August 19, 2025 • 42 mins
CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a noteworthy attempt to revive in American radio dramas like Inner Sanctum (1941-1952) and Suspense (1942-1962). Radio dramas were widely considered "dead" 12 years prior to this series. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, or simply Mystery Theater, was created by Inner Sanctum creator Himan Brown and ran on CBS from 1974-1982. The show, much like older radio dramas, was introduced by a host (E.G. Marshall in this program), who steers us through the creaking door to start the episode. Many voices from the golden age of radio were featured, including Richard Widmark, Bret Morrison, Agnes Moorehead and many more.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Mystery Theater! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
Hope you enjoy this episode of Mystery Theater! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Come in. We're welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm e. G.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Marshall.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Everything it is said, happens to everyone sooner or later,
if there's time enough.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
What does that mean? Obviously that we.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Can expect the best and we can expect the worst,
which might be quite tolerable if we were to receive
equal amounts of each. The trouble is most of us
get more than our fair share of one or the other.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Is there a way to redress the balance?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Well, yes, but this will call for a rearrangement of
life and death.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Tell me your name.
Speaker 6 (00:57):
What's the difference?
Speaker 5 (00:59):
How else will I who you are?
Speaker 6 (01:00):
If I tell you my name? What would you know?
Tom Smith, John Doe, Bob Jones. Those are all good names.
Choose anyone.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
Which one is yours?
Speaker 6 (01:09):
None of them?
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Well, I need a name I can call you.
Speaker 6 (01:12):
Let me give you the name that describes me.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Killer.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Our mystery drama, The Awakening was written especially for the
Mystery Theater by Sam Dan and stars Kim Hunter. It
is sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division. I'll be
back shortly with that one. A sadder and wiser man
(01:51):
he rose tomorrow morn.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
What is the poet telling us?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Simply that a different person woke up in the morning
than had garden to bed the night before. If you
accept the basic principle, the proposition doesn't necessarily have to
operate for the better. You don't have to awaken the
sadder and wiser. You can also arise happier and dumber.
A man of evil can become a man of good,
(02:19):
and it's just as likely the other way round. What
fantastic transformations can occur overnight?
Speaker 6 (02:27):
Listen, Thank you, doctor. I can't tell you how much
I appreciate your giving up your lunch yard to see me.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You said it was an emergency, it.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Co matter of life and death.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Rest assured it's true.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Why did you choose me?
Speaker 6 (02:41):
The fact is I don't know any psychiatrists here, and
if I open the classified pages under physicians and surgeons,
psychiatrists and like abou ben Adam, your name, doctor abbott led.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
All the rest talking about names.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
What's yours? My name? Must I tell you my name?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yes? I can help you if I don't know who
you are.
Speaker 6 (03:04):
Okay, you look at me, listen to me and know
who I am.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
What I am. I'm sorry, I must insist.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
I cannot treat you if you don't have complete confidence
in me. Yes, yes, of course you're They're absolutely correct.
But well, I require a certain amount of time to
develop that confidence. Doctor, believe me. I'll tell you my
name now, not just yet, soon, Please help me to
(03:30):
do what. I woke this morning and yes, and I
didn't know who I was. Uh, what do you mean?
I still don't know who I am. I become somebody
else who I don't know? Doctor?
Speaker 7 (03:51):
Do you know who you are?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (03:54):
How how do you know who you are? I'll tell
you it's not just that you know your name. Your
name is just a label given to you by your
mother or father to label you on the outside. But
it's what you feel inside. That's you, your feelings, your thoughts,
(04:15):
that's what you are. Do you understand here, there's that
bundle of feelings and thoughts. That was the me I
had lived with for twenty years. This morning, that me
was gone inside. Now there's another mean to me. I
don't know me. That is terrific. Why because it's a strange, sinister,
(04:40):
alien me?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
In what way?
Speaker 6 (04:43):
I am made up of only one single feeling, one
solitary urge to kill you?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Never felt it before?
Speaker 6 (04:55):
I can't think of anything else just killing?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Well, have you had a physical examination lately?
Speaker 6 (05:01):
It's my only feeling, my only emotion.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Do you have a headache?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
To kill?
Speaker 6 (05:06):
Just like a shark that knife through the water, the
tiger that prowls through the jungle, what aday each in
his way? Is the personification of an elemental, irresistible killing force.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Have you noticed a shortness of bread?
Speaker 6 (05:20):
They kill anything that crosses their path.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Why have you had any serious illness? Yes this one.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Can't you hear what I'm telling you? Why do you
waste our valuable time with these lattering, nit picking questions
that have absolutely no bearing on what hire I am
asking the necessary questions? Is it possible you haven't heard
what I've said to you? What I have awakened this morning?
What has possessedful?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Now? If you're going to start to talk.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
About possession and devils and spirit, I am possessed not
by an evil spirit perhaps, but possessed by what. Perhaps
a germ, a virus, perhaps an idea, the thought, a belief.
I don't know, but it's possession, or perhaps it is
(06:09):
in possession. It could be an.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Awakening, an awakening, an.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Awakening to my true and essential nature. Yes, it's an awakening.
That's what it is. Please sit down, I can no
longer fight against it.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
No, sit down, and everything will be all right.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
Yes, yes, everything will be all right. As soon as
I can get into it. As soon as I can kill.
That will bring me relief, out, relaxed. As soon as
I kill anyone anything that crosses my path.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
You no, you don't want to do that.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
I shall kill you.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Just just a minute, I'm trying to kill you.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
No, kill anyone that crosses my path.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I'll have to call you will be dead.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
What do you cared?
Speaker 6 (06:58):
How easy I can kill? I can kill her. I
feel better, Hey, I feel so much better.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
And that's all we got on the tape, doctor Zeltner.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I suppose I'm lucky. My name is Zeltner. I have
the last listing in the directory called Fred Abbott.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
H Do you knew doctor Abbott?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Yes, an excellent man.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Well, doctor Zeltner.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
But what does all this tell you?
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Well, he believed in tape recording all his sessions.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
And you don't.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
I don't have any hard and fast rule, lieutenant. In
this case where fortunate. He turned on the recorder the
moment his patient began talking. What was the exact cause
of death.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Well, the killer evidently knew karate and used it. There
were several sharply placed blows which shood considerable damage. You
could you're on the tape, how quickly, how definitely the
thing is done?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
No one saw him enter or leave the office.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
No.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Doctor Abbot's nurse had already left on her lunch hour
when he arrived, and the doctor was dead when she returned.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Did anyone in the vicinity notice anything suspicious?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
You're asking you detective's questions, Doctor Zelder. Now we've covered
that ground already without results. I'm hoping you might be
able to ask a psychiatrist questions. You know, we're dealing
with someone mentally disturbed, and what kind of clues are
on this tape?
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Well, Lieutenant Chance, we know several.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Important things, such as he's a.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Stranger because he didn't know any doctors in town, nor
did he have any friends who could recommend one. Doctor
Abbott was six feet tall, in excellent physical condition, yet
the killer handled him easily. The killer could be anywhere
in his late thirties to early forties.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Yeah, and I get that picture too, spoken. Yeah, he's
obviously educated.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Oh, he doesn't have to be educated exactly, Lieutenant, who
do you mean? I'm not sure something about his speech?
What let me think about it? Ask yourself this question.
What does the killer do for a living? For?
Speaker 6 (09:20):
I know?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Well, we agree he's a stranger in town. What is
he doing here?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I don't know that either.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Is he visiting someone? Not likely? If it were a
social thing or even a business trip, he would have
someone to talk to, someone he could ask to recommend
the doctor.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Okay, doctor's oliver?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
You tell me what was the killer doing here?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Passing through?
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Perhaps?
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And he gets this seizure, and he goes to the
first psychiatrists he can find.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
It appears that way, But our basic question remains unanswered.
What does the killer do?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Why do you say he doesn't necessarily have to be educated?
