Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Piney Corners Matter (EP0815)

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Piney Corners Matter (EP0815) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
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is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
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to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, Follow us on Twitter at
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Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com
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slash Radio Detectives. Well, today's episode is brought to you by the financial
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support of our listeners. Thank you so much for all of your support in
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donations over the past year. Now it's time for today's episode of Yours Truly
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Johnny Doller The Piney Corners Matter. Well y'all listening, enjoyment, John lund
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As, Johnny Doller, pray Johnny, try to be limited. Oh hi
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you Bob. Let's want to read your letters. If you want to know
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who killed MONTHA. William can pay no mind to that person or persons unknown,
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but post to home real post to home. Well, I are signed
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with that famous old name I suppose yep, phenonymous old mark Piney Corner in
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Pennsylvania. Martha Williams was killed a month ago. Shot. We carried the
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ten thousand dollars policy honor. Who's the benefit therey her husband's Ben William he's
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a farmer there. The Corners jury brought in an open verdict. We're about
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the ready to pay off the policy. But now, how about it,
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Johnny Piney Corners. Huh, all right, Bob, provided I can find
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it on the map if I cut in for a few moments, Cellars,
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I hope it won't start an argument. But if you'd like to get into
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an argument, that will pay off. Nine times out of ten. You
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just bet someone that the Treasury Department has its own navy. Well, that
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happens to be true. It's a fact that the United States Coast Guard is
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an agency of the Treasury Department and has the job of seeing to it that
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any activity involving the coastal waters of our country is strictly within the law.
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The Coast Guard has many responsibilities to keep it busy. It assists ships and
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aircraft in distress, perfects game, seal and otter fisheries in Alaska, and
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maintains the International Ice Patrol in the North Atlantic. It operates lighthouses, light
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ships, beacons, and other aids to navigations, and removes wrecks and other
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endangers. In addition, the Coast Guard enforces laws and regulations relating to customs,
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navigation, neutrality, immigration, and quarantine, all peace time jobs under
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the supervision of the Treasury Department. During wartime, however, the Coast Guard
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is attached to the United States Navy and act directly under that branch of our
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military service. But whether it operates under the Treasury Department or the United States
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Navy, the Coast Guard is a mighty bulwark in the protection and defense of
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our country. Expense acouts permitted by special investigators Johnny Daddar to Home Office Price
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State Assurance Company, Limited, Hartford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting
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of expenditures during my investigation of the Piney Corners matter. I expected to come
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out on one forty eight dollars and forty cents transportation to Piney Corners, a
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town of twelve hundred people, one in, one restaurant, one general store,
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and one constable, a lantern jawed man of middle age named Jake Findley
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lived here all my life, mister Dollar, first murder we ever had right
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and know just how to go about dealing with it. Wow, maybe between
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us we can come up with something. I hope so Eve much I can
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give you in the way of fact, so who's they should call him?
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The woman's dead? That about it could have been maxed And even what do
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you mean in a hunters in the city come through your regular shoot at anything
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that moved. One of them might have done it unintensil then got scared and
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run a city hunter with an old fashioned squirrel rifle. That's what this bullet
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was fired from. Well, I said it could have been accidental. I
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didn't say it was. I reckon somebody men to kill her, all right,
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only trouble though, I can't figure anybody that might have had a reason
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too. How about this slug the ballistics boys make anything out of them?
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Nope, poo flattened? Do send it here to Philadelphia? They said?
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There wasn't any way of telling what particular rifle it came from, and putting
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everybody in the townships got one of them done? Nope, it's like I
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said, no clues because there are people, though, Jake, with different
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motives and different capabilities, and one of them didn't, not the one you're
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figuring. Most don't the omans dollar her husband Jermaine ben Willham, Why not?
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Ain't it type like you said about capabilities? He wouldn't kill anybody.
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You will see you when you meet him. I'm supposed we meet him,
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all right, firem is just outside of town. I'll drive you out there,
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but the townships kind of progle with money, and I will have to
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ask you to pay for the car. Ege. Then fair enough. Maybe
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we could make a couple of other calls too. I'd like to talk to
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the corner you already have. I'm the corner. Well, let's go expense
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to come at them. Two four dollars and fifty cents car expense from Pining
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Corners to the William's farm, or at least part way to the William's farm.
