Yours Truly Johnny Dollar

Johnny Dollar - The Willard South Matter

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Duration:: 27m
Broadcast on:: 30 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Luke Crager, Mr. Dallon. Yell-oo, what's up? They found the boat a few miles off the Atlantic side of St. Croix. Oh? She was empty. Neither one of them aboard? No. From what I understand, it looks like there was trouble, all right? How's that? Blood stains. I guess signs of a struggle. The engine had run until it was out of gas. That sure is the boat, huh? Yeah, they must be. Oh, that sure. It's registered to Willard South. Yeah, all right. Where can I see it? Well, they won't have it in for another 30 minutes. The police dock is next to Royal Mail. You can't miss it. I'll meet you there if you want. Good, Luke. I'll see you in about 20 minutes. 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 accounts submitted by special investigator Johnny Daller to Great Eastern Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the Willard South method. Expense account item $143.80, airfare and incidentals between Hartford and the city of Charlotte, Amelie, island of St. Thomas, Virgin Island Group. I arrived there two days after the disappearance of your policyholders, Willard South and his wife, Georgina. And one day after the report had been made by his foster mother, she was too upset to be questioned. But I did find a local guide and boat owner who claimed to know the boating habits of Willard South through a number of fishing trips. I made arrangements with him to start my own search the next morning. But it was this guide, Luke Krager, who phoned that second evening to tell me that South Scruiser had been found empty. On tower, over here. A yellow. I didn't know if you'd spotted me or not. I hadn't. You could do better on light down here. That is part of the romance of the island. Mm. This is the boat, huh? Police officers still aboard. A native by the name of Shawy. I told him you were coming. Uh, we can go aboard now. In the cabin. Officer Shawy? Yes. Mr. Dollar is here. Boy, come inside then. Thanks for letting me aboard, Officer. Glad to meet you, Mr. Dollar. I was sent to, uh, your University of Iowa to learn to be a policeman. The good school. I learned what they taught me, but I've had no chance to learn of what they taught me is right. It is our boast that there is no crime in the Virgin Islands. That has been right. But now this. Well, it happens in the best of circles sooner or later. What do you make of it? Well, let me show you with my light. In near the wheel, see? Is the bullet still in the wood? Yes. I will take out the piece of the panel with the saw and take the bullet from that. This blood stain under the wheel. Are they more like it? This is the large one. As if somebody fell there. As if somebody fell there. There are more here and more in the passageway than on the deck. There on the rail. As if somebody climbed over the side or was, was pushed over. There's, uh, one other thing back here. This piece of line. Look. It's been cut. Mr. Krager says a small boat was usually tied to the stern. You sure of that load? Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Will it always trail the dinghy? You know, like a skiff, unless he was trolling. Then he watched it at a boy. But where is it now? You know, searching for it, aren't you? Yes. So is the coast cut boat. I wish your luck. A little skiff will be a lot harder to find than a cruiser like this. Well, I'll be anxious to learn of any developments out of the shore. I'm staying at the Grand. Nothing had developed by noon the next day. I spent the morning on routine legwork. In the 1230, I was back at the Will it South address. It was an old building with enough elevation to give its windows a view of Charlotte Annerley's pleasant harbor. I'd known Will it South's foster mother lived there, but I hadn't known about the man who met me at the door. I'm Will it's brother. I was told you'd call yesterday. Mr. Dollar, come in. Your mother was too upset to talk with me yesterday. You've gotten the news on what they found, I suppose. Yes, I went down to see the boat. Has anything further been learned? No, not yet. Sit down, Mr. Dollar. It's cooler here on the veranda. Thank you. I wasn't here yesterday because I was searching for Will it's boat too. I'm surprised to learn Will it has a brother. I've asked a lot of questions about him in the village. Nobody mentioned you. Well, I'm only here a few days a year. My home is in Tampa. I arrived the first of the week, Tuesday. I'm glad I met you before I had to see your mother. It's a lot easier to be blunt with a brother. Blunt, Mr. Dollar? How about Will it's reputation on the island? I can't seem to find anybody who doesn't hate him. I'm afraid you won't either. Do you know anyone who hated him enough to shoot him? Well, I, uh, I hardly know how to answer that. I know a number of men have been hurt seriously by him. The ones that have lost wives? Yes. Do you think he's dead? I don't know. The only thing I'm sure of