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Something bothers me about that tape? What I don't know
was anything taken from the office. No, there didn't seem
to be Lieutenant doctor Abbott's office. Is it still exactly
the way it was when the body was discovered?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Should be? We've got a man on guard.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Do you suppose I could see it?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I don't know what good it'll do.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Well, since you don't know, why don't we find out
you're missus Boyer's Beater's boy a year's doctor. I used
to ring your number for doctor Abbott. What are you
doing here today? Life goes on. That is for the
doctor's wife. You see, she still has bills to pay,
(10:46):
and so I'm working on the doctor's books for her.
I understand you were not here when the man who
killed doctor Abbot phoned for the appointment. No, and I'll
never forgive myself.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And why do you say that.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Because, Lieutenant, had I answered the phone, I simply would
not have given him the appointment. But doctor Abbott couldn't
say no to anybody. I usually have lunch in here
every day, it's just on that particular day. You have
lunch in the office every day? Oh yes, I think
that was the first time I'd gone out months. Oh look,
I'm sure this must be a very difficult time for you,
(11:20):
Miss Boyers. Please don't let us disturb you. Well, I'll
be in the reception room if you need me. Lieutenant.
This is doctor Abbott's desk. He was sitting behind it,
and this chair is for the patient. And here's the
tape recorder.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yes we know all this, don't we.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
We'll notice the position of the tape recorder. Oh what
about it, it's standing on the desk in full view.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
What are you trying to establish.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Doctor, Well, the fact that the taping wasn't a secret.
The killer knew that his conversation was being recorded.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Okay, mo, where does that lead us?
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Why didn't the killer destroy the tape?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
What does it make any difference?
Speaker 5 (12:02):
It's a clue he left his voice behind.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Her voice on a tape recorder doesn't.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Stand up as positive identification.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Well, perhaps, but some of his statements could be quite revealing,
such as, I don't know yet, I want to study
the tape.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Maybe the killer didn't notice.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Oh how could he not notice?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Tony may have been too excited. All.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
After all, he did commit murder.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, we know that.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
And after he did it, if you remember the tape,
he seemed very calm. Such a person who who realizes
that he has committed a serious crime that becomes very careful.
He looks about to make sure he's covering his tracks,
not leaving any clues. Why didn't he destroy the tape?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Why does it bother you?
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Oh? We have to find the answers to three questions.
Who is he? What is he doing here in town?
And why didn't he destroy the tape?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Doctor, we're up against the stone wall. Now, he could
be anyone who walked in off the street. Didn't you
hear what he said on that tape?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
He says, A great deal. Let's go back to your
office and listen again.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Okay, uh, miss Boyers, I don't know what we're gonna
listen for.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
We heard it all, yes.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
We heard it. Now we have to try to understand it. Yes, Lieutenant, we're.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Leaving now, missus Boyers. So if you can think of
anything that might be of use to us, you have
my number of headquarters.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Yes, lieutenant. Good bye, Miss Blayers, goodbye, Doctor Heelter.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Hello Ben, knowing j Ben?
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Why didn't you destroy that tape? But you were talking
to Labitt in the office. It was all being recorded,
didn't you know it?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Of course I knew it after I even played it?
Speaker 7 (13:52):
Bad do what?
Speaker 6 (13:54):
It was?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Such a beautiful thing? How could I erase it?
Speaker 5 (13:57):
You should have destroyed it.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I've never been better.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Do you realize the police had that tape?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Of course?
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Still listen and listening sooner or later, So or later,
what they'll find out something?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Beaterest Darling.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
They will listen and listen and be thrilled by the
greatest theatrical performance that has.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Ever been recorded? What can they possibly find out?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
What can they possibly find out? What can you find
out by listening to a tape recording?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Did you find out anything?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Actually, practically every clue that's needed is.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
On that tape.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
You're also already ahead of doctor Zeltner and Lieutenant Katz
because you just heard the scene that took place after.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
They left the office.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Let's see what we can all find out in Act too,
which follows in just a few moments. What do the
psychiatrists tell us? Consider mister Booth shot mister Lincoln.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Where in a theater?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Why?
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Because mister Booth was an actor, and he saw his
deed primarily as a theatrical performance. But all of us
are actors in a sense. All of us perform, all
of us require applause of one kind or another, even
when we turn to murder.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
I'm a peaceabul person. I studiously avoid arguments, conflicts, unpleasantness.
The mere thought of violence makes me ill.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
How to take there for a moment, Lieutenant the thought
of violence makes him ill, Yet he's accomplished in the
art of karate. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
This doesn't have to he's crazy.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Well, even so called crazy people behave in what for
them is a logical manner. What we're supposed to get
from this tape is a profile of a hitherto mild
mannered man who has suddenly gone berserk? Is it not
the facts? This is a man who is no stranger
to violence?
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Okay, what difference does it make?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
He's still a psychotic killer.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Maybe what do you mean? Maybe maybe he wants us
to think so. Now, listen to this.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
That dynamic package of feeling and thought. That was the
me I had lived with for twenty years.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
To me I knew, to me.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
I always loved, to me I sometimes hated, but the familiar, dependable,
comfortable me.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
What do you think of that, Lieutenant?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I still think so.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It's the raving of a munth.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Now notice the smooth flow of language. Notice how the
sentence is built. Notice how there's practically no hesitation, no
searching for words. Who talks like that? I don't know
an actor?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
An actor? Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Not always?
Speaker 5 (17:09):
He sounds like an actor who has rehearsed and prepared
his lines.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Oh, assuming you're right, how could he do that?
Speaker 6 (17:17):
Listen again to kill just like a shark that knifes
through the water, a tiger that prowls through the jungle.
What are they? Each in his way? Is the personification
of an elemental, irresistible killing force.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
This speech has been written by whom by the killer,
the killer who happens to be an actor.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Once again, where is the proof?
Speaker 5 (17:42):
You're listening to the proof? I heard this tape for
the first time. I said it bothered me. You tried
to pin me down. What bothered me about it?
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And I am still.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Trying to pin you down?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Doctor.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
I can now tell you everything. Everything about that tape
bothers me. It's a phony.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Okay, okay, but you still haven't been able to prove
or what have we got.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
A presumed psychopath comes into doctor Abbot's office. He claims
to be very disturbed, but I don't think he's disturbed
at all. Let me spend back that tape. Why did
you choose me, asked doctor Abbot. Listen to the answer.
Speaker 6 (18:20):
I opened the classified pages under physicians, surgeons, psychiatrists and
like a couple, ben Adam, your name, let all the rest.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
So what do you want me to make of that?
Speaker 5 (18:31):
He's always on stage, always ready, with the epigram or
the quotation from beginning to end. The whole thing has
been superbly prepared. I'll run the tape ahead.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Listen.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
Why do you fritter away our valuable time with these mattering,
mythicing questions?
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Who would possibly put together a sentence like that on
the spur of the moment?
Speaker 6 (19:00):
I am possessed, not by an evil spirit, but possessed
what Perhaps a germ, a virus, perhaps an idea, a thought,
a belief. Perhaps it isn't possession. It could be an awakening, awakening,
an awakening to my true and essential nature. Yes, it's
(19:23):
an awakening.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
That is not the raving of a maniac.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Okay, how a good fight are you? You're convinced the
guy isn't crazy?
Speaker 5 (19:33):
No, but I'm convinced the killer deliberately chose doctor Abbott.
Why I don't know, But here the psychiatrist must yield
to the detective.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
And what do you want me to do?
Speaker 5 (19:45):
Change your hypothesis? At this point? You believe the killer
chose doctor Abbott at random?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
That's what happened.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
How do you know?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Because well, because because.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
He says so on the tape, I happened to look
in the classified, and your name led all the rest.
See how he uses the tape to convince you. Now
I know why he didn't destroy it. Assume, Lieutenant, that
the killer had a motive to murder. Doctor Abbott, I.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Have to keep asking what motive.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
Well, that's a policeman's question. You shouldn't be asking me.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
Enemies.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Oh no, not Walter. Everyone loved him, Doctor Zeltner. Here
knew my husband, and of course, missus Abbott. Did you
notice anything unusual about Walter's behavior? Unusual?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Does that he seemed nervous or worried, upset, you know,
out of sort?
