 The Equitable Life Assurance Society presents this is your FBI. This is your FBI. The official broadcast from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Presented as a public service by the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and the Equitable Society is representative in your community. Are you covered by Social Security? Then please listen carefully. Public opinion polls by the Equitable Life Assurance Society show that millions of Americans know little or nothing about their Social Security. Yes, according to these Equitable Society surveys, you may be failing to safeguard rights worth thousands of dollars. Therefore, as a public service, the Equitable Life Assurance Society will devote this program's entire middle commercial, you in just 14 minutes, to information on Social Security. Information that may mean money in your pocket. Tonight's FBI file, The Unwilling Partner. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, today made available the latest figures on America's current crime waves. This study contains the newest facts known to your FBI about the substance and the quantity of crimes committed in the United States in the past 12 months. The truly shocking news about the war against crime is that instead of progress, it must be reported more persons were arrested in the past year than in any other year on record. The arrests of men increased 14 percent, and the arrests of women rose almost 10 percent. Nowhere in the land is there a community which does not know crime, and in very few places is any ground being gained in the constant battle against our army of criminals. A battle which must be won and won soon, unless we wish to leave the generations which follow a heritage of lawlessness. Tonight's file opens at the spring training camp of a minor league baseball team in a Midwestern town. It is early afternoon and scattered around the ballpark are several dozen players. Some of them are shagging flies in the outfield, some are having pepper practice, and the few of the pitchers like Red Martin are warming up with a catcher. Take it easy, Red. Still three weeks to opening day. I know. I just felt like cutting loose. You don't have to prove anything. Just get in shape and you'll work the opener. I've been waiting a little while. Take a shower. Thanks. Just a couple more, huh, Charlie? Hi, son. Can I have your autograph and this ball, Red? Sure, kid. As soon as I finish working. Well, no such a club. Did you? Yeah. We're going to come out and see you every time you're here. How many of you in the club? I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you some passes for the opening game, huh? What's your name? Herbie Jackson. Okay, Herbie. They'll be at the pass gate. Thanks, Red. Forget it. Okay, Charlie. That's all for me. See you later, Herbie. I'm going to take a shower. Don't you remember me? Vince Crain. Oh, yeah. You were a friend of Joe Jenkins. That's right. I met you in St. Louis. Uh-huh. Been a lot of places since then. What are you doing here? I came to see you. About what? Business proposition, Red. I got a business, Vince. I'm a ball player. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You ain't going to be a ball player all your life. There's a chance for you to hook into something nice. I'm busy, Vince. I got to get in and take a shower before I cool off. Well, look, why don't you meet me after you get through with your shower? I'll wait for you outside the clubhouse, huh? Until seven o'clock? Yeah. Red, you knew I was going to have dinner ready early? Honey, I'm sorry. I met some guy who wanted to talk to me. That's why I'm late. Oh. Well, who was he? Guy named Vince Green. Do I know him? No. He was a friend of Joe Jenkins. I met him when I used to roam with Joe. Oh. Whenever the ball club got to Joe's hometown, this guy used to throw a party for us. Well, what's he doing here? Now, he wants to go on business with me. Well, what kind of a business? He was Carlott using my name on it. What do you put up? Nothing. What do you get out of it? Well, he wants to give me 25% of the business. Well, that sounds wonderful, honey. I told him I wasn't interested. What? I turned the deal down. Are you out of your mind? I don't like it. Well, why not? Helen, why should he cut me in like that? Because you're a big name in this town. That's why. This is a good move on his part. And it would be a good move for you. I don't know, Helen. Well, I do. You call him up right now and tell him you've thought it over and you want to take up his proposition. But Helen... Look. Do you think I want to go on for the rest of my life worrying about whether you'll get a sore arm or whether some kid is going to get a lucky base hit off you and win a ball game? This way, you're in business. If your arm goes bad, the business keeps going. Don't you understand? Okay, I'll call him after dinner. I'm here in the shack, Vince. Sign looks good. Yeah. Any sales today? Three sedans and a convertible. Not bad. We're open a week and that makes 38 customers. Yeah. Yeah, that Red Martin's name really hustles business. I told you it would. You only got six cars left? I want to call Pete. Tell him to send down another shipment. Okay. Oh, by the way, Red was in here this morning. What do you want? Well, he just wanted to see how things were going. He asked me where we got all the cars. What'd you tell him? He said we had contacts back east. He bought the cars for us and shipped it. Good. He'll pull out if he ever knows those. Cars are hot. Well, what would his beef be? Well, that poor sucker happens to be honest. Yeah, but he gets 25% of all this. For nothing. For your information, he only gets 25% of the profit. Well, even that runs into a real good chunk. George, with me keeping the books, there is no profit. In a nearby city, a combination warehouse and garage is on fire. It is a three-alarm blaze. FBI Special Agent Taylor is