Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at the Hotspot (EP1522)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at the Hotspot (EP1522) · 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, Adaho. 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. Before we do get started, I do want to let
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you know this program is brought to you by the financial support of our listeners.
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Thank you so much much for your support. Among the listeners we particularly
1:03
want to thank today are Lou and Linda and also Carrie as well as Michael
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who mailed in a donation. Thank you so much for your support. You
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can support the show at support dot Great Detectives dot net. Well, now
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it's time for today's episode of Crime and Peter Chambers. The original air date
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August thirty, first of nineteen fifty four and the title Murder at the Hotspot
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Fry. I'm Peter Chambers, created by Henry Kine, transcribed and starring as
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Peter Chambers. Dane Pluck. You're a private eye. That's your business.
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Anything else that's the lash. You're not an earlier, go to better but
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this night for a change. You've hit the sack fairly early. You've turned,
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you've twisted, you've beaten at the pillow, and finally you're firmly entwined
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with the first of your usual tortured nightmares. When oh well, yuh Peter
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Chamber, Oh yeah, uh hm, oh yeah, well all right,
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all right, already must I okay, I'll be there. Yeah, I'll
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get dressed and I'll be there as quickly as possible. Goodbye. Your midnight
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telephone caller is Miss Claire Connolly, press agent for a night club with the
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unusual name of the hot spot. She worried about a small event that took
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place there maybe a half hour ago, a little thing called murder. Seems
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that the main attraction at the club, or a band leader by name Johnny
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Silver, probably the most fabulously successful band leader in America, caught up with
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a slight but deadly dose of lead poisoning. You throw on some clothes and
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you hot footed to the hotspot. Claire Connolly is waiting for you outside.
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First thing I want you to do, Pete, I want you to look
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to joint over, just so you know what the setup is. Should have
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been looked over plenty by. Now, don't you have cops? Cops?
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The place is stinking with cops. She leads you in and you do what
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she asks you to do. You look the hotspot on fifty fourth and fifth,
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the joint that's really jumping, owned by an ex gangster named George Black,
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who doesn't have the gangster anymore for a living. This hotspot is doing
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better legitimately than he can ever do illegitimately, seems. The excitement is over
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and the suckers are backed, eating and drinking and having good time. Claire
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takes you up to the office and there's nobody there except you and Claire.
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Now you've seen the joint. I've seen it before. Money, I wanted
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you to get a good look at the layout. I've said I've seen it
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before, dim lighting a lot of atmosphere, bandstand for Johnny Silver's orchestra,
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and then the stage for Rida Do Praise dancing group, and then the customers
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seated around little tables and upstairs the balcony running all around the joint. That's
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where he got it from the balcony. How what and when maybe a half
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three quarters of an hour ago, Johnny Silver is on stage with his band
5:11
during his latest composition, talking back to the Blues. Suddenly there's a shot
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from the balcony and Johnny keels over dead and the gun was splung down from
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the balcony. Nobody touched it. The cops have it, and who perchance
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was on the balcony? No customers, if that's what you mean. This
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has been a comparatively quiet night. George Black seats nobody up here unless the
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downstairs is overcrowded. Let me see he gets it from upstairs here in the
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balcony. No customers, so its figures for an inside job. It's pretty
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good for this hour of the night. I'm good enough since it's exactly what
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the police say. Who's in charge of the shindy An old friend of yours
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and a good friend of yours, Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker. All the best,
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honey, absolutely the best. And now, my sweet, why me
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I beg you? Oh? Why pull me out of bed unless it's sort
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of to save your own skin. We've been friends, Pete, we were
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very good friends a long time ago. That was a long time ago.
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Now were friends. Well, it's it's been established that he was killed by
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George Black's gun for which George has a license. Of course, the gun
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was kept in an open drawer right here upstairs in this office. And I
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can come and go here as I please. So that makes you a suspect.
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Not entirely. I know that I was heard just threatening Johnny Silver last
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night, right here in this office by whom bye way to do Pray,
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let's hear about that. There's not much to hear. Found out that Johnny
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been doing a terrible thing. Eddie Gale, Eddie Gale. Oh, used
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to be a coming with Johnny's band, is a ranger and then he retired.