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Oh no, not with me, Never with me. I never
heard an unkind or impatient word from him. And nothing
bothered him that you knew of, missus Abbott. Oh, everything
bothered him. He worried about the slightest little things, how
things were going on in the world, about his patients.
Was he doing enough for them? Was there any unusual worry,
(21:06):
Missus Abbott? Unusual? Well, he came home to dinner. There
was just the night night before before he well, we
were having his favorite steak. He didn't seem to know
or even care about what he was eating.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Then he was troubled.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
I suppose you could say that. And do you know
what it was about, Missus Abbott.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
No, you didn't ask him.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Well, yes I did, and he said it was a
professional problem. And once he said that, I knew I
couldn't press it. Doctor Sultner, you're a psychiatrist. You can
understand he said it was a professional problem. That means
it concerned the patient.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yes, who was the patient?
Speaker 5 (21:48):
But I don't think I'm allowed to tell that. Well,
you don't have to tell us what the problem was,
but you can tell us who the patient is. Oh,
all right. I think it was Roy Butterfield because he
went into his den right after dinner and got on
the phone, and I think he was talking to Roy.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
You can't tell us what he was saying to Roy Butterfield, No, Lieutenant,
she can't, but we can ask him.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I have nothing to tell you, mister Butterfield.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
The night before he was murdered, Doctor Walter Abbott had
a very long conversation with you on telephone.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
Not indn't he? Who says?
Speaker 4 (22:32):
So?
Speaker 5 (22:33):
His wife, Missus Abbott, said he seemed quite troubled when
he spoke to you. Can you tell us why?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
No?
Speaker 5 (22:40):
And the next day he was killed? Was there a connection?
Speaker 6 (22:44):
Oh, I understand some homicidal maniac, get it? And I
really don't know how I can help you.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Well, perhaps you can tell us how we can help you.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
What are you talking about.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Mister Butterfield. You're a badly frightened man.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
Why black my business?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
And you don't deny it?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
Look if you don't have any more questions to ask me?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Do you?
Speaker 5 (23:05):
Do you have any questions to ask us?
Speaker 6 (23:07):
What questions would I have?
Speaker 5 (23:09):
One very important question might be why are we here?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Listen?
Speaker 6 (23:14):
I'm in enough problem? Now?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
What kind of trouble?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (23:18):
If I told you, you might try to pin the
murder on me?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Oh hardly, mister Butterfield. You're too short, too fat, too old?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Are you a karate expert, mister Butterfield karate?
Speaker 6 (23:31):
I can hardly play croquet.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
It would be better if you told us, mister Butterfield,
better for you.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Oh all right now, Look, Look I've been married thirty years,
very happy, wonderful woman every way. Well, I ran into
a very beautiful young lady. She she was also very intelligent.
I really wanted to keep it patanic, you know what
(23:58):
I mean? But well, we're all people in the world here,
of course. I well, I was sorry I started, and
my conscience spotted me. So I well, the young lady
and myself we barded, and I thought I'd never do
anything like that again. Well, shortly after I became acquainted
(24:22):
with another young lady, and I tried to stop it
by going to a psychiatrist to find out why I
needed that sort of thing. You understand, doctor Rabbit. They
would have sessions. I spoke all my thoughts into a
tape recorder so he could analyze them. Well, I I
(24:46):
held nothing back. I described everything in detail. I'm sure
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
And then last week a package came for me in
the maid. It was a tape because that there was
a letter that said unless I paid ten thousand dollars,
a copy of that tape would be sent to my wife.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
Was there any way to a dentisty?
Speaker 6 (25:13):
Oh no, no, it was just type written on a
plain piece of paper. No signature, no address, no nothing.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Do you do you have a copy of the letter.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
No, no, I burned it up.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Mister Butterfield, there's been a murder. Anyone who withholds evidence
becomes an accessory.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Now, I think hard, did you really burn that letter?
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Diet Well, I was going to burn it just as
you people rang the bell.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Oh here, I have it right here.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
In my pocket.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
All it says is they're going to be in touch
with me and tell me how they want me to
pay the money.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
We have another copy of the same tape. We mean business.
In a few days we will contact to with further
details of how to pay the ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Nice clean typing, and you know where it was.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
Typed, don't you?
Speaker 4 (26:11):
No?
Speaker 5 (26:11):
In doctor Abbot's.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Office, But what are you talking about?
Speaker 5 (26:14):
It should be playing? His assistant, Beatrice Bowyers decides she
can blackmail some of his patients, Roy Butterfield is particularly vulnerable.
She sends them the tape and a note, but Butterfield
makes a fuss about it. Abbot confronts her that morning
and fires her. She has a confederate. He poses as
a psychopathic killer to create the impression that this is
(26:37):
a crime of random violence.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
You see, that's the big difference between a psychiatrist and
a detective. You doctors can get rich on theories, but
we can't get the first base without evidence.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Oh there's evidence, Just the evidence we need where it's
always been, where we sort with our own eyes in
Abbot's office.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Some evidence is strong, said the philosopher, as when you
find a trout in the milk. Doctor Emilia Zelner says
she has the evidence. But what may be evidence to
a psychiatrist may very well be way over the heads of.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
The rest of us.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
However, Act three, as you know, is where it's all
added up, and that curtain shall rise in just a
few moments. There is the evidence of things not seen,
(27:39):
a testimony of things not heard. These form the professional
diet of both the detective and the psychiatrists. Things reveal themselves,
things speak to them in a manner not readily perceived,
but the rest of us. But is what they see
and what they hear always true?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Or what kind of evidence are you talking about, doctor Zeltner?
Speaker 5 (28:04):
The evidence of this note. Look, it's typed.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
All we have to do is find the typewriter.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Now do you know how much of a job that
can be.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
But we know where it is. It's in doctor Abbott's office.
Because Beatrice Boyers typed it.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
That's only a hypothesis.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
She typed it on her office machine.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Okay, now let's go along with your theory.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
For the sake of argument, Beatrice Bowyers and a pal
are going to use doctor Abbot's files for blackmail purposes.
Now would she be so crazy as to use the
office typewriter to type the blackmail note?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yes, I don't believe it.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
No one would be that stupid.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
She's a stupid woman. Sooner or later she has to
be caught.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Well, there's only one way to find out.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Oh, Doctor's served her and Lieutenant Katz.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
May we come in, miss Boyers?
Speaker 5 (28:55):
Certainly? Now, is there anything I can do for you?
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Wouldn't be too much trouble for you to give us
a list of the appointments doctor Abbot had on the
day he was murdered.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
Oh, that'll be no trouble at all. I have his
book here and I can just type the names for you.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well, that's very kind of you, I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Well, it won't take me a minute.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Here's the list of Boyers typed on the office machine,
and here's the blackmail note Roy Butterfield received.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
So I find this hard to believe. Impossible.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Man, I'm not an expert, but I don't think there's
any point to call on one in It's obviously a
different typeface.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
But it has to be miss Bowyers. It has to be.
I still say she's guilty.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
H saying isn't enough.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
There has to be evidence that a district attorney can
present to a jury.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Now do you have that?
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Listen to the tape again. It is so patently a
device to make us think a homicidal maniac is at large.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
All right, doctor Zelfer, Let's consider the tape. It gives
us a sound recording of a crime. I bring it
to you, a psychiatrist, in order to get some psychological
insight into the perpetrator.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I've tried to sure.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
You listen to it.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
You form a whole theory which holds that the guy
isn't a psycho, but knew what he was doing and
why he was doing.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
I have pointed out inconsistencies in the man's talk, theoretical inconsistencies,
stuff that made sense to you.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Now I should tell you that other psychiatrists who analyzed
the tape did not come up with the same conclusions
you did.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
I'm telling you how I see it good.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
There has to be an anchor something to hold it
all in place. I have Beatrice Boyers under accomplish planned
as murdered, the anchor would have to be the typewriter.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Well, you yourself set.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
That up, and I assume she'd be stupid enough to
use the one in the other very well, the fact
that she's smarter than I gave her credit for doesn't
change to the veracity of I.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Want to thank you for your time and your effort
and your sincere interest.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
But goodbye.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Well we've come to a dead end. But if anything
else occurs to.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
You, you still insist on a random killing. But the
fact is you have a psychiatrist whose files are being
used for blackmail. And if Beatrice Boyers isn't using them,
who is the blackmail and the murder might be connected?
