December 18, 2025 • 24 mins
Suspense was one of the most popular and successful radio series during it's run of over 900 episodes, spanning 1940-1962. Guest stars included Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Marlene Dietrich and Humphrey Bogart. The plots were mostly engaging crime dramas, science fiction and some horror - usually with a surprise ending.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! 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 | Amazon | iHeart
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! 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 | Amazon | iHeart
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
And now tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Suspense.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Tonight, the story of a handicapped man and the woman
who holds the key to his freedom. We call it
Give Me Liberty. So now, starring mister Tony Barrett, here
is tonight suspense play Give Me Liberty.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I ambezzled a quarter of a million dollars. I want
you to know that needed brains, planning, patience.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I devoted three years.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Of my life to the trick, and I got away
with him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Of course,
they caught me very easily, but they couldn't find the money.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I wouldn't tell them where it was.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I got seven years for it. My right wrist was
handcuffed the left wrist of a detective, and they put
me aboard a train bound for the penitentiary. I could
see that the detective had had instructions to soften me up.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
It was much much too kind.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
You're comfortable, mister French. You want a magazine, any anything.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I'd like to be able to lift my hand without
raising yours into the air. Can't you got me without
being quite so attached to me?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
My Sure, I guess we can work that out. Tell
you what you sit next to the window, I'll kind
of boxy in and that way you can wear the
cuffs all by yourself and nobody loses.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, thank you, Let me get my keys.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
There.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Funny thing most guys say the biggest dribbles When you
read a paper, five inches of chain don't give you
much room to turn a page.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm not worrying the last seven years for reading.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Seven years and a quarter of them say how smart
does a guy have to be to get his hooks
on so much lettuce?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
But you like some of it? Are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, all right, let's make a deal. You drop the
key to these things on the floor, and then.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You go have yourself a nice lunch.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Oh sure, And when do I see mister French again?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
When I made you to pay off, I.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Wouldn't be taking kind of a chance, there, would I?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
To tell the truth, you wouldn't be taking a chance
at all. I'll come, Oh, why should I escape be
on the run the rest of my life? No? Now,
this has to go according to plan. Planning, that's what
gives a man his future.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
But you got a long stretch ahead. How do you
know that whoever is holding my stuff?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It was a stupid conversation, and I was only making words.
I looked out of the fields and brooks and houses
rushing past. I wouldn't see these things for seven years,
not counting time off for good behavior. But then I'd
be free again, and i'd have my quarter million, not
a bad salary, huh oh. I'd use my brains for
(03:25):
myself this time.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Some guys will do anything for doughn I'll take you
seven years.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Our car lay on its side, and flames and most
pass and just who could move got through the broken windows?
Speaker 5 (03:48):
French.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
It was the detective, his legs pinned by the wreckage.
Speaker 6 (03:54):
Can I toe my hands like this?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Where do you.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Carry the keys?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
The key?
Speaker 5 (03:57):
You can pull me up by an arm? Bitch, you
crap me. I can't get out of me.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
We'll both die here if I can't use my hand?
Where's that can?
Speaker 7 (04:05):
I can't find a fence and eating my pockets.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
You're alive, some fire, Get me out of here, please.
The only weapon was a suitcase.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
I kicked him in the face.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I smashed the suitcase down on his head.
Speaker 7 (04:17):
And he didn't have the key.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I have to eat his pockets down to the last
crumble tobacco while fire crib closer.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
He hadn't the key to the hand, and I woulded because.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
This wouldn't be an escape, this would be a disappearance. Chance,
what a chance?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I would have my liberty and I'd have my money.
Speaker 8 (04:39):
There anybody in that car?
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Is there anybody?
Speaker 7 (04:41):
I threw away his pistol.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I wouldn't need a gun.
Speaker 7 (04:48):
I use my head.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I squeezed my collarge ring on his finger. I switched wallets.
I was a conductor out there a crowd of passengers.
I got to the opposite side of the car. No one,
not a soul, and there wasn't a splinter of glass left.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
In the window.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I slid down the slide of the car. I cleared
the wheels, I struck the ground, running.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
A few moments, a few hundred steps, and I was
safe in the darkness.
