Episode Transcript
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(00:28):
Welcome to the Great Detectives of OldTime Radio from Boise Idahol. This is
your host, Adam Graham. Ifyou have a common email at to me
Box thirteen at Great Detectors dot andin, follow us on Twitter at Radio
Detectors, and become one of ourfriends on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash
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(00:53):
I run four half marathons in thecourse of October and November over the course
of four weeks. Full details areavailable at Heavensgate dot Great Detectives dot net.
That's Heavensgate dot Great Detectives dot net. Well, now it's time for
today's episode of the Lineup. Theoriginal air date April the fifteenth of nineteen
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fifty two and the title is Nancy'sNauseating Naivetecase. By transcription, we take
you now behind the scenes of apolice head quarters in a great American city.
We're under the cold, glaring lights. We fast before us, the
innocent, the vagrant, the thief, the murderer. This is the lineup,
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all right back to questions. Mightytired little I can't seem to get
enough sleep lately. Tackle the spelledlike that iliant bed can't get to sleep
kicking pot and smoke a doose thecigarettes. How many in the line?
Twenty three? Your witnesses down thefirst bo Yeah, oh, thanks to
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see you later. Yeah it's Branford. Hello, lieutenant and waiting long.
I just got here him minutes ago. I got the man, I mean,
just need an identification. That's whatthe officer said. That oppicite over
there, Oh, Sergeant Quine,Yeah, yeah, I have attend you'll
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peple on the other side of thewire and the only in the little man.
I have your attention place. Thankyou. My name is Carter,
Sergeant Peak Cart. I'll explain theline up to you eat. The subspects
you see will be numbered. Icall out the number, their name and
charge. Do you have any questionsor identifications? Please remember the number sign
of the prisoner as I call hisname. If you're sure and not too
(03:12):
sure of the suspects having the healthquestions I asked these suspects are remember to
get a natural tonal voice. Thosedo not take too much attention to their
answers, as they often lie.Okay, but on the line, okay,
keep it moving out of the hereat the end of the stage,
turn and face front, hands toyour side. I want I call out
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your number, step out and talkup the big room out there, and
I want everybody to be able tohear you. Okay, Number one,
Steve, walk up robbery statustrate Steve. Okay, when do you lift Steve
far sixty fours up Lake Street?That I also ho'll tell her? What
house? Will you live with?My brother? Will you work? Steve?
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I eat? Then a long?How long? I don't know,
over a year? I guess it. At least over a year. I
ain't been. How do you paythe rent? I don't you, brother,
padd he's working someone, he's gota pat he owned a car.
No, were you in a carwhen you were picked up? Yeah?
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Whose car wasn't? Who? Friends? Who's a friend? Oh yeah,
who's a friend that owned the car? Or I guess I can't remember.
If you get your friends free eating? I guess so? Any weapons?
Yeah? What thirty eight? Well? What kind automatic revolver? Or thirty
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eight Revolverston Weston? I don't onearrested with you? No? I was
alone? Step back, stepped backback in the line. Oh okay,
okay. Number two so will youlift Jack two ninety nine Sadam, Yeah,
well you live with my wife atall? Yeah? Doesn't your mother
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in law that with you? Notanymore? She's in the hotster. I
a hit her with d She's hurtpretty bad. We're really just meant to
scare think she got the nagging againand the current thing she didn't even tack.
She has a free back concussion.Yeah, I figured we're even How
do you think it? Twenty yearsof nagging and giving me a nameless stomach
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holt than summing it, nearly breakingup my home a certain time, okay,
turning some of my best friends againstme, making me lose a job,
nearly dragging me into an institution.I figured where we sat back?
Okay, I'm a Craig Harry mlunch k robbery that looks like a man
right way, Sotel? Where isthat? Eric irking? Six? Wa?
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Do you work? Way? Doyou worry? I don't know.
I haven't had a job in awhile. Anyway. The man who tried
to hold me in car all onmy three for interrogation. You can save
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us all a lot of time.Who was the guy driving the car?
