Yours Truly Johnny Dollar Radio

Johnny Dollar - The Alma Scott Matter

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Duration:: 31m
Broadcast on:: 27 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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For a limited time, you can get a one-month free trial to our premium, ad-free service. Imagine having unlimited access to over 500 audiobooks, meditative sounds, and exclusive shows, all at your fingertips. Just head over to Saulgoodmedia.com and sign up to start your free trial today. No ads, no interruptions just pure, immersive audio content. Don't miss out. Transform your listening experience with Saulgoodmedia. Visit Saulgoodmedia.com and start your free trial now. We can't wait for you to join our audio community. Happy listening. [Music] From Hollywood. It's time now for Edmund O'Brien, as Johnny Daller. Are you, are you from Hartford? Hello, what was that? Are you the insurance investigator? Yeah, that's right. You're here about the Alma Scott shooting. Yes, who is this? This is Alan Swain. Is this a gang? No, it is a gang. Well, it's about time you gave yourself up, isn't it? No. No, I won't, because I didn't kill it. Why'd you take a run out? I don't know. I've done everything wrong, but I didn't kill her. I want to talk to you if you'll promise not to go to the police first. All right, I can do that. How can we work it so I'll be sure? Are you still in salmon? Yeah. I'll be alone. My word is good. Edmund O'Brien and the transcribed adventure of the man with the action-packed expense account. America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. Yours truly Johnny Daller. Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Daller to Home Office Columbia All-Risk Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting and expenditure during my investigation of the Alma Scott matter. Best gun item won two hundred and nineteen dollars airfare and incidentals between Hartford and San Francisco. For a day and a half, the investigation had taken the form of a search for the man who called me, Alan Swain. Poor witnesses, tenants in the dead girl's apartment house, have seen him running away in the corridor outside her flat immediately after they'd heard the shots. So when this chief suspect phoned about eight that second night to say that he was innocent and wanted the seeming, I was naturally more than anxious to set the meeting up. Later, I wasn't so happy about it. According to arrangements I camped to the corner of Fulton 26th Avenue, found a photography shop in front of which I was supposed to be picked up and stood there for about five minutes, looking at the pictures of some uninteresting bribes. Hello, Mr. Hi. You marry one of those? No, thanks. I'm supposed to meet somebody here. You live in the neighborhood? No, I'm from Hartford, Connecticut. And I guess we were fated to meet. What about the guy that called me? I thought he was going to show up. He changed his mind, I'll take you to him. Come on, there's a cab waiting around the corner. I memorized the number of a cab hoping it might have picked her up at some address that might be useful later. It was a silent trip. The girl with a pretty, that rather hard face slumped in her corner, looking almost bored except the fact that she smoked one cigarette after another. When we left the cab in front of the cafe on a coast highway, she took my arm and led me away from the lights across the road toward the sand. And there, behind the added protection of the little concrete abutment, I met Alan Swain. He did come alone. You weren't followed, were you? Ask him. I've gotten out of the habit of trusting people, so I wouldn't want to say. I told you my word was good Swain. Maybe you deserve it, maybe you don't. What do you mean? Well, from the beginning, I haven't been able to figure out a guy like you got mixed up with a woman like Alma Skye. I wish you'd been here a month ago to knock that into his thick skull. Lay off, Helen. It doesn't do any good now. It never did. I didn't kill him, Mr. Dollar. I swear I didn't. And why have you done everything a guilty man would do? You were seen running away from the scene and getting into your car. You abandoned that. The cab driver remembers picking you up a block away from where it was found and bringing you back to Market Street. Everything you did has been done by scared killers before. I know, I know I did everything wrong, but I didn't kill her. I wasn't even in a apartment. To match all the testimony that says you did, killer, can you put your hands on any that says you didn't? No. Well, I was in the hall when I heard the shots. Well, if I'd gone on instead of losing my nerve and running, I could have cleared myself for it. I didn't. All I thought I was my own hide. Then when it was too late, I realized that police would never believe anything I said. What makes you think I was? I don't know. I'm just asking you to give me a chance. A chance to do what? I want to tell you what led up to that night. It doesn't make any difference how I met her or anything. I knew she was no angel, but I never thought she was all bad. And I still don't. That's what two years of college does for me. Only off, Ellen. Four years? You'd be 100 percent blind. What's your story about that night? Alma and I were going to leave town. We were going to fly to Mexico and get married. Then we were