 The Equitable Life Assurance Society presents this is your FBI. This is your FBI. The official board shares from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Presented as a public servant by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society representative in your community. Music The Equitable Life Assurance Society is a great mutual institution, organized to serve Americans and Americans. Therefore, one of the Equitable Society's major objectives is to make all possible contributions to the welfare and stability of American business, on which so many of the Equitable Society's nearly four million members depend for their livelihood. Tonight's middle commercial is addressed to the man who owns his own business. For such an honor, this commercial, due in about 14 minutes, will have information of great importance from the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Tonight's FBI file, The Man Who Died Quite. Music During the recent World War, the United States put into uniform from 11 million citizens and sent them to every corner of the globe to help fight a shooting war. They fought battles in far-off places with strange-sounding names. Faces like Salerno, Anzio, San Jose, Gaston, and Ockham on one side of the world, and Yunan, Corregidor, Szilagi, and Finchhaven on the other side. They fought those battles and they won them, but they won them dearly. Now it is three long years since the shooting has stopped and in the streets of America we are enjoying what the historians will refer to as peace. Yet, let us examine that peace. In these next four years, should the present average hold up, the number of people killed in the United States will be 18% of the number who died during the entire war. Unless some form of prevention is practiced, more than 30,000 people will be killed by American criminals by November 1953. For that reason, your FBI implores you to fight the crime wave with the same zeal, with the same desire to win with which we fought the common enemy during the war, because only by expending that effort can we hope to win, can we hope to defeat the criminals. The file opens on the front porch of a small and pretentious home located in a large western city. It is late afternoon and the middle-aged man fumbles with his keys before unlocking the front door and entry. Oh, yes, Marion. Is there something holding in here? Oh, thank you. Was it true? Yes, Marion, please let me hang up my hat and coat first before you ask any questions. Oh, sorry about that. There's some hangers missing from this closet, Marion. Oh, I used them while you were waiting. I wish you wouldn't do that. You have as many hangers in your closet as I have in mine. You need them right now? Well, that's not the point. Everything should be kept in the proper place. I know. Can I help you unpack, Harvey? Oh, it may not be necessary for me to unpack. What do you mean? We may have to put the new enterprise on the shelf and move along. What happened? Well, this morning as I was walking to my plane at La Guardia Airport, a man saw me. Who was it? He was a man who knows my background. He was a prosecution witness in the trial in New Orleans. You sure he recognized you? He saw me every day for two weeks at the trial. Am I to forget? I can't afford to take the chance. Does the Chinese have a father? A rass man provokes trouble. In this business, caution must govern my every move. Oh, tell me, what have we for dinner tonight? Oh, stew. Are there any steaks in the icebox? Yes. Good. I'll start preparing three of them. Oh. That's right. We're going to have a guest. Get out the good silver. Who's the guest? Oh, I don't know yet. I'm going out now and find one. Meanwhile, at the local FBI field office, special agent Jim Taylor approaches the desk. It's a fellow agent Lou Sheridan. Oh, yes, Jim. I've got a ripply for you. You ever heard of an FBI file being reopened? Why, sure. A prisoner escaped? No. You know, I mean, after the word closed, it seems on it that the subject was dead. Oh, what's the point of reopening the file on a dead man? I wondered about that myself when the SAC gave it to me. Well, good luck on it. Oh, no wrong guy. This is your baby, too. Oh, the SAC wants you to work on a witness. Have you read the file yet? Yeah, just finished it. What's the story? A last year, a firm called Ralph Goldwood Incorporated just formed a new organization. Goldwood was allegedly a chemist who had a formula for converting sea water into a water that could be used for irrigation. Have you read about that process? Oh, sure. It can't be done. But not with aspirin pills, which is what Goldwood is using. Oh, I do. Well, creditors started to close in for Goldwood had a file on bankrupt. He then became a federal student. Is that how we got in on the case? Oh, we were in this in a