 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. Present it transcribed as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. Later in the program, we will bring you an important message from Mr. J. Edgar Hoover on our nation's internal security. A crude psychologist who has had contacts with numerous leaders of American business once remarked, success and self-confidence go hand in hand. Men who have a strong conviction that they are going to succeed are the ones that rise to the top in every field. For people of this type, people who have this feeling of certainty about themselves, the Equitable Life Assurance Society has created its famous life insurance plan for men and women on the way up. Do those words describe you? Then you'll be interested in about 14 minutes when I give full details of the Equitable Plan for men and women on the way up. The subject of our FBI file, Armed Robbery. It's titled, The Wild Pitch. One of the fundamentals of the law of our land is that all those brought before our courts are presumed innocent until proven guilty. That spirit not only prevails in our courts of law, it is deeply ingrained in all our law enforcement officials, from the local police force to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Here in America we have never known, and let us hope never shall know, the police practices of totalitarian countries where arrests are made on mere whim or grudge without warrants, where every man lives in constant danger of being framed by his own government. Tonight's case is a striking example of how your FBI not only tracks down the guilty, but also goes all the way to protect the innocent. Tonight's FBI file opens in the Midwestern City's Baseball Stadium. It is early evening, a few hours before a night game, and around the field the players are warming up. One of them carries a catcher's mitten mask toward home plate as a tall sunburn man in sports clothes approaches. Hey, Jug, you keeping bankers hours now? Aye, Roy. Better get suited up, the old man'll be here any minute. I just saw him. He slipped me the queen. Huh? You'll have to dig up another roomie. Can't let you go. You want to see the paper? Said he was carrying eight pitches this year. Well, I'm number nine. I mean, he's keeping that kid? I guess so. Well, you need a shovel to catch him. Well, the old man's the manager. Can you give me any reason? That thing on the train? Well, I was more loaded than you. Yeah, but you're hitting 340. The older he gets, the worse he gets. You better go behind the plate. He might plaster one on you for talking to him. I'll see you around. Need a little? No, thanks. What are you going to do? Oh, I don't know. Steal the gate receipts, rob a bank, kidnap the old man. I'll find some, do you? Well, good luck, Jug. Thanks, Roy. What are you doing home? The old man, let me go. What? I got my release. Why? Well, he didn't exactly give me a square shake, Gladys. He knows I'm a slow starter. I need it warmer before my curve ball starts breaking. Oh, Jug, how long are you going to go on kidding yourself? That curve ball is gone. Now, that ain't so. The old man thinks it is. So what? There's other ball clubs? Just this week, a sport news said the Bayville club is in trouble for pitchers. Bayville is class B. Oh, it's another step down. Forget about baseball and go to work. Honey, if I can catch on with Bayville and have a good year, they'll bring me back up again. They'll be bringing back a bachelor. What do you mean? You called Bayville or anybody else about a job in baseball and I'm through. I've been living out of suitcases ever since we got married and I'm tired of it. You washed up with baseball or with me. Now take your pick. Okay. Where are you going? To a saloon to figure out which pick I want to make. He's started yet. I can't get no more cars in here unless we start piling them. Those nightgames sure pull them. Looking for your car, mister? I'm looking for a place to sit down. She don't want me to drink. The old man don't want me to drink. Mr. Hatch, you jump-footin'? Sure. I work here in a parking lot. Hey, easy, mister. Seems like you ought to be over at the ballpark. Come on, I'll give you a hold. Keep your hands off me. They fired me. Threw me away like I was a stale hunk of bread. They should make me go get a drink, pal. You got a bottle in your pocket. I've got to have water. I can't stand it straight. Makes me drunk. We got water in a shack. Then let's go do a little plane and fancy drinking. There's freezing up here. You'll be at the ballpark every night. Well, not quite, Jim. But I'll manage to drop by every once in a while. Oh, sure. Well, just