 The Equitable Society presents This Is Your FBI. This Is Your FBI, an official broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, presented as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society's representative in your community. Through your FBI, you look for national security, until the Equitable Society for Financial Security. These two great institutions are dedicated to the protection of you, your home, and your country. Tonight's file, the allotment swindle. The war has now been over officially for 13 weeks, and all through the land, castles that crumbled two and three years ago are being rebuilt. Being rebuilt because our servicemen are coming home, from tarred China, from freezing Alaska, from hungry Europe, from all over the world, men are returning to this, their native land. In every man's life, there are moments of sheer exultation that tighten the muscles in his throat, that make speaking impossible. Such a moment is being enjoyed by men this very day, being enjoyed as they sail into New York Harbor. Sail in past the lovely lady who still holds high the flaming torch. The torch they helped keep lit. Our story this evening opens in a small, unattractively furnished apartment on the west side of New York. Julia Parker, a sleazy blonde of 28, is half asleep in the second-hand Morris chair near the window. His daydreaming, thinking of some of the men she could have married, and of some of the men she did. Yeah? Julia? Yeah? Open up, it's me, honey, Bobby. Bobby who? Your husband. Uh-huh. Julie. Julie, baby. Oh, gee. Oh, honey, it's so good to see you. Gosh. Oh, sure. Let me grab hold of this bag. There. Oh, gosh, baby. This is what I've been waiting for. When did you get in? Yesterday. What a time I had trying to find you. This is the fifth address I tried. I moved. Gee, you look swell. You know, I used to dream about this. When I'd be laying in a lousy hole filled with mud, I'd think about you and... You getting out of the army? Yeah, got a 30-day furlough. When I go back to camp, guy gives me a paper and I'm a civilian. Oh. Glad to see me, baby. Sure. Wonderful. Let me hold you again. Gee. You know something? What? I almost feel... Well, embarrassed about this. What do you mean? You know, likely we're strangers or something. Stranges? We only knew one another a couple of days before we got married. Then me going right overseas. Well, we'll get over that. From now on, we're going to be together for a long, long time, right, baby? Yeah, sure. Hey, I got a couple of things for you in the bag. Present? Yeah. What kind of present? Oh, helmet, Nazi flag, pictures. Oh. You want to see them? Um, not right now. Oh, I can get them. No, wait, let them go to laughter, huh? Okay. Oh, I gotta go out for a minute first. What for? Well, you must be hungry, and I haven't got anything in the house to eat. Oh, but... Look, you get all cleaned up or something, huh? I'll be right back, honest. But, Julie... Just make yourself at home. I'll see you later. Hi, Aunt Julie. Still around? Yeah, he's down the end of the bar. And Phil. Hmm? Oh, hiya, baby. I gotta talk to you. Okay. I'm not here. This is important. Now, come on back to the office. Okay. Now, you got trouble? Yeah. What is it? I'll tell you inside. Go ahead. Hmm. What's wrong, kid? Bobby's home. Bobby who? My husband. Which one? The blonde one. Bobby... Chase, I think his name is. He's Marina the Sailor. The soldier. Oh. What am I gonna do, Phil? How'd he find you? I don't know. He says he went to five addresses. Tough to give her up, huh? Well, after all, it was important to him. I'm his wife. It says here? Look, this is real serious, Phil. What am I gonna do? What does he want to do? He wants me to live with him naturally. That wouldn't be fair to the other guys. It wouldn't be fair to you. Besides, what good is he now? What do you mean? He's getting out of the army. No more allotment checks. Oh, that's different. Where is he now? At the apartment, waiting for me to come back. I told him I was going shopping. I got to get back, Phil. Yeah. All right, go ahead. Aren't you gonna do something? Well, look, give me some time, will you? I'll have to figure an angle on this guy. We'll get in touch with you tomorrow. Back in the early days of the war, Phil and Julia hit upon the racket of having Julia marry servicemen who were about to be shipped out of the country. They repeated the process three times. And with the aid of two forged birth certificates, Julia was able to get $100 a month in dependency allotments. $100 a month for each of her husbands. It was a pretty good racket for Phil and Julia, because all they had to do to collect their $300 a month was to wait for the postman to ring three times. Yes, it was a very good racket. And no one knows how long it would have gone on if the war hadn't suddenly ended. With the return of large numbers of servicemen to this country, allotment discrepancies began to turn up. Began to turn up in such alarming numbers that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was called in. That morning in the New York offices of the FBI... Oh, come on in, Lee. Okay. What's up? I've just been going over this list here. Tell me, all of those people are wanted. No, I guess maybe most of them are here by mistake. At least let's hope so. What is the list? Suspicious allotments being paid by the