 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. To your FBI, you look for national security and to the Equitable Society for Financial Security. These two great institutions are dedicated to the protection of you, your home and your country. Tonight, the story of a crime against our war effort, draft dodging. It's not news when a man is drafted, and notice rarely appears in the nation's newspapers unless that man is a celebrity. It is news, though, when a man is caught trying to evade the draft, and so notice does appear in the papers. That's why it may seem that we have had many draft dodges in this war. Actually, we haven't. Actually, the number has been very small, particularly when compared to the last war, when seven out of every thousand men were delinquent. When whole areas like Times Square in New York were roped off and slacker raids were common. In this war, instead of seven, only one out of each thousand eligible has been delinquent. The FBI has vigorously sought to get men in the army instead of jail. Those who have tried to make a racket out of the draft have tried many schemes. Some of their victims, like teenage kids just out of high school, earning their first real paychecks and warplants, and reluctant, in a rather human way, to give up those checks and go to war, have been misled by a vicious type of criminal. Oh, hi, Chubb. Hey, G-dline chat. Yeah, I went across the diner. Where they get you working? I'm over in assembly. Oh. You get the same dough? Yeah. But not as much over time. Don't make any difference now, though. I got that paper this morning. Oh, what paper's that? Greetings from Uncle. Oh. Yeah. This I should report for my physical next Monday. That's when you go in it. Yeah. You should have seen my mother. I think I was two years old or something the way she acted. I tried to tell her I ain't the first guy who was ever drafted. Ah, it stinks. Huh? Well, it ain't fair, Chubb. We got good jobs here. We're making real. So why don't they give us a break? Well, Army needs young guys, Rick. Yeah. Sure. Look, I don't like the idea either. Well, then why don't we do something about it? What do you mean? Not report or something? No. Then what else? Well, I ran into a guy last night. Yeah? I used to play ball with him over in the park. Mm-hmm. He took his physical last month and they flunked him. What was the matter with him? Nothing. I don't get it. He beat the whole thing on a count of some pills he took. What kind of pills? I don't know. He bought them off a guy. He made them look like he had a bad heart or something. You really got away with it, huh? Yeah. Sure. He showed me his card, 4-F. She? I found out from him where to find the guy who sells them pills. He hangs out in the bowling alley over on 10th Street. Well, you could get in trouble on a thing like that. I spell it in. Hmm. How much are the pills? I don't know. I was figuring maybe I'd go over that bowling alley night and find out. Do you want to come? Well, gee, I don't know. I'm thinking of a job. I'll meet you outside the gate at five o'clock. Do you like to bowl a string, boys? No, thanks. Shoot a rack of pool, maybe? No, no. We'd rather talk to you someplace, Mr. Butler. Let's sit on these benches at the bench. Okay, come on, sir. Yeah, all right. You work out at the bearing plant, huh? Yeah. Must be knocking off plenty of overtime. You do okay. Here, sit down. Well, thanks. What can I do for you? I've already told you this, uh... this pal of mine said I should come to see you. It's about them pills. Uh-huh. We're both taking our physicals next Monday. And, uh, just to still not pass them, is that it? Uh... Yes. I guess maybe we can do some business. Did he tell you the price? No. It's $100 a box. Uh, 100? For each of us? That's right. That's a lot of dough, Mr. Look, I didn't hustle your business. That's what I charge. Take it or leave it. Gee, I don't tell me you can't afford it. You're both making a good week's pay. Yeah, but that's... You want to beat the drafter, don't you? Oh, yeah. Sure. And get it up, boys. I guarantee results. Oh, we don't have that kind of money with us. When can you get it? Tomorrow, I guess. How about you, chub? Yeah, yeah. Tomorrow's okay. Well, you can meet me right here. Well, how many of the pills you take? There's three in each box. You take them six hours apart the night before you're physical. Do they hurt you? Oh. Do they make you sick or anything? No, you just get a little dizzy. They'll fool any doctor you go up against. Look, I gotta be getting home, chum. Okay. You'll be here tomorrow, boys? Yeah, we'll be here right after work. Look, I hope we don't get in a jam on this thing, Mr. Butler. This thing has worked for dozens of guys. There ain't nothing wrong in it. Keeping kids like you out of the army? Keeping you from being killed? And that's being patriotic. Criminals never know when to quit. Never know that a racket can last just so long. In this case, the existence of the racket was exposed when the two boys collapsed during their physical examination and became so violently ill that they had to be taken to a hospital. It was obvious to the army doctors that both boys had taken the same kind of pill. Obvious that both were trying to evade the draft. Obvious that this was a case for the FBI. And so, as soon as the boys had recovered sufficiently, a special agent questioned them at the hospital. How do you feel, boys? Not so good. You, son? Awful. Are you well enough to answer a few questions? About what happened? Yes. I'd like all the details and we got those pills. You tell them, chum. Okay. We got them off a guy who hung around