of too. You wouldn't do that. Wouldn't I? Try me and see. As the squirrel making his count now, stop him when he comes past. Tell him he'll get you out of here and take you to the warden. You can spill your guts and they'll put you in a nice safe cell away from me. And you can wait for that shit. You'll never know when or where from. All right, here he comes for your big chance. That's a bright boy, Abbott. No, you're using your head. The tongue of the lock has been cut by a hex saw blade. They must have waited in the passage until the jailer turned the corner here and shot him through the stomach and took the keys. Any idea where they got the gun? I guess Abbott's wife must have brought it in during her visit. Why would she get a gun through the visiting screen? They didn't use the regular visiting room. Warden let them meet in the privilege room. Why? Well, because Abbott was a first offender with only a few months to go and his wife was expecting a fate. I see. You put out a pick up for him? We've already got him. Where? God's office at the end of the tear. You want to see it? Yes. Abbott shoot off a big piece when they gun the jailer from a last knee wrapped to jailbreak and murder. I don't know, Hankan. A life like Johnny Curtin had a reason for crashing out. The first time I like Abbott was only a few months to go. He doesn't figure to make a break. Just the same. Abbott's gone too. Well, we may find out why when we see his wife. Sometimes a man goes places he doesn't want to go. Well, the gun on his back. She's in here. Mrs. Abbott? Yes. Do you want to help your husband? And the best way is to help us. You can't get away and the quicker we get to him the better will be for all concerned. Did you supply him with a gun? It wasn't for him. It was for that other man they put him in the cell with. Johnny Curtin. What? I'm afraid this isn't going to be any comfort to you, Mrs. Abbott. But I don't think your husband went willingly. I'm afraid he went at the point of that gun you brought in. I'm beginning to agree with that idea, Chief. You brought other things for Johnny Curtin. What sort of things? Vitamin pills mostly. Every week. Vitamin pills? Curtin was some kind of a health bug, Chief. He was always after the prison doctor for vitamin shots. Even though letter to the governor demanding the state keep him supplied. I see. Excuse us for a moment, Mrs. Abbott. I'd like to have a word with you outside. Can you sign anybody to watch your home? In case Abbott and Curtin show up there? Yeah. Moran and Phelps have it covered. When we get to our car, we can put out a radio call to all units. I want to careful check on every robbery report involving a food store and an itemized account of everything taken. Why an itemized account? They'll probably take anything they can lay their hands on. Maybe, but Johnny Curtin may make a special effort to get his hands on some vitamin pills. Hey, that's right. Uh, what about Mrs. Abbott? Just leave her here? Oh, for now. There's nothing else we can do. Now, let's get to the car. This guy's beginning to turn gray. Yeah, son will be coming up in half hour. I can't figure why you want to concentrate on these back roads, chief. We haven't spotted a living soul in an hour. No. Not even a state police car. Well, they're concentrating on main highways leading toward the border. Yes, and these farm roads occasionally intersect the main highways, Hagen. Johnny Curtin's no fool. He's not going to strike from main highway while he's on foot and wearing prison clothes. And another farm gate up ahead? Want to stop? Yes. I'm surprised we haven't got the farmers after us the way we've been robbing them out of bed. Gate's locked. And we're parked here. We can slip through the fence and walk up to the house. Seems to be some sort of a light in the barn. Yeah. Probably up already for early morning chores. Ah, here. Here's a loose string. Go ahead. Slide through. I got it. Dogs. They sound like they're tired of that tree in front of the house. No, they won't bother us. Good. I don't like being stout. That sounded like a shotgun. It was. I heard the pellets whizz right over our heads. Come to the loft of the barn. I can get a beat on you. Hey, stay flat out there, and you won't get hurt. You'll be the one to get hurt if you fire once more. You just stay there till they like her. The next one won't be over your head. Please can take care of you as soon as I can get you to him. What kind of a line are you? Just a