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After stopping several times to point out local landmarks, Constable suddenly pulled up
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beside two people who were building a rock wall along the road and introduced me
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to William's neighbors. But Killers, are you doing with your dollar? Mister
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Doller's an insurance investigator. IRA, he's checking into MARTA's death. Oh,
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I see step coming. Why yes, that's right, missus killer. That's
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just terrible, excited toy, sad thing for all of us. The Williams
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had been neighbors for years, good neighbors, and then this after all the
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other trouble a head. What sort of trouble, mister killers? Oh Martha's
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illness after that operation last year, she was almost an indlid. You might
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say Ben had the care for her. Long was doing for the house and
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running a farm too. About the time he spent caring for her, I
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have much times he spent hanging around that girl. What girl is that?
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Miss? All that little septies? Hagnsh I'm fraid my wife is just repeating
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gossips. She's heard mister dollar. Then Williams is a fine young man.
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Any stories to the contrary are i'd rumors? I know the girl mister dollars
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Florlene and wakes up at the piny corners in You can't talk to her when
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we get back to town. Good, I don't reckon. We better get
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on over the bend. Oh, by the way, missus killer, the
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company appreciated their letters. How do you know it with me? Oh?
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I just guess nice to have been both of you. Goodbye. It ain't
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much farther now. William's house is right ahead of it. You figure this
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is how the killer got away down this drawer. Huh yep, A fuz
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road back or left car couldn't have been seen from either. The killer plays
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for the Williams house of brush is too thick. Yeah that all right.
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Let's see now over about there is where I calculated the shot was fired from,
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right next to that survey marker. Come on off, show you what
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was the survey for. Well, they was figuring to build a turnpike through
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here last year. Finally picked someplace else a few months ago. Too bad,
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it made this land worth something. H Let's see Martha Williams was setting
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in that big front window there, then put the glass back in since it
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was long up dust. This killer was in the room, whether she brought
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over a cake or something. And somebody's standing above where we are now fired
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at us through the window with a rifle and killder and got away back down
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the draw there. And I figured, tell me something, Jake this waitress
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at the end Flora Lane, she's pretty well, taste different, she's pretty
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enough. Was it just a rumor? Or? Was Ben Singer, before
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his wife was killed, stopped buying the rest and once in a while stop
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coffee piece pie. He was doing all the cooking has only got mighty tired
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out of the reckon and what about now he's still saying he eats most of
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his evening meals. There, that's what you mean. How about his wife?
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Did she has any chance of getting well eventually? Not? According to
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the doctors it said, she'd be an invalid as long as she you're barking
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up the wrong creams doing it adds up Jack a pretty girl in the offering,
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young and alive, and then with his wife and a rundown farm.
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Now he wouldn't be the first man who's gone wrong trying to get out from
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under a burden like that. Yeah, not Ben, though it ain't his
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nature. Come on, let's go and talk to him. Don't see when
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you meet him. Why would missus Keeler go out of her way to get
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him into trouble sending that letter? Well, she's always been a good friend
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of mine. That she never has like Ben, I don't know why.
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That's just the way she is. I wouldn't put no stock in what she
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said. I don't see much sign of life. Well, Ben's in and
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out and never know. Sounds like somebody's coming around the house. I guess
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she's working out in the barn. And he was looking for all but comfortable
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all right, Tom, I'm fine. Mister Finley been around Nope, Nope,
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you ain't here. I've been working out back fixing a spreader. Mister
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Williams saint here though, and the idea when he'll be back. Nope,
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Nobody didn't say you can go in and set though if you want, maybe
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we will. Oh, well, this is mister Dollar, Tom's man.
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Tom does jobs for then some of the other farmers works around here and there
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I see were you working here the day missus Williams was killed. Tom,
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No, I wasn't eating near here, Anybody says Soto was lying. I
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was clear over on the other side. Town should a willion side and stellar.
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Okay, let's see you. Tim. Can't get kind of excited wh
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anything he's accused or anything not my own brains, you know. Has he
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ever been in trouble with the law? Well, petty stuff, shooting game
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out of season mostly see a good shot, dead shot, never missing.
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They waited in the parlor for a while the room where Martha Williams had dived.
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Gradually the sun dropped behind the hills, and then still hadn't come back.
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We finally left and droving the town. I arranged to meet Jake the
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Constable later at his office. Then I walked over to the Piny Corners Inn
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to eat dinner. There were half a dozen tables and the place all empty.
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I was the only customer. The waitress was pretty and friendly and fitted
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the description feels like it's turning out to be cold night, Yeah, sure
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does. See if I'm awful good part this evening? I think to like
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it all right? It's fine. You're a stranger in town, aren't you.
