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August 13, 2025 • 44 mins
CBS Radio Mystery Theater - Its Murder Mr Lincoln

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now mystery fitter, come in.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm e. G.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Marshall, and we're doing business as usual, featuring our full
assortment of the mysterious and the bizarre. Quis custodiat ipsos
custodis Who shall guard the guards, or, to take it
a step higher, who shall judge the judges? This was

(00:44):
a problem that plagued the ancient Romans, and obviously it
remains with us till this very day. And actually the
act of judging is a highly hazardous affair because the
book warns us judge not lest ye be judged.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
And so between the necessity to judge.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
And the admonition not to do it, we human beings
are in a constant state of doubt, which is not
the worst thing in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Old hold on there, what you want? What are you
doing with that pistol?

Speaker 5 (01:18):
That's highly your affair, mister Lynholm.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
A man prowling about at night holding a loaded pistols
certainly an object of curiosity only.

Speaker 5 (01:27):
To those who don't mind their own affairs.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I consider the safety of the community to be very
much my affair. Mister Barnes. You'll oblige me by handing
over that pistol.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
And you'll oblige me by going about your own business.
Mister Lynholm, I'm afraid I'll have to take that pistol.
I advise you not to try it.

Speaker 6 (01:49):
Hand it over, sir, I warn you not another step.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Our mystery Drama, Its Murder Mister Lincoln, was written especially
for the Mystery Theater by Sam Dan and Stars Cure Delay.

(02:25):
When conditions are bad, we Americans always spend a great
deal of energy, not in finding a solution to the problem,
but rather in deciding what to call it.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Is it a depression? Is it a recession?

Speaker 4 (02:39):
Back in eighteen thirty seven they called it a panic.
So you see, we have made progress. Eighteen thirty seven
was certainly a year to tighten one's belt. Definitely, it
was not a favorable year to embark upon a new career.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
And a young man named Abraham Lincoln is discovering this
the hard way.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
He has just settled in Springfield, Illinois, where he has
opened a law office. Abe Lincoln sits in his law
office and waits for clients. This afternoon, as usual, he
is sitting and waiting, and although he is completely unaware
of it, a case is being created for him. Just

(03:20):
down the street in Felman's tavern.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Now what I want to know is, what's the point
in having Martin van Buren sitting in the White House?
Why might as well have Andy Jackson?

Speaker 5 (03:31):
Oh well, JOm, Andy's old sick way he's half this well.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Better than Andy Jackson was half dead. Than a Martin
van Buren who's all alive. It's a good one, remember
that good afternoon noon an you want to hear good ones?

Speaker 2 (03:53):
There?

Speaker 3 (03:53):
I just say this gentleman here, miss veeven Barnes. I
was saying, better half dead Jackson and all alive Van.
But isn't that what has any.

Speaker 7 (04:05):
Are you?

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Tom Feldon in the flesh? I like the room? Cot
your dollar all right in advance? Oh no, man, anything
it just say, isn't Corinthians? Where is it? Act?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
So here's your dollar?

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Thank you? Drink?

Speaker 8 (04:19):
No, not for me, come through the price of the room.
I never drink while there's work to be done.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, what's your name? Strange Jim? You know mine? I'm
Tom Feldman. And this gentleman here's you from Barnes. He
runs a bank. Meet mister Jones, Franklin Jones.

Speaker 5 (04:37):
It's business, mister Jones, I sure the First National Farmers
and Merchants Bank of Springfield is very much I just
have it.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well, thank you, mister Barnes. I'll keep that in mind.

Speaker 8 (04:50):
Could either you, gentlemen, tell me where I might find
a mister Cyrus.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Darrell side Darryl. He's got a farm, big place it is, too,
just just north of here. Now you just follow the
road right out of town.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
Me enquire your business with mister darwlser.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
That depends on mister Darrow.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, that's that's playing the cards close to the vest.
Bread eating and secret is the sweetest. This isn't proverbs
where there's nothing secret.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
About my business with mister Darrow. He swindled me out
of some money.

Speaker 8 (05:23):
Now he's either going to pay it back or I
intend to blow his head off.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
Now well, now, missus Jones, there's no need flabs. If
you have proof, you can take him to court.

Speaker 8 (05:33):
Oh I don't have proof, so I'll just have to
do it my way. I've come here to get what's
mine by rights, and I have the instrument with which
to secure it.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Well, that's a wicked looking weapon you got there, sir.
I fought in Florida in the seminole war. This pistol
was first and last fired in the service of my country.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I earned the right to use it in my own behalf.

Speaker 5 (05:57):
Now, sir, you cannot flout the law.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Indeed, the law is sitting right here by your side
in me you see the sheriff, and mister Barnes is
the judge for this term.

