Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / A Life in Your Hands: The Randall Marsden Murder (EP0868)

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A Life in Your Hands: The Randall Marsden Murder (EP0868) · 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 you by the financial support
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of our listeners. Thanks so much for your support, and today's episode of
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A Wife in Your Hand partially transcribe The National Broadcasting Company presents Earl Stanley Gardner's
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A Life in Your Hand? Where was the gun? Were there two shots
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who ran through the hall? Listen while we place A Life in your Hand.
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You never know when you step from the safety of your home when you
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may witness a violent death and be called upon to testify as to what you
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saw and heard. Murder is a dark enigma that strikes fear into the heart
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of man. Strange, baffling, mysterious, but the darkest crime. One
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man can invent, another man can unravel. Such a man is Jonathan Kegg,
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created by Earl Stanley Gardner, the world's most popular writer of mysteries,
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creator of Perry Mason, doug Selby an other outstanding characters. Ladies and gentlemen.
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Mister Jonathan Kay, have you ever seen an automobile accident and perhaps driven
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away hurriedly? Some day that accident may be a crime, even resulting in
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a person's death. I hope then that you will remember what you saw and
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heard, or it will be your duty as a citizen to relate as a
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witness, your recollection of what took place. You never know even now,
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somewhere in the city there may be a crime. Almost six o'clock, Curan,
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Why couldn't Randall come up here to your apartment? Still don't understand,
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do you? You're the one that's got to impress Randall. I never thought
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even a step brother would be such an ogre. He's waiting now, Karen.
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We better be getting over to the cottage ready, Oh all right?
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You want to leave the radio on? We interrupt this program to bring him
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a message from our news room. What's that killer who has been a waiting
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execution in the county jail? Escape to half hour ago? Escape authority has
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believed him to be armed after supper as the prisoners were going back. Who
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wasn't he the one that job isn't going to hurt his Come on, it's
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only a couple of doors down the street to Randall's. This tunnel will be
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in an uproar till they catch Phillips. And he is the one your step
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brother convicted, isn't he? Yeah? Phillips killed the cup. Randall's should
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depended on him. Randall, honey, he is a big wheel. Does
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everything that goes on in the Marston? Tell me have to have his old
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kay? If it doesn't we who are you sure you're old enough to know
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your own mind about one to marry me? Hunney? But I also know
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Randall if he doesn't want me to do something, he finds ways. Look
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here, Wally, is it going to be like this all your life?
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Our lives? Any we turn in here because of it? Is? I
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fell in love with you because well, not because you're the brother of Assistant
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Prosecutor Randall Marston. Remember that we go through the apartment house here, Thank
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you, dear. I've got to start talking up to him, haven't I?
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That's more like it, miss Death? If you love dark looking down
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through the hall the other side of this door, no wrong key? Why
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can't we just ring his door? Bell. Which one is it at the
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bottom? Yeah, I've got it, Randall market and real that's it.
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Got to start talking up to him. That's the stuff cooking up to him.
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Right on through here to the back yard. Oh that's fool. Door
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needs a new air breaks. The people who live in this first floor apartment.
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I don't know mister and missus Elswick out here. See there's Randall's cutting,
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Oh, glass and shrubs in the yard and and everything. It used
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to be a garage, so Randall made a house out of it. Put
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that fence up along the alley. Oh, you have to walk across the
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lawn when you come in this way. Yes, the other entrances through the
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back gate. I heard it on the radio. Sounds like he's got company,
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Randall. If you why on the phone? Where were you? Repeats
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in a minute? Avert or wherever's that? Oh? So I know,
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Philippy Andrew. I'm the one who spit all her flat. I remember.
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But you got the whole police force assent Edgar. You're the one who would
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be scared. Look, lieutenant, my house is hard to find. You
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can't even see it from the street. It's on the alley. He wouldn't
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know where it is. You boys, get on your horse and wait till
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midnight. If you haven't got him by then, then you said you guy?
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Okay, all right again, I stayed home and keep the police radio
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on. Sure I've got a gun. Okay, goodbye? Getting out a
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time is what Phillips has got on his mind. Welly, Karen, this
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is my brother Random. How do you do Karen? Random? Haven't we
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met before somewhere? I don't thing? So maybe you canteracted Carlos club Randall.
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Well, he's been talking about you. He's been talking about you too.
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Did you know you can do no wrong? Kill me? Karen?
