February 19, 2025 • 24 mins
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This episode was first broadcasted through the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS).
This episode was first broadcasted through the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
H h good evening, breeze, and that you'll not reread
my house present, you'll not frightened as the hope.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Good evening, friends of the inner Sanctums, this is your
house to welcome you through the squeaking door. Mmm, just kid,
that would be frightened. Why we've been feeding our brains
out to make things pleasant for you. Yeah, take that
(00:47):
fella lying on Now, that's a nice guy, really subsided.
He put a bullet through his head because he didn't
want you to be bored.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Mhm mhm.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Or you don't like that pretty lady hanging from a chandlier,
we'll fix that. We'll cut it down and nail her
to the wall. Then she'll be a clean up girl.
(01:21):
And our friend do whatever it is that you do
and tear fastens cold fingers on your spine, a cigarette perhaps,
or a handkerchief between, anything to brace.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
You against Tonight's tale horror.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
In the original radio play written especially for Any Sanctum
by Michael Slaw and call Death is a Double Cross.
Our start Tonight is larst and Serve who plays the
part of Harry Smith Murdon.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I looked at the blood spattered mallet, still gripped in
and donald Marie's body. It was like coming out of
a bad dream, only to go into a nightmare. Instead
of using a mallet to cut the king Midas diamond,
I'd used it to murder my wife. And the big
diamond was still in the vice, still sparkling in the
(02:21):
light of the work lamps, still tormenting me with the globe.
It's inner fires. The thing was evil, Anderson had warned me, says.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
The Diamonds, the.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Story of Great Diamonds fires.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Word. Henderson was right.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
My luck had been all bad ever.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Since I came to his house, through all those.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Old New York brownstones, big enough for several families, but
only two people were living there when I came. Anderson
and my wife, Marie was working at his housekeeping.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
She gave me the lab.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
He's about seventy years old, Harry. He lives all alone here.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
It's perfect for you.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
No family, no wife, no children, no friends. He never
goes out except on business, and no one ever comes
to see him.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Sounds good to me, Marie, good, It's perfect.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
I'll tell him you just got out of the army.
He won't ask questions. You never find out.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
You were in prison.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
What does he do for a living.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
He's a diamond cutter.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
A diamond cutter.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You don't saying he.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Was famous one.
Speaker 8 (03:39):
He doesn't cut little ones, Harry.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Only the great, big diamonds, worth thousands of dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I moved in with Marie and for a while everything
was quiet. I didn't mind the quiet after that five
year of forgery, wrapping, sing sing. Then one day that
he and quiet ended. I met Old Anderson on the
steps going down the street. Good morning, Harry, Hello, mister Anderson.
Now you look all excited. Some good news coming away?
(04:11):
I hope, sir Harry. First I can read afford to
be either, but would be pleasant to work again. And
it's nice to know that people still remember.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is it a job, wonderful job?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
If I get the assignment.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
Well, I'm sure I get it. He couldn't get it anyone.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
In uh A diamond, one of the largest diamonds in
the world, The King Midas stone, discovered last year in
the Kimberley Fields, was purchased recently by Johnson, the multi millionaire.
I'm on my way to his home to discuss the cutting. Wow,
good luck.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I sure hope you get the job.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Mister Anderson. The next afternoon, Anderson invited me up to
his work room. On the bench was a square black
velvet covered by a white cloth. Something big was underneath
that clog. Anderson lifted it.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
But for the.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
First time I saw the king modest diamond. What did
you think of it? Hang h for a second.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I couldn't talk. The blood was pumping too fast. Two
hundred and fifteen carrots. When I finished the cutting, it
would be reduced to a hundred and twenty five How
much full would be work diamond like that? You could
get a hundred thousand dollars and no questions asked.
Speaker 7 (05:37):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It's kind of oily on the surface with.
Speaker 7 (05:42):
Down inside. It clams like it's on fire as it
brightened it.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, stone like that does things to me. The story
of grape diamonds is a history of intrigue, violence, murder.
You're you said something about cutting it, and I have
to study the king mitis until every detail of the
task is clear in my mind, and just a few
(06:09):
light blows of the medet on the chisen and the
result would be a flawless diamond. How long will it
take it? Oh? I should say about two months?
