 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. Transcribed and presented as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. Today some of your neighbors, perhaps you yourself, receive postcards from an equitable society representative. The men and women who receive these postcards should be pleased to hear that they were sent to people classified as most likely to succeed. The kind of people who are sure to be interested in the Equitable Society's plan for men and women on the way up. In about 14 minutes I'll give you full details on this special plan for people who are slated for success. It is offered by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Tonight's FBI file, larceny goes to sea. Geography makes a difference in people. Not deep down, for all of us are one breed in the last analysis. But it is true that the farmer in Kansas looks at life a little differently than the factory worker in Georgia or the fisherman in any desolate village on one of our secluded coastlines. Of the three, probably the citizen in the small fishing village is the one with whom city dwellers have the least in common. For him the tides are not haphazard movements of the ocean. The water is not an inanimate thing. And the weather is more than just a topic of conversation. The tides tell him which way schools of fish are moving. The water is a lie, is his friend or his enemy. And it gives him his livelihood or refuses him his daily bread. And the weather, the daily fluctuations on his barometer that tell him whether or not he can fly his plane that day. The sudden storm that comes and wrecks his boats, his home, his dreams. Yes, even the young know that good weather can bring fortune. And bad weather? Well, bad weather in the fishing village can bring anything. Even a crime wave. Tonight's file opens on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the New England coast. It is late afternoon and the squall is blowing in a cold, steady rain off the ocean. On the cliff, the crowd is gathered, watching the waves punish a weary freighter caught on a reef. On the edge of the crowd, a young villager is joined by two of his fellow counselors. Too long to get off, Howard. Look at her. She's really taken plenty. Yeah. Those waves look big enough to wash her off the reef. There's no word if she wanted to go. You know what she's carrying? We hear you've got the Java going aboard and keeping her from being salvage-based. How'd you know that? Shorty heard the captain give it to you. Yeah. On what? Her not coming apart. Suppose she settles. I go aboard in the morning. Howard, what does the captain think? He don't know. Weather might clear by morning. Yeah. Hope so. You see the crew come off? Uh-huh. They bring their gear with them? No. How come? No rum on the board. They have a one-man jab? Mm-hmm. Howard, you interested in making something on this deal? That's why I took the job. I mean something extra. There must be lots of clothes, maybe even wallets laying around on her. Now, if me and Shorty rode out... No, Al, no. You could just throw the stuff over the rail to us. I said no. You wouldn't be stealing, Howard. I don't want to talk about it. Yeah. Come here a minute. Okay, cover. Next step. No, Shorty. You hear him say he ain't going out to the freighter till morning? Yeah. We're gonna get our Dory and go out there tonight. Special Agent Jim Taylor enters the office of the local chief of police. Chief Ridgeway? Yes. I'm Jim Taylor. Oh, hello, Jim. Hi. You made good time from the station. I got a list right after I called you. Take off that coat and sit down. Okay. All right, if I just toss it over here? Yeah, yeah, sure. You ran into where there? Yeah, plenty. Anything I can do to help you? All I need for the presence and transportation, chief. Where to? Cliffside Lighthouse. It's going out there. Some vandals broke in last night and ransacked the place. There's no one there at night now, is there? No, it's on automatic equipment. They stole, uh... Two pair of binoculars, 20-power spyglass and a radio transmitter receiver. How much you guess the whole thing's worth? Oh, several hundred dollars. But the government isn't so much concerned with what was stolen as it is with the vandalism, chief. There was a diaphragm fog signal in the lighthouse that was dismantled and smashed. See, those things are expensive. Yeah. This one cost more than 20,000 just to install. You think I'm running out there now? Yeah, that's right. I hear the storm may get worse. Well, I'll just have to take that chance. I'll get a map and mark the route for you. Will you? Thanks very much. Instead of using our radio car, I think maybe you'll have better luck with the Jeep. Oh, fine. I'd go out there with you, but we had a freighter go on a reef down the other end of Cliffside. Oh, it's too bad. Well, if you just make up the map and show me the Jeep, I'll get started. Coming out! Come on, one big one. To ride the next wave up to the hull. Now, when it starts, pull hard against it. Do you hear it? Yeah. All right, here it comes. No. Pull! To reach the rail. Need a line? I got one. Line up here. I'll climb aboard first. Now, you wait until the next wave comes in. That'll