 Auto light and it's 96,000 dealers present Tonight auto light brings you through report a suspense play starring paddle Brian You're ready with that happens waiting for you. Thank you, bud. It's you hello captain. All right, Ben. Have you got it? Yeah, it is Good Everything here everything Sorry, it had to be this way Ben. Yeah, so am I Well, it couldn't have come out any other way. So take it. This is what you wanted. This is my true report In just a moment mr. Paddle Brian in the first act of true reports. Well, hi a half welcome back Well, if it isn't this work plug of auto light alley Harlow will catch they no more half got to get proclaiming after my summer fiesta Proclaiming that when you replace worn out spark plugs in your car with new ignition engineered auto light spark plugs You get smoother performance quick start gas saving Don't forget Harlow all right spark plugs are ignition engineered right half ignition engineered by the same auto light engineers who designed the coil Distributor and all the other important parts that go to make up the complete ignition system used on many of America's leading makes of cars and trucks That's why you can't buy better spark plugs for your car than auto light So friends have the spark plugs in your car checked before you start on that long Labor Day weekend drive And if replacements are needed insist on smooth snappy ignition engineered auto light spark plugs And whether you choose the resistor type or the standard type, you're always right with auto light And now with true report and the performance of Paddle Brian auto light hopes once again to keep you in Not spend August 31 to captain Walbert's Austin Commander accident investigation division city police department from Lieutenant Ben J. Kennedy didn't run detail three Lawrence tanker deceased Attached fine supplementary traffic accident report completed this date disregard other file concerning same on your possession Two days ago 9 a.m. I Went to your office for the day's assignment. I didn't know what it was going to be neither do You're unknown Where you make the world series? Oh, give me the Phillies and see them. Oh, wow, Sam Anything up anything new. That's a good one. Hi, Ben. I feel like asking if anything's up dagger So nothing been all routine sometimes. I think I never should have been a cop. Yeah So there's a hit-and-run artist named Edward Franken, right? Yeah Pull it and board says you pulled them in last night. Good job. Geiger took a long time Too long then would you believe I used up 385 probable witnesses to that accident came out with just two who knew what they were talking about Listen, I'm gonna figure out a system for questioning. Oh, here we go. It's done. Skye your Kennedy. I'll stop new. Yeah, right Good morning, man Sit down, please make yourselves comfortable. I know calls for the next half hour bird Well, there they are initial traffic action and reports 22 of 22 traffic accidents in our city in the last 12 hours three of them fatal accidents Most of them weren't accidents Most of them could have been avoided if people had just realized that an improperly handled cause as dangerous as a loaded gun Routine for us, but not routine in the lives of the citizens involved So let's get busy Sam Nine different people wound up in emergency hospital last night Police urgent says four of them look like they won't make it Here's the list man. I Hate to hand out things like this, but hop over there and see if you can get any statement from them before they Oh, no Late last night a woman went through a boulevard stop hit a bus and two parked cars in Calgary Street Extensive property damage. She was all right, but her six-year-old daughter was injured critically the woman failed to sobriety test flat The child in the car and she couldn't even walk to the police cruiser without stumbling Report says under attitude abusive claims. She was under drug Why do they always pull that tired drug routine because people are afraid to face the truth one thing I know Fina Barbatal doesn't smell like scotch. Look into it. Newton. Don't pull any punches. Don't worry kept and you guy Getting run on a center just off 12th about 3 30 this morning victim unidentified. I think Hey, wait a minute. You've been up all night working on that Franken thing. Oh, that's all right I can take another one. No, no, you better knock off and get some sleep Ben Yeah, see this will be all baby Yeah, find a Ginza who ran that poor devil down and didn't even stop to see if it's alive or dead And that's the way I got the assignment It was just a statement of two patrolmen and the witness to me nothing else and I went to work on it Like any other case it started with the initial accident report in the state of the witness And happened to be first in Yeah, I'm Jenny Thurston police. They were here once they're here again. Where's your uniform? How do I know traffic investigator lieutenant Ben Kennedy See you'll fire this morning you reported a hit-and-run accident in front of this address. I live here I own this place. I've seen it. I've gone over all this stuff with him officers It showed up right after I called in man It was run over died in receiving hospital without regaining consciousness. We're trying to find out who was driving that car I want you to tell it again well, I Was sleeping and got hot and I woke up. I decided to fix myself a glass of tea. I did I Was sitting there by the window drinking my tea and cooling off when it happened what happened? The accident car turns off 12th Street. I can see 12th Street from here Mexico on the 12th Street Two doors or four doors on the car the officers report you saying it