Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Charmona Matter (EP1459)

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Charmona Matter (EP1459) · 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 Greatdetectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at Radio
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Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash
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Radio Detectives. Well, before we do get started, I want to encourage
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you as you travel in twenty fifteen. Remember Johnny Dollar Air dot com.
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Johnny Dollar Air dot Com is a price on affiliate, so you get all
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the benefits of naming your own price on hotels, rental cars, airline tickets
1:08
and even more. And part of your purchase price goes to support the Great
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Detectives of Old Time Radio at no additional cost to you. So remember when
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you're making travel plans, remember Johnny Dollar Air dot Com. First. Well,
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now it's time for today's episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Original air
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date September the eighth, nineteen fifty seven, and the title is the Sharmona
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Manner from Hollywood. It's time now for Johnny Dollar. Johnny. This is
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Byron Kay at inter Coastal Maritime and Life in Boston. Hello, by remember
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Hurricane Audrey Bank on the line of part of June. Sure must have hit
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your company pretty high. Yes, but if anybody ever needed help, it
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was those people down in Louisiana and neighboring state. So we've paid up the
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claims just as fast as they come in, except for one. Oh what's
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that one? We received only a couple of days ago. Okay, bye,
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give me the Dolbanyle head for Louisiana on the first plane. Wrong direction,
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Johnny Huh Texas, No, Oklahoma, Kansas, Buffalo, New York.
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Why And I think you'd better run over here and let me give you
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some facts. Yeah, yeah, I think i'd better. Bob Bailey In
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the Exciting Adventures of a Man with the Action Packed Expense Account America's fabulous freelance
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insurance investigators, Truly Johnny Dollar and now act one of yours, Truly Johnny
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Dollar expense accounts invented by special Investigator Johnny Dollar at the inter Coastal Maritime and
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Life Insurance Company, Boston, Massachusetts, following as the kount of expenses incurred
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during my investigations, the Sharmona Matter expense account out of one eighteen forty five
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playing fair an incidental's Hartford to Boston and a cab the byron K's office in
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the little building. Glad to see you, Johnny. Hi, I'm glad
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you can take this on for me. I sit down, okay, thanks
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Ever hear of Charles Francis Keeley A Killey, a very much reformed man,
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Johnny who was apparently making a valiant try to live down some of the things
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he did earlier in his life, like why well he was a I guess
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you'd call him a promoter, stock manipulator and that sort of thing. The
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point is he made himself a lot of money a few years back, until
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the authorities, the Securities Exchange Commission and so forth put a stop to his
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fancy. Dally sounds like a real nice guy. In any event, he
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had enough money by the time he quit to live pretty well. Night Home,
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beautiful wife. Sixty two foot cruiser, and that, by the way,
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is our biggest problem. Oh, I wish my biggest problem is a
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sixty two foot cruiser. It is Johnny now, and tell me aw he
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is. Early in June he took his boat across Lake Erie to Detroit to
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have some work done on it at the Detroit yacht Basin. Then a couple
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of days before the end of the month, he started back for Buffalo,
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and that hurricane was moving north about That wasn't that? Yes, it was,
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And his failure to appear in Buffalo within a reasonable time didn't worry his
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wife a bit. Often before making that same trip, he'd stopped off in
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Cleveland to visit some of his old cronies. But by July twentieth she began
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to get worried. She called the friends in Cleveland. They hadn't seen him.
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Then she called the coastguard. No word. A few days later,
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a couple of the life preservers from his boat washed up on the south shore
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of Erie, near the little town of Lindsay. Ah. That enough for
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you, Johnny. How much insurance did he carry on himself? Thirty five
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thousand on the boat one hundred and six thousand. See okay, bye,
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I'm on my way. Expense accunt adam too. Transportation to Buffalo where I
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signed in at the Stadler Hotel, had him three five twenty for dinner,
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Then taxi that's at him for to the Kili home north of Delaware Park on
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Colvin Avenue. I don't know just when I'd expected Keey's wife to look like
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suffice it to say. I was pleasantly surprised. She was young, tall,
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blond, and beautiful, with eager, sparkling eyes and none of the
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signs of grief i'd anticipated. I don't know why you registered at the hotel,
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Johnny. May I call you, Johnny? Why? Uh? Sure?