is that there was a shooting on his boat and somebody was hurt. I'm told your brother and his wife were seen leaving on it at dusk, night before last. Is that right? Yes, they'd packed an evil meal. Meal had never been eaten. Well, little trips like this, a regular habit of this. Oh no, they weren't at all. It was a special occasion. Georgina's never stopped hoping she could reform Will it and win him back. This trip was one more of her efforts. Did they say where they were going? No, but I thought it would be Cobra. That's an island about 20 miles from here in a westerly direction. Mother said they started that way, but the boat was found almost 40 miles in the other direction. From some out of 60 miles. Yes, 60 miles. Mr. Dollar, what could have happened in those 60 miles? I don't know yet, but I hope to find out. You knew about this gift being cut loose. Yes, they told me. Oh, oh dear. Yes, Mother. Who's with you? Is there any news? Nothing yet. Mother, this is Mr. Dollar from the insurance company. How do you do, Mr. Dollar? Mr. Souther, sorry I have to meet you at a time like this. The great many crises in the past 10 years have revolved around my son, Will it. I have conditioned myself to expect him. Even his death by violence, if that should be. Mother, please. But if harm has come to Georgina. There's no evidence of that, Mr. Souther. If it does, I shall hold myself responsible. Because I allowed her to become the wife of the beast, I have called my son. There was a rare situation. There was no actual evidence that Will at South had been murdered. But almost everyone I talked to seemed to think he had been, simply because there were so many motives. One of the people who didn't think so was a newcomer to the island, Celeste Robertson, there to take advantage of the six weeks divorce law. Who told you about me? A bartender at the street. He said you and South had been seen together recently. Yes, I know him. As a matter of fact, I've spent quite a bit of time with him in the last couple of weeks. Where do you think he is? But I... I don't know. Do you think he's dead? No. No, I don't. Most people do. Well, I can't help that. I know a lot of people don't like him. Would there be anyone close to you that doesn't like him? No, there wouldn't. I'm here alone. When did you see him last? The afternoon before he and his wife disappeared in their boat. You answered that almost as if you knew you'd be asked the question. Well, I didn't. I just remembered it was only a couple of days ago. But you wouldn't remember his mentioning anybody who might be out after a scout, huh? I understand he enjoys that sort of thing. You mentioned anybody. What are you holding back, Mrs. Robertson? Nothing. I don't have anything to hold back. Did he ever say anything to you about getting rid of his wife? I don't know what you mean. Look, all we have to work with is a bullet hole in the boat in some blood stains that could have come from her or from him. He never said anything. And what are you afraid of? I'm not. Look, Mr. Dollar, please, I... I don't want to get my name mixed up in this if I can help it. I'm here sort of on good behavior. I know I was wrong to see him because he was married, but... But what? Just because I did see him, I don't think I have to get mixed up in things like shooting. Something I don't know about at all. I guess you can't be blamed for that. You don't have to get mixed up in it. Unless... you already are. [MUSIC] All that day, planes searched the sea for the missing skiff. Boats, too, swept back and forth between the islands. It wouldn't seem possible that anything they missed would ever be found. But it was. [MUSIC] That evening, after the planes had given up in order to get back to their fields before dark, a radio report was received from one of the boats. The skiff had been found, and in it, still alive, was Mrs. Willard South. [MUSIC] I was with Officer Shaw when a boat was docked under the steady hand of a leathery old skipper with a help of wonderful... You know, I'm bored there, I get some pains over general, what's wrong with you? [MUSIC] All right, take a strain now. [MUSIC] We can go aboard now, Mr. Dalright. [MUSIC] Hello, Captain Bracken. Hello, yourself, over here, Shawy. So, luck is good? Yeah, can't use these eyes for 72 years for nothing, Officer Shawy. Eyes Mrs. South, can she talk to us? She cannot. She's been put through a hard time. She gets turned over to Dr. Gar before she talks to anybody else. What about her husband? Did she say what happened? Yes, she did. She's seen him shut down before of her eyes. And his dead body heaved the sharks. And then somebody go fetch Dr. Gar. She needs some work else she'll die. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] We'll return you to the second act of yours truly Johnny Dollar in just a moment. Have you heard the news sing it again? The new comedy of Jan Murray, your host, on that coast-to-coast phone? The new cash prices for cracking the mystery of singing it again's Phantom Boyce. The new speed and color of the tuneful little riddle songs that make sing it again a Saturday night must for radio listening. You'll like the new sing it again. Be listening for it tonight on most of these same CBS stations. Now with our star Edmund O'Brien, we return you to the second act of yours truly Johnny Dollar. [MUSIC] It wasn't until the next morning that Dr. Gar decided Mrs. South was strong enough to be questioned. He'd taken her to the single small hospital in Charlotte Emily in a ten. He beckoned from the door to her room. I think it'll be all right but please don't tire. Mr. Dollar, I want you to question her. I never learned about a case like this one. I never did either. Anything you're saying? All right, Dr. Georgina, this is Officer Shaw, and this is Mr. Dollar. Yes. Mr. Dollar is here to ask you some questions but I don't want you to let him tire you. I'll try not to Mrs. Anne. Why are you here? I was sent down from the States when you and your husband disappeared by your insurance company. Oh, I see. Oh, I know it's pretty horrible to go back over it but we've got to find out just what happened in that boat and the quicker we do it, the quicker we can get to the bottom of it. I'll try to help. Captain Bracken told us just the bad details. He's the both captain who found you. Remember I mentioned his name. Yes. He told us you saw somebody shoot your husband. Who was it? I don't know. There were two men. I've never seen them before. How did they get aboard, Mrs. Sound? Oh, we, we were on our way to Galabra. Oh, almost halfway, I think. It was dark and we saw light blinking from another boat. Will said it was a signal when somebody was in trouble and we went over. This man said they'd run out of fuel and ask if we had any despair. But when Will pulled alongside, this man jumped on our boat, our gun. Dr. It's all right, Georgina. Don't go on if you don't want to. He shot Will. That's all it. He shot him and then the other man jumped aboard too. What did they say? They didn't say anything. Do you think your husband knew them? No. No, he didn't know them. What did they do then? Well, one of them hit me because I was screaming at him. I was wearing a bracelet and he grabbed it off my wrist. And made me take off two rings and kill them two women. They took Will's wallet and they dragged him out of them. They pushed him into the water now. I don't remember anymore. What? Kara? I can't. It's all right, Georgina. Nobody can hurt you now. Gentlemen, I think we'd better let her rest now. Sure, Doctor. I'm sorry we had a bother here, Mr. Sam. I'm sorry. Don't be considering what she's been through. I think she did very well. Actually, her physical condition, except for exhaustion, is quite good. She did have water during the time she was adrift and some shelter from the sun. What do you make of it? The whole thing seems pretty brutal for simple robbery. Say, where's the nearest prison, surely? Well, Puerto Rico. Now, that's something that had not occurred to me. Escape convicts might carry out such a ruthless attack, might they not? Yeah, even more so. Well, I will send cables to both of those prisons. I think you'd better. [Music] It was little enough to go on, but it was obviously useless to try to get any more information from Mrs. South then. Doctor Guy had every right to insist that we leave his patient alone. I was assured he went to his headquarters to cable his questions and I went back to the waterfront. The skiff was still on the dock, but before I even got to it, I was hailed. Hey, you there. What ever your name is? How are you, Captain Bracken? Oh, how's the England? Have you heard? Yeah, I just left it. She'll be okay. Yeah, lots of spunk that one. What are you figures behind it? She wasn't strong enough to tell much, but Officer Shaw is checking the possibility that those two men she talks about might be escaped convicts. Say, they might have been. I can't see anybody like that leaving her alive to talk about it. Eh, no matter how low they get this, then they can't kill a woman, I suppose. Eh, what are you doing down here? I want to take a look at that skiff by daylight. The escaped prisoner theory is too long a chance to rest on. It still may have been a local job. No, I hate to see it turn out that way somehow. What do you say that? Oh, this wants to be a peaceful island. It's the truth. Nobody wasted any affection on will in it. What if it'd been downright fitting if two escaped convicts done that devil in? I spent 30 minutes looking over the skiff and another hour going over Will itself's cruiser again. Nothing I dug out of either one added up. Neither did the results of a trip to the cable office. There had been no recent escapes from the prisons. Right from the beginning, for all my prying and all my questions, I hadn't gotten one positively. But by this time, there were so many things I couldn't put my finger on, that I'd began to reason why not make a weapon of just that. So I started again with Lou Crager, the first person I'd met in the investigation. I found him aboard his boat. Donner, what's got into you anyway? I'm sick and tired of the runaround and double talk