 Johnny dollar Well, nice to hear from you Ed. It's been a long time Yeah Well good for you have a happy trip no Johnny no that reservations for you It's on the next flight down to New York for me what for so hop into your car and get on out to the airport Just as fast as you can you've only got a few minutes to make that whoa hold on wait a minute I'll meet you there at Bradley Field give you the address of the man in New York and all the details Yeah, what man his name is Lucian Look Johnny, there isn't time get on out there to the airport You look unless I know why you want me to canal and see this Lucian whatever his name is. Well, sure I'll tell you why well Johnny. It's to prevent a murder. Oh CBS radio brings you Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar Expense accounts submitted by a special investigator Johnny dollar to the Continental Insurance and Trust Company home office Hartford, Connecticut Following is an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the back-to-the-back matter The gas tank of my car was dry as a bone so expense account item one is 530 to fill it up Then I tore on out to Bradley Field and sure enough Ed Berenjie was waiting for Hi Ed, how are you? Here's your ticket okay, and here's mr. Fletcher's address down in New York Fletcher Lucian R. Fletcher head of the Fletcher advertising agency Oh wants to buy some commercial time on my radio show. He better talk to the folks at CBS. No Johnny Oh, yeah, that's right. You mentioned that nasty word murder He phoned me just before I called you that that agency of his is a small one But process up until a couple of years ago when he took on a partner it was practically a one-man operation saw This partner's name is William spade Bill spade And what Fletcher called about was to tell me that spade is out to murder it why to get his hands in the advertising agency What else? So jump on to that now. No way wait wait wait it if Fletcher knows this if he's sure of it be sure of it All right, so Johnny will have been why doesn't he call in the police have this guy spade locked up Spade is out of town on some business down in Philadelphia, but he's back some time today there in New York Old man Fletcher isn't the kind to go off half cock to come up with a false alarm To go on down there find out exactly what's up to whatever is necessary to nail down his partner and Well go on Johnny your plane's about ready for take-off Now listen Johnny you haven't any time I'll make it all right relax listen as soon as we take off you telephone attendant Randy Singh sure sure anything you say 18th precinct homicide division. Yeah, okay Tell them what you just told me and then I'm on my way sure sure now get aboard before you're too late sure Item two on the expense account is Well, no all the ticket for the flight was already paid for and of course I'd hate to be accused of padding the old expense account or should I say again caught So item two is a dime for phone call as soon as I landed there in New York and not the mr. Fletcher's address at 614 East 52nd Street Yeah, Conroy. This is Johnny dollar. Let me talk to lieutenant singer Special investigator to you copper What's your guess and listen us cops don't like being called cops anymore? Yeah, so I've heard but haven't you heard Conroy that arose by any of the name What's that? Well, you figured that one out now. Would you switch me out already singer right? I can't do that What one of the squad cars? Look, do you know if he got a call from up in Hartford, Connecticut a while ago? Okay, well does it Well, listen Conroy when he comes in tell him I'll be over at 614 East 52nd Street At the apartment of a mr. Lucian R. Fletcher. Tell him if he can make it. I want to see him over there Yeah, that's right. Now let's go now Item three is 640 for a taxi at the 614 For some silly reason or other the dormant that snooty address hesitated about steering me up to mr. Fletcher's apartment That is until I flash my credentials at him and mumble the magic word emergency And I took the elevator up to the ninth floor and Ed Berencher up in Hartford did call you Yeah, that's right So I came on over here to see mr. Fletcher find out what all the excitement was about. Wow, what'd you find out? Why don't you just come on into the library and see for yourself? Sure sure? Well, yes me ready to see this Mr. Fletcher, that's mr. Fletcher That that's right, Johnny dead is adorned Who'd you vote for in the last general election? We may not realize it, but you voted for someone you probably never heard of and whose name may not have appeared on your ballot and Who was this stranger? He was the elector appointed by your state to decide who was to be our president Every state has as many electors as it has representatives and senators in Congress combined Collectively they're called the Electoral College and It's the members of the Electoral College alone who can vote for the president of the United States Your vote was cast for the group of electors that pledged itself to vote for either the Democratic or Republican nominee But you did not vote directly for either candidate Around of our way of doing things. Yes, but you must remember that when the Constitution was written There was no television no radio and few newspapers The majority of voters had never traveled more than a few miles from their own homes in these circumstances It was impossible for a voter in Maine to know about the great public figures of New York or Pennsylvania, Virginia or South Carolina There were not even any political parties to guide him and so the voter in Maine didn't try to do the impossible He voted for someone who did know the great men of the times and who could render an intelligent decision as to which one of them Should make the best president The system has its faults Three times in our history the man who got the most votes from the people was not elected president because he did not get the Most votes in the Electoral College Yet no one today seriously proposes to abolish the Electoral College Because by and large the people believe that in spite of its drawbacks the present system of electing our president ensures that your country and mine shall be our country under God