Speaker 7 (05:20):
I was free.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
They'd think I was dead, and I had a quarter
of a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
You are listening to give me liberty. Tonight's presentation and
radio's outstanding theater of thrills suspense. Tomorrow Night CBS Radios
in Peace and War goes into a car stealing racket
(06:02):
that involves a youth from one of the community's most
respected families. Don't miss the facts about the neighborhood boy
on the FBI in Peace and War tomorrow night on
most of these same stations. And now we bring back
to our Hollywood soundstage, mister Tony Barrett starring in Tonight's
production of Give Me Liberty. A tail well calculated to
(06:24):
keep you in suspense.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
My first job after escaping was to break out of
those manacles. I sat in a wheat field, holding my
arms overhead so the blood would run from my hands
and wrists and leave them slim. Then I try to
pull them off.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It didn't work, and I couldn't snap the chain.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
I twisted, I pulled out, and I tried.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
To fling my hands apart, and it wouldn't break it.
I rubbed it against stones until my skin was torn, bleeding,
and it wouldn't break.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
By this time it was morning.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
It wasn't until then I knew I had to have home.
I pushed through the wheat on the corn beyond it.
I stumbled out of slope and I was burning, yet,
don't you A woman was standing near one of the
henhouses a pan of chicken.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Feet in her hand.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
What do you want?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
There's nothing I could say. She has seen the handcuffs.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Come on, what do you want?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I'm hungry?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Where are you from?
Speaker 8 (07:43):
How'd you get away?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh? We were going up to the prison. There was
an accident.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Well, what do you want from me?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Look, you'll lend me a file, and if you could
spare some food, I'll be glad to pay you.
Speaker 8 (07:58):
You don't have to pay me for anything. Wait here, Jack,
you watch him.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
She went into the house, and the dog got down
on its belly and put its nose between its paws,
and its eyes never left my face for a minute.
Then through the stillness, I heard the cranking of an
old fashioned wall telephone, and I knew what she was doing.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I couldn't get them off.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
I couldn't get the handcuffs off.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
I couldn't get anything to eat. I couldn't show myself.
Speaker 9 (08:38):
You know what it means to see food all about
you not be able to buy it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Don't tell me I could have eaten corn, fruit and roots.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I can tell you the nature of every dog in
that area, the feel of every barb wire fence, and
the sound of every rifle, and shot.
Speaker 6 (08:50):
Gun crept in old village.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
One night, I forced up the window of a hardware store.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I wanted a file, just a file, you know when
I carry in hardware stores these days, last wee a kitchen, gadgets, garden,
tooled seeds, ovens, rat poisons, dresses.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And I moved behind a counter.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
A hardware store has to have a file somewhere. My
foot struck a wire stretched across the floor.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
How tired have you been?
Speaker 7 (09:43):
Have you ever been so tired?
Speaker 5 (09:45):
I thought you'd die.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You wanted to die.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
On the evening of the fourth day of my liberty,
I crawled quietly to the garbage can back of a
roadside dyeing. I began, the poor bug, it's something I
go to easy. It was a step behind me.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I turned. It was a boy.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
We looked at each other for a long moment. He
was waiting for me to speak. I said, hello, Sonny. Oh, yeah,
you live in this neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
I'm traveling with handcuffs on.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Oh of these, yeah, well, friend put them on me
for a joke.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Say that gives me an idea, Sonny, Look, would you
do me a big favor?
Speaker 8 (10:32):
Depends on how big, I said.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's worth ten dollars. You get me a file or
chop more for than action or something like that. Huh,
I'll let you keep them there, they're fun.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
No, Well, then would you do something else for me?
Speaker 8 (10:47):
Depends?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Well, you know, I'm a little embarrassed about going in
on a lunch wagon like this.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Would you step in there and buy a few hamburgers
for me?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
How much?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Same? Ten dollars?
Speaker 8 (10:59):
Let's see the money.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I got it right here in my pocket, ready to
jump into your hand. A lot of things a boy
can buy with ten dollars.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
He we are, what do I know?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
What's good?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Don't you trust me?
Speaker 8 (11:15):
Drop it on the ground?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Drop it? Why?
Speaker 8 (11:19):
You drop it back away? Then I'll pick it up.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh, I say, that's very smart.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
All right?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
How's that foreignenough?
Speaker 6 (11:29):
I guess?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
He picked it up, began to walk around the diner.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
When he was out of reach, he started to run.
I got away and I couldn't tear them off.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I had two hundred and fifty thousand dollars buried away, and.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
It was worthless to me.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Do you know what can be bought with a ord
of a million?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
A man's soul?