to see that nobody steals the bleachers. Come on, just get that ball in there. Who didn't? One of the men in the office. He says to tell you the safe's been robbed. All right, I'll see you later, Jim. Beach, you want me to go over there? No, thanks. Rout the club home, huh? I'll take a look downstairs. See you later. I guess most of the money's gone by now on whiskey. You don't remember robbing the ballpark? A detective was here last night looking for you. But all I did last night was get drunk. I suggest you tell that to the police. I will. But first I'm going back where I was last night and get this thing straightened out. Heard a real interesting piece of news. What happened? A man told about the safe at the ballpark being robbed of $6,000 last night. Said that guy, Judd, is the one who did it. No kidding. He didn't say nothing about you being with Judd. That got me thinking. What do you mean? Well, what if the cops was to get worried that you were along? How much you want? Seems like it'd be fair to maybe split half and half. You're going to give me $500 for my end. Marty, you wouldn't be trying to fool a little old country boy. That's what he handed me $500. You want $250, you don't you? Ain't what I was looking forward to, but pay me. That's quite a game you're misled, Jim. Oh, hi, Jim. You made it pretty fast. Made what? Didn't you get my message? No, I... Well, I called your office a little while ago. You're in on the ballpark robbery, too. Oh, how come? Well, I set out an identification on Jug Fulton last night. Got word about an hour ago that he was seen in Auburn after the robbery. Why, did he rob the safe? Well, it looks that way. Eddie Stone, the club secretary, was unconscious when I got out of the office last night. But I found a nutcher who said that Fulton asked him where he could find Stone. Now, that was about 10 minutes before the robbery was discovered. Oh, what did Stone have to say? Well, he's over at the Mercy Hospital, but the doctors won't allow him to be interviewed yet. Now, Fulton had a paycheck coming and was supposed to pick it up from Stone. The check was missing from the safe, and so was about $6,000 in cash. Now, you say Fulton was across the state line in Auburn after the robbery? That's right. Yeah, that gives us jurisdiction, all right. We've had a surveillance at his home since about 9.30 last night. He hasn't even shown up yet. Jim, I know on this job you're not supposed to feel sorry for thieves, but I do for him. Fulton got any record, Pete? Well, I wired the police everywhere he ever pitched. He's got one drunk and disorderly from last year. Been around a long time. I don't remember him ever having a reputation as a lush. Well, in the dope I get, he never drank till recently. Well, if he did it, we gotta find him. You want to go to the ballpark with me? No, I've got to finish this report, Jim. I better meet you. All right, Pete, I'll see you there. I've got cars to move. Yesterday is just one of them lazy days. Can't seem to get moving. Hey. Huh? I want to talk to you. Oh, hi, Chuck. The cops are looking for me. What did you do? Steal second base? Now, don't get funny. They think I robbed the safe at the ballpark last night. No kidding. You were with me when I got my check, when I had the argument with Eddie Stone. With who? The club secretary. The guy we went to the office to see. Wait a minute, Chuck. I ain't bailing out of trouble by saying I remember things I don't. But you were with me. You're thinking of somebody else. You clubbed Eddie, stole that money out of the safe, and now you're trying to frame me. Well, I'm not letting you. You're coming on down to the cops with me and tell them just in case. Thanks, JoJo. Now let's move them. I'll turn in just a moment to tonight's case from the official files of your FBI. Now let's consider an entirely different type of case. One which shows that anything can and usually does happen to men of determination in this great country. Nick Rose was 30 when he was discharged from the Army after the Second World War. He'd been in the invasion of Africa and then did a lot of island hopping in the Pacific. Home again, he invaded a plastic manufacturing plant with lots of hard work and enthusiasm. And pretty soon, his salary started hopping. Now he's married, has a couple of fine children, owns his own home. Nick, you're really on the way up, aren't you? I sure hope so. Nick wasn't getting much of a salary when he talked to his equitable life representative. But Nick had faith in himself. He knew he'd get ahead. And when he heard about the equitable plan for men and women on the way up, he knew it was