Yours Truly Johnny Dollar

Johnny Dollar - The LaTourette Matter

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Duration:: 30m
Broadcast on:: 07 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Click Smart coupons to save more than ever before at FamilyDollar. From cleaning products to snack and mealtime faves, we have Smart coupons savings for you. Download the new app to Click coupons and claim your savings today! Family Dollar helping you do more! Ready for an audio experience like no other? Dive into the world of infinite sounds with crystal clear high fidelity only on saw good media. Visit sawgoodmedia.com today and start exploring the boundless universe of sounds that will soothe, inspire, and revitalize your senses. Start listening today and experience uninterrupted serenity at sawgoodmedia.com. From Hollywood, it's time now for John Lund as... Johnny Daller. Dan May. Do you have a word for me to call? Lieutenant, I've been trying to see you on this lot for everything. What's your connection, Daller? I'm investigating for the National Underwriters. Oh, did you know Thompson? Yeah. Too bad. I'll be tied up till after lunch. You want to get together then? Anything I can do in the meantime? No, thanks. But enjoy the weather, Daller. I don't think you'll enjoy the case. I'll see you in my office about two. Right, Lieutenant. John Lund in the transcribed adventure of a man with the action packed expense account. America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. Here's Julie. Johnny Daller. Expense account submitted by special investigator Johnny Daller to Home Office, National Underwriters, Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the lot-to-ret matter. Expense account item 1, $97.50, airfare and incidentals between Hartford and Denver. I arrived at 6.30 in the morning with a cold, sun-filled dawn. I reacquainted myself with a mile-high city at the airport restaurant where I drank coffee and waited for my luggage. I'd been there once before on a case in 1947. But the Denver I saw this time was a great deal difference. Bigger filled out bustling. Towns like people change. I arranged to rent a car from the Avis people and drove on into the city itself. There, I checked in at the cosmopolitan, showered and shaved and waited until 9 o'clock before I rang Bessie Thompson's room. Who? Johnny Daller, Bessie. Oh, you're here? Yeah, as a matter of fact, in the same hotel. Same case, Tommy was working on? Yeah. Be careful, Johnny. Everybody seems to die who has anything to do with it. Why don't I buy you some ham and eggs? Why not? Expense account item two. Four dollars and... No, no, I guess not. This one was on me. Buying breakfast for the widow of the man who died on the case I was taking over was a difficult meal. I buried him here. Yeah? I would have taken his body back to Hartford with the expenses and all. Besides, it doesn't really make any difference where you buried. Ground was frozen here, too. I hear they have to use Jack Hammers. What happens now, Bessie? I haven't anything to stay around here for. I guess I'll go home. Try and get a plane out sometime today. Maybe that'll be better. I'm 32 now. I'm still attractive. I suppose some man will come along. Even men. Bessie, what is this? You tell me what it is. The coroner said that Tommy might have been drunk. But he wanted out on the highway and that the driver of the car that hit him could have done it not even known it. I know Tommy drank, but not like that. Or did he? What do you mean? You were with him for three weeks in Omaha last year. When he was away from home from me, Johnny, was he... I mean did he drink a lot and get around? I never saw him do anything like that, Bessie. Honest? Honest. Don't let him know. He was in love with you, Bessie, and he didn't care who knew it. Don't torment yourself with thoughts like that. We're awful at way, aren't we? I mean, women. I think you're wonderful at way, too. Thanks. Tommy was murdered, Johnny. It couldn't have been a hit and run accident. Bessie... And they aren't doing anything about it. They haven't found other things. Oh, easy, honey. They're working on it. You know that. It's all tied into that motturret man. Tommy found out something, and he was killed for finding it out. Bessie, I'll have to tell you right now. What reports Tommy sent in on Motturret? Don't make him responsible in any way. Then why are you here? Just to wrap up the details. I see. There'd have to be something more than what we have now. Then there is something more. Tommy found long distance