Speaker 9 (12:02):
Can be bought for less, but I couldn't buy a
ten cent fire. I spent that night in a nest
of cast off railroad tire stacked at a side him.
When I opened my eyes in the morning, I had
company a very tough looking hobo and blue jeans and.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
A navy coat.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
She was counting my money, smoothing each bill with loving care.
Should grin when she saw it.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I was awake.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
Good morning, chum, you sleep like an honest man. It's
mad at chum, never speak till they bring your orange juice.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Look, I'm in trouble.
Speaker 8 (12:41):
I want you to help you to get the bracelets off.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes, yes, that chum.
Speaker 8 (12:46):
Wouldn't that be kind of silly? I might lose all
this harder and dull.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Look, there's more where that came from, a lot more.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
I'll make a richard.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one before.
Speaker 6 (13:01):
Listen, I've got a quarter of a million dollars.
Speaker 8 (13:03):
Yeah, I know, I get feelings.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Look, come back, will it's true to don't you read
the papers.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
I'm Earl French.
Speaker 8 (13:11):
I never heard of you.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Look, look, just.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Go into town buy one of the newspapers. Six days
ago I stole two.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 8 (13:19):
Mm hm, And you're wearing those things so they won't
pick your own pockets.
Speaker 7 (13:23):
Oh please, don't, don't try to be clever.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Don't you understand I died in the train wreck near Scottsville.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
You you're sure about that, chum? You died only a
few days ago.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
No, No, that they only think I did get those
newspapers and come back here with a file and some food.
Speaker 8 (13:42):
Chum, don't know to me around. Let's take it easy.
Maybe I'll be back.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I waited for all through the long blistering day, crouching within.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
The four walls of railroad ties. I knew she'd be back.
She couldn't resist it. I knew she'd be back.
Speaker 8 (14:03):
Chum, it seems you were a very important guy in
your time.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You saw the papers.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
Yeah, and I got news for you, mister French. You
are now burned to a crisp. That's the way they
found you in the train.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Recognize me by the ring on my finger?
Speaker 8 (14:20):
Yeah, yeah, you're dead, all right? You in two hundred
and fifty grand.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
All right, all right, we'll come to that. Lady. Look,
get to work with a file now.
Speaker 8 (14:28):
Look you're giving me orders again. I told you I
don't like that. Please give me the fire that's right
here in my jeans. That's where it's gonna stay until
you lead me to my share of that dough.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
You'll get it.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
You'll get it, chum.
Speaker 8 (14:41):
You listen. I can pick up five hundred fish by
turning in an escape prisoner, or you can dig up
that treasure chest and buy this file for half the dough.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
It's over one hundred miles away.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I can't ride a train or a bus with these
on my wrists.
Speaker 8 (14:55):
It's okay, chum, we'll walk. I've done it before.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
What will be seen?
Speaker 8 (15:02):
Not at night?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
How will I eat?
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Where't we sleep?
Speaker 8 (15:06):
You'll sleep in the woods and I'll bring your grub
to you me. I'll sleep in town where Ibie snug
and safe. You don't take this file from me, chum,
not till I see my half of the dough.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
And that's how it was that same evening we started
a walk. At first, it wasn't as bad as I
made it sound. It gave me time to think, and
I knew i'd think of something.
Speaker 8 (15:35):
Don't start thinking, I trust you, Chum. I don't a
lot of things can happen before we get there.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I'll do what's fair. We'll split.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
We don't, I'll split your skull. Don't kid yourself that
I won't. I've been waiting a long time for a
break like this.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
We walked for the hangufs digging so deep into my flesh,
and I began to believe they were part of me.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
She brought me food, but she wouldn't come close enough
to hand it to me. And every time I reached
for anything, it was torture. My hands and wrists. They
were a massive misery, as though I were a pet
animal on a leash. My friend always walked six paces
behind me.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Oh she was smart.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
I realized I had to get away from her, and
soon the morning I decided to do it, she found
me a shack to hold up in.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I could hardly wait for her to leave, going to town.
Speaker 8 (16:34):
Oh this place looks good. I'll meet you back here tonight.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
All right, I see you tonight.
Speaker 8 (16:42):
That's the way I like it, Chum, nice and agreeable?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Well why not? Why shouldn't I be. I'll see you
to night as usual.
Speaker 8 (16:51):
Sure is anything special you'd like me to bring you
to eat?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Nothing special?