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No, yeah, and he's always here at the hot spot. He's
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here tonight. Anyway, when I found out what Johnny bean doon daddy,
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I talked to him, to Johnny here in his office. I'm Johnny's press
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agent too. Anyway, A shot of it was an argument. Johnny fired
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me, but there was now Suddenly he made a pass at me. He
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struggled, and I remember my saying you ought to be killed. Somebody ought
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to kill you. Maybe I ought to do it myself. Are threats?
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All right? Hey, I'm a real smart detective. Tonight, in the
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heat of excitement, people say things like that without meaning them anyway. Reader
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do pray walk in just the dressed as usual in that selfry dancing costume of
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hers. She heard me, so she gives the cops an air full no
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question why. I thought you too are friends, not anymore. When she
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saw him testing with Johnny. Oh you mean that the reader, the prey
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and Johnny Silver, I thought that was a press agent's concoction. It was
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that she began to believe in notices happens. It's a real cock eyed set
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up. George Black brought her here from the West Coast because he's nuts about
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her. He tells me to play up a phony romance between Johnny and Reader
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for the newspapers. She really starts going for Johnny. George starts to do
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with slow burn Johnny. Johnny suddenly starts going for me, a real merry
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go round and a deadly one. But I didn't kill him. Pete believed
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me. What about that Eddie Gale deal? What did he tell you?
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But right there you get an interruption, an interruption in tandem George Black and
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Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker. Well, Pete Chambers, I'll go to my grave
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and you'll pop up. What are you doing here? Business? Former retainer
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by missus Claire Connolly's services to be rendered. She may need those services.
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I'd like to talk with you, Miss Conley outside please, Lieutenant so you're
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left alone with George Black. George Black, big, powerful and slightly sinister.
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Well, as long as you hear Pal, you can work for me
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too. Like how thanks? So hey are Pal? I'll take five hundred
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bucks worth of your services and the nature of such services. Pal keeping me
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out of the jam jar? How farre you in the jam jar? Look?
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My gun killed him. Everybody around here knows. I hated his guts.
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So that's why, Daddy, Because I don't like nobody fiddling with my
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girl, Rita Duprey. Who else? Everybody always blames a guy rather than
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a gal. I get this straight. I don't care about everybody. I
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care about me. I'm stuck on Rita, so I can't blame her,
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but that Johnny Silver. I warned him to lay off, like killing a
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fly, to layoff my glasses. Oh excuse me, read a baby,
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Come on in. Co'm on in, sweetie reader do prey. Nobody's been
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stacked like that since clear Patra black hair, black eyes a patrician nosed,
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listening, red lips, and a costume while we so dance costume, red
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gloves to the elbows, red silk stockings of the hips and the rest of
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it all red sequins and briefer than a shrunken bikini. Beautiful, ain't she?
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Yeah? She always walked around like this and the costume. Yes,
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I do. It's crazy to keep stranging, Yeah, it's crazy. My
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dance group goes on eight times during the evening to do pray. Peter Chain,
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Oh no, Father, George, were well acquainted. Oh don't,
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don't, don't start with that jealousy jiggle. I knew her from way back
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before she went to the West Coast, before she met you. That's true.
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We've been acquainted for much time, George, George Black, Yeah,
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come on out here. My boys are back in the lab. I want
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to talk to you about the gun. Okay, lieutenant okay, and so
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as must death, and sooner or later, you and I are alone a
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case with we my love. You can drop that phony French accent. So
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I knew you when you were read of Duberman and you were living in the
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Bronx. I am ready to do pray and I was born in Terry.
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You are reader Duberman, you were born in the Bronx. I'm a first
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dass and you are death on wheels to all men, you think, except
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I got a hunch to Johnny Silver, who in turn was death on wheels
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to all women. The beast. You can't take it. You know,
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you had a reputation that way, thin skin, and when you riled up,
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then thish out. But you can't take it with Manna. Johnny boy
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pushed you around. I know what you're trying to do, but you're not
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going to trap me, not me. I did not feel him. Ask
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about that, Claire, how she threatened him. I know all about that,
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So do not try to get funny with me. So I speak to
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George, and then they find you in the river and you're wearing a cement
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foot. So suer old fashion reading George Black, He is an old fashioned
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man. Then you and Parker are sitting in a secluded spot listening to the
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strains of Johnny Silver's music without minute of Johnny Silver and lapping up some of
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George Black scotch on the house. The minute after he was shut rankly.