number of ways. With fraudulent bankruptcy, and Goldwood had also used the mail to be fraud by selling stocks to people all over the country. Well, what happened to him? He was found guilty in sentence to a ten-year term. A month after he entered prison, though, he escaped. Then how did the file happen to be marked dead? Well, three months ago, a fire went over a cliff in a smoky mountain. The man who was driving was burned beyond all recognition. According to a paper found in a briefcase, which was found and thrown clear of the record. The driver was Ralph Goldwood. Oh. The file was marked closed, but away. How come it's been reopened? Because a state examiner from Louisiana saw Bellwood at LaGuardia Airport yesterday. Did he see that? Yes. He saw Bellwood in court every day during the trial. He says he's positive. That's who it was. How come this office got the case instead of New York? Well, a plain Goldwood has been heading forward to nonstop express from New York to here. I assume the line has gone out on Bellwood? Yes. How about the newspaper? Are we getting them a story? No, not yet. Lou, why don't you do that? Okay. I'll get down to a police headquarters now and see if any of these come in. I think our guest might like a little more wine. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me have your glass, please. Yes, ma'am. Here you are. How about some more steak? Oh, no. I'm real poor. As the guard, perhaps. That I'll take. Thanks, Mrs. Oh, you're welcome. This has really been a treat. Every bit of it. Who'd have thought this morning that I'd have wound up a day like this? I suppose it was on the expense of making it. That's putting it mildly. Just imagine how you feel if you're walking down the street. And all of a sudden a man came and took you home and gave you all this. Well, you make it sound much more magnanimous than you did, Miss Littlefield. I just happened to be in a position to help my fellow man, and I'm doing it. How would you like a job? Oh, now, look, you don't have to fear that. Miss Littlefield, you can't make very much of your trade of going from door to door sharpening knives, can you? No. Then you should accept my offer. I don't want to get any idea that this is charity. I need a night watchman at my laboratory. Is that true, Mr. Littlefield? Well, I can't tell you how much it would mean to me. But are you sure I'm the man for the job, sir? I know you are. Oh, Marion, I think I'll take a walk down to the laboratory with Mr. Littlefield right now and show him around. Anything new on the Bellwood alarm? Yes, Lou. I just received a tele-chat report from New York. Knoxville is the closest office we had to the place in the Smokies where that accident occurred, which was since the breach of Bellwood's life. Uh-huh. So they requested the Knoxville office to reinvestigate the accident. Try and find out who really died in that crash. That's not an easy assignment. Three months after they found that out. Who owned a car to crash? An automobile rental agency in Knoxville. The car had been rented by Ralph Garwood. The check of signatures proved that it was really Bellwood who signed for the car. I see. But that still didn't get Knoxville any lead on who the dead man was, and there seemed to be no way of finding out. Well, as I remember, you said the body in the car was burned when it crashed. That's right. It was burned so badly that no investigation was possible from that angle. And still they got some kind of a lead? Yes. One of the agents working on the case got the idea of checking on the missing person's list for a two-week period before and after the day of the accident. They investigated every male name on that list. Found that only six of the people were still missing. No further lead was available, however, on any of those six. Uh-huh. So the Knoxville office wired the New York office the names of those six people. Why New York? Well, so that New York could check the flight records of all flames leaving LaGuardia Airport on the day that the state examiner saw Bellwood there. Oh, that's all right. It sure was. One of the flights carried a passenger with the same name as one of the six missing people from Knoxville. Oh, then Bellwood must have murdered that man, put his body into the rented car, and assumed the dead man's name. It certainly appeared that way. Oh, Bellwood is now using the name Harvey Ambridge. Ambridge? That's right. Now let's check until we can find out about Mr. Ambridge. I smell gasoline. Oh, you should. I just painted the laboratory walls with it. Oh. Well, what is that, this? Part of the lobby floor is painted with gasoline, too. Oh, the fuse is gone. That's the laboratory. Here's the big room. Do we have to stay in here very long? No. A few more swabs with his brush. What are you painting the gasoline out