Army's Office of Dependency Benefits. All of these names are in the New York area only. Well, it'll take the whole bureau to investigate that mob. I don't care if it does. Neither does Mr. Hoover. If they're all guilty, we'll bring them all in. Even if they have to build a dozen new jails to hold them. How are you going to go about it? Well, first I thought we'd make a spot check on the whole list and get a percentage. Good idea. Then we'll know approximately how many of the whole mob we'll have to deal with. We'll make a, uh, 5% check. Sounds like enough. Suppose I take the list and have a new one made with 5% of the names. Go ahead. Now, how do you want me to pick the 5% at random? Just have Miss Jenkins list every 20th name. Then break that new list down by neighborhoods. Right. When they're ready, we'll go to work. Mac, he's filled back in his office. Yeah. Thanks. Excuse me, please. Hi, Julie, come on in. I was just thinking about you. Well, that's very nice of you. I thought you were going to get in touch with me. I didn't have anything to tell you. Well, I get plenty to tell you. What's the beef now? The guy is driving me nuts. All day I got to sit around and look at souvenirs and what he said to the captain and what the captain said to him. Okay, okay. That ain't all. Remember that extra dough he sent home for me to save for him? That 2,800 bucks? Yeah. Well, he wants it. He wants it right away. What'd you tell him? Well, I couldn't say I gave it to you. I said it was in the bank. Well, I had to hold him for a while. Phil, he wants the dough right away. Gonna buy us lunchroom or something. And another thing. Yeah? He wants me to go meet his folks. Where? Worcester. Where'd he want to live? On the midnight train tonight. Look, Phil, you got it. Wait a minute. I got an idea. Well? Tell him you'd love to meet his folks. Tell him you're going with him. Well, you don't take the train. You want us to walk? Listen. Go back and tell him your brother will drive you both up. Your brother? Yeah. Me. Phil, he can't meet you. Why not? Well, if he was to know about us... Look, all he has to know is I'm your brother. I'll take care of the rest. What's the idea? You'll see. This guy is good for one more touch, baby. A big one. Phil, would you like me to drive for a while? No, no, I'm okay. He'll like to drive. Well, the road like this, I don't blame him. How was the driving on the other side, Bobby? Oh, that's so good. Even when we found a good road, it was full of shellalls. Guess you had kind of a rough deal, huh? Yeah, it was rugged sometimes. Bobby don't like to talk about it much, Phil. I'm getting out next month. I want to forget about the army. Sure, sure. I can't envy you, though. Must have been a great experience. I try to enlist myself. I know, Phil. Bobby, tell me something. What? Did you guys ever think about dying? Phil. I'm just asking a question. We thought about it plenty of times. Well, you have insurance, don't you? Oh, sure. GI insurance. I got $10,000 worth. That don't help much if you stop and pull it, of course, but at least I know Julie'd be okay. That was very sweet of you, Bobby. Well, can you keep that insurance up? Yeah, sure. I'm keeping mine. Just for me, Bobby? Yes, for you. Uh-oh. What's the matter? Oh, that left rear tire feels a little flat. Why don't I take a look at it? You need a light? No, I got a flash right here. Can I give you a hand? Yeah, okay. Get the jack and the lug wrench from the back there, will you? Sure. It's open. Just lift it up and reach in. All right. Oh, just stay put. There they are. You want to set that jack under there? Yeah, sure. Oh, but here. That's fine. We momentarily close the Equitable Society's presentation of the FBI file on the allotment swindle. We will return to this case in just a moment. One of the most meaningful words in the English language is security. According to the dictionary, it means freedom from fear, anxiety, or care. Freedom from doubt or uncertainty. To one man, security calls up a picture of a little house which he owns free and clear so that no one can ever take it away from him. Another man thinks of protection against the hazards of illness and accident. A third sees himself receiving a regular monthly check during his old age. A fourth wants to be sure that no matter what happens to him, his children will get a good education and his wife will never be dependent on charity. For 86 years, men and women have been bringing these and scores of other security problems to the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Now, please take particular note of that word, society, in the Equitable's name. Society means that the Equitable Society is entirely owned by its members, that is to say by its policy holders. In other words, all the officers and employees of the Equitable Society from President Parkinson down are working for the members and are always ready to give problems their personal attention. So no matter what kind of financial security a member may seek, he can be sure that the Equitable Society will do its utmost to help him attain that freedom from fear, anxiety or care which makes him a happier man and a better citizen. Yes, by serving its members, the Equitable Society serves America. And now back to the file on the allotment swindle. The basic ingredient in the character of a criminal is greed. The