What? Why don't you make iteasy. I was alone, you walked
into the Brenner's grocery store and tryingto stick it up. Okay, there
was a guy waiting in a blackMercury today. I walked and I wasn't.
No black Mercurys. Sit down.The clerk identified you in the line
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had men. I walked into thestore and tried to stick up. The
clerk says he saw you get outof the black Mercury. He's crazy.
When the officers showed up, youn for the car and the guy driving
pulled away before you could get toit. I would just run it.
I didn't run an old car.Even the officers says you did. Look,
maybe there was a car, maybeit was a black Mercury, but
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I wasn't running for it. Whyhold out the guy driving ran out on
you. Why try and protect it. Look, I tell you I was
alone walking. I wasn't. Threeother robberies this week have identified that black
sedan. I'm telling you I wasdriver. I don't know. They had
a lot of time to find out, all right, then find out.
I don't know you were in thatcar when it drove up. I was
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walking where you walk from. Youwalk from someplace to that store? Yeah,
where I was on Lincoln? Allwe're doing on Lincoln walking? Just
walking? Yeah, planning to stickup? Yeah? Where were you before
you started walking on Lincoln? Athome? You live in one hundred and
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six in Madison. Yeah, andwe're on Lincoln. Where you're walking where?
What? I don't know. Iwould just walking close to the store,
I guess, and that would makeit about the eleven hundred Bluck.
Yeah, I guess you walked allaway from one hundred and sixth of Madison
to the eleven hundred Bluck and Lincoln. Well, not all away? What'd
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you do? Take a street car? Yeah? I took a street car?
What guy? What car? That'sright, the Lincoln car one hundred
and six in Madison. No,I walked to Lincoln. Why did you
pick the Brenner's grocery store? Icased it. It's a good setup.
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Come on, mon, I'm tellingyou you took the Lincoln street car.
Yeah, you're walk from one hundredand six and Madison. That's right.
What time with then? What timedid you catch the Lincoln street car?
I don't know. An horrible holderstickup. I don't know. I don't
remember exactly how long would you sayit took you to get to eleven hundred
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Lincoln? Look, what difference didit make? Why would you just like
it? No, going to keepfinding out things until you tell us who
was the lead black monkey? Wesaidan with him? What time you take
it off? Even Lincoln Lensky?God? Right? Yeah? Where nine
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one four eastern? Right? Don'ttake it? Well? What's the matter?
A guy driving that black Mercury sedanjust held up a gas station on
East Orange shot the attendant. Sowhat do you want me to do about
it? Thomas is driving that car? I don't know. He attendants pretty
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fanned. Well, I can't helpit. I didn't blow him up.
I didn't stick up the station.You know who did? No? Okay,
Malinsky, let's go all right then, Small. They just hauled him
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away in pretty bad shape. Anywitnesses the other attendant, he was across
the street having dinner. He's inthe station. Did you get the license
number? You know a lot ofpeople heard the shots, but nobody got
the license number. Bill, Yeah, this is Bill Phillipps. Then Bill,
the lieutenant, Guthrie and Jargeant CarterHi, Hi, tell us about
it. Everything you told me hunger, It really isn't much. I was
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across the street in the diner rightover there, the Big Sea Barbecue.
Well, I finished and started forthe station. I heard the shots and
opt over and saw some guy jumpinto a buck Mark, sit down,
and drive away. I didn't getit at the first. Where was your
partner? Harv was stumbling out thedoor. That's when I got it through
my thick skullet. Something that happenedthat I ran across harbor was unconscious.
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This guy who jumped into the blackMark? What do you look like?
I don't know what happened so fast. I wasn't sure anything was wrong at
first. No fast things can happen. Yeah, he was tall, I
guess. Oh, I don't know. Once he used to trying to describe
him when I can't. I'd liketo be able to, but really I
can't. Nobody else had happen,as she's trying to find somebody, but
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I don't think he's going to havemuch luck. Wasn't anybody else in the
station, and this isn't a particularlycrowded section. What direction did the mark
go? Bill? That way west? Okay, come on, Pete,
let's go back. And talk tomlen Ski. Who was the Mlenski?
