 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 as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. Half an hour from now when this Equitable Society program ends, the following scene will be enacted in hundreds of American homes. Husbands will turn to their wives and say, Dear, did you hear what he said about that fact-finding chart for fathers and mothers that the Equitable Life Assurance Society has published? Sounds like just what we need. I'm going to ask my Equitable Society representative to bring me a copy. It happens every time we offer the fact-finding chart for fathers and mothers. Request pour-in to the Equitable Society. Uh, what is this chart? What fact does it help you to find? Listen carefully in about 14 minutes and you'll learn all about this famous chart created for you by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Tonight's FBI file, The Friendly Forgers. When you hear the word criminal, you are likely to think of a young man thoroughly corrupt and thoroughly tough. A young man who uses a blazing gun to punctuate his every action. In the most recent survey taken by your FBI, a survey which covered the field of crime throughout all of the 48 states, it was found that the greatest number of those arrested were 21 years of age. The second greatest group was age 22. Those are shocking figures and tend to sustain the common picture of the criminal as a young man. However, that same survey revealed that the number of arrest records for those in the 50 and over age bracket was more than the total of the 21 and 22-year-olds put together. Almost 10% of all people arrested in the United States this year had reached the age of 50 and their violations covered every statute in the books. This aged group of lawbreakers has rejected the proverb that crime does not pay and has substituted their own slogan. If at first you don't succeed, cheat. Cheat again. Tonight's file opens in a building located in a small Midwestern town. It is early afternoon and in one of the rooms of this building, an elderly lady is seated talking to her husband. Calvin, I've got a lot of marketing to do before dinner. Would you please sign my checks now? Of course, Hattie. Let me have them. All right. Here you are. And here's a pen. Thank you. You sign Mr. Thackeray's name on the blue checks and Mr. Goodwin's name on the yellow ones. You know, Calvin, I was just thinking this morning. You sign Mr. Thackeray's name better than he does himself. Thank you. I wish I could make these checks bigger, Hattie, but... Oh, I'm not complaining. How about the young man who's passing these for you? Mr. Raymond? Has he given you any of the money? Well, not yet. Doesn't sound like that boy is treating us right, Hattie. Well, every time I see him, he says that all his money is in the safe deposit box and he can't get to it. Why not? Well, I always see him at night when the bank is closed. Oh. He did give me a note saying he'd pay me what was coming to us. Well, let me see it. Well, now let's see. Oh, yes, here it is. Now, the note says he'll give us our money tomorrow. Well, let's give him one more chance. Deliver these checks to him tonight and then go to see him in the morning. All right, Dalvin, I will. Time's up. I'll see you tomorrow, Hattie. I've got to go back to myself. At a nearby FBI field office, Special Agent Jim Taylor is seated at his desk when Agent Glenn Adams approaches. Did you want to see me, too? Oh, hello, Glenn. Yes, I walked by your desk before, but you were out. I had to go over to Memorial Hospital. You look pretty healthy to me. It wasn't anything personal. I had to interview one of the patients over there. It's a long ride. Well, Glenn, you've got some more traveling to do. The SAC just assigned us to work on a bad check case together. A traveling case? Here, take a look at this map. Okay. See all those little Xs? That's right. I just finished putting them there. It indicates a place where one of the bad checks was cashed. Looks like a lot of checks. Thirty-seven of them have turned up so far. Well, whoever passed them really fanned out, didn't he? Here, look at this. You can see he left here. You can follow the Xs north on Route 26 until they reach Corona. And he passed three, four, five, six, seven bad checks all along Route 11. Now he worked around here, then back into town along Route 82. Well, have we got any description on who passed the check? Not a very good one, Glenn. I guess that's one of the reasons you were assigned to the case. The SAC wants you to visit each of these places and make up a composite picture of the check passer. I guess I might as well start right now. Picture will be a big help, Glenn, as soon as you get it finished. I'll be back as soon as