And now act two of yours truly Johnny dollar came in here and finished him off with just exactly one nice clean shot Uh-huh any sign of a struggle Randy anything like that now, sir So it must have been somebody that he knew that let him in here himself And I'll buy that all right And it kind of proves the old man was right in his fears after all, huh? When Randy any idea when mr. Fletcher was murdered Well, I got that call from your insurance agent up in Hartford early this morning I tried calling mr. Fletcher at his office, but they told me he hadn't come in yet Yeah, so I tried calling him here. No answer So I grabbed Doc Snyder on and he was sure that Fletcher hadn't left the place Well, I borrowed the key and the dock and I came up Randy you haven't answered my question Oh according to the dock it happened sometime very early this morning right after midnight. I see Doc and a couple of boys from the lab just left. Oh, they find anything Randy any clues and other thing to work on All I know is that he was shot through the heart and what he was shot with and believe me Johnny that bullet was placed Just exactly right Well, now what do you mean by that? Oh, just take a good look Well now what under the sun is that some kind of a bulletproof vest? Yeah, that's what I thought until Doc Snyder looked at it. No Johnny. It's a it's a kind of a corset That's right a kind of a back support that was made for him especially on the count of some kind of sacred I mean sacro lumber trouble or something. Oh, yeah, sacro lumbar support. Yeah, I've never seen one quite like this This thing's almost like a suit of armor. Sure. That's why I say it was a lucky shot I mean the shot had to be placed exactly right Incher two on either side and one of those wide steel ribs would have bounced it off or at least kept from going straight into his heart Oh, oh wait a minute a 38 slug packs a lot of wallop. Yeah, only this was a little 22 analysis, yeah Insurance man the one who called and said you were coming on down here at Berencher Yeah, well, he told me that Fletcher had been expecting something like that's right Yeah, he said that Fletcher made no bones about who might try that's right The one man who might stand to benefit from his insurance Somehow we have to find now who's that? Randy in his advertising business. He had a partner and it seems this partner a man named William spade No, wait a minute. That's probably the boys with a meat wagon and come on Okay, I'll let him in Okay, boys you can come Huh, I beg your pardon. Oh you why my name spade Bill spade. I'm mr. Fletcher's partner. What's that? So you're bill spade, huh? Yeah, my name is dollar Johnny dollar the insurance investigation. That's right, and Is that a policeman I see in there in the library? Mr. Dollar or something wrong? Where have you been mr. spade? Why I just got in from Philadelphia. I was down there on some important agency business just got back on when My plane got in about a half an hour ago. Maybe 45 minutes here Here's my ticket. You can check on it. Yeah, maybe I will Where did you stay in Philadelphia? At the Bellevue Stratford, but why what's wrong around here? Where is mr. Fletcher? Just take it easy But I've got to see him on a business matter. You do, huh? Yes, it's very important about a new client of ours It has to be acted on at once. Well, I'm afraid it's gonna have to wait I called the office from the airport and they said he wasn't in yet. So I came on over here Now where is he and what's this all about mr. Dollar? So you claim you were down in Philadelphia when your business partner was shot? That's right. I what? Shot mr. Fletcher was shot real surprised. Where is it? Let me see. I said take it easy But good heavens mr. Dollar easy and if this business matter is so all fired important Well, hadn't you better be down at the office taking care of it? No, Johnny. Well, mr. Spade Well, yes, of course, of course, I sure sure you should so, uh, why don't you just run along after all? Mr. Fletcher's in no condition to run your attic. That's the understatement of all time. I can't believe it Mr. Fletcher dead. No, you can't. This is terrible Have you any idea who could have done this to him? Are you kidding? What do you mean? All right now. Yeah, mr. Spade you better get on down to that office yours and as soon as we can tell you anything We will get in touch Believe me. There's anything I can do. Please call. Well, not just don't you worry about that But get on down to the office and take over right ahead in the spade. I'll be in touch with you Very well, mr. Dollar. Now, what do you... What's got into you, Johnny? You're the one just got through telling me he's the one that must have killed mr. Fletcher. So how you gonna prove it? We got no other suspect, have we? And you let him go. Look here this plane ticket. Yeah. Yeah, I saw it. I saw him shove it into your hand I knew that Spade was supposed to be in Philly that he was due to come back here today So when I pulled into the airport, I carefully checked the incoming flight schedule So what? Oh, this flight was due in all right hand from Philadelphia Just when he said half or three quarters of an hour ago. Yeah, all right. All right. So what that doesn't prove He was actually on that flight. Randy, I think he was that ticket could have been used by somebody else Well, it's easy enough to check on but I doubt it very much. All right But if you're right about that if he was down there in Philly then your first theory about him is all wrong How could he have murdered mr. Fletcher? Sounds impossible, doesn't it? Of course it is Wanna bet He looks just like his father We've all heard statements like this, but have you ever stopped to wonder exactly why we resemble our relatives? One man did Thomas haunt morgan Born in lexington, kentucky in 1866 Morgan's interest in science took him to the university of kentucky and john's hopkins While his colleagues were choosing fields and physics and chemistry Morgan's interest turned to something more personal Man himself Why do we inherit physical characteristics from our parents? To find the answer morgan spent years studying the common fruit fly He bred generation after generation Constantly observing