his kind of a plan. The equitable plan is a plan for people who have that extra initiative, drive and gumption, that can't help but get them more money and more responsibilities. For this type of person, it's a perfect plan. Because unlike other life insurance plans, this equitable plan is flexible. It's geared to grow as you grow. This year, I got a pretty good promotion. My wife had another baby. I figured this was the time for me to take advantage of one of the options of my equitable plan and adapt my insurance up to my new income and responsibilities. Another very important thing about the equitable plan is its exceptionally low cost to start with. Yet in the meantime, your family gets the life insurance protection they need. Even on the small salary I was making when I started working at my job, it wasn't hard to make the payments on my equitable plan. Why not profit from Nick's example? Why not be ready for your success when it comes? Ask your Equitable Society representative about the equitable plan for men and women on the way up, or send a postcard care of this station to the Equitable Society. That's E-Q-U-I-T-A-B-L-E. The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. And now back to the FBI file. The Wild Pit. Criminal investigation today is a science. Law enforcement officers spend long years studying modern methods of detection. The average layman in time of illness would never think of operating on himself. He would not attempt to draw blueprints and build his own house, or to buy all the parts and put together his own automobile. Yet a week rarely passes that a decent citizen does not try to solve a crime. Sometimes, as in tonight's case, it is a crime in which he is believed to have been involved. Sometimes it is merely one of which he is heard. Whatever the circumstances, he often ends his quest as the suspected baseball player did, by being assaulted. So there is one point which your FBI cannot emphasize too strongly. If you have any knowledge of a crime, do one thing and one thing only. Pick up your phone and call your local police. Tonight's file continues at the ballpark. It is early afternoon and several players are in back of the batting practice cage waiting their turn when FBI Special Agent Jim Taylor approaches. Pardon me. You're Roy Brown? That's right. I'm Special Agent Taylor, the FBI. Can I talk to you for a minute, please? Oh, sure. Here, let's get out of the way. Get run over by these guys trying to get in their licks before the bell. All right. You're right over here. You were Judd Fulton's roommate, weren't you? Yeah, on the road. How long have you been on it? Oh, I don't know. Ten years, I guess. He hasn't been with his club that long, has he? Neither have I. We weren't friends that long ago. He was on another ball club in the Sally Ligon we were down there. Oh, I see. Well, Brown, I hear he said something to you yesterday about stealing the gate receipts. Oh, no, wait a minute. He was joking. I asked him what he was going to do, and he said something like, rob a bank, steal a gate receipts. Look, Mr. Taylor, he couldn't be the one that took that money. Well, it looks like he was. Let me tell you how honest Jug is. Last year, we had a guy in the bleachers with field glasses watching the other catchers and stealing the signs. He waved a towel, and the curve was coming. Jug made him lay off when he came up to hit. Stealing signals and stealing $6,000 at two different things. Are you Mr. Taylor? Yes, that's right. Call for you on that phone with the dugout. All right, well, you're part of Mr. Brown. I'll be here if you want me. All right. Which dugout? Follow me. You know who's calling? That his name was Lieutenant Hall. Right down here. Yeah, I see. Thanks very much. Hello, Pete. Jim, I just got a report on Fulton. He was found by a couple of workmen at a vacant lot near the river. Where is he now? Well, they took him home. I'm going up to see him. Fine, I'll meet you there. You're just in time, Jim. Fulton, this is Agent Taylor, the FBI. Hi. Hello, Fulton. He's been telling me he was framed, but I found this on the floor. Must have dropped out of his pocket when he was getting undressed. That's the check Stone was holding for him. I told you I got it from him, but I didn't take any of that money, and I am being framed. Oh, who's doing this to you, Fulton? Two guys who work in the parking lot near the ballpark. They've got the money, and they're the ones who put this lump on my head, and they're the ones who... Fulton, how much do you remember about last night? Everything. I suppose you start at the beginning and tell us the whole story, huh? Well, I