 The Anchorhawking Glass Corporation brings you crime photographer. Tonya Casey. Hi, Ethelbert. What's new? Did you read here what the president of the Columbia Broadcasting System says? He says, one of these days, we'll have radio sets so small you can wear them on your wrist. Oh, that'll be wonderful. Yeah, you can always have a radio with you. Oh, man, that'll be wonderful. You seem quite excited about this new wristwatch radio, Tony. Well, why shouldn't I be? It's wonderful. Then every Thursday, everybody will know the right time to hear me say, Anchorhawking is the most famous name in glass. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Tony Marvin. Every week at this time, the Anchorhawking Glass Corporation of Lancaster, Ohio, and its more than 10,000 employees bring you another adventure of Casey crime photographer, ace cameraman who covers the crime news of a great city. Written by Alonzo Dean Cole. Our adventure for tonight. The Piggy Bank Robbery. 8.15 in the morning. An elevator in the towering express building stops at an upper floor and discharges a sleepy-eyed Casey. Heavy-footed, he walks across the corridor and where he opens a glass-handled door labeled photography department. Hi, Casey. Hello, Jim. Your car break down on the way here? Have you simply decided to keep bankers ours? What do you mean? Hasn't anyone ever told you that we button pushers are supposed to punch the clock at 8 a.m. sharp when we're on morning shift? Nuts to you. Okay, pal. I never can wake up in time for this morning trick. City desk been looking for me? No, but Bill Shapiro is. What does Cubby want? He came in all excited this morning. Something very mysterious has happened to him. What happened to him? Well, sometime during the night. Oh, here he is. He'll tell you himself. Casey. Oh, Bill. I've been up the city room looking for you. I thought you might have gone there before coming here. You didn't tell the desk I hadn't shown up here, I hope. Certainly not. What do you think I am? Okay, I'm only kidding, pal. Jim tells me something happened to you last night. It was the darndest thing, Casey. Oh, shit up, Bill. Spittier story. You're not going to yawn when you hear it. This is something right up your alley. At this time of day, my alley is strictly... Well, of course, if you don't want to be bothered. Oh, well, excuse me. I don't mean to be a sleepy-lug, Bill. Naturally, I'm interested in whatever happened to you. Go ahead, shoot. Casey, you know my wife and me have a 16-month-old kid. Well, when I got up to come to work this morning, naturally, the first thing I do is to go into the living room, to look at Julius where he sleeps. What do you think I see besides Julius? What? Someone's been in our living room during the night. They jimmied the door and searched the place. Well, they didn't hurt the kid, did they? They didn't even wake him. I didn't see that anything was missing at first. The wife's gold wristwatch was laying out in plain sight, and so was 15 bucks. But the burglar hadn't touched him. What do you think was the one and only thing he took, Casey? Well, you tell me. Little Julius's piggy bank. Piggy bank? Much dough in it? Not over a buck, in small change. Your burglar was either a goof or some kid. Wait a minute. Been around enough to know the kind of jobs house prowlers do, and our job was opened by an expert. Casey, I got an idea why that piggy bank was stolen. Why? What is it? This was a brand new piggy bank because Julius busted his old one yesterday morning. So? You see, Julius likes his piggy bank like some kids like a certain doll. He always wants it with him when the wife takes him out in his carriage. And sometimes people who stop to look at him drop a couple of pennies in it. Well, someone dropped something else in that bank of his. The one that he busted. What? Now, this is something I ain't told anybody else, Casey, because if there's a big story in it, you're the guy who can get it, and I want you to have it. Thanks. You've been awful nice to me since I've been working here. You're not a hard guy to be nice to, Bill. What did somebody drop in the kid's bank? This. It looks like a passkey. Uh-huh. Somebody stopped to admire the kid, must have stuck it in there. Now, I think it was some crook who had to get rid of it in a hurry, and last night he came to get it back. But he didn't know, of course, that the bank he took wasn't the same one. He put the key in. Your wife didn't remember anybody dropping the key in, at all. No. What do you think, Casey? Well, this may be just an old key to nothing at all, that some chiseler dropped in the bank, like some guys dropped slugs in the collection baskets at church. But it might be the key to a place where a stolen door was hit. Or jewels. This was a key to a safety deposit box. I think you might have an idea, but it isn't. This is an ordinary flat-cylinder locked door key, that's all. My idea's all wet, huh? Well, it's pretty far-fetched, you know, Bill. Of course, you reported the burglary of the cops, huh? Yeah. What'd they say? Well, what you said, that only a goof or a kid would steal a baby's piggy bank and nothing else. Mm-hmm. But I didn't tell him about the key. You keep this key and think about it, Casey. I still got a notion there's a mystery in it and a story. Okay, Bill. I'll just stick it in my desk drawer and do some thinking about it. Yes, I will. When I wake up, if you don't mind, I'm going to grab myself a nap. Sure. Oh, oh, that's... Photography department, Casey's beat. Oh, hello, Burke. Yeah, go ahead, shoot. City desk. What? War Street under pier 30. All right, I got it. Well, who's Manny Armstrong? Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, I remember now. Listen, tell Annie Williams I'll meet her downstairs in the lobby. We'll get right down there. Goodbye. Well, what is it, Casey? That's the end of my nap. Manny Armstrong, the counterfeiters, has been found murdered. Counterfeiter? Yeah, one of the smoothest, too. He nearly drove the treasure department nuts before they nailed him. That was around 10 years ago and almost forgotten the guy's name. Where's my hat? There, on your head. Oh, thanks, yeah. I'll see you later, Bill. Don't forget to think about that key, Casey. Key? What key? Oh, yeah, sure, yeah. I'll think about it, kid. So long. Hey, Walter, go down, sell her and bring up some more sweet vermouth. We only got one bottle left to back of this boy. And bring up some more lemons. Yeah, and some... Huh? When did you two blow it? Never mind them lemons, Walter. Just now. Oh, boy, do we feel beat up, too. You can say that again. We've stuck on an assignment for 12 solid hours, Ethelbert. What assignment, Miss Williams? The, uh, Manny Armstrong murder. I read about that in the evening papers. He's the old counterfeiter who was just freed from prison. Well, he didn't enjoy much freedom. He gets into this town yesterday morning after being sprung from the federal pen at Lewisburg and this morning he's found dead under a barge pier. Beaten to death, the papers said. Not just beaten, Ethelbert. He was deliberately tortured. Yeah? Well, that side of the murder's off the record. The cops don't want it known yet, Ethelbert. Of course I won't say anything. Uh, any clues as to who'd done it, Casey? Off the record? Well, only one. Yeah? Marks on his face and head indicate that the guy who beat him wore a heavy-signet ring with a big sharp-cornered letter E on it. That sounds like a hot clue. Well, that's what made us stick with a case so many hours, but it hasn't led us anywhere so far. Thank goodness we'll get time off tomorrow for those extra hours, Casey. I'll use them all as sleeping. Hey, Ethelbert has some coffee brought here to the bar for us. Yeah, sure. Hey, Walter! Oh, Walter have some coffee brought for Miss Williamson, Casey, and take back them lemons. To get back to the subject, didn't this manny Armstrong have some known enemies? For a crook, he had very few enemies, pal. Anyway, the torture angle indicates that the killer was trying to make Armstrong cough up information. And the cops have another angle on that. The Treasury Department got a conviction against Armstrong 10 years ago for making and passing five and $10 bills that were good enough to fool anyone but experts. They weren't able to find the plates he made them with. Those engraved plates would be worth plenty to another crook who wanted to go into the counter-fitting racket. So the killer may have tried to make Armstrong tell where they was hit, huh? That's the idea. You think he did tell? It's doubtful if he was able to tell. Why? You see, during his last five years in prison, Armstrong was a very sick guy. He almost completely lost his memory. Prison doctors are convinced that Armstrong doesn't know where he hid those plates, or recall much of anything else that he did before his sickness began. Which seems to explain why he was beaten to death, Ethelbert. Yeah, he couldn't tell. Yeah, that's right. Say, where's that coffee? Hey, Walter, where's... Excuse me, does the bar phone? Bruno, can't they Ethelbert speaking? Yeah, yeah, just a minute. For you, Casey, you're city debt. City debt? Oh, we're not on duty. And we're not going to be. Give me that phone. Hello, Casey speaking. Oh, there's an assignment you think I'd like to cover, huh? After I just put in 12 hours on a job, what do you think I am anyway? I'll go up there right away. Thanks a million. Thanks for handing this to me, boss. This guy's sick, nice William. What is it, Casey? Bill Shapiro's just been taken to the hospital. He may die. Bill Shapiro? The cub photographer you like? That's right, yeah. He was in here just this morning. Tell me about his apartment being robbed of a piggy bank. Tonight, he's been almost beaten to death. His wife's badly hurt too. But why? Come on, Annie. We're going to find out why. Say, tell me, did you ever take a magnificent roast, steaming hot from the oven and put it on a platter? And suddenly, bingo, the platter cracks. Well, that simply can't happen with jadeite, the amazing new dinnerware developed by Anchor Hawking. You see, jadeite is as heat-proof as the fire king oven glass you use for baking, and yet it has the delicate beauty of rare old Chinese