going to Los Angeles and stay there. She wanted to get away from this town and the people she knew here. I don't think that's worth much, but is there any way I can check it, clean reservations? Yeah, they're under the name of A.J. Hall for next Friday night at night. What airline? Cal, Mexico. Why the switch and names? Alma said there might be people who wouldn't want her to leave, and she didn't want her to leak out. We were going to cancel the reservations under that name and make them under our own Friday morning to match our identification at the border. Who was she afraid of? I don't know. She wouldn't tell me. Probably had a big choice. Do you know? I'm new in town, but give me time. Okay. What's the rest of it, Swain? Well, she broke a date with me that night. Said she wasn't feeling so good. Then about 10, she phoned and told me she'd changed her mind about going away with me. What reason did she give? She didn't give any. She hung up. I started right over to her place. It only took me five minutes. When I got there, I stopped just outside her door because I heard her talking to somebody. What about? Well, I didn't understand the words, but she was sort of screaming. I started for the door again, and that's when I heard the shots. And I don't know what happened to me, except that I thought whatever was happening was somehow my fault. And I ran. That's all I know. That's all? Yeah. What do you think I can do with that? I don't know, but it's a truth. There must be a way you can find out who was in there with it. Don't you have any idea who it was? No. Man or a woman? Well, man, it must have been a man. Don't you hear a man say anything? No, but there must be some way to find out who was there. I don't know what it is, but I'll follow it up. And you won't tell the police. About meeting you? I doubt they'd believe me if I did. You can tell me if you think of anything. All right. You coming with me, Helen? It's not cricket to pick a man up and then just drop him. Maybe I can lure him into the bar over there so I won't see you leave. Think you can accord me? Temporarily, yeah. I'm on an expense account. Hello. The bar, do you want a boot? Bootly. This one over here, okay? Yeah, sure, it's fine. I'll take your order. No fashion, are you? Ryan, sorry. Okay. Ryan, all night is over. I, uh, it's not generally known that Swain is a sister, is it? Do you think he has? You're too young to be his mother. Thanks. I can't quite see you in that woman's scone, Perron. I've been there. Did I have a light? Oh, sorry. Tell me something. Why do you think a woman might have killed her? I didn't say that, did I? Yeah, I'll tell you whether it was a man or a woman. It was nothing but wishful thinking. She carried a life insurance policy with a half sister as beneficiary. We can't find it. I hadn't even thought of that kind of an angle. I never crossed my mind that she was killed for any reason, except what sort of a game she was. What kind of? Oh, don't get me started. Has anybody else's name come up? She knew a lot of men. And it's been open and shut against Swain. And with that lineup of witnesses, the police certainly have no reason to chase out anybody else. Any ideas? Yeah, the guy she dropped when she put a leash on now. Name is Walter Helm, the police know him if you don't. You mean you think he killed him? He found out they were going to Mexico, I think he would have. Or had it done. Why didn't Swain tell me this? Well, he didn't know. Dame never bothered to tell him. She was using him for something, and she didn't want to scare him away. You didn't warn him? Well, I had a better idea, but things seemed to backfire. Now, it's not me to thank for this message. I tipped Walter Helm if they were leaving for Mexico. How did I know I would go storming up there? I don't have the faintest notion that I wish you'd phone the different detectives. You don't have to follow it up if you don't want to. It's all I've got to say, and I don't want to drink. Maybe some other time. I didn't wait for mine either. I settled the bill and followed her out. I was in time to see her get into a cab, who's number I added to the one we'd come out in. And I waited 20 minutes for another to take me back to my hotel. I had no idea of sharing with the police or tossing at Walter Helm the vague hearsay evidence that had been given me. It seemed to me the logical place to go is back to the tenants in Alma Scott's apartment building, and the developments that followed paint a fairly true picture of that hindrance to accurate investigation, the average witness. I won't bother quoting all four at the address, but Mrs. Swinehart will serve as a composite. Quite yes, Mr. Datter. I'm glad that I can give service. I'll do anything I can. Thank you, Mrs. Swinehart. I just come from talking with Mr. Robinson down the hall. Oh, yeah. Didn't you say that he was already in the corridor the other night when you got there? Yes, he was. Well, he seems to think now that you were there before he was. Oh, but that's not so. I remember distinctly. I went out. And as you know, the Robinson apartment is across into the rear, the one that woman lived in. Taught the rear of the building from the sky. Yes. Well, why, when I went out, the first person I saw was Mr. Robinson standing there. Then I heard the sound of running up toward the front and saw this man. He was running toward the street