 From Hollywood. It's time now for Edmond O'Brien as Johnny dollar I got all I have to do is guess the mystery voice Is it Georgia Caesar? Okay, thanks Good town Edmond O'Brien in another transcribed adventure of the man with the action-pact expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar by special Investigator Johnny dollar to Mr. Paul McGraw chief investigator great Chesapeake Fidelity and insurance guarantee Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an account of expenditures incurred during investigation conducted on behalf of your company or The story of the big red school house Expense account item transportation $134 plane fare New York Omaha item transportation $3.95 bus fare Omaha to Manhattan, Nebraska Which a fellow passenger told me was a quiet sleepy little town But which seemed to be celebrating Rip Van Winkle Bay as I stepped off the bus Nobody was walking and everybody was running I followed the crowd in the general direction of the excitement two blocks north of the main street the fire crews the heart At work playing the hoses on what was very shortly not going to be the new high school building And that's where a little man with black curly hair introduced himself I am Paco Gonzales. I carry those bricks myself watch fine new school grow up under my own hand What's the matter? How come these buildings I work so hard for 16 months goes down in 16 minutes, huh? I ask you mister. How come these Manhattan, Nebraska I spent the next three hours working with the emergency fire and disaster squads by 8 o'clock that night We seem to have it under control I finally dragged myself over to the Cheyenne Hotel, but before I could leave the front desk I had a long-distance call from you McGraw There's been a big fire here in town everybody had a work on it. Who's Joe Stankovich? What buildings that and it fell down tonight in a heap the building will retail now at a junkyard for about 35 bucks Right Mac. I'll keep in touch so long Room clerk. Have you got city directory around here? City directory in this bird. Yeah, who do you want to find mr. Dollar? I know everybody in and out my name stank of it's Joe Stankovich Oh him the city more what? When he just came over the radio they picked up what was left of him out of the fire and that ain't much Joe Stankovich had no survivors and no close friends He lived in the basement of the school and kept to himself That was all I found out about him after asking questions around town for an hour or so About 11 o'clock. I started back for the hotel Training a corner by an alley two men in dark clothes were holding a third man in a tweed suit the fourth man was giving him everything Hey Hey When I came up to three men scattered like burglars the man they were beating pitch forward my corner before he fell You need some help mr. Everybody needs help, but let me tell you who I am before you help me. Maybe you won't want to all right Who are you? Bill Garrett. Yeah You don't live here. Do you know I just got in town this morning. I was the architect on that school Well, don't you understand Samaritan? Don't you see those three men were a group of citizens Their kids could have been in that school when it caught fire and collapsed And I'm afraid they feel that I don't design especially strong buildings I Held a cab and took him over there after stopping by a drug store for bandages I had I'm and something to take off the chill while I was patching them up I remembered how he stood there without a sound while they did that When he came around I told him who I was what I was doing there You represent a powerful company mr. Dollar, but you're wasting time. You'll learn nothing from anyone in this town I kind of thought you might tell me something yeah, of course I could tell you every delicious scandal that's happened here for the past 30 years every Exquisite depravity and violation of the sanctity of human intelligence. Oh, no, I mean about the school building I can tell you there wasn't any reason for those boilers to be fired today that there wasn't any reason for them to blow up But they did any idea why lots of ideas and all of them bad dollar real bad Okay, tell me Look, I was raised here. I went to college over in Lincoln and one day I came back and architect I was gonna make the whole place over nice buildings nice streets everything And you saw what happened the school was my first big project Yeah, I drew it four years ago revised it a year later and the city hired you better than that I was so good the day they broke ground on that school I left for Paris to study at the Sorbonne and you weren't in town while it was being constructed I was out learning how to build even better things I got back in town four days ago. I went over to see my building. Well, here's a laugh for you They used my outside drawing. That's all looked like they made up the rest of it as they went along I went over to see the building contractor to ask him about it double talk He told me to keep my mouth shut if I ever expected to do any more work for the city. There's building contract What's his name? He has a perfect name dollar a fine sunburned man with lots of good teeth and not announce a