 The Columbia Broadcasting System presents Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. The next half hour has its baggage packed to take a trip with America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator Johnny Dollar. At insurance investigation he is just an expert. At making out his expense account, he is an absolute genius. Expense account submitted by special investigator Johnny Dollar to home office, nutmeg state casualty and bonding company in Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting of my expenditures during investigation of series of accidents affecting your policy holder, the Fun Fair and Weatherly Carnival shows. Or how I went for a spin on a case we might refer to as murder is a merry-go-round. Expense account item one, twenty-five cents. Purchase of billboard, theatrical magazine to check the roots of Fun Fair and Weatherly Carnival shows. Expense account item two, sixty-eight dollars. Air and train fares to Talladega, Alabama. Item three, a dollar ten. Cab fare and what was only a fare imitation of a cab. From Talladega Depot to the dusty vacant lot, which it overnight found itself wearing theatrical makeup. Brightly as the hot sun beat down on the midway, it couldn't help the layout of canvases and slats from looking beat up. A perspiring mechanic shot sparks of profanity back in an obstinate motor. He tried to get it to roll the giant hoop of a ferris wheel. I asked him what he knew about the accident of a week before when a car dropped off the same ferris wheel, badly injuring free. He was charming. Listen pretty boy, don't go getting nosy around here. The Joe in charge of the electric scooter concession was just as sweet. On the subject of how come one of his scooters blew up a few nights back sending a citizen to the hospital, he just didn't feel like talking. If you ain't a cop, start moving. If you are, where's your warrant? I was just asking the pilers of the giant airplane spin who he thought might have cut the cables the night one of his wall board gliders took off across the carnival crowd, crashing and busting up a few more customers. When I got a canvasman's version of a sharp answer, a tent stake right behind me. Those sleeping beauties waking up, huh? Who are you? I thought maybe you'd be sick of asking questions. First maybe a better answer of you. Before you get up. Number one, who are you? A pilgrim from Hartford. Never mind the double talk wise guy, what's your name? My name is Johnny Duller, but right now I feel like two cents. What's your big interest in those accidents you were asking questions about? Strictly academic. I'm only representing the insurance company that's paying off on those accidents. Now maybe you'll tell me who you are and where I am. Ah, thought you guys were smarter. Donner, I'll let you in a little secret. Next time you want to find something out on a traveling show, get to the boss. First, asking a lot of questions around a circus. A carnival out is unhealthy. Where is the boss, Miss Pepper? Louise is in the other end of this trailer. She'll be right out. Okay, you can get up on your feet. I hope you don't mind if I don't stay up on him. I feel more like sitting down. Go ahead. You still haven't told me who you are. My name's Brennan. Oh, yeah, shanty Brennan. Yeah, you're the general manager of the show. They told me all about you. Louise or Pepper is right on and strong on. How long will she be? As she's getting dressed, just finish taking a nap. We drove all night to get here. How about having a blast with me while you're waiting? No, thanks. I haven't enjoyed a noon bottle since I was two. But don't let me stop you. Thanks. Sure you won't have one? I'm sure. Brennan, the insurance company's been checking up on your show. The police chiefs in the last ten towns you've played say it's a clean one. We haven't got a pickpocket or a grifter and a lot. We've had plenty of trouble during those past ten stops. At least once a night somebody's got hurt. But never any of us. You know the townies, the citizens. Last night a car on the whip cut loose. That sent four to the hospital. Four more insurance claims for nothing like state casualty and bonding, huh? One more town we won't be able to play again for a couple of years. I wonder we didn't travel out of that town last night by rail, tarred and feathered. But ten straight nights now, you've had at least one big accident every night. What's your guess, Brennan? Has fate taken a steady job on your show or is somebody out to get you? Somebody's out to get us. Okay, well, do you have any idea? Why didn't you tell me we were entertaining a gentleman's handy? How to put on some more clothes. It would have taken a lot more clothes to cover all the wants of Louisa Pepper. She looked like an aging Cupid doll, but even in a carnival she was no prize. I didn't like the look in her eye. It looked much too friendly. So right away I decided to change the unspoken subject. Mrs. Pepper, I'm here on business, insurance. Sorry, we're not buying any. And I'm not selling any. The way things have been going, the insurance company I represent would probably like to buy some of yours back. I'm going to not make state casualty. Investigating the accidents. You'll find out more than we've been able to and fast before we go broke. The words travel in one town ahead of us. They got us picked for a dangerous midway. Have you been using police protection? 