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Then again they might not.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
There's only one explanation. Albert confronted her that morning. He
accused Beatrice Bowyers. He fired her, she had him killed.
Why A he would see to it that she could
never work again in this field. B. He would take
away from her the source of blackmail. She'd no longer
(31:56):
have access to the files. She didn't need the office
to go to lunch. She never went out to lunch.
She left the office because she was fired.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
But we can't prove that if she.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Isn't doing the black male?
Speaker 6 (32:09):
Who is who?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
All right?
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Hey, any thief could have broken in be doctor Abbot himself.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Dr Abbott, that's ridiculous. I can't believe that.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
You mean, you don't want to believe that a psychiatrist
could be involved in a secret black male scheme against
his own patients.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
It is impossible theoretically.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
You actually believe that, Lieutenant.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Cats No, because before I believe anything, I need evidence.
I'm just doing what you're doing, theorizing, Well, see you're around.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
Oh Ben, what are you doing here?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Then I had to see you.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
I don't want to see you when I'm at rehearsal.
How many times.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
I let's leave tom Now?
Speaker 6 (33:00):
We haven't collected any money, my darling. Money We require money.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
Please then listen. You don't know how close we came
to getting caught.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
What are you saying?
Speaker 6 (33:09):
How could we possibly come close?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
This is the perfect crime.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
Then forget it. We don't know how to do such
a thing. We've been doing one stupid thing after another.
First the tape, How can you say the tape?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Listen?
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Then I did something even more stupid. You know the note,
I said, Roy Butterfield. I typed it on the office machine.
How could you for the same reason you didn't destroy
the tape. Now, the police had doctors out to their wives.
They came by and made an excuse to get me
to type something on the machine, and did you how
could I refuse? But you see, we're lucky. The day before, yesterday,
(33:44):
the typewriter people took the machine away for repairs and
left the substitute one for me to.
Speaker 6 (33:48):
Use for that and they didn't discover it.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
I know, but we can't keep hoping for miracles. Oh,
it was such a good idea, blackmails some of the
most vulnerable people.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Rich enough to afford it, But we just don't know
how to do it.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
We lost control. They suspect us.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Oooh the police.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Maybe not the police so much. But this psychiatrist, this
lady doctor, doctor Zeltner. She scares me.
Speaker 6 (34:13):
Should the random killers strike again, then no hard whatever
you say, darling, I'm ready, willing and able at all
times to protect our interests.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Doctor Zeltner. Oh, yes, Harry, I'm fine. No, I haven't
seen it. I have heard of it either. What is
this a traveling theatrical company in town? A play with
very valid psychiatric insights? Huh? The central character talks about
(34:54):
an awakening. He wakes up one morning and finds he
someone else a murder. Oh well, I'll certainly have to
see it.
Speaker 6 (35:12):
I awoke this morning and I'm somebody else? Who am I?
I know my name? But what is your name? A
label used to describe you on the outside, But it's
the inside that's you now.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
I have but one desire to kill.
Speaker 6 (35:34):
Kill like a shark knifing through water, kill like a
tiger prowling the jungle. To get these sickness burns within me,
a raging fever. To what have I awakened this morning?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
What has possessed me?
Speaker 6 (35:54):
Am I possessed? Or have I awakened?
Speaker 5 (36:07):
Doctor Zeltner? Oh, hello, miss Boyer. It's a small world.
Enjoying the play?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Oh yes, are you leaving?
Speaker 5 (36:15):
Doctor? Yes? I have an appointment. Pity I can't stay
for the second act. Goodbye, miss Boyer, Yes, goodbye. Every
word you said in the plate tonight is on that tape.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
I know it is.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
That's why I said, erase it. She's on my way
home to call the police.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
How do you know?
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Because I saw her get into a cab and I
heard her tell the driver of the address I'll get there.
Speaker 6 (36:40):
Go now, I have a second act.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
You'll play your last act in the courtroom. If you
don't get to her first, Lieutenant Cats, please, well, I
haven't called me at once. This is doctor Zeltner.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Thank you, Hello, Doctor Zeltner.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
Oh it's you.
Speaker 6 (37:01):
Do you have a tape recorded too, Doctor?
Speaker 5 (37:05):
You're the very fine actor I saw to night?
Speaker 6 (37:08):
Then, bestly I don't bother to play that recorded doctor.
This time, I'll erase the tape.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Why you know?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Why?
Speaker 6 (37:18):
You know why I'm here. I didn't fool you when
I killed doctor Abbot. I'm not fooling you now.
Speaker 5 (37:26):
How did you get into this fantasy?
Speaker 6 (37:30):
What fantasy?
Speaker 5 (37:32):
The fantasy that you killed some one?
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Or I killed Abbot?
Speaker 6 (37:37):
I had met Beatrice, we talked about ways of raising money.
I'm producing, directing and starring in The Awakening.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
Yes, yes, I saw it to night, beautiful play.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
You saw it? You know the truth?
Speaker 5 (37:52):
What truth are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (37:55):
Stupidly, I talked like that to doctor Abbott before I
killed him.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
Are you serious? How could you have killed doctor Abbot?
Speaker 6 (38:04):
Listen, don't try anything.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
And did you kill doctor Abbot a few minutes.
Speaker 6 (38:08):
Ago or the day before yesterday?
Speaker 5 (38:12):
I went to his office, doctor Abbot. His wife and
I were at the theater tonight, but we saw your play.
Oh no, no, Now, listen, you've come to the right place.
You bear a tremendous burden. You're a genius. You have
to fight the critics, the public. It's a wearing battle.
(38:37):
You are not a killer. You're a genius, a genius,
and the world is finally ready for you. I saw
the play, the audience, how they sat in silence. It
was a moving experience, a religious experience. It was theater.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
What are you say?
Speaker 5 (39:01):
You sit quietly, calmly, don't lose your mind. Now, Relax,
you have victory within your grasp. Relax, don't fall prey
to delusions. You didn't murder anyone. You couldn't murder anyone.
You're an actor. You live your fantasies on the stage
(39:24):
in the theater. Think of your lines, your lines. Rest, Relax, sleep, sleep.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Doctor's helping you wake him up.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I was afraid he came here to kill you.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
He did. I thought you'd never show up.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
You were write about the typewriter that it bothered me.
So I asked Roy Butterfield to show me a copy
of his last bill from doctor Rabbit's office.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
The type face matched. She was smart. She did not
use the same machine.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
How did he find you?
Speaker 5 (40:00):
I went to the theater word for word the lines
from his player on the tape.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
We got them both thanks to you.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
I'm glad you arrived when you did. I don't know
how long I can keep him underus.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
He's a cold What are you so nervous about?
Speaker 3 (40:18):
He did a great job hypnotizing him.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Yes, but you see, it was the first time I
ever tried it.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And with that she promptly fainted.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Oh well, we talk about an actor's vanity, but why
is it different from anyone else's? Poor Ben, he was
distracted from doing what had to be done by some
very fulsome praise. But let's face it, who among us
really hates applause?
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
I'll be back for more in just a few moments.
And The Awakening, a play starring Ben Bentley.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Is what the poster proclaimed.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
But The Awakening can also be a real life drama
that can star any one of us.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
How do you know who you will be when you
wake up tomorrow morning? You really don't.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
That's why going to bed at night can be so suspenseful.
