Latest / Old Time Mystery Radio | Old Time Radio / Broadway Is My Beat - "The John Stewart Murder Case" (1953)

Transcript

Broadway Is My Beat - "The John Stewart Murder Case" (1953) · Old Time Mystery Radio | Old Time Radio

0:00
Speaker 1: John Stewart has become convinced that someone intends to kill
0:03
Speaker 1: him and the unusual objects he has collected may hold
0:07
Speaker 1: a clue to the danger around him. From CBS, Broadway
0:12
Speaker 1: Is My Beat brings Detective Danny Clover to the case
0:16
Speaker 1: on an early spring night along Broadway, New York. Larry
0:20
Speaker 1: Thor stars as Clover, with Charles Calvert as Sergeant Gino
0:24
Speaker 1: Tartaglia and Jack Krushen as Sergeant Mugovan. This is The
0:29
Speaker 1: John Stewart Murder Case, Episode 158, first heard March 28, 1953,
0:36
Speaker 1: written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin and directed by
0:40
Speaker 1: Elliot Lewis. And now, our story begins.
0:55
Speaker 2: Broadway's My Beat, from Times Square to Columbus Circle, the gaudiest,
1:00
Speaker 2: the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway's
1:08
Speaker 2: My Beat, with Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. The
1:20
Speaker 2: nighttime of early spring hugs close to Broadway, whispers. There
1:24
Speaker 2: in the shadow pools, the promises, the dreams you've dreamed
1:27
Speaker 2: shut off from the rest of the world with speckled light.
1:30
Speaker 2: And there, beyond the floating laughter, all the silence you've
1:33
Speaker 2: searched for and the longed-for sigh. And there, walking the
1:37
Speaker 2: easy wall of night breeze, the girl of silk and
1:41
Speaker 2: warming cheek. The girl, the promise, and the light. Here
1:45
Speaker 2: on Broadway. And it never lets you go. And off
1:57
Speaker 2: Broadway now. Police hospital. Tax-supported room for emergency pain. Enamel, polish,
2:02
Speaker 2: and gleam. And Dr. Finsky.
2:03
Speaker 3: Hold still for.
2:04
Speaker 2: A minute, will you? Stop moving around so much. A man,
2:07
Speaker 2: wounded man, unhappy.
2:09
Speaker 3: Just take it easy, Doc, will you?
2:11
Speaker 2: Just a nick with a knife. A nick with eight
2:14
Speaker 2: stitches that makes it a slice? Which is medical talk
2:18
Speaker 2: for what happened to your arm from here to.
2:22
Speaker 4: Here?
2:24
Speaker 2: All right, you can talk to him for a minute, Denny.
2:26
Speaker 2: I want to check your address, Mr.
2:27
Speaker 4: Stewart.
2:28
Speaker 2: What floor? 1212 8th Street, is that right?
2:30
Speaker 5: Yeah. You guys have been real.
2:33
Speaker 2: Doctor, you'd better sit back down, Mr.
2:36
Speaker 4: Stewart.
2:36
Speaker 2: You've lost too much blood. You'll stay here at the
2:39
Speaker 2: hospital tonight? No.
2:40
Speaker 3: You'll stay, Mr.
2:41
Speaker 4: Stewart.
2:42
Speaker 2: I'll take care of him, Denny. Just one more thing.
2:46
Speaker 2: You feel like changing your story?
2:47
Speaker 3: I was waiting for the express train and the subway.
2:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. And someone came up and stabbed you.
2:52
Speaker 2: And I don't know who he was. You don't have
2:54
Speaker 2: any idea why it happened. And I don't have any idea.
2:57
Speaker 2: Good night.
2:58
Speaker 3: Me, stabbed like this. You'd think he'd believe a wounded
3:01
Speaker 3: man like me, wouldn't you?
3:03
Speaker 2: Lie down. And leave. Leave the protestings of a wounded
3:09
Speaker 2: man against official concern for his life. Walk out of
3:12
Speaker 2: a cone of sallow light that held a secret violence...
3:15
Speaker 2: and through hospital corridor, and the sounds of night pain hushed, muted.
3:19
Speaker 2: And in the street, and for a while, walk against
3:22
Speaker 2: the surge of a city's nighttime, brush against a woman's laughter,
3:26
Speaker 2: and it drifts through the spring. Turn a corner, and
3:29
Speaker 2: your street, your room, your rectangle of night and of sleep.
3:37
Speaker 2: In the morning headquarters, and the things of the morning,
3:40
Speaker 2: the coffee, the cigarette, the sergeant's.
3:42
Speaker 3: Artaglias, Enjoy, Danny. Sip the coffee. Inhale the cigarette. Take time. Enjoy.
3:49
Speaker 2: Thanks, Gino.
3:50
Speaker 3: After all, what rule says a man must rush pell-mell
3:54
Speaker 3: into the paste it kills without he first should settle
3:57
Speaker 3: his stomach? As my great aunt, that's my great aunt
4:00
Speaker 3: Tia Severini of Patterson, once put it, and nicely, I think,
4:04
Speaker 3: in her native tongue.