Speaker 8 (06:10):
Well, gentlemen, all I can say is that if a
man don't get no justice, you will have to make
his own.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
My room, sir, up.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
The stairs, first story. You're right, Suffers. At five o'clock, a.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
Young fellow bears a bit of watching.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, I pity him. If he goes up against old
man Darrow. Cyrus will just chew him up and spit him.

Speaker 5 (06:35):
Out, wicked looking fished all at.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
You know, I'm not a wagering man, he from, but
it was, I'd lay my money on Cyrus Darrow. Poor
fella seems kind of young to die after surviving an
Indian war. And all.

Speaker 8 (07:01):
Hold the devil's names out there this time of night. Now,
what's up business with me?

Speaker 5 (07:06):
Going home?

Speaker 2 (07:08):
And I'm bone to pickers Hires.

Speaker 8 (07:09):
Now you come around in the end of the day,
lifetime like Hans, respectable folk, all right, all right, all right.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Don't bust her down.

Speaker 8 (07:17):
I'm coming.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'm coming.

Speaker 8 (07:21):
Oh, well, show it's you, hey, come winding around to
see if I'll leave you off the hook. He Well,
you can hang there and squirm till I'm getting ready.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
You think that pistol can scare me?

Speaker 8 (07:38):
Hey, you ain't man enough to come on. Now, hand
it over before me can chew it up.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Oh a yellow belly? Well, who's there? Sure, sure, surf,
that's right, open up with the name of the law.

Speaker 8 (08:03):
All right right, Oh hi, mister Felman, Oh, mister Felman,
the tavern keepers, mister Felman, the sheriff.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
You would have to come along with me, son?

Speaker 2 (08:13):
What four with four?

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Mister Jones. It looks like you did what you came
here to do. What's that kill Cyrus Darrow?

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Killing Cyrus Darrow? But I didn't.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
He's dead, son, big hole in his forehead caused by
the forcible entry of a pistol ball. There must be
some mistake, Oh sir, there's no mistake. This here, This
is your pistol.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Of course, it's my pistols.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Found fifty yards away from Cyrus is out.

Speaker 8 (08:41):
No, you couldn't have found it fifty yards away because
because it can't.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Be my pistol. I remember I put it back in
my bag. Yeh, yeah, Hey it isn't here.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
Of course not. How could it be in that bag
in my hand at one the same.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Time I never did.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Mister Jones, as Sheriff of Springfield County, I hereby arrest
you for the murder of Cyrus Darrow. I made the
Lord have mercy on your soul.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
What are you saying, Well, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
I shouldn't say that just yet. After all, you ain't
been trying. But you'll get a fair trial before they
hang you.

Speaker 7 (09:21):
I don't know what to say, Franklin. I don't know
what to say. I didn't kill him, then I didn't, Franklin,
everyone says.

Speaker 8 (09:28):
I don't care what everyone says. You just got to
believe in me.

Speaker 7 (09:31):
Why did you have to come here with a pistol?
Why did you have to threaten him in public?

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Why did why? Why? Why? Because I'm stupid, That's why.

Speaker 7 (09:40):
Oh, Franklin, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I guess I really am in the soup this time.

Speaker 7 (09:45):
This man, Cyrus Darrow was very well liked. And the
evidence against you, it's so strong.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Evidence. What evidence?

Speaker 7 (09:53):
What evidence? Oh, Franklin, your threats to kill him, the pistoles.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
I swear to you, am, I believe you, darling.

Speaker 7 (10:02):
But there's gonna be a trial.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
I'll make them believe me. I'll make everyone believe me.

Speaker 7 (10:06):
You'll need a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
I'll hire a lawyer.

Speaker 7 (10:09):
And you know what is it, dear, a lawyer?

Speaker 8 (10:13):
Yeah, well that's just what I said, my darn.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
I'll hire a lawyer, dear.

Speaker 7 (10:17):
There are no lawyers, no lawyers.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Here in Springfield or state Capitol.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
In a place like this, there there are nothing but lawyers.

Speaker 7 (10:24):
I've been asking around and I've got Nansen's. One fella says, sorry, ma'am,
I just couldn't take on another case. And meanwhile he's
got his feet on the desk and I can see
the holes in his shoes. And then another fella says,
I never did try a murder case.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
What is it?

Speaker 7 (10:41):
There isn't nobody in this town doing fifteen cents worth
of business. And they say, each of them say to me, sorry,
miss Jones, I just can't see my way clear.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well, why won't they take my case?

Speaker 7 (10:53):
Well?

Speaker 8 (10:54):
Is it because they don't think they can win any
That should make no difference.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Losses every man's entitled to a lawyer, I.

