Yours Truly Johnny Dollar Show

Johnny Dollar - The Thelma Ibsen Matter

https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free! Step into the shoes of America's favorite freelance insurance investigator with Yours Truly Johnny Dollar Show. This series captures the essence of the golden age of radio, featuring Johnny Dollar as he tackles deceptive insurance cases with charisma and intelligence. A must-listen for lovers of detective stories and classic radio dramas.

Duration:: 31m
Broadcast on:: 11 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Visit renterswearhouse.com to request a free rental price analysis that's renterswearhouse.com or call 303-974-9444 to speak to a rent-to-state advisor today. COVID-19 viruses like me change to fool your immune system and make you sick, but updated vaccines help protect you. Stay up to date on COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, sponsored by Champions for Vaccine Education Equity and Progress. What can I do for you, Mr. DeFranco? Help me pay off a claim, I hope. Well, that's a new record. Yeah, one of our new policyholders passed away last month. We can't see him to locate his beneficiary. Well, maybe he doesn't want the money. It's a she. Everybody wants money, especially insurance money. Would you like to take a hug at it? What floor are you on, Mr. DeFranco? Fourth, 4-18. Just have to get off the elevator, turn to your left. Be there in an hour. John Lund, in the transcribed adventure of the man with the action-packed expense account, America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator, yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Expense accounts submitted by special investigator, Johnny Dollar. Two claims offers, Eastern Life and Trust Company, this city. The following is an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the Thelma Ibsen matter. Expense account item 1, 15 cents, bus fare, from my apartment to Milton DeFranco's office. Where we got right down to business. The deceased was a man named John Linden. He made his living selling papers in front of the Metropolitan Building. Oh, on 33? Yes. Do you ever see him? Yeah, I guess I have. Somehow, you never think of someone like that leaving insurance money. No, he doesn't. But he took out two policies, November the 5th, 1940, both of them $500 life. So he has an estate of $1,000 that we have to give to a person named Thelma Ibsen. Is the daughter of Thelma? No relation, or just someone who stops and talks to him one day. He must have had quite a line. Yeah, he thinks so, but I doubt it. He was only 10 years old at the time. Oh. I got all this from the agent who wrote up the policy. He used to buy his papers from old John. One day he told the agent he wanted to take out some life insurance, so he could do something nice for a little girl he'd met that afternoon. And that's it. That's quite a profitable meeting for, huh? Yeah, of course, $1,000 isn't a lot of money these days. But from him, it's a lot. Yeah, some Ibsen must be 23 or 4 of my now. I'd like to see her face when she gets that insurance check and finds out who it's from and why. Might prove something about something. Yeah, it could, or maybe she isn't doing nice things for people anymore. Well, let's hope she is. I keep thinking that old man out there hustling papers every day to make his $1.52 in premiums every week. He gets me some, huh? I only saw her that one day in his life. A local address for Salma Ibsen was 213 brain bridge. From neighbors, I learned that Salma's parents had been killed in an automobile accident in 1945. She'd moved cross town to live with an aunt, a Mrs. Mary Sealy. Mrs. Sealy died in 1950. Again, Salma had moved. Where? Nobody seemed to know. But they did know where she'd been working at the time. One of the girls there was brought into the manager's office. Yes, she quit without notice a couple of years ago. She just didn't come back. Were you a friend of hers? Yes, we were good friends. Used to have lunch together every day. We started here together too. I see. Have you heard from her? No. Any idea where she might have gone? In New York, I think. It's the closest place to go, isn't it? Funny she didn't write anybody or say anything when she left, don't you think? Yes, but Salma was like that. Like what? Well, don't misunderstand me. She was a real sweet girl, but there was something you could tell about her right away when you met her. She had plans of her own and she just kept them to herself. You don't suppose anything's happened to her? I'm just trying to locate her. Did she ever talk about going to New York? No. What did she talk about? Oh, about meeting someone and getting married. Was she going with anyone when she disappeared? Oh, a couple of people around the office. Are they still around? I think so. You're going to talk to them? I'd like to. They haven't heard from her either. No one has. She's just plain left, bag and baggage. At the apartment hotel where she'd been living since her aunt's death, I learned that Thelma Ibsen had suddenly checked out with all of her belongings around Christmas of 1950. No forwarding address. The hospital jail and morgue records for the previous two years were covered. Nothing came up. A high school annual provided a fairly good picture of a tall smiling girl with a pleasant face looking out from under a miter cap. A motor vehicle bureau recorded a driver's license issued in her name. A right thumb and forefinger print came with it. The picture that prints and all available information went into a file. Thelma Ibsen became a missing person. Two days later, the people of her office were re-questioned and