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Please call me? MoMA? May I call you another dream? No?
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No, thanks, As I started to say, you could have stayed
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here. They had plenty of room as you can see. Yes, yes,
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this is a very beautiful house, MoMA. Yes, but so so
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empty. Now I get terribly lonely, Johnny. Well, I, of
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course I don't blame you, but I suppose we talk if you don't mind
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about the Johnny, if you have to be around for a few days,
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why don't you move out of that hotel? Oh? I'm sorry, I
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shouldn't say that. I yes, I'm just I'm sorry. It's all right,
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but I am lonely. Sure now, Mona, you realize this investigation
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is well, it's just routine, of course, Johnny. How As I
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understand every effort has been made to find your husband, of course, and
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to find the Tarmona Tremona the cruiser. Oh yes, it was a beautiful
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thing, Johnny, But now it's gone. And Paul, Yes, Paul
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Matthews is the pilot. Only he was more than that. He was very
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nice. Yeah. Well, oh, excuse me. Every time that phone
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rings, I hope it's some word, some news that perhaps well you know,
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I'm not sure that I do what but by all means answering, yes,
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yes, excuse me. There was something distinctly wrong with this whole setup
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that was for sure. This, this is she, this is Mona Keey.
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Perhaps Charles Keeley wasn't the only one in this family to arouse the specially
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say that again, especially now with nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars involved.
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Yes, how about Paul, I said, how about Paul? Then
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when she finally finished with a phone call, came a couple of other surprises.
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Johnny, he's all right. Huh that was the coast guard. They
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found him. He's all right. Isn't it wonderful? That was the real
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surprise, Not what she said isn't it wonderful? Or even the way she
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said it. But something deep back in her eyes that gave her away,
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that told me beyond the shadow of a doubt that she was lying through a
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teeth. Act two of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar in a moment.
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It is a rare event when a young man decides to leave civilization behind and
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hide himself away in the steaming jungle just so he can help his fellow humans
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in a remote corner of the world. The late doctor Tom Dooley did just
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that when he left the United States to help the sick and starving jungle people
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in the little kingdom of Leos in Southeast Asia. Doctor Dooley's story is well
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known to nearly everyone, and all over the world people talk of his little
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jungle hospital on stilts. That's where he treated the dread diseases of the jungle
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and trained native medical technicians so that they might help their own people. Doctor
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Dooley wrote and lectured to many people so that the work of his medical assistance
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program MEDICO might go on. It was not easy for someone so young and
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so talented to give up the bright lights of the city and plan himself down
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in an unknown jungle just for the purpose of helping unfortunate people he didn't even
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know. But through MEDICO, doctor Tom Dooley wanted to help people. He
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wanted to help people to help themselves. Today, the work of Medico is
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going forward in a number of countries besides Laos. Young men are being sent
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to the United States to be schooled in medicine with the idea of returning to
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their own countries to help their own people. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
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of medical supplies have been donated by American businessmen and pharmaceutical companies. Today,
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doctor Tom Dooley's work is being continued for him. It is helping to create
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better understanding. It is an injection of the spirit of freedom, the right
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of all men everywhere, and no act two of yours truly. Johnny Dollar
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and the Charmona Matter. The news that her husband was still alive came as
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quite a surprise to mon Achilles. Isn't it wonderful? She said, But
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I didn't believe that. She met her on the south shore of the Lake
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Johnny, near the little town of Lindsay, west of Cleveland. He was
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picked up on the beach by a farmer who's been caring for him ever since.
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Isn't it kind of funny that you haven't heard from him before that hurricane
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was a couple of months ago. He was out of his mind from the
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shock of what happened to him that the coast guard say anything about the Yaye,
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no, Johnny, I'm afraid that Charmona is at the bottom of Lake
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Erie or is he now in Cleveland? I'm a small private hospital. Well,
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hadn't you better go over there and get him bring him back here?
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I told the coast guard Mona, you're not really glad that he's been found,
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but he's still alive, are you? No, I'm not. I
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guess I never really loved Charles. I'm not sure he really loved me.