Speaker 7 (11:01):
Know, but what the law really means. Every man's entitled
to a lawyer, provided he can get one.

Speaker 5 (11:15):
Yes, ma'am, are you judge Barns Well? Eh, here in
the bank this week? And miss Barnes, I don't start
being judged Barnes till next week? Have I who? And
do I have the pleasure of addression?

Speaker 7 (11:31):
My name is Jones, Emily Jones, missus Franklin Jones. Ah, judge,
my husband can't find himself a lawyer.

Speaker 5 (11:42):
Surely, Miss Barnes, in all of Springfield, there must be
somebody who.

Speaker 7 (11:47):
Who don't mind ruining his reputation.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
Now, Miss Barnes, lawyers don't see things that we're tall.

Speaker 7 (11:55):
Then how does it happen? No lawyer's willing to defend
my husband? Well, it's a busy time, how busy? Look
at your bank? Ain't a soul in here except you
and me?

Speaker 5 (12:06):
Well?

Speaker 7 (12:07):
What, sir? People going broke left and right? Nothing being
brought in or soul, no contracts to draw up? What
are all these lawyers doing?

Speaker 5 (12:16):
Well? I'm sure if you look around.

Speaker 7 (12:20):
I looked, I looked everywhere, and everybody's turned me down.
Everybody everybody.

Speaker 5 (12:28):
Ah, have have you spoken to a man named Lincoln?

Speaker 7 (12:36):
A blinkol a Blincoln? No, the names ain't familiar.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
I should give a try. He's kind of lawyer, taking
any case he can get.

Speaker 7 (12:48):
Well, I must say, judge, that don't sound like a
very enthusiastic recommendation.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
Well, I am, it's the only recommendation I can give you.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 7 (13:10):
Will you please tell mister a Blincoln I'm here.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
There's no need to do that, ma'am. You've already done.

Speaker 7 (13:17):
So you you're a Lincoln.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Please guilty man? Now to whom do I have the
pleasure of it?

Speaker 7 (13:25):
But you don't.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
I know?

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Why?

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Don't look like a lawyer. Well, the fact is I
don't look very much of anything else either. Well I
do you have a seat, ma'am. Now I.

Speaker 7 (13:43):
My name is Emily Jones. My husband Franklin.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Were he named after Ben Franklin?

Speaker 7 (13:49):
Yes, sir, I believe so, the great man? Yes, so
he My husband is going to be tried for murder.
I know, and I need a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Well, you've come to the right place.

Speaker 7 (14:02):
You mean you're willing to defend him.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
I'm ready, ma'am.

Speaker 7 (14:06):
Well that may be, but I've got to ask you
about your qualifications. How many murder cases have you tried?

Speaker 3 (14:13):
How many?

Speaker 2 (14:16):
To be exact, ma'am, none, none, Miss Jones, A fellow
has to start someplace.

Speaker 7 (14:22):
Well, but not with my husband.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, I do have one qualification. Matter of fact, it
could turn out to be the most important qualification of all.
What's that I'm the only lawyer in town willing to
take the case? Didn't longfellows say?

Speaker 4 (14:45):
Lives of great men all remind us we can make
our own sublime and departy, leave behind us footprints on
the sands of time.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yes, he did.

Speaker 4 (14:59):
However, what we should realize about the lives of great
men is the fact that most of them weren't always great.
Can you imagine being unhappy to have Abraham Lincoln as
your lawyer? I'll return shortly with that too. His name

(15:26):
is Franklin Jones. Right now he is in the jailhouse
in Springfield, Illinois, in the early autumn of the year
eighteen thirty seven. He's accused of murder. His prospects are bleak.
The betting is better than ten to one. He'll feel
a rope around his neck before the month is out.
The odds have not been lowered by the fact that

(15:48):
his lawyer is a young man named Abe Lincoln.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
And who was in the tavern when you came in,
mister Felman or mister Barnes, no one else, no one else.
I asked him if they knew where I could find
mister Cyrus Darrow. And they asked why, And.

Speaker 7 (16:04):
I told him, couldn't you tell them that it was
your own affair?

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Well, I didn't know.

Speaker 7 (16:08):
You always have to be bragging about something, no matter
how many.

Speaker 8 (16:11):
Times I tell please, Emily, mister Lincoln here, I ain't
interested in our personal business.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
Oh but I am. You are, why because you never
can tell what might be important.

Speaker 7 (16:22):
All that's important is to keep the rope away from
Franklin's neck.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well, that's exactly what we're trying to do, Miss Jones. Now,
Frank you came here night before last from Valley Junkers.

Speaker 7 (16:33):
That's right, we just started farming.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Miss Jones. I appreciate it. We'd let Frank answer.