But before you do go to bed, make sure you
will have tuned us in. Our cast included Kim Hunter,
Leon Jenny, Brina Raeburn and Earl Hammond.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
The entire productions under the.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Direction of Hymon Brown.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
To return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure in
the macabre. Until next time, Pleasant Dreams
Speaker 5 (42:31):
FLA
Come in. We're welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm e. G.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Marshall.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Everything it is said, happens to everyone sooner or later,
if there's time enough.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
What does that mean? Obviously that we.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Can expect the best and we can expect the worst,
which might be quite tolerable if we were to receive
equal amounts of each. The trouble is most of us
get more than our fair share of one or the other.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Is there a way to redress the balance?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Well, yes, but this will call for a rearrangement of
life and death.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Tell me your name.
Speaker 6 (00:57):
What's the difference?
Speaker 5 (00:59):
How else will I who you are?
Speaker 6 (01:00):
If I tell you my name? What would you know?
Tom Smith, John Doe, Bob Jones. Those are all good names.
Choose anyone.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
Which one is yours?
Speaker 6 (01:09):
None of them?
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Well, I need a name I can call you.
Speaker 6 (01:12):
Let me give you the name that describes me.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Killer.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Our mystery drama, The Awakening was written especially for the
Mystery Theater by Sam Dan and stars Kim Hunter. It
is sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division. I'll be
back shortly with that one. A sadder and wiser man
(01:51):
he rose tomorrow morn.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
What is the poet telling us?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Simply that a different person woke up in the morning
than had garden to bed the night before. If you
accept the basic principle, the proposition doesn't necessarily have to
operate for the better. You don't have to awaken the
sadder and wiser. You can also arise happier and dumber.
A man of evil can become a man of good,
(02:19):
and it's just as likely the other way round. What
fantastic transformations can occur overnight?
Speaker 6 (02:27):
Listen, Thank you, doctor. I can't tell you how much
I appreciate your giving up your lunch yard to see me.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You said it was an emergency, it.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Co matter of life and death.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Rest assured it's true.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Why did you choose me?
Speaker 6 (02:41):
The fact is I don't know any psychiatrists here, and
if I open the classified pages under physicians and surgeons,
psychiatrists and like abou ben Adam, your name, doctor abbott led.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
All the rest talking about names.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
What's yours? My name? Must I tell you my name?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yes? I can help you if I don't know who
you are.
Speaker 6 (03:04):
Okay, you look at me, listen to me and know
who I am.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
What I am. I'm sorry, I must insist.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
I cannot treat you if you don't have complete confidence
in me. Yes, yes, of course you're They're absolutely correct.
But well, I require a certain amount of time to
develop that confidence. Doctor, believe me. I'll tell you my
name now, not just yet, soon, Please help me to
(03:30):
do what. I woke this morning and yes, and I
didn't know who I was. Uh, what do you mean?
I still don't know who I am. I become somebody
else who I don't know? Doctor?
Speaker 7 (03:51):
Do you know who you are?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (03:54):
How how do you know who you are? I'll tell
you it's not just that you know your name. Your
name is just a label given to you by your
mother or father to label you on the outside. But
it's what you feel inside. That's you, your feelings, your thoughts,
(04:15):
that's what you are. Do you understand here, there's that
bundle of feelings and thoughts. That was the me I
had lived with for twenty years. This morning, that me
was gone inside. Now there's another mean to me. I
don't know me. That is terrific. Why because it's a strange, sinister,
(04:40):
alien me?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
In what way?
Speaker 6 (04:43):
I am made up of only one single feeling, one
solitary urge to kill you?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Never felt it before?
Speaker 6 (04:55):
I can't think of anything else just killing?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Well, have you had a physical examination lately?
Speaker 6 (05:01):
It's my only feeling, my only emotion.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Do you have a headache?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
To kill?
Speaker 6 (05:06):
Just like a shark that knife through the water, the
tiger that prowls through the jungle, what aday each in
his way? Is the personification of an elemental, irresistible killing force.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Have you noticed a shortness of bread?
Speaker 6 (05:20):
They kill anything that crosses their path.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Why have you had any serious illness? Yes this one.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Can't you hear what I'm telling you? Why do you
waste our valuable time with these lattering, nit picking questions
that have absolutely no bearing on what hire I am
asking the necessary questions? Is it possible you haven't heard
what I've said to you? What I have awakened this morning?
What has possessedful?
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Now? If you're going to start to talk.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
About possession and devils and spirit, I am possessed not
by an evil spirit perhaps, but possessed by what. Perhaps
a germ, a virus, perhaps an idea, the thought, a belief.
I don't know, but it's possession, or perhaps it is
(06:09):
in possession. It could be an.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Awakening, an awakening, an.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Awakening to my true and essential nature. Yes, it's an awakening.
That's what it is. Please sit down, I can no
longer fight against it.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
No, sit down, and everything will be all right.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
Yes, yes, everything will be all right. As soon as
I can get into it. As soon as I can kill.
That will bring me relief, out, relaxed. As soon as
I kill anyone anything that crosses my path.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
You no, you don't want to do that.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
I shall kill you.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Just just a minute, I'm trying to kill you.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
No, kill anyone that crosses my path.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I'll have to call you will be dead.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
What do you cared?
Speaker 6 (06:58):
How easy I can kill? I can kill her. I
feel better, Hey, I feel so much better.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
And that's all we got on the tape, doctor Zeltner.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I suppose I'm lucky. My name is Zeltner. I have
the last listing in the directory called Fred Abbott.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
H Do you knew doctor Abbott?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Yes, an excellent man.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Well, doctor Zeltner.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
But what does all this tell you?
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Well, he believed in tape recording all his sessions.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
And you don't.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
I don't have any hard and fast rule, lieutenant. In
this case where fortunate. He turned on the recorder the
moment his patient began talking. What was the exact cause
of death.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Well, the killer evidently knew karate and used it. There
were several sharply placed blows which shood considerable damage. You
could you're on the tape, how quickly, how definitely the
thing is done?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
No one saw him enter or leave the office.
Speaker 7 (08:07):
No.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Doctor Abbot's nurse had already left on her lunch hour
when he arrived, and the doctor was dead when she returned.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Did anyone in the vicinity notice anything suspicious?
Speaker 4 (08:17):
You're asking you detective's questions, Doctor Zelder. Now we've covered
that ground already without results. I'm hoping you might be
able to ask a psychiatrist questions. You know, we're dealing
with someone mentally disturbed, and what kind of clues are
on this tape?
Speaker 5 (08:32):
Well, Lieutenant Chance, we know several.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Important things, such as he's a.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Stranger because he didn't know any doctors in town, nor
did he have any friends who could recommend one. Doctor
Abbott was six feet tall, in excellent physical condition, yet
the killer handled him easily. The killer could be anywhere
in his late thirties to early forties.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Yeah, and I get that picture too, spoken. Yeah, he's
obviously educated.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Oh, he doesn't have to be educated exactly, Lieutenant, who
do you mean? I'm not sure something about his speech?
What let me think about it? Ask yourself this question.
What does the killer do for a living? For?
Speaker 6 (09:20):
I know?
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Well, we agree he's a stranger in town. What is
he doing here?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I don't know that either.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Is he visiting someone? Not likely? If it were a
social thing or even a business trip, he would have
someone to talk to, someone he could ask to recommend
the doctor.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Okay, doctor's oliver?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
You tell me what was the killer doing here?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Passing through?
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Perhaps?
Speaker 4 (09:45):
And he gets this seizure, and he goes to the
first psychiatrists he can find.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
It appears that way, But our basic question remains unanswered.
What does the killer do?
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Why do you say he doesn't necessarily have to be educated?
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Something bothers me about that tape? What I don't know
was anything taken from the office. No, there didn't seem
to be Lieutenant doctor Abbott's office. Is it still exactly
the way it was when the body was discovered?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Should be? We've got a man on guard.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
Do you suppose I could see it?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I don't know what good it'll do.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Well, since you don't know, why don't we find out
you're missus Boyer's Beater's boy a year's doctor. I used
to ring your number for doctor Abbott. What are you
doing here today? Life goes on. That is for the
doctor's wife. You see, she still has bills to pay,
(10:46):
and so I'm working on the doctor's books for her.