was a sedan two doors or four doors I don't know you're trying to tie me up color with the car black Couldn't have been maroon blue green Nighttime no moon street lights go out at midnight. You sure it was black. Well, it looked black. I don't know. It was a dark color anyhow It's shiny Yeah All right, go on cars doing a lot of feeding heading that way north And it goes right by this window And I'm looking when it hits the man I don't know where he came from but there was a big noise like glass breaking in this poor man's lying half on the street and half In the gutter and the car is going out of sight. We're going to try to help him No, I call the police at your job traffic accidents have become everybody's job Did you get a look at the driver of the car? I got a good look He's a woman in dark clothes. The officer who interviewed you says you didn't see the driver at all No, I was gonna call up about that When I concentrated later, I remembered it was a woman the young one One of those kind old painted up, you know it and I mean What she was doing out at three in the morning was no good at all All you could possibly have seen from this window was the top of the car and not the person driving Well, why'd you ask me then try to get the license number? It's too dark to see I did my duty as a citizen I reported what I saw. Yeah. Yeah Thanks, Mrs. Jenny Therson wasn't a very reliable witness But she was the only one outside of the usual group of dream witnesses who have a lot to say about something that he didn't see He gave me enough to start on I gave up that talk to 30 people who showed the neighborhood and dropped by the morgue to look at the victim There is a lieutenant who was left with them unidentified unclaimed What the doctor say among other things both legs fractured well as a skull For the five ribs well as a neck well as an impact Glass particles and clothing near the hip those hips broken stock figures waist-high contact high bumpers That'd make it something before 1939 of course trucks have got hot bumpers lieutenant big ones No big truck scrambles around the narrow street like center. All right. All right. I'm just trying to be useful Both lungs collapsed high rate of speed anything else glass. They took out of them with the technicians now about paint Not on the body maybe on the clothes Technicians have got clothes too. Okay, but all I need from this witness. You can wheel it to the lineup now This guy is still a John Doe. We've got his prints on the wire hoping you'll be recorded somewhere But I recorded somewhere right downtown Change that tag to Lawrence danker Lawrence danker. That's his name. I Rested him in 1936 when I was on robbery detail small-time grifter Jack Rowling bookmaking breaking and entering 13 previous arrest when I picked him up you identify my den defying At least I knew my victim and though my witness hadn't been too good about the tales I knew that the piece of broken glass and a chip of paint found on the victim would tell a better story The shortest route to hit-and-run killers is through the crime land. They don't miss a thing Kennedy is a lab lieutenant. We got the dope for you. All right. Let's have it The glass splinters came from a headlight lamp used on four different Mexican cars between 37 How about paint maroon also very pre-war There's a bump on a fender and a broken headlight somewhere in town. That's for sure. Maybe a sprung door Yeah, and it's a jalopy over 12 years old. I probably can't travel 20 miles without breaking down So my hitting runners in town somewhere trying to get a new headlight in the Fender Street Yeah, cancel that unit one that went out for a black sedan this morning correction goes like this Dark maroon sedan year 37 make unknown right front headlights shattered right front bumper dent it got it got it I want every garage auto parts junk dealer in a fair shop in town contacted on this Somebody's gonna try and take the bumps out of an old car and buy a new headlight and they shouldn't be hard Four o'clock that afternoon the bulletin was out We knew what kind of car we're looking for and I had eight pairs of offices out doing the leg work With luck, I expect you to pick up in a matter of hours Oh, I got hi Had a tough one this time. No, not too tough. Hey, I thought you were homesleep. Oh, you know me got nothing else to do But be a cop need me help. No, thanks. That's my time. Oh I think it's all good Charlie last year. He goes into internship. That's April. Nice kid. You're lucky Alice all right. Yeah, she's fine. Thanks. Why are you coming over for dinner soon? I hope I Don't know what's with me even when I have time off now. I come sniffing around can't seem to stop being a cop Well, so long then I'll see you Okay, guys August 29 10 30 a.m. With the father of course, it's high on my desk and garages junk dealers and auto repairmen Not one report meant a thing My tip was finally came from a phone call placed by a man named Loper who runs an auto repair shop on Christmas day I don't understand. I Don't know if it's what you're looking for. Luke salmon, but it might be hi Let's have a look a guy brought it in yesterday. He said he broke the lamp and dented the fender on his garage Oh, it's been funny. He only wanted that right front straightened the real ones in a lot worse shape Yes, no registration tags The car you're looking for Maybe gonna make a fake out pick them up when he comes back to get All right, Mr. Loper. Thanks. Yeah, you're gonna look up the serial number. We'll handle it. Thanks I didn't need to look up the motor theory over the license plate When they shimmy in the right front wheeled as a windshield wiper to squeeze