got drunk and wandered into this parking lot. I had to go over to the ballpark to get my check, so one of the guys who worked there said he'd come over with me. I figured he just wanted to get into the game free, so I took him along. Oh, what's his name? Marty. What's his last name? That's all the name I know. We went to the office. Eddie Stone was there. We had an argument. He threw a punch at me, so I hit him back, knocked him down. He hit his head on the safe door and passed out. That's when I ran. Ran where? Under the stands and into the crowd. Well, Fulton, what do you think happened to that $6,000? I'm telling you, this Marty must have got it. I went to the lot this morning after I found out you were looking for me to try and get him. Is the club parking lot the one you're talking about? No, it's down the block from the clubs. This one's next to the Atwater Building. I see. Well, I figured I had a better chance of proving I didn't steal the money if I brought this Marty in with me. I went to see him and I was just asking him to come with me when his pals snuck up and slugged me from behind. What's his pals' name? Jojo. Any last name on him? Nope. Fulton, one thing doesn't fit in with what we know. Now, you say that you were slugged near the ballpark, but you were found a little while ago on a vacant lot by the river. Well, they took me there. Oh, how? In a car. You know what kind? I don't know what kind. I came to for a minute and I was in the back seat. When I started to lift my head, I got slugged again. Uh-huh. Pete, can you stay here a while? Well, sure, Jim. Where are you going? To the parking lot and see if I can check that part of the story. Your name Marty? Yeah. Marty what? What's it to you? Well, I'm a special agent of the FBI. They're my credentials. Oh. It's Marty Baker. Uh-huh. Do you know a jug Fulton? Sure, he's a ball player. Friend of yours? No, I've seen him play, but I saw. Well, he says he was here last night. But you walked over to the ballpark with him. Huh? I didn't go no place with him. He came in here loaded, looking for a car to sleep in, so I nailed him and booted him up. Uh-huh. He also says he was here this morning and got slugged. I must still be loaded. I've been here since 10 o'clock, and if he'd have come in, I'd have called the cops. I heard on the radio about you looking for him. I see. He told me about somebody else who works here, somebody named Jojo. Jojo Grant. Uh-huh. He ain't around. You know where he is? Yeah, delivering a car. We got mostly customers from the outwater building. They bring their car here in the morning, and when they're leaving their office, they call, and we meet them. Then he won't be long. A couple of minutes the most. Fine, I'll wait. Hey, Choo-jin. Yeah, Pete. Get anything at the parking lot? Well, there are two men there named Marty Baker and Jojo Grant. I'm checking now to see if he'd want them out of record. Baker denied going to the ballpark with Fulton. Oh, where is Fulton now? I figured I'd let him sleep a little. Do you remember anything else? Well, only that it was a gray sedan. He was driven to the vacant lot in. Uh-huh. I talked to the hospital. Club secretary made a statement. He admitted that he'd provoked the fight with Jug through the first punch. But he claims Jug then knocked him cold and must have taken the money. But he didn't see him, though, didn't he? No, no. Pete, I'm beginning to believe Fulton. Did you come up with any evidence that'll help him up? No. If they moved him after the slugging, they'd need a car they could take for a few minutes without anybody missing it. And they don't own one. I've checked that. That means the car they used either belonged to somebody passing by or to a tenant in the equity building. Oh, what about customers at the ballpark? There's no game there until the night. Now, we can throw out the quick parkers because those boys couldn't be sure how soon they'd come back to the lot. But if it was a regular customer and they knew he wouldn't want his car until the old five o'clock. How about going back up there, Jim? Well, let's see. It's past five now. Now, we might still be able to get a list of tenants in the building. Then we'll have the Motor Vehicle Bureau give us a quick name check. Jim, that motor vehicle report in yet? Just got it, Pete. How many grades is it then? Four. All right, let's each take a pair. Here you are. Now, if the owner is home, ask when we can see the car. Right. Use this phone. I'll take the one on the other desk. Oh, no luck, Jim. On both? Uh-huh. Me and the man went to the office today. Well, then our theories got one more chance. Oh, what's