then one of them recalled a man that she had been seen with just before her disappearance. Spence account item two, fifteen dollars, transportation and incidentals Hartford to New York for the purpose of locating a Mr. Floyd Turnbull for possible information concerning Thelma Ibsen's whereabouts. I made a list of the Floyd Turnbulls in the city directory and set out to interview each one. The right man happened to be number five on my list. Yes, of course I know Thelma Ibsen was the dollar. Do you say you're from an insurance company? That's right, Mr. Turnbull. Can you tell me where she is right now? I'm afraid I can't. You sit down, Mr. Domas, sit down. Thanks. Understand you knew we're in Hartford. That's right, I didn't. She came here to New York with me. Oh, let me assure you there was nothing improper about it. I met Thelma when she was working in one of the offices I do business with there. And when I suggested that she drive to New York with me, I did it with the understanding that we were to be married here. I see. No one could have been more surprised than I when she disappeared. You mean here in New York? Yes. But when was this? It was Christmas Eve of 1950. Oh, Thelma was staying with my sister Edna and Westchester. I picked her up about six in the evening to go to a party. And we stopped for gasoline somewhere between here and Long Island. I left the car for a moment and when I came back, she was gone. You haven't seen her since and I haven't seen her since. Well, did she leave a note in the car or message you some kind? Nothing, not a word. And she hasn't gotten in touch with you at all? No, she's never written yet. I can't quite get with this. You're going to be married and she disappeared in a filling station on Christmas Eve. Did you argue or something? No, I don't think I would ever have argued with Thelma. She was kind and sweet and gentle and all things to me. Your appearance here and these questions bringing back the memory very strongly. How long did you know her before you decided to get married? About three weeks. Do you have any idea why she walked away? Yes, but I doubt if it's of any practical value to her. Well, any information I can get would be very helpful in locating her, Mr. Turnbull. All right then, I think she was frightened. Of what? Of life, Mr. Dollar. Not people or circumstance, but life. You say that with a lot of conviction? Yes. Thelma had always been, well, a poor girl. She worked instead of going to college. She lived with a rather dowdy aunt who died just before I met her. Her parents had been killed in an accident a few years before. I think I offered her happiness that she always longed for. But she simply wasn't mature enough or adjusted well enough to accept it. But this is of no value, isn't it? Well, it might be. Did you know of any ambition she had? Maybe she wanted to go on the stage. She simply wanted to be my wife and live here. Well, I can see what you're thinking. I'm old enough to be her father, but that's not the reason she walked away from that car. Believe me, Mr. Dollar, unless I'm terribly mistaken, that girl was very much in love with me and wanted to marry me. Tell me, have you tried to find her? No, I have not. I waited around the filling station that night hoping she'd return, but I didn't report them out to the police. I intended to hire private detectives to locate her, but I gave that up too. Well, I don't understand her. If you loved her, well, would this make it understandable, Mr. Dollar? Thelma was a rational, normal human being when I left her in that car. No one forced her away from it or me. The man at the station said she merely stepped out and disappeared down the street. She left of her own free will for her own reasons. Yeah, I think I can say your point. Thank you, Mr. Dollar. I've hoped that one day she'd appear at my door. Contact me, come to me, but she hasn't. Is there any way I can help you more concretely? Well, if you could tell me the exact location of that filling station. I really like to do that, but why? Last place she was seen alive. Oh, that word alive. Just a word, Mr. Turnbull. Tell me, you suppose she had any money when she left? Why do you last? Well, she'd have had to go to work if she didn't. Maybe she had- She- Yes, she had money, quite a bit. How much? Twenty-three hundred dollars. Oh, she stole it from me, Mr. Dollar. I left my wallet and my overcoats. She took it while I was gone. I would have given her all this. Everything. But she had to steal it from me. She had to steal it like a common little thief. There's truly no fool like an old fool, is there, Mr. Dollar? [Music] Well, I left Turnbull. It struck me. Here was the second elderly man in Thelma Ibsen's life. One had given her money, which she wasn't around to receive. And from this one, she'd taken money and didn't wait around to say thanks. Spencer, call item three, fifty dollars and fifty cents. Car rental and incidentals involved in checking Floyd Turnbull's story. A major oil company owned and operated the filming station where Thelma Ibsen had been seen last. Their payroll records named Three Attendants on duty, Christmas Eve, 1950. I located and interviewed all three. And closed fine statement of Earl Camden. Sure, sure, I remember that chick. Better look in this picture, I'll tell you that. Well, anyways, she drove in with the old guy, see? He hadn't been away from the car more than twenty seconds before. She was out and walking down the street as fast as she could go. Well, when he came back and asked what happened to her, I told him. Well, and he went back and sat in his car for maybe a couple of hours just waiting for her. I