4:05
Speaker 2: You have something for me, Gino.
4:08
Speaker 3: Very well, if you insist. A report on that chap
4:12
Speaker 3: of the knifing in the subway last night, that Mr.
4:15
Speaker 3: John Stewart.
4:16
Speaker 2: What about him?
4:17
Speaker 3: A malcontent, an ungrateful. And there are such folks.
4:20
Speaker 2: What are you talking about?
4:21
Speaker 3: To make a display of himself during the night to
4:24
Speaker 3: his fellow patients in emergency hospital. To scream, to moan,
4:28
Speaker 3: to throw accessories in the face of the night intern.
4:31
Speaker 3: till finally the young doctor can take it no more,
4:33
Speaker 3: gives Mr. Stewart his release.
4:35
Speaker 2: Let him go?
4:36
Speaker 3: Pain reliever pills and gauze Mr. Stewart said he could
4:39
Speaker 3: buy in any drugstore. A crime he did not commit,
4:43
Speaker 3: so he left. And as for the bed.
4:47
Speaker 3: As for his bed... His word to the city was.
4:51
Speaker 2: Just see who it is, Hachino.
4:53
Speaker 3: Very well. Yes, what.
4:59
Speaker 3: What is it you wish, madam?
5:01
Speaker 7: They said I was to see a Lieutenant Clover. They
5:04
Speaker 7: said if it had anything to do with John Stewart,
5:06
Speaker 7: I was to talk to him.
5:07
Speaker 2: I'm Danny Clover. Please come in. That'll be all, Sergeant. Here,
5:13
Speaker 2: take this check.
5:15
Speaker 7: Thank you. It's just that I've come for John and
5:20
Speaker 7: whatever things I must do.
5:21
Speaker 4: Mr.
5:21
Speaker 2: Stewart's a friend of yours?
5:22
Speaker 7: My brother-in-law. I'm Leona Stewart. This morning I read of
5:27
Speaker 7: the terrible thing that happened to John and I just
5:29
Speaker 7: want to take him home. Care for him. Protect him.
5:32
Speaker 2: Protect him?
5:33
Speaker 7: John has enemies. People who want to kill him. And
5:36
Speaker 7: in my home, I'll be with him. And let no
5:39
Speaker 7: one harm him.
5:39
Speaker 2: What people want to kill him, Mrs. Stewart?
5:42
Speaker 7: Well, I... I really don't know what people. John just
5:46
Speaker 7: says there's someone who'll kill him. But he won't tell
5:49
Speaker 7: me who. He says it will sadden me more. And
5:52
Speaker 7: I shouldn't be saddened anymore. May I please go to him?
5:56
Speaker 7: Take him home? I'll give him the best of care.
6:00
Speaker 2: He's gone. What?
6:02
Speaker 7: He was hurt. Where would he go?
6:03
Speaker 2: I don't know. He got out of the hospital last night.
6:05
Speaker 2: He didn't want what we were doing for him.
6:08
Speaker 6: Oh.
6:09
Speaker 7: Oh, that's John. That's John, all right. He can't stand
6:12
Speaker 7: to have people fuss over him, but he needs.
6:14
Speaker 2: Do you know where I could find him, Mrs.
6:16
Speaker 4: Stewart? Mrs. Stewart?
6:19
Speaker 3: Oh, at work.
6:21
Speaker 7: John would go to work, I think, just to prove
6:24
Speaker 7: something to the world after his terrible ordeal. That's John, too.
6:28
Speaker 2: Where does he work?
6:29
Speaker 7: A place of buttons and ribbons and novelties for women,
6:33
Speaker 7: for children. A wholesale place. Globe on West 12th. John's
6:38
Speaker 7: always sneaking little things to give me. To make me laugh.
6:42
Speaker 7: Please find him. I don't want him dead. Whatever anyone
6:45
Speaker 7: else wants.
6:46
Speaker 2: We'll do everything we can, Mrs.
6:47
Speaker 6: Stewart.
6:48
Speaker 7: Thank you. That's kind.
6:52
Speaker 3: Goodbye, Mr. Clover.
6:56
Speaker 2: Watch her get up and leave, tall woman and angular,
6:59
Speaker 2: small black straw hat with linen flowers faded, gray dress
7:02
Speaker 2: designed for modesty, and women against whom 50 years had conspired.
7:08
Speaker 2: Slow walk to door, the adjustments, straw hat, linen flowers,
7:12
Speaker 2: and dress. Be neat, the world's out there, and neatness
7:15
Speaker 2: is all you have left to show. And sit with
7:18
Speaker 2: it for a while and consider, man, John Stewart, slashed
7:21
Speaker 2: in a subway by unknown assailant. And he has enemies,
7:24
Speaker 2: a woman had just said, who want to kill him.
7:27
Speaker 2: What enemies? She doesn't know. Suppose this question to yourself.