a bowling alley over in 10th Street. Where on 10th Street? Right near the corner of Maple Avenue. I don't know the address. I think it's number 720 10th Street. I see. Who was this man? His name was Ralph Butler. How did you contact him? Palomine told me about him. He said we should go there and see him. Did he charge you for the pills? Yes, sir. How much? A hundred bucks. A piece? Yes, sir. Wow. They came three in a box and we took one every six hours a night before the physical. That was some job too, sir. I had to set the alarm twice during the night. You're both very lucky. I just read the laboratory report and the ingredients in those pills might have killed you. Gee, are we going to be okay, mister? Yes, doctors believe you'll recover completely. Boy, hope so. Now can you describe this man Butler? Yeah, he's about your size. Tall, I mean. He was much fatter, chum. Yeah. He was, uh, bald he had. He wore kind of flashy clothes. How old would you say he was? Oh, he was real old. Must have been about 40. Tell about that address he gave us. What was that? The second day we went to see him, the day he gave us the pills. He wanted to know that we have any friends he could do business with. Yes. He told us he wasn't going to be around the bowl now anymore. But anyone on one of the pills could write to him about them. Where? In care of general delivery. I see. Oh, mister. Yes? I guess we're going to get put in jail on account of this, huh? Well, you've broken the law. Well, can't you leave Chubb out of this? He didn't want any part of it. This was all my idea. Son, I'm afraid you're both involved. You're real suckers. How do you feel about going in the army now? Mister, we'd love it. Yeah. Well, I'll talk to the US attorney. I won't promise you what the decision will be, but you might have another chance. This was not the first time that such a case had cropped up for the FBI, not even the first time it had cropped up in this particular city. A watch was set up at the bowling alley, but the man did not return. However, special agents had another lead, a real lead. They had a description of the man responsible, and they had a way to reach him. That way was through the post office. The agents waited and watched there every day and every night, waited for someone to pick up a letter, a letter addressed to Mr. Ralph Butler in care of general delivery. Early in the afternoon of the fourth day, someone did pick up a letter for Ralph Butler. Not a rather star-ball-headed man, but a sallow, sandy-haired boy. Two agents followed him carefully to a building in the business district, watched him go into an office in the third floor, and then stopped him in the hall as he came out. Excuse me, son. Uh-huh. You just delivered the letter to that officer? Yes, sir. Who accepted it? Nobody. You mean there's no one in there? That's right. I put it on the desk and left. Who asked you to deliver the letter? Some man I met on the street. He said I should pick up a letter addressed to Mr. Ralph Butler at the general delivery window in the post office. Yes. He asked me to bring it here to this doctor's office, and he gave me a quarter. Well, this man who asked you to do the errand, was he about my height, son, rather star-ball-headed? Yeah, that's him. Thanks, son. Okay, sir. Come on, Perry. Let's take a look at this office. Right. This must be the doctor that Butler told his other customers about. The one who made the pills. Yes. Well, Dr. Woodbury's health club. Let's go in, Perry. Right. It's not exactly an elaborate layout. No. Now, this is apparently the anti-room. Let's see what's in the next office. Look at those charts on the wall. Typical quack equipment. Yes. Go ahead, Perry. Thanks. Well, at least there's a desk in here. But no doctor. What do we do now? Just wait. Someone should turn up for that letter. I have a hunch it won't... Wait. We're waiting for Dr. Woodbury. Oh, is the doctor out? Yes. Well, I guess I'd better wait, too, then. Do you work here? No. Are you patient? No, I've come here about my son. I see. Is the doctor treating you, ma'am? Yes. That is, I think he is. What do you mean? Well, how much do you know about Dr. Woodbury? Very little. Are you patient of him? No. Do you intend to be? Well... I certainly wouldn't advise it. Oh, why not? Well, there's something funny about his business. How's that? My son came to see the doctor here, and he gave him some pills. He told my boy that they'd keep him out of the army. Was he about to be drafted? Did he take the pills? No, I wouldn't let him. You were very wise. I came here today to find out what that doctor was up to. Have you ever seen him? No. Did you just describe him? No, but I guess he could. I think we could have the doctor investigated for you, Mrs... Scott, are you from the police? We can notify them for you, Mrs. Scott. Now, would you just write down your address? Oh, surely. Here's pencil. Thanks. Someone will call around and have a talk with your son. Oh, this won't get him in trouble. No. Well, that is if he doesn't take those pills. Well, I'll certainly take care of that right now. I'll go home this very minute, and thanks. Both of you. Thank you, Mrs. Scott. What do we do now? The doctor must have just stepped out for a moment, so we just wait. This afternoon... I had company. Who? Two very inquisitive gentlemen. They had to be from the law. What do they want? They were looking for Dr. Woodbury. How do you know? They told me. What is this? I went down the hall for a minute. When I came back, they were waiting in my office. Didn't they tumble? No. Why not? I told them I was just a visitor myself. I said I'd come