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Yeah, I'm here looking into the death of Marca Williams. I see,
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Are you by any chance, Flora Lane? Yes, yes I am,
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And I get sure the person I'm looking for him? He was really
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fast. I thought it would take longer. Oh, I knew you'd find
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out, of course, sooner or later. I was hoping then and I
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would at least have a little time to myself first. Well, it looks
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like it didn't work out that way. Never does. Once you've been knocked
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down, life never gives you another chance. Did Martha have a chance.
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I shouldn't have done anything to harm her marriage. Didn't let on to den
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how I felt, not once, not until after she'd been killed. That's
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considerate of you, now, I know he didn't give me one thought as
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long as she was alive. Not in his nature, so I've heard.
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Doesn't it mean anything at all when a person's acquitted, acquitted, acquitted of
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what we have that other I thought you knew. I thought that's what you
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Maybe you better tell me about it, Flora. I'll find out anyway,
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now that I know what to look for. That's you could easy. Four
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years ago in Chicago, I was working as housekeeper for a family. The
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wife died suddenly. They said, I did it because I wanted to marry
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the husband. Let's ride from lader. You know, many great men have
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attained the highest office in our land, the presidency of the United States.
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Can you guess the name of this man? He was third vice president to
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become president through the death of a man holding that office. A man of
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limited education, he was taught to read and to write by his wife.
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In eighteen sixty two, when Tennessee threatened to secede from the Union, he
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was appointed military governor of occupied Tennessee by President Lincoln. As president, by
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a threat of war, he stopped Napoleon's attempt to seize control of Mexico,
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and his administration saw the beginning of the Reconstruction era. A senator before he
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became president. He was re elected to the Senate after his presidential term of
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office was over. If you don't have his name by now here are two
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more clues. During his administration, Alaska was purchased from Russia, and Nebraska
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became a state. BHUWASI Andrew Johnson, seventeenth President of the United States.
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His life is part of your American heritage. And now, with our star
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Don Lund, we bring you the second act of your Kuli DONI dollars expensive
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God Adam three A dollar and sixty cents pi pro special. If the piny
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corners in I finished it, left and walked down the empty treats to the
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Constable's office. Pull up a chair, Miss Dollar for wa Brenner. Don't
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pull much heat. Oh thanks, Jake. You find Ben? No I
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met his girlfriend though, or I reckon you found out about her too from
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that look on your face. Yeah, she let the whole thing slipt.
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I thought I was already onto it. They don't have no bearing, Miss
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Dollar. Oh maybe not the way it stands, though, I could make
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out a pretty good case against Ben, except you haven't met him. It
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adds up Jake An then the blood wife, a pretty girl, a run
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down farm, and it doesn't look as though it's made a profit in years
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and a ten thousand dollar insurance policy just dangling. Yeah, in fact,
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it's even worth a picture if you look at it that way. What do
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you mean at farms? Not only run down, it's mortgage to the hills.
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Then needed money for that first operation, like years and the other days
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later the bank wouldn't touch it for what happened. Our dealer came through and
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helped him out seventy five hundred dollars, and farm wouldn't bring forty five hundred
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if it was sold tomorrow. That's lame. Ben feels pretty obligated, and
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ten thousand dollars would take the pressure off all the way around. Huh.
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I've been wondering about something. You said that nearly everybody in the township had
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one of those old fashioned squirrel rifles. What about Ben? You know,
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just a shotgun? Yeah, I saw it when we were out there hanging
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over the mantel, and I noticed something else at the same time. The
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hooks the gun was hanging on. They hadn't been put there for a shotgun.
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They were too far apart, but I think they'd fit a squirrel rifle
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just fine. Ben's not one to lie, and he told me he didn't
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have a rifle. But that's something else I've been setting by, miss Dollar.
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I kind of half remember seeing and squirrel was gone hanging over that mando
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in years gone by. Expense to count at them four four dollars and a
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half car expense for another trip with a constable out of the Williams Farm.
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Rights are run. Oh evening, Jake and Bend. Yeah, i'd like
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you to meet mister Dollar ally. I am, yeah, sort of cold
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out, eh, yes, dude, mind if we come inside Bend?