7:30
Speaker 2: A man, an ordinary man, seemingly. Dealer in ribbons and
7:33
Speaker 2: compacts and shoe trees. What had he done that demanded revenge,
7:37
Speaker 2: if anything? So find out. Go to his place of business.
7:41
Speaker 2: Globe notions and novelties. Storefront painted with a planet that
7:45
Speaker 2: had a face which smiled and was tied around with
7:47
Speaker 2: a belt with an initial buckle. Go in. The man
7:51
Speaker 2: who stood at the back of the merchandise tables and
7:53
Speaker 2: smiled at you was not Mr.
7:54
Speaker 4: Stewart.
7:55
Speaker 2: My name's Roberts.
7:56
Speaker 3: How are you?
7:57
Speaker 2: Fine. I'm looking for John Stewart, Mr. Roberts.
7:59
Speaker 8: Captain John stepped out a few days ago, hasn't been back.
8:02
Speaker 8: Something I can do for you?
8:03
Speaker 2: I'm from the police. Something I can do for you?
8:05
Speaker 2: It seems like Mr. Stewart got into a little... I
8:08
Speaker 2: asked you a question. Mr. Stewart is your partner, is
8:10
Speaker 2: that right? Since seven years, that answer.
8:13
Speaker 3: Is Mr.
8:13
Speaker 2: Stewart in the habit of stepping out a few days
8:15
Speaker 2: at a time?
8:16
Speaker 4: No.
8:17
Speaker 2: How come it happened this time? I don't know.
8:19
Speaker 8: John said I'll be seeing you.
8:20
Speaker 2: I take his word for it. And this sort of
8:22
Speaker 2: thing's never happened before. When did I say that? You said.
8:25
Speaker 8: You asked whether it was a habit. Once before and
8:27
Speaker 8: this time doesn't make it a habit.
8:28
Speaker 4: Now does it?
8:30
Speaker 3: Does it?
8:32
Speaker 2: The last time.
8:33
Speaker 8: The last time was a month ago, when his brother died.
8:37
Speaker 8: He took off to care for the funeral arrangements, to grieve,
8:39
Speaker 8: to give.
8:39
Speaker 2: Solace to his brother's widow. His brother's widow, Leona Stewart?
8:42
Speaker 2: That's right, his sister-in-law, Leona. How did John Stewart's brother die?
8:46
Speaker 2: Took sick. Never got well. Mr. Roberts, do you know
8:49
Speaker 2: anybody who would want to do away with your partner?
8:52
Speaker 2: Do away with him? Kill him.
8:54
Speaker 5: Question I can't answer.
8:55
Speaker 4: You?
8:57
Speaker 8: I never got that jealous of his matchbox collection or
9:00
Speaker 8: his seashells.
9:02
Speaker 3: Anything else you want to know?
9:03
Speaker 2: No.
9:04
Speaker 8: That's a good answer.
9:05
Speaker 4: Goodbye.
9:17
Speaker 9: Wait till I give you a look at Johnny Stewart's room.
9:19
Speaker 9: It'll open a whole new horizon for you.
9:21
Speaker 3: A way of life.
9:22
Speaker 2: You know him well, Mr. Anderson?
9:23
Speaker 9: I count it with a question of my own. I
9:26
Speaker 9: read you were with him last night.
9:27
Speaker 3: That's right.
9:27
Speaker 9: I read his arm was sliced open from knuckle to elbow.
9:30
Speaker 9: I read also he clenched his teeth down on the
9:32
Speaker 9: whole thing.
9:32
Speaker 2: You said you had a question, Mr.
9:33
Speaker 3: Anderson. How well you got.
9:34
Speaker 9: To know Johnny Stewart last night is how well I
9:37
Speaker 9: got to know him in ten years of relieving him
9:38
Speaker 9: of his room rent.
9:43
Speaker 3: Gaze.
9:44
Speaker 9: Gaze yourself upon the rented room of John Stewart. Deal
9:47
Speaker 9: with the notions and souvenirs.
9:53
Speaker 3: Messy, ain't it?
9:54
Speaker 2: Uh-huh. You have any idea where Stuart might be?
9:57
Speaker 9: If I told you he was probably out collecting things...
10:00
Speaker 9: to add to the collection of junk he's already got,
10:02
Speaker 9: I would probably be 100% right.
10:05
Speaker 2: Well, thanks a lot, Mr.
10:06
Speaker 6: Anderson.
10:06
Speaker 3: Hey, don't go. I got to show you a few things.
10:08
Speaker 3: Like this. These cardboard boxes full of match covers. Collectors' items, huh?
10:13
Speaker 2: For a grown man, huh? Look, Mr. Anderson.
10:14
Speaker 3: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Over here.
10:16
Speaker 9: Laid out on a bureau and not to be touched
10:18
Speaker 9: by a cleaning woman's hands or mine or yours. Maybe
10:21
Speaker 9: three pounds of seashells.
10:22
Speaker 3: Lay down. Very neat, huh?
10:23
Speaker 2: You got a big kick out of John Stewart's life,
10:25
Speaker 2: don't you, Mr. Anderson?