to see the doctor about my son. Did they buy it? Of course. They're probably still waiting for the doctor. Well, that's that. What do you mean? Looks like we've got to find a new touch. Why? I ain't putting my neck out. By the time this... this time they've got a full description of me, the racket, and how it operates. I must have tailed that kid who picked up the letter. Yeah. And they're going to take them too long to find out that you're Dr. Woodbury. But that doesn't put us out of business. All we do is change names and locations. Now, wait a minute, honey. Now look. They stopped calling older men in the draft. They're concentrating on youngsters. That makes it just perfect for us. We can't peddle them pills anymore. The FBI will take care of that. I can make other things besides pills. Now let's pack, honey. We'll find a new location, new suckers, and start all over again. We momentarily close the Federal Bureau of Investigation file on draft dodgers. We'll return to this case in just a moment. In ancient Rome, when Julius Caesar spoke of his allies, the word he used was s-o-c-e, spelled S-o-c-i-i. In our language, s-o-c-e survives in the word society. So when you get down to its roots, society means a group of allies. Well, you couldn't find a better description of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. This society is a group of allies. Every member of the Equitable Society has 3,200,000 allies. There is fellow members who have pooled their dollars to protect each other. They have united freely and voluntarily to build greater financial security for themselves and their families. The money that they entrust to their society is always usefully employed. Equitable Society funds help farmers raise food, help families build their own homes, help keep the wheels of business turned. By serving its members, the Equitable Society serves America. And now, back to the file on draft dodgers. The element of surprise is as important to FBI agents working on a case as it is to generals fighting a war. Complete victory may not be won by surprise, but the enemy is invariably weakened seriously. The mythical Dr. Woodbury was not trapped by the unexpected appearance of FBI agents in her office, but she was forced to move fast, forced to run, forced to leave conclusive proof of her medical work. After obtaining a search warrant, the special agents found that proof in a cabinet in the office. Founded in the form of dozens of white boxes carefully inscribed, take one pill every six hours. They took the boxes to the FBI laboratory. You busy, Morgan? No, come on in, Perry. I've just gotten a report from the laboratory on that batch of pills we found in Dr. Woodbury's office. Same story? Yes, more or less. They found that the ingredients vary in each pill. It's a good thing some of them didn't get into circulation. Bad as that? A couple were powerful enough to kill a horse. Nice business. Yes. Did you get anything more on Dr. Woodbury? Just completed a check. What's the story? That office was rented two months ago. The real estate agent said the lease was signed by a woman. Who was she? Dr. Woodbury. What? That's who she claimed to be. I've checked with the medical association. They have no record of it. Excuse me. Morgan speaking. Yes? Yes, wait a minute. Let me check that address again. Perry, would you hand me that paper then? Yes, surely. Here you go. Thanks. It's Mrs. Scott, 217 Fairview Avenue. Does that check? I see. Thanks. Goodbye. That Scott woman, the one we met in the doctor's office, gave us a fictitious address. Well... Wait a minute. What are you looking for? One of the pill boxes we found in the doctor's office. Here we are. Perry, take a look at her handwriting. Yes? Now compare it with this handwriting on the box. Take one pill every six hours. I'd say they match. And I'd say we were fooled. Completely fooled. Yes. Just to be sure, let's get a comparison on this from the laboratory. It was simple for the laboratory to confirm what the agents had suspected. Mrs. Scott had written the directions on the boxes it filled. Mrs. Scott was Dr. Woodbury. But Mrs. Scott had disappeared. And although a description was sent out, there was no trace of her for two days. And then at 3.30 in a bright sunny afternoon, a trace of Mrs. Scott's work appeared. In an nearby city, a small coupé was driving along a street. An empty street, a street clean of traffic, but people except one policeman. A street, a car should have no trouble driving down. A street with high stone buildings on either side. Are you all right? Are you okay, mister? My eyes. My eyes. Did you get glass in them? No. Let me get out, will you? Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You should have some broken bones while you're... I don't think I have. I seem to be able to move everything all right. Well then, let me give you a hand here. Here you are. Take it easy now. Easy, doesn't it? There we are. That's it. You sure you're okay? Yes, I'm okay. I wet you coming across that viaduct. When you got to this end, you started driving in circles. I know. Have you been drinking, mister? No. And what happened? I went to cut you off. In fact, there was no traffic coming at you at all. I know. Will something go wrong with the car? No, sir. It was just my eyes. Hey, wait a minute. Let me have a look at them. They're all reddened and flamed. It hurts so much. I can barely see. Look, are you sure you haven't been drinking? Of course not. I've been taking it physical at the pre-induction center all day. At the police station, something was found on the man who had been in that accident. Something that