the traits produced He then computed mathematical tables and analyzed the whole question of heredity in terms of the nucleus The nucleus he observed was the center of activity in every cell As a result he developed his theory of the gene This theory simplified holds that each human cell contains hundreds of units called genes And each gene carries a physical characteristic from its parents For this outstanding work Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine in 1933 Thomas haunt morgan an american scientist with the philosophy that somewhere there must be an answer Let's find it Now act three of yours truly johnny dollar and the back to Expense account adam 4 10 cents for a call to the fletcher advertising agency No, sir. Mr. Spade isn't in yet. All right then miss He telephoned that he would stop off and see mr. Fletcher before coming in at mr. Fletcher's apartment And he called you from the airport didn't he? And uh probably left the door of the phone both open so you could hear the background noise of the planes and so on Sure, so you know, he actually was calling from the airport Item 5 60 cents for a half a dozen calls to various departments of the airline company And finally I managed to get hold of the gal who'd been stewardess on the flight in from philadelphia Uh-huh, and he wore a dark brown twig on it. Yeah, then it must have been bill spade. All right But uh, how come you remembered him so well out of your whole list of passengers How could I forget him? What do you mean by that? Oh, mr. Dollar from takeoff to landing that whole flight was perfect But mr. William spade in the verge of it. Uh, he must have pushed the call button a dozen times Mary and I were busier with him than with all the other passengers put together. I see Mary swore he was perfectly all right that didn't keep him from pushing that button Yeah, almost as though he was deliberately calling attention to himself I think I have a pretty good idea Thanks a lot Spade told me he'd stayed over in philadelphia at the belview strathford item 6 is the dollar 30 for a call down there That's right, sir You mean he said he was going to his room. I see I'm sure he did Oh, maybe it was just to impress you with the time he left your hotel Nothing forget it. Thanks From the minute spade handed me that plane ticket as an alibi. I felt sure he had murdered mr. Fletcher As for all his trouble to establish He'd been in philadelphia that morning then aboard the plane then at the airport. Well all very clever But where was he? What was he doing before he checked under the belview? And don't forget it's only a short hop from philly to new york Oh, I knew what spades answer would be that he was in his hotel room asleep And I'm sure that no one could prove otherwise No one that is except spade himself could prove he left that hotel during the night Go on to new york under another name killed his partner Then got back in plenty of time to check out of the belview at 8 a.m So unless I could somehow somehow trick him Item 785 cents for a cab to his office Yes, come in mr. Dollar and sit down. Yeah, all right. Thanks I'm sorry for the appearance of my desk But with all that's happened and with the affairs of my new client to take care of Your new clients Well, after all with mr. Fletcher gone Hey looks to me like you have every newspaper in town piled up here But they wouldn't write about mr. Fletcher unless you were dead or murdered What? Tell me how did you and Fletcher get along? I suppose I might have expected you to ask something like that Just as a matter of routine questioning your questioning of anyone who knew him maybe But what did you mean by saying the papers would only print a story if he were dead? Just let me ask the questions Well, of course well Mr. Fletcher and I ran this business together Personally, how'd you get along? He was a very difficult person, mr. Dollar created many embarrassing situations here in the office embarrassing for you Yes But I blame it all on the constant pain from his back. You see, he had a very serious condition Sacred lumbar. Yes, I know I know But I had to admire and respect him He was a genius I'll just look at the way he built up this agency. Yeah, it'd be nice to have wouldn't it especially by you In other words, you had plenty of motive for killing him Yes, of course But if you think for one man, I'm sure you had no trouble getting hold of a key to his apartment Mr. Dollar knows maybe mr. Fletcher gave you one after all his own part Dollar if this is an attempt to be facetious Look here. It's bad enough that mr. Fletcher is dead. Now That's the second time you said that said what that Fletcher is dead Well, of course I What did I say that he was Or the lieutenant there at the apartment. He said he was shot. He must be dead You mentioned his back trouble. Look here now Is I myself saw that Corsities was wearing those wide heavy stays made of steel Oh You why it would bounce off it like hale off a roof Now a big gun of 38 But you forgot all about that regular suit of armor. He had around him, but he fell I saw him I saw him for sure you did and I thought the bullet but if I didn't kill him I was sure I had I'd aim for his heart and when he fell there when he Oh, oh no Fletcher is dead And now that you've told me who did it dollar, please Listen, you uh Mind if I use your phone Ah, it's funny how a man like that can plan a thing so carefully carry it out so carefully And then when he's caught loses head and blab all over the place Spade even made a grab for the little 22 pistol he'd used and had right there in his desk Well, it'll be good as evidence Expensive out total including a good meal on the fare back to dear old Hartford Hmm 25 80 Yours truly johnny dollar Johnny dollar starring bob bailey originates in hollywood and is written produced and directed by jack johnstone heard in our cast were virginia greg gene tatum frank gerstle james mccallean herb vigrant jack edwards and forest lewis Be sure to join us next week same time and station for another exciting story of yours truly johnny dollar This is john wall speaking Johnny dollar has come to you through the worldwide facilities of the united states armed forces radio and television circles