the night before he was killed. He said he thought he'd be coming home in a couple of days. You say anything about the case? No, but he was coming home. That meant he had it about finished. He sent in a report the day before he was killed. There was nothing. But the police didn't find any report for that day in his room. How did he get out of that place on the Golden Road? Who was he with? Johnny, he was killed. He had something on someone in this case that he was killed. If he was, we'll find it out. All right. Where is he buried? Crown Hill sent here. I'll send some flowers out there. Get the men who ran him down. You'd like that a whole lot better. Yeah, I guess he would. I suppose I was trying to tell her in the gentlest way I knew that men do go out to taverns and drink. But occasionally they do drink too much and that it was entirely possible that Tommy Thompson had been killed. Tommy Thompson had been killed as reported. And not for any information or investigating connected with Frank Lassaret. When I met and talked with Lieutenant Mapes at two o'clock, he confirmed this. Here's the report from our awesome man. Uh-huh. And this is from homicide. Uh-huh. You can take those copies, wouldn't you, if you like, had them made up for you. Thank you very much, Lieutenant. The fire was reported by a passerby about two o'clock last Wednesday morning. At the time the trucks got there, the whole bookstore was in flames. When they broke in, they found Mr. Lassaret's body. She'd suffocated in smoke. Her husband said she'd been there working on the books. Uh-huh. There was no evidence that her death was anything but accidental. And in the opinion of our awesome man, the fire was caused by her cigarette. She fell asleep working in the office and the place caught fire. But, uh, your man Thompson probably sent you all this, didn't he? Yeah, the fire policy had to be investigated. Now, as far as Thompson's death goes, we're looking for a hit and run artist. The people who operate the tavern out there said he absolutely was not in there that night. Uh-huh. At any rate, we don't have to go on that assumption because we haven't been able to dig up anyone who can say he was there that night. The tavern people could be lying. Thompson could have gone in there, gotten himself loaded and walked out in front of a car. They'd be in license trouble if that happened. Yeah, sure. On the other hand, we were just tapped to assume Thompson wasn't in that tavern at all. And what was he doing out on the Golden Road? I don't know. You know how he got there? I haven't found that out either. Still checking the cab company. You might have been with someone? Well, you might have, I don't know that either, dollar. I suppose you've wondered if it could be connected with La Tourette. Oh, yes, I've wondered. When a man in the same business dies like that, you're bound to wonder. I'm wondering about things as one of our hazards, dollar. Well, you have it all right there. Since La Tourette stands to collect about $80,000 fire damages and $17,000 on his wife's death, he's been gone into twice now. Your man, Thompson, did a lot of it. We did a lot of it. Yep. Now, the night of the fire, La Tourette was bowling over to place on Glen Arm, 17 witnesses saw him there. He's in good financial shape, doesn't know anybody had died. The neighbors tell us he's always had a nice home life. He has a boy who plays football in one of our high schools. So, why look at La Tourette anymore? Yeah, but... But your man, Thompson, was killed and looking into it. Is that it? That's it, Lieutenant. Thompson's wife's in town. She buried him yesterday, and she's pretty broken up. Sure she is. I talked to her for a few of them. Her husband died hard and cold out on a lonely road, and they, we say he was drunk and got in front of a car. But in spite of the questions, we were just tossing around about how he got out there on the golden road, and what he was doing there, it still looks like a hit and run on a drunk. And that is saying to her about ended? No, no, I should say not. We want to find the bird who ran Thompson down. And if there isn't enough of those reports to satisfy you, that the fire was an accident, that Mrs. La Tourette's death was an accident, and that Thompson's death was what we say it is, then just sound your horn. I'm around it all day, and I'm open to any kind of suggestion. Okay? That sounds fair enough, Lieutenant. I might give you a ring, right? I spent the rest of the day in my hotel room going over the bulky envelope of police reports. I compared