entrance? Yes, he was. So you looked very briefly toward the rear? And saw Mr. Robinson. And then turned toward the sound? Yes. Are you absolutely positive that it was Mr. Robinson you saw? Oh, of course I am. Is anything sad? No. Nobody said anything for a minute. We were sad as you know. Now, Mr. Robinson remembers that as soon as he came out and saw you, he asked you what had happened. Oh, well, Mr. Robinson was wrong. He was there when I came out. If he said anything, I didn't hear him. Could it be that you expected to see Mr. Robinson standing where you had so often seen him? And after a glance that took maybe a second, your mind automatically said, "That is Mr. Robinson?" Mr. Daller, I know what I saw. Well, what's the meaning of this? It's just possible that there was a second man mixed up in this thing the other night, a man who might have come out of Miss Scott's apartment instead of bolting toward the front entrance, gone quietly to the rear stairway and out the back. Oh dear. That's why it's so important that you're sure. Could it have been someone else that you glanced at and glanced away from? Someone who left while your attention was on the running man? I was sure it was Mr. Robinson. The second time you looked, it was. We're all sure of that. So that first glance? I was so sure. It might be that Swain, who looked so guilty, might not be. It could be the difference between life and death to him. Oh, now you have confused me. I was so sure, but I shouldn't like to call Mr. Robinson nier. He truly believes that I was in the corridor when he came out. After all, it all was so sudden and shocking. I suppose anybody's mind could play tricks as you say. Will you come and talk to Mr. Robinson with me? Oh dear. Yes, I will. But I'd so hope we'd heard the end of this dreadful thing. [MUSIC] In less than an hour, four positive witnesses had broken down in the face of doubt. None of them could swear that there had been a second stranger in the hallway. But neither could they swear that there hadn't been. And none of them had actually seen Alan Swain come out of the Scott apartment. [MUSIC] I didn't look forward to telling the police what was happening to their open and shut case without at least something constructive to offer. At three that afternoon, I still haven't had it. But I got it when I stopped by my hotel to check the phone code. The clerk told me that a Mr. Walter Helm was waiting for me in the bar, first table to the left. [MUSIC] Eh, Mr. Helm? That's right. My name is Dalai. Oh, sit down. What are you drinking? Nothing, thanks. It's a little early for me. I don't suppose you know anything about me, but I'll get right to the point. The papers say you're working on the Alma Scott case. I have an interest in it. It was a friend of mine. Oh? You've got to do something about finding that maniac that killed her. If you think you can help, you ought to go to the police. I don't want to go to the police. I want to talk to you. Where can we do it in private? Your room? I guess so. If you've got reason to keep it that private. I have. Come on. Which way do we go? [MUSIC] We will return to your truly Johnny Dollar in just a moment. Assets, one block of wood. Liabilities, more trouble than the legendary paper hanger with a hive. It sounds as though Edgar Bergen had a pretty bad bank balance, doesn't it? But luckily for all of us, he comes back week after week, to CBS Radio with his block of wood named Charlie and lets himself in for more trouble. As for you, you're really in the chips when you take in the Edgar Bergen Charlie McCarthy show, heard over most of these stations every Sunday. Don't miss them tomorrow night on CBS Radio. Now with our star, Edmond O'Brien, we bring you the second act of your truly Johnny Dollar. [MUSIC] Go ahead. After you. Thanks. What's the matter, Dollar? I don't get you. Yes, you do. You're acting funny like you've got certain ideas about me. Your name came up in a conversation last night. What about? The killing you've got an interest in. What else? Who is this conversation with? You don't expect me to tell you. We won't get any place this way. Somewhere along the line, you picked up the wrong idea about me. Let's get us straightened out. I just spent an hour looking you up in a newspaper morgue. That's hardly the way to build towards a fast and strong friendship. That's business. It's got nothing to do with you and me. I came here to talk about Elmer. Well, let's get it over then. I'll level it. I've been waiting for a call from the police and it hasn't come. I know they'll pin something on me if they can. They've been trying for years. That's why I want to do something about seeing that swain maniac picked up. So it can be pinned on him? That's where it belongs. I don't care what you think about me. You can't go along with them letting a crazy killer go free because they want to put me away. Can you? I didn't know that's what they were doing. They will if they get the chance. What did they do with that check? Burn it up. What are you talking about? What check? A cashier's check for $15,000. I gave it to Elmer. I knew it well enough to know I didn't have to kill it or keep it from going to Mexico where that's coming. She got tired of me before but not so tired a small gift wouldn't bring her back. I knew I was a sucker but that was the only way I could keep her. It was all right with me. Eh, it doesn't sit