Speaker 8 (06:21):
Had he.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I went downstairs to Marie. One look at me, and
she knew something had happened. I told her I planned.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
If they catch you, they'll send you back to jail.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
They won't catch me. I've got it all figured out.
This is our chance. He told me himself of the
diamond will be worth a hundred grand when he's finished.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
Uh, hundred grands.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, no more pots and pans and scrubbing floors, no
more passing phony checks.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
We'll be set for life.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
Marie, How are you gonna go about it?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Wait until he finished cutting the diamonds.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
How would you know when he finished?
Speaker 5 (06:58):
You'd have to know the exact time. If you wait
too long, you might turn it over to the owner.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Mister Johnson.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
Then where would you be.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Don't worry.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I've got that figured out too. So you'll want to
become a diamond cut a hand if you'll teach me
to work, mister Anderson, I promise I won't be any farther.
All I want to do is watch you while you
go about cutting the king Mice diamond cut his hand
(07:27):
made overnight. It takes a great deal of time. I
spent fifty years lending the craft. Oh, please, miss Anderson.
You don't know what this means to me. Eh, all right, Terry,
I'll let you watch me as I work. So that's
how it began. Every day for two months I went
(07:48):
upstairs and wat Standerson as he studied the king Whit's
diamond cleavage mistake the face along Thane's parallel to the
octahedron faces of the crystal.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Step by step, he explained.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
The job, how he would split.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
It, where he would place the notches so that.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
The diamond would split along the exact linds he wanted.
He went over every detail again, on again, on again.
Finally he cut the notches for the splitting, slowly, carefully,
and then he placed the diamond on the ice.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
He got out the chisel and.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The mallet and placed them on the workbench. It was
like a wedding ceremony.
Speaker 7 (08:30):
I was on fire.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
I couldn't wait.
Speaker 7 (08:32):
There's a few tips with the minute and it's done.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
How are you gonna do it now?
Speaker 7 (08:38):
No?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. He kept putting it off.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Then I realized what it was.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
He was scared, he couldn't trust his unsteady hands. It
hit me like a ton of brick. He was never
going to cut that diamond.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
You're so smart.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
What are you going to do now?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I'm going to cut the diamond myself.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
You yeah, me, I don't know how to do.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
It's all set said nothing to it.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
But what about Anderson?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
We don't need Anderson anymore?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
You mean, yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That's murder. So it's murder. I never been an honus.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I've figured out a way to do it.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
Without leaving any trace behind.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
We went upstairs. Anderson was standing where I left him
at the workbench.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear
us come in.
Speaker 8 (09:44):
Ye fucking get it over with alright, do me?
Speaker 7 (09:55):
I I don't like.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
To do this, Anderson, honest stop, it's no use.
Speaker 8 (10:09):
He was back, but it was useless.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I had a firm, grimolation neck.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Both hands, and he was an old man, tighter, tighter
till his voice was cut off. His body stopped freshening around,
held him like that a couple of seconds more for
(10:36):
good measure.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
You can black Darlin.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
Now he's dead, Harry, Dear.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Dear, dear.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Imagine that cold blooded murder, killing a harmless old man
like mister Anderson, choking him to death, doesn't that slave
at all because of a piece of ice. Why it
makes me hot under the collar. And that cool cucumber,
Harry Smith, I'll bet he gets so hot that he'll
(11:24):
burn before he threw. Well, friend, let's get back to
Harry Smith and his charming wife.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Such nice people.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
They killed old Anderson, the diamond cutter, to steal a
piece of ice worth a hundred thousand dollars, and unless
they have a lot of another kind of ice handy,
they'll have to do something fair to get rid of
a body.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
We carried Anderson's body down to the cellar and broke
open the brick wall, placing the old man's body behind it.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We bricked it up again.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Then we went through my plan. I wrote a suicide note.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
To whom it may concern I, all of Anderson. Because
I failed in the task of cutting the king Midas diamond,
have decided to take my life. When this note is found,
I will be dead.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
It was easy for.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Me, a professional forger, to.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Take the suicide note in Anderson's handwriting. I had him
say he was going to end it all in the river,
and that he was taking the diamond with him to
his death. And that night Marie and I took a
walk across the footpath over the hudsbond of a bridge.