them with information Thompson had forwarded to the office before he had been killed. No matter how you looked at it, the whole business was a story of tragedy, of violence and death. Mapes was right. I wasn't enjoying the case, and I was anxious to close it. It was dark by the time I got out to Park Hill and found the La Tourette home. Through the drawn shades of the living room, I saw the figure of a man. He didn't move, I used the doorbell. Hey, hello in there. Hello? Who is it? My name's Dollar, Mr. La Tourette. He won't be back until tomorrow. I wonder if I could leave some papers for him to sign. Leave him at the door, I'll get him later. There was something about the voice, the strain and shakiness in it that worried me. I didn't leave the papers outside the door, merely tried the knob. All right, you'll meet if you happen. Hey, what is this? Why the shotgun? Get in, you get inside and close the door, I'll kill you. Okay. Who's right over there, Mr. Right over there? You can stop. Where's Mr. La Tourette? Oh. You'll get the same thing if you do anything funny at all. Why? It'll be as good that from now to the day I died, I'll get your hands up. They're up, Sonny. Look, you might still be alive, you could call a doctor and... He's dead. I'll make sure. I don't know who you are or why you did this, but you'll never get away with it. They'll catch you. Who cares? You better give me that shotgun. Don't try to get close to me now. Who are you? I'm an insurance investigator. My name is Dollar. Mr. Dollar, I don't quite know what to do about you. Give me the gun. Oh, no. Oh, no. This little baby's got more work to do than I... Yes, sir, just a little more work. Why did you kill him? He killed a man and a woman. I guess that gives me a right to turn around and kill him. What man? What woman? Somebody you probably know? A man named Thompson. He ran over him the other night. Oh? Sure. He ran him down with a car because Mr. Thompson found out about a woman. His lady loved. His lady loved. Boy, he had one, a real pretty lady. Who helped him grow up mother to death in a fire so they could be together. I'll see that they could together real soon. Your mother? Your name is Lotter Ed? That's it. There's a lot of that. That's my old man lying there. ♪♪ We'll return to your truly Johnny Dollar in just a moment. ♪♪ Now with our star John Lund, we bring you the second act of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. ♪♪ Bruce Lawter Ed was young and he was obviously out of his head with fear. But in spite of it, he held out of the shotgun. Turn around. Look, Bruce, this won't do you any good. You can't get away with a thing like this. Turn around now, turn around, go on! You're going to shoot me the way you did him. You're going to work on it a little harder. I won't turn around and die that way. I don't want to shoot you. You haven't done anything to me now. I told you to turn around and do it. He didn't do anything to you either, but you shot him. He killed my mother. He couldn't have killed her. The police checked him. The police don't know about Evelyn. Nobody goes about Evelyn with me. She burned her store down and he might as well have done it. Evelyn, Evelyn who? I'm going to kill her too. And I'll shoot you if you don't stop right where you are. I don't want him, but I will. I'll stay there. Bruce. Bruce! Bruce! Bruce! - Offer me again. - Give me the police. Hurry! I gave a license number and the description of the car over the phone along with the other information on Bruce Lateret. Several parlor cars arrived, but there was nothing that could be done for Frank Lateret. I waited for Lieutenant Mapes. Wait, sure, pitched this one wrong. Yeah, everybody did. Yeah, 815. I thought they'd pick up that kid by now. APB's been out since you phoned. It shouldn't be too hard to spot. He wants to kill somebody named Evelyn, and he looked pretty determined. I never saw such a thing in my life. You suppose he's dreamed all this? I don't know well enough. Lateret might have had a woman who helped him burn down the store and kill his wife. He might have had to kill Thompson when Thompson found out about it. That's the part that makes it an old dream. Dollar, if we don't have that kid in our hands pretty soon, we'll be standing in another room someplace, looking at another corpse tonight. Yeah, I know. How could we miss it? Who's Evelyn? Why didn't any of these people in the neighborhood know anything about it when we questioned around? I don't know. Let's see. Ferrell and Hayes, Thor, Weiner. Come on, Looney, let's