raise you high enough to make it. Okay. Here she comes. All right. Give me your hand. What do we do with the dory? Well, what can we do? We'll leave it there. Yes, she'll get pounded. We won't be here that long. She'll just scrape a little pain. What else? She's coming up fast. I'm just settling. Come on. You got a flashlight? Yeah, but I ain't using it yet. They'll see it from the cliff. I can't see nothing. All right. Just stay behind me. Now, let's get below and go to work. See you in a minute, Jim. Is this you, Howard? Chief Ridgway. I just got a call from the captain. He's back out to cliff. The storm let him up. He wants you to go aboard the freighter tonight. Yes. Soon you can make it. Night, Howard. I'm sorry, Jim. I had to get a man aboard that founder freighter. How'd you make out at the lighthouse? I found a couple of leads. Good. But were they? Like some gray paint for one thing. I found a rock just outside the lighthouse. Had quite a few chunks of this stuff on it. Looks like a boat was dragged up onto the rock. Pretty common shaded gray. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I also found this little piece of cloth. There. One of the windows was broken on the side where the boat had been pulled ashore. That's the way one of the thieves got in. One of them? Yeah, I found two sets of footprints leading away from where the boat was beached. Oh. I've got plaster first cast to the prints. Yeah. Good. Where'd you find the cloth? No, I was caught on a piece of the broken window. It was folded that way? Mm-hmm. It resembles part of a trouser cuff, then. She's going to say that. Look at this little stuff here. The metal adhered to the cloth. What's that? It's metal of some type. I wouldn't even try to stab it. What kind, though? I thought I'd send all this into the lab. I've got a man going into town in the now, Jim. Yeah, fine. We'll get it there tonight. Maybe we can have a report by late tomorrow. How many bags that make so far? Six. Well, we got enough, pal. Let's load the dory and go back. What's your hurry? We ain't finished yet. Come on. Where are we going now? Captain's cabin. Right over here. OK. On the class. Lots of stuff here. Yeah. Look at that chest full of clothes. Uh-huh. Hey. Huh? There's a safe. The shorty, it's open. Yeah. We may not bother with clothes. What's in there? Well, give me a chance to look here. Hold the class. Shine it over my shoulder. OK. Here's a steel box. Anything in it? We'll find out later. Where's that bag? Oh, right here. We'll just load stuff in it. And take the box. OK. There's a package of some kind. Put this in there, too. Al, somebody's at the door. Put out the flash. Flash the light. It's Howard. Yeah. What do we do with them? Leave them for salvage. We'll return in just a moment to this exciting file which shows how your FBI helps protect the security of America. Now a quick look at the future of America. One big question is, what's going to happen to us in the 1950s? Leading economists have a very optimistic answer. All signs indicate that America is standing on the threshold of a period of unusual prosperity. By 1960, according to conservative estimates, our national income will have risen from the present $210 billion to over $275 billion a year for people with brains, energy and character. 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Third advantage, the Equitable Plan is flexible at all times. It can expand or contract as you see fit. And offers you many desirable options which your Equitable Society representative will be glad to explain to you. So why not get in touch with him right away? Phone him and ask for full details on the Equitable Plan for people on the way up or send a postcard care of this station to the Equitable Society. That's E-Q-U-I-T-A-B-L-E. The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. And now back to the FBI file, Larceny Goes to Sea. Tonight's case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation involves the theft of some relatively inexpensive equipment from a government lighthouse and an accompanying case of vandalism. As such, it does not rate among the most important cases in the history of the Bureau. And it may have surprised some of you that an agent in charge took the trouble to assign a man to run down the criminals involved in such an isolated crime. But every crime is important to the FBI because their experience has told them that people capable of the wanton destruction of property, destruction not for their personal gain, but merely for the sake of ruining. People capable of that are capable of any crime, including the destruction of a human being. In addition, it has never been the policy or custom of the man who comprised the Federal Bureau of Investigation to predetermine at their own discretion the seriousness of a crime and to thereby predetermine which files shall be prosecuted and which shall be allowed to gather dust in a pigeonhole. They have never done that because of their training. Training which tells every special agent that there are no unimportant crimes. No unimportant criminals. And that his job is not to weigh which investigation shall be pressed. His job is easily defined. His