that? This man, Carl Foster. He's the only one left. Can't you read him? Well, his wife expects him home any minute. Now, come on, Pete. Let's take a chance and go out there. Here's my car, gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Foster. Anything in there, Jim? Yeah. Pete, this looks like a fresh blood stain. Let's get that kid I brought and go to work. Hey, you can't leave your car there. Get it out of there. Hello, Baker. Well, I see you got Fulton. Yeah, we caught up with him. I brought him by with Lieutenant Hall here so you and Grant could identify him as the man who was here last night. Well, sure it's him. Don't he admit it? Oh, where's Jojo Grant? Wait a minute. Hey, Jojo! Yeah? I'm here. Pete, maybe we all better get out for this. Right, Jim. I'll slide that over there. Taking two guys to hold him up tonight, I see. I'm not drunk. Sure, nice seeing you when you ain't. I want you and Grant to take a good look at this car. You recognize it? Not right off. Well, belongs to a regular customer of this lot, a man named Carl Foster. This is the car you two used after you slugged Fulton. Missed, I told you before. I ain't seen him since last night. Well, this car's tire tracks are at the vacant lot where Fulton was spawned. Hey, Marty, you suppose Foster done it? Never mind that alibi, Grant. I ain't got nothing to alibi for, Mr. I think you have. Now, Fulton says Baker was driving and you were in the back with him. Grant and slugged him when he came to on his way to the vacant lot. The man's talking out of his head. He located Baker's fingerprints behind the rear-view mirror. So what? I've been driving the car every day, moving it around the lot. Yeah, we know that. They also found a blood stain on the back seat. Now, how do you explain the fact that cleaning fluid was used to try and remove that blood stain? How do I know? We found a can of cleaning fluid in the well behind the back seat with your prints and grants all over it. How do you know they were our prints? Well, we discovered you both have arrest records. Your prints were with them. I guess maybe it was an old can of stuff we used on the car. Mr. Taylor, don't let him squirm out of it. Don't worry, Fulton. There's a serial number on that can of fluid. We traced it back to the store that sold it. Grant, you bought that can this afternoon and before you paid for it, you asked the clerk whether or not it would remove a blood stain. Why, you stupid... It's too late for that now, Baker. All right, Pete, they're both yours. Jojo Grant and Marty Baker were convicted in state court of robbery and sentenced to 20 years each. And now, ladies and gentlemen, here is a vital message on our nation's internal security from J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Hoover's message is, and I quote, sabotage may be an act designed to destroy or damage national defense materials, to impede production, injure plant premises, to destroy public utilities, or to produce defective national defense goods. The FBI has been assigned the specific responsibility of coordinating the investigation of sabotage within the United States and the territorial possessions. The public is requested to report immediately to the FBI any information which might indicate threats of sabotage. Now for just half a minute, back to the equitable plan for men and women on the way up. Equitable created this plan for a very special type of person. For the man who knows that someday he'll tell his wife, Polly, get a sitter for the kids tonight. We're going out to celebrate the biggest promotion I ever got in my life. Are you reasonably sure that someday you'll have good news like that? Then don't wait another day. Ask your Equitable Society representative to work out your own personal plan for a man on the way up. Or send a postcard care of this station to the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Next week we will dramatize another case from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Its subject, fraud. Its title, The Profiteers. 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 places or 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. Others in the cast were Parley Bear, Anthony Barrett, Sam Edwards, Billy Hallop, Jeanette Nolan, Harry Rosenthal, and Gil Stratton Jr. 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 transcribe story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Profiteers on This Is Your FBI. Stay tuned for the adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. There's fun for the whole family when Ozzie and Harriet come your way next. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.