unhealthy desire to acquire what belongs to someone else without doing any work. Phil and Julia, being well supplied with greed, had evolved a novel racket, a racket particularly well suited to the times. Julia's three illegal marriages to servicemen about to be shipped overseas, so she and Phil could defraud the government out of the allotments, was a serious enough crime. But now with their greed out of control, they had compounded the felony. They had committed murder. Bobby's body was found the next morning and quickly identified as the body of Private Robert Chase. It was removed to the local morgue and the death was marked down as having been committed by a hit and run driver. The next afternoon in the New York office of the FBI... Can I come in, Nick? Come ahead, Lee. How have you been doing? I think I may have something. Really? Yeah, I paid a call a couple of hours ago on one of the names on our list, a Mrs. Robert Chase. Yes? Before I could even identify myself, she gave me a very teary greeting and went into a long spiel about her husband's insurance. Oh? It seems he was killed last night in a hit and run accident up in Massachusetts. Not soon. She heavily thought I was the insurance man. When I told her who I really was, she seemed quite startled. What's her background? According to the allotment records, she's been getting money for herself and two children. You check on that? Yes, I talked to several of her neighbors. They've never seen any youngsters. Where was the husband killed? Near a town called Highland, Mass. Lee, I think this one's worth a thorough investigation. Special Agent Price telephoned the morgue at Highland, Massachusetts and learned that the Army was claiming the body the next day to take it for burial with military honors in the Chase family plot. Because of his suspicions, Price ordered the body held for further examination. And that night, he and Special Agent Adams left for Highland. The next morning at the morgue... Here's the body, gentlemen. Is there anything on his uniform, doctor, any marks? Yes, there were some tire marks where the car had apparently run over him. What do you mean, apparently? Wasn't he run over? Yes, he was, but... But what, doctor? Well, that isn't what killed him. He was killed by a blow at the base of the skull. How do you know that? Well, it was blood there and it was clothed. If he had been killed in the accident with the car and then sustained the injury to his skull, the whole appearance would have been different. Can I join you, doc? Oh, yes, Joe. I want you to meet Mr. Price, Mr. Adams. There from the FBI. This is Joe Benton. He's with our local police. I heard you were coming, gentlemen, so I got this stuff ready. What is it? A set of plaster casts of some tire tracks. Now, how'd you get them? Isn't the road paved? Yes, but these were off the road. The real good ones rained the night before. Tell me, did the tracks show that the car backed up about 15 feet? Then when it started forward, it went back onto the road? Yeah. It doesn't seem to be much doubt from what Dr. Jones says that Private Chase was murdered. Well, how do you figure that? Well, let's assume that he was murdered by the people in this car that ran over him. They want the murder to look like a hit-and-run accident. Yeah. So they drag the body out out of the road and back up and run over it. Yes. So thanks for having the foresight to get these casts of the tire prints made, Benton. Oh, glad to be of any help. Now, Dr. Jones. Yes? One more thing. Can you tell me what instrument was used on Chase's skull? Well, I'd say it was straight. Like an iron bar. I see. Thank you, gentlemen. Oh, that's okay. Goodbye. Goodbye. Should I call New York now and have him pick me up, Mrs. Chase? No. I don't think so. Why? Not yet. Don't you think she did it? I think she was in on it. But she's not smart enough to be working alone. You want to put a watch on her? Yes. She should lead us where we want to go. Okay. You got my message, huh? Yeah. I thought you'd never get here. I got so scared, Phil. I didn't know what to do. I was going around. How do you know the guy was from the FBI? He showed me a badge or something. What did he want? Well, nothing really. Talk sense. Well, he must have wanted something. Well, he said he was looking for some guy broke out of jail. Why'd he come here? He said they were looking all through the building. That was a phony. Did he ask about your husband? No, he didn't seem to care about that. Not even when I told him he'd been killed. Well, how'd you come to tell him that? I thought he was the insurance man. Oh, you stupid... Well, how was I to know? We ain't seeing any insurance, man. Why not? We got a bump steer on our 10 Gs. How do you mean? You don't get it no lump. I checked up today. You get a measly 36 bucks a month for life. Oh, that's awful! Well, that's the deal, sweetheart. And you may not even get that. Why? The FBI came here for some reason, and I guarantee it's not the one they gave you. How would they know anything was wrong? That happens to be the business they're in. Oh. What do we do? You got to blow town. Oh, Phil! Yes, baby, you get them out tonight. I can put you up at Chuck's place for a couple of months. In the country? Yeah. With all them trees? Maybe it's better to look at trees and be hanging from them. Hit me at my garage