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How could a girl like you go for my little brother? He's mister Martin
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who you know, isn't she terrific? Randall? Wally has nothing to offer
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you, Randall? Have you ever thought of Wally as anyone but your little
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brother? You'd ever shown any signs you think he's going to grow up?
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Because he wants to get married? I don't see why not? After all?
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Right? Welly I get it? Now sell your name? Robert Roberts.
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My eyes it's oh you haven't told no I see you? Hi?
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What are you talking about? What's wrong? I might have known Leavers for
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a while. La. I want to talk to Karen along. But Randall,
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do you want me to leave honey by Molly? She was Randall's tales
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one. All right, Randall, I'm going, but I want you to
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know one thing. That's some of yours bearing downe and my neck is getting
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so it hurts, Oh, miss Reporto, how much? Leave Wally alone?
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You can't buy me off, Randall Martin, I'm not for sale.
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Go as high as you like. It won't be any different. You're in
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love, yes right I am. Reporters love money. I don't care how
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they get it. I'll put you up to hooking my kid brother. I
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was born a report. Why do you think I changed my name? Help
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not to be known as one? My father was out husband. He was
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a good man, but nobody would ever believe it with that name. I
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can see the headlines now. Assistant prosecutor's kid brother takes bride from notorious hoodlum
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family. Won't that be just dandy when I run for prosecutor? Why why
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you're not thinking about Wally one bit? Only yourself, your precious political career.
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Anyway, Wally's only your step brother. Won't have you marrying Wally.
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So this is what the big Randall is really not? Oh you care about
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his winning an election? It's not the shout my neighbors, the iosworth maybe
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home, oh the one because his brother is nothing. But it's him good
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after all, No time Randall Mark. And while he's going to learn how
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to stand up to you all my life, how's he going to feel when
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he knows it's only your future you're interested in, Wally. I'll drop you,
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Cole when he finds out about your distinguished connections. Don't bother to tell
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him. I'll tell him myself. You haven't got the nerve, would you
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just wait? I'll put him wise to what a scout teaching shod is wonderful?
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Step brother, you district man answering the description of Eddie Philip seen tab
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ring with a parked car and thirteen hundred flock on North Kerry Girls and District
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thirty Investigators, Girls and District thirty Investigators. Life would be a lot simpler
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for a lot of people if Eddie Phillips found you lacks on the job I've
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done. I'm getting out of this soon as soon as the first show is
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over. Allee Walling believe me, miss her big brother Randall, you haven't
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heard the last of us yet. Well, hi, Daddy, this is
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another Dall's words. Yes, I know it's almost midnight, but Jerry went
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to the drugs and I was trying to get you all day. Uh huh?
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What was it so I didn't wake you up? Did you know?
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We have you down for a car to go around and pick up stuff for
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the rummis Wait, that sounds like I'm just throwing crockery in the cortege shout
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there, Oh, I'll maybe a card back five. Well, anyway,
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Dotty, what I wanted to ask you was if you was oh down that
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backgate anyway? What's that? Oh? I am sorry, Daddy. Can
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can you do some driving around tomorrow for I think? Wait a minute,
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Oh, that must be Jerry out in the best of you. Excuse me,
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I better release the door. Is that nice, Doddy? It wasn't
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Jerry at all. So what's the woman going back to the Coddy? Now?
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Now? I bought that car, Doddy. We needed to make collections
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tom up for the rum and s, and I was it was a shot
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Donny, Donny, I'll call you in the morning. Something mighty peculiar is
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going on m every side the Casey at random match it's too late, h
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view of the prompt apprehension of Ny Philip Gooty at the time of the murderer
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of Randall Markton or mister Corner is yes, this cake, I would like
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your permission to enter this case. As in the makers curia is a fairly
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obvious proceeding with any obvious conclusions. But mister Corner, I am greatly puzzled
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by some points from the evidence. I'm sure you wouldn't like to see a
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man convicted of a crime he may not have committed, even though he would
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be guilty of another murder. Yeah, because of your reputation. Thanks,
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members of the jury, I'd like you to know that in the meekest cury,
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I is a friend of the court. He helps us to learn the
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truth. He represents either the defendant nor the prosecute. The gig is quite
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an expert at cross examination. Thank you, mister Corner. Randall Marston his
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body was discovered not long after midnight. All the cases. The guard do
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there at twelve found the body and Eddie Phillips was picked up shortly after unarmed.