I've been getting. I don't get it. You will. You were quick to make yourself available to me when I showed up here. Why, Grader? I thought you needed some help. You wanted a boat? I had one. I think you mean somebody else needed help. That piece of line you pointed out I was a sure in me on South's cruiser. A short piece. Who cut it? I don't know. How should I know who cut it? It's one of the things you better get straight. You said it had been used to tow the skiff, but the line of the skiff had not been cut. What does that mean? That you were lying. Now I'm no sailor. But why cut a line when loosening a couple of half hitches would free the skiff? But it was cut, wasn't it? The line you pointed out was cut. And you made your point that Willard South always trailed the skiff. Why? Because you wanted the search for it to go on. Because you knew his wife was alive and would be found in it. I think the tropics have got you, dollar. You don't think I can break this case down, do you? Because half of the non-tourists on the island are willing to lie to cover up for her. I don't care how noble their loyalty is. This case is going to be broken down. Because there's a reason Coast Guard planes can search for three days and not find her, but that night after dark your friend Bracken can. Her story of the other boat and the two men. If the South cruiser had been stolen, the other boat would have been found. How do you know what happened? I know that a doctor will be here in less than 18 hours who will prove that Georgina South did not spend three days adrift. Dollar, you don't know what you're talking about? Where are you going? The cable of the doctor. No, wait a minute. You don't know what you're doing, dollar? I was taught to do when I was sent down here. Only things as they are, dollar, believe me, it's the right thing to do. Not where I come from. Well, I can't-- Well, I sure-- Mr. Craiger, I don't know how do you understand it. Stop, but I have to write it. You heard of Craiger, you heard him take it easy. Listen to me, dollar. Sometimes, right, the way you find it in the book isn't right. Remember that I told you. Mr. Dollar. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. South. I didn't see you in the swing. I wouldn't have barged in. You startled me. I must have been dozing. There's been so little sleep. Yes, I know. I went to the hospital first. They told me that Georgina had gone home. Yes, she did. I'm up to see her, please. Why must you see her, Mr. Dollar? I think you know. You know, Willard's brother knows, Captain Bracken, his crewman, whole Luke Craiger, Dr. Gar. Not sure how many others. Well, I'm afraid of-- Please, please, what's the use? You shouldn't have tried it no matter how you felt. You should have realized that it wouldn't work. Even way down here on the Virgin Islands, a murderer is hard to protect. Where is she? Who told you this? There were too many mistakes. Luke Craiger made the biggest one. You two are making one, Mr. Dollar. I'm sorry, Mr. South. Murder is murder. They speak of heredity and environment. Many say that heredity will never be overcome. Others say that environment will win out. Of both the right and both the wrongs. This is sound. My husband and I took our boys from the poorest foundling home we could find. Paul is one of the best. Willard? Willard didn't deserve to live. He became more best to every day. He couldn't live any longer. No more secrets, Georgina, my dear. I must tell Mr. Dollar the truth. It's I who've been hiding behind my friends. I'm the murderer. I killed Willard. I had to. I had to before he destroyed us all. Expense account item two. Eighty-five dollars and forty cents. Miscellaneous expenses and Charlotte Annerley. Item three, same as item one. Transportation back to Hartford. Expense account total, three hundred and seventy-three dollars. Remarks? I tabbed the confession as a false one when I heard it. And I'm not charting the company by the time I spent trying to prove it false. But it wasn't. It was true. And so is awkward fact that a large number of the leading villagers are liable as accessories after the fact of murder. It should develop into quite a trial. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. 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's latest pictures, the Paramount Pictures production, the Red Head and the Cowboy. Featured in tonight's cast were Irene Hubbard as Evangula, Jan Minor as Georgina, Gilbert Mack as Lou, Fran Lafferty as Celeste, Ed Latimer as Sam, Maurice Tarplin as Schoy, and Bernard Lindro as the Doctor. This is all entice inviting you to join us next week at this time when Edmond O'Brien turns on another transcribed adventure of... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. [Music] Everybody wants to help America's defense program. And part of everybody's duty is to be extremely careful with the handling of fire. This is especially true in wooded territory where forest fires can cause terrible losses in valuable natural resources, lives, and manpower. 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