20 extra cups a night at $10 a cup. So, night before last, the guy winds up with a hammer to try and ring the bell and win a cigar. The top of the hammer flies off and almost drains a cup. Around this show, the police need protection. I see what you mean. How are you fixed for people who don't like you? We got money to choose from? Donald, we treat our help there in square. We know them all and trust them all. Fire anybody lately? Nobody. The only ones who left were floaters. But none of them had a beef. Okay, Miss Pepper. Think back. In all your life, who do you know who would most like to see you have a real bad time? Only one guy. And he's not around. Dead? As good as. He's in jail. Has been for the last eight and a half years. That's a long time. How long to go up for? Ten years. What are you thinking, Donald? I'm thinking that with time off for good behavior, maybe he's not in jail. Not in jail? Daddy, he's got to be in jail. He's got to be, I tell you. All right, break it up, Louisa. Carter Lacey had a voice as sharp as yours. He could saw us way out of jail. Okay, Donald, you made a guess about seeing how good it is. I'll find out if your bogeyman is still in jail. But I didn't catch that name. Lacey. Carter Lacey. And where has he been in the pokey? Massachusetts State Prison. The Charleston. What did he go up for? Get it, Louisa. Donald, we sent Carter Lacey to jail for attempted murder. He tried to kill Louisa's niece, Myrtle. Is she around? He's not on the snake show on the midway. Tell us, how soon can you check where the Carter got out? Soon as I can make a telephone call. But, Shani, before I do, I'd like to elaborate on that guess I made. Now I'd not only guess that Carter Lacey is out of jail, but I'd also guess that he's been out a little over ten days. Spence account, item four. Three dollars. Telephone call to Massachusetts State Prison. Confirming both of my guesses. Carter Lacey had checked out of the Bay State's Hotel Great Stone for bad boys two weeks previously. Item five, thirty-two dollars. Telephone calls to various hotels in the last ten towns. The fun fair and weatherly carnival shows had played. Item six, ten cents. Two nickels. Spent calling two hotels right here in Talladega. Then I dropped one more nickel in the telephone. Got the lucky number? Yes, sir. We do have a Mr. Carter Lacey visit. Room 312, shall I call? And hit the jackpot. Spence account, item seven. Sixty-five cents. Cab fare to Sunshine Hotel. Hip to driver? One dollar. From the lobby I call Room 312. He invited me up. I invited him down. I know I'd feel better talking to Carter Lacey with a lot of people around. They'd make nice witnesses if he suddenly got homesick for prison life and used me as his ticket back. I waited in the coffee shop. The waitress brought me a cup of coffee and my palate went to work refereeing a one-sided bout between the strong Java and the weak cream. All right. Thanks. You're Carter Lacey. Have some coffee? No, thanks. It keeps me awake, Knight. How about your conscience? Having the same trouble with that? My conscience deserves a late-and-a-half-year rest. But it can't start its vacation until I even up a few scores. Busting up carnivals? Child's play. Look, dollar, over the phone you told me you're an insurance investigator. You can save your company a lot of money. How? Call them up and tell them not to insure the lives of three people. Because any minute now, two of them are going to be dead. Louisa Pepper? Anise Myrtle and Shannie Brennan. Yeah, dollar. I'm going to kill two of those people. The other one still my friend is going to help me do it. In case you don't know your law, dollar, don't bother calling the cops. I can't be held for making a threat unless I put it in writing. Well, Lacey, I don't know what your beef is against the people running that carnival. But those accidents have been hurting a lot of innocent bystanders. Dollar, you're talking to a guy who really knows what it means. Getting hurt as an innocent bystander. Expense a counter to me. 25 dollars. Retain it to local detective agency hiring shadow for Mr. Carter Lacey. Explanation. An ounce of crime prevention is worth a ton of trials. Item nine, a dollar 20. Cab fare back for the evening's festivities at the Fun Fair and Weatherly Carnival, which was rapidly becoming more and more of a thrill show. Expense account item 10, 30 cents. Down payment on ulcer, eating suffered with the carny people called a grease joint. I made my way among the trailers that were lined up behind the midway and as I looked for the one housing Louisa Pepper's snake