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Right, there's no doubt it's the cause of death. And what whoever
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mister willis from a thirty perward involver Andrews Marston's pack thank him as corner.
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I'd like to call the stepbrother of the dead man, Wally Marston, mister
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Marston, when did you last see your brother alive? About? Did he
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seem upset over Phillip's escape? I heard him tell a police that Eddie Phillips
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would never be able to find where he lived. Then he wasn't concerned.
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When Karen and I got there, he was refusing to let the police in
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the guard Did he say why he believed Phillips couldn't find him? The cottage
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is pretty hard to find if you don't know where it is. Isn't his
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address in the phone book? Yes, but his cottage is on the back
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of the lot behind the main apartment building and closed in the backyard. Not
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entirely. The back wall of the cottage looks out on the alley like a
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garage. It was a garage until Randall made it over. Then the real
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entrance was to the alley. No. Oh, there's a high wooden fence
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that shuts in the cottage and the yard. Any way, to get through
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it. There's a gate, but we keep it locked. Who had keys
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to the gate? Randall had one, and sis and I am and my
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sister. We keep ours in our apartment. And the tenants in the building
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I don't know. I suppose they have. Who are the tenants? Mister
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and missus Ellsworth live on the first floor and on the second. There's a
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small business firm and consulting engineers on the top floor. He's away a lot.
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Was he home the last time you saw Randall? I don't know.
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I didn't notice, so his lights were Why didn't you live with your brother
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Wally? He just when I'm living there in the cottage after he and his
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wife were divorced. I lived with my sister a couple of doors up the
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street. Where is your sister? She's out of time most of the time
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she traveled. Were you on good terms with your brother? Why? I
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Well, he wasn't going to let me get married, aren't you over twenty
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one? Twenty five? But Randall always had okay everything I wanted to do.
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I see what happened when you last saw your brother alive? When I
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took Karen there to meet him. Yeah, he took a notion he wanted
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to talk to Karen alone, so I left. Why did he want you
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to live? I he just said he wanted to talk to Karen. But
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did you protest? Or yes? Where did you spend the rest of the
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evening? I saw Karen after her first show at Carlos, then I went
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home. What time did you get home? About eleven thirty? Maybe a
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little later. By the way, Wally, did Randall have a gun?
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A gun? I think so. Yes. He used to go down to
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the police range and practice. Where was it the last time you saw it?
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It was on the end table beside his easy chair. Thank you,
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mister Marston, you may step down. I'd like to call miss Karen Roberts.
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Miss Roberts, why didn't Randall want his brother to marry you? Because?
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Do I have to tell we're trying to get at the truth, Miss
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Roberts, Randall's heady. You wouldn't have me in the family because he he
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wanted to run for prosecuting. What difference would having you and the family make?
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Mister Keg, my name isn't Robin. No hip. Reporto, reporto.
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You're related to al REPORTO only distance? Please, I can't help it
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of course not. Did Randall make a scene? Well, he offered me
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money, quite a lot to get out of Wally's lun and you refuse?
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No, I did, missus tag he was only thinking of himself. I
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see what did he do when you refused? Threatened to tell Wally? I
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told him not to bother. I'd tell him myself. Did you yes?
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Right after my first show at the club, he was angry at you know,
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you were rather angry with Randall yourself? Weren't you, Miss Roberts,
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who wouldn't be I told him it was too bad that Eddie Phillips hadn't already
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found him. Tell me, miss Roberts. Did Randall give any indication he
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was afraid that Phillips might find him? I don't think so. But after
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Wally left, he turned on the police radio. Was there a word of
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Phillips? Something about a man who looked like Phillips? How did Randall act?
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He got a gun out of his desk and took off the tasty test?
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What did you do? I got out? Were you angry? I
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was upset? Or you was still upset when you went back later? No?
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I when did you go back? Randall was already dead when I got
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there, he was already dead. How did you get in? I rang
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and lang and nobody answered. I found it on the hall door and the
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buzzer finally released. What time was this? About twelve? I went back
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to the cottage and there he was on the floor. Did you see a
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gun? Why? I didn't see anything but Randall on the floor and a
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lamp all mass Why didn't you call the police? I was scared. I
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ran I could back out of the street. Thank you, Miss Roberts.