knew she was gone for good. I felt sorry for the old geezer. She shouldn't have run out like that. Christmas Eve and all. Hadn't the Turnbull Spencer, Westchester, verified her brother's story. Thelma Ibsen had left all of her clothes at the house. Mrs. Spencer had not heard a word from her since Christmas Eve of 1950. The matter went to the New York Police Missing Persons Bureau. A check on the Morgan Hospital records was unsuccessful. However, the police fingerprint files turned up an interesting leave. Mr. Mina drunk, disturbing the peace. She was five, twenty-five bucks a night caught April 25th, 1951. What's the address? Twelve, twelve yardly. Twelve, twelve yardly. Okay. At the address on yardly, I learned the Thelma Ibsen had moved eight months before. Again, there was no forwarding address. The landlady turned out to be quite talkative, however. I'm glad too. She moved from here, Mr. Dada. I'd like to help you find of it. I'm awfully glad she moved from here. Oh, why do you say that, Mrs. Brown? Oh, no, I see. Parties all the time. I run a quiet place for quiet people, you know. Yes, yes, I'm sure. But I thought she was the quiet tagman. She took the apartment, rather never given it to her. She told me she was secretary, that she worked downtown. She say, "Where?" Oh, no. Then she didn't work. How could she be? She was out every night and slept most of the day. And then we were to come to see her. Honestly. Do you know any of them, Mrs. Bredes? Oh, no. Just men. All kinds, all sorts. Say, was she friendly with anybody in the building? No. Did she go with any particular man? I couldn't say. All I can tell you is I'm blessed. She doesn't give you any more. I'm awfully glad. The more people I've talked to, the more I learned about Thalma Ebsen and the less I liked what I heard. I went back to the city hall. It had occurred to me that hardly anyone is ever arrested for being drunk and disturbing the peace alone. I was right. The night court files revealed that Thalma Ebsen had been arrested with eight other people. I took down their names and began to check them out. Number six down the line was a man named Unger who was in the hosiery business. Yes, he remembered Thalma Ebsen very well. No, he hadn't seen her for six months, but he could tell me where she lived. He did. And I went there. Yeah, sir, may I help you? I'm looking for Miss Thalma Ebsen. Uh-oh, I'll ring a room. Is she expecting you? No, my name is Dollar. It's a business matter. Mr. Dollar. That's right. Just a moment. I'm ringing. Well, I don't understand that. What? She caved me about a half hour ago. I know she's up there. Well, maybe she came out again. No, I'd have seen her. I've been at the desk all the time. Well, if that is the strangest thing. Maybe she's visiting one of the other apartments. Perhaps. Would you like to leave a message, Mr. Dollar? Well, it'd be okay if I grew up in camp on her doorstep. I've been looking for her for a long time now. Call us. I took the elevator up to the 15th floor and walked down the hall to Thumba Ibsen's apartment. The door was standing partially open. All the lights seemed to be on. Miss Ebsen? Miss Ebsen? Miss Ebsen? Go back. Get away from this room. What? Get away, raw Joe. I'd found Thumba Ibsen. Only she was standing on a ledge outside the window, already for a leap into eternity. We'll return to yours truly Johnny Dollar in just a moment. Now with our star, John Lund, we bring you the second act of yours truly Johnny Dollar. Don't come any closer. I won't. Thumba? What? You better come in now. You don't want to do this. I'm going to do it. It's cold out there. Don't you think you should come inside? You're going to jump. Stay away now, don't try to grab me. How do anything you say, Thumba? Okay. I never saw you before. How do you know my name? I've seen you. No you haven't. I remember people. Watch. Just going to light a cigarette. Do you want one? No. Can I have one? All right. Where did you see me? In a picture. In your high school annual. You went to high school in Hartford. You know you. What's your name? Johnny Dollar. Are you from Hartford? Yeah. Step over there. Let me see your face in the light. No. No. You aren't from Hartford. You're lying to me. Mr. Dollar. I want to go. Wait! He'll be right out. Jump! Why miss him. You want. Get out of here. Go ahead. Call the police. Yes. Of course, of course. Why did you tell him to call the police? I don't care. They can't stop me. Nobody can stop me. Maybe they won't even try, Thumba. I know they will. They'll talk to me just the way you're talking. They try to get close enough to grab me. I wanted somebody to call the police. I want them all down there waiting for me to jump. And the crowd's big enough I'll jump right down there. I'm not afraid to do it. Why do you want to jump, Thumba? I have my reasons. Look. There's a couple of people down there who see me. They'd like to see me jump. I don't think they'd like to see that at all, Thumba. Oh, yes they would. They might say they wouldn't, but they'll hang around. And if I don't jump, they'll be disappointed. Nobody wants you to jump, Thumba. Sure they do. Those people down there would love to see it happen. You'd like it, too. If I wanted to see your jump, I'd be waiting on the street for those people. But I don't want to see you do that. And neither do they. I want you to live, Thumba. That's more people down there now. I'm getting the big lights up here, God. Thumba, look. If you're broke, if you need money. But come me closer, I told you before. I want to help you, Thumba. Nobody wants to help me. Nobody's ever wanted to help me. You're wrong about that. Floyd Turnbull