fat on his broad frame Big Jim Madden. Where can I find him? 20 or 30 irate citizens of Manhattan had already gathered outside Jim Madden's home But the ten uniformed men from the local sheriff's office forming a half moon circle across the close clip lawns as well as the Two-standing guard over the yellow convertible in the driveway meant there'd be no kind of beating up around there My identification card got me inside where I waited around in a den that was stocked with good liquor and good leather chairs Finally a big man in a blue suit walked in dollar Uh-huh and Jim Madden. You're the insurance man. What can I do for you? Tell me everything you can about that high school building said he made a claim yet. I don't know You just happened to be in town we heard something might be wrong with that building apparently there was Who told you a thing like that? Two boilers explode and there's something wrong with the building. Is that the way you people figure we check into things Well, so do we and we couldn't find anything wrong Who's your we me and the boys? Officially with the city construction department. We just had a big meeting. Yeah, I Figured those people hanging around outside ought to be worrying. Well, they don't worry me and you don't worry me Drunk and janitor goes to sleep last night without turning down the boilers the pressure kicks way up The joint blows apart and burns down that what you decided in that meeting. That's about it It's a terrible accident. We'll have to use an old garage or something for a school That's then we'll get around to building another with the insurance money we have coming good walls don't tumble out from that kind of explosion We have to have some kind of specifications on that dollar easy. Of course you do of course you do anything at all There you are all the building specifications on the high school, okay That'll do for now. Good. Now you can get out of my house. You smell smoky There were 50 pages of specifications on that building materials using the construction of the school They looked all right. They also looked as if they could have been forgeries I try to get hold of Bill Garrett, but he didn't answer his phone Then I noticed an inspection receded the back of the folder was signed by the local building inspector a man named Mike You stay up late whoever you are but come on in anyway The woman standing on the doorway was tall and blonde and smoking a longer than you can buy Cigarette that went with the black filmy thing. She was wearing say your name's johnny dollar and you want to talk to mike, huh? I'm vivian digger and mike isn't home just now, but you can wait for him and talk to me. I'm not bad company Oh The drink help help what whatever's wrong with you. You look tired. It might but I'd rather not I just came by to Talk to your husband said that what do you want to talk to him about business at one in the morning Look, you probably missed your dinner tonight and you've been getting all your nourishment out of a bottle You're kind of afraid michael walking. Oh mike digger. I won't walk in he's already walked out And you're feeling kind of sorry for yourself Why I didn't a man if he lives in a place as an ashtray or a picture or yesterday's sports section I ain't around the front room. There's nothing like that in this room And if I walked over to that closet 10 to 1 I wouldn't find any of his clothes Come on. Tell me when did he land out of town? Stop you're hurting my arm. Come on. When three months ago Get out of here. Why where is he find him and ask him you're the detective The mess here your man stank of itch is dead was killed in the fire Now political wraparound the school is a fix on something or other dough somewhere the town sewed up tight all kinds mixed up in it Somewhere three seconds after I hung up the phone. I found out how much of a mess it really was That's when my hotel door opened and a man lurched across the room toward me He stood in front of me swaying back and forth his hands clutching his coat. He felt it or I could get to him Free bullet holes formed a neat trio across where his tithe thin should have been I ran my fingers through his coat pulled out his wallet the driver's license read mike daguerre age 39 occupation building inspectors In just a moment we will return to the second act of yours truly johnny duller But first the king of the cowboys gene autry will be riding the cbs range again this saturday night And gene will be singing two of your favorites funny little bunny and home on the range This saturday cbs also will take you on another trip with vaughn minnows caravan You can hear them both every saturday night on most of these same cbs stations vaughn minnows and gene autry Now with our star edmund o bryan, we return to the second act of yours truly johnny duller They took mike daguerre's body to the morgue the local constables held me all that night in custody Cyril Cheyenne hotel employees finding nothing better to do for excitement finally showed up to certify that daguerre had come into the hotel already Shot up. So I was clean. They let me leave a little after dawn When I got back to my room paul magro's contingent of operatives had