minute, Hagen. He sounds like a farmer. Cut the loose with a shotgun? Freddon doesn't have a shotgun. He has a revolver. Are you the owner of this place? You'll find out who I am as soon as I can see who you are. I'm the district attorney of this county. My car's down by your gate. I have an assistant with me. Or after two men who escaped from the state penitentiary a few hours ago. Can you see us now? Yeah, I see it. Go up toward the barn and I'll come down from the loft. Come on, Hagen. This lad is going to get a piece of my mind opening up like that with a shotgun. Let's find out why he did it in the first place. There. Ellie is now coming out of the barn. I wouldn't have fired if I'd known who you was. You wouldn't waste any time trying to find out. Now look, mister, I don't like being shot at any better than you do. And I was shot at, not 20 minutes ago, by a couple of flowers. That's what I was expecting, Hagen. Did you see what the men looked like? Just a shadow as the dogs woke me up, knew something was wrong as soon as they came out of the house. Jeans and shirts missing from the back clothes line. And I spotted them over toward the hen house and heard a couple of my hands of fluttering. I called Zoom and one of them fired a shot at me, so I ducked into the barn. They got the clothes to take a chance on the highway now. Oh. What's the nearest main road? Road your car's on, cuts into state 12, about half a mile ahead. We'd better get to that highway fast, Hagen. They've got clothes now. They'll try for a car. Hitchhike? Yes. A hitchhike with a gun. Haven't helped any motorists foolish enough to stop for them. Come on. Here's the highway intersection. Well, nothing in sight. Which way do we try? Left of the general direction of the city. Maybe they... What's the matter? What are you looking at? The rush on the far side of the state road there. I thought I saw a little smoke. Yeah, yeah. I see it, too. Oh, I'd better have a look. Right in between those two trees. Mm-hmm. A little campfire dying out. Oh, there. Veggie. Tire cracks. A few sets of footprints, too. Hey, look. The prints go up into the brush and come back again. And what are those spots there? Blood stains. The driver who stopped for them? We'd better go in there and look around. It must have been them all right. No doubt about that, Hagen. Look at the way he was killed. Johnny Curtin's trademark. He was shot through the stomach. This is David Bryan. Before we continue with Mr. District Attorney in the case of the hungry killer, here is an important message from our sponsor. And now back to David Bryan, starring as Paul Garrett, Mr. District Attorney. A jail guard in an unsuspecting motorist had been viciously murdered by an escaped convict, holding an unwilling cellmate as hostage. I ordered roadblocks thrown up over every possible escape route, and Harrington and I drove back to my office to supervise all phases of the manhunt. By the time we got there, Miss Miller and my staff had assembled every bit of available information on the previous life habits and association of Johnny Curtin. Here are the mates on Curtin's together. Oh, thank you, Miss Miller. What do we show on known associates? Blank on our records, I'm afraid. He was a sort of lone wolf type kid. There's something in his record from the state of Illinois, though. He did time in Joliet for armed robbery before he moved here. During the time he lived in Illinois, there was a woman named Marcella Roberts. She ran a beauty parlor in Springfield. Hmm. Any line on her present whereabouts? No. Telecipe from the Springfield police says she sold her shop there three months ago. Moved, no forwarding, I guess. Now, I want to find out where she moved. That isn't going to be easy. It will be if she went into business again. Well, here's what you do, Miss Miller. Check all cosmetic distributors and supply houses where Marcella Roberts had established credit. If they... I'll take it, Chief. If she's back in business, her new suppliers will be checking the old ones for credit references. Find out who the new suppliers are and they'll be able to tell us where to locate Marcella Roberts. I'll get right on her. Oh, that was Charlie Benton, Chief. Dispatch with the Sheriff's Office. Robbery report on a food store. Where? Just outside of Eaton. We going out there? As fast as we can get there. I told the fella from the Sheriff's Office I was asleep in this room here. Right back to the store. When I heard this noise I