standing just inside the fire line. Oh, Jim. Oh, hello, Randy. Sorry I had to call you this hour of the night. That's all right. I've just been watching a lot of evidence being burned up in there. Evidence on what? You know that list of stolen cars we were working on down at the office? Uh-huh. Well, when this fire broke out, the fireman went into this garage and discovered a secret wall in the back. That's where the fire started. I see. Part of the wall worked on an electric switch. You pressed a certain button, and that part of the wall swung out, and you could drive a car into a concealed part of the garage. That's it. That's where they used to fix up the stolen cars in the paint. Not to make it was the paint that made this blaze spread so fast. How'd you find all that out, Jim? Well, when the fireman first discovered the secret wall, they found a car back there and drove it out. That's it parked down there, down the street. Is it great convertible? Yeah, that's all right. I guess the gang didn't have time to change the motor number on it because it hadn't been filed off again. It's one of the cars on our list. That's right. Has anybody been caught, Jim? Any of the people from the garage, I mean? Yeah, the night manager has done the headquarters now. And there was a body found, but so far it's been unidentified. I see. You know, Randy, this could be the break we've been looking for in this huge car. I know. Well, we'll know more as soon as we can examine this place. How soon do you think that'll be? About an hour from what the fire did to me. Randy, look, why don't you stay here and go through the place as soon as you can, huh? All right. You going back to the office? No, I'm going down to headquarters and see that night manager to find out how much he knows. You try thinking with the lights on. OK. What's the matter with you? When I got home here this afternoon, it was a letter for me. Who from? Joe Jenkins. What do you want? I wrote to him about this new partner of mine, Vince Green. Well? Joe says in his letter that Green is no good. But he once tried to get Joe to throw a ball game for him so he could win a bet. Joe never reported it because he couldn't prove it. Oh, well, honey, that might be just a story. You know the way Joe used to make up things. Oh, it ain't a story. Joe also says he checked on Green after that. Found he was mixed up in a lot of rackets. Oh. I told you I never liked to steal, Helen. Right from the very beginning. Now I'm going to get out of it. Red, wait. Find more out about him first. Oh, I know enough right now. Well, what about the money you're making? Helen, for all we know, those cars may even be stolen. I don't want that kind of money. But, Red... I'm going down to see Green and call off this whole deal. Oh, the ruins. Did you get anything, Ronnie? Yes. I found evidence that an outfit called the A&B Trucking Company has hauled a shipment of automobiles for them. Well, there'll have to get them an outfit on. I know. I call them to see where they've shipped the cars. They're checking it. We should hear from them any minute now. Oh, fine. What did you get from that night manager? Ronnie. He told me there were three accomplices. Police picked them all up, questioned them. They all claimed they'd never seen the man who ran the business. Who gave them their orders? A man named Tom Chase. At least he paid them. He was the only one who dealt directly to the boss. It seems this boss traveled around quite a bit, setting up used car lots in different cities. Did you find out where to pick this Tom Chase up? He was the unidentified body in the garage. Oh, fine. The only one who can lead us. Special Agent Taylor speaking. Oh, yes. Just a moment, please. Well, I'll copy that down. Okay, go ahead. 4418 Main Street, Bay City. Got it. Yes, thanks very much. Bye. That was the A&B trucking company, Ronnie. Is that the address they shipped those cars to? Yes. I think the best thing to do is call the Bay City place. Mike Tyn was something they were working on. Some bad news. What? The garage burnt down last night. The whole thing? Yeah, yeah. Tommy burned it down and the others got nailed by the cops. Hey, that ain't good. This could be real trouble, especially if anybody talks. Well, they don't know much. I mean, no one left to make it hot. What are we going to do? Hello. What? Leave this? This is a call, Mommy. There'll be others. How many cars have we got left? Two. Close that bank account this afternoon. Get all that dough right here, my kid. Good. Now, look, as soon as we get organized... Who's that? Hello. Hi, you're red. What brings you around? I had to see you right away. Well, what about? I got a letter from Joe Jenkins this afternoon. Oh, how is Joe? He told me some things about you. Things I didn't like. What is this? He said you tried to get him to throw a ball game once, Vince. But you're a racket guy. Joe said that about me? Yeah. I don't want to be mixed up with anyone like that. You want to quit, is that it? Yeah. Okay. We quit. You mean it? Sure, I mean it. All right. How many cars have you sold here so far? Oh, I don't know. How many, George? 