Speaker 8 (16:58):
Uh? Chum, I think you better turn around.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Why?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Because when I awoke with a dull egg filling my head,
I found myself neatly trussed up.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
But I could move a little, but not enough to
get free. You talk about female intuition. She had guessed
that I was going to try to get away from it,
and she just beating me to it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I didn't give up, though, she would have to make
one mistake. Next night we'd stop for a rest.
Speaker 8 (17:36):
How can you be sure this stuff is still there?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Look it's safe.
Speaker 8 (17:39):
How do you know what kind of a place did
you hide it in?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
You'll see you? Now, get out that file.
Speaker 8 (17:44):
When I see the dough, little chum.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
Take them off with your How long you shut up?
Speaker 8 (17:51):
Wake up the neighbors? Now move no, I said, move no.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
That money is mine. You'll never see it unless I
want you to.
Speaker 9 (18:02):
We'll go to it the way I say.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
You're making me mad.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
You get out that file and take these off. Now,
go on, get it out.
Speaker 9 (18:12):
I can give what its too.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What do you think? You are an animal trainer?
Speaker 8 (18:17):
Now that's not a bad idea.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
But it happens.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I'm not an animal, and it also happens.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
What's that for? You can't frighten me? With a knife.
You use that on me and we both lose out.
You're gonna get up, No, this will hurt. I'll kill
you someday, I swear kill you.
Speaker 8 (18:44):
I had a husband like you, brave enough outside, but
once anybody put it on the.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Pressure, you talk too much. Go on, I'm calling you bluff.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
I'm sick of hearing you talk.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
All right, boy, away from me.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
We walked.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Oh, I hated, and she she was sure she'd beat
me down all together, because she didn't even bother how
to make lousy jokes.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
At me anymore. Oh, she was very quiet after that,
and a little careless.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
I stopped now and then she'd bump into me in
the darkness, but I just never had a chance to
get my hands on her. And then a couple of
mornings later, I said, here it is what.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
The money where I was standing over it?
Speaker 8 (19:52):
Are you trying to kid me? Were standing in the
middle of the highway. You didn't do any digging here, chum.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Looked, there's a covered running under the road here at
twenty four inch pipe.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Come on into the ditch. I'll show you.
Speaker 8 (20:03):
You didn't stick that dough in the pipe that had
washed away.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
It's not in the pipe, said, a deep crevice between
a pipe and a concrete allot some of those stars.
Speaker 8 (20:14):
You pull them out with these hands.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I can't touch anything without screaming.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
Pull them out. So help me.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
If this is a game, you believed me. She had to.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
She saw the truth in my eyes. The money was
there in my quarter of a million. She bent over
the tug at the stones. She turned her back to
me for the first time.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
That was a mistake. I was waiting for.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
I sprang for the night. The hand comes down. All
the pain.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Of pain where is?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
But I didn't care.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I just didn't care.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
She was.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I couldn't move my hands.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
My poor hands had to wait till the shock drain
all of.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Reach in her pockets.
Speaker 7 (21:11):
For the file.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
It isn't there.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
Must be in this one.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
No, no fire.
Speaker 8 (21:26):
She hasn't got a fire.
Speaker 7 (21:28):
You never had one, cheat, little cheet Come on, get you,
Come on, babies, two hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
You don't babies. Come on, let's get a hold on it.
Speaker 7 (21:47):
Need another few inches.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
I can't I get where these handcuffs on. I need one.
I'm free. You handcuffed down? Break the shade after him
the money.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
That's the way I found him cheap, sitting in the
ditch beside the dead girl.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
He hasn't stopped babbling since.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
All right, lock him up, I'll know the fare. The
city authorities tell him we got Earl French.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Are Suspense in which mister Tony Barrett starred in tonight's
(22:55):
presentation of Give Me Liberty. Next Week Events will bring
you a repeat performance of one of the most controversial
stories ever heard of your radio. It's called Zero Hour,
written by mister Ray Bradbury. Be sure to listen to
Zero Hour. That's next Week on Suspense. Suspense is produced
(23:35):
and directed by Anthony Ellis to Night's script was written
by Herb Meadows. Music was composed by Lucian Morwick and
conducted by Wilbur Hatch. Featured on the cast were Michael
Ann Barrett, lou Merrill, Helen Cleeve, Richard Beials, and Jack Carroll.