Speaker 7 (16:38):
I can give you the facts, fast and clear, I know, ma'am.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
But well, Frank's going to need practice. He'll be the
one that has to answer at the trial. So Frank,
you came here the other night you engaged a room.
You stated your business to mister Filman and to mister Barry.

Speaker 7 (16:54):
Like a fool.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, yes, sir, that's right. And you showed them the pistol.

Speaker 8 (16:59):
Well, the pistol was a present to my dad from
General William Henry Harrison. Dad was with Harrison at the
typic Canoe.

Speaker 7 (17:07):
You see. He wanted to brag about it.

Speaker 8 (17:09):
Mister Felman and mister Barnes, Well, they weren't easy fellas
to talk to, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
I know what you mean, Frank.

Speaker 8 (17:16):
And so I just went upstairs in my room and
I went to bed, figuring out see Sire s Darrow first.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Thing in the morning.

Speaker 8 (17:22):
And well, the next thing I knew, there was a
knock on the door, and it's the sheriff.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'm being rested for murder. And at no time during
the night did you arise from your bed and go
forth to mister Darrow's place and shoot him. I did
not shoot him. I was asleep in my room. Well,
we have to make that defense stand up.

Speaker 7 (17:40):
You sound like you don't believe him.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Oh, I believe him. I'm not the problem. You've got
a judge and a jury to consider, Frank. The pistol.
Where was it in the bag? You placed it in
the bag before he went to sleep, Yes, sir, Well
how did you get to where it was found in
the field at the yard for mister Darrow's door. No, no,
the prosecution will say that you went there shot side.

(18:04):
Daryw fled from the scene in your guilty terror and confusion.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
You dropped the gun.

Speaker 8 (18:09):
Well, I couldn't have dropped the gun when I wasn't
even caring it to start with.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I wasn't there. Then we must claim that someone came
into this room while you were asleep and stole that pistol. Well,
that's the only way it could have happened. You were
conscious of no one, Oh, I was asleep. Tell me this.
What was your business with mister Daryl?

Speaker 7 (18:28):
Why do you want to know?

Speaker 3 (18:30):
Frank?

Speaker 2 (18:31):
Is that important? It's the first question the prosecutor will ask.
I should know all that was before he was killed?
And Frank, Well, I enlisted in eighteen twenty.

Speaker 7 (18:43):
Nine, eighteen thirty oh eighteen.

Speaker 8 (18:45):
Yeah, that's right, and I served in Georgia and Florida.
And when I wanted to marry Emily, Well, you don't
get married on sergeants page to me, you don't. Anyway,
there was this follow in the company. The first platunity
was little fella fat and baldy, you know, but smart.
He was a Frenchman or a German or something like that.

(19:06):
He spoke funny, you know, the army's full of all
kinds of foreigners. They had to run here because they're
having all kinds of revolutions in Europe.

Speaker 7 (19:14):
Will you get to the point, why should mister Lincoln
care beans about them revolutions in Europe?

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (19:19):
Well, well his name was Fuller, and he knew all
about plants and flowers, you know, and he said, Jonesy,
some of these varieties could grow very well up north.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
If yeah, if what? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (19:36):
Well I never did find out. You see, he and
I were going into business, and we collected boxes and
boxes of various seeds, and we was going to sell
them to farmers up this way, where I was well known,
that is, I knew some people.

Speaker 7 (19:50):
And since Cyrus Darra was one of the biggest farmers
in this pods, well, we wrote to him and he
wrote that offering to buy a special kind of feet grass.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
We send him thirty dollars worth. He never did pay up, so.

Speaker 7 (20:01):
We wrote and we asked him for our.

Speaker 8 (20:03):
Money, and he sent back an answer saying he'd be
hanged if he'd pay a cent for some sticky Georgia thistles.

Speaker 7 (20:08):
What was that man talking about? Anyway?

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 8 (20:11):
I could have made a mistake and not cleaned out
the seed like Fuller said you had to do. Well,
he invited me to come up and look at his
brand new thistle patch and also give him the opportunity
to wring my neck at one and the same time.

Speaker 7 (20:24):
And I said, Frank, you go up there and you
get your money. Well did I know he was going
to take a gun and.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Did no time? Then did you visit Darrow's farm?

Speaker 7 (20:33):
No, sir, he did not. He was nowhere near that place, Frank.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
No, sir, as far as you know, it could that
is the seed you sold him could very well have
been thistle or birds or whatever.

Speaker 7 (20:47):
Well, supposing there was, what does this have to do
with the killing of sars Darling?

Speaker 2 (20:51):
You weren't up there, Frank, Well, I said, I wasn't. Well,
I'm going to be getting along.

Speaker 7 (20:57):
Where are you off to?

Speaker 2 (20:58):
I think?