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I don't know. I don't know. How can I tell you when I
don't know. Look, I toldyou I wasn't with nobody, I was
alone. I walked the Lincoln.I caught a street cloud on Lincoln from
one hundred and six street. Yeahyeah, yeah, mind get off with
a lighter sentence if we knew whodrove you to that storm. Look,
I told you I took the streetcard from Madison. Yeah, Madison runs
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parallel with Lincoln. I mean fromone hundred and six. We picked that
guy up and he said you werewith him in that car. We're man
you for withholding evidence here, youkid, how long did you walk on
Lincoln? How long? How longdid you walk on Lincoln before you tried
to stick up the grocery? Idon't know, maybe a half hour,
I don't know. I don't remember. You just walk Yeah, yeah,
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I walked, I walked, Iwalked. I told you which way?
I don't know. I was gettingready to pull the stick up. How
do I know which way? Andyou took the street yeah yeah, yeah,
drink yeah, oh okay? Welland Ski, Yeah, that guy
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you're a friend in the black mukshike culture. I don't know nobody in
the black mark the guy he shotin the gas station just dying? Let
it tell us? Okay, howis he? His name is Walker?
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That Walker? Walkers in number ten, managering four. That must be on
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the next FI. Yeah, goup and cover the home, all right?
Are you the manager? Police?Okay? What do you want?
I'm a tenant, gree Okay,what do you want? Your name?
If you don't mind? You havea tenant here? Which one? And
Walker? Number ten? What's hedone? You just like to talk to
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him? Number ten? I don'tmake a lot of noise, mister Simpson
and nine works night. Well,i'd like the key, please, I
can't do that. I have awarrant. Why don't you just go up
and talk to him? If heain't done nothing serious, I'd just like
you to cooperate. Look, mister, the last time you cop with you
your wholesome guy out and there wasa lot of trouble my tenants. We're
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trying not to make any trouble.Well, if Walker ain't done nothing serious,
missus hersh do you want us tobreak down the door? You cannot?
Can't you? Missus harrish, Whois it. Oh, you're looking
to him at the walker carr Yes, And we'd like to go upstairs and
see if walkers in this room.Okay, and we'd like to key Okay,
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I say, trying to keep thiscli possible. We don't try.
She could be trouble and doesn't likecops. It seems the last time the
laws here at tenants complaining I shouldstick up the garage distens for number ten.
Thanks, I suggest to stay inyour room. You don't have to
suggest nothing, Sharnie, you betterstay down here and cover the front door.
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Right. I went down and listenedto ten. Couldn't hear anything.
Let's go in and take a look. Some guys snowing up a storm at
nine and mister Simpson works night andget away on the other side. Oh,
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I don't think he's doing it.Let's find out Claire and get that
room. Oh, Catchen, itdoesn't even look like he spent the night.
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I don't want to see what wecan find. Let's see it's starting
here. If we don't find anything, let me go check with that blonde.
Molenski told us about Nancy Shelton yewWalk. We're seeing her as much
as Lensky said, she might knowwhere we can find him. Hey,
all right, he's noticed guy innumber nine quit snorn, probably rolled over
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on the stomach. Why're small?Well he should be various. I've been
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a girl in the room. There'sa girl in the room, all right,
but it doesn't Walker's girl to roommate. Where's none? See Shelton.
This clerk that you went out aboutan hour before I got here, doesn't
own a contakes taxi. I wantsthe roommates man, Bernice Eddington. I
saw her when she came down toget a paper. Pretty good. You
haven't talked to him, I said, good morning, you'd have to do
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that. Quite a nature open Walkerswasn't there? They got a call him
here of Walker's shows. And I'lllet you know. I wants the room
one or four second. Wanted tohear the hall now, o King Bernice
Eddington? Yes, Miss Eddington.Now we're the police police. I'm gonna
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tell a cath Ring. This isside with Corgan. I would like to
talk you please. Why. Iwas just getting ready to go off meeting
Nancy Sheldon. Nancy, I knowshe went out early this morning. Do
you might away come in all right. What's the matter? Nancy in trouble?