(23:58):
Ride a Real squad Car with My Watch Thursdays on
the CBS Radio All Network
And now tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Suspense.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Tonight, the story of a handicapped man and the woman
who holds the key to his freedom. We call it
Give Me Liberty. So now, starring mister Tony Barrett, here
is tonight suspense play Give Me Liberty.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I ambezzled a quarter of a million dollars. I want
you to know that needed brains, planning, patience.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I devoted three years.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Of my life to the trick, and I got away
with him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Of course,
they caught me very easily, but they couldn't find the money.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I wouldn't tell them where it was.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I got seven years for it. My right wrist was
handcuffed the left wrist of a detective, and they put
me aboard a train bound for the penitentiary. I could
see that the detective had had instructions to soften me up.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
It was much much too kind.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
You're comfortable, mister French. You want a magazine, any anything.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I'd like to be able to lift my hand without
raising yours into the air. Can't you got me without
being quite so attached to me?
Speaker 4 (01:38):
My Sure, I guess we can work that out. Tell
you what you sit next to the window, I'll kind
of boxy in and that way you can wear the
cuffs all by yourself and nobody loses.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, thank you, Let me get my keys.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
There.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Funny thing most guys say the biggest dribbles When you
read a paper, five inches of chain don't give you
much room to turn a page.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm not worrying the last seven years for reading.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Seven years and a quarter of them say how smart
does a guy have to be to get his hooks
on so much lettuce?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
But you like some of it? Are you kidding?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, all right, let's make a deal. You drop the
key to these things on the floor, and then.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You go have yourself a nice lunch.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Oh sure, And when do I see mister French again?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
When I made you to pay off, I.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Wouldn't be taking kind of a chance, there, would I?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
To tell the truth, you wouldn't be taking a chance
at all. I'll come, Oh, why should I escape be
on the run the rest of my life? No? Now,
this has to go according to plan. Planning, that's what
gives a man his future.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
But you got a long stretch ahead. How do you
know that whoever is holding my stuff?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
It was a stupid conversation, and I was only making words.
I looked out of the fields and brooks and houses
rushing past. I wouldn't see these things for seven years,
not counting time off for good behavior. But then I'd
be free again, and i'd have my quarter million, not
a bad salary, huh oh. I'd use my brains for
(03:25):
myself this time.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Some guys will do anything for doughn I'll take you
seven years.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Our car lay on its side, and flames and most
pass and just who could move got through the broken windows?
Speaker 5 (03:48):
French.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
It was the detective, his legs pinned by the wreckage.
Speaker 6 (03:54):
Can I toe my hands like this?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Where do you.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Carry the keys?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
The key?
Speaker 5 (03:57):
You can pull me up by an arm? Bitch, you
crap me. I can't get out of me.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
We'll both die here if I can't use my hand?
Where's that can?
Speaker 7 (04:05):
I can't find a fence and eating my pockets.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
You're alive, some fire, Get me out of here, please.
The only weapon was a suitcase.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
I kicked him in the face.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I smashed the suitcase down on his head.
Speaker 7 (04:17):
And he didn't have the key.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I have to eat his pockets down to the last
crumble tobacco while fire crib closer.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
He hadn't the key to the hand, and I woulded because.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
This wouldn't be an escape, this would be a disappearance. Chance,
what a chance?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
I would have my liberty and I'd have my money.
Speaker 8 (04:39):
There anybody in that car?
Speaker 5 (04:40):
Is there anybody?
Speaker 7 (04:41):
I threw away his pistol.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I wouldn't need a gun.
Speaker 7 (04:48):
I use my head.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I squeezed my collarge ring on his finger. I switched wallets.
I was a conductor out there a crowd of passengers.
I got to the opposite side of the car. No one,
not a soul, and there wasn't a splinter of glass left.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
In the window.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I slid down the slide of the car. I cleared
the wheels, I struck the ground, running.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
A few moments, a few hundred steps, and I was
safe in the darkness.
Speaker 7 (05:20):
I was free.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
They'd think I was dead, and I had a quarter
of a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
You are listening to give me liberty. Tonight's presentation and
radio's outstanding theater of thrills suspense. Tomorrow Night CBS Radios
in Peace and War goes into a car stealing racket
(06:02):
that involves a youth from one of the community's most
respected families. Don't miss the facts about the neighborhood boy
on the FBI in Peace and War tomorrow night on
most of these same stations. And now we bring back
to our Hollywood soundstage, mister Tony Barrett starring in Tonight's
production of Give Me Liberty. A tail well calculated to
(06:24):
keep you in suspense.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
My first job after escaping was to break out of
those manacles. I sat in a wheat field, holding my
arms overhead so the blood would run from my hands
and wrists and leave them slim. Then I try to
pull them off.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It didn't work, and I couldn't snap the chain.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
I twisted, I pulled out, and I tried.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
To fling my hands apart, and it wouldn't break it.