We reached the middle.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
We got the suicide note in Anderson's overcoat pocket.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
Yeah, no cars.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
Coming from the direction.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
That's a good time to drop him.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
The cops will find a coat and figure that he
took it off before he climbed the rail and jump.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
All right, come on, hurry, let's get away from here.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
We went home. Marie telephoned police headquarters and asked for
the missing persons.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
You are hello, I want to report a missing person
the man I worked for, Olaf Anderson.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yes, Anderson.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I'm his housekeeper and I'm worried because it's so late
and he hasn't come home. My name, missus, Harry Smith.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
We went to bed. I guess we would hear from
the police the next morning, and I was right.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Yes, what is it?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Meghan is the name? Lady? Take with Joe Meghan, missing
person's girl?
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (13:56):
Yes, come in?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Are party reported a man named Dola Anderson missing? Yes?
Can you find him? I think so. I'll mat you folks.
Come down to the morgue with me.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
What for? They've got a body down there, probably an
old man. That fits the description of Anderson's fished out
of the Hudson River. Earty this morning, might be able
to identify where are folks before? I left the sheet
on this slab of atto. Warn you it's stiff, ain't
(14:32):
exactly pretty.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
We can stand a little shock, Megan, and I.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Just thought the lady, I'm all right, okay, then oh
you recognize him?
Speaker 5 (14:46):
His face gone like like he went through a meat shop.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Most of his clothes were gone too, and we got him.
Who guy must have got caught in the propeller of
a passing ship.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Hoy, there's mister Anderson.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Harry.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Don't you recognize the past there from that old suit
he always used to wear.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Oh, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
You're right, so you can identify man.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I'm sure that's mister Anderson.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, I guess that closes the case. Suicide body recovered
and a great big hunk of diamond at the bottom
of the Hudson River.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
It was a lucky break for us. We were in
the clear and the king Midas diamond was ours. We
went back to the house. I took the diamond up
to the work room and I placed it in the vice.
I got out the millet in the chisel. I thought
it would be easy to cut the stone until I tried.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Well, what are you waiting for?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I had? It's shaky. I'm kind of nervous. Things have
been coming too fast.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Let's put this off until tomorrow.
Speaker 7 (16:06):
I know.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I said i'd do it tonight, but what I don't
feel so well tonight? Marie?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
You're lying?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
How long are you going to keep this up?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I take it eat.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
You said you knew how to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I do well, then cut it.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
By Heaven's sakes, get it over with it.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
If I make a mistake, it'll cost us one hundred
thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
You've been putting it off for three days now, Harry,
first this and then that.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
There's always something.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
You've always got a reason for not cutting that diamond.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Listen, Marie, I've got to be careful. Knowing how to
cut the diamond is one thing. Doing it as another.
Speaker 8 (16:40):
You're scared, that's what, Tonta.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
You're frightened.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Look at your hands. See how they shake.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Well, you can hardly hold the Malleton ship.
Speaker 8 (16:47):
But you're as bad as Anderson was.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
She was right. My hands were shaky. It's just like
Anderson's before I killed him. I tried for control. I
told myself a diamond was nothing but a chunk of
cobin crystal. I placed the chisel against the stone and
raised the mallet, but.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I couldn't bring it.
Speaker 8 (17:06):
Doll, No, what are you waiting for?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I don't know how hard to strike a gentle blow.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
That's what you said.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Anderson told you.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
You can't do it, of course you can. Don't be
a stupid pool and nothing to it.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
She went wild. She began to shake my arm and
scream at me, but her voice seemed to come from
a distant I kept staring at that diamonds. Though I
were hypnotized. My thought was dry as desk.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I was dizzy.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Pin points and fire shot across my eyes. The diamond
was doing things to me, and it was driving Marie crazy.
Suddenly I couldn't stand at her voice snapped something my mind.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You you fool, you stupid idiot.