porcelain. And jadeite prices are incredibly low. For example, a cup and saucer and open stock cost only 15 cents. And a complete 35-piece jadeite dinner service for six costs less than $5. So ask for beautiful jade green jadeite dinnerware at chain stores, department stores, hardware stores, and all other stores selling Chinaware and glass. Remember the name jadeite, spelled J-A-D-E-I-T-E. Jadeite, the newest triumph of Anchor Hawking. The most famous name in glass. We're on the job here, Logan. I guess it means Shapiro is a homicide case. Unfortunately, it doesn't, Casey. I just got word from the hospital that your friend's going to be OK. Oh, yeah? I'm so glad, Captain. Me too. How about his wife and his baby? The baby wasn't hurt at all. Mrs. Shapiro has hit on the head and KO'd, but right now she's suffering from nothing worse than shock and hysteria. Now, she's been taken to the hospital, too. What happened in this apartment? Well, Mrs. Shapiro said that about half past six, just as she and her husband were about to have dinner, she answered a knock at the door, and she opened it, saw a man there, and, well, that's the last she remembered. The man knocked her unconscious then. Yeah. And when she regained consciousness, she found her husband lying in the kitchen floor dead. She thought, so I got a homicide report when she won't head for it. Was she able to describe the guy who hit her long ago? No, he worked too fast, and her husband won't be able to tell us anything for at least a week. Of course, she told you about the burglary here last night. Yeah. Oh, you know about that piggy bank thing, eh? Yeah, Bill told me this morning. Do you think there's any connection there? I've been trying to figure one, Casey, if the parts don't fit. Anyone who prows an apartment and steals nothing but a kid's penny bag isn't the sort of crook who comes back later and nearly kills a guy. Yeah, that's the way it seems to me. But I have found a connection with something else that's red-hot. Yeah? What? Not strictly off the record. Whoever beat up Shapiro wore a signet ring with a big sharp initial E. Casey! You found the same marks on Bill as you found on Manny Armstrong? And the beating Shapiro got was like the one Armstrong took, blows to the head and face only. Shapiro lived through it. Yeah, but... What connection can Bill Shapiro or just a cobb reporter have with Armstrong? That's what I want to ask you with Casey, Miss Williams. You especially, pal. You know Shapiro. Well, he couldn't have any connection with Armstrong. He was only a kid when Armstrong went to jail ten years ago. Now, wait a minute. What did Mrs. Shapiro tell you about that piggy bank robbery? Only that the bank was stolen. Did she mention anything about a key? Key? What key? Maybe the key to the Shapiro Armstrong connection. Pal, I'm going back to the office. Where can I reach you in half an hour? Hey, what is it? Yeah, that's what I'd like to know. I got a notion. Or rather, Bill Shapiro had one that may pay off. I want to talk about it until I do some thinking that I promised Bill I'd do before. Maybe you know what you're talking about. I don't. Where can I reach you in half an hour? I'll be back at headquarters. All right, I'll phone you there. Come on, let's get to the office, Annie. Oh, okay. But Lady in the Dark had nothing on me. There's a lot of light in you on the way, Annie. Come on. Draw on my desk this morning. Here it is. Huh? It's just an ordinary flat pass key. Maybe it isn't ordinary. Wait a minute. Let's try this magnifying glass. Why? I got a hunch. Well, through the magnifying glass, it's still an ordinary flat pass key. Look at the other side. Still nothing out of the ordinary? No. Oh, there goes the hunch. I guess so. That's, you see, Armstrong was an engraver, and I figured he might have engraved something on this key. So fine. It couldn't be seen with the naked eye. Something maybe about the location of those counterfeit plates that he hid away before his memory went haywire. Well, I'm used to being wrong. You gave Captain Logan a big build-up about this. You better tell him to forget it. Yeah. Wait a minute. Now what now? I just noticed something different about this key Bill Shapiro gave me. This isn't a key turned out by one of the big lock companies. This is a duplicate. So what? Well, locksmiths who make duplicate keys often stamp their names on the blanks they use, but I've never known a one of them who stamps on the original number, any. This key I got from Bill Shapiro has a name and an identifying number on it. Ludwig Marius. And the number is 1-2-1-3-8. Hey, wait a minute. That isn't a true identification number. Manufacturers use serial letters to avoid running their numbers up into the millions. This key has no letters on it. What do you think? Well, this 1-2-1-3-8 must be a code of some kind. And the name... Wait a minute. Let me look at this phone book. Yeah. Armstrong spent most of his life in this town. He was arrested here. He must have hidden those plates here. Marius has an uncommon name. Let's see. There's only one listed in the book, Annie. And he's listed at Edward