I understand you were not here when the man who
killed doctor Abbot phoned for the appointment. No, and I'll
never forgive myself.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And why do you say that.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Because, Lieutenant, had I answered the phone, I simply would
not have given him the appointment. But doctor Abbott couldn't
say no to anybody. I usually have lunch in here
every day, it's just on that particular day. You have
lunch in the office every day? Oh yes, I think
that was the first time I'd gone out months. Oh look,
I'm sure this must be a very difficult time for you,
(11:20):
Miss Boyers. Please don't let us disturb you. Well, I'll
be in the reception room if you need me. Lieutenant.
This is doctor Abbott's desk. He was sitting behind it,
and this chair is for the patient. And here's the
tape recorder.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yes we know all this, don't we.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
We'll notice the position of the tape recorder. Oh what
about it, it's standing on the desk in full view.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
What are you trying to establish.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Doctor, Well, the fact that the taping wasn't a secret.
The killer knew that his conversation was being recorded.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Okay, mo, where does that lead us?
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Why didn't the killer destroy the tape?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
What does it make any difference?
Speaker 5 (12:02):
It's a clue he left his voice behind.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Her voice on a tape recorder doesn't.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Stand up as positive identification.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Well, perhaps, but some of his statements could be quite revealing,
such as, I don't know yet, I want to study
the tape.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Maybe the killer didn't notice.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Oh how could he not notice?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Tony may have been too excited. All.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
After all, he did commit murder.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah, we know that.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
And after he did it, if you remember the tape,
he seemed very calm. Such a person who who realizes
that he has committed a serious crime that becomes very careful.
He looks about to make sure he's covering his tracks,
not leaving any clues. Why didn't he destroy the tape?
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Why does it bother you?
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Oh? We have to find the answers to three questions.
Who is he? What is he doing here in town?
And why didn't he destroy the tape?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
Doctor, we're up against the stone wall. Now, he could
be anyone who walked in off the street. Didn't you
hear what he said on that tape?
Speaker 5 (13:07):
He says, A great deal. Let's go back to your
office and listen again.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Okay, uh, miss Boyers, I don't know what we're gonna
listen for.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
We heard it all, yes.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
We heard it. Now we have to try to understand it. Yes, Lieutenant, we're.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Leaving now, missus Boyers. So if you can think of
anything that might be of use to us, you have
my number of headquarters.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Yes, lieutenant. Good bye, Miss Blayers, goodbye, Doctor Heelter.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Hello Ben, knowing j Ben?
Speaker 5 (13:43):
Why didn't you destroy that tape? But you were talking
to Labitt in the office. It was all being recorded,
didn't you know it?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Of course I knew it after I even played it?
Speaker 7 (13:52):
Bad do what?
Speaker 6 (13:54):
It was?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Such a beautiful thing? How could I erase it?
Speaker 5 (13:57):
You should have destroyed it.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I've never been better.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Do you realize the police had that tape?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Of course?
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Still listen and listening sooner or later, So or later,
what they'll find out something?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Beaterest Darling.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
They will listen and listen and be thrilled by the
greatest theatrical performance that has.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Ever been recorded? What can they possibly find out?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
What can they possibly find out? What can you find
out by listening to a tape recording?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Did you find out anything?
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Actually, practically every clue that's needed is.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
On that tape.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
You're also already ahead of doctor Zeltner and Lieutenant Katz
because you just heard the scene that took place after.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
They left the office.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Let's see what we can all find out in Act too,
which follows in just a few moments. What do the
psychiatrists tell us? Consider mister Booth shot mister Lincoln.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Where in a theater?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Why?
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Because mister Booth was an actor, and he saw his
deed primarily as a theatrical performance. But all of us
are actors in a sense. All of us perform, all
of us require applause of one kind or another, even
when we turn to murder.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
I'm a peaceabul person. I studiously avoid arguments, conflicts, unpleasantness.
The mere thought of violence makes me ill.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
How to take there for a moment, Lieutenant the thought
of violence makes him ill, Yet he's accomplished in the
art of karate. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
This doesn't have to he's crazy.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Well, even so called crazy people behave in what for
them is a logical manner. What we're supposed to get
from this tape is a profile of a hitherto mild
mannered man who has suddenly gone berserk? Is it not
the facts? This is a man who is no stranger
to violence?
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Okay, what difference does it make?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
He's still a psychotic killer.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Maybe what do you mean? Maybe maybe he wants us
to think so. Now, listen to this.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
That dynamic package of feeling and thought. That was the
me I had lived with for twenty years.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
To me I knew, to me.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
I always loved, to me I sometimes hated, but the familiar, dependable,
comfortable me.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
What do you think of that, Lieutenant?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
I still think so.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It's the raving of a munth.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Now notice the smooth flow of language. Notice how the
sentence is built. Notice how there's practically no hesitation, no
searching for words. Who talks like that? I don't know
an actor?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
An actor? Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Not always?
Speaker 5 (17:09):
He sounds like an actor who has rehearsed and prepared
his lines.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Oh, assuming you're right, how could he do that?
Speaker 6 (17:17):
Listen again to kill just like a shark that knifes
through the water, a tiger that prowls through the jungle.
What are they? Each in his way? Is the personification
of an elemental, irresistible killing force.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
This speech has been written by whom by the killer,
the killer who happens to be an actor.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Once again, where is the proof?
Speaker 5 (17:42):
You're listening to the proof? I heard this tape for
the first time. I said it bothered me. You tried
to pin me down. What bothered me about it?
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And I am still.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Trying to pin you down?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Doctor.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
I can now tell you everything. Everything about that tape
bothers me. It's a phony.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Okay, okay, but you still haven't been able to prove
or what have we got.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
A presumed psychopath comes into doctor Abbot's office. He claims
to be very disturbed, but I don't think he's disturbed
at all. Let me spend back that tape. Why did
you choose me, asked doctor Abbot. Listen to the answer.
Speaker 6 (18:20):
I opened the classified pages under physicians, surgeons, psychiatrists and
like a couple, ben Adam, your name, let all the rest.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
So what do you want me to make of that?
Speaker 5 (18:31):
He's always on stage, always ready, with the epigram or
the quotation from beginning to end. The whole thing has
been superbly prepared. I'll run the tape ahead.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Listen.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
Why do you fritter away our valuable time with these mattering,
mythicing questions?
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Who would possibly put together a sentence like that on
the spur of the moment?
Speaker 6 (19:00):
I am possessed, not by an evil spirit, but possessed
what Perhaps a germ, a virus, perhaps an idea, a thought,
a belief. Perhaps it isn't possession. It could be an awakening, awakening,
an awakening to my true and essential nature. Yes, it's
(19:23):
an awakening.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
That is not the raving of a maniac.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Okay, how a good fight are you? You're convinced the
guy isn't crazy?
Speaker 5 (19:33):
No, but I'm convinced the killer deliberately chose doctor Abbott.
Why I don't know, But here the psychiatrist must yield
to the detective.
Speaker 6 (19:42):
And what do you want me to do?
Speaker 5 (19:45):
Change your hypothesis? At this point? You believe the killer
chose doctor Abbott at random?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
That's what happened.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
How do you know?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Because well, because because.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
He says so on the tape, I happened to look
in the classified, and your name led all the rest.
See how he uses the tape to convince you. Now
I know why he didn't destroy it. Assume, Lieutenant, that
the killer had a motive to murder. Doctor Abbott, I.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Have to keep asking what motive.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
Well, that's a policeman's question. You shouldn't be asking me.
Speaker 7 (20:27):
Enemies.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Oh no, not Walter. Everyone loved him, Doctor Zeltner. Here
knew my husband, and of course, missus Abbott. Did you
notice anything unusual about Walter's behavior? Unusual?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Does that he seemed nervous or worried, upset, you know,
out of sort?
Speaker 5 (20:43):
Oh no, not with me, Never with me. I never
heard an unkind or impatient word from him. And nothing
bothered him that you knew of, missus Abbott. Oh, everything
bothered him. He worried about the slightest little things, how
things were going on in the world, about his patients.