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Simultaneously, the gun was thrown from the balcony. One of the waiters saw
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it coming down. He stood guard over it. Nobody touched it till we
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Right now, let me get the picture, Louis. Johnny Silver is on
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the band stand playing a Reami music. Right he gets shot from the balcony.
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One shot and he's dead. And immediately the gun is flung down George
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Black's gun, and a waiter stands guard over it until the cops come.
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Very good, Jude, you may take two giant steps finger prints on the
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gun. Louis, nothing had a one clean is a whistle in your suspects.
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No customers on the balcony. Strictly an inside job. Only four people
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had any interest in Johnny Silver. George Reader, Claire and Eddie Gie Yeah
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yeah, Eddie, Gail, Pete. Guess what's the word on him?
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I give up only yesterday right in this joint. I got this from two
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different waiters. Shot. What he was heard to say about Johnny Silver.
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I'm gonna get that bum. I'm gonna get him good. That's what he
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was heard to say. Are you sure you don't want to drink? Louis,
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No, thanks, Pete, Now I'm working. That's what he said.
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I'm going to get that bum. I'm going to get him good.
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Did he have access to George Black's gun? Oh, they all had access.
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He kept it in his office and a desk drawer drawer was open.
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Well did you question him this, Eddie Gale. A he's a tough not
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to handle. Nervous little guys always have loaded clammed with me state clam you
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mind if I try. I wish you would this one time. I really
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wish you would. You know these musician types better than I do. Is
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he around? Yeah? Sure? See you over there, corner table,
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Little Eddie Gale going to get lost soul. You meander over and you pull
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up a chair. Hi, promise. That's a pleasure to have some pleasurable
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company you. I like, Hey, waiter, drink for my friend here,
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a couple of drinks from my friend and a couple of drinks from my
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friend's friend. That's me, Eddie Gale, neatly dressed in sharp clothes,
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his shirt collar long and billowy. Eddie Gale, pale as death. This
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small wolf smile infinitely, said Eddie Gale. Small, slender, intense.
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You get the feeling you're near a high explosive with the fuse going fast.
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Kelly barently got it at Jenny Silvera. H they're my glass. Look they're
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pointing the finger at you, pal, Yeah, first pointing the finger at
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me. Cops, Johnny's knockloff. He got it from George Black's gun.
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That's George Black's headache. Oh no, no, no, guy wouldn't use
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his own gun. Yeah, sure he would if he wanted to. As
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a cover up. Then he says, somebody clipped it out of his desk
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drawer. That drawer was always open, so it was the door to his
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office. Huh, you see what I mean? See what you mean?
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No, I don't get you. Well, you knew where the gun was.
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You knew the office door was open and the desk drawer. Yeah,
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but you knew your way around this club, so you can get up to
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the balcony. Plus plus what plus the cops have a report. They're only
15:58
yesterday you said, I'm going to get that bum and I'm going to get
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him good. And wait a minute, wait a minute, I was going
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to shoot lawyers at that bumb, not bullets for what. Well, I
16:07
mentioned some beef you had against them, but you didn't say what is it?
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Because he fired you out of the band. I shouldn't be much.
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Any band would be glad to grab you. You're a great drummer and a
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great arranger. Thanks, it ain't that, but you haven't been working.
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That's only because it don't want to work. I don't need to. See,
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I got plenty of scratch Dad. And what's the beef against Johnny Silver?
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That bum was a crook? What he steal? You know them songs
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Johnny's been writing, talking back to the Blues, all of them, Johnny
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Silver, the great New Gershwin, the new Porter, the new Oven Berlin.
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Yeah, I wrote him. You wrote them me. I wrote them
16:44
every place of Tom You kidding Ohe the dye Dad, And he was a
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funny, kind of crooked sweet Johnny Silver stole my soul, that's what he'd
16:52
done. But he gave me. Had to scroll do that a little slower.