10:26
Speaker 3: What's more, I don't often get the chance to share
10:28
Speaker 3: it with anyone. Wait, wait, wait. You ain't seen it.
10:31
Speaker 3: You know what's in here? Blocks. Blocks like kids throw
10:34
Speaker 3: at each other. Like things crawl under.
10:36
Speaker 9: And in this box, broken glass. I peaked yesterday when
10:39
Speaker 9: he wasn't here. A collector of broken pieces of glass.
10:42
Speaker 3: A man. And here, this sack in the corner. Guess
10:44
Speaker 3: what's in it? Dice. A sack of dice. For flowers?
10:47
Speaker 3: For what? Dice he trailed all over my steps. Dirty stashes...
10:51
Speaker 3: You through, Mr.
10:52
Speaker 6: Anderson?
10:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, with one exception.
10:56
Speaker 9: You find Stuart, suggest he live someplace else. Or die
10:59
Speaker 9: someplace else.
11:01
Speaker 3: Either one. That John Stuart is as yet not to
11:16
Speaker 3: be found.
11:17
Speaker 2: All right, do you know what else?
11:19
Speaker 3: A talking to of Mr. Stewart's neighbors revealed he is
11:21
Speaker 3: a man who is a hat-tipper and greeter. More than that, nothing.
11:25
Speaker 3: Talks hardly to anyone. However, he has been seen doing
11:29
Speaker 3: a very peculiar thing.
11:30
Speaker 2: No.
11:31
Speaker 3: He has been seen stopping in stride to pick up
11:33
Speaker 3: from the sidewalk cigar bands. It is my surmise that.
11:37
Speaker 2: Danny. Found your man, Danny. John Stewart? Yepo.
11:41
Speaker 4: John Stewart.
11:42
Speaker 2: Where is he? Queensbridge.
11:44
Speaker 3: Huh?
11:45
Speaker 2: Being photographed.
11:46
Speaker 4: On his face.
11:48
Speaker 2: Hunted with a knife, Danny. Murdered.
11:51
Speaker 4: Stabbed to death.
12:01
Speaker 6: You are listening to Broadway's My Beat, written by Morton
12:04
Speaker 6: Fine and David Friedkin, and starring Larry Thor as Detective
12:08
Speaker 6: Danny Clover.
12:10
Speaker 2: America, answer the.
12:11
Speaker 10: Call of the 1953 Red Cross campaign now underway. Whoever
12:16
Speaker 10: you are, wherever you may be, If disaster strikes you
12:19
Speaker 10: or those you love, the Red Cross will be on
12:21
Speaker 10: the job to save life and property, to give survivors
12:24
Speaker 10: a fresh start. America's young sons in Korea know the
12:28
Speaker 10: work of the Red Cross. They can measure its effectiveness
12:31
Speaker 10: in lives saved time and again through the blood program.
12:34
Speaker 10: This month, now, give generously to your local Red Cross.
12:48
Speaker 2: In the soft night of March, Broadway's heart beats fast
12:52
Speaker 2: and the walk is slow. Dreamwalk, languid, rhythm to the
12:56
Speaker 2: even pulsings of light, to the cadence of muted trumpet
12:59
Speaker 2: drifting out of loudspeakers, out of upstairs halls where dancing
13:03
Speaker 2: is to be had. And the face of the crowd
13:05
Speaker 2: is veiled with memory of other spring nighttimes, when also
13:09
Speaker 2: the sheen of neon floated through a girl's hair, when
13:12
Speaker 2: also laughter spilled swiftly out of doorways and shadows were
13:16
Speaker 2: scented with fleeting perfumes. So follow close on the heels
13:20
Speaker 2: of night. Maybe this one, this time, this year. Maybe
13:24
Speaker 2: it won't get away from you. In a room of
13:29
Speaker 2: a house, suburban home in Queens, a window opened to
13:33
Speaker 2: the warmth of March night and a woman looking out
13:35
Speaker 2: at it, reacting to it.
13:39
Speaker 3: Mrs.
13:40
Speaker 4: Stewart. Oh, I.
13:44
Speaker 7: I'm sorry. I remembered something. Something very long ago, when
13:50
Speaker 7: I was a girl. Something I thought I'd never, never remember.
13:57
Speaker 7: You were saying something to me, Mr. Clover, and I...
14:01
Speaker 7: I'm sorry.
14:01
Speaker 2: About John Stewart. About your brother-in-law.
14:04
Speaker 7: He's dead.
14:04
Speaker 2: The things you told me about him in my office yesterday...
14:07
Speaker 2: I know.
14:08
Speaker 7: Vague, useless, unimportant things. The way my life is. The
14:12
Speaker 7: way my house is. Everything now.
14:15
Speaker 2: You said he knew someone wanted to kill him.
14:17
Speaker 7: And I said I didn't know who, because he never
14:19
Speaker 7: told me. On the Queensborough Bridge. He must have been
14:27
Speaker 7: coming here to me.