already arrived It was ralph haycraft from continental carl royale chip hanigan who handled the saint louis diamondheist patty phillips from detroit rocky and risano Reliable jerry could pay tipp miller rott cornell and a guy who saved my life once in denver kg peter son johnny How are you? Hi fine? Hey, how's everybody? Yeah patty ralph good to see uh chesapeake certainly spreading the door around. What's the scoop johnny? This is a big one. It's gonna take all of us now if you'll sit down. I'll I'll go over it for you All right, here's the story chesapeake ensured a high school building here about six months ago yesterday It fell on its face one it was not built to specifications or two somebody blew it down or Both in any case we don't pay off But we have to prove our case now There are too many leads for one man to follow before they evaporate The guy who signed the building inspection papers was killed last night a guy named mike daguerre carlin chip That's your job find out everything about him his bank account his friends his troubles his wife everything Or his wife. Yeah, she's living at 113 south street. Uh, you'd find a girl on mount everett johnny Well, she's not my type honestly robin tip your man is the building contractor big jim madden He's cocky belligerent, but I think you guys can handle him run him down bank accounts purchase orders What kind of money he spends so on patty and ralph find out everything about stankovic the janitor who was found in the ruins Rocky and jerry start talking with anybody in town who might know anything bars restaurant street corners teachers pupils anybody anywhere And report back to me anytime you want. I don't push anybody around but Don't let anybody push you guys around Anyone have anything to say? Yeah, just one thing. Let's get this thing over so I can get back to philadelphia. I'm about to become a father I thought I'd sit back a while and see what kind of birds were Flushed up from the dusty meadows of Manhattan, Nebraska an hour later My first bird winged in but it wasn't at all what I expected It was a tall gray head man his honor mayor randall. Mr. Dollar I've seen the men you brought into town today, and I wanted to talk with you about the fine What about in particular? Yeah, the events of the past 24 hours in this town have been deplorable And grossly injurious to the public welfare the collapse of our beautiful schoolhouse The death of our beloved janitor stankovic and the untimely murder of one of our respected public servants Mr. DeGarra all have grieved me deeply none of which were caused by any of my investigators mr Mayor oh my purpose is not a belligerent one mr. Dollar on the contrary I came seeking assistance We are a small community with a rudimentary police force not equipped for major criminal investigations I want these matters brought to a head and cleared up and I came to offer a complete cooperation between you and our municipal government I never turned down cooperation mayor and I'll accept yours You can begin by telling me everything you know about the schoolhouse. Oh, certainly It was commissioned two years ago designed by william garrett built by james madden six months ago The uh, unfortunate mr. DeGarra inspected it and called it up to snout On the basis of his official inspection your company insured it I had no idea until yesterday that it was an unsafe building was de garra reliable I know nothing about his personal life mr. Dollar But in his job, he was competent and above reproach. He couldn't have been competent if he approved an unsafe building Yes, I wondered about that myself, but I'm not prepared at the moment with an answer Where are the purchase orders for the materials using that building purchase orders? Yeah Purchase orders. I can't seem to recall Where they were undoubtedly destroyed along with other useless paper matters that were accumulated from the construction work Material purchase orders are never useless when the building falls down afterwards If you find them, I'd like to be invited in well, I will certainly look for the mr. Dollar I want to cooperate with you in every way. I'm sure you do and you'll hear from me when I need something Thank you mayor and good day Oh, uh, by the way, uh, the city council will of course have to file an immediate claim with your company We take the bitter with the sweet I pondered his statement for a while and got nowhere There are mayors and mayors and this one was of the old school full of cliches and overblown rhetoric and nothing else In a little while calls began coming in from the men Chip reported that during the building construction Mike Deguera had made four deposits of five thousand dollars each in the bank His salary was seven thousand five hundred a year I thought another talk with mrs. Deguera was in order and made for her house She answered the door with tears in her eyes a black lace handkerchief and a black dress It was tight satin and low cut not exactly emily post for morning, but it was black. Oh, mr. Dollar I'm glad you came. I'm so unhappy and lost. I can see may I come in? Why not? There anything special you want mr. Dollar I'm sorry to cut in on your hour of bereavement mrs. Deguera, but