talk to these neighbors again. Boy, what I'd give for one gossipy old lady who knew everybody's business. You mean who knew somebody named Evelyn? Yeah, I guess that's what I mean. An hour of questioning in the neighborhood revealed no one who had any knowledge of Frank Lateret's association with a woman whose first name was Evelyn. Bruce Lateret seemed to have completely disappeared somewhere within the city. However, a 10-15, a young girl walked into police headquarters and asked to see Lieutenant Mapes. I was in the office when she was ushered in. What's her name, Miss? Darry P. Kelly. As a Mr. Dollar, I'm Lieutenant Mapes. How do you do? At the desk, they said you had some information about Bruce Lateret. Is that right? What would you do to him? Try and stop him from killing another person. He's already killed his father. Yes, I know. I heard he's on the newscast at nine o'clock. Want to sit down? Thank you. You know, Bruce? Yes, we've got a screw together. Uh-huh. I don't know exactly how to tell you this. It isn't easy, I mean. I've heard Bruce talk about it ever since his mother was killed in a fire last week. Maybe I shouldn't have come down here at all. Well, if it'll help us stop him from killing someone else, he did the right thing. You know where Bruce is, Dorothy? No, honest, I don't know that. I'd tell you if I knew. What has Bruce been talking about, Dorothy? Well, he was pretty upset about his mother's death and took it pretty high. Yeah, sure. He was out of school all last week, and then when he came back this week, we had lunch together one day. He hardly ate anything, just sort of set there, staring out, you know? Uh-huh. Did he say anything? Not at first. He used to talk to me all the time. I mean, we're pretty good friends. Oh gosh, if my mother knew I was mixed up in it, she... Well, we'll talk to your mother, Dorothy. Go on. Well, Bruce was sitting there, and all of a sudden he said, "They killed her." I thought he was crazy. I said, "Who killed her?" And he said that his father and somebody named Evelyn killed her. He said that Evelyn set fire to the store and that his mother couldn't get out. He said his father had been seeing Evelyn for a long time. And he also said something about telling all this to a man named Thompson, and Thompson has killed too. Did he tell you who Evelyn was? No, sir. Do you say where she lived? No. Did he mention her last name? Gosh, I don't remember. I think he just called her Evelyn. Nothing else about her. No, sir. Oh, wait. What? She teaches skiing. What? He said he met her once with his father when he was skiing. She's a ski instructor somewhere. Does that help you any? It might. It did help. Three-quarters of an hour later, the owner of a sporting goods store remembered a woman named Evelyn Warder, who had skiing classes on weekends. He located an address for in North Denver and I drove out there with a tenant mates. He was a tall, plain-looking woman in her early 30s. What is it? Miss Evelyn Warder? Yes. Police. I'd like to talk to you for a minute. What about? May we come in? Yes. You know a man named Frank Latorette? No, why? His son shot him to that tonight. You know him? Miss Warder? No. Why are you here telling me this? Don't you know? No, I don't know. I have no idea. I was there right after Mr. Latorette was killed. His son said he was going to kill a woman named Evelyn. He's still loose. What are you doing, talking to everyone named Evelyn? You going out? If you didn't know Latorette, you don't have anything to worry about. If you're lying to us, you're liable to get killed. You came by because we thought you might be the one he's after. We don't have a lot of time. I don't know anyone named Latorette. And you're okay. Sorry to abolish him. That's all right. Good night. Good night, night. ♪ The pouting mouth, the plain face. The tall, ungainly person of Evelyn water. Couldn't fit the role of a home-breaker or murderous. But we sat in the car across the street from our house. Mapes put in a call for two more cars to come out. It really didn't get sunny all day today. And this is a pretty lousy night. Nothing to say. Nope. Sure you don't. You could be in a nice warm hotel room getting ahead full of sleep right now. I can do that anytime. Right now, I want to be around when somebody talks about a fire. My company has an $80,000 claim on. And the murder? And Tommy's murder. Oh. A whole thing. Tommy's wife this morning wondering if he played around with other women. A kid standing there shaking and crying and killing and out to do more