here for? I'm just taking the pathway. When I finish, I put a mask to the end of his path, and the fire will follow it right over that door, and into the last. Oh. Ah, there. That looks good. It's the coldest last life, but I like the mask. We can leave now. Marion, are you sure you know what you're supposed to do? Yes. I call the fire department. That's right. But wait for the flames to get a little higher. I'll need you at home. By the time the fire department gets here, all they'll find in the lab is my body. Your body? I should say, a Littlefield's body. Littlefield's body? The old man who was at the house for dinner tonight. Oh, but Harvey, you can't burn a man alive. Oh, Marion. He's been dead for an hour. We will return to tonight's exciting case from the official files of your FBI in just a minute. Now a briefcase from the official files of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, showing how equitable business insurance helps stabilize our American economic system. Names used are fictitious, but the case is an actual one. Here was the problem that confronted Mr. Joseph Goodwin, owner of a small but successful department store. Mr. Goodwin himself is speaking. Frankly, my wife has no business with me. If I could get run down by an automobile tomorrow, she'd be lost trying to run this store. Besides, I want her to give full time to bring up those kids with us. Well, that means that you'd want her to sell the business. Right, but I don't want her to sacrifice it to the first buyer that comes along. I wanted to take her time and get a good price. Mr. Goodwin, every day, trained representatives of the Equitable Society are helping solve problems that are closely similar to yours. I'd be interested in a plan that would really work. Well, the Equitable Society specialist in business insurance would figure with you how much cash would be needed to meet the expenses and debts your debt will call you. Then he'd have you estimate how much additional money would be required to keep your business running until a right buyer might come along. The whole sum would be covered by a business insurance policy on your life with the Equitable Life Assurance Society, so that your wife will inherit a sure asset instead of a doubtful liability. Mr. Keating, I think I'd better call him an Equitable man right away, because that you'll never regret. The Equitable Society specialist in business insurance is fully qualified to work out a plan that's sound in every detail and tailor-made to fit your business. Call the nearest Equitable office and ask for the manager. Or write a brief note care of this radio 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 The Man Who Died Twice. It is a tragic fact that of all the people arrested in the United States, and this is true every year, approximately 50% are being arrested for the first time. They have committed some infraction of the law and thought they could get away without paying any penalty. Being arrested and convicted could serve as an ample lesson, but the even more tragic fact is that it doesn't. For approximately half the other half have been arrested before and should have learned that there is no profit side to the ledger when your business is crime. Few people who commit their first crime decide to engage in a life of breaking the law. But as you have seen very amply illustrated in tonight's case from the files of your FBI and as case after case similarly proves the commission of one crime leads to another and then another until ultimately the criminal commits the cardinal crime murder. Tonight's file continues at the local FBI field office. Lou, I don't understand not being able to get any kind of a lead on Ambridge. Neither do I, Jim. The police have checked every hotel and boarding house in town. I've checked the milk companies, the phone company and all other utilities. They don't have an Ambridge listed under their applicants let alone their customers. Oh, excuse me. Specializing services. Yes. Yes, chief. What? Where did you say that word? Okay. Yes. Yes, we'll be right over. Thanks for calling, chief. I was chief Johnson over at the Forest City Fire Department. Forest City? Why did he call here? Forest City in which a scientist named Harvey Ambridge was killed. What? Yes, come on, let's get over there. I just finished talking to chief Johnson. He said Mrs. Ambridge called in to report the fire. Said that her husband was trapped inside this building. What was that? About 1.15 this morning. Fortunately, though, somebody else called in to report the fire before she did. That's how they happened to get here before it did too much damage. I see. Thompson said it was alright. There's not much evidence of fire out here. I guess they caught it pretty early at that. Go ahead, Jim. Thanks. Raymond, Lou. Look. Look