Speaker 8 (17:46):
Don't stand there.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
All I can take from you nerve you, Harry, but
I know it.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Stay away from me. I didn't say nothing.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I did take a much time as you like.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
M I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I lost my head. May say something. He's dead. I
killed her I took her body down to the cellar,
reopened the wall and placed her body with this. I
(18:34):
hardly finished putting the brits back into place when the
front doorbell rang.
Speaker 7 (18:38):
I cleaned my hands, went upstairs and oldened it.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Oh Smith, it was meeting the detective. He came in
and looked around suspiciously and closed the door behind him.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Smiter with to Smith, me, yeah, you looks.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I never felt better in my life. It's the light.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
Shell.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Wipe it home. No she isn't he take her home soon?
Find off. Now she went to Baltimore to the mother,
but kind of suddenly didn't she What are you driving
at making take the chip off your shoulder? Nobody's picking
on you yet. What do you mean miss Anderson's suicide.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
He's handicase is closed.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It's closed until this morning. Now there's a couple of
angles in the case. It don't make sense. I'm not
even sure that the old guy we pulled out of
the river is in but I identified him. Sure you did.
Yesterday a guy named Keela showed up at the Morgan
swore that same body with his father. It must be
Anderson's suicide. Those notes and Anderson was killing himself because
he made a mistake and ruined the King Midas diamond.
(19:49):
Don't you see and Anderson never got the job of
cutting that diamond?
Speaker 7 (19:53):
He what.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Say that again?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Anderson never was commissioned to cut the King Midas diamond.
How do you like that?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
It can't be, he told me himself.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I got that information straight from the owner, mister Johnson.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I don't believe it.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Johnson was out of town until this morning. I got
in touch with him, making a routine check on the facts.
He told me another commission Anderson to cut the stone.
S Anderson was too old and unreliable to be pressed
it with the job.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
But I saw the diamond, saw it on Anderson's work bench.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
A diamond juice must have been a phony.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
A diamond still upstairs in the workroom, still waiting.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
To be cutting.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
I couldn't believe it was a phony.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Eye I wouldn't believe it. It had to be.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
The King Miters. Meighan was getting more and more suspicious.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
I had to act fast before he got down to
the cellar and noticed the fish plaster on the wall.
I had to make sure about the diamond.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I'd gone too far out of back. I hit meiggan
on the head with an an dying.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
He was unconscious.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I dragged his body into the closet and locked the
door upstairs in the.
Speaker 7 (21:06):
Work room, grabbed up the chisel, mellet.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
No time to think, now, no time to be frightened.
I had to know if that diamond was the King Mitis.
I put the edge of the chisel to one of
the cleaving grooves, struck with the mouth.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
The chips like glass.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Eh, it is glass.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Nat him was right?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
H I went through all it for nothing. The whole
thing was clear now Anderson had lied to me. He
had lied even to himself.
Speaker 7 (21:46):
Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 9 (21:47):
He had been unwilling to admit even to himself. But
he was no longer good enough to be trusted to
cut the King Mitis diamond. He was nuts, and he
made up that crazy story and Ice swamm it.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
So it was one thing left to do.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I had to get away far away as possible, as
fast as.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
I cudding ran up the stairs.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I ain't somewhere smith, make it Ice t hand, get
on a pile. I'll come on down here. That's closing up.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
How'd you get out of the closet.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I'd tick it all of course that door and I
recovered from the crack on the hedge.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
You gave me.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It, suck did something for me, Smith, you know, it
gave me a brand new angle on this case.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
A new angle. Yeah, how's it?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You thought Anderson had the King Mitters diamond, so you
kill him for it and planted that pony suicide note
on the bridge. You know we almost oh boy, you'll
kill Anderson. Wouldn't get all surprised if you murdered your
wife and all for a pony five and ten cents.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
To the.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Poor Harry Smith, who a life for Smith caught between
the hammer and the anvil. You know he never should
have lost his head and murdered his wife, because now
it dox is thought, he's going to have to lose
the rest of him. Yes, right now Harry is really Harry,
(23:50):
and when the state executioner gets.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Him, he'll be fit to be tied in a noose.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well, thank you, Muster host for an enjoyable performance and honest.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
To be sick.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
This is Hoddle Galloway saying good night
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Three times
H h good evening, breeze, and that you'll not reread
my house present, you'll not frightened as the hope.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Good evening, friends of the inner Sanctums, this is your
house to welcome you through the squeaking door. Mmm, just kid,
that would be frightened. Why we've been feeding our brains
out to make things pleasant for you. Yeah, take that
(00:47):
fella lying on Now, that's a nice guy, really subsided.