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This corner. I like to call the man who discovered the body, Officer
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Casey. Officer Casey. When did you learn that Eddie Phillips was recaptured?
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Learned my way to Marston's house. I heard it from my headcrosser. But
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you who still went on to Marston? I thought I'd reded his bang.
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If he didn't know, well, then you knew about the threat Phillips and
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made after his trial when Randall Marston convicted it. You previously testified there was
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a bullet hole in the screen of one window facing the out Hey, that's
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right with Kate. How many shots were fire? Tu shirt? One bullet
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was in his heart, another one was bettered in the wall. The window,
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and those shots came from outside the cottage. They did, mister King.
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The way is at the edge of that hold. It bent the inside,
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come from outside a light. How do you explain two bullets in the
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room and only one hole in the screen? Well, no, that's not
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King, not like the e. But it could happen. It could the
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shot screter come in the record, sucation. I see any signs of a
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struggle in the room. Well no, there was a cave. The laft
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doctor to the floor. He met against you when he failed. Did you
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find the gun? No, no, we didn't. Did any Phillips have
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a gun when he was picked up? Didn't? He evidently got read a
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bit with Keg. You steal Kobe in the neighborhood. Look at me,
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Thank you, Officer Casey. That's all. As the corner, there is
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an indication of conflicting evidence here. With your permission, I would like to
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call another witness, person not connected with these events in any way, and
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innocent advice that on your witness is the Keg. I was the feet of
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that person, and he or she must testify. Jonathan Kegg is about to
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call another witness, a person who had no connection with the crime. If
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you should be this witness, could you remember what you have heard? It
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would be vitally important that you do, for you would hold a light in
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your hands. With the struggle between the principles of liberty and of domination by
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force breaking into open warfare in Korea, the whole world is watching the United
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States as never before. The people want to know if democracy really works,
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if free government is strong and vigorous enough to cope with the tremendous issues and
22:30
challenges of our time. Unless we show them that democracy really works and works
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better than any other system, the uncertain, undecided countries may give way to
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fear and despair and go the way of dictatorship. In order to prevent this,
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in order to sell them on democracy, in order to show them we're
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proud of our country and proud of the American men and women who gave their
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lives for liberty, we all have to take a more active part in the
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processes of free government in the nation, in the state, and in the
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community. Our big job, our major duty this year, is to register
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and to vote. Remember that, will you, and remember this too.
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Freedom is everybody's job. Jonathan Kegg has called as his next witness, Mildred
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Ellsworth, who lives in the first floor apartment of the building which separated Randall
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Marston's cottage from the street. Mister Keg is beginning his cross examination Miss Ellsworth.
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How far is it from your back window to the cottage? All about
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like here to want to the end of the jury box, about fifty How
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do you get to the cottage? Well, there's a hallway from the front
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desk if your runs through the buildings in the front door to the back.
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Is there another entrance? Well, there's a gate in the back fence sleeps
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to the alley. I've all thought it'd be nice to come in there,
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especially after we put the car. Why not have to walk around the block?
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You don't use the gate? Oh no, none of the cannon took
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the off? Why not of Randall Marston wouldn't give us the key. You
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can go out by the back gate, but can't get in that way.
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That rates Now that is the hallway through the building carpet. I couldn't know.
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And the front door makes a lot of noise too, needs a new
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airbirds from your apartment. Can you hear plainly what goes on out back?
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Oh? Yes, the back gate away quat the hint oring something awful?
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Can you hear what goes on inside the cottage? Well? None unless people
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are talking awful. Wow, thank you missus. Elbert. Now you were
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at home the night Randall Marston was killed. Oh did you hear anything unusual
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that evening? Why are the shock or what time? Did you hear the
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shock? A few minutes before midnight? And you'll be sure time. Well,
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my husband went out to get some cigarettes, and I remember the phone
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call I should make. I apologize to Dotty for calling her to lights.
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Did you hear the shots before or after? Talking with Dotty? And other
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noises too? I could hardly keep my mind at what I wanted to tell
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Dotty? What are the noises? All people pounding on the door, running
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through the hall and the gates creeping in. I see you heard a shot
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before you called Dotty? How let me see? I was asking God and
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she should furnish his car and I heard this crash? The shot? No,
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no, no, the crash? What crash? Well, it sounded
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like somebody dropped an armload of tissues and then the noise like well almost didn't
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sound like a shot at the time. Oh, what did it summer.