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He was a big shot, always on the town, doing a lot of
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entertaining, that sort of thing. I was, well, I was very
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pretty then. Kind of a business I set for him. When were you
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and Charles married, Mona nine years ago? It looks as though he's done
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pretty well by you. I never had any reason to complain about that.
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I mean, but the things he did to make his money, it was
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well, I guess it was legal, but it wasn't right. It was
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almost like stealing. The way he promoted a lot of worthless inventions, penny
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stocks, worthless real estate, that sort of thing. But he always did
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all right, and you well, who worries about conscience when things are going
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well? A lot of people mona. But then they made him stop his
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stops the things he would do, and Charles became very strange. He took
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up religion like a fanatic. Oh kept giving his money away to a lot
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of crazy charities, money I could have used, and he got moody.
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You'd go off alone for weeks at a time and pay no attention to me.
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That's what I meant when I said I was lonely, Johnny, not
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just since the accidents that lost the boat and Paul again. Don't you understand
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these crazy things have been going on for over a year now. That's why
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I'm not jumping with joy that Charles is alive. Do you blame me?
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Hadn't we better drive on over to Cleveland and get him? All right?
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I'll run upstairs and changed my clothes. Excuse me, I'll be ready in
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a minute. Maybe I should have felt a bit more sympathetic, but I
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didn't. Maybe Charles Katy did marry her simply because he could afford to keep
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a smart, pretty ornament around at his beck and call yeah, but the
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chances were she'd married him solely for the things as money could buy her.
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She took a long time changing her clothes, which didn't surprise me, so
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I poured myself a drink. I glanced over some of the magazines on the
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coffee table. I got up and steared out of the window for one of
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something better to do. Wandered about the room, wandered into the old panel
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den. I looked over the shelves of fine books, the gun collection,
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and the cabinet in the corner, and almost idly I reached out toward the
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leather top desk to shove back a slip of paper that stuck out of one
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of the drawers. Until I saw what it was. It was an unpaid
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bill several months old from an exclusive New York shop for some very expensive gowns,
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and inside the drawer was packed with unpaid bills, thousands of dollars worth
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of them, in statements bearing a polite firm warning to pay up her else
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no one a Killi's sweet charming wife had hoped she'd never hear from him again.
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Gone he was worth thirty five thousand to her, and the yacht one
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hundred and six thousand. Perhaps somehow mon Achille had even had a hand in
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the working of that yacht. I wanted, and I decided I didn't care
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much for people like this. But my meditations were suddenly interrupted by a sound
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in the doorway, and there she stood, a pretty little pearl handled twenty
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five caliber colt, and at davy gloved hand. I'm ready, Johnny,
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are you so? I see? Ready? For what moment? I guess
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that depends, doesn't it? Act three of yours? Truly, Johnny Dollar
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in a moment. Our flag now numbers fifty stars, and behind each star
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there stands yet another flag representing one of the fifty states, Wisconsin's state flag.
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There's the state model forward and the likeness of the state mascot, the
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Badger. The word badger was a nickname for the miners in southwest Wisconsin during
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the mining boom just prior to eighteen thirty. The people who came from Illinois
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mined only during the good season and left during the bad. They were called
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suckers, just like the fish in the streams. But the busy Wisconsinites,
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with either too little time to leave or to build a house, moved into
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abandoned mine shafts to live as badgers. The Wisconsin Banner pays tribute to these
15:28
industrious natives. Wisconsin State Flag, the flag of the thirtieth state to enter
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the Union, was adopted on April twenty sixth, nineteen thirteen, and now
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Act three of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and the Charmona Matters. One Achilles
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stood there in the door of the den a twenty five caliber Colt inner hand.
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But she'd caught me going through the drawer of a desk, through papers
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that showed only too clearly. While the loss in the storm of one hundred
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thousand dollar yacht might well have been carefully planned, why she wished that her
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husband had gone down with it. You shouldn't have done it, Johnny.
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You shouldn't have looked in that desk. Pretty good proof, isn't mona the
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record that Charmona was no accident. I don't know how your husband worked it
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and still manage to get back to shore alone. You don't know what you're
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talking about, but he almost didn't make it. If what you've told me
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is the truth, maybe that's because he didn't anticipate that the storms from Hurricane
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Audrey would hit Lake Erie. Maybe it's because I was soon trying out.