under the circumstances I'm not sure I can help you any. I'm so broken up if you're not careful you might drown in those tears You cheap gum shoe you dropped your act Well, don't bother to pick it up and that dance hall dress and shoes Is that what you thought was expected of you? Look this set up creaks from top to bottom come on now your late husband made 7500 a year and deposited 20,000 in six months. Is that figure? I don't know anything about his money All I know is the bank told me he only had 300 left. What did he do with it? What do you think he spent it on other women and why the tragic act? Not very good at it. Am I not the best? And I really loved him He loved me We kicked it away because we both wanted more excitement than this town or his salary could give us there was no place to go He just didn't get along he Without spending his money on other women being a big shot I can't blame him though I helped make him do it. What about the money? He got it for falsifying the school inspection papers, didn't he? Well, he didn't get it and venting the telephone who gave it to him. I don't know Who do you think killed him and why I don't know that either What do you know look Didn't leave any insurance see and I got to live the best way I can I stay in this town. I got to keep friends if I don't want to keep them. I got no choice but to move and That takes money I wonder what could possibly be on your mind the company you represent handles insurance 263 different kinds you particular what kind of premiums you collect We pay off in a lot of things just what kind of insurance were you thinking about madam $2,000 and down Got your pen No, but my word's good at the cashiest cage. What do you got? I'm trusting you Mike got that $20,000 from the universal rock company for quote services rendered unquote You know who owns the rock company big jim madden close enough big jim's brother Last night when mike showed up in town. He was gunning for trouble Why he said they were going to make a patsy out of him and he wasn't going to take the rap for anybody is what he said I think he ran out of money and came back to make a touch and exchange for disappearing again and madden shot him I didn't say that because I don't know How do I get my insurance? Yeah, and what you say is true. I'll have to check first Finally tore myself away from the grieving widow and headed back for the hotel in case any of the boys called On my way down main street getting the worst end of the local stairs Someone with a wrinkled coat and bourbon on his breath stepped out of a doorway and stopped me bill garret the architect dollar Yeah, garret. What is it? I finally got up courage enough to do something decent decent for me anyway For anybody else it would be too low to talk about. What was it? Well, I'm not much of a lawyer But they say there's a statute in the books that says a private citizen may commit a crime to prevent a greater crime from being committed And still go free. Is that right? Most states have it. I suppose Nebraska does too. Well I committed a crime. I'm a fagin. That's what I am so long garret. I'm not johnny. Wait a minute. Wait a minute Just written on the head of a pin. It goes this way I had a secretary in the mayor's office steal something from his private file here The purchase orders for our humble contribution to ageless architecture the little red schoolhouse Signed by no other spotless member of our model community Then james g Madden I looked at them and they were as advertised purchase orders complete down to the last 10 penny nail Not being a technical expert. I decided to shoot them back to paul mcgraw for his perusal I sent them from the local post office ensured registered a male and special delivery Then I walked up the steps of the city hall for a chat with his honor Good afternoon. Dollar. My door is open to you anytime. Glad you feel that way and I hope you still do when I finish You finish what dollar calling you a liar Now see here save the b-picture dialogue for your next campaign I know what you told me the purchase orders on the schoolhouse were destroyed Well to my knowledge they were looking your personal file folder mark madden personal hold I don't know what you mean go on look No No, don't bother because all you'll find is an empty space You ought to see your face mayor. I well mayor they were in there, but somebody stole them and gave them the knee Yeah, I sent them to my company for examination And I'm sure somebody's going to be in a jackpot when the material purchase doesn't come up to the specifications of the building This is outrageous. Indeed it is It was outrageous from the day your city started to build that school. Well, all right I'll tell you why I did what I did for money to keep your filthy insinuations to yourself insinuation Your honor that was a plain statement I want to despair this city the loss of faith that would suffer seeing one of its most prominent citizens exposed and driven out Oh, man is entitled to one mistake in his life and jim badden is no exception I planned to bring him to a private accounting and make him replace the money he made on that building and repair it to specifications