made the local police contact the FBI. That something was a small box containing a bottle of homemade eyedrops. The laboratory analyzed the ingredients in the bottle. What's the story? Well, it looks like something a kid might put together with a homemade chemistry set. Quite a mixture. Could it simulate an inflammation of the eyes? According to the report, the man stands a good chance of being permanently blinded. I see. That box, the bottle of eyedrops came in. Yes? Something had been blocked out on the cover. I noticed that. The laboratory worked it up and found some handwriting underneath. What did it say? Wait, I have a report on it here, please. Oh, yes. Here it is. Read it. Take one pill every six hours. Now the FBI knew Mrs. Scott was working again and had simply changed her product and shifted her operations to another city. But where was she? They knew she and her partner Ralph Butler had only been in the city two days. Knew they couldn't have had time to get either an apartment or an office. Knew that they must be staying in a hotel. So the agents began checking the hotels, went to one after another with a description of Mrs. Scott and Ralph Butler. Went carefully down the list until at last they found a small shabby apartment hotel which had recently rented a room to a couple answering the description. But the FBI didn't count on the description alone. They compared the woman's signature on the hotel ledger with a handwriting of the woman they were looking for. Then they were sure. Then they knew. They had found Mrs. Scott. Ralph. Ralph! You gonna sleep all day? Well, look, I've done my work. You were out for exactly three hours this morning. Very sure, but I set up some real good contacts. Like what? I made a connection with a guy who owns a candy store right across the street from the local high school. Well... He's a real larceny bum. He's gonna handle our business. Were the kids in the school? Yeah. So that makes you an executive now, is that it? Well, you can talk to them punks better than I can. That's only one contact. There's still work for you to do. No, goodbye, hustle around. We'll wind up in the same jam we got in before. Watch your step. Now come on. Get up. I want you to run out the store for me. What for? I need some more powder. I thought you sent the bill hop out for that. I asked him to go an hour ago, and he said he'd get it when he had time. That could take all day. What are you making now? Oh, I'm just fooling around with something. What is it? I'm trying to put together something that'll work on a man's nervous system. You remember that quack I used to work for out in Cleveland? Yeah? Well, he had some stuff that'd make a man shake all over like he had St. Vitus dance or something. I'm trying to remember how he did it. Look, why don't you just stay with the stuff for the eye? You gotta keep switching them around. That's what keeps us out in front. Probably that bell hub. Oh, good. Save me a trip. Let him in, will you? Okay. Yes? Here's them powders. Oh, thanks. Just a minute, Mr. Butler. We want to talk to you. Who are you? We're special agents at the FBI. Cora. I heard them. Is this your son, Mrs. Scott? No. You know why we're here? Yes. Want to pay for the powder, lady? No. We won't be needing it. In times like these, there is little difference between a spy and a criminal who aids draft dodgers. Because both of fighting this war, not for us, but for the enemy. To the FBI, there is no difference between a spy and a criminal who aids draft dodgers. Because both are violating the laws of our government. Both are a threat to the nation. And both must be caught. The spy case may be more sensational, may get more space in the newspapers. But the FBI devotes as much time, as much resource, as much energy to a lesser case if necessary. Because every federal case is a case against the people of this entire country. And the FBI is a protector of the people. We're about to file our next week's case in just a moment. Will you join the Equitable Society in a salute? A salute to the turning wheels, to the giant driver wheels of the 43,000 locomotives on the railroads of America? To these railroads, all of us owe a debt of gratitude. By meeting every wartime demand, by transporting four times as many passengers and more than twice as much freighters in 1939, the railroads have helped prove once again that American ingenuity, American organizing ability, and the American system of free enterprise are equal to any emergency. For many years, funds of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States have been working on the railroads. Equitable Society dollars help finance some of the early transcontinental lines. Today, 368 million dollars of Equitable Society funds are helping America's railroads to do the magnificent job of transporting men and munitions of war to the right place at the right time. Millions of other Equitable Society dollars go into other war industries and into war bonds. In wartime, Equitable Society dollars are fighting dollars, and at all times, they are security dollars for you, your home, and your country. This week, a crime against the community, bank robbery. The incidents used in tonight'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. Tonight, the music was composed and directed by Van Cleave. Your narrator was Frank Lovejoy. This is your FBI is a very divine production. Now, this is Charles Frank speaking for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, and inviting you to tune in again next week at this same time for this is your FBI. This is the Blue Network of the American Broadcasting Company.