Speaker 3 (20:58):
All right?

Speaker 7 (20:59):
Up to Darryl, Frank, whatever form, you might learn something
what's to learn? The man's been murdered.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
We know that. Well I might find some evidence.

Speaker 7 (21:07):
What kind?

Speaker 2 (21:07):
I have no idea, but I have to look.

Speaker 7 (21:11):
You mean you're gonna look for something and you don't
know what.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yes, I suppose you could put it that way. What
was that, miss Jones?

Speaker 7 (21:19):
Nothing?

Speaker 3 (21:20):
Just HOORI? Why are you?

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Tom? Fire down?

Speaker 3 (21:35):
Do anything?

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Well, I'm about to take a run up to Derek Farm.
Maybe some evidence.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
M yeah, evidence evidence of things not seen, as it
says the ridiculous Hebrew. Leaving soon.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
I'd like to get back for supper.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
You've you've taken the Jones case.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, I was retained this morning.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Well he'd be. I think that's why.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Wise I'm a lawyer, but you have to you have
to end your career.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
You know, you got to lose that case. It's plain
as a cabbage on a rosebush. The boy's guilty.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
Isn't nobody having a trial?

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Oh we're having a trial because the law says he's
got to get one.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
You know what the word is going to be, Tom,
I'm surprised at you.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
No, No, if you're you're the surprising one. Now, look,
you can't win. If you lose, you look bad because
you're a loser. And if by some miracles, yeah, you
could have a miracle, because, as Milton says, the age
of miracles is forever here.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
That was Carlisle Calia.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Well, if by a miracle you win, well, folks will
resent it. Why, well, the boys will obviously guilty. People
want him to hang. Look, ebe, I'm thinking of your future,
my future. Yeah, you could have a great future in politics.
I've seen you operate. Why was you single handed gout
the state capitol? Move up here from Venda.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Oh no that's not really truly it is abe you
could go far. No, no, no, not me.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
No, why do you say no?

Speaker 2 (23:19):
I just don't look like a politician.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
Well, there's no special way of politicians supposed to look
at Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
It isn't. So he's got to look kind of solidly
dignified like oh Daniel Webster, sharp and smart like clay
or Calhoun, or shrewd like Tom Venton, or even jolly
like Steve Douglas. But he can't well he can't afford
to be funny looking like me.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Well, I wouldn't see it was all that funny looking.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
I'm too tall, too thin, and to boney and.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Gawky, but you got all the brains.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Brains alone was never enough.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
He is there some way you could get out of
trying this case?

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Now?

Speaker 3 (23:59):
I mean for your own good sire, Daryl was well liked.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
I wouldn't get out even if I could, tom.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
So I was very well liked. And folks, I'm married
to think about.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
That, and there's nothing to think about.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Well, I just thought i'd paint your picture, after all,
As William Shakespeare said, forewarned is forearmed.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
No, that was Miguel Servannis. Wow, hello therey today, mister Bennett.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
What brings you out here?

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Abe?

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Oh? I thought i'd come out here and look for what? Oh?
There anything I could find? I saw someone moving around
in the house. Turns out to be you.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
While I was his lawyer.

Speaker 5 (24:51):
I'm just getting his papers put together. Well, come in,
come in, look around if you like her. Thank you,
mister Bennett. Right here in the doorway is where he fell.
I found the body, you know, in the morning. I'd
come by to go over some contracts.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
There he was dead.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
You're going through his papers. I'm trying to anything missing.

Speaker 5 (25:18):
Well, Abe, either stuff is missing or he hit him
away somewhere. What do you mean, I mean he didn't
tell his lawyer everything no client ever done.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
You're going to find that out. Well, what would seem
to be missing?

Speaker 5 (25:33):
I haven't had a chance to go through it all,
but I know for a fact he's been lending out
money all over town. The way things are with the
banks and all, he was the only one with hard cat.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yes, I heard you could say there were plenty of
folks who might have had a motive, mister Bennett.

Speaker 5 (25:49):
Yeah, I could say that, Abe, But I think your man's.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Going to pay the bill. But he told me he
never even came up here. Now I know why. You've
had his clients as I have.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
You learn how easily they can lie to you.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
It's hard to believe this boy isn't telling me the truth.

Speaker 5 (26:07):
That's what makes us a dang difficult. Maybe he thinks
he's telling you the truth. Hey, your trouble on this case.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Admit it. I've never denied it.

Speaker 5 (26:20):
Let's step outside, hey, before we might find a way out.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Of this problem.

Speaker 5 (26:29):
Now, ay, yeah, just off to your left, leading to
the road as a full acre and it's planted.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
In what hold on, mister Bennett. That's a wild feel,
that's a planted field. Eh, But who who want to
plant all those weeds and birds and thistles?