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Will you yes, when we drive over to the hospital in Cleveland and talk
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with him, if he's really there, Oh, he's there, all right,
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and you and I are going for a drive, but not to Cleveland.
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All right, I'll put that thing down, Mona. Sorry, sweetheart,
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that little thing in your hand is about as accurate as a slingshot.
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Now, why don't you know? Don't move. I still don't get it,
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though, Oh what? And I'm sure you must have been in with
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your husband on his deliberate sinking of the yacht. If you think Charles thank
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it deliberately, Johnny, you're all wrong, then I certainly don't get it
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because if oh no, wait a minute, you've made a couple of cracks
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about what was his name, Paul? Do you want to know the truth?
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Paul was the pilot for Charles, and there's been no word about him,
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so he must have gone down with the charm owner. That's why I'm
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lonely and see you the way I do. One of this whole thing smells
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worse than everything's young, and he was kind and he loved me. I
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was glad when they found the charm owner has gone down because the money for
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the mind and I could get free of Charles and Paul and I could.
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That's why I hope Charles was gone. Yeah, another thirty five thousand dollars
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for you. Here about the crummiest lot I've ever run into. Look at
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this morning here on the desk, what the solid gold table left? And
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they are besides you that expensive mirror? Are you talking about? Look?
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Why did you do that to get this gun up? Oh? A lot
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of good this would have done you with the safety honor, I'll kill you
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for this, Johney. No, I don't think so. And I don't
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think the police would like it if you try. Oh No, do you
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think they'd plain for trying to stop you from going through the papers in my
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desk? For shooting you? No, I didn't mean that. I couldn't
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have shot you. Johnny, h Johnny, before we go? Is there
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anything you'd like to tell me? Is there anything you'd like to tell me
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about while Charles really sank a charmer? No? And I don't think you'll
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ever know how and why the charm owner went down best. No, No,
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I'll stay right there now, I've got the gun. Remember, hello,
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Charlie. No, this is a friend of the family. Oh well,
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this is Harry Nelson. You gave me a real start. I thought,
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Charlie come back from his watery Great he has, mister Nelson. Yes,
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he's in the Cleveland hospital. He's okay. Oh well, then I'll
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talk to him when he gets back. You see, I'm the man who's
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going to give hm ninety eight thousands for the charmanna when he got her back
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from Detroit. Oh oh yeah, sure. But since the coastguard tells me
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she was a complete loss, naturally think good. That might deposit back.
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I'm sure you'll get it. Mister Nelson. Yeah, okay, mister uh
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what did you say? Your name is Bye? Who was that someone who
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threw some very interesting light on this whole manna? Come on, oh our
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little drive remember to Cleveland. During the five hour drive to Grace's hospital on
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the outskirts of Cleveland, I questioned her, using every trick I could.
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She refused to talk. The theory that Charles Kivy had deliberately sunk his yacht
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had gone up and smoke. If he had a buyer for it, he
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wouldn't need to try to collect the insurance on it. But I still knew
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the whole case was anything but lily white, and hope that Kivy could explain
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a few things. When we arrived at the hospital, there was a police
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lieutenant and Kivy's roman, a stenographer. When she saw them, Mona gasped
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slightly and sank into a chair, which the lieutenant promptly handcupped. Charles Kelley
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talked the whole case became crystal clear, and at the same time about his
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sordid as anything I'd ever heard. I should have realized what was up when
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Paul Matthew suddenly refused to make the trip back to Buffalo with me. He
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was my pilot, Lieutenant. I owned the coast Guard about him. As
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soon, sir, it was on the Coastguard's tip that we ordered Paul Matthews
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picked up. Shut her up, lieutenant, or get her out of here.
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As I started to say, they not only picked him up upon where
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he bought the various parts for the little device that you good device? What
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are you talking about, lieutenant? Let me tell him? Sure, go
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ahead, mister Kelly, the mistenographer will have it all down on the record.