He put a bullet through his head because he didn't
want you to be bored.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Mhm mhm.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Or you don't like that pretty lady hanging from a chandlier,
we'll fix that. We'll cut it down and nail her
to the wall. Then she'll be a clean up girl.
(01:21):
And our friend do whatever it is that you do
and tear fastens cold fingers on your spine, a cigarette perhaps,
or a handkerchief between, anything to brace.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
You against Tonight's tale horror.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
In the original radio play written especially for Any Sanctum
by Michael Slaw and call Death is a Double Cross.
Our start Tonight is larst and Serve who plays the
part of Harry Smith Murdon.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I looked at the blood spattered mallet, still gripped in
and donald Marie's body. It was like coming out of
a bad dream, only to go into a nightmare. Instead
of using a mallet to cut the king Midas diamond,
I'd used it to murder my wife. And the big
diamond was still in the vice, still sparkling in the
(02:21):
light of the work lamps, still tormenting me with the globe.
It's inner fires. The thing was evil, Anderson had warned me, says.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
The Diamonds, the.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Story of Great Diamonds fires.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Word. Henderson was right.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
My luck had been all bad ever.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Since I came to his house, through all those.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Old New York brownstones, big enough for several families, but
only two people were living there when I came. Anderson
and my wife, Marie was working at his housekeeping.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
She gave me the lab.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
He's about seventy years old, Harry. He lives all alone here.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
It's perfect for you.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
No family, no wife, no children, no friends. He never
goes out except on business, and no one ever comes
to see him.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Sounds good to me, Marie, good, It's perfect.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
I'll tell him you just got out of the army.
He won't ask questions. You never find out.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
You were in prison.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
What does he do for a living.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
He's a diamond cutter.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
A diamond cutter.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You don't saying he.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Was famous one.
Speaker 8 (03:39):
He doesn't cut little ones, Harry.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Only the great, big diamonds, worth thousands of dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I moved in with Marie and for a while everything
was quiet. I didn't mind the quiet after that five
year of forgery, wrapping, sing sing. Then one day that
he and quiet ended. I met Old Anderson on the
steps going down the street. Good morning, Harry, Hello, mister Anderson.
Now you look all excited. Some good news coming away?
(04:11):
I hope, sir Harry. First I can read afford to
be either, but would be pleasant to work again. And
it's nice to know that people still remember.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is it a job, wonderful job?
Speaker 4 (04:24):
If I get the assignment.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
Well, I'm sure I get it. He couldn't get it anyone.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
In uh A diamond, one of the largest diamonds in
the world, The King Midas stone, discovered last year in
the Kimberley Fields, was purchased recently by Johnson, the multi millionaire.
I'm on my way to his home to discuss the cutting. Wow,
good luck.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I sure hope you get the job.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Mister Anderson. The next afternoon, Anderson invited me up to
his work room. On the bench was a square black
velvet covered by a white cloth. Something big was underneath
that clog. Anderson lifted it.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
But for the.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
First time I saw the king modest diamond. What did
you think of it? Hang h for a second.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I couldn't talk. The blood was pumping too fast. Two
hundred and fifteen carrots. When I finished the cutting, it
would be reduced to a hundred and twenty five How
much full would be work diamond like that? You could
get a hundred thousand dollars and no questions asked.
Speaker 7 (05:37):
That's funny.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
It's kind of oily on the surface with.
Speaker 7 (05:42):
Down inside. It clams like it's on fire as it
brightened it.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, stone like that does things to me. The story
of grape diamonds is a history of intrigue, violence, murder.
You're you said something about cutting it, and I have
to study the king mitis until every detail of the
task is clear in my mind, and just a few
(06:09):
light blows of the medet on the chisen and the
result would be a flawless diamond. How long will it
take it? Oh? I should say about two months?
Speaker 8 (06:21):
Had he.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I went downstairs to Marie. One look at me, and
she knew something had happened. I told her I planned.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
If they catch you, they'll send you back to jail.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
They won't catch me. I've got it all figured out.