Where don't you go so early thismorning? I don't know. I
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was asleep. I woke up justas she was leaving. What's wrong?
What did she do? You know? Stan Walker? Dan Walker? Yes?
Do you know him? I knewit. Dan got himself in trouble.
I knew it. How did youknow him? It's no good.
I never did like him. Itold Nancy she shouldn't know to go running
around with him because he's no good. Good Nancy have gone out to meet
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him this morning? I don't know. I guess she could. Oh,
look, NaN's a nice kid.If Dan did something, she didn't have
nothing to do with it. Howlong has she known Walker? I guess
about six or seven months. Ididn't like him. Money first came here,
you know, Harry Molensky, HarryMtsky if you can stand? Yeah,
sure, dark, kind of meanlooking. That's right. I met
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him. He's been up here acouple of times. Nan tried to fix
me up with a date, butI didn't want to. I didn't want
to go out with no friends tostand. I just never liked Stand from
the beginning, and I didn't wantto go out with nobody with a friend
of her. Nancy didn't say whereshe was going. No, honest,
what's day. I'm done. He'sdid a lot of trouble. I know
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what I knew. What Look,Tella's NaN's really a great girl. I've
lived with her, so maybe thatturned now. Look are you better answer?
Yeah? Yeah? What's up?Small blonde girl that drove up the
Walker's department in the Black Mark?She went up to Walker's department and it
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keen to got some of his clothes. Quiet, Nash, you're killing her?
Oh gosh. I told her tostay away from him. I told
her we're both in the coffee shop. Was pretty crowded there. Now lasts
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in the room ship back the suitcasemet him in here. He's got on
dark glass. Uh no idea.What train he's taking? Huh? I
hate to take him in the middleof all this con Oh, we can
do it fast, four of us. I don't think he's trying to use
this gun. You and I shouldstayed behind us, and when we do
it, step in him and getthe girl right. Oh. Hold,
so they are any of the trainsthere's ashe might be just as well take
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him up from the train, awayfrom all this corn. All right,
don't stick together on the train.Yell your tickets please west training, no
one. If she's going with himas he got a suitcase and I'm come
on part that will be ram baig, thank you, Nick, excuse me
about it soon? Wait a minute, you're aptodies. Oh, let's go
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have the aden hold it? Arethey getting on club? It just got
on that next car. We'll geton in YouTube covering one of us.
Gotta go on the other side ofthe train. Okay, go ahead.
How do you want to do it? I was a coach. I'm still
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gonna be tough. There are manypeople in there. You take the girl
right there, he is spotting us. Let the gold. Let me go
hurt. He's running up that way. He's out of the yard. Sure
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are you buying a line of cars? All right? Take that invite walker
stop now you stay. He climbed. I'll go over and put in a
car. Yeah, here's the girl. I bring him along. What happened
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if they stamp then? Now look, I just got his clothes. I
didn't know he was in trouble,didn't you. No, he just told
me to pick up his camp Engineerat the station. Why didn't he pick
him up? I don't know.Huh. He said he was in a
hurry and he couldn't. How didyou get his car? He gave it
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to me, but he couldn't gethis own clothes. Okay, So I
knew he was in some kind Come. I didn't know this series. I
didn't have nothing to do with this. Miss. One of the things that
makes our job tough. People likeyou. Take please go chanl you that's
(23:15):
through? Please? Yeah? Ohyes, true? Is everything all right?
Yeah? Hell? Miss? Anddid walk up by us? Take
it under his right name? Mmhmm Williams. And there's a reservation that's
not going to be yours coach forour freen and the name Williams. This
(23:56):
is Andrew from MOUTI or Westerns dotcom. I want to invite you to
come take a look at our site. We stream live OTR Westerns twenty fours
a day, seven days a week, along with putting out podcasts of old
time radio Westerns. Check us outat OTR Westerns dot com. You're listening
to the great detectives of Old TimeRadio with Adam Graham. Now let's get
(24:17):
back into the show. Well,some of this sounded a little bit familiar.