charming niece Myrtle, the burning sensation around my heart wasn't all caused by the hot dogs I'd just eaten. I got a message from Carter Lacey. What did you say? I said I've got a message from Carter Lacey for you and your aunt Louisa, Chanty Brennan. You're the only one I haven't met yet, so I thought I'd deliver it to you first. Where is he? In town. Got any snakes in the trailer? No, of course not. All right then, how about inviting me? You're the insurance guy they told me about. That's right. Okay, come in. What did Lacey say? He said that he's going to kill two of the three of you. Which two? Didn't he say? No, he didn't. He just said that two of you are going to get it and that his one friend among you, the remaining one, is going to help him do it. He'll do it. He hates it. I know he'll kill it. You say Louise and Chanty don't know yet? No, they don't. You're the first to know. Well, then wait here. I'll run and tell them. I'll stop back here before I go into the tent to do my next show. Grab yourself a drink. I'll be right back. Well, she wasn't right back, and it's just as well she wasn't. She might have interrupted me while taking a sightseeing trip through the drawers in the trailer's built-in bureau. The piles of silky nothings that give gals that certain something didn't tell me anything I hadn't known about women before. But a little black book stashed among them did. I needn't have rushed my search, though, because Myrtle Pepper was still gone after 10 minutes. That's about the time I headed back to her Aunt Louise's trailer, pulled open the door, and walked in. You scared me, Della. I'm barging in like that. Mr. Della, I told you I'd be right back. Did Myrtle here deliver Mr. Lacey's little love letters? Yes, the fool. He always was a fool. He can't kill us. You mean it's against the law? I mean, I mean it's impossible, that's all. Look, Miss Pepper, you and your niece here are both plenty scared while you're out shaking those cooch dances you got working over on the Midway. Myrtle, have you told Shani about Lacey's threat? Yeah, I met him on the way over here. I asked him if he'd feed my snakes before showtime. It's a danger to work with if they're hungry. Yeah, I told him. He said he'd join us here. What did you say when you told him? He said if Lacey had one of us helping him and the three of us had better stick together so we could at least watch each other. Smart man, you had a good idea. I see the three of you had better stick close to each other, beginning right now. Come on. Where are we going? Over to the snake tent. And when we get there, Myrtle, you'll be the only one of us who'll be among friends. The three of us left Louisa's trailer. We walked past the back of the shooting gallery concession right in the front of it. And along the back of the line of canvas shanties, we stopped at one. Myrtle pulled back the canvas flap and I stepped in ready for anything. And he's not far behind me. I edged slowly over to the square redboard fence set up in the center of the tent. There were dangerous signs splashed in white paint along the outside walls of the pit. I clenched my teeth and looked down to the wire mesh top at a slithering tangle of writhing angry reptiles. And there lying among them with a vicious red welt splashing his forehead was Shanti Brennan. He was feeding his snakes all right. In just a moment, we'll return to the second act of yours truly, Johnny Dollar. But first, here is some news. 30 minutes of new thrills will be added to CBS 10 Great Sunday Night Entertainment's This Coming Sunday. At 6.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time where you formerly heard Spike Jones, CBS will bring you screen star John Lund in an adventure-packed tale of a ship filled with terror and horror. This story, a shipment of mute fate starring John Lund, is the first of three special broadcasts from CBS's famous Escape series. It will be heard over most of these stations immediately preceding a familiar show which brings you a different kind of escape, The Jack Benny Show. And now, back to yours truly, Johnny Dollar. I'd just seen a murder mystery where the actors have been hissing instead of the audience. The lead character in that snake pit wasn't going to win any Academy Award. The scene of the crime was no place for a man, let alone a woman, so I heard a Danny Louisa and a niece myrtle out of the tent to go back into the trailer. Oh, we're steady. Oh, horrible. I was wrong, darling, when I said Carter Lake, he couldn't do it. What's going to happen to us? According to what Lacey told me, myrtle, what's supposed to happen is only going to happen to one of you. What do you mean? Well, he claims that one of you is in this with him, and that one knows she's safe. This may turn out to be an acting contest between you two. Oh. I wish I had learned to cry. Louisa, you don't think it's me? Well, I know it ain't me. Ladies, how about observing a moment of silence in memory of the deceased? I'll give you a few instructions. Okay, have