Was he doing enough for them? Was there any unusual worry,
(21:06):
Missus Abbott? Unusual? Well, he came home to dinner. There
was just the night night before before he well, we
were having his favorite steak. He didn't seem to know
or even care about what he was eating.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Then he was troubled.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
I suppose you could say that. And do you know
what it was about, Missus Abbott.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
No, you didn't ask him.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Well, yes I did, and he said it was a
professional problem. And once he said that, I knew I
couldn't press it. Doctor Sultner, you're a psychiatrist. You can
understand he said it was a professional problem. That means
it concerned the patient.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yes, who was the patient?
Speaker 5 (21:48):
But I don't think I'm allowed to tell that. Well,
you don't have to tell us what the problem was,
but you can tell us who the patient is. Oh,
all right. I think it was Roy Butterfield because he
went into his den right after dinner and got on
the phone, and I think he was talking to Roy.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
You can't tell us what he was saying to Roy Butterfield, No, Lieutenant,
she can't, but we can ask him.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I have nothing to tell you, mister Butterfield.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
The night before he was murdered, Doctor Walter Abbott had
a very long conversation with you on telephone.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
Not indn't he? Who says?
Speaker 4 (22:32):
So?
Speaker 5 (22:33):
His wife, Missus Abbott, said he seemed quite troubled when
he spoke to you. Can you tell us why?
Speaker 4 (22:39):
No?
Speaker 5 (22:40):
And the next day he was killed? Was there a connection?
Speaker 6 (22:44):
Oh, I understand some homicidal maniac, get it? And I
really don't know how I can help you.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Well, perhaps you can tell us how we can help you.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
What are you talking about.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Mister Butterfield. You're a badly frightened man.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
Why black my business?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
And you don't deny it?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
Look if you don't have any more questions to ask me?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Do you?
Speaker 5 (23:05):
Do you have any questions to ask us?
Speaker 6 (23:07):
What questions would I have?
Speaker 5 (23:09):
One very important question might be why are we here?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Listen?
Speaker 6 (23:14):
I'm in enough problem? Now?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
What kind of trouble?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (23:18):
If I told you, you might try to pin the
murder on me?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Oh hardly, mister Butterfield. You're too short, too fat, too old?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Are you a karate expert, mister Butterfield karate?
Speaker 6 (23:31):
I can hardly play croquet.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
It would be better if you told us, mister Butterfield,
better for you.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Oh all right now, Look, Look I've been married thirty years,
very happy, wonderful woman every way. Well, I ran into
a very beautiful young lady. She she was also very intelligent.
I really wanted to keep it patanic, you know what
(23:58):
I mean? But well, we're all people in the world here,
of course. I well, I was sorry I started, and
my conscience spotted me. So I well, the young lady
and myself we barded, and I thought I'd never do
anything like that again. Well, shortly after I became acquainted
(24:22):
with another young lady, and I tried to stop it
by going to a psychiatrist to find out why I
needed that sort of thing. You understand, doctor Rabbit. They
would have sessions. I spoke all my thoughts into a
tape recorder so he could analyze them. Well, I I
(24:46):
held nothing back. I described everything in detail. I'm sure
you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
And then last week a package came for me in
the maid. It was a tape because that there was
a letter that said unless I paid ten thousand dollars,
a copy of that tape would be sent to my wife.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
Was there any way to a dentisty?
Speaker 6 (25:13):
Oh no, no, it was just type written on a
plain piece of paper. No signature, no address, no nothing.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Do you do you have a copy of the letter.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
No, no, I burned it up.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Mister Butterfield, there's been a murder. Anyone who withholds evidence
becomes an accessory.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Now, I think hard, did you really burn that letter?
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Diet Well, I was going to burn it just as
you people rang the bell.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Oh here, I have it right here.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
In my pocket.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
All it says is they're going to be in touch
with me and tell me how they want me to
pay the money.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
We have another copy of the same tape. We mean business.
In a few days we will contact to with further
details of how to pay the ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Nice clean typing, and you know where it was.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
Typed, don't you?
Speaker 4 (26:11):
No?
Speaker 5 (26:11):
In doctor Abbot's.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Office, But what are you talking about?
Speaker 5 (26:14):
It should be playing? His assistant, Beatrice Bowyers decides she
can blackmail some of his patients, Roy Butterfield is particularly vulnerable.
She sends them the tape and a note, but Butterfield
makes a fuss about it. Abbot confronts her that morning
and fires her. She has a confederate. He poses as
a psychopathic killer to create the impression that this is
(26:37):
a crime of random violence.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
You see, that's the big difference between a psychiatrist and
a detective. You doctors can get rich on theories, but
we can't get the first base without evidence.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Oh there's evidence, Just the evidence we need where it's
always been, where we sort with our own eyes in
Abbot's office.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Some evidence is strong, said the philosopher, as when you
find a trout in the milk. Doctor Emilia Zelner says
she has the evidence. But what may be evidence to
a psychiatrist may very well be way over the heads of.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
The rest of us.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
However, Act three, as you know, is where it's all
added up, and that curtain shall rise in just a
few moments. There is the evidence of things not seen,
(27:39):
a testimony of things not heard. These form the professional
diet of both the detective and the psychiatrists. Things reveal themselves,
things speak to them in a manner not readily perceived,
but the rest of us. But is what they see
and what they hear always true?
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Or what kind of evidence are you talking about, doctor Zeltner?
Speaker 5 (28:04):
The evidence of this note. Look, it's typed.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
All we have to do is find the typewriter.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Now do you know how much of a job that
can be.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
But we know where it is. It's in doctor Abbott's office.
Because Beatrice Boyers typed it.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
That's only a hypothesis.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
She typed it on her office machine.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Okay, now let's go along with your theory.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
For the sake of argument, Beatrice Bowyers and a pal
are going to use doctor Abbot's files for blackmail purposes.
Now would she be so crazy as to use the
office typewriter to type the blackmail note?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Yes, I don't believe it.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
No one would be that stupid.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
She's a stupid woman. Sooner or later she has to
be caught.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Well, there's only one way to find out.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Oh, Doctor's served her and Lieutenant Katz.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
May we come in, miss Boyers?
Speaker 5 (28:55):
Certainly? Now, is there anything I can do for you?
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Wouldn't be too much trouble for you to give us
a list of the appointments doctor Abbot had on the
day he was murdered.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
Oh, that'll be no trouble at all. I have his
book here and I can just type the names for you.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well, that's very kind of you, I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
Well, it won't take me a minute.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Here's the list of Boyers typed on the office machine,
and here's the blackmail note Roy Butterfield received.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
So I find this hard to believe. Impossible.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Man, I'm not an expert, but I don't think there's
any point to call on one in It's obviously a
different typeface.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
But it has to be miss Bowyers. It has to be.
I still say she's guilty.
Speaker 7 (29:49):
H saying isn't enough.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
There has to be evidence that a district attorney can
present to a jury.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Now do you have that?
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Listen to the tape again. It is so patently a
device to make us think a homicidal maniac is at large.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
All right, doctor Zelfer, Let's consider the tape. It gives
us a sound recording of a crime. I bring it
to you, a psychiatrist, in order to get some psychological
insight into the perpetrator.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I've tried to sure.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
You listen to it.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
You form a whole theory which holds that the guy
isn't a psycho, but knew what he was doing and
why he was doing.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
I have pointed out inconsistencies in the man's talk, theoretical inconsistencies,
stuff that made sense to you.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Now I should tell you that other psychiatrists who analyzed
the tape did not come up with the same conclusions
you did.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
I'm telling you how I see it good.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
There has to be an anchor something to hold it
all in place. I have Beatrice Boyers under accomplish planned
as murdered, the anchor would have to be the typewriter.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
Well, you yourself set.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
That up, and I assume she'd be stupid enough to
use the one in the other very well, the fact
that she's smarter than I gave her credit for doesn't
change to the veracity of I.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Want to thank you for your time and your effort
and your sincere interest.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
But goodbye.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Well we've come to a dead end. But if anything
else occurs to.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
You, you still insist on a random killing. But the
fact is you have a psychiatrist whose files are being
used for blackmail. And if Beatrice Boyers isn't using them,
who is the blackmail and the murder might be connected?