so well. That's the way it was. Maybe this time money wouldn't keep her. You're wrong. She changed her mind. She wasn't going. One thing interests me. How did you know she was going to Mexico? How'd you find out? Swain's sister phoned me. Half crazy about his life being ruined. Instead of biting do something to stop it, she would. What day was that? The day Elmer was killed. I went over that afternoon with a check and had a talk with her. That's when she changed her mind. I'm an honest thing pretty much from the beginning. And there wasn't a check. Then they got rid of it. They're trying to pin this thing on me. There's a record kept of cashier's checks. If you bought one, you can prove it by going to the bank. Not if you're Walter Helm, you can't. They'll say I bribe somebody and probably pay a few bucks themselves to prove that. That's one of the things I want you to do. Go to the bank so you'll believe me about that check. I'll pay you your own price. Aren't you afraid they'd make that out of Brian? They would if they could. But this is legit. You've got a private licensure for hire, aren't you? Not by a suspect after I've been given access to state's evidence. What kind of it? I could really make this worth your while. Just between you and me. I feel sorry if you, Helm. You're a big wheel. But when you can't count on your money getting you something or getting you out of something, you're lost. Because nobody will take you anything you say or anything you do at face value. Maybe you're right. I'm not complaining that maybe this is the deal that sets you right. The papers say she was killed by a 32. That's right. It hasn't been found yet. I don't sound like this. It's probably at the bottom of the bay or in the ocean, don't you think? That's a shame. A 32 was all they need to really pin it on me. How come? I gave it to her. It's registered to me. How do you know that was the gun that killed her? She kept it in the drawer in the living room. And you didn't find one in the apartment anyplace, did you? That's true. You wouldn't hurt yourself by telling the police. You tell. Not me. I thought I could talk business with you, darling. You say you're not for hire. So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to post a reward. Twenty thousand dollars. That might be a smart move. It'll be legit. Read about it into night's papers. The notice made the front page of the paper I got under the caption calling murder sparked by reward. And strangely, another sounded sincere. Not slanted towards Swain as I'd halfway expected, but offering twenty thousand for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered Miss Alma Scott. I didn't know how the police fared, but as far as I was concerned, the action set in almost immediately. Johnny Dollar. This is Alan Swain. Oh, how are you making up? What kind of a trick is this that Helm is pulling? This thing in the paper. I don't know. It's got news value and he must have laid cash on the line. Might even be on the level. Oh, you're crazy. You can't be on the level. You know that. He says he didn't kill her. You talked to him? Yeah. What do you say? Just that, that he didn't kill her. I'm surprised you're so upset. According to your sister, you didn't know anything about him. She told me about it last night. This is a mess and something will have to be done. It should have been done a long time ago. Why don't you give yourself up, Swain? No, I won't. That would be the best thing to do. No, I won't. I wish I'd gotten out of town while I could. But I listened to Helen. Come on in and talk about it, Swain. No, no. It's too much against me. The police don't care that I didn't kill her. They don't care who they get just so they get somebody. Well, they'll have to find me. The case against you isn't as strong as it was. What do you mean? The witnesses who saw you outside Alma's apartment. They aren't sure now that they didn't see somebody else, too. But you're telling me the truth? Sure I am. That's what I mean. Come in and talk about it. No. No, I'll have to think. I'll have to talk to Helen. I don't know what this reward is going to mean. This reward trick of Helms. I'll have to think and I'll call you back. The phone rang again about an hour and a half later. I thought it was Swain, but it wasn't. It was Lieutenant Halloran and police headquarters. He had a confession to Alma Scott's murder that he wanted to talk to me about. It was made, he said, by a woman who claims she was Allen Swain's sister. This name says she knows you that she met you last night. I guess you didn't. She says you met Swain and her at the beach. This guy phoned me, Lieutenant. It could have been a crank, it could have been anything. I met them and nothing they said would have done you any good, so I didn't bother with it. Father me with it. But what we haven't had, did you think I'd mind picking up a suspect? No, you know my racket. Sometimes I have to give my word. I get out of the habit of keeping it. I'm going to miss a lot of bets. Sometimes I wish I was still a private cop and could get away with that stuff again. You want one? Yeah. Seattle until 49th. And you understand? I'm not supposed to. I tell you what they gave me just broke down the case you were building. Now it looks like there's nothing to it. What'd she say? Last night that she questioned you as to why you thought a woman might have killed Elmer