14:29
Speaker 2: You saw him often? He came here often?
14:32
Speaker 7: After my husband's death almost every day. To putter in
14:36
Speaker 7: the garden, to do little fixing jobs about the house.
14:40
Speaker 7: The screens for summer, paint for summer. Tried to end
14:44
Speaker 7: my grief by summer. For my husband's death. Kenneth's death.
14:49
Speaker 7: His own brother's death.
14:50
Speaker 2: Mrs.
14:50
Speaker 4: Stewart.
14:51
Speaker 7: No one cared about my husband's dying, Mr.
14:54
Speaker 3: Clover.
14:55
Speaker 7: Or how I felt about it. Except my brother. My
15:01
Speaker 7: husband was a drunkard. Lived and died a drunkard. A
15:06
Speaker 7: neighbor found him in the gutter and didn't help him home.
15:11
Speaker 7: Just came to my door and told me about it
15:13
Speaker 7: and went away. When I got there, Kenneth had been
15:16
Speaker 7: lying there in coldness and wetness and drunkenness. I don't
15:21
Speaker 7: know how long. I brought him home and I called
15:26
Speaker 7: our doctor and he couldn't save him. But he performed
15:30
Speaker 7: an act of penance.
15:31
Speaker 2: What do you mean?
15:32
Speaker 7: He came to the funeral. He was the only outsider there.
15:36
Speaker 2: Then he was a close friend?
15:38
Speaker 7: I suppose so. Kenneth and I had known him almost
15:42
Speaker 7: all our married life. Dr. Sherwood, Henry Sherwood. He has
15:45
Speaker 7: an office on Ruxton Avenue. He signed Kenneth's death certificate.
15:50
Speaker 7: He came to the funeral. I suppose you call him
15:53
Speaker 7: a close friend?
15:53
Speaker 2: Except for John Stewart.
15:55
Speaker 7: Except for John. Who is dead. Who was taken from me.
16:02
Speaker 7: As my husband was. As everything in my life has been.
16:10
Speaker 7: It was through this window. I remembered something a little
16:16
Speaker 7: while ago.
16:19
Speaker 3: What was it?
16:21
Speaker 7: What was it?
16:26
Speaker 2: Woman, and a day's dying. With sorrow and infinite tears
16:30
Speaker 2: that washed backward with a bitter chemistry. Woman who forgot
16:34
Speaker 2: how to cry so that other people could see. Whose
16:36
Speaker 2: stricken eyes didn't match the rest of her face. leave her.
16:46
Speaker 2: Street and home and sleep. Sleep and the alarm clock.
16:51
Speaker 2: The punctual awakening. The joke. Roll over and see how
16:54
Speaker 2: the day is.
16:56
Speaker 4: Gray.
16:57
Speaker 2: So dress and go out to live with a gray day.
17:01
Speaker 2: Phone headquarters and leave word you weren't coming in right
17:03
Speaker 2: away because you had to stop to make friend of
17:05
Speaker 2: the family and doctor, healer and signer of death certificates.
17:08
Speaker 2: Go there and The cardboard sign in the door window
17:11
Speaker 2: tells you the doctor is in to enter and be seated.
17:13
Speaker 2: Through the doorway and the vestibule and into a waiting
17:16
Speaker 2: room of old oak chairs and a table of flimsy
17:18
Speaker 2: wood and woven straw, which held magazines catering to handymen
17:22
Speaker 2: about the home, druggists, and those who missed the April
17:25
Speaker 2: 1937 report on the Denver medical conclave. Also to be noted,
17:30
Speaker 2: large painting of a tiger and an autographed photograph of
17:33
Speaker 2: one Dr. Buford Cosgrove in memory of the medical conclave, Denver,
17:38
Speaker 2: April 1937. And later, a door opens at one end
17:42
Speaker 2: of the room, and a man with a pink face beckons.
17:44
Speaker 3: In my office, please.
17:48
Speaker 2: Sit down, please.
17:50
Speaker 5: What seems to be your trouble?
17:51
Speaker 2: I'm not here as a patient, Dr.
17:53
Speaker 3: Sherwood. I see.
17:56
Speaker 5: Who sent you to see me?
17:57
Speaker 2: I'm from the police.
17:58
Speaker 5: My diploma's on the wall, sir. If you'll be kind enough.
18:04
Speaker 2: Thank you.
18:04
Speaker 5: I always ask to see the bad.
18:06
Speaker 3: Always.
18:06
Speaker 2: The police drop in here often.
18:08
Speaker 5: What do you want?
18:09
Speaker 2: Information about a man named Kenneth Stewart, a patient of yours.
18:12
Speaker 5: Who died?
18:12
Speaker 2: Information about him.
18:13
Speaker 3: Gladly. An alcoholic.
18:15
Speaker 2: He died from alcoholism?
18:17
Speaker 5: You might say that. Six months ago, he contracted low-bound
18:20
Speaker 5: pneumonia while out under drunk.
18:21
Speaker 2: He was cured.