killing. I'd like to sleep. I don't think I could. I wonder where that kid went to. He should have had him by now if he stuck with a car at all. How could he walk around town carrying a shotgun without being a little conspicuous? Yeah. This could be the wrong Evelyn. It's the only one we've got a line on. Yeah. Dollar, this stinks. What? That's the right Evelyn in there. And if that kid isn't picked up, he'll be around a killer tonight. Yeah. So let's go in and give her the business. She said, "Hey. Across the street." What? That's the car. The kids? Yeah. Let's go. How'd you get here without over there? Yeah. Come on. Bruce. Round to rat. This place is covered. You'll never get away alive. Don't get here. You okay? Shootin' in the dark. I didn't go to do any good, Bruce. Let me try. Sure. Bruce, this is Johnny Dollar. Remember? Tell your police friends to keep down and I'll kill somebody. I don't want to kill anybody but I'll hurt her. I will if you find a stop. And they don't want to kill you, Bruce. Put down the gun. I'm going to get hurt. The law will take care of her if what you say is true. I want to take care of her. Evelyn? Evelyn? This is Bruce by the Red. You killed my mother. We're gonna have to do it, Johnny. Wait. Bruce. She isn't there. Get away from here. Get away from here. Get away from here. Get away from here. Upstairs, window. Yeah. She wasn't here to help. Make himself a perfect target. One more chance by the Red. Throw the gun down. Okay, boy. Well, that did it. Yeah. I'll get an apple. What is this? It doesn't need to get it. Take it easy. They'll get her. They did get her. She was taken down and charged with suspicion of murder in arson. Bruce La Tourette was removed at the emergency hospital and died there three hours later. I was in his office when Lieutenant Mapes had a stenographer take a confession from Evelyn Water. All right, Miss Wardard. I met Frank three years ago, Skeem. He asked me to have dinner with him one night in town. Later, he'd see me every now and then. What's his idea? Killing his wife? That? No, that was mine. You figured out how to do it? Yes, why? You mind telling us about it? I knew she worked on the books in the store at night. I had a kid at the store. I just went in there and saw she was sleeping and started to fire. How? Laced basket. I knew the spoke and that little officer did the rest. Had you ever met her before? I don't know. You never talked to her at all? No. Did he? I mean, about a divorce? He said he did, but I know he didn't. He didn't want a divorce here for me. So you killed her? I guess I did. They insurance man? Tromson? Yes. I guess the boy told him about us. He followed us out to the place on the Golden Road. I told Frank we'd have to get rid of him. And we did. Who was driving everyone? I was. Your car? Yes. You killed him both then? Mrs. Lotter, I'd end Tromson? You don't think Frank would have to know if to do anything like that, do you? I don't know why I went for him. I really didn't, I guess. He had money. He had no nerve. Okay, everyone. Anything else? What happens to me? That's up to the court, everyone. Expense account item three, twelve dollars, hotel and board. Item four, twelve dollars and fifty cents, car rental. Item five, same as item one, playing the fair back home. Expense account total, two hundred and nineteen dollars and fifty cents. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar stars John Lund in the title role, which was written by E. Jack Newman with music by Eddie Dunsteady. John Lund can currently be seen in the Universal International Picture just across the street. Featured in tonight's cast were John McIntyre, Jeanette Nolan, Sammy Hill, Virginia Greg and Eddie Firestone. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar is transcribed in Hollywood by Jaime Delvie. This is Dan Coverley inviting you to join us next week at this time when John Lund returns as yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Sunday nights at the Star's address, distinguished drama is always your fair when Lionel Barrymore narrates your Sunday night playhouse. Each week, this fine program turns the spotlight on a little known or unsung hero of American history, bringing you the highlights of his career in brilliant original dramatizations. Don't forget, this Sunday on most of these same stations, Sunday night playhouse starring Lionel Barrymore. ♪ America now listens to 105 million radio sets and listens most to the CBS radio network. ♪ ♪ Hey there, listeners. 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