Only the tragedy occurred before I took matters in hand You had six months to do it and every day of that six months 1800 students might have been killed And one man was killed. No one knows that better than I But once having decided on this course of action I I didn't know how to go about rectifying things my intentions were good But they went astray in the interests of humanity and brotherhood mayor randall You are as full of wind as a chicago street You are not only windy your corny stupid careless and your criminal On the strength of what you told me here. My company will never pay that claim dollar I was trapped look i'm gonna pick up madden right now and randall I suggest that you give yourself up to your own police chief before I have him do it for me I raced back to my hotel to organize my men and pick up madden When I came in the phone was ringing. It was rocky and rissano saying he had two witnesses to take care of shooting I told him to pick up the boys and come right over I hung up just as the door opened and free sullen characters with brick dust on their shoulders came in uninvited Want to come with us dolly? What do you need fourth at bridge? Come on. No, thanks guys That'll do it There's strictly no contest and with one on each side working a punishing armlock I casually strolled out of the room and down the elevator to the street We were coming out of the hotel when I saw rocky chip kg ralph crossing the street My boys did real well, especially kg peterson. It was in a hurry to get back to his wife After we subdued the hoods I said a few words to their leader. Don't ask me nothing. Sorry. This is quiz night madden sent you didn't he? Never heard of him. You wouldn't do that by yourself We're not proving that torque lay off lay off Of course he sent us who else where were you supposed to take me and why why I don't know Where the universal rock company on the edge of town? It was a huge dusty building next to some intricate rock crushing machinery parked in front of it with free cars A yellow convertible such as a well to do contractor my drive along blacks advance such as a City official might have and the smallest advance such as anybody might have We covered all the exits and kg peterson and I went up the front way. We were halfway up to the offices when We pounded up to the landing just as big jim madden staggered out of an open office and fell twisting on the stairs Through the open door. I saw a flash of black skirt in a hand holding a gun that started jumping Give me that it's empty It's all right. I'll get an ambulance out here as soon as I can I Took vivian daguerre into custody randall was in bad shape and he died two hours later But before he died he told me the whole story It was my idea beginning to end Madden didn't want to do it, but I Told him if he didn't he'd never get another contract from this city We were able to split a hundred thousand dollars with the cheap supplies we used in that building Well, when I showed up madden he was afraid he was going to take the rap alone Huh? He's afraid he'd end up like Mike daguerre. That right? Yes, I had to have daguerre killed He wanted more money and you kept the purchase orders so you could make madden do what you wanted him to do When he found out that your company had them he he was going to turn both of us in I talked him out of it. Yeah With a gun He's dead Better that way Why is it? There's always a falling out among thieves That was the last question mayor randall ever asked on earth Like other men before him who had lived with deceit and treachery randall didn't live long enough to get an answer It turned out he had an ex-wife in detroit and a daughter living in miami, but neither one of them claimed his body His estate was tied up by the city and the county buried him in potter's field right next to another thief named jinn madden No one wrote anything on their headstones No one cared the reform city government was too busy floating a bond issue for a new high school Bill garrett's gonna design it and this time i'm pretty sure they'll follow his plans Expense account total Three thousand two hundred twenty seven dollars yours truly johnny da Only johnny dollar stars edmund o'brien in the title role and was written by e jack newman and john michael haze With music composed and conducted by leith stevens Edmund o'brien can currently be seen starring in harry m popkins united artist's production d o a Featured in our cast we're victor perron elliott reid high everback clayton post bill conrad virginia gregg and willard waterman Yours truly johnny dollar is produced and directed by heimei del vai Join us next week when from hollywood edmund o'brien will appear in another transcribed adventure of yours truly johnny dollar You can bet your life. It's fun. It's a laugh a minute You can bet your life. It's full of surprises It's radio's craziest quiz show and you bet your life It'll be one of your favorites when you join groucho marks every wednesday over most of these same cbs stations For you bet your life Now stay tuned for the adventures of philip marlowe which follows immediately over most of these same stations This is cbs the columbia broadcasting system