 have you ever watched a magician work a really good sleight of hand artist can pull lighted cigarettes from the air he's able to saw a woman in half he can pull a rabbit out of a hat or make a fountain pen disappear but have you ever seen a magician who could make a 200 pound corpse disappear allow creeps this is t4 why opening the doors of the mystery play house our story tonight is an imaginative tale called who took the corpse it was written by dl champion the little town of pernville's only scarlet crime was born of a corncob pipe and grew to the stature of the celebrated case when its corpse vanished the crime involved three men one became the corpse another the killer and the third lived to record tonight's story it all started one night in the palace bar where sit dotan the police deputy watched pernville's newest resident amuse the mill hands with clever card tricks the newcomer was good he was a magician a suave satanic figure in a red lined cape he called himself marvelo and marvelo sit dotan noticed as he crowded into watch carried his many drinks well and now gentlemen a flip so a shuffle so and here is your carefully concealed card the ace of spades now gentlemen well the man who was smoking that horrible pipe desist the odor is offensive i guess he means that corncob of yours said may i see that pipe sir oh sure let me knock the ashes out first hey i uh i placed the horrible object on the bar so then i placed the magic cloth over it so what you're gonna do marvelo make it smell like violent no no i will do better than that my friend now a magic word do shavi presto and you pipe well hey somebody should have made disappear a long time sir don't you approve a new pipe for an old one nope i like my old one let's have it i'm terribly sorry sir i can't bring your old pipe back it's an a limbo beyond my call bartender another scotch please marvelo there give me that pipe you sir an individual i dislike a poor sport might be but i'm a deputy and also i think you've had a lot of drinks and also i think i ought to take you home now come on it'll be most unwise of you to lay a hand on me my friend yeah i know i know now come on i told you not to let me what you're doing sitting on the floor lots of chairs around hey that's what they call jiu jitsu isn't it now bartender that's scotch please hello said hey ain't your breakfast off the mantle this morning sure it did well i guess you heard what happened last night chief hey what the devil you're doing rolling your own cigarettes now yeah yeah ain't breaking in new pipes and marvelo never gave me back my old one i'm going to the bank now lamb that's right it is payroll day at the mill unit oh hang it said you used to knock pipe ashes out all over now you're spilling cigarette tobacco on me i'm sorry lamb i'll see you later and i'll be at the palace tonight in case the boys rough it up yeah best deputy in the state but the untidiest man i ever seen you can tell it's payday huh said yep palace is you're busy tonight turn uh uh what here comes your pal marvelo gentlemen gentlemen may i have your attention gentlemen please thank you who's going for you said shut up tom and listen card tricks and feet of magic are merely a profession gentlemen my basic interest is the study of the occult the black art very few men gentlemen have gone as deeply into the forbidden realm of evil as i very few men possess my power what's he driving i read men's hidden thoughts i see their souls mirrored in their minds tonight in this room a man plans murder that man plans to murder me you're all my witnesses i will point this man out to you by means of this because night all right marvelo you asked for it this time i don't know magic but this is a 38 and these are handcuffs and tonight you can study your black books in our jail no jail and no steel handcuffs can hold marvelo you idiot what do you say we just try it huh see in court marvelo a little quiet please next case daniel big xelius marvelo where's the defendant said doton's upstairs getting him out of his cell your honor well what's keeping him somebody go up and deputy where's the defendant he's gone judge gone what do you mean gone where wasn't he in the cell oh he was locked in the cell with handcuffs on and i locked the outer door too but he's gone well that's ridiculous any signs of escape no the door is locked from the inside and the bars are solid he's he's just disappeared in the thin air but i'll find that black devil your honor with the last thing i do i'll find it could very well be the last thing you do mr doton all right how did you get out mr big your honor how could you expect me to tell you that the black arts reveal their secrets only to those who keep them yes well here's the secret the court will share with you in fernville we don't go in for throwing knives around in public places what is all this grudge between you two doton your honor this guy has a screw loose somewhere he goes around thinking that i want to kill it and so you do a half hour after i left the palace the first night i met you your animal brain had conceived a carly plot to murder me and to hide behind your badge of office that's a lot i warned you last night publicly today doton before this court i warn you that your plan won't work because i am going to kill you first are you told it to him did you hear that yep now look marvellous for that kind of talk i can arrest you again for killing i can hang you you got that straight hang marvellous my friend if your deputy doesn't change his mind about murdering me i will kill him and you will be powerless to stop me or to hang me or even to prove i have committed a crime don't trust him sit keep an eye on him yeah yeah he's just a nut oh that doesn't bother me lamb but i'll watch him hello this is freight office hello tom this is said doton say did they expressed up today yeah that's right new radio with a phonograph gadget sure i got it from a wife's birthday now look i took a room at the palace hotel room 212 i want to keep it there and try it out uh send it over tomorrow will you now don't forget room 212 hey bartender oh hey i must see your first customer yeah you sure marvell think new and yet will it be double brandy please right there you don't come around till night usually come here so early yes it is unusual isn't it but then it isn't every day that that one kills a man i'm going to room 212 hey that's doton's room he's up there now there's new radio yes i know how do you know it's a secret how i know is my secret hey you can't uh he's nuts he wouldn't do that and tell me about it sit can handle him anyhow in which direction is room 212 please 212 it's right here sir that door over there thank you thank marvell you can't say i didn't warn you don't know you idiot don't put away that gun now you're hang now don't marvell don't look what do you want this is it doton and after you're dead they won't be able to bury you because they'll never find your car i saw him i saw him do it i saw him lying right there in the blood yes i saw him yeah sure he's dead marvell no he's just