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It was kind of a muffle like it was in the in the box.
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I see. Then you heard the other shot immediately? Oh no, not
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right then. First there was a pounding on the vestibule door. What did
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you do? Well, I thought my husband had forgotten it, so I
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pushed the budget and releases the door. You released the hall door, but
26:03
it wasn't Jerry. Somebody went back to the cottage. And now I went
26:06
back to the phone. When did you hear the next shot? Later?
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How much later? Well, that shot didn't come because she was running back
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through the hall. She the woman would come in when I buzzed, Oh,
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missus Ellsworth. How do you know the second sound was a shot?
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Oh, there wasn't any, Joe. It was realized like right out in
26:26
the airs. Did you hear anybody else go through the hall just be four
26:30
or after the first shot? Could anyone have gone down that hallway without your
26:33
noticing? Well, I should say not. There isn't any copety. You
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were also mentioned hearing the gate creep oil would stop that? Oh yeah,
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Now among the noises you heard while you were at the phone, when did
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you hear the gate? Yes? I know it was a moment or two
26:55
after the shot. The sound is muffle. You're quite sure, Oh yes,
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I'm sure that's when it was. First you heard a muffle shot,
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then the gate, and then that pomming on the door, and the woman
27:04
going through the hall, and a few moments said if she went to fit
27:07
back through the hall again, and then the loud shot. Thank you very
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much, missus Ellsworth, your memory of what you heard has helped very materially
27:15
in solving a murder. Mister Carner, I would like to recall mister Wally
27:22
Marston to the stand. Mister Marston, when Karen told you Randall tried to
27:33
buy her off, you became angry, wouldn't you if your brother pulled a
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trick like that? Wally? Had you ever realized before that just how much
27:41
you hated your brother? When you realize the length of which your brother would
27:45
go to keep you under his thumb, I saw that I was going to
27:48
have to start standing up to it. You went straight to him from Carlos's
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Club to have it out with him, I told you, But you went
27:53
to Randall's cottage. How did you know he had his gun out? He
27:57
got it out of his desk after you last, Missus Ellsworth said, nobody
28:00
went through the hall till midnight. You didn't have to go through the hall
28:03
wallet you had a key to the back gate. Anything you entered from the
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alley, went into the cutting, saw Randall's gun out, grabbed your He
28:11
tried to get it from you, knocked the lamp on. Wally Eddie Phillips
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didn't have a gun when the police picked him up right after the murder.
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It isn't reasonable for a criminal like Phillips, who just escaped from jail to
28:22
throw away his gun merely because he killed one more man. So, Wally
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Marston, it was you who shot your stepbrothers. I did not end the
28:30
doorbell right, It might be the police guard. So you ran off the
28:32
back gate to the window you saw Karen discovered the body. So then you
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fired a second shot through the window to mislead the police. Oh no,
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I tell you I didn't, Wally. That's the only way it could have
28:42
happened. That's the only way to explain what Missus Ellsworth heard. That's why
28:47
the two shots sounded so different. Why there was only one bullet hole in
28:51
the screen. No, no, no, What did you do with Randall's
28:56
gun? Wallet this corner. I asked that Wally Marston beheld until his apartment
29:03
is searched. I think there you will find Randall Marston's revolver. No,
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no you won't. Why not Wally? I dropped it? A man who
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the keg? When did you suspect Wally Marston when he let it slip that
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he's seen his brother's gun lying out? And finally, when missus Ellsworth heard
29:37
two shots that sounded different, one of them had to be fired inside of
29:41
the cottage this corner. There's nearly always a pattern of sound in these cases
29:47
that, when properly interpreted, will lead to the droop. We certainly appreciate
29:52
your help, mister Keig in drinking the real murdered to justice. I hope
29:56
we'll see you again soon as a niked ceria. Thank mister Corner. Whenever
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I'm needed, I'll be here, Thanks again, Thank good night, good
30:03
night. A Light in Your Hands is created by Earl Stanley Gardner, with
30:17
script by Christy Squire, directed by John Collin. Jonathan Kegg is played by
30:22
Carlton Caddell, with musical effects via Del Scott, conducted by Whitey berkwith engineering
30:29
by Bill Knight. This has been a partially transcribed Bell production. And this
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is George Stone extending a cordial invitation for each of you to be with us
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again next week, when the National Broadcasting Company will again place a light in
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your hand. This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.