Marius, DDS. He's a deadest, not a locksmith. But the name on the key isn't Edward Marius. It's Ludwig Marius. I know. The name's so unusual. They must be relatives. Annie. That's Signet Ring. Some people put their first initial on jewelry instead of their last, and Edward begins with an E. Also does Emily and Ethel and Ehrman true? I know. All right. Anyway, let's take this key to Logan to set a phonium. You'll get a code expert in who will give us the load out. Okay. All right. Come on. Oh, fuck. Excuse me, lady. I was just about to go in when this gentleman decided to let you in himself. There was nobody in the photography department. Now the guys are all out on Signet. Now I can see the place is empty, which saves me trouble. He's got a gun. What is this? Step back into that empty room both of you and quick. Go on, Annie. You're okay. Now, give me the key. What key? The key I've been hearing you talk about from the outside this door. Hand it over. No. You hit him. Look out. That's been done. Now you sit. No. And just to make sure you stay quiet. I put you both out for keeps. It wasn't too dangerous here. Thanks for the key, fella. So long. I'll tell you about the guy Logan is. He was big as an ox. You know, he was dark and swatty. Well, you can identify his picture if it's in our criminal files. I doubt it. You know, so do I. His hat was pulled down over his eyes and his overcoat collar was turned up. I can tell you this about him, though. He throws a punch like a mule throws a kick. I'm still groggy. No, I don't feel so good, either. Yeah, both lucky you got off as easy as you did. Have you looked in the mirror since you came to and phoned for me, Casey? Yeah. It's a cut on my jaw that looks like an E. Yeah. Before this muscle man finished with Shapiro, he obviously made him tell that the key had been given to you. Sure. So he hung around outside the office here until he saw me come in and he listened at the door. It was all set when Anne and I started out. Was he set? Say, Casey, go over your theory of this key business again. I want it straight. Well, now we know that the key connects everything that's happened. Armstrong must have known this guy with the E-ring wanted it. He was after it. He must have been so close that Armstrong had to act fast. He saw a baby on the street sitting in a carriage playing with a piggy bank. So he stopped, mired the kit, you know, dropped the key in the bank. Well, the time he was conning the mother into telling him her name and where she lived. He meant to get back the key after he shook the E-ring. But he couldn't shake him and E-ring put the pressure on him under that pier until he spilled the work. That's it. E-ring goes to Shapiro's after he kills Armstrong, gets the piggy bank, finds the key, isn't inside, then goes back to Shapiro's and torches Bill into telling him that I have it. You and Miss Williams say you can't remember all the die-stamping you found in that key. Only the name Ludwig Marius. In both cases, I think that the number started with one to one, but we can't recall the rest. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Now that my so-called brain is clearing a bit, I think that name is the gimmick of this thing, Logan. And I don't think it's a code because Armstrong could never remember a code. The figures and letters stamped on it mean just what they say. Well, then, what we do remember is no help. There's no Ludwig Marius listed, only Edward Marius. My hunch says that he's the works, Logan. I want to meet that guy, and he's not going to slip any more fast punches over when I do. Casey will play your hunch. Let's call on Edward Marius. The maid said you people wish to see me. I'm Edward Marius. You? This isn't the guy who socked me, Logan. Oh, that man was twice his size. Pardon me, but I don't understand. Well, Mr. Marius, I'm Captain Logan of the police. Police? This is Miss Williams and Mr. Casey of the Morning Express. I'm happy to meet you, but I have no business with the newspapers or the police. I'm merely a practicing dentist. Mr. Marius, you're the only person of your name listed in the phone book or the city directory. I'm the only Marius in this city that I know of. Have you ever heard of Ludwig Marius? Heard of him. Ludwig Marius was my father. Your father? He died 10 years ago. Oh, he died? Yes. Uh, tell us something about your father, Mr. Marius. Well, what for himself? What he did, who he worked for, his associations. He worked for humanity. He was a clergyman. A clergyman? Yes. My father was minister of the hillside church around the corner. Anyone in the neighborhood can tell you about his associations. Gentlemen, I'm proud to be able to say that my father, Ludwig Marius, was the most loved member of this community. What is this all about, please? Uh, Casey, you answer that. I guess we might as well be going, Ludwig. Uh... Wait. Your father died 10 years ago, Mr. Marius? Yes. Logan didn't many arms strong live in this neighborhood just before his arrest? Yeah. Burnham Street, about six blocks from here. Mr. Marius, did your father die on January 21st? Well, yes, January 21st, 