This is our chance. He told me himself of the
diamond will be worth a hundred grand when he's finished.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
Uh, hundred grands.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, no more pots and pans and scrubbing floors, no
more passing phony checks.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
We'll be set for life.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
Marie, How are you gonna go about it?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Wait until he finished cutting the diamonds.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
How would you know when he finished?
Speaker 5 (06:58):
You'd have to know the exact time. If you wait
too long, you might turn it over to the owner.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Mister Johnson.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
Then where would you be.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Don't worry.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I've got that figured out too. So you'll want to
become a diamond cut a hand if you'll teach me
to work, mister Anderson, I promise I won't be any farther.
All I want to do is watch you while you
go about cutting the king Mice diamond cut his hand
(07:27):
made overnight. It takes a great deal of time. I
spent fifty years lending the craft. Oh, please, miss Anderson.
You don't know what this means to me. Eh, all right, Terry,
I'll let you watch me as I work. So that's
how it began. Every day for two months I went
(07:48):
upstairs and wat Standerson as he studied the king Whit's
diamond cleavage mistake the face along Thane's parallel to the
octahedron faces of the crystal.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Step by step, he explained.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
The job, how he would split.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
It, where he would place the notches so that.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
The diamond would split along the exact linds he wanted.
He went over every detail again, on again, on again.
Finally he cut the notches for the splitting, slowly, carefully,
and then he placed the diamond on the ice.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
He got out the chisel and.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
The mallet and placed them on the workbench. It was
like a wedding ceremony.
Speaker 7 (08:30):
I was on fire.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
I couldn't wait.
Speaker 7 (08:32):
There's a few tips with the minute and it's done.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
How are you gonna do it now?
Speaker 7 (08:38):
No?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. He kept putting it off.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Then I realized what it was.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
He was scared, he couldn't trust his unsteady hands. It
hit me like a ton of brick. He was never
going to cut that diamond.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
You're so smart.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
What are you going to do now?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I'm going to cut the diamond myself.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
You yeah, me, I don't know how to do.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
It's all set said nothing to it.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
But what about Anderson?
Speaker 3 (09:11):
We don't need Anderson anymore?
Speaker 4 (09:14):
You mean, yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That's murder. So it's murder. I never been an honus.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I've figured out a way to do it.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
Without leaving any trace behind.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
We went upstairs. Anderson was standing where I left him
at the workbench.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear
us come in.
Speaker 8 (09:44):
Ye fucking get it over with alright, do me?
Speaker 7 (09:55):
I I don't like.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
To do this, Anderson, honest stop, it's no use.
Speaker 8 (10:09):
He was back, but it was useless.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I had a firm, grimolation neck.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Both hands, and he was an old man, tighter, tighter
till his voice was cut off. His body stopped freshening around,
held him like that a couple of seconds more for
(10:36):
good measure.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
You can black Darlin.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
Now he's dead, Harry, Dear.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Dear, dear.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Imagine that cold blooded murder, killing a harmless old man
like mister Anderson, choking him to death, doesn't that slave
at all because of a piece of ice. Why it
makes me hot under the collar. And that cool cucumber,
Harry Smith, I'll bet he gets so hot that he'll
(11:24):
burn before he threw. Well, friend, let's get back to
Harry Smith and his charming wife.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Such nice people.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
They killed old Anderson, the diamond cutter, to steal a
piece of ice worth a hundred thousand dollars, and unless
they have a lot of another kind of ice handy,
they'll have to do something fair to get rid of
a body.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
We carried Anderson's body down to the cellar and broke
open the brick wall, placing the old man's body behind it.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We bricked it up again.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Then we went through my plan. I wrote a suicide note.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
To whom it may concern I, all of Anderson. Because
I failed in the task of cutting the king Midas diamond,
have decided to take my life. When this note is found,
I will be dead.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
It was easy for.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Me, a professional forger, to.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Take the suicide note in Anderson's handwriting. I had him
say he was going to end it all in the river,
and that he was taking the diamond with him to
his death. And that night Marie and I took a
walk across the footpath over the hudsbond of a bridge.