I rubbed it against stones until my skin was torn, bleeding,
and it wouldn't break.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
By this time it was morning.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
It wasn't until then I knew I had to have home.
I pushed through the wheat on the corn beyond it.
I stumbled out of slope and I was burning, yet,
don't you A woman was standing near one of the
henhouses a pan of chicken.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Feet in her hand.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
What do you want?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
There's nothing I could say. She has seen the handcuffs.
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Come on, what do you want?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I'm hungry?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Where are you from?
Speaker 8 (07:43):
How'd you get away?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh? We were going up to the prison. There was
an accident.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Well, what do you want from me?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Look, you'll lend me a file, and if you could
spare some food, I'll be glad to pay you.
Speaker 8 (07:58):
You don't have to pay me for anything. Wait here, Jack,
you watch him.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
She went into the house, and the dog got down
on its belly and put its nose between its paws,
and its eyes never left my face for a minute.
Then through the stillness, I heard the cranking of an
old fashioned wall telephone, and I knew what she was doing.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I couldn't get them off.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
I couldn't get the handcuffs off.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
I couldn't get anything to eat. I couldn't show myself.
Speaker 9 (08:38):
You know what it means to see food all about
you not be able to buy it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Don't tell me I could have eaten corn, fruit and roots.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I can tell you the nature of every dog in
that area, the feel of every barb wire fence, and
the sound of every rifle, and shot.
Speaker 6 (08:50):
Gun crept in old village.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
One night, I forced up the window of a hardware store.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I wanted a file, just a file, you know when
I carry in hardware stores these days, last wee a kitchen, gadgets, garden,
tooled seeds, ovens, rat poisons, dresses.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And I moved behind a counter.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
A hardware store has to have a file somewhere. My
foot struck a wire stretched across the floor.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
How tired have you been?
Speaker 7 (09:43):
Have you ever been so tired?
Speaker 5 (09:45):
I thought you'd die.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
You wanted to die.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
On the evening of the fourth day of my liberty,
I crawled quietly to the garbage can back of a
roadside dyeing. I began, the poor bug, it's something I
go to easy. It was a step behind me.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I turned. It was a boy.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
We looked at each other for a long moment. He
was waiting for me to speak. I said, hello, Sonny. Oh, yeah,
you live in this neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (10:21):
I'm traveling with handcuffs on.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Oh of these, yeah, well, friend put them on me
for a joke.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Say that gives me an idea, Sonny, Look, would you
do me a big favor?
Speaker 8 (10:32):
Depends on how big, I said.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's worth ten dollars. You get me a file or
chop more for than action or something like that. Huh,
I'll let you keep them there, they're fun.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
No, Well, then would you do something else for me?
Speaker 8 (10:47):
Depends?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Well, you know, I'm a little embarrassed about going in
on a lunch wagon like this.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Would you step in there and buy a few hamburgers
for me?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
How much?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Same? Ten dollars?
Speaker 8 (10:59):
Let's see the money.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I got it right here in my pocket, ready to
jump into your hand. A lot of things a boy
can buy with ten dollars.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
He we are, what do I know?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
What's good?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Don't you trust me?
Speaker 8 (11:15):
Drop it on the ground?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Drop it? Why?
Speaker 8 (11:19):
You drop it back away? Then I'll pick it up.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh, I say, that's very smart.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
All right?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
How's that foreignenough?
Speaker 6 (11:29):
I guess?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
He picked it up, began to walk around the diner.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
When he was out of reach, he started to run.
I got away and I couldn't tear them off.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I had two hundred and fifty thousand dollars buried away, and.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
It was worthless to me.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Do you know what can be bought with a ord
of a million?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
A man's soul?
Speaker 9 (12:02):
Can be bought for less, but I couldn't buy a
ten cent fire. I spent that night in a nest
of cast off railroad tire stacked at a side him.
When I opened my eyes in the morning, I had
company a very tough looking hobo and blue jeans and.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
A navy coat.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
She was counting my money, smoothing each bill with loving care.