Speaker 5 (26:51):
They come from the seeds my client brought from your client.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
That's hard to believe.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
Why Let's say your client it's a sharper, or he
made an honest mistake, don't matter. But he made my
client mad.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Well.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
Old SI was ready to kill that boy on site.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Get my point, mister Bennett, I think I do now.

Speaker 5 (27:17):
Taking it straight from there, you begin to see a
new line of approach in the case.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Mister Bennett. Let me tell you, sir, I am eternally
in your debt to think I had just considered this
case was hopeless.

Speaker 5 (27:34):
Hey, and everything looks hopeless, that's the time you really
start to hope.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
And of course that was a lesson that Abe Lincoln
never forgot. Certainly, in the years to come he would
be faced with more apparently hopeless situations than.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Almost any other president.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
But our concern is with the case in hand, and
what is the light that has suddenly dawned? Well, that
will all be made visible when I return in just
a few moments. With Act three, it is always surprising

(28:21):
to consider that what we call psychology is a science
of recent vintage.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
We speak so easily.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Of things like the split personality, the other self, the
protective falsehood, without realizing that these terms would be unintelligible.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
To people who lived even a hundred years ago.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
But although our forebears did not know these things intellectually,
they could understand their implications. After all, Sigmund Freud was
only ten years old when Abe Lincoln died, yet Lincoln
already sensed a great deal of what Freud was to discover.

Speaker 7 (28:58):
No, mister Lincoln, he don't lie to me. That's one
thing he don't do. He don't lie to me.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Emily, maybe he has no choice. What do you mean, Oh,
maybe maybe he's afraid he'd lose you if you knew
he was a murderer. What would you do if he confessed?

Speaker 7 (29:16):
What would I do?

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Would you leave him?

Speaker 3 (29:19):
Well, you see, oh.

Speaker 7 (29:22):
I'd race up a storm. I guess I'd holler and rip,
But afterward we'll I'd stand by.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Him, and you must convince him of that.

Speaker 7 (29:31):
But will it save him?

Speaker 2 (29:33):
At least it's a defense. I could plead it this way.
All I'm doing is begging the mercy of the court.

Speaker 7 (29:39):
But will it work?

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Self defense always gives a man a chance.

Speaker 7 (29:43):
How much of a chance.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Well, I'm a lawyer, Emily, I'm not a profit But
we can get witnesses to prove that Side there was
furious with Franklin. But why because Franklin had sold him
nothing but weeds.

Speaker 7 (29:56):
How do you know?

Speaker 2 (29:57):
I was up there, Emily, I saw them a strange
kind growth for this part of the country, brambles and
birds and weeds.

Speaker 7 (30:04):
It really wasn't Frank's fault, mister Lincoln, he just doesn't know.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
But Cyrus Darrow was boiling mad. Now, oddly enough, this
could create some sympathy for Franklin.

Speaker 7 (30:15):
How they'll all think frank was a swindler.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Well, maybe not a swindler, more of.

Speaker 7 (30:20):
A sharp lit Oh what's the difference.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Well, Emily, you have to know these old horse traders
up here, they might even admire him. Why because he's
done something nobody else is ever able to bring off.
What's that he got the better of Side Darrow in
the deal, and he went up the seaside and brazen
it out, being careful, of course, to bring his pistol.
The fact that the pistol was given to him by

(30:43):
General Harrison would her either.

Speaker 7 (30:45):
Well, then you think we've got a chance.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yes, Emily, I would say, what with one thing and another,
we've got a fighting chance? No?

Speaker 7 (30:57):
No, what do you mean?

Speaker 2 (30:59):
No, you heard Emily, I said.

Speaker 8 (31:01):
No, mister Lincoln just explained.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Know what mister Lincoln just explained.

Speaker 7 (31:05):
Don't you understand if you don't plead self defense, you're.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Sure to hang Well. I ain't gonna do it.

Speaker 8 (31:10):
Why I told you once, I told you a thousand times.
I wasn't there, Sir, I didn't kill him.

Speaker 7 (31:16):
I give up. What can you do with him, mister Lincoln.

Speaker 8 (31:19):
Mister Lincoln, would you want me to get up there
on that stand and tell a lie?

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Is it alive? Franklin, I mean you didn't kill side Daryn.
So defense, Huh, here's a hole to be in.

Speaker 8 (31:28):
A man's wife won't believe him, his lawyer won't believe
in frank We.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Own it, Franklin. I can only plead the defense my
client gives me. Since I wasn't at the scene of
the crime when the murder took place, I don't know
what happened.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Well, I don't know neither.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
I wasn't there myself. I was asleep in bed my
room at Felman's tavern.