46. Why? I want the names of the people who bought them. What for? I want to call them. Check the motor numbers on their cars. What's the idea then? I want to make sure that none of those cars were stolen. Wait a minute. Let me have those names. We ain't got them. Why? Well, we lost them. Don't give me that. Look, Red, my advice to you is to forget all about this. Oh, no. I've got a reputation in this town. Reputation? You think we didn't have one ourselves? We earn, in just a moment, to tonight's pile which shows how your FBI provides national security. Now a word about social security. Mr. Williams, I understand you have a question. Well, yes, Mr. Feeding, I have. When I get to be 65 and start collecting social security benefits, can I take a part-time job? I'd be pretty well-fixed if I could do that. Probably not, Mr. Williams. If you worked in covered employment and earned more than $14.99 per month, you wouldn't get anything from social security. Before you make any further plans, get in touch with your equitable society representative. Ask him about the Equitable Society's three-step service on social security. The first step is full information, the answers to how social security applies to you personally. I see. What's the second step? An immediate checkup on your position under social security to make sure all the money you've paid in is properly credited to your account. Your Equitable Society representative will supply you with a special form approved by the Social Security Administration and will show you what to do with it. This checkup makes possible the last step in this service offered by the Equitable Life Insurance Society. What is that? After you've found out where you stand in social security, your Equitable Society representative will show you how a comparatively modest investment in life insurance will build social security into full security. He'll show you how life insurance and social security, working as a team, can give you and your family a future free from money worries. There's no charge for this service, no obligation whatsoever. So, see your Equitable Society representative immediately or write care of this station to the Equitable Life Assurance Society. That's E-Q-U-I-T-A-B-L-E. The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Now back to the FBI file, the unwilling partner. You rarely see an item in your newspaper or hear a story on a radio newscast about a stolen automobile. Because the value of any single car is not likely to be large enough to make it newsworthy. However it is newsworthy when you learn that many of those cars which are stolen all over the nation find their way into a pool which filters them to various exchanges throughout the country where they are altered in every respect and then resold. Those exchanges are big business today when the supply of automobiles is still seriously short of the demand. To give you some idea of how big those centers are it is necessary only to tell you that in the last year more than $61 million worth of cars have been stolen. That is more than $5 million worth every month and the truly solemn fact about those figures is that they are increasing. This file continues at the local FBI field office. Randy, I just came in to see the boss. About this used car ring? Yes, I told him what had happened so far and he agreed that we might be getting pretty close to the core of it. He said that we were to work on this case exclusively for the next few days. That's fine. Oh, excuse me. Special Agent Taylor. Oh, yes, Chief. You have? Close down, huh? Yeah, I remember him. Oh, that's him. All right, thanks, Chief. Yes. Yes, we will. Now, why? I was the Chief of Police on a Bay City, Randy. Did he check that used car lot already? Yes, it was being run by three men. One of them, who seemed to be the boss, was Vince Green. I know Green, Jim. He could be the boss of that whole operation. No. The second one was a George Damon and the third man was the one in whose name the lot was operated. Red Martin, the ball player. Red Martin? Mm-hmm. I saw him pitch a two-hitter a couple of years ago, Jim. I met him after the game. Oh. He doesn't seem to be that kind who'd get mixed up in this sort of racket. The lot was deserted when the Chief checked. There were no cars there, and everybody had vanished. Did he know where they all lived? Yes, Green and Damon lived at a hotel. They'd already checked out. Green had also withdrawn all his money from the Bay City Bank. How about Red Martin? Well, his wife claims that she hadn't seen him since early evening. Randy, I think we ought to get down to Bay City right away. This is pretty good heat. Glad we didn't sell it. You know, it would have been funny if we had to go out and buy a car from some legit... Times ain't never going to get that tough. Ever taken this highway before? Ah, not that I know of why. Whenever I ride on it, it makes me feel kind of funny. What for? Remember Chick Patterson? Yeah. He's a part of it. I don't get it. Chick got in trouble when they were building this thing. Northside mob took him for a ride, put him in one of those road mixes. Oh. Tell me about the new garage. I bought it about a year ago. Had a lot of cash and looked like good investment. Is it laid out good for it? Yeah. We can set up a phony wall just like any other place. Swell. Hey, Chick Patterson is getting kind of bumpy. Oh, fine, Randy. Ask her to come in, will you, Joey? Special Agent Taylor, Mrs. Martin. How do you do, Mr. Taylor? Hello, Mrs. Martin. Won't you sit down, please? Thank you. At the gym, I'm going in to talk with the chief of police. Right, Randy. See you later. Mr. Taylor, have you heard anything about my husband? No, not yet. We've got an alarm out on his car, and that's about all we can do at the moment. You're sure you have no idea where he is? No. No, but I'm certain he's not hiding from the police. He's looking for those two men. Mrs. Martin, tell me, what made him go into a deal like this in the first place? Well, I... I'm afraid I... I made him do it. I wanted things he couldn't afford to buy me anymore. There's a chance to get some money, so... so I made him take it. Nicely. You said over the telephone before that he decided last night that he didn't want to be in business with him any longer. Yes, yes, that's right, Mr. Taylor. He got a letter from a man who used to be his roommate. The letter said that Vince Green was a crook. And your husband told you that he was going down to the US Carlotton break up the partnership? That's right. Mr. Taylor, Red is an honest man. He may not be young anymore, and he may not be able to pitch his good, but he's still dead honest. Mrs. Martin, he didn't phone you or get