I can. Good. Oh, I've already sent the checks down to the lab in Washington. We should have a report back by the time you're finished with the drawing. What are you talking to on the phone? Oh, Lady Bingham. She's in the lobby. What does she want? She wants some money. That must be her. Get it, will you? Okay. Oh, good morning, Mrs. Raymond. Hello, Mrs. Bingham. Come in. Well, thank you. Hi, Mrs. Bingham. Oh, hello there. Oh, let me have your pair. Oh, thank you. Would you like a drink, Mrs. Bingham? Oh, I don't drink. I learned my lesson about whiskey at an early age. My father was in the forging profession, too. And when he drank, it affected his nervous system Well, he finally vowed to never drink when he was working. He kept that vow, too. You know, my husband Calvin is not like him. Iron willed, determined. Now, just look at Calvin right now. Any other man in jail or just sit there and do nothing. But not a week goes by that Calvin doesn't learn a new signature. Why, the first time he ever went to jail, Calvin sold mining stock through the mails. Oh? Yes, sir, he used the prison library as his office and he made enough money to hire a new lawyer who got him a pardon. Well, he sure deserves a lot of credit, don't he, Ruth? Yeah. Well, you keep working that hard, Mr. Raymond, and you will be as successful as Calvin is at his age. Well, I'll sure try. Now, let's see. Mr. Raymond, did you pass any of the checks I delivered to you yesterday? No. No, I didn't work last night. Well, then may I have the money that's coming to us from the last batch of checks? Well, I'm sorry. I still haven't been to the safe deposit box. Well, the bank is open this morning. Why don't we go down there now? Oh, Chuck, today's Monday. The bank's closed today. Oh, yeah, yeah. I've never heard of a bank closing up on a normal day. Well, you've heard of it now. Mr. Raymond, I hate to say this, but I don't think you're telling me the truth. Oh, Mrs. Bingham, do I look like a man who would cheat an old lady? You gave me a note, and your note said that you would pay me today. Well, I know, but if the bank is closed, what can I do? I need that money to get Calvin out of jail. Oh, I'm sorry. Young man, you're trying to hoodwink me, but you're not going to get away with it. I'll get the money that's due me, even if I have to turn legitimate and call in the police. I'm sorry I kept you waiting. Oh, that's all right, Calvin. I had to clean up myself before they'd let me come out to see you. Well, I haven't been waiting long. Did you get to see Mr. Raymond? Yes. Or did he give you our money? No, he refused to. Oh, that's terrible. I was wrong about that man, Calvin. He's completely dishonest. He certainly is. He was also very rude to me. He sounds like a terrible person. Your time's up. Oh, dear. Today was my third visiting day this week, Calvin. Now they won't let me see you again until Monday. Yes, yes, I know. But don't worry, Hattie. I have to think of some way to get our money from Mr. Raymond. I've worked, but I've got that composite picture. Good, let me see it, huh? Here. I know I'm no Rembrandt, Jim, but I think that's a pretty good likeness of whoever passed those checks. I'm sure it is, Glenn, but this is a young man. He came back from the lab in Washington. What did they say? The handwriting analysis section said that these checks are the work of an old-time forager named Calvin Bingham. Well, maybe Bingham is working with this young man. Oh, he can't be. Why not? According to the records, Bingham started a two-year sentence for forgery last September. Was the lab sure about it being Bingham who wrote the checks? Glenn, they never make a mistake about a thing like that. You're right, they don't. You know, you should have brought me back a picture of an old lady. Why? By a man, Jim. Yeah, I know, I know. Well, we ought to know a little more when I get my report on Bingham. I sent word to the warden of the jail. He's in and I asked him to question Bingham about these new forgeries. Well, Jim, maybe I should go down to identity and see if I can find anybody whose picture looks like this drawing I've made. That's a good idea, Glenn. Oh, pardon me. Special Agent Taylor. Yes. That's right. Glenn, a lot more of old man Bingham's checks. May she open the next couple of days? Why do you say that? He just broke out of jail. It's me, Attie. Calvin. That's right. My goodness, Calvin. What in the world are you doing here? Come home, that's all. When did you get out? What happened? Well, I suppose you'd say I broke out. Jailbreak? How did you manage it? I was given a new cell companion yesterday. A man named Miller. Yes? He was very angry about being in prison. So early this morning, he decided to break out. When I