Speaker 7 (31:45):
But Franklin, nobody's gonna believe that.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Believe that what I got.

Speaker 8 (31:49):
A lawyer for so we can make folks believe me.
Or is this case too tough for you, mister Lincoln.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Well, it's tough enough. And did you find anything up
there at Darrow's place? Do you know up there? Look
at your pants? Oh? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (32:04):
Them little birds almost too small to see unless you're
looking for him. Yes, sir, you'll be picking them off
your pants legs for weeks.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
I've gotten rid of most of them.

Speaker 8 (32:13):
Oh sir, they're hidden where you can't even see him.
And some of the seeds, why they'll even germinate on
the clothes.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Seems like you better boil those pants. Well, thank you.

Speaker 8 (32:23):
I guess Darrow was right. Emily, we did sell them weeds.
I didn't mean to, mister Lincoln. It's just that Corporal
Fold I would have known what to do. He said,
you have to wash the seed in something called alkali.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
I don't even know what it is.

Speaker 7 (32:39):
What are you going to do now, mister Lincoln?

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Tell me who else was in the tavern when you
came in? Well? I told you just mister Felman and
mister Barn nobody else Oh, sir, you posited. I'll swear
to it. But do you know anyone in the town?
Oh sir, not a single solitary soul.

Speaker 7 (32:54):
Why do you ask?

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Well, Emily, it's about time I started asking questions.

Speaker 7 (32:59):
But you've been asking questions all along.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Oh, not the right questions. And I haven't been asking
the right people either.

Speaker 5 (33:09):
Well, nac going to tell you the boy insists on
having a rope put around his neck.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
He refuses to plead self defense.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
In my opinion, he'd rather die having his wife think
he's not a murderer.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
I believe him.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
It can be a dangerous business when you start believing clients.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
It can even be a more dangerous business when you don't.
What can I do for it? Ay, you've been through
all the size papers.

Speaker 5 (33:36):
Yet all I was able to turn up with.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Either Tom Fellman or Ephraim Barns About the money.

Speaker 5 (33:44):
Well, now, Abe, this is a lawyer client relationship.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
You asking me to break it. The client's dead, mister Bennett,
And I'm not asking out of idle curiosity.

Speaker 5 (33:59):
Yes, he did have a mortgage on Felman's.

Speaker 2 (34:03):
I thought Tom Felman owned the place free and clear.
It's been a money maker for years.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
Don't you know there's been a panic on him and
Nichols worth of cash to be had.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Why would Tom Felman go to side there when he
could get money at bank rates from his good friend
he from Barnes.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
Banks don't have it either, Abe, did.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
You find any papers or either Tom or you from?
What are you trying to say? I'm just asking mister
Bennett to answer your question.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
No, there's no papers for either one of them.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
And yeah, they both owed him money.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
I'm reasonably sure of it.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
Abe.

Speaker 9 (34:41):
Well, thank you, mister Bennett. Uh, good afternoon, gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
Well leave afternoon. I have a drink. How's the law
business coming?

Speaker 2 (34:58):
Slow?

Speaker 3 (34:59):
Well?

Speaker 2 (35:00):
So but sure?

Speaker 3 (35:01):
Boos Mighty Mountains, Aristotle Euripides. Yeah, even I swear one
day I'm gonna catch you. Gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
We have some business to discuss.

Speaker 5 (35:12):
They discuss business of my office only this.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Is legal business, he from.

Speaker 5 (35:17):
Then, I'd rather disgust it as your office.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
It has to do the upcoming trial of Franklin Jones.

Speaker 5 (35:24):
In that case, I don't discuss it at all. I'm
scheduled to be presiding judge.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
I don't think so. Ephraim, Well what you.

Speaker 5 (35:32):
Said, you see the calendar.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
I'm going to ask you to disqualify yourself.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
He from what you're seeing, He here's one of the
finest jebe.

Speaker 5 (35:42):
Don't you believe I'm a fair man?

Speaker 2 (35:45):
It's nothing personally from to begin with? Your material witness?
Who is you? Are you and Tom here? You're the
ones that the only ones who heard Tom ask for
the whereabouts of side Darryl and who heard J'm threatened
to kill him?

Speaker 5 (36:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Well, well you can't be a judge and a witness
at the same time, can you. Besides, there's more two
than that.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
We are you driving at hebe?

Speaker 2 (36:10):
My client? He insists that he's not guilty.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Well, you wouldn't expect him to admit it. That would
get me.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yes, if he were guilty, I would, especially since I
found a way he could plead guilty and still save
his neck at the same time. What's her self? Defense?
Old Si was born the mad at him, mad enough
to kill him. But the boy refuses to take that defense,
which proves to me that he's a young man of
his word, and I have to respect that word.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
Abe. If Franklin Jones didn't kill cy Daryl, who in
thunder did, well, we'll.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Have to sit down the three of us and reason together.
Franklin didn't kill Cy? Who did we know? Somebody did?
Because Sis did?