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Then again they might not.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
There's only one explanation. Albert confronted her that morning. He
accused Beatrice Bowyers. He fired her, she had him killed.
Why A he would see to it that she could
never work again in this field. B. He would take
away from her the source of blackmail. She'd no longer
(31:56):
have access to the files. She didn't need the office
to go to lunch. She never went out to lunch.
She left the office because she was fired.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
But we can't prove that if she.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Isn't doing the black male?
Speaker 6 (32:09):
Who is who?
Speaker 1 (32:11):
All right?
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Hey, any thief could have broken in be doctor Abbot himself.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Dr Abbott, that's ridiculous. I can't believe that.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
You mean, you don't want to believe that a psychiatrist
could be involved in a secret black male scheme against
his own patients.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
It is impossible theoretically.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
You actually believe that, Lieutenant.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
Cats No, because before I believe anything, I need evidence.
I'm just doing what you're doing, theorizing, Well, see you're around.
Speaker 7 (32:50):
Oh Ben, what are you doing here?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Then I had to see you.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
I don't want to see you when I'm at rehearsal.
How many times.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
I let's leave tom Now?
Speaker 6 (33:00):
We haven't collected any money, my darling. Money We require money.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
Please then listen. You don't know how close we came
to getting caught.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
What are you saying?
Speaker 6 (33:09):
How could we possibly come close?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
This is the perfect crime.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
Then forget it. We don't know how to do such
a thing. We've been doing one stupid thing after another.
First the tape, How can you say the tape?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Listen?
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Then I did something even more stupid. You know the note,
I said, Roy Butterfield. I typed it on the office machine.
How could you for the same reason you didn't destroy
the tape. Now, the police had doctors out to their wives.
They came by and made an excuse to get me
to type something on the machine, and did you how
could I refuse? But you see, we're lucky. The day before, yesterday,
(33:44):
the typewriter people took the machine away for repairs and
left the substitute one for me to.
Speaker 6 (33:48):
Use for that and they didn't discover it.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
I know, but we can't keep hoping for miracles. Oh,
it was such a good idea, blackmails some of the
most vulnerable people.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Rich enough to afford it, But we just don't know
how to do it.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
We lost control. They suspect us.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Oooh the police.
Speaker 5 (34:07):
Maybe not the police so much. But this psychiatrist, this
lady doctor, doctor Zeltner. She scares me.
Speaker 6 (34:13):
Should the random killers strike again, then no hard whatever
you say, darling, I'm ready, willing and able at all
times to protect our interests.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Doctor Zeltner. Oh, yes, Harry, I'm fine. No, I haven't
seen it. I have heard of it either. What is
this a traveling theatrical company in town? A play with
very valid psychiatric insights? Huh? The central character talks about
(34:54):
an awakening. He wakes up one morning and finds he
someone else a murder. Oh well, I'll certainly have to
see it.
Speaker 6 (35:12):
I awoke this morning and I'm somebody else? Who am I?
I know my name? But what is your name? A
label used to describe you on the outside, But it's
the inside that's you now.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
I have but one desire to kill.
Speaker 6 (35:34):
Kill like a shark knifing through water, kill like a
tiger prowling the jungle. To get these sickness burns within me,
a raging fever. To what have I awakened this morning?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
What has possessed me?
Speaker 6 (35:54):
Am I possessed? Or have I awakened?
Speaker 5 (36:07):
Doctor Zeltner? Oh, hello, miss Boyer. It's a small world.
Enjoying the play?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Oh yes, are you leaving?
Speaker 5 (36:15):
Doctor? Yes? I have an appointment. Pity I can't stay
for the second act. Goodbye, miss Boyer, Yes, goodbye. Every
word you said in the plate tonight is on that tape.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
I know it is.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
That's why I said, erase it. She's on my way
home to call the police.
Speaker 6 (36:35):
How do you know?
Speaker 5 (36:36):
Because I saw her get into a cab and I
heard her tell the driver of the address I'll get there.
Speaker 6 (36:40):
Go now, I have a second act.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
You'll play your last act in the courtroom. If you
don't get to her first, Lieutenant Cats, please, well, I
haven't called me at once. This is doctor Zeltner.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Thank you, Hello, Doctor Zeltner.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
Oh it's you.
Speaker 6 (37:01):
Do you have a tape recorded too, Doctor?
Speaker 5 (37:05):
You're the very fine actor I saw to night?
Speaker 6 (37:08):
Then, bestly I don't bother to play that recorded doctor.
This time, I'll erase the tape.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Why you know?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Why?
Speaker 6 (37:18):
You know why I'm here. I didn't fool you when
I killed doctor Abbot. I'm not fooling you now.
Speaker 5 (37:26):
How did you get into this fantasy?
Speaker 6 (37:30):
What fantasy?
Speaker 5 (37:32):
The fantasy that you killed some one?
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Or I killed Abbot?
Speaker 6 (37:37):
I had met Beatrice, we talked about ways of raising money.
I'm producing, directing and starring in The Awakening.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
Yes, yes, I saw it to night, beautiful play.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
You saw it? You know the truth?
Speaker 5 (37:52):
What truth are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (37:55):
Stupidly, I talked like that to doctor Abbott before I
killed him.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
Are you serious? How could you have killed doctor Abbot?
Speaker 6 (38:04):
Listen, don't try anything.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
And did you kill doctor Abbot a few minutes.
Speaker 6 (38:08):
Ago or the day before yesterday?
Speaker 5 (38:12):
I went to his office, doctor Abbot. His wife and
I were at the theater tonight, but we saw your play.
Oh no, no, Now, listen, you've come to the right place.
You bear a tremendous burden. You're a genius. You have
to fight the critics, the public. It's a wearing battle.
(38:37):
You are not a killer. You're a genius, a genius,
and the world is finally ready for you. I saw
the play, the audience, how they sat in silence. It
was a moving experience, a religious experience. It was theater.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
What are you say?
Speaker 5 (39:01):
You sit quietly, calmly, don't lose your mind. Now, Relax,
you have victory within your grasp. Relax, don't fall prey
to delusions. You didn't murder anyone. You couldn't murder anyone.
You're an actor. You live your fantasies on the stage
(39:24):
in the theater. Think of your lines, your lines. Rest, Relax, sleep, sleep.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Doctor's helping you wake him up.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I was afraid he came here to kill you.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
He did. I thought you'd never show up.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
You were write about the typewriter that it bothered me.
So I asked Roy Butterfield to show me a copy
of his last bill from doctor Rabbit's office.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
The type face matched. She was smart. She did not
use the same machine.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
How did he find you?
Speaker 5 (40:00):
I went to the theater word for word the lines
from his player on the tape.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
We got them both thanks to you.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
I'm glad you arrived when you did. I don't know
how long I can keep him underus.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
He's a cold What are you so nervous about?
Speaker 3 (40:18):
He did a great job hypnotizing him.
Speaker 5 (40:21):
Yes, but you see, it was the first time I
ever tried it.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And with that she promptly fainted.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Oh well, we talk about an actor's vanity, but why
is it different from anyone else's? Poor Ben, he was
distracted from doing what had to be done by some
very fulsome praise. But let's face it, who among us
really hates applause?
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
I'll be back for more in just a few moments.
And The Awakening, a play starring Ben Bentley.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Is what the poster proclaimed.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
But The Awakening can also be a real life drama
that can star any one of us.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
How do you know who you will be when you
wake up tomorrow morning? You really don't.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
That's why going to bed at night can be so suspenseful.
But before you do go to bed, make sure you
will have tuned us in. Our cast included Kim Hunter,
Leon Jenny, Brina Raeburn and Earl Hammond.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
The entire productions under the.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Direction of Hymon Brown.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
To return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure in
the macabre. Until next time, Pleasant Dreams
Speaker 5 (42:31):
FLA
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