We reached the middle.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
We got the suicide note in Anderson's overcoat pocket.
Speaker 6 (12:57):
Yeah, no cars.
Speaker 5 (12:59):
Coming from the direction.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
That's a good time to drop him.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
The cops will find a coat and figure that he
took it off before he climbed the rail and jump.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
All right, come on, hurry, let's get away from here.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
We went home. Marie telephoned police headquarters and asked for
the missing persons.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
You are hello, I want to report a missing person
the man I worked for, Olaf Anderson.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yes, Anderson.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I'm his housekeeper and I'm worried because it's so late
and he hasn't come home. My name, missus, Harry Smith.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
We went to bed. I guess we would hear from
the police the next morning, and I was right.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Yes, what is it?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Meghan is the name? Lady? Take with Joe Meghan, missing
person's girl?
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (13:56):
Yes, come in?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Are party reported a man named Dola Anderson missing? Yes?
Can you find him? I think so. I'll mat you folks.
Come down to the morgue with me.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
What for? They've got a body down there, probably an
old man. That fits the description of Anderson's fished out
of the Hudson River. Earty this morning, might be able
to identify where are folks before? I left the sheet
on this slab of atto. Warn you it's stiff, ain't
(14:32):
exactly pretty.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
We can stand a little shock, Megan, and I.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Just thought the lady, I'm all right, okay, then oh
you recognize him?
Speaker 5 (14:46):
His face gone like like he went through a meat shop.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Most of his clothes were gone too, and we got him.
Who guy must have got caught in the propeller of
a passing ship.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Hoy, there's mister Anderson.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Harry.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Don't you recognize the past there from that old suit
he always used to wear.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
Oh, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
You're right, so you can identify man.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I'm sure that's mister Anderson.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, I guess that closes the case. Suicide body recovered
and a great big hunk of diamond at the bottom
of the Hudson River.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
It was a lucky break for us. We were in
the clear and the king Midas diamond was ours. We
went back to the house. I took the diamond up
to the work room and I placed it in the vice.
I got out the millet in the chisel. I thought
it would be easy to cut the stone until I tried.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Well, what are you waiting for?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I had? It's shaky. I'm kind of nervous. Things have
been coming too fast.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Let's put this off until tomorrow.
Speaker 7 (16:06):
I know.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
I said i'd do it tonight, but what I don't
feel so well tonight? Marie?
Speaker 5 (16:11):
You're lying?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
How long are you going to keep this up?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I take it eat.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
You said you knew how to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I do well, then cut it.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
By Heaven's sakes, get it over with it.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
If I make a mistake, it'll cost us one hundred
thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (16:28):
You've been putting it off for three days now, Harry,
first this and then that.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
There's always something.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
You've always got a reason for not cutting that diamond.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
Listen, Marie, I've got to be careful. Knowing how to
cut the diamond is one thing. Doing it as another.
Speaker 8 (16:40):
You're scared, that's what, Tonta.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
You're frightened.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Look at your hands. See how they shake.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Well, you can hardly hold the Malleton ship.
Speaker 8 (16:47):
But you're as bad as Anderson was.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
She was right. My hands were shaky. It's just like
Anderson's before I killed him. I tried for control. I
told myself a diamond was nothing but a chunk of
cobin crystal. I placed the chisel against the stone and
raised the mallet, but.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I couldn't bring it.
Speaker 8 (17:06):
Doll, No, what are you waiting for?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I don't know how hard to strike a gentle blow.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
That's what you said.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Anderson told you.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I can't do it.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
You can't do it, of course you can. Don't be
a stupid pool and nothing to it.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
She went wild. She began to shake my arm and
scream at me, but her voice seemed to come from
a distant I kept staring at that diamonds. Though I
were hypnotized. My thought was dry as desk.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
I was dizzy.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Pin points and fire shot across my eyes. The diamond
was doing things to me, and it was driving Marie crazy.
Suddenly I couldn't stand at her voice snapped something my mind.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You you fool, you stupid idiot.