in touch with you in any way after he left the house, did he? No, no, he didn't. Pardon me, Jim, but we may have a break. About my husband? What is it, Randy? A youngster, one of the city schools, went to his teacher and told him that he saw Red Martin last night at the US Carlotton. I told you he went there. Where's the youngster now? He's on his way over here. Oh, good. Mr. Martin, you may go home now, and as soon as we have anything, we'll call you. Yes, Randy, please. Herbie Jackson. Hello, Herbie. My name is Jim Taylor. Hello, Mr. Taylor. Herbie, I understand that you saw Mr. Martin last night. Yeah. I'm president of the Red Martin Band Club. And I went over to get his autograph for a new member. I see. What time was that, Herbie? It was right after my dinner. About half past eight. I see. And he was there when you got to the lot? Yes, sir. He was on the floor hurt. What? He was hurt bad. How do you know that, Herbie? His head was bleeding. Was he conscious? Oh, yes. He spoke to me. What did he say, Herbie? He told me he got beaten up by his partner. Did he tell you where he was going? Yes. He was going after his partner. He wanted to catch them. And he said he knew where they went. Well, did he mention any city to you? No, sir, he didn't. You sure? No, sir. I know he didn't. I'd remember if he did. Well, tell me, Herbie, did he say anything else to you? Yes. He said for me not to worry that he wouldn't get me any trouble. I wonder why he was so sure of that. He said because he had a lot of relatives at one place he was going. A lot of his relatives? Yes, sir. He said it was always a cousin town for him. Jim, let's get hold of Mrs. Martin and see where his cousins live. I don't think we have to do that, Randy. Let's call the office of the ball club. I think they'll be more helpful. A real good layout. Yeah. We got room for two paint shops here. We can turn out a car every day. I talked to some boys in the East this morning. Oh? They said if we pay cash, we can have as many hats as we want. How much can? A yard and a half a car. Delivered? Yeah. Well, that ain't bad. No, it should be a big help. Huh? That should give you enough to open up another lot. Ah, look who's here. Honest and red. That's right. What are you doing here? What do you think? How'd you know we were here? You got a call last night at the shack just after I came, too. It was one of your Stooges. He said he was expecting you up here to a garage. Took me a little time to find the right one. You're a sucker for punishment, aren't you? What do you mean? Coming back for another treatment. I came to get the money you stole from my friends. That ain't what you're going to get. George, let's continue this in the back room, huh? We'll talk right here. I got a gun here, Chum. Let's do it our way. Oh, let's do it our way. Huh? Stop that gun. Go on. Come on, Jim. Come on, you two. Who are you? The official agency, the FBI. You better get home and get some rest, Red. The whole town will be up to see you pitch that opening game. Everybody except those two. I got a hunch they're going to be tied up elsewhere. Vince Green and George Damon were tried, convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for violation of the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act. One of their cousins is a baseball expression meaning an opponent who is easy to defeat and to check at the baseball team's office showed which club had never beaten Red Martin. On the same phone call, Special Agent Taylor learned the name of the hotel at which the ball club stopped when they visited that city. It proved a simple matter to learn that Martin had checked in at the hotel and to trail him until he led the two agents to the man who had attacked him, men who were engaged in operating a stolen car ring and a string of used car locks. The fact that these men were thieves and in the used car business is not a reflection on this business as a whole. The overwhelming majority of used car dealers are capable honest businessmen. The only important thing for you, the law abiding citizen to remember is to check on every stranger with whom you do business. In that way, you protect yourself and you do your part in fighting America's incessant battle, the war against crime. We will tell you about next week's exciting case from the files of your FBI. Now a quick review of the special three-point Social Security Service offered by your Equitable Society representative. First, he gives you a clear picture of what Social Security can accomplish for you. Second, your Equitable Society representative supplies you with a special form approved by the Social Security Administration for checking up on your position. Third, he shows you how easy it is to build Social Security into full security. Take advantage of the special service offered without charge by your Equitable Representative and the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Next week, in addition to presenting another dramatic case, you will hear J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a message of importance to all of you. The incidents used in tonight's Equitable Life Assurance Society's broadcast are adapted from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, all names used are fictitious, and any similarity they're loved to the names of persons living or dead is accidental. Tonight, the music was composed and conducted by Frederick Steiner. The author was Jerry Lewis. Your narrator was William Woodson and special agent Taylor was played by Stacey Harris. This is your FBI is a Jerry Divine production. This is Larry Cheating 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 the same time when the Equitable Life Assurance Society will bring you another thrilling story from the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The runaway racketeers on this is your FBI. This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.