I bought it for Charlie his first year in college It was my own son car Auto light is bringing you panel Brian in two reports tonight production in radio's outstanding theater thrills Suspending and tomorrow starts the long Labor Day weekend I hope that you'll make sure that your car is running right before starting on long trips That you will have worn out spark plugs replaced with new ignition engineered auto light spark plugs So drive carefully won't you today tomorrow and always because the life you save may be your own And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood sound stage panel Brian in Elliott Lewis's production of true report a Tale well calculated to keep you in routine The cyber things in or for sure like a classic accident report in the statement of a witness Like glass particles from the headlights in the smear of dark room paint and you'll work with the medics and the crime technician routine And pretty soon, you know what the car looked like in your sky looking for What do you do when you're a cop and you find the car and you're supposed to arrest your own son on a man for a charge What do you do I drove up to the state university that afternoon to have a talk with my sister Rick Rick Oh The Kennedy hello, Rick. How are you? Seen Charlie around. No, I haven't I went over to the room when ladies said you were here in the recreation hall. I thought maybe Charlie was with you Sorry, I'm in with that guy's like rooming with a ghost. I never see him. I Didn't see his lap around anywhere I didn't figure out a town or anything Sometimes they go over to the county hospital for surgery classes. Maybe you drove over there. Did I call him there? No, not in class Oh, well, I'm gonna stick around. Mr. Kennedy. You can probably pick him up at the hash house around dinner time now Hey Shouldn't you be studying or something instead of playing that thing? I'm majoring in the piano. I'm a law sergeant lieutenant That'd be 5 1 0 0 per annum right civil service even all about it ricks You should be a cop. Nope. I'm like Charlie. I want something better. What? No offense lieutenant, but I might mean it's hard going to college. Yeah, Nancy me. All right. You didn't go to college Charlie's put in six hard years already and still a couple to go plenty tough I live with him. I watch him go through it off Filling something good here something important It's sometimes if they're wrong idea how important they're gonna be yeah, they forget about right now They run around making mistakes and getting themselves into a lot of trouble They can't handle yeah take all their work and study and throw it out of the window when they get in that kind of trouble Yeah, you should have run out the philosophy today. I had a limited Tell Charlie to call me at home. I'd waited for him. I don't know what I said If it was I felt like a rookie with his first course throwing my top in front of a punk kid So I just got out of there and drove back to the city Ten and Geiger was sitting at my desk. Oh, man. Well, you want something I've been waiting for it. What for? They're here of a mechanic named Loper And don't look like I caught you from the dead body. It is Loper called here a while ago. I took the call for you That you were in to see him in a garage today wanted to know if the car He had turned out to be the one you were looking now. It wasn't not a good way to describe it Maroon coupe headlights gone Ben. Well, it wasn't the one But you think I know what I'm doing on this case Sure, then, you know what you're doing I see the file I Have made it out yet No Come on. Give me the file captain might put me on this one. I've been with the department 14 years Don't you think I can handle a simple hit and run case home? Sure, Ben Or you can handle it alone Lost one. Yeah, just want to help you keep that perfect record Perfect. I took the file home with me. I didn't want guy get a sale until I was getting ready for him to see I couldn't believe it my son The kid I thought to drive myself. I couldn't believe it. He'd ever kill anyone with his car But there was the evidence and an auto body shop on Crestville Street I might and I'm too many cases and dragged too many hit-and-run criminals in to start fooling myself I'm trying to tell Alice about Like trying to tell her the Charlie had suddenly died. I just couldn't do it Then then oh, yeah, thanks The genesis came over today. We started the church bizarre. So in my quote of six pies I'll make up some of those rim cracker pies the ones you always start eating before they even cool They're not even listening to me You can tell when you get that not listening look Then what oh? Or guess I still got my mind on some things You don't look well to me You don't do well Look at your eyes I love you. You've got a nervous crutch at the core in your mouth You're arthritis isn't hitting again. I'm all right You better have a doctor look at you Next time Charlie comes home. I think you should give you a check up from toe to Tom so Didn't that kind of a look? Be as good as a doctor already only two years to go. I don't want Charlie checking up on my health Work going badly another hit-and-run. Yeah, it's welcome sooner I wish I'd never been on Why You want from them like you it wouldn't be safe to walk on a city street these days Every time you arrest a law breacher you protect somebody's life. What do you know about it? Sometimes people will just get panicky and forget what they're doing then the size of the victim in this case was a no flex car And a bum nobody cared whether he was a liar or dead You sound like he's been He was a human being Whoever struck him down should be found and