standing in front of the room grinning yeah yeah bill sanders has got him covered with my shotgun yeah yeah we'll hold him hurry up will you all right here comes the sheriff now yeah there he's coming right upstairs hi bill take the shotgun out of his ribs well marvell you weren't bluffing to tell me you're actually killed shit you're the police chief mr tracy you expect me to testify against myself is the gun thanks open the room door bill what's going on here somebody being funny there ain't no one in this room i saw him i saw him lying right there mr tracy there's blood all right the closet's empty windows locked on the inside this is radio half out of the crate well marvell where is it where is what mr tracy doton's body it's me i see bill how long did it take you to get up here after the shots well long enough to grab the shotgun under the counter and run up the stairs about three or four minutes where was this guy when you got here bill right where he is now chief look you that's how to be in my deputy and a fellow human said doton was a good friend of mine and i can promise you you'll dance on the end of a rope for this come on you're under arrest what for may i ask murder murder but you have no corpse no corpus delicti how can you arrest me for murder i can hold you for 48 hours on suspicion of murder i should be able to find sid's body by then lm and i'm the middle just call to see if sid was here they're waiting for him to bring the payroll down oh well now isn't that a coincidence marvellou you sure picked a fine day for it didn't you now i've got to find a 110 000 payroll as well as a corpus delicti well then maybe the guy really used magic to get rid of doton as a district attorney you make a lousy detective melton you realize i had to turn that killer loose in 12 hours how about the bullets did you find them marvellous gun shows he fired four chambers it's a 25 that caliber slug stays in a man's body you search the palace top to bottom he didn't hide it there how about his house even superman couldn't carry a corpse over the other end of town and come back in four minutes but i search anyhow the only thing missing was his car he's got a bill of sales shown he sold it to a dealer who drove it west three days ago okay marvellou in the first round i can't hold any longer yes well thank you for your hospitality chief uh tracy i think i will leave fernville that is if i may sure sure you're free until i find sid's body that is no i'm by the way you better spend that payroll money it took from sid fast well you're going to wind up it ain't going to be much good to you hello melton yeah lamb what's up i think i can crack this case i just got a report on marvellous car i can't make an arrest of course but the chicago police have been able to tail the car and they've told me where marvellous living there he's apparently been there since he left here four days ago i'm leaving for chicago today taxi taxi look son i want you to drive me out toward jarrington park there's no farmhouse out there i want to get to i'll tell you where to drop me off okay pop all right son let me off at that crossroad don't you want to go to the house you want nope i'm on a surprise a friend of mine hey i said keep a chain thanks mister mail box daniel bigs and there's marvellous car in a driveway that does it good evening chief trafie marvellous put up your hand well marvellous thought you'd be in the house i'm getting careless i guess yes very careless my friend i was afraid you might track down my car but it doesn't really matter just keep your hands on side please let's go inside where it's more comfortable shall we believe me i regret having to do this mr uh tracy hey you'll probably regret it longer than i will i'll do you one favor tracy as a detective there are aspects of this case which you might like to know about i'll answer any one question for you just one question tracy before you die hmm it's very thoughtful of your marvellous i'm told all right what did you do with sid's body your deputy it's sid sid don't first time i ever had a corpse saved my life sid sure glad to see you tell me what happened sid sure uh give me a match for it's a yeah thanks well there's lots of it that i i don't know lamb marvellous comes in the hotel and fires at me there's a puff of black smoke from the gun and i pass out what then well i don't know where he hid me but i woke up seemed like years later in the trunk compartment of this car ain't not if marvellous dead will never know how he worked it how'd you get away from it work the ropes loose this afternoon hitting the orchard i knew he'd taken a payroll from us i saw him nab you so i waited then i moved in hang it shit why do you knock your pipe ashes out on floors i'm sorry lamb i forgot hey why you stopping here lamb well might as well get some gas besides i got a phone chicago police about marvellous yeah you got a phone here right inside the door thank you hello police headquarters give me deputy green please hello green this is tracy from fernbill yeah so you send that squad car down the turnpike to let this gas station with you yeah i got them both the corpse and the killer sit you were listening yeah i was listening i'd come in behind you crazy don't try anything sid try anything oh i i'm blessed you but i'm sorry you made me do that said i'm arresting you for the murder of your partner daniel biggs alias marvellous that bandage will hold you till the squad car gets here said light your pipe if you want it oh thanks how'd you figure it out lamb oh well i don't believe in magic said marvellous had to have an accomplice to get out of jail you're the only one who could have helped in stage that hokum that it all you had to go on no no man has habits said little habits like pipe smoking oh you said you never got your old pipe back from marvellous and then you pulled it out when we were in the car yeah i i got a guess how do you how do you dope out my disappearance well marvellous probably shot four blanks at you you cut your arm for the blood the gal saw you lying there and she ran out you went out the window to the roof and marvellous locked the window after you and i figured you made it to the car outside of town and waited for marvellous to show up and of course you had that payroll with you so i found a good little marvellous car and by shooting marvellous you probably thought he was going to spill the setup to me you're right you know i wouldn't have had to split the payroll with him i should have stuck to my old profession huh lamb hey um you should have son or you should have stuck to cigarettes oh hang it said why didn't you learn not to empty your pipe ashes all over you're the untidiest guy i ever seen i'm sorry lamb i forgot sorry yeah i'm sorry too said mighty sorry come on let's go son any others the first case in history where the corpse becomes the killer and the killer winds up as the corpse the story was called who took the corpse this is t4y closing the doors of the mystery playhouse and saying good night sleep tight this is the armed forces radio service