learned of his plan, I prevailed upon him to let me accompany him. Well, that was very nice of him. Well, he left right after breakfast. After breakfast? Why, gracious, it's almost four in the afternoon now. Where have you been? I had something to attend to. Even before you saw me? I wasn't sure this thing could wait, Attie. I went to see Mr. Raymond. Oh. I wanted to talk to him about his being so rude to you yesterday. Calvin. I also wanted to ask him for the money he owes us. What did he say? He refused. So there was nothing I could do but pick his pocket. Good for you. I got all the money he owes us and more besides. From his pocket? Indirectly. I got $8,000 in cash. $8,000? Why, that's like old times. Attie, I think we ought to take a little trip with Mr. Raymond's money. Oh, I'd like that, Calvin. And it'll teach him a good lesson, too. He'll know now that honesty is still the best policy. We will return in just a moment to tonight's case from the files of your FBI. Now, listen. Do you hear that clock? Not many more minutes of 1948 left. But still time enough for fathers and mothers who truly love their children to make an extremely important New Year's resolution. What is that resolution, Mr. Keating? Resolve here and now that beginning in January 1949, you will not leave your children's future happiness and security to chance. Resolve that even if you, the breadwinner, should die unexpectedly, your family will continue to be well-fed, well-housed, and well-closed. I've often worried about that. Wondered what income they'd really need to live the way they should. George, the Equitable Life Assurance Society, has published a chart which would give you the answer to that question. It's called a fact-finding chart for fathers and mothers. It was designed by the Equitable Society to help you figure just what income your wife and children would need to maintain a comfortable standard of living, if you should be taken from them. This chart makes it simple and easy because you're guided every step of the way by easy-to-understand pictures. In five minutes, you'll know just how much money your family will need to keep going and to keep together during the critical years until your youngest child finishes high school. Mr. Keating, I could use one of those charts. Where can I buy one? No, you can't buy it, George. It's free. Phone your Equitable Society representative soon and ask him to bring you a fact-finding chart for fathers and mothers or send a postcard, care of this ABC station, to the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Your request will be forwarded to the nearest Equitable Representative. Yes, 1949 is coming nearer and nearer. Resolve now to start the new year right by sending for the fact-finding chart for fathers and mothers prepared for you by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. And now back to the FBI file, The Friendly Forgers. Tonight's case from the files of your FBI illustrates an important point, a point which you, as law-abiding citizens, would do well to ponder. The prison from which Calvin Bingham escaped was a small, poorly guarded one-story building. It was not poorly guarded because of carelessness on the part of the guards, but because there simply were not enough guards to do the required job. That situation exists in too many prisons in this country. In the majority of those cases, prison authorities who are capable and conscientious are not provided with adequate facilities or adequate funds. This is a penny-wise and pound-foolish approach to the problem. Under the best of circumstances, it is a difficult job for any law enforcement agency to apprehend the criminals of the community. Once apprehended, though, it is obviously to your best interests that those criminals serve the sentences which have been meted out to them. For only in that way can you be sure that any real advancement is being made in the constant war against crime. Tonight's file continues at the apartment of Chuck Raymond. All right, all right, I'm coming, I'm coming. Who is it? It's me, Ruth. Okay. What happened to your key? I lost it. That's not very bright. How come you're up and dressed? I had company. Who? Calvin Bingham. He busted out of jail and came up here to see me. He wanted some dough. What'd you tell him? I brushed him off, chased him out of here, told him if he beefed anymore, I'd blow a whistle on him. Good. Chuck, there's a joint around the corner. Give me your key and I'll go down and get a new one made. Okay. Hey. What? My keys are gone. Maybe they're in on the dresser. No, no, no. I remember putting them in my pocket. Hey, wait a minute. Old man Bingham, he clipped me for my keys. Oh, he clipped your keys. What are you getting excited