you got a gun in here, Louisa? Yes, and a license to carry it. Good, where is it? The gun, the license. I won't give it to you. People might get to thinking that you're Carter Lacey's girlfriend and accomplice. Where is it? In that drawer, right over there. Which end of the drawer? What's the matter with you, blind? I'll see it. I'm not telling my bag on you. Which end? You take a lousy trapeze out of, darling. You don't take any chances. This ends, Lord me. Thanks. Where are the keys to the car? I hitched to the front of this land yacht. What are they for, darling? Wait a minute, Myrtle. How come you know where Louisa's keys were? Yeah, Myrtle. How come? I could... All that laying right there in plain sight. Oh. Nice. Now I'm going out and call the police. Louisa, I want you to get into that chair down at the other end of the trailer. Okay, General. You've got the gun. And you, Myrtle, get on that bunk down at the other end. I don't understand all this. And now, ladies, while I'm gone, I don't want one of you gals to be knocking off the other. But on the other hand, I can't leave you here without protection. So I'm leaving the gun right here on this table in the middle of the trailer. And if, uh, Carter Lacey comes knocking at your door, you can have yourselves a race for the gun. Expense account item 11. Five cents. Telephone call to the local police. Plus another nickel spent calling a taxi. The cops arrived in four minutes. The cab in 15. Its driver had no siren to take him through the traffic lights. Item 12, $1.10. Cab fare on a exceedingly slow and torturous trip to the Sunshine Hotel. Tipped to his kind of a driver, a nickel. I went up to the third floor and hit it down the hall that Carter Lacey's room, 312. I rapped for an entrance, but all that came back was a nickel. The lock on the door was the soft touch type known to the trade as the burglar's friend. So I went in. Bars fillin' Alabama? Stiffs fillin' Alabama tonight. Operator, operator, this is an emergency call. Let me have the telephone gig at the police, will you? Hello? Police department? This is the same guy who just called you from the carnival to report a murder. Yeah. Well, you can send in the second team. I've got another one for you over here at the Sunshine Hotel. Room 312. The party's just been strangled. Yes, I'm sure. Lots of bruises and deep-set fingernail marks on the throat. Sure, I know who it is. The name of the deceased is Myrtle Pepper. Myrtle Pepper certainly has been a fast worker. She not only has beat me down to the hotel, she managed to get herself killed in the bargain. I dusted the room for information, which was obviously more than the floor I made it done for dirt, and came up with a kind of an eye-opener you don't drink. A pint-sized surprise in the form of some old newspaper cover. And Conor Lacey's prison release form. And what, let him out. Let me in on something. I got out of the room into the elevator, and when I hit the lobby wondering where to start looking for him, I found him sitting there looking at me. Hi. Why do you want to talk, Lacey? I don't want to. But if you want to try and make me, what's the matter with right here? Okay. I supplied you with an alibi today. I don't see him in the lobby. Detective, he had stomach trouble. He got kicked in it. You can reach him at the city hospital. You know, in prison, I was a trustee. I get out. Nobody trusts me. Oh, with that forecast you gave me this morning, what else? The forecast? Yeah. You predicted that you'll kill two people. Well, tonight the two people are dead. Shanty, out at the carnival, and now myrtle up in your room. What does that make you? Or the killer, maybe? Thanks for the maybe. Look, dollar, I came to this town to take care of something. I took care of it. You want to yell, cop? Go ahead. From now on, nothing bothers me. Well, then stop chewing your nails. You told me this morning that one of those three people was working with you. There's only one left. And suddenly, Lacey, I don't believe your story. Suddenly, I don't care. Shanty Brennan lied to me this morning. He said that you went to prison on a charge of attempted murder. Your prison release papers say you went up for grand larceny. You see what happens to bad little boys that tell lies? I'm not through yet. I finished a bank book out of Myrtle Pepper's trailer. A three-way joint account. Myrtle, Shanty, and Louisa. The first deposit, $60,000. The date? The same year you were thrown into the can for stealing $60,000. To me, that spells a three-way split for them and a frame for you. Also, to you, it spells a motive for hating all three of them. So I lied to you. What are you going to do? Wash my mouth out with soap? From now on, I don't need any answers from you, including smart ones. But look, you'd better stick around. If the cops don't pick you up for murder, maybe the hotel will want to press charges against you for having an extra unregistered person occupying your room. Miss Carter, they arrested him? Tell me. Did