But whether I've played this case beforeor whether I just listened for quite
a bit longer on the when Iwas listening to the new episodes, I
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don't quant now. I will saythat I did find that whole interrogation scenes
with the walking or taking the trolley, there be really a well done example
of that sort of scene. Ofcourse, it's with the lineup. It
can be hard to tell, sincethe line I did tend to reuse some
(25:02):
of its scripts, which does seguea little bit into a question. We
were saved by email from Chief B, who says I was recently listening to
an old time radio episode and thetitle death by Adoptions sounded familiar. The
broadcast I was listening to was anepisode of Mister District Attorney. I believe.
As I listened, I became certainthat this was the same plotline that
(25:26):
had been used on an episode ofTales of the Texas Rangers. The character
names and the locations had been changed, but the script was ninety three percent
identical. Was this a common practice, I would say yes it was.
It's important when we think about radioprograms from the nineteen forties and fifties.
(25:51):
To consider that for most people,radio programs were on and were done in
a single play. There was noone who kept track of continuity. There
weren't people who listened to the sameepisodes over and over again, and people,
I think also had a much morelimited time for entertainment, and this
(26:11):
created opportunities for writers. Most radioprograms, particularly the dramatic programs, were
so often all year affairs. Well, the great comedy names like Bob Hope,
Fred Allen, and Abaton Costello couldtake a summer off, it was
(26:32):
a lot harder for dramatic actors.In fact, what actually impelled Jack Webb
to write and create Dragnet was thathe needed something to do during the summer.
When ABC announced that they were goingto put Pat Novack for Higher on
hold, so many dramatic programs keptgoing all year long, which meant they
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needed fifty two scripts, and evenif you took off a little time for
the summer, you'd still need thirtynine to forty four scripts, which is
a lot of scripts. Most modernTV shows in the United States between twenty
two and twenty six episodes, andsome are shorter. Monk was, for
(27:18):
example, a sixteen episode per seasonaffair, and it's even shorter seasons when
you get into programs for the BBC. So this required an incredible number scripts.
And there were many writers who mightwrite a script, say for a
Mister District Attorney, and turn aroundand rewrite it when they found out that
(27:41):
there was an opportunity to do somethingon Tales and the Texas Rangers. And
of course it should be said thatthere were also a lot of very standard
plots that people thought were pretty clever. One example of this is the Sandhong
plot, which involves our year Ogoing to investigate strange goings on at a
(28:03):
dig where sandhogs are at work.And of course when you were going down
and it was important that you hadtime to get properly pressurized. If things
weren't done precisely so you could getthe bins and pass out or even die.
And there are a number of programsthat use a similar plot, not
(28:26):
necessarily all with the same writers,but the same inspiration hit multiple people,
and that was often. But youalso you do have the people who just
rewrote scripts. E. Jack Newmandid that quite a bit. He took
scripts for Jeff Reagan and just changeda few details and voila, we have
(28:49):
a post for a script for RockyJordan over in a Cairo, Egypt.
And of course you have script reuse where a program won't just won't rerun
an old program necessarily that didn't tendto happen until you get into the nineteen
fifties, but they would reperform theentire script, which would be another way
(29:15):
to save costs as well as thewriter's creative energy. So yeah, script
are use very common for a lotof reasons. But thanks so much for
the question. Definitely appreciate it.All right, join us back here tomorrow
for Richard Diamond and next Tuesday anotherepisode of the Lineup in the Meantimes.
(29:37):
In your comments to Box thirteen atGreat Detectives dot net, follow us on
Twitter at Radio Detectives, and becomeone of our friends on Facebook, Facebook,
dot com. Slash Radio Detectives fromBoise, Idaho. This is your
host, Adam Grahamson and off