about? One of those keys was where our safe deposit box. Glen? That's all right, Jim. I've made a little progress while you were out. How would you find it? Well, I took my composite picture over the eye-dance section and it turned out to be a pretty good likeness of a petty larceny thief named Chuck Raymond. Chuck Raymond, huh? I looked up Raymond's arrest record and I found that he seems to work with his wife. Hey, good work, Glen. I made a little progress myself. In what direction? Well, the local police captured Miller, the prisoner who escaped with Bingham. Were they still together? No, but I'd just been talking to Miller. It took me quite a while to convince him that he'd be better off telling me anything he knew about where Bingham might have gone. What'd he say? Well, he finally told me that he knew Bingham was headed for the Lakeview District, but he didn't know the exact address. That's a pretty big district, Jim. Yeah, it's too big for the two of us to cover. I had the local police send out an alarm on them. Good. I've been working for the last hour down a police headquarters trying to find out if Mrs. Bingham ever gave a Lakeview address when she was arrested. So what do we do now, Jim? Glen, you say that picture you made was a good likeness of a man named Chuck Raymond. That's right. Do we know where this Raymond lives? Yes, I got his address just before you came in. Well, why don't you get a warrant for the arrest of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond and also of Mr. and Mrs. Bingham? I've already gotten those, Jim. Good. Have you got search warrant? Yes. Okay, now why don't you go over and see if you can make the arrest on the Raymond's? All right, Jim. I'll stay here and see if I can find out anything on Old Man Bingham's address. Just think, Calvin, my first plane ride. It's nice, isn't it? Yes. Calvin, you never did tell me how you got Mr. Raymond's money. I just took his keys and went to his safe deposit box. When I got there, I copied his signature off the note he gave him. That was very clever. Thank you, Hattie. You've earned a good vacation. No, I intend to keep working. What a lovely place like St. Petersburg or Calvin's. St. Petersburg is where all the old folks go. They're a very fertile field. How do you mean? They're always playing shuffleboard. You know the way they play that, Hattie? Is that where you take a steak and push a little round piece of wood across a place that's got some numbers painted on it? That's right. And whatever number the little piece of wood stops on is what you count on your score. Oh. The highest number is ten. Hattie, I've got a way to play where I get all tens. Really? How? Paint the ten with heavy lead paint and then put a strong magnet in the little round piece of wood. Calvin, I'm proud of you. Imagine being married to the first shuffleboard hustler in history. I went to see the Raymond. What happened, Glenn? They were gone. They took every stitch of clothing they owned along with them. Fine. The place was absolutely cleaned out. There wasn't even anything in the waste paper baskets. Any lead on where they went? None at all. There's a self-service elevator in the building and none of the neighbors saw them leave. Well, that makes our problem a little more difficult. Nothing came in on that Bingham alarm, did it? No, not a thing like that. Do you suppose they could all be together? Your guess is as good as mine. Oh, pardon me, Glenn. Special Agent Taylor Springing. Yes, Lieutenant? You did? Oh, just a minute like I did. That's okay. Okay, Lieutenant, go ahead. Yep, got it. Thanks very much, Lieutenant. We'll get out there right away. Glenn, those police headquarters, a cab driver just called them to say he saw old man Bingham's picture in the paper. Uh-huh. He says he picked Bingham up in front of the First National Bank yesterday afternoon and took him to 831 Oak Street. Well, that ties in with what Miller told you, Jim. Oak Street is in the Lakeview District. Yeah, I know that. Come on. Let's get out there. Find anything yet, Jim? Just a figure written down on this telephone pad. Yeah. You know, $187.50. Well, that could represent almost anything. He's so right. I've questioned all the neighbors, and none of them were friendly enough with the Bingham's to be able to give us any information on where they might have gone. Superintendent says they left here early yesterday afternoon. Did he talk to them at all? Yes, but all he knew is that Mrs. Bingham said she was going to take her first airplane ride. She didn't say where they were going. I see. Well, I guess they left here about the same time as they left down to their place, huh? You know, Glenn, I'm not so sure that they're together now. Why