told you about. It was still dark just before daybreak. Do you see anybody? Oh, as a matter of fact, it didn't. I didn't even put on the store lights. Why not? Well, of course, when I opened the door to the store here the dang cat popped into my room and started purring and rubbing against my leg. So I just figured she'd knocked something over so I went back to bed. I didn't know the place had been robbed till I got up at eight o'clock and found the front door had been bright open. I must have slept through that, though. I sleep sound. I guess I woke up when they knocked that stack of canned goods over. What's that? Fruit you, sir. I've got it all stacked again. Third time I've been robbed in two years. Why do people want to pick on a small store like this? Think they'd drive into Easton over a supermarket or something. You've been robbed before, huh? Yeah, like I said, three times. Yeah, it might not have been the boys who were after you. No. Better get a fingerprint through out, though. Make sure. I'll get them on the car radio. You got any idea what they took? Yeah, I don't know. I don't have much of an inventory system. No ways I could tell for sure. I wouldn't even have known they took anything if they hadn't been through the door in the cash register. I can understand them lifting the six bucks from the register, but why do they have to steal my pills? What pills? Oh, some pills the doctor gave me to take. Kept them right on the shelf under your register. Vitamin pills. Vitamin pills. Why didn't you mention that to the sheriff's deputy? Because only found out they were missing when I went to take one just before you drove up. Why? What's so important about the pills? Just a very slight thing. Something that spells the difference between an ordinary burglar and a vicious murderer. You'll hear from us. Oh, chief, I was just coming in after you. We're not going to need that fingerprint through after all, Harrington. The grocer just told me the burglar stole a bottle of vitamin pills. Oh, then we're getting hot. Why? When I came out to the radio, headquarters was trying to reach us. They find the car Kirtan and Abbott were using? No, but they got a line on Kirtan's girlfriend, Marcella Roberts. She opened the new beauty shop. Just 40 miles east on this highway, Lindbrook. That's what Kirtan was headed for then. Come on. You figure the woman is helping him hide out? Kirtan didn't have this way without a reason. If she isn't hiding him, she'll know where he's running. Chief, I don't like it. Don't be patient, Harrington. How long? Based on the beauty parlor is closed. Now we wait all day and she doesn't come home. The sign said the beauty parlor is closed every Monday. That's not uncommon. Why isn't she here then? For all we know, she's taken case in some place where we'll never be able to find her. In which case we have no choice but to wait and hope we can find a way to make her tell us where that place is. Yeah, I guess you're right. But getting dark and all we have... Hey. Here comes a car. Staying the shadows on the side of the porch here. This is my assistant, Mr. Harrington. We thought you might be able to help us. You know a man named Johnny Kirtan? I... Well, I used to know him a long time ago. Then you haven't seen him lately. Well, how could I? I heard he was in jail. Your news boy must have neglected you this morning. He's out. We're looking for him. Well, I haven't seen him. Good. Then you shouldn't mind if we take a look through your apartment. If you've got any objections, Miss, the chief can wait here with you while I go for a walk. Well, I only hesitated because the place is a mess inside. Don't worry. We won't tell the neighbors. Well, here you are. Couldn't hide a mouse in here. Check the closets in the bathroom, Harrington. Now have a look at the kitchen. Okay, Chief. Chief, that's for sure. No, not now. But there was somebody here. What do you mean by that? I mean, if you were a better housekeeper, you might make a better liar. Take a look in the kitchen, Harrington. I don't see nothing. I'm looking at the shelves. They're rather dusty. Except for the clean rings left by a bunch of canned goods. And the cans were removed. Mr. Garrett, I... You're concealing and aiding a murderer if you know where Johnny Curtin is. Miss Roberts, you can serve a lot of time for that. Now where is he? What? Well, I drove him and another fellow upstate. You know where the old state fish hatcheries used to be. Was he going to