here, right inside the door. The same shape mark on the floor. That shows that the flames were ignited from the outside and spread in under the closed door. Jim, I think this place is going to take quite a bit of inspection. I do too. Well, you take that side of the room, huh? I'll take this one. Of course, we ought to check these test tubes for fingerprints. Hey, Jim. Yeah, take a look in this locker. What is it, Lou? I'd say that was quite a blood stain, wouldn't you? Yes, I sure would. But didn't Chief Thompson say the body was found over on the other side of the lab? That's right, Lou. He did. Well, if Ambridge had lost just much blood, he could never have gotten over to the other side. No. Blood stain is discolored. I believe it's been brightened by the explosion. Yeah. That means there's blood stain within this closet before the explosion. Lou, it's pretty obvious. Now, Ambridge has committed another murder. I don't think there's any question about that. We have to find out who the victim was, and I doubt that's going to be easy. Lou, why don't you stick around here and see what else you can pick up? I'll get out of the morgue and take a look at that body. All of those two trees? Yes, Marion. I have seven pairs of shoes, so I need seven pairs of two trees. Okay. Harvey? Yes? Can we go out to dinner tonight? Oh, no. Well, I would like to eat out. Well, you can wait till we get to Boston. In the meantime, we're staying in the house, not even answering the doorbell. Don't you remember? We don't want anyone to see us. I'm sorry, Harvey. I forgot. We have to afford to allow ourselves the luxury of forgetting. Yes, Marion. There's an old and very true Italian proverb, forgetfulness robs the right hand of its cunning. We're in a wonderful position if we just keep our heads above us. I've told you many times, restlessness is a fine quality, but it must constantly be tempered with caution. I remember. And when in doubt, be overcautious. I will be. Have you made up your mind when we're going to leave? Oh, yes, I telephoned the airport this afternoon. We've got reservations for later on tonight. I hope we get away with it. But, Marion, if that man at La Guardia Airport did recognize me and even if the police did find out that I didn't die in that automobile crash in Tennessee, they still have to think I died the night before last is the last. Hello, I think I've got something. I hope so, Jim. Fortunately, they hadn't done any post mortem work on the body before I got down at a morgue. What did you find out? Well, from his appearance, the dead man was about 65 years old. He'd been killed by being struck on the head with a very blunt-edged weapon. Incidentally, Ambridge wasn't even careful enough to substitute his clothes for the victim. Did the clothes give you any lead on the old man's identity? No, they were old and patched. But they definitely belonged to somebody who was down and out. I sent them to the lab. Did you get anything? Yes, they said the dirt in the cups of the pants contained a large amount of Emory dust. Emory dust? Well, they used that in a lot of jobs, Jim. Yeah, I know they do. But when the lab found that the old man's jacket was worn on top of the right shoulder, they figured that he probably carried something up there. Could they tell what it was? Well, did you ever see an itinerant knife shopper who carried his portable Emory wheel stopped over his shoulder? Well, I'm sure. Well, that has to be it, Jim. That was their hunch, and it's paid off. How? Well, I remember that those itinerant peddlers had to supply a picture themselves to the police department when they get their license. That's right, they do. So I went down to headquarters, went through their files, and found a picture of the old man. His name was Tom Middlefield. Well, I'd say that's a good day's worth. And we did something else, too. When we couldn't find Ambridge's address from anyone, I remembered one report said that he had a car, a Buick. Uh-huh. Well, there wasn't any registration at the Motor Vehicle Bureau in Ambridge's name, so we just started checking Buick service stations throughout the city. Any luck? Yes. One of them had repaired Ambridge's car and gave me his home address. Good. Oh, I've got a search warrant here now. Let's go to his home and see if we can find anything. Hello? Oh, over here, Jim. Oh. I've just searched every room in the house. No trace of Ambridge? No, none. Oh. Hey, what's that you have there? It's portable. Emory wheel. Where'd you find that? In a closet in there. I don't think we need any further proof of the old man Middlefield's address. No. You'll find anything in the garage? Well, Ambridge left his car here. It has out-of-state license plates on it. Oh, that's why we couldn't find Ambridge's name in the Motor Vehicle Bureau. Yeah. Jim, in