Speaker 5 (36:52):
I let you come straight and tell me exactly what
you're driving at him?

Speaker 2 (36:57):
It couldn't be suicide, after all, how would say, get
hold of Frank's pistol?

Speaker 3 (37:01):
What more would Si have for doing away with himself?

Speaker 2 (37:03):
None? But you can't be too careful in these things.
You have to explore every possibility.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
Now you also have to be headed someplace.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Don't be impatient. I am so If it wasn't Frank,
who else could it be? Who else knew Frank was
in town? Who else knew Frank was mad enough to
go to size place with a pistol? Who else did
even though that Frank had a pistol? The answer? Either
one of you two?

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Well, hold on, there are you saying that Eve here
or me could kill Si? Darrol? Well, I am your
best friend in town. How could you even thine?

Speaker 5 (37:46):
I thought you was always a man in a good sense,
butious monstrous?

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Either of you, gentlemen, been up to see Si lately?

Speaker 3 (37:56):
Well? I ain't been up to. Sorry, there's placed since
since I bought a pony from him in thirty three. No, no,
it was thirty four. But yeah, it's been three years, Ephim.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
It's been place three years since I ed occasion to
visit size farm.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Where'd you transact your business?

Speaker 5 (38:18):
Whatever business we would transact, we would do at the bank.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Gentlemen, one of you two is lying, and I look here.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
You want to be careful now, Eve, friendship only excuses
just so much.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
Let me borrow that chair. Now I'm going to put
my foot up on the seat of it before oh,
come on this humor and he's mad. You'll notice that
the lower part of my trouser leg is covered with
very tiny, little sticky birds. So he's the typical of
a growth that occurs only in northern Florida or southern Georgia.

(38:55):
You can't find him anywhere else in the country except
a side Darrow's farm.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
No, what's that got to do with the price of
tea in China?

Speaker 2 (39:03):
They grew from seeds sold to Darrow. Bye, mistake by
Franklin Jones.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
I still don't see what you're driving at.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
I was up there just before. That's how they got
all over my pants. Like now we'll each you gentlemen,
please place his foot up on the chair.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
I'll be hanged if I go.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Is that a prophecy from Eve? Eve?

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Them? Them little birds and sticky little birds? You got
them on your ephim if he wasn't up at the
Darrow place? How them little birds get all over your pants?

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Hi, pour me a drink, dumb ef.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
He was always there, was always an honest man.

Speaker 5 (39:59):
Yeah, for fifty years. I've been honest is a days long?
And where you get me? I didn't speculate, I didn't hedge.
I guarded my customers' money. Ever got wiped out. I

(40:23):
had to borrow from side Darrah, and he was gonna
take away my bank. Well, this boy came marching in
here and.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
And he decided to steal his pistol and killed there yourself.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
Well, it wasn't that clear cut, you know? That just
worked out, and I found my notes and destroyed of.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Yours too, tomb he from man like you? Could you
really let that boy hang for you? Could you? Ebe?

Speaker 5 (41:11):
I'd like to think that in the end, I wouldn't
let that boy hang for me.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
I'd like to think that would your conscience let you.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
Conscience? Hey, when you face the robe, you know what
I'm saying conscience does made cowards of us.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
All sir rogers, No Shakespeare.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
You're a good lawyer, Abe, Would you defend.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Me from you? Mean you want me? Why you could
have anyone, even Stephen Douglas.

Speaker 5 (41:55):
Now I want you, Abe. Nobody bought you.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Thank you, Ef. I'm grateful. I'm humbly grateful.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Well.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
The case went to trial with a new judge and
a new defendant, and the young lawyer Abe Lincoln argued
ably and well, and the result was a hung jury.
But as Abe Lincoln said afterwards, better a hung jury
than a hung client.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
Well, you hang around. I'll be back shortly.

Speaker 4 (42:44):
Franklin and Emily Jones, Tom Felman, Ephraim Barnes. They are
all obscure footnotes in the book of Abraham Lincoln's life,
And yet these are some of the nameless, unknown people
who helped shape his character. All around us are young
men and women whom we, in our anonymous fashion, are

(43:05):
also molding by our precept and by our example, and
we are molding them into what think about it. Our
cast included Pure Delay, Jennifer Harmon, Paul Hect, Joe Silver,
and Robert Dryden. The entire production was under the direction
of Hyman Brown.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
This is E. G.

Speaker 4 (43:25):
Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, Pleasants dreams,

(44:03):
but
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