he escape? He's at the hotel. And the cops are on their way down there right now. I hope he's more talkative with them than he was with me. You talked to him? Yeah, I had a long, one-sided conversation with him. There's one thing I still can't quite figure out. Whether he really intended to kill Shanty and Myrtle or not. No. Yeah, strangled. No. Poor little angel. Of course he meant to kill him. He hated him. He hated it all. Oh, they can hardly blame a fellow for being annoyed. Framed on a grand lousy trap by three old chums. But you've got the wrong idea, Louisa. What I meant was, did he ever really intend to kill him himself? Or did he just intend to set off the greatest chain reaction since the atom bomb and just sit back and watch the three of you try to beat each other to it? Well, that's crazy talk. Yeah, like a fox, maybe. He made his threat to me, knowing I'd carry it back to you. I say you because you're the only one left. You see, he set himself up as a patsy. He'd been framed by you once before. To me, it looks like Carter Lacey learned a few things about wrong people during that eight-year stretch. Namely, that they never trust each other. You're absolutely nuts, darling. I think you'd better get out of here. Go peddle your insurance. The cops will take care of him, Mr. Lacey. I don't think they will, Louisa. Why not? Myrtle was strangled. That's the kind of murder a man would commit. Well... But there was a set of deep fingernail marks on her throat. And Carter Lacey bites his nails. So maybe you'd better get yourself a manicure before the police arrive. Thanks for the advice. And right there, darling, this time I got the gun. Carter! Louisa, point that thing someplace else before I point mine up your snout. Okay, darling, get out. What's the matter with you, Lacey? Are you cracking up? Your plan was going along fine. First, Myrtle tossed Shani to her snakes, then Louisa took care of Myrtle. There's only one left, and the state will take care of her for you. That's not enough. There's one satisfaction I haven't enjoyed so far. That's hearing one of these pigs squeal. Carter, we can still put the money in the show and get out of here. The only one that's going to get out of here is Dollar. Beat it! I beat it all right. I was the only one in the trailer without a gun. I plunged into the darkness looking for something and came up with a tent rope, dashed back to the trailer door and lashed the knob to the guide rail. I didn't want those gun-happy birds flying the coop. Just then, the seas didn't open. I didn't know who was going to come out the worst in there, the hunter or the hunted. The only key I had to the situation was the key to the car, the one I'd picked up earlier in the day. The car turned the trailer to the carnival back lot and out to the highway. When I hit the cement, I started spinning the rubber. Just as we hit the streets of the sleeping city, things woke up. Whoever was left back there snapped a shot of me through the trailer's front window. The second shot was my cue to try to ruin their aim by playing rock-a-bye trailer, swinging the car from one side of the street to the other. This is a not-so-sharp shooter made another try. I picked up just what I was looking for, a game of tag with a police patrol car. Spence account, item 13. 15 cents, my carbonate of soda. Those midway hot dogs I'd had for supper were no thoroughbreds. Item 14, $35, cigars for a night shift, tele-dig a police for whom I had started things smoking. Item 15, $3, hotel bill. But never let it be said that I have attended the measly $3 hotel bill for myself. This was to check out of the Sunshine Hotel, the man who had checked out in the trailer at the hands of Louisa Pepper. Louisa Pepper, the only one who was a good bet to catch up with Brennan, who had been murdered by Myrtle, and Myrtle, who had been loused up by Louisa and caught her, whom she had also caught out of this world, proving that when you start any kind of chain reaction, you should be careful, because you're never going to be sure where it's going to stop. Well, only $692.18. That must be slipping. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. That man of music is moving. Yes, Spike Jones, formerly heard on CBS on Sunday, is already unpacking his famous collection of flit guns, dish fans, and other instruments, ready for tomorrow night's premiere broadcast at the CBS Saturday Star. Here are the Spike Jones show on most of these same stations tomorrow night at 7 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, when it joins Barnman Rowe, Gene Autry, gangbusters, and sing it again as a regular Saturday night CBS feature. Listen in again next week when CBS brings you Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar with Charles Russell as Johnny. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar is written by Paul Dudley and Gil Dowd with music by Mark Warno and is produced and directed by Richard Sanville for CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.