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I should have known what was up when Paul suddenly decided not to go
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back with me just before sailing time. You see, I have suspected for
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some months that he and my wife behind my back. Shut up, you
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rotten little go on. I should have known, men, But I had
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to get the cruiser back to Buffalo to a friend who'd offered me cash for
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it, Harry Nelson. Yes, enough to get me back on my feet
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again. And I didn't know why Paul had left me to make the trip
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alone until the explosion about five hours out. Yes, mister dollar up forward
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where there couldn't possibly have been anything explosive, A bomb of some sort.
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What else? Know? It was luck, sheer luck that I was sailing
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in close, that i'd put on a life preserver because of the storm that
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was the tail end of the hurricane down south, you understand, Yes,
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And it was luck that she went down right off Palace Rock. Yeah.
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That's exactly where the Coast Guard divers found her early this morning, a hole
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as big as a house blown out of her front end. Yes, that
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storm, that hurricane may have taken a lot of lives, but it saved
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mine. All I can say is I'm glad there are courts to take care
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of situations. Like this, I myself would hate to have to jurning my
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hands any further. Yeah, it probably does take all kinds to make a
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world, but believe me, the world would be a lot better off without
22:11
some of those kinds. The claim on the yacht, Sure, it'll have
22:15
to be paid, and to a man I honestly think is trying to live
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a decent life for a change. Expense account total including incidentals and the trip
22:22
back to Hartford one O three eighty yours, truly, Johnny Dollar, our
22:40
star will return in just a moment. An old English proverb states that a
22:45
friend in need is a friend. Indeed, we've all heard it before,
22:48
but how many of us have realized the full import of its meaning. When
22:52
Jose laa valverde An eight year old Spanish boy, was in need, he
22:56
found out what real friendship could be. Stricken by a rare glandular disease,
23:02
little Jose began to lose his fight for survival when his vital supply of drugs
23:07
ran out. In a desperate call for help, an amateur radio operator named
23:11
Katte broadcast a weak signal over the European airwaves. The plea was picked up
23:17
by a ham operator Hans Ketterley in Germany, who relayed the urgent message to
23:21
a nearby United States Air Force unit. The American airmen quickly dug up the
23:26
only available drugs of the kind needed. They flew the mercy package by jet
23:30
to Madrid. From there, an ambulance screamed its urgent way one hundred ninety
23:34
miles to andduhar Jose's hometown. The medicine saved his life, but only temporarily.
23:42
Another source had to be found, and it was again in Germany.
23:47
The two rare drugs were again rushed by American jet fighter pilots, by helicopter
23:52
and by Air Force staff car through high winds and thunderstorms to the bedside of
23:56
the stricken boy. The medicine was given to Jose, and again he responded.
24:03
This same life and death drama was repeated elsewhere in Spain when men of
24:06
the United States Air Force came to the rescue of another young Spanish boy in
24:10
need of another rare drug. People to people giving is more than a program.
24:15
It is an active friendship. It is a fight for freedom, the
24:19
right of all men everywhere, yours truly, Johnny Dollar starring Bob Bailey,
24:33
originates in Hollywood. This is Dan cobberly speaking. This is the United States
25:02
Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. Welcome back. Well, this is an
26:15
episode I think that was affected by decreasing time restraints and also all those commercial
26:25
breaks. As the way that this turns out, for all intents and purposes,
26:30
Johnny could have just stayed in Hartford, though I will say it did
26:34
do a better job of showing a woman god and bad and kind of is
26:38
a little bit of a character piece on her than some other stories such as
26:44
the Emily Boradic matter. About any rate, we'll go ahead and get into
26:48
some listener comments and feedback and the way of recording schedule works. We have
26:55
actually comments regarding both the Missing Mouse matter and the Nick Shern matter, or
27:00
let us says. This is regarding the missing Mouse matter, this is hilarious
27:04
and poignant, and regarding our Nick sure and special Cynthia Lynn says, a
27:11
truly excellent episode, and indeed that was one of the best detective stories ever
27:19
and I actually rank it as the very best of the yours, truly,
27:23
Johnny Dollar Serial Era. All right, Well, that will do it for
27:27
today. We will be back tomorrow with a Dragnet and join us back here
27:33
next Friday for another episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. In the meanwhile,
27:37
send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on
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Twitter, Radio Attactives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook
27:47
dot com. Slash Radio Detectives from Boise, Idaho. This is your host,
27:51
Adam Grahamson and Off