1938. That's it! What's it? Where was he buried, Mr. Marius? Well, in Beachwood Cemetery, in our family plot. Thanks. I think I've got it now. You've got what? Sure, I have any. And Mr. Marius has helped me remember all the numbers stamped on that key. I said he'd be the works of this... Hey, will you tell us... Sure, we're going to Beachwood Cemetery from here. And watch. Among those tombstones. Here. He looks like a ghost. Ghosts don't carry a pick and shove, Lanny. I don't think. Casey. He's a big man. He bet he is. He's the guy who sucked us. I won't forget him. That's your Mr. E. Ring. Are you sure? I am. That's the overcoat he had on, and the hat. Well, if you're both positive in your identification, I'll step out from behind this monument right now. No, you won't, pal. This is my party. Casey, come back here. He's twice as big as you are. Yeah, but I'm twice as mad. We'll join the crowd at the Blue Note in just a moment. You know, one of the most heartwarming salutations in the world is the phrase, have a cup of coffee. But how often comes the polite, hesitant response? Don't go to all that trouble. Well, you know, now you can truthfully say, why, it's no trouble at all. It'll only take a moment. But that's all the time it takes to make a delicious steaming cup of coffee when you use the amazing new discovery soluble coffee. Now, you put a spoonful of this new kind of coffee in a cup, add hot water, and there you are. That's all there is to it. Now, that's simple, isn't it? And if you haven't tried any of the perfected time-saving instant coffees now on the market, buy a jar tomorrow and give your family and friends a treat. Soluble coffee is particularly welcome at breakfast when time is at a premium. Two-thirds of the soluble coffees now on the market are packed in sanitary anchor glass jars and protected by anchor caps. These anchor glass jars and anchor caps protect soluble coffee perfectly against harmful moisture. They're easy to open, easy to measure from, and easy to reseal. The anchor glass jars and anchor caps are both products of anchor hocking. The most famous name in glass. Well, Wilbert, I sure was proud of him. Yeah, but look at his face, Miss Williams, all those ease. Well, at least he tried. It's a good thing Captain Logan was there. You say them plates for making counterfeit five and ten dollar bills was really in that preacher's coffin, Casey? Yeah, that's where they were at. Mr. Ludwig Marius died at just the time the dress treasury agents were about to close in on Manny Armstrong. So he made an apparently innocent visit to the Marius home where the minister was lying in his coffin. Well, nobody was paying any attention. He shoved the plates under the body. Oh, then he had that key made so he wouldn't forget where he put them. Oh, no, not then. He made the key himself in prison about five years later. He realized he was beginning to lose his memory. And he passed it to his lawyer for safekeeping without giving the lawyer any hint that it was more than an ordinary key. The lawyer told you this? No, we got the dope from Mr. E. Ring. The real name is Ellis Eno. Eno was a convict in Lewisburg prison at the same time as Armstrong. In the old counterfeit, it was delirious for a while, and he spilled the story of the key to Eno, but he couldn't remember the name stamped on it or the number. What was the meaning of that number? It was the date, the date of Marius' death, 1, 21, 38, which translates pretty easily as January 21st, 1938. I see. I thought you would. Well, Eno got out of the pen before the old man did, and waited. Armstrong saw Eno tailing him after he got the key from his lawyer, suspected why he was being tailed, dropped the key in a little Julius Shapiro's toy bank, and you know the rest. Best of all, Bill Shapiro is going to get the reward for finding those plates. Mmm. Uh, Casey, will you and Miss Williams have a cup of coffee on the house? Coffee? Yeah, I'll have Walter get it for you. Oh, no, no thanks, pal. No coffee for us. Oh, we're going home. And get some sleep. Yeah. Nothing's going to stop us this time, either. Oh, excuse me, there's the form. Annie, hey, that must be Bert with another assignment. Come on, let's get out of here. I'm with you, Casey Ross. Blue Note Cafe, Ethelbert speaking. No, sir, they have went. Oh, I see. You just wanted to tell them that their pictures are in the February issue of Movie Star Parade magazine. Geez, wow. I'll tell them. Goodbye. Mmm. Mmm. Time photographer starring Stott's Cotsworth as Casey is brought to you by the Anchor Hawking Glass Corporation. Makers of Fire King Oven Glass. Anchor glass containers. Anchor caps and closures. All products of anchor hawking. The most famous name in glass. It's based on a fictional character of Flash Gun, Casey, created by George Harmon Cox. Original music is by Archie Blyer, and the program features Miss Jan Minerazan and John Gibson as Ethelbert. Herman Chittison as the Blue Note Pianist. This is Tony Marvin saying good night for the Anchor Hawking Glass Corporation of Lancaster, Ohio, with offices in all principal cities of the United States and Canada.