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Ready. Oh, once when I was with the band, See,
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I wrote his song and he thought it was great. Look, he says,
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look at it, boy, He said, it's great, it's groovy,
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it's got smouts. But you gotta have weight to throw around in the
17:03
music publishing world. Then I got the way that he boy, meaning he
17:07
had a friend Sam August, you know August Records. August she you Well.
17:11
Anyways, he brings the song to Sam. August says he wrote it,
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he Johnny Silver, and Sam publishes. That's how the hold deal started.
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All his songs, you mean, all the Johnny Silvers, And I
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said one of them, Hy, gimme half the props right in the button.
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But after a while that's no good and the money doesn't cover it.
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If you got cried, if you got a soul pushing inside of you,
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you begin to crack up. I guess. So a person needs recognition.
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That's it, Dad, recognition, that's a word. Did What did I
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get? Bumpkers? That's what I got? Money? Uh, after a
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while, you begin to get sick. So yesterday we had a showdown.
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I wanted to you know what you said? Full credit recognition? You know
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what he told me? No, that's just what he said. No.
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Plus, he said that if I gave him the gate, he'd to it
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that I'd never have a song published in this here town. He said,
18:07
I was getting half the loop. So what was I squawking about? Yeah?
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But with fireworks, not firearms, lawyers not bullets. Well that's mystore,
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Shamus me a wise guy. All of a sudden, I'm a little
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baby in a way. She was sure. Sure, I told her,
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and she went to bed for me. So what is he do? He
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fires there is a press agent. Then he makes a pass at her.
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He was getting sick and tired of Reader du pray. Let me tell you
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something. That guy was a big knock in that dirty Meanwhile, Parker is
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working hard and he's beginning to steam like a caldron. He puts them over
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the grill, one after another until they're assistling, Reader duprey. I did
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not Yes, I will admit to a bad temper. I will admit to
19:03
jealousy. I would admit that he was finished with me, that I was
19:07
king, but I did not feel him. George Black, Yeah, yeah,
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it was my gun. Sure, I was plenty of sore at that
19:14
rat. Maybe I would have come around up putting the boots to the guy,
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but I didn't come around to with lieutenant. Somebody did me the favor
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first. Nobody fiddles around with a chick that belongs to George Black. Claire
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Connolly, Yeah, I threatened him. I said the words, but I
19:30
didn't mean them literally. That's what I said. I said somebody ought to
19:33
kill you, and maybe I ought to do it myself. I was excited
19:37
that they were just words, words, and Eddie Gaale, yeah, that
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I threatened nobody. It was fireworks. I was gonna throw out, I'm
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not firearms, lawyers, court proceedings, attachments gone, and she's you know
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what I mean, Dad? The works Parker's barbecue breaks up and everybody scatters.
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And when you finally wander into George's office, Rita Duprey is there,
20:03
seated gorgeous and her lovely costume, long legs up on the desk. If
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you think you're going to talk to me top fast, I'm resting my legs.
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So I see our last show is going on right away. Your last
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show has gone on? What kind of a crack is that? No crack,
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sister, except that you murdered the guy trying to trap me again?
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You you will not. You trapped yourself, sister. The lieutenant's been a
20:30
little busy, but as soon as he simmers down and it'll hit him just
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like it hit me. And then baffo, you're in the can and just
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what hit you? Or people had a finger on Johnny Silver, You,
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Eddie Gale, George Black and Claire Conley. You because you hated the guy
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he made a punk out of you. Trusted you aside, like the very
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real dish rag shut up, all suspects, but no fingerprints on the gun
21:00
and Atlanta downstairs practically simultaneously with the shooting. Nobody had time to wipe that
21:07
gun. That's conclusive, not one single thing of bench. You want to
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know why, I think I know you bet your boots. You do.
21:17
Because one of the suspects was wearing gloves all the time. It's part of
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her costume. Okay, that's all for you, fella. George Black has
21:30
slipped in and Georgie's wearing her gun in his fist and nasty looking little automatic.
21:37
All right, Shamus, you're done, your bitch, You're through.