Speaker 8 (17:46):
Don't stand there.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
All I can take from you nerve you, Harry, but
I know it.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Stay away from me. I didn't say nothing.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I did take a much time as you like.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
M I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I lost my head. May say something. He's dead. I
killed her I took her body down to the cellar,
reopened the wall and placed her body with this. I
(18:34):
hardly finished putting the brits back into place when the
front doorbell rang.
Speaker 7 (18:38):
I cleaned my hands, went upstairs and oldened it.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Oh Smith, it was meeting the detective. He came in
and looked around suspiciously and closed the door behind him.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Smiter with to Smith, me, yeah, you looks.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I never felt better in my life. It's the light.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
Shell.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Wipe it home. No she isn't he take her home soon?
Find off. Now she went to Baltimore to the mother,
but kind of suddenly didn't she What are you driving
at making take the chip off your shoulder? Nobody's picking
on you yet. What do you mean miss Anderson's suicide.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
He's handicase is closed.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It's closed until this morning. Now there's a couple of
angles in the case. It don't make sense. I'm not
even sure that the old guy we pulled out of
the river is in but I identified him. Sure you did.
Yesterday a guy named Keela showed up at the Morgan
swore that same body with his father. It must be
Anderson's suicide. Those notes and Anderson was killing himself because
he made a mistake and ruined the King Midas diamond.
(19:49):
Don't you see and Anderson never got the job of
cutting that diamond?
Speaker 7 (19:53):
He what.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Say that again?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Anderson never was commissioned to cut the King Midas diamond.
How do you like that?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
It can't be, he told me himself.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
I got that information straight from the owner, mister Johnson.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I don't believe it.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Johnson was out of town until this morning. I got
in touch with him, making a routine check on the facts.
He told me another commission Anderson to cut the stone.
S Anderson was too old and unreliable to be pressed
it with the job.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
But I saw the diamond, saw it on Anderson's work bench.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
A diamond juice must have been a phony.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
A diamond still upstairs in the workroom, still waiting.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
To be cutting.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
I couldn't believe it was a phony.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Eye I wouldn't believe it. It had to be.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
The King Miters. Meighan was getting more and more suspicious.
Speaker 7 (20:44):
I had to act fast before he got down to
the cellar and noticed the fish plaster on the wall.
I had to make sure about the diamond.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
I'd gone too far out of back. I hit meiggan
on the head with an an dying.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
He was unconscious.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I dragged his body into the closet and locked the
door upstairs in the.
Speaker 7 (21:06):
Work room, grabbed up the chisel, mellet.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
No time to think, now, no time to be frightened.
I had to know if that diamond was the King Mitis.
I put the edge of the chisel to one of
the cleaving grooves, struck with the mouth.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
The chips like glass.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Eh, it is glass.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Nat him was right?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
H I went through all it for nothing. The whole
thing was clear now Anderson had lied to me. He
had lied even to himself.
Speaker 7 (21:46):
Yeah, that was it.
Speaker 9 (21:47):
He had been unwilling to admit even to himself. But
he was no longer good enough to be trusted to
cut the King Mitis diamond. He was nuts, and he
made up that crazy story and Ice swamm it.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
So it was one thing left to do.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I had to get away far away as possible, as
fast as.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
I cudding ran up the stairs.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I ain't somewhere smith, make it Ice t hand, get
on a pile. I'll come on down here. That's closing up.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
How'd you get out of the closet.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
I'd tick it all of course that door and I
recovered from the crack on the hedge.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
You gave me.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It, suck did something for me, Smith, you know, it
gave me a brand new angle on this case.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
A new angle. Yeah, how's it?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
You thought Anderson had the King Mitters diamond, so you
kill him for it and planted that pony suicide note
on the bridge. You know we almost oh boy, you'll
kill Anderson. Wouldn't get all surprised if you murdered your
wife and all for a pony five and ten cents.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
To the.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Poor Harry Smith, who a life for Smith caught between
the hammer and the anvil. You know he never should
have lost his head and murdered his wife, because now
it dox is thought, he's going to have to lose
the rest of him. Yes, right now Harry is really Harry,
(23:50):
and when the state executioner gets.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Him, he'll be fit to be tied in a noose.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well, thank you, Muster host for an enjoyable performance and honest.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
To be sick.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
This is Hoddle Galloway saying good night
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Three times
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