18:23
Speaker 3: Close, but a cure. I won.
18:24
Speaker 2: And last month?
18:25
Speaker 3: Precisely the same thing.
18:27
Speaker 5: Pneumonia, same type.
18:28
Speaker 3: I lost.
18:29
Speaker 5: Kenneth Stewart died.
18:31
Speaker 2: You had been his physician for quite a time, I understand.
18:34
Speaker 2: I need to know something about him. An alcoholic.
18:36
Speaker 5: I'm no psychologist.
18:38
Speaker 4: He drank.
18:39
Speaker 5: I have no idea why.
18:40
Speaker 3: I couldn't get him to go to the sanitarium. I
18:43
Speaker 3: lost that, too.
18:44
Speaker 2: Were you his brother John's doctor, too?
18:46
Speaker 4: No.
18:46
Speaker 5: However, that man was in a couple of days ago.
18:49
Speaker 5: He asked me how his brother Kenneth had died. I
18:52
Speaker 5: told him the same thing I'm telling you, pneumonia. He
18:55
Speaker 5: threw a handful of dirt at me.
18:57
Speaker 4: What?
18:58
Speaker 5: He had a brown paper bag of dirt in his pocket.
19:00
Speaker 5: He threw a handful at me. If you were me,
19:03
Speaker 5: you wouldn't look like that, sir. Dirt in a brown
19:06
Speaker 5: paper bag is fairly mild for some of the neuroses.
19:08
Speaker 4: That I have.
19:09
Speaker 2: Is there anything else you can tell me, Doctor?
19:10
Speaker 3: Not a thing.
19:11
Speaker 5: Now, you'll excuse me, won't you?
19:27
Speaker 9: A regular little run where we're beating at Johnny Stewart's door, huh?
19:30
Speaker 9: He never had this much traffic in all the years.
19:32
Speaker 3: Man, girl, adult.
19:32
Speaker 2: You'll just unlock the door for me, Anderson.
19:34
Speaker 9: I'll do more than that for you. I'll stick around
19:37
Speaker 9: because it's my rooming house, and I got a niche
19:39
Speaker 9: to know what goes on in my house.
19:44
Speaker 3: See? It hasn't changed. It hasn't been touched.
19:47
Speaker 9: I could have sold tickets, but I got a respect
19:49
Speaker 9: for the dead.
19:50
Speaker 2: Don't let it eat you, Anderson.
19:51
Speaker 9: You got a yen for a brown paper sack of dirt.
19:53
Speaker 9: It don't bother me hardly at all. You gonna take
19:56
Speaker 9: it out of here?
19:56
Speaker 3: Uh-huh. Yeah, it makes it more sanitary that way.
19:59
Speaker 9: Anything else you want?
20:00
Speaker 2: This box with the broken glass.
20:03
Speaker 3: I'll close my eyes. Won't let out a peep.
20:06
Speaker 9: You got a pocket for the seashells? They'll hardly take
20:09
Speaker 9: up any space at all. Yeah, you looking for.
20:12
Speaker 3: Somebody, mister?
20:13
Speaker 2: Uh, Mr. John Stewart.
20:14
Speaker 1: Is he here?
20:15
Speaker 3: He's dead. That's where he is. Cold stone dead someplace else.
20:19
Speaker 7: You don't read, mister?
20:20
Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't know. What do you want with Stewart?
20:23
Speaker 3: Look here, I don't want.
20:24
Speaker 2: I'm from the police. What do you want with Stewart? Well,
20:26
Speaker 2: only to give him this.
20:28
Speaker 3: This envelope.
20:29
Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
20:30
Speaker 2: I didn't know he was dead.
20:31
Speaker 4: Let me have it.
20:32
Speaker 2: Thanks.
20:33
Speaker 5: It probably won't do you any good to read it.
20:36
Speaker 5: It's all very technical.
20:39
Speaker 2: Chemical symbols, aren't they?
20:40
Speaker 3: Yes, but of course. You see, Mr.
20:43
Speaker 2: Stewart brought in a little sample of earth the other day.
20:45
Speaker 2: You're a chemist?
20:46
Speaker 3: Oh, no.
20:47
Speaker 2: Oh, my, no.
20:48
Speaker 11: I have a little garden supply shop down the street,
20:50
Speaker 11: and Mr. Stewart came in and gave me some earth
20:53
Speaker 11: out of a brown paper bag, like you have in
20:56
Speaker 11: your hands, and he said he was doing some gardening,
20:59
Speaker 11: and would I analyze the sample of soil he had,
21:02
Speaker 11: whether it was acid and all, and And I said
21:05
Speaker 11: I'd have to send it out and it'd take a
21:07
Speaker 11: day or two.
21:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks. Thanks very much. You too, Anderson. Danny Clover speaking.
21:25
Speaker 4: Anderson, Danny.
21:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
21:26
Speaker 7: I'm down here in technical.
21:28
Speaker 2: Do you want their quantitative on these samples?
21:29
Speaker 4: Huh?