not, Jim? Well, the superintendent told me there was a man and a woman here looking for the Bingham's right after they left. Did he give you any descriptions on them? Well, luckily, I had a picture of Raymond in my pocket. Is that who it was? That's him. Superintendent made positive identification on him. He told me that Raymond gave him $20 for the privilege of looking around up here. He also said that Raymond picked up something and said, now I know where they went. Let's go get them. Well, what did Raymond pick up? Well, whatever it was, he put it in his pocket. Oh, fine. That helps a lot. Glenn, wait a minute. There's a number on the telephone pad. $187.50. Well? Well, that could be helpful to us if, and this is a big if, if my hunch is right. You shuffleboard without anything on your head. Oh, what had he? This sound is very strong down here. How did you make out in your game this morning? Well, I purposely lost the first two games, and then the old cooter was playing with betting me $50 on the next game. He's coming back this afternoon to play for $100. Oh, how sporting of him. Oh, this is a delightful means of making a living at him. Indeed it is. Even better than check-passing. Oh, I wouldn't say that, Calvin. After all, in check-passing, there's traditions. Well, I suppose so. Besides, we all... Calvin. Hi. Look who's coming down the path. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond. Oh, my. All right, you two, just stay where you are. Oh, why? Hello there. How did you ever know we were here? From the telegram you got from this hotel confirming your reservations. Oh, that was careless of us, wasn't it, Hattie? Dear me, yes. Chuck, let's get our money and get out of here. You heard what my wife said. Get it up. Well, I'm sorry. I deposited all the money in the bank this morning. Look, that's our routine. He really did, Mrs. Raymond. Listen to me. If you don't turn around and walk back to your hotel with me and get me that money, I'll crown you both. Mr. Raymond, please don't create a scene. You heard me, now do I get that money or don't I? I don't think you do, huh? Look, mister, you stay out of this. This is private business. No, it's also my business. Good for you, young man. I'm a special agent of the FBI. Oh. I'm taking all four of you down to headquarters. Oh, and, uh, Mr. Bingham, I've got some advice for you. Uh-huh. And what's that, sir? When we get to headquarters, don't try to put up a check for your bail. Four criminals in tonight's case were given long sentences for violation of the National Stolen Property Act. The clue which led to the capture of the four criminals in tonight's case from the files of your FBI were the figures which Special Agent Taylor found written on the telephone pad at the apartment which had been occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Bingham, the figure $187.50. Upon checking at the airport, Special Agent Taylor found that the only place to which that figure was the exact fare was St. Petersburg, Florida. By catching a plane, he was able to arrive at St. Petersburg at approximately the same time as Mr. and Mrs. Raymond, who had taken a train. In a few hours, it will be 1949, and all of us want to convey to you our best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year. We also want to extend our greetings to a man who celebrates his birthday tomorrow, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Happy birthday, Mr. Hoover, and a happy new year, everybody. In just a moment, we will tell you about next week's case from the files of your FBI. But now, listen. With every second, 1949 is coming nearer and nearer. So don't forget that important new year's resolution you made a few minutes ago. You'll resolve to ask your Equitable Society representative to bring you the fact-finding chart for fathers and mothers. If you have difficulty in finding an equitable representative, write a postcard care of this station to the Equitable Society. Your card will be forwarded to the nearest Equitable Office. In any event, be sure to start the new year right by getting the fact-finding chart for fathers and mothers prepared for you by the Equitable Life-Assuring Society of the United States. Next week, we will dramatize another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A preview of the streamlined criminal machine of 1949. Its subject, murder. Its title, the out-of-date killer. 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 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 Stacey Harris. 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 story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The out-of-date killer on this is your FBI. This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.