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Did you know she killed him, Georgie? I don't know it yet,
21:45
did your baby? Yes? Yes, I chilled him. Why because I
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loved him, Because he pushed me around, because he laughed at me,
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because when I pleaded with him, he spot up me, spot in mine
21:57
honey honey or French accent slipping Shut up, shamush baby, Come here,
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don't you worry about sher luck here, I don't worry about nobody. See,
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I'll get you out of this issue. And Ei, there's troop of
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South America. I got context, baby, the biggest and the best,
22:15
But you got no brains, Georgie, poise you would make you an accessory.
22:18
You two would be on the land for the rest of your lives,
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righte grater, Come here? Where are you going? I want to be
22:23
honest for once in my life. I don't love you, George. I
22:29
want you to know that, baby, I know everything. You leave that
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to me as long as you're like me, Just as long as you're like
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me a little bit. Why you're sweet, George. But I can't do
22:41
if you're going to do it. This is the time when they start making
22:45
with the romance talk. They're off guard, so you jump, you missed
22:57
you. Reader's down on the floor. By the time Parker and his voice
23:03
pile in, readers did George is standing over her preparator. Then it's over
23:12
and Parker's talking to you. That's funny how things work out. She gets
23:17
as quick in insured instead of waiting for trial and get it from the state
23:21
anyway. George Black have been trying to pin a rep on him for a
23:25
long time now, he's pinned the rep on himself. Legal, doubleheaded,
23:32
funny, how things work out. Yeah, love, it's funny, it's
23:36
hilarious. You can just die laughing. And there you've had Crime and pet
23:59
Her Chambers. Dane Clark was starred as Peter Chambers. Crime and Peter Chambers
24:12
Transcribed was created and written by Henry Kane. Others in the cast were Bill
24:17
zucker Heard as Lieutenant Parker, Rita Lynn as Claire, and Donald Buca as
24:22
Eddie. It was directed by Fred Wade. And this is Fred Collins inviting
24:26
you to tune in next week's same time, same station for Dane Clark in
24:30
Crime and Peter Chambers. This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television
25:45
Service except and so SP except as welcome back. One thing I haven't commented
27:07
much during our run through Crime and Peter Chambers is how much I appreciate the
27:11
music on this show. It used to be back in the back in the
27:22
nineteen fifties that the music for Peter Chambers, or i should say for detective
27:30
shows, it was all the same, the transfer, the same transition music.
27:37
You'd have different opening music, but for all the transitions it'd be exactly
27:41
the same thing. Whether it was not Beat or Dangerous Assignment, or the
27:47
man called X or any program not called Dragnet, there were the same beats,
27:52
the same little transition things. One thing I love about Peter Chambers is
27:59
that it's not like that in this episode particularly makes some great use of music
28:04
to help establish mood and concept. It's really very nicely done, so that's
28:11
one thing I did appreciate about it. Of course, I should be clear.
28:15
Next week is actually our very last episode of Crime and Peter Chambers,
28:21
unless a couple of the lost episodes common to existence, which could happen,
28:25
as will be revisiting a series we previously finished, but we have more episodes
28:30
for and I'll let you know which one next week. That of course is
28:34
after Man from Homicide, which will be coming do you in two weeks,
28:38
But in five weeks we'll be revisiting an old series with episodes we didn't have
28:45
access to before, so we'll keep you posted on that, all right.
28:48
Well, on to some listener comments and feedback. Lou Wright's congratulations, keep
28:53
up the good work. Congratulations auctions on ten thousand uniques. Well, thanks
28:59
so much. Low Michael mails in, thanks for doing a great job ps.
29:06
Do you have any of the Whistler materials? The Whistler radio programs are
29:11
actually available archive dot org. I generally for the listener support extras. I
29:19
do actually quite a few Whistler episodes. It's not something I like to listen
29:26
to every week, but they are certainly well done stories with some clever twist
29:33
and some great actors. Castle is not always complete, but anytime I have
29:41
a detective actor and he appeared on the Whistler, we definitely want to work
29:45
that in there. There, of course, were Whistler movies and even a
29:49
Whistler TV show. I don't have any access to them. There actually still
29:53
under copyright. Well, that will actually do it for today. We will
29:57
be back tomorrow with the Adventures of Philip Marlowe and join us back here next
30:03
Tuesday for the last episode of Crime and Peter Chambers. In the meantime,
30:08
send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on
30:14
Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook. But
30:18
from Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Grahamson and off