Should grin when she saw it.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I was awake.
Speaker 8 (12:31):
Good morning, chum, you sleep like an honest man. It's
mad at chum, never speak till they bring your orange juice.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Look, I'm in trouble.
Speaker 8 (12:41):
I want you to help you to get the bracelets off.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes, yes, that chum.
Speaker 8 (12:46):
Wouldn't that be kind of silly? I might lose all
this harder and dull.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Look, there's more where that came from, a lot more.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
I'll make a richard.
Speaker 8 (12:55):
Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one before.
Speaker 6 (13:01):
Listen, I've got a quarter of a million dollars.
Speaker 8 (13:03):
Yeah, I know, I get feelings.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Look, come back, will it's true to don't you read
the papers.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
I'm Earl French.
Speaker 8 (13:11):
I never heard of you.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Look, look, just.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Go into town buy one of the newspapers. Six days
ago I stole two.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 8 (13:19):
Mm hm, And you're wearing those things so they won't
pick your own pockets.
Speaker 7 (13:23):
Oh please, don't, don't try to be clever.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Don't you understand I died in the train wreck near Scottsville.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
You you're sure about that, chum? You died only a
few days ago.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
No, No, that they only think I did get those
newspapers and come back here with a file and some food.
Speaker 8 (13:42):
Chum, don't know to me around. Let's take it easy.
Maybe I'll be back.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I waited for all through the long blistering day, crouching within.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
The four walls of railroad ties. I knew she'd be back.
She couldn't resist it. I knew she'd be back.
Speaker 8 (14:03):
Chum, it seems you were a very important guy in
your time.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You saw the papers.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
Yeah, and I got news for you, mister French. You
are now burned to a crisp. That's the way they
found you in the train.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Recognize me by the ring on my finger?
Speaker 8 (14:20):
Yeah, yeah, you're dead, all right? You in two hundred
and fifty grand.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
All right, all right, we'll come to that. Lady. Look,
get to work with a file now.
Speaker 8 (14:28):
Look you're giving me orders again. I told you I
don't like that. Please give me the fire that's right
here in my jeans. That's where it's gonna stay until
you lead me to my share of that dough.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
You'll get it.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
You'll get it, chum.
Speaker 8 (14:41):
You listen. I can pick up five hundred fish by
turning in an escape prisoner, or you can dig up
that treasure chest and buy this file for half the dough.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
It's over one hundred miles away.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I can't ride a train or a bus with these
on my wrists.
Speaker 8 (14:55):
It's okay, chum, we'll walk. I've done it before.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
What will be seen?
Speaker 8 (15:02):
Not at night?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
How will I eat?
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Where't we sleep?
Speaker 8 (15:06):
You'll sleep in the woods and I'll bring your grub
to you me. I'll sleep in town where Ibie snug
and safe. You don't take this file from me, chum,
not till I see my half of the dough.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
And that's how it was that same evening we started
a walk. At first, it wasn't as bad as I
made it sound. It gave me time to think, and
I knew i'd think of something.
Speaker 8 (15:35):
Don't start thinking, I trust you, Chum. I don't a
lot of things can happen before we get there.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I'll do what's fair. We'll split.
Speaker 8 (15:46):
We don't, I'll split your skull. Don't kid yourself that
I won't. I've been waiting a long time for a
break like this.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
We walked for the hangufs digging so deep into my flesh,
and I began to believe they were part of me.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
She brought me food, but she wouldn't come close enough
to hand it to me. And every time I reached
for anything, it was torture. My hands and wrists. They
were a massive misery, as though I were a pet
animal on a leash. My friend always walked six paces
behind me.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Oh she was smart.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
I realized I had to get away from her, and
soon the morning I decided to do it, she found
me a shack to hold up in.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I could hardly wait for her to leave, going to town.
Speaker 8 (16:34):
Oh this place looks good. I'll meet you back here tonight.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
All right, I see you tonight.
Speaker 8 (16:42):
That's the way I like it, Chum, nice and agreeable?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Well why not? Why shouldn't I be. I'll see you
to night as usual.
Speaker 8 (16:51):
Sure is anything special you'd like me to bring you
to eat?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Nothing special?