job is to locate the criminals and apprehend them. Tonight's file continues in the office of Chief of Police Ridgway. Special Agent Taylor has just entered. Good morning, Jim. Morning, Chief. Any word yet from the lab of those things we sent on? No, but I have got something else for you. Remember that freighter that was caught on the reef? Yeah. Seems they hired a young fellow named Howard Albright to go board and keep watch. He went last night. This morning when his relief took the British boy across to the ship, Albright was missing. Every cabinet had been gone through and the safe had been rifled. He hasn't used the boy to get off? No. You know this Albright? Yes, and that's what puzzles me. He's always seemed okay. Looks like you've got a new case on your hands. So have you, Jim. Huh? You're in on this, too. Oh, how come? I got the manifest from the captain a little while ago. One of the things missing from the safe is a package of jewels, military precision instruments, government property. How? That gives the FBI jurisdiction, all right. I've already sent out an alarm on Albright. That's right. Did you've been out freighter yet? I was just leaving. Okay. I'll go along with you. Come on, Jim. Just let the boy swing free. Hey, will you in a minute, Chief? I hope. Oh, not a bad ride, is it? Oh, it's been walking. Yeah. Grab my hand. All right. Let's just... Let's go down. Oh, just a minute, really, Chief. I saw something as I was crossing. Why? It's down here on the side of the freighter. Let's lean over and see if we can get a look at it. Okay. Oh, there. Look. See that place where the pain is chipped off from the side? Uh-huh. Looks like it was done by another boat. Could be. If the pain is chipped off there, maybe it's still on the plow of that boat. Probably is. Do you see those gray specks? Yeah. Well, I couldn't be sure without the lab, but it looks like the same shade of gray as that paint that I found on the rock by the lighthouse. Could be the same, then, Jim. My deputy found a couple of typewriters and the radio smashed at them. I can reach you. I'll chip around that spot and send those gray flecks to the lab. Wait a minute, Jim. Huh? Let me break your leg. And how's that? That's fine. Make it easy. You getting it? That should be enough. Are you coming up? Yeah. All right. Thanks. Where's your deputy now, Chief? He's in the hole. Is he examined the safety? Yeah. Tried to get some prints, but there were so many overlapping, he couldn't get any clear ones. Let's go take a look at it ourselves. All right. Chief, do you ever have any complaints about the local vandalism around here? No, ma'am, but nothing who could match against these. Young Albright? Ever been a suspect? No. Tell you, Jim, I know the evidence points to him, but it's pretty tough for me to even think this... Okay. Yes, Bill. We just found young Albright. Where? In the hole. He's still alive. Come on, Jim. Let's take a look at him. Oh, it's a book in your hand. That's a dictionary. Where'd you get that? It's in a box of stuff we took up at that cottage. What do you want with a dictionary? I'm looking something up. B-O-R-B-O-R-T. Yeah, here it is. B-O-R-T. What's that? It's the word on the box. What box? The box we found in the safe, the one with them little stones in it. Hey. Listen to this. B-O-R-T. Corse diamonds. Diamonds? Yeah, that's right. Hey, they should be worth plenty. Sure, if we can sell them. Why not? Well, it's something we never done before, shorty. It's a jewelry store in Elmdale. That's no good. We gotta sell them to some fella that won't ask questions like we did with the clothes. Where would you find him? In the city. I'll take a bus down there in the morning. He just said young, all bright ashore. Are you still unconscious, chief? Yeah, one of my deputies is gonna take him to the hospital. You find anything in the captain's cabin? Yeah, this muffler. Oh, take a look at it. Hold it up to the light. See how it sparkles in some place? That piece of cloth you found in the lighthouse window. That's right. A lab should be able to tell us whether it's the same metallic substance. Hey, uh, when's the next train into the city? Uh, 643. That's an express. If I send those paint chips and this muffler in, I can have a report back in the morning. Come on, chief, let's get ashore. Morning, chief. Good morning, Jim. I didn't think you'd be in this early. I just came from the hospital. Oh? Young, all bright came too for a while this morning. Long enough to be questioned? Yeah. Said he didn't know who hit him. Well, it puts us right back where we started. Just about. You know, I examined those paint chips off the freighter before I sent them onto the lab. Oh? You know, I'm convinced they're off the same boat that was beached by the lighthouse. You know, if we could find that boat, we'd be alive. Well, Jim, there must be a couple thousand boats scattered up and down this coast. I'm trying to find the right one to be like looking for a tree in the forest. Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right. Besides, by the time we got to it, the thieves could have it painted a different color. Pardon me, Jim. Sure thing. Chief Ridgway speaking. Yes. Yes. Yes, he's here. In just a minute. You, Jim. Oh. Thanks, chief. Hello. Yeah, Frank. On both, huh? Wait a minute. Will you repeat that? Go ahead. Black steel, tin coating, plus enamel. Electrolytic plate, huh? Oh, Frank, just a minute, will you? Chief, it's a report from our lab. Tell me, do you know what everybody in town here does for a living? Just about. Fine. Okay, Frank. I think that'll probably be all the dope we'll need. Mr. Milton. And no, he went to the city. Oh, then you'd be Mr. Harrison. Yeah. I'm a special agent of the FBI, Mr. Harrison, here in my credential. May I come in? Sure. Thanks. What do you want? I'd like to ask you a few questions. What kind of questions? Well, there was some equipment stolen from the Cliffside Lighthouse. Oh, I don't think so. And there was some government property stolen from that freighter that's caught out there on the reef. I don't know anything about it. Is that your door outside in the boathouse? Yeah. It's got a bad scrape along the bottom of it. That scrape might have come from being dragged over a rock outside the lighthouse. I told you. I never been there. Far of your dooring has flexed some black paint. It might have come off the side of the freighter. Well, I ain't been out in the door for a week. How about that radio over there? And that telescope next to the binoculars. What do you know about them? Oh, well, a friend of mine left them here. They were stolen from the lighthouse. Well, they ain't mine. I'm afraid that won't hold up. But I tell you that... Some shavings of a electrolytic plate were found in a part of a pants cup at the lighthouse so that it was left on the freighter. What's that got to do with me? Electrolytic plate is what they make tin cans out of, Mr. Harrison. And you and Al Milton just got back from working in a cannery up north. Now, is that enough? Yeah, that's enough. Well... Don't turn around, Mr. Just put up your hands. Like this, Milton? Now, now I've got the gun. Jamie, you all right? I am now, chief. Your neighbors here are a little smarter than they were. They just learned something about judo. Something they're going to have a long time to practice. Al Milton and Shory Harrison were convicted for a theft of government property and sentenced to 10 years each. In addition, the state obtained a detainer on both men for the assault of Howard Albright. The knowledge of a special agent of your FBI plus the knowledge of a local small town chief of police was what closed this case from the vials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Special Agent Taylor knew that electrolytic plate was the material used in making tin cans. Chief Ridgway knew the people of his town well enough to be able to name Al Milton and Shory Harrison as the pair who had just returned from their seasonal jobs at the cannery. That type of cooperation, the ability of special agents and local police all over the nation to work together as one well-knit unit is representative of the job that is being done every day and every night. The fact that the FBI crime laboratory received an exhibit at midnight and was able to report on it early the next morning should not come as a surprise to anyone. For the men of the lab do the same job as the men in the field. Help fight a 24-hour-a-day war against crime. In just a moment, we will tell you about next week's exciting FBI file. Now one last word on the equitable society's plan for men and women on the way up. It's a plan for the kind of man who knows that someday his neighbors will say of him, say, I hear Joe Williams is buying a new house. He certainly is getting ahead fast in his firm. If you're that kind of man, then the sooner you get in touch with an equitable society representative, the better. Ask him for full information on the equitable society's life insurance plan for men and women on the way up. Or send a postcard care of this station to the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Next week we will dramatize another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An unusual recount of organized crime within prison walls, its subject, extortion, its title, Ladies of Lausanne. The incidents used in tonight's Equitable Life Assurance Society's broadcast are adapted from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, all names used are fictitious. And any similarity they love 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. The narrator was William Woodson. And special agent Taylor was played by Stacey Harris. Others in the cast were Ed Begley, Walter Burke, Henry Morgan, and Bob Pollock. This is your FBI as a Jerry Devine 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 brings you the story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ladies of larceny on this is your FBI. Open your heart. Give to fight heart disease. Every year, diseases of the heart and blood vessels take a death toll of more than 600,000 men, women, and children. Give generously to this campaign now. The adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, fun for the whole family, follows immediately over most of these ABC stations. So stay tuned. This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.