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Oh sure, sorry? Kay, Uh come on back to kitchen. That's
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the only room I keep apart. Uh. Pull a couple of chairs off
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on the table there. Thanks. I don't see if I can take this
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grape down a little in the draft started? You got some dinner about this
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way, Jake? Well, yeah, it's a matter of fact. We're
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here to talk to you. Ben. Oh, mister Dollar here is an
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investigator for the insurance company that's got the policy on Martha. He aims to
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find out who killed her. Oh, I see you've got any idea about
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it yet, mister Dollar, Yes, an idea, but nothing more than
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that. Mind telling me no, I don't see any reason not to put
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the cards on the table. The way things stack up right now, looks
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like maybe you killed her. Ben, that's alive. Well, I wouldn't
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harm her hair on her head, I said, looks like looks can be
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deceiving. What do you mean, mister Dollar? Has been checking here and
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there, been talking to people, the killers and Laura Lane. What's for
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I got to do with it? Nothing? Or she could be part of
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your reason? Why did you make her acquaint partly before the last week or
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two? What about missus killer? She's a friend of yours, isn't she
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Well, she's a good friend of Martha's. Why do you ask she thinks
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she kills your wife? She wrote a letter to the insurance company. Why
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she's crazy? I always do. She never liked me, but I didn't
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figure she'd go that far. Then whatever happened to that squirrel rifle you had
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around the house a week before Martha died? And somebody well, how'd you
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know? I had it? What happened to it? Ben? Jake?
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And I didn't like to be actually you asked me if I had a rifle.
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I said no, and I didn't. Then you didn't ask me if
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I had had one. Where's the rifle now, Ben Well, I don't
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know him. It's a dollar stole a week before before Martha was killed,
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and I ain't seen a since. You didn't see anything to me about it
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being stole. How Come you didn't report it because Martha asked me not to.
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She thought she knew who took it, and she wanted to give him
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a chance to make good. And she was like that, always give them
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people a chance. But after she was gone, after she'd been shot by
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that same kind of rifle, you still didn't report it because of howard to
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make things look reporting afterwards that the gun had been took before. Don't you
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see who had a chance to steal the rifle? Ben h, I don't
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know. The only ones I can think of it was in the house that
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week or Missus Keeler and Tom Smith? Thomas Smith? Shake? Is that
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the kid we met here this afternoon? Yep, he's taking things before Missus
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Dollar and he's crazy about guns. Ah, maybe we ought to check into
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it. It's around here back to feed store, Missus dollar kind of a
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shack on the corner of the lot. They let him use it in return
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for keeping an eye on the store at night. I think doors hit the
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corner if I recollected it's been all right now you stop right where you are.
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It's cosmol Finley, Tom mitchr dollars with me? All right? I
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figured it was somebody trying to break in, and now that you know it
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isn't. I wonder if I could have a look at that gun you're holding.
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Well, I reckoned so much dollars? Sure? Here thanks? You
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got the flash light? Say hey, yeah, just the second dollars here
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we are? Well, no luck, it's a twenty two? What you
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follows up to? Anyhow? Tom? What did you do with Ben Williams
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squirrel rifle? I'd find out? Never mind, what did you do with
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it? I ain't got it? Now? Where is it? I should
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it? I did a sort of missus keeler. You give me three dollars
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for it about three weeks ago. Three weeks that will make it a week
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after Martha Williams was shut and you took the gun the week before or she
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was shot? Well, Tom, well, what I don't know? What
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are you seeing I are struck, Missus Williams. I'm asking she was the
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best friend I ever had going on in this town. Ever treated me?
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Actually, somebody I wouldn't do enough to hurt her. She's died. That's
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gunning even been fired for three or four years. Maybe Miss Williams never did
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use it. Well, everything got rushed inside the barrel. For your sake,
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I hope it has expense the count out of five another four dollars and
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a half for the loan of Jake Finley's car to drive out to the Keeler
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farm and pick up the stolen rifles. As I walked up to the porch,
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the door opened, Oh evening, Missus Keeler. Oh hey s you,
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Misson Dollar. Is your husband at home? Oh? Yes, he's
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in there working on need to count of a mission dollar? About that letter,
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it was a terrible thing to do. Well. I don't really think
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ben mister Williams had anything to do with marcus death, and I don't hate
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him either in fact or not. That Iva isn't steady, reliable, but
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my life on a farm isn't easy for a woman at the best. She
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wants more than just cold hard profits and grasp him for more and more money.
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She gets silly notions. Killer, I don't know what's more, that's
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all, nothing more, And them wouldn't even pay any attention to me.
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Mister Dollar, you understand, yes, I think I do. You go
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right on here, and I have to take these preserves over, Missus Dahlia.