wanted to help you. Floyd Turnbull? You met him? Yes. And he's still very much in love with you. After I stole money from him, he walked out on him? The money meant nothing to him. He still loves you, Thumba. Thumba? I don't love him. I never loved him. He thought so. He was just nice. Why did you leave him that way? I'm no good. Never have been, you know. I've never been any good to anybody. Would you like to talk to Floyd? No. I don't want to talk to him or anybody. I know. But after I jump, I want you to tell Floyd something. Sure. Tell him I meant to send the money back to him. I didn't think it was that much. Tell him I never was any good at all. But I left him because of that. All right. You can tell him I loved him. He'd feel good, I think. All right. Go back! And I'll kill you. I'll go back after I jump right now. Wait. Close that hall door. You want to see me jump? You'll have to watch from the street down there with the others. Close it! You see it, please, please? I suppose so. I don't know. He looked foolish. We all look foolish at one time or another. It passes. Do I look foolish? Yes, Thomas, you do. You're not going through with this. In the end, you'll come back into this room and everybody down there will go home. That isn't true. You know, for the first time in my life, I know exactly what I want to do, how I want to do it. I'm going to jump. From what I know about you, I thought you always knew pretty much what you wanted out of life. I never knew anything. And it's all botched up. I'd be happy one minute and crying the next. Things kept happening all the time. That took tires. Mom and Daddy died, I should have died too. Then I wouldn't be here making all those people down there had bad dreams for weeks to come. I should have been with them when they were killed in that car. Well, won't be long. I won't tired anymore, pretty soon. Tell them I'll wait. Wait for what? They say you've talked to people who've known me. Who know what I was and what I am? I didn't turn out the way they wanted me, did I? I didn't even turn out the way I wanted to be. Look at me. Why should I wait? One man I didn't talk to had more faith than you than anybody else. He was an old man who sold newspapers in front of the Metropolitan Building. His name was John Linden. Old John. Selma? Old John? Old John. You met him one day when you were a little girl. It meant a lot in his life. An awful lot. You remember Old John? Old John, John after school looking a window. Had a nickel and I bought a paper from his old man. I talked to him. He thought I was a very nice girl when he asked me my name and when I lived. What did you talk about, Selma? About school. About growing up. He told me I'd grow up someday. Be a lovely woman. Sit. Lovely woman. He was very nice. What else did you talk about? School. You asked me what grade I was in. See, I guess I was in there. This grade or maybe this is six? It's such a long time ago. But you remember it? Of course I remember it now. Where's John now? He died a month ago, Selma. He left you all his money. What money? What money would that poor old man have? Insurance money. Comes to a thousand dollars. You're lying. No, I'm not, Selma. That's why I've been looking for you. It's my job to see that you get the money that he left for you. He wanted you to have it. Why? I didn't know him only that afternoon. But he wanted to help you. You're making all this up. It's all a lie. No. No, look. What? These prove right from the insurance company. Here. Draw them over. All right. You see, he wanted you to have something. That old man. That poor old man. I want you to block the talk to it. All right. Expense account item four, 350. Martinez. I needed him. It was my first and I hoped my last experience with an intended suicide. The psychiatrists who examined and treated Thelma Ebsen believe that she'll make a complete recovery in time. They say it'll take months to determine the exact cause of a breakdown. But as far as we're concerned, the case is closed. Claim filed. Expense account item five, same as item two. Transportation back to Hartford. Total, 84 dollars and 15 cents. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar stars John Lund in the title role and is written by E. Jack Newman with music by Eddie Dunstetter. John Lund can currently be seen in the universal international picture just across the street. Featured in tonight's cast were Tom Tully, Jeanette Nolan, John McIntyre, Joe Kearns and Virginia Greg. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar is transcribed in Hollywood by Jaime Del Valle. This is Dan Coverley inviting you to join us next week at this time when John Lund returns as yours truly, Johnny Dollar. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] When it comes to renting out your property, the uncertainty of finding reliable tenants can feel like a real guessing game. Responsible renter or perpetual party animal. Enter renters warehouse. The pros who turn the uncertainty of finding great tenants into peace of mind. Renters warehouse offers top-notch leasing and tenant placement services, ensuring you get trustworthy renters without the hassles and headaches. With no upfront fees, renters warehouse works for you, not the other way around. From marketing and showing your property to screening tenants and preparing the lease, their team of experts handles it all so you can sit back and watch the rent roll in. Renters warehouse even warranties their tenants for up to 18 months at no extra cost. And if you need ongoing management, they've got you covered too, all for a flat monthly fee. 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