spite of the fact that Ambridge has disappeared, I don't think there'll be much trouble getting a conviction against him for murder. I just assumed he weren't convicted in absentia, though. I'd like to see him when he hears that judge in post-sentence. Now, it's tough to come this close to catching a criminal like Belwood or Ambridge or whatever he's calling himself now. Who? Who? You're just giving me an idea. Come on, let's get to a fault. Five minutes. Life's 24. What time does our plane leave Harvest? Oh, Marion, I've told you three times now. We leave at 9.30. That's only 10 minutes from now. I know that, dear. I learned to tell time quite a while ago. But they haven't even crawled our plane over the loudspeaker. They will, dear. Why don't you go up to the counter and ask them if anything's the matter? Well, because I don't like to try to run anybody else's business. Right side is six. But here you are. I've lost the patrol in 10 minutes. Have your boat passes ready, please. There you see, dear. Let's get on the plane. Take your time, Marion. Never run, especially when you're running away from something. That's the time you want to look least conspicuous. All right. Remember what we said about caution? Yes. Then use a little of it. There's an old Dutch proverb. Who runs is followed. Mr. Bellwood. Yes? I don't think you two are going to catch that plane for Boston. Who are you, sir? I'm a special agent of the FBI. I have a warrant here and the police want you for murder. Oh, there must be some mistake. My name is Tom Littlefield. Oh, and this is my wife. How do you do this? It won't work, Bellwood. You've changed your name for the last time. Now, come on. I'm waiting for us at headquarters. Well, Bellwood, Alias Harvey Ambridge and his wife Marion were turned over to local police because of the more serious charge of murder. Ambridge was found guilty and sentenced to be executed. His wife was sentenced to life imprisonment. The final clue which led to the solution of tonight's case was the use by Ralph Bellwood of the pseudonym Tom Littlefield, special agent Taylor remembering that he had once before assumed the name of his victims, checked all transportation depots, and found that a mystery in Mrs. Tom Littlefield had a reservation on the plane to Boston. Side by side with special agent Taylor and Sheridan on tonight's case, as it works with every special agent on every case, was the FBI crime laboratory. Started in 1932 by director G. Edgar Hoover with one man and one microscope, that laboratory celebrates its 16th anniversary this coming week. The varied functions of the hard-working technicians who man the laboratory staff include blood examination, firearms identification, cryptanalysis, photography, special photography, and microchemical examination. These men who have enlisted the aid of science in the field of crime detection have provided the solution to a tremendous number of cases. And for that reason we feel it is proper to take the time on this, the eve of their 16th anniversary, to thank the men of the FBI crime laboratory for a job well done. In just a moment we will tell you about next week's exciting case from the files of your FBI. Now one last word about business insurance. The reason why the equitable society emphasizes this type of insurance is very simple. The brains and experience responsible for the success of a business enterprise have a cash value, and should therefore be protected by insurance like any other valuable asset. Equitable society representatives have worked out plans for all types of business, from progressive corner stores and successful law partnerships, to large organizations with thousands on their payrolls. Plan now to enlist the invaluable help that is yours for the asking from a trained business insurance specialist of the equitable life insurance society of the United States. Next week we will dramatize another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A timely and exciting story about our peacetime draft. It's subject broad. It's title The Unwilling draft. The incidents used in tonight's equitable life insurance society's broadcast are adapted from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However all names used are fictitious and any similarity they'll have 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 Larry. This is your FBI is a very divine production. This is Larry Keaton speaking for the equitable life insurance society of the United States and the equitable society is representative in your community and inviting you to tune in again next week at the same time when the equitable life insurance society will bring you another thrilling story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Unwilling draft on this is your FBI. This is ABC the American Broadcasting Company.