Speaker 8 (16:58):
Uh? Chum, I think you better turn around.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Why?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Because when I awoke with a dull egg filling my head,
I found myself neatly trussed up.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
But I could move a little, but not enough to
get free. You talk about female intuition. She had guessed
that I was going to try to get away from it,
and she just beating me to it.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I didn't give up, though, she would have to make
one mistake. Next night we'd stop for a rest.
Speaker 8 (17:36):
How can you be sure this stuff is still there?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Look it's safe.
Speaker 8 (17:39):
How do you know what kind of a place did
you hide it in?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
You'll see you? Now, get out that file.
Speaker 8 (17:44):
When I see the dough, little chum.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
Take them off with your How long you shut up?
Speaker 8 (17:51):
Wake up the neighbors? Now move no, I said, move no.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
That money is mine. You'll never see it unless I
want you to.
Speaker 9 (18:02):
We'll go to it the way I say.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
You're making me mad.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
You get out that file and take these off. Now,
go on, get it out.
Speaker 9 (18:12):
I can give what its too.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What do you think? You are an animal trainer?
Speaker 8 (18:17):
Now that's not a bad idea.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
But it happens.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I'm not an animal, and it also happens.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
What's that for? You can't frighten me? With a knife.
You use that on me and we both lose out.
You're gonna get up, No, this will hurt. I'll kill
you someday, I swear kill you.
Speaker 8 (18:44):
I had a husband like you, brave enough outside, but
once anybody put it on the.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Pressure, you talk too much. Go on, I'm calling you bluff.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
I'm sick of hearing you talk.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
All right, boy, away from me.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
We walked.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Oh, I hated, and she she was sure she'd beat
me down all together, because she didn't even bother how
to make lousy jokes.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
At me anymore. Oh, she was very quiet after that,
and a little careless.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
I stopped now and then she'd bump into me in
the darkness, but I just never had a chance to
get my hands on her. And then a couple of
mornings later, I said, here it is what.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
The money where I was standing over it?
Speaker 8 (19:52):
Are you trying to kid me? Were standing in the
middle of the highway. You didn't do any digging here, chum.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Looked, there's a covered running under the road here at
twenty four inch pipe.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Come on into the ditch. I'll show you.
Speaker 8 (20:03):
You didn't stick that dough in the pipe that had
washed away.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
It's not in the pipe, said, a deep crevice between
a pipe and a concrete allot some of those stars.
Speaker 8 (20:14):
You pull them out with these hands.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
I can't touch anything without screaming.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
Pull them out. So help me.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
If this is a game, you believed me. She had to.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
She saw the truth in my eyes. The money was
there in my quarter of a million. She bent over
the tug at the stones. She turned her back to
me for the first time.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
That was a mistake. I was waiting for.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
I sprang for the night. The hand comes down. All
the pain.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Of pain where is?
Speaker 5 (20:51):
But I didn't care.
Speaker 6 (20:52):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I just didn't care.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
She was.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I couldn't move my hands.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
My poor hands had to wait till the shock drain
all of.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Reach in her pockets.
Speaker 7 (21:11):
For the file.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
It isn't there.
Speaker 7 (21:19):
Must be in this one.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
No, no fire.
Speaker 8 (21:26):
She hasn't got a fire.
Speaker 7 (21:28):
You never had one, cheat, little cheet Come on, get you,
Come on, babies, two hundred and fifty thousand.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
You don't babies. Come on, let's get a hold on it.
Speaker 7 (21:47):
Need another few inches.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
I can't I get where these handcuffs on. I need one.
I'm free. You handcuffed down? Break the shade after him
the money.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
That's the way I found him cheap, sitting in the
ditch beside the dead girl.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
He hasn't stopped babbling since.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
All right, lock him up, I'll know the fare. The
city authorities tell him we got Earl French.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Are Suspense in which mister Tony Barrett starred in tonight's
(22:55):
presentation of Give Me Liberty. Next Week Events will bring
you a repeat performance of one of the most controversial
stories ever heard of your radio. It's called Zero Hour,
written by mister Ray Bradbury. Be sure to listen to
Zero Hour. That's next Week on Suspense. Suspense is produced
(23:35):
and directed by Anthony Ellis to Night's script was written
by Herb Meadows. Music was composed by Lucian Morwick and
conducted by Wilbur Hatch. Featured on the cast were Michael
Ann Barrett, lou Merrill, Helen Cleeve, Richard Beials, and Jack Carroll.
(23:58):
Ride a Real squad Car with My Watch Thursdays on
the CBS Radio All Network
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