21:30
Speaker 10: Do you want to know how much of what are
21:32
Speaker 10: in the samples.
21:32
Speaker 1: Or just what are in them?
21:33
Speaker 2: Just what are in them.
21:35
Speaker 6: What you want to know then.
21:36
Speaker 3: Dirt scrapings and the bits of broken glass you sent
21:38
Speaker 3: out here have the identical chemical composition on that report.
21:42
Speaker 2: You mean the Gardner's report? Yeah, that's right.
21:44
Speaker 4: Also, the broken glass is the type used for whiskey bottles.
21:47
Speaker 4: You didn't want me to try to piece together the
21:49
Speaker 4: fragments of glass, did you?
21:50
Speaker 3: No. Anything else?
21:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, get up here. Dr.
21:59
Speaker 9: Simsky speaking.
22:00
Speaker 2: Danny Clover, doctor. Can I see you in my office
22:02
Speaker 2: for a minute?
22:03
Speaker 7: Sure, Danny, sure.
22:04
Speaker 3: I'll be right up. I still say it's tough to believe, Danny.
22:27
Speaker 4: That's all.
22:28
Speaker 3: Dr.
22:28
Speaker 2: Sinski just told it to you, Denison. And Dr. Sinski
22:30
Speaker 2: just showed it to you in books. That's why he
22:32
Speaker 2: keeps those books in his office, to prove things to
22:34
Speaker 2: skeptics like you.
22:35
Speaker 3: Okay, okay.
22:36
Speaker 2: Ring the bell.
22:46
Speaker 3: Yes, what... Oh. Hello, Mr. Clover.
22:50
Speaker 2: Hello, Mr. Stewart. This is Detective Denison. How are you?
22:54
Speaker 7: How do you do? Please come in.
22:56
Speaker 2: Thank you.
22:58
Speaker 7: Well, what can I do for you, gentlemen?
23:00
Speaker 2: We have to talk with you some more.
23:02
Speaker 7: I don't see why.
23:04
Speaker 3: We'll tell you why, Mrs. Stewart.
23:06
Speaker 2: Police officers just don't knock on doors without reasons.
23:09
Speaker 7: What is your reason, Mr.
23:11
Speaker 3: Clover?
23:11
Speaker 2: It's about the death of your husband.
23:13
Speaker 7: Well, that's strange.
23:14
Speaker 2: And about the death of your brother-in-law. How strange is that, Mrs.
23:18
Speaker 3: Stewart?
23:20
Speaker 7: Mr.
23:20
Speaker 3: Clover.
23:20
Speaker 2: Yes?
23:22
Speaker 7: Forgive me. Suddenly I'm tired. Suddenly I want to.
23:27
Speaker 2: Oh, sure, sure. Sit down, Mrs.
23:29
Speaker 4: Stewart.
23:30
Speaker 7: I don't like your friend, Mr.
23:32
Speaker 3: Clover.
23:34
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, I'm not very popular. Something I've always carried.
23:37
Speaker 4: Around with me.
23:38
Speaker 7: Please tell me what it is you want.
23:40
Speaker 2: Your husband was a drunk, wasn't he?
23:42
Speaker 7: I told you that myself.
23:44
Speaker 2: How come he was a drunk, Mrs.
23:45
Speaker 4: Stewart?
23:45
Speaker 7: He had a taste for whiskey, that's all I know.
23:48
Speaker 2: But there's always other reasons.
23:50
Speaker 6: Didn't you get along, or what?
23:52
Speaker 7: I told you before, Mr. Clover... I'm tired. And I
23:56
Speaker 7: told you before, I didn't like your friend.
23:59
Speaker 2: For the next few minutes, Mrs. Stewart, you're going to
24:01
Speaker 2: have to bear with it. What about you, Mrs.
24:03
Speaker 4: Stewart?
24:05
Speaker 7: What do you mean?
24:06
Speaker 2: The kind of life you've led, your husband.
24:08
Speaker 7: What kind of life do you think it's been?
24:11
Speaker 2: Rough, huh?
24:13
Speaker 7: Now will you tell me, Mr. Clover, just what you
24:16
Speaker 7: came for?
24:17
Speaker 2: You murdered your husband, didn't you?
24:22
Speaker 3: Listen.
24:23
Speaker 4: Yes? I.
24:26
Speaker 7: I have pictures of myself when I was young. Would
24:31
Speaker 7: you like to see them?
24:33
Speaker 3: They're upstairs.
24:35
Speaker 7: We've seen pretty girls, Mrs.
24:36
Speaker 2: Stewart, and you must have been pretty.
24:39
Speaker 8: I was.
24:41
Speaker 3: Simply... I was.
24:44
Speaker 7: I was considered very pretty.
24:48
Speaker 2: That's what I meant when I asked you what your
24:50
Speaker 2: life has been.
24:52
Speaker 7: The night before... Yes. The night before I made up
24:57
Speaker 7: my mind.
24:58
Speaker 2: To kill your husband?
25:00
Speaker 11: Yes.