stay there? Yes. He said he'd stay there for a week. That I should raise some money to get him out of the country and bring it to him next Monday. Drive us to the spot where you left him. And don't bother about raising the money. He isn't going to be needing it. I thought I told you to sit down, Abbott. I can't. I'm cold. Why can't we build a fire? Because I said so, stupid. I wanted anybody to know I was up here and send out invitations, not sit down. Sit down before you get knocked down. It's better, Abbott. Live a little while you can. You shouldn't mind the cold when you've only got a week. Stop slinging that. What do you want me to say? I'm going to let you run to the nice little cops and tell them where I'm going. Oh, no, Abbott. When I get on that ship and leave the country, you're going to be lying nice and quiet someplace. Say nothing. Why? I never crossed you up. When you wanted things, I got them for you. Because I was right there making sure you did. But once I get my chance to run up for good, what was that? What? Saw a flash of light against the trees, down that way toward the road. Maybe it's your girl coming back for something. Maybe it's the police, whatever it is. It's stopped down there because the lights went off. Come on. Up on your feet, move. Not that way down toward the road. But suppose it is the police? Suppose they shoot? That's what I got you for, Abbott. So stay right in front of me all the way. I'll move or I'll give it to you right here and now. It must be your girl. She's blowing a horn. Cops wouldn't do that. Just shut up and keep moving. I'm glad it's not the cops, Johnny. Honest I am. Oh, yeah, but you're dumber than I thought. Maybe she got her hands on the door I need already. Have a think of that. Because if she did, you just lost a week. You've got to give me a break, Johnny. You've got to give me a chance. All right. If she's got the money, I'll give you a chance. I'll count up to five on your run before I... All right, Curtin. You can stop right there, both of you. It is the cops. Now you're slugging around, Curtin. You'd never make it back into the trees. Don't shoot, please. I didn't want to be with him. You hear that? He's telling the truth. Little Abbott doesn't want to die. But he's going to die if you make one move to get me. Take that right, Abbott. Tuck up. No, stop. Johnny, my arm. You'd better let him go and put up your hands, Curtin. Why don't you shoot? Come on. You'll hit Abbott first, but I don't mind. Would you rather make a deal? We don't make deals. You'll make this one of Abbott's a dead pigeon by the time I count ten. You mean this? You'll kill me, and I got a wife and a baby coming. What's your deal? Just turn around and walk away from your car. And keep on walking until I get it started and get out of here with my friend. It's all right, Angon. Fair enough choice. That's nice. Just keep moving. All right, Abbott. Now we can go. No. Move, you crazy punk. Why? So you can kill me someplace else? No. You're going to kill me any house or do it now. I ain't going to let you hide behind me anymore. Kill me now and let them kill you. You are you. You're going to kill me? Let go of me. You're crazy. I'll put a bullet through your crack. What the fuck is going to happen? Let him go. Let him go. I don't just... It's my hand. He bit my tooth in the bone. You're going to kill me. Down. Stay to take care of him. Now, March, both of you, down to the car. I never expected this one to turn out this way, Chief. And none of that I, Hankon. But a man can only be driven so far. Curtin drove Abbott to the breaking point. Sometimes in that small second before dying, a man suddenly stops being a coward. Abbott stopped Justin from... This is David Bryan again. I hope you've enjoyed this case from the file of Mr. District Attorney. I'll be back in just a moment after this message from our sponsor. Here's the star of Mr. District Attorney, David Bryan, with a word about the program you have just heard. Johnny Curtin, already sentenced to life imprisonment, was tried and convicted on two counts of murder on the first degree. He was sentenced to be executed in the manner prescribed by law. Ralph Abbott and his wife, Francis Abbott, were each sentenced to two years for aiding Curtin. But since they had acted under duress, sentences were suspended. Now this is David Bryan and based on the facts of crime from the files of Mr. District Attorney. Mr. District Attorney was originated by Philip S. Floyd.