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I don't know why I told you all that. Good night, missus
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Killer, mister Killer, get here morning. Sorry to bother you this time.
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And I, oh, miss Dollar, just finishing up my last year's
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account books. What I do for you? Well, unless I've been misinformed,
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he bought a squirrel rifle from Tom Smith a while back. That's right
25:07
hanging narrow the fireplace. Three dollars bout a bargain, of course, I
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wouldn't be surprised if he showed it somewhere. He did from your next darn
25:15
neighbor, Ben Win him there not three dollars, and I'll take it over
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to Bend in the morning. I wonder if I could look at the gun,
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mister Keilly. We're trying to check on Tom's story out ahead. I'll
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just finish this total while you're doing it. We left time for chet.
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Fine. He went back to the ledges on the table in front of him,
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and I reached up and took the rifle down from the hooks over the
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mantel. Tom Smith had told the truth. There was rust in the barrel
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and on the breach. The gun hadn't been cleaned nor fired. But I
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saw something else too, the hooks over the fireplace. They were old and
25:53
rusted and set firmly into the mortar. They've been there for years. Find
25:57
out what you were after, mister dollars, more than I was after.
26:02
I know who killed Martha with him and Tom Smid. Murders are ordinarily committed
26:07
because of hate or for game. Now hate didn't seem to fit in this
26:11
case, but game did. Who benefits? At first glanced Ben William,
26:18
the beneficiary of the insurance policy. Oh, I don't believe it. No,
26:22
neither did I, and I completely didn't quite add up. Maybe it
26:26
was two of thiss. No, it wasn't Ben, mister killer. It
26:32
was somebody who stood to benefit even more than he did from that ten thousand
26:34
dollars policy. Who somebody who made a seventy five hundred dollars loan out of
26:40
kindness that in itself should have tipped me off, mister killer. As Jake
26:45
says, it wasn't in your nature, my nature, and of course it
26:49
wasn't a kindness. It was good business at the time because a turnpike was
26:56
being planned. It would make the farm work twice that loan. But the
27:00
road fell through and you were stuck with a worthless farm unless Ben could get
27:04
money to pay you. I imagine that's when you started thinking about murder.
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You're accusing me of murder, mister Dollar. Those hooks over the man would
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have been there a long time. Where's the rifle that hung there before you
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bought this one from Tom Smith? It might not have been one the neighbors
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will remember. Let me just to put down this final total and there.
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I had a good year last year, very good year. My daught it's
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going to be that good this year. Yeah. No, the great,
27:44
mister Dollar. It's like farming. You take risks on raw frosts, insect
27:48
Sometime you lose, make a mistake. I knew I'd made a mistake the
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second I pulled that trigger. We just matter of time. The gun was
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buried out behind the barn. Expensive cout out of six fifty seven dollars and
28:25
twenty cents, incidentals and transportation back to Hertford expensive count total one hundred twenty
28:30
dollars and seventy cents yours twenty Johnny Dollar, welcome back. Ye if you
28:52
do want to play that trivia game, you better not ask a funny if
29:00
the Treasury Department has a coast Guard as a navy and hope to get by
29:06
with the Coastguard, because if they say no, they're right, because the
29:11
Coastguard now reports under the Department of Homeland Security, and I believe that.
29:18
I believe that before that they reported under the Department of Transportation, which of
29:23
course didn't exist in nineteen fifty four. This was a fascinating episode. This
29:30
was made into one of the five part stories, and I think they changed
29:34
the location of the town to New England, which kind of worked with the
29:40
old time radio's view of small town New England. Is this place of quiet,
29:48
goodness and common sense. The sort of difference of opinion between the local
29:56
constable and Johnny dall are here, I think is it's classic. And I
30:03
love the way that the case works out, using in fact the constables method
30:08
in his way of thinking in order to be able to figure out and solve
30:14
this first murder in so many years in this small town. So some very
30:18
good dynamics, and I think this is going to be one of those that's
30:22
This was I think very good even on its own merits, but I think
30:26
stretched out over five parts, it's one of a couple of years since I
30:30
listened to it, I think it was even better. All right, Well,
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that we'll do it for today. We'll be back next Friday with another
30:38
episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Doller, and join us on Monday for the
30:44
Adventures of Frank Race. In the meantime, Sandrew comments to Boxlirtenic rate Detectives
30:48
not Net be sure and rate the show on iTunes. But the writer of
30:52
You or Not it is truly appreciated. But from Boise, Idaho, this
30:56
is your host, Adam Graham, signing off.