Scott. Uh, yeah. A beneficiary of the only possible insurance angle in the case, by the way. She said that when you mentioned that she figured you had something on her, when the reward was posted, she decided to give herself up. You sound like you don't quite believe her, Lieutenant. Well, don't be honest. I don't know. You think she's protecting her brother? Yeah, I still don't know. There, you want to talk to him? If it'll help. I'll send you. Thanks. Yes, sir. I hope I could introduce you on a flat by talking about lightning. That's not important. Well, he's gonna have to look around this way. Move over. I'm surprised to hear about this. I'm surprised, too. What do you mean? Oh, it's a whole thing. I never thought I'd throw this far. Get rid of people who are hurting you. Murder is pretty fine. You think it was worth it? I don't know. I had to get on my way from that thing. I didn't grind through the less housing for 10 years, so much that happened. Been taking care of him that long? Longer. I'm not busy. If I sit, my mother comes, I've got on him. I'm gonna destroy him. Even two years of college. I'm gonna sit around. I guess I sporting more than mom would have. If I go in that car, I shouldn't stop when that evil got hurt cause in him. I don't think you killed her. He did a bad cop, but I did. And I learned she and I were going to Mexico. I went up there and headed out with it. You said you called Walter Helm? I did, but he wouldn't do anything, so I said I would. He told me he went to see Alma and that she changed her mind about going. That's not what she said to me. What then? I went there about nine. Told her to lay off my brother and she laughed at me, so I killed him. Where'd you get the gun? I had it. What caliber? 32. After you killed her, what'd you do? I just stayed in the apartment for her. Then I looked out the door and when the people were out of sight, I left. Backway? Yeah. What street should come out on? Hope. Straight. No, no, you didn't. The alley doesn't go through to Polk. It turns halfway through the block, goes on to California. Maybe that was it. I wasn't thinking of where I was going at the moment. I don't think you were there. Yes, I was. Oh, please, he didn't kill her. He wouldn't have you. Don't kill something you love and he thought he loved her. It takes only a split second if I loved to turn into hate. He didn't kill her. I told you I did. A dollar. Yeah? There's been a shooting out of Waller Health. No! Oh, no! I thought you'd want to know. Oh! Hey, Lieutenant. Sergeant. Thanks for the control. Hey, I think so, sir. And shout as we're in. Butler was hit. Tell him he's waiting for him. He managed to shoot each other. How are they? Both still alive, sir. Uh, we'll go in. This man's an insurance investigator. He's all right. Yes, sir. Thanks, Sergeant. Where's Swain? Right over there, sir. Thanks. Swain. Swain? Swain? Remember me? Yeah, yeah. Did... Did it come? We don't know yet. Eh? I hope I did. He took her away from me. He took her away from me. How's Swain? He said he gave her a check and she changed her mind about going with you. Took her away from me. We better leave him alone. He was in pretty bad shape. The lunch shot, I think. There are helmets over there. I love him. You know, I thought this would happen over something damn did you come on? Take it easy. What happened to him? I heard the shot, the door. And there he was. Why'd he come here? I don't know. There's only one reason, how you know it and we know it. Doesn't make any difference, does it? Sure. I killed her. He was going to leave. I couldn't buy her back. So I stopped her the only way I knew. Those come like he was with. I'm going to take her away. Nobody was going to take her away. [Music] Expense account item two, $124 miscellaneous. Item three, same as item one, transportation back to Hartman. Expense account total, $572. Good marks. I was wrong from the beginning. I'm not making excuses for it, but I wasn't as far wrong as the sister. If her force confession had ended it, she wouldn't have taken the rap for her brother, who she thought was guilty. But for Walter Helm, who she was afraid was innocent. It only proves again that you have to watch the words that go above your signature. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. [Music] Yours truly, Johnny Dollar, stars Edmond O'Brien in the title role, and is written by Gil Dowd with music by Wilbur Hatch. Edmond O'Brien can now be seen starring in the Paramount Pictures Technicolor production, Silver City, featured in tonight's cast with Jack Moyles, Virginia Greg, Jeanette Nolan, Herb Butterfield, high upper back, and Harry Long. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar is transcribed in Hollywood by Jaime Delvi. [Music] This is Dan Coverley inviting you to join us next week at this time, when Edmond O'Brien returns as... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. [Music] When you read the headlines in Korea, remember this, industry can produce the bombers, the munitions, but only you can give the blood. And it's your blood that's saving the lives of 97 out of every 100 wounded men. Don't wait till it's too late. Give now, call your local Red Cross blood center for an appointment, and then keep that date to save a life. [Music] Get your lap rugged banners ready? I'm sure the radio's working right too. 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