25:02
Speaker 7: I lay there and I thought about how my life
25:04
Speaker 7: has been. With him lying there. With the reek. And
25:12
Speaker 7: that was my life.
25:14
Speaker 2: So you poisoned him?
25:15
Speaker 4: In the booth?
25:17
Speaker 3: Yes. Mrs. Stewart.
25:19
Speaker 2: A little while ago, we found out from our police
25:21
Speaker 2: decision that the gross symptoms of the poison you used
25:24
Speaker 2: and pneumonia are the same. How did you know that?
25:28
Speaker 7: It's irony, isn't it?
25:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, but how did you know it?
25:33
Speaker 7: The first time my husband got sick, six months ago.
25:38
Speaker 7: I've got a book, a whole medical book. The symptoms,
25:43
Speaker 7: I saw them. They were almost the same.
25:45
Speaker 2: And last month when he was pulled out of a
25:47
Speaker 2: wet gutter drunk, you fed him the poison, killed him.
25:50
Speaker 2: And your doctor thought it was the same thing.
25:52
Speaker 3: Yes.
25:53
Speaker 5: And you killed your brother-in-law because he suspected.
25:55
Speaker 4: What had happened.
25:58
Speaker 7: I should have known better than to bury that bottle
26:00
Speaker 7: in the garden. My brother-in-law always liked to putter around there.
26:05
Speaker 5: He found that broken bottle and dug up the dirt
26:07
Speaker 5: around it, huh?
26:09
Speaker 7: I know. He came into my house. and looked at me.
26:15
Speaker 7: Then he threw a handful of dirt in my face.
26:19
Speaker 7: Then he told me. I tried to kill him in
26:23
Speaker 7: the subway.
26:24
Speaker 2: We'd better get going, Mrs.
26:25
Speaker 4: Stewart.
26:27
Speaker 7: If only he hadn't found out. It would have been
26:31
Speaker 7: all right. Then the neighbors would have come and sat
26:35
Speaker 7: with me and talked with me and not been embarrassed
26:40
Speaker 7: because I had a drunken husband.
26:41
Speaker 2: Get her caught, Denison.
26:42
Speaker 4: Yeah.
26:44
Speaker 7: He was better off dead. And so was I. I'm
26:50
Speaker 7: 51 years old.
26:53
Speaker 3: It had to.
26:54
Speaker 7: Stop sometime, the life I had. Someone had to stop it.
27:01
Speaker 7: So I did.
27:03
Speaker 3: Here, I brought your scarf, too, Mrs.
27:05
Speaker 4: Stewart.
27:07
Speaker 2: It's cold outside. There's the special moon over Broadway tonight.
27:27
Speaker 2: It dips low and mixes with the laughter. It curves
27:30
Speaker 2: across the street and softens the shadows. And people look
27:34
Speaker 2: at it, point at it, wink at it, then run
27:38
Speaker 2: away from it into whatever darkness they've planned for the night.
27:43
Speaker 2: It's Broadway. The gaudiest. The most violent. The lonesomest mile
27:51
Speaker 2: in the world. Broadway.
27:57
Speaker 4: My Beat.
28:14
Speaker 6: Broadway's My Beat stars Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover,
28:18
Speaker 6: with Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Crucian as Mugovan.
28:22
Speaker 6: The program is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with
28:25
Speaker 6: musical score composed and conducted by Alexander Courage. In tonight's story,
28:30
Speaker 6: Paula Winslow was heard as Leona. Featured in the cast
28:33
Speaker 6: were James McCallion, Lou Merrill, Herb Butterfield, Billy Halep, and
28:37
Speaker 6: Steve Roberts.
28:38
Speaker 2: Bill Anders speaking.
28:45
Speaker 6: Later tonight, as a matter of fact, it's coming up
28:47
Speaker 6: next on most of these same stations, don't miss the
28:50
Speaker 6: Vaughn Monroe Show. 30 minutes with Maestro Vaughn, the Moon Maid,
28:54
Speaker 6: the Moon Man, their singing guests Cindy Lord and the
28:56
Speaker 6: top tunes of the week. Vaughn and company are up
28:59
Speaker 6: in Boston College tonight, ready to play the tunes you
29:02
Speaker 6: made your favorites with your requests and your.
29:04
Speaker 2: Purchases this week.
29:05
Speaker 6: Speak to an angel, she wore red feathers, have you heard,
29:08
Speaker 6: and many others. So stay tuned now for the Vaughn
29:11
Speaker 6: Monroe Show, following station identification on most of these stations.
29:17
Speaker 6: And remember, you'll find Western adventure and music with Gene Autry,
29:21
Speaker 6: Saturday evenings on the CBS radio network.
29:39
Speaker 2: Thank you.
29:33
Speaker 1: Beynon Broadway Is My Beat has concluded with The John
30:21
Speaker 1: Stewart Murder Case. Good night, and thank you for sharing
30:25
Speaker 1: this hour of classic radio. Follow Old Time Mystery Radio
30:29
Speaker 1: for more classic mystery and detective broadcasts.