at 12 o'clock tonight. Nick, I've got the report on the Chase Children's Birth Certificates. Fakes? Like a $3 bill. I thought so. Well, what do we do now? Well, one thing we've got to do is to see whether our candidate has a car. Well, who's our candidate? I wasn't here when it was nominated. Come on in, Phil Taylor. How does he fit into the picture? Well, he endorsed every one of Mrs. Chase's allotment checks. Well, who is he? A check cashier? No, he's just a petty larceny crook. Done time a couple of times. But all small stuff. Well, if he's mixed up in this, he graduated to the big leagues. Yes, this is the man we want. What else have we got him? He paid a call on Mrs. Chase this afternoon. Well, why do we grab Taylor? We can't prove anything against him yet. It's not against the law to cash government checks, you know. You don't look as unhappy as you should. I'm gambling on a hunch. I'm having a check now. Anything else coming from the Massachusetts police? No, not a thing, but they did enough. Price talking? Yes? Yes. Yeah, let me write down those dates. That's fine, thank you. That was Johnson down at City Hall, Lee. Yes? When Robert Chase was married, Mrs. Bride gave her maiden name as Julia Prescott. That was a mistake. Why? Because two years before that, on September 11th, 1940, this same Julia Prescott was married to our suspect, Phil Taylor. Phil, I don't like this one bit. Ah, country arrow, do you, good? Oh, sure, sure. Aren't you coming along? Yes, I happen to have a business to take care of. Well, I ain't staying up there any too much. You can bet dough on that. Look, baby, if the law nails you, two months will seem like a real sure time. I've got a good mind to go back to one of my other husbands. Stop your pieces. It's open. Hmm? You don't need no keys. The garage door is open. That's funny. Come on. Wait a minute. I'll put on a line. Okay. Just stay where you are, both of you. Who are you guys? Mrs. Chase should remember. He's from the FBI. That's right. What do you want? We've been comparing this plaster cast with your left rear tire. It matches perfectly. Phil! The French is important evidence, too. Well, you get your way, Julie. You ain't going to the country. On the strength of the evidence uncovered by the special agents of the FBI, Phil and Julia Taylor were tried and convicted for the murder of Robert Chase. The racket broken up by the FBI tonight was a wartime racket. But do not labor under the misapprehension that the underworld will not find peace-time rackets. They will. The FBI will continue to stamp out as many rackets and as many racketeers as possible. The FBI can help, but only you can really put a blockade on the underworld. Only you, by a concerted effort, can starve them out of their positions and force them to seek other means of livelihood. The servicemen now coming home after years of privation are returning to a country they've been dreaming about. They deserve to have you do your part to make their dreams come true. We'll hear about next week's case in just a moment. This week at the Equitable Society, I happened to go up in the elevator with the secretary of the society. You know, he said to me, I'm a very determined man. About a month ago, my wife started talking about buying a dog, a Scotty. I said, no, dogs bark. I said, dogs chew up rugs. Dogs have to be walked. We're not going to have a dog, and that's that. Well, he continued, that little Scotty and I are great pals already. He's the friendliest little pup you ever saw. Sure, my face is red, but I'll bet a lot of Equitable Society members know just how I feel. I'm thinking of all the people who say they don't want any life insurance, don't need any life insurance, and then one day you hear them bragging about how smart they were to buy it, especially from the Equitable Society. Yes, it's a great business. We're in this Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Think of how many happy people there are in this world because an Equitable Society agent kept on trying. Think of all the old folks trying security and independence. Think of all the kids who are getting good educations because someone from the Equitable Society didn't get discouraged, didn't quit. And that's why it's so important for every one of us in the Equitable Organization to keep plugging not to be disheartened by the perfectly natural human instinct to say no. Yes, for only by keeping our organization progressive are we able to say that this week and every week for 86 years the Equitable Society has been building security for you, your home, and your country. Next week we will bring you another colorful story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Barbée Sox Bandits. Incidents used in tonight's Equitable Society's broadcast are taken from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, all names used are fictitious and any similarity thereof to the names of persons living or dead is accidental. Programs in this series of particular interest to servicemen and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. Tonight, the music was under the direction of Frederick Steiner. Another was Jerry D. Lewis. This is your FBI is a Jerry Divine Production. This is your narrator, Dean Carlton, 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 for this is your FBI. This is the American Broadcasting Company.