punished to the limit of the law Alice Now suppose I've been driving that car That's the most foolish thing I ever heard you say Takes a certain kind of person to do something like that a thoughtless selfish person You're not the kind not mine or Charlie and or anybody we know anyone's capable of doing it Anyone capable of driving thoughtlessly Passing red light feeding this a little even having an accident Any of them are bad enough But they'll run away with criminals To get over to it then. I hope you get him quick too Because as long as that kind of person is free to drive a car Be free to kill someone else Couldn't sleep that night thinking about the case Charlie had a full use for life The doctor he could save hundreds of lives and pay back the one work before he took hundreds of times over Justifications But by midnight I decided what I had to do I stayed up all night and worked on my report And I brought it down to your office the next morning. Is everything bad and complete No finisher says as far as I'm concerned Bird is Geiger out there just walked in. Well, I want him right now Then it's Sometimes better if you poke it over with it like I maybe oh come in Geiger About that hit and run they thank your case Kennedy's handling Then you know more than I do Kennedy's bogged down. I'm not bogged down This case remember and out. I only had one witness All she could tell me was a car hit tanker All the lab reports were guesses we had hate and glass to paint and glass they could belong to 10,000 cars in this area What about this garage man Loper did that car? He was just looking for free publicity. He had a car and figured he gets a message in this case Well, that wasn't the car Ben. Just keep looking. Maybe a thousand cars later. You'll find the right spot up with it Ben we all get that way once in a while I suppose we take you off the case And Geiger I'm giving it to you here. You can take Ben's report and work from it That's just what I was waiting for you to do Turn the whole thing over to guy It's making a difference who you turn it over The phony clues I've planted in it the night before it takes 10 years to run down And then I remember thank you criminal yes, but run down and left to die on the street And I remembered my own Captain That report. Oh, excuse me, man Yes, I just someone to see you Captain Jesse. Oh, Charles Kennedy Lieutenant Kennedy's son send him in there's a no Tell him no, Sam. What's the matter with you? What goes on? My name Charlie Can I do for you? It's about a hit-and-run case Charlie. I've got to then Captain It's that danker case I'd have come in sooner if I hadn't been up the county hospital What do you know about the danker case Charlie? It was my cook that hit him Did you know this man I found it out yesterday for me at the garage. It was my car that did it But somebody else was driving you you weren't driving it. No, sir. Suppose you tell us who was driving it, Charlie my roommate Rich Blake I Loaned in the car a couple of days ago when he didn't come back with it. I found out he left it in a repair shop in town Well, I went down to take a look at it My dad's a cop, and I I guess I picked up a few things. I Got him outside I dragged him down here myself All right, Geiger, it's your case take over and book him Thanks for coming in Charlie Then what are you going to do I? Guess captured. I guess you better go and make out my report So here it is captain my true report and my recognition I Just want to ask you one question It would have been your kid Could you have done any differently? Spent Presented by auto light tonight star paddle Brian friends auto light has again opened suspenses new season with a story that shows how Unnecessarily tragic bad driving can be that that was brand performance Hello, you know how much I wanted to play Sergeant Kennedy. I sure liked her old but I also wanted to do my part to help prevent Highway accidents this Labor Day weekend Driving accidents are horrible to the man woman a child injured or killed and they're doubly horrible to their family That also always changed each one of his greatest right in the world the right to live Now tonight and behalf of Ned dearborn president of the National Safety Council It is my special privilege to present the National Safety Council's public interest award to mr. Royce G. Martin Chairman of the board and president of the electric auto light company Auto light sponsor of suspense has won this distinguished service a safety award for the second straight year Thank You mr. O'Brien Safety is as much our business as manufacturing automotive aviation and marine products in our plants throughout the world Auto light has always assisted all efforts of the great automotive industry To make America a safe driving nation tonight on suspense Auto light repeats a message that can never be repeated enough Drive carefully The life you shave may be your own So let's all be interested miss Labor Day weekend in two driving lives our own and the other fellas a lot of lives Will be saved if we are Thank You mr. Martin next week at the same time auto light will bring you miss idle a pino in the tip a tale Well calculated to keep you in Tonight suspense play was produced and directed by Elliott Lewis with music composed by Lucian more awake and conducted by Lud Bluskin Parts of this program were transcribed to reporters and original play written for suspense by E. Jack Newman and John Michael Hayes That'll buy and may now be seen in Johnny one-eyed and its 96,000 dealers wish you all a happy safe Labor Day weekend Good driving. Good night. You're always right with all right. This is CBS the Columbia broadcasting system