Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: The Bank Teller Murder (EP1486)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: The Bank Teller Murder (EP1486) · 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
0:33
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, please send
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it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter
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at Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot
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com, Slash Radio Detectives. And I do want to before we get started,
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to encourage you to pick up my latest ebook. All I needed to
0:58
know I learned from Dragnet. In it, I examined life lessons from seven
1:03
more great detectives of radio, television and literature, including Poirot, Joe Friday,
1:10
and Johnny Dahler. You can pick up your copy in the Kindle Store,
1:12
the nook Store, or the eyebook Store, or at smash words dot
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com. Now it's time for today's episode of Crime and Peter Chambers. The
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story is the Bank Teller Murder. Original air day July the twentieth of nineteen
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fifty four. Crime and be Her Chambers created by Henry Kane, transcribed and
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starring Dane Clark, Live and investigator, Duly licensed and duly sworn. Be
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Her Chambers. You're a private eye. That's your business. Anything else that's
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for laughs. It's strictly business this trip. You've been paid a little fee
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by a little lady in a little apartment on Gramercy Park. And now she's
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wringing her hands, and she's got plenty to wring her hands about. Her
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name is missus Donald Sloan, and only yesterday her husband was declared an embezzler.
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Seems he worked in a bank. Only he must have thought it was
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a garden patch, because yesterday, before he disappeared, he helped himself to
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one hundred thousand shreds of letters, all crisp and all green. Mister Chambers,
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my husband wasn't a thief. You got a better name for a man
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who elopes with one hundred thousand bucks, not Donald. I tell you there's
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something wrong. Here's something people. Listen. Look, here's the morning paper.
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Let me read it to you now. The headline bank teller and one
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hundred thousand dollars vanish at lunch. No, no, no, no.
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Beneath that, the following Donald Sloan, teller and junior officer of the Trade
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Bank of the City of New York is being sought by the police, charged
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with the embezzlement of one hundred thousand dollars of bank funds. Mister Sloan,
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an employee of long standing, left his teller's cage as usual at the lunchtime
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when he failed to return. A hasty check by Charles Jenkins, manager of
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the bank, revealed that Sloane's cash was one hundred thousand dollars short. Curiously,
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mister Sloane had passed up an additional twenty eight thousand in the same draw.
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Look, mister Chambers to the police, I'm just another wife doing the
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usual screaming about the innocence of her husband. Look, there is no denying
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the guy walked out of that bank with one hundred thousand clowns, but he
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left twenty eight thousand. Yes, why if you're going to steal? Why
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not all missus Sloane. I'm a detective, not a clairvoyant. Okay,
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okay, Just what do you want me to do for you? Chambers.
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I'm not trying to whistle my way past a graveyard. I have no illusions
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about my husband, but I know for certain the man was not a thie.
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Illusions. How did you and your husband get along? Not too well
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of late? Well? How so? And since when? Since about two
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months ago. A lady you might call her that. What's your name?
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I don't know. I tried to ignore it. But last week we quarreled
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my husband and I and he asked that we separate. I heard him on
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the phone several times talking to a Frankie. Well, Frankie could be a
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man. No, No, he has no man friend by the name of
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frank Do you think there's any connection between the requests for a separation and the
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embezzlement. No, because I don't think he was involved in the embezzlement.
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Here we go again, all right, All right, then, mister Sloan,
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your husband worked at the thirty four Street branch, didn't heed? Yeah,
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fine, I'll be in touch with you as soon as anything develops.
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One of thing, do you have a picture of your husband? Yes,
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yes I do. Oh, it's an excellent photo. I'll get it for
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you. So off you go, and it's tic Tac toll. You haven't
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the faintest idea where to make the first stand. You check down at headquarters
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with your friend, Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker, and all he's got so far
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is a great big bunch of nothing. He calls the bank for you,
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gives you a nice write up, and that's your next stop. Please sit
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down, mister Chambers. I know that you represent missus Sloan. I'll do
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my best to cooperates. Charles Jenkins, bank manager, a skinny little guy,
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egghead type, large ball dome, heavy glasses and a mouth that's all
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teeth. This is a privately owned bank, mister Chambers. All of our
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employees have been with us for many years and completely to be trusted. So
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we thought. The newspaper has said something about Sloan's having been a junior officer.
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I think that was a term. Yes, yes, very true.
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A part time he was at the Tellis window, and part time he handled
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business transactions for us, mostly real estate. I see, now, what
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about that twenty eight thousand dollars he left in his jaw? But about it,
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mister Chapman. Look, grand larceny is grand larceny. Why take thee
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hundred and leave it twenty eight? If you're stealing, why not take it
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all? The penalty is the same. I admit you have a point there,
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sir. That sort of puts me over on his side a little bit,
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sort of spurs my investigation is sincerely, mister Chambers. I hope and
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trust you right, it would do well. How shall I say it?
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Restore my faith in human nature? After all, he was a married man.
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Oh well, don't get restored all at once, mister Jenkins. Our
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boy was having a little trouble at home. Trouble tomato, tomato, mister
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Chimer, a lady. It seems it started a couple of months ago.
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His wife tells me he met the lady here at the bank. Suppose I
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take a gander with the book scander, mister Chandler, dear, Suppose I
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look over his books, you know, a recent new accounts, business matters
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of that kind of stuff. But the police have already done that, sir,
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not from my angle. Mister Jenkins me, I'm looking for a dame.
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Yes, yes, mister Chambers. Yes indeed. Indeed, if you
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come to this race, put you into his tele's cage and surround you with
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everything pertaining to his affairs. Hmmm, Dame, Dame, Indeed, you
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spend a couple of hours bent over books like a bank examiner. You go
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over the whole works, and you come up with one lousy little item that
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you would jot down on a sheet of paper. You're hoping against hope,
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and Ben Jenkins joins, you go, mister Chambers, Well, one tiny
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little lead within the last three months. This new account here, a miss
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Francis Lake opened her account about two months ago, which jives at the time
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element missus Sloan mentioned also jives with the name Miss gave me the name of
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what names sir or a lady in his life, Frankie. That's almost a
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slow neude. Just one name, Frankie, And you think this Francis Lake
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might be that Frankie. It's a frequent enough nickname. It's the only possible
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thing I can come up with in all this pile of stuff. Here I
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wrote it down, see Francis Lake twelve to fifty two East forty seventh Street,
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from which she removed about three weeks ago. Or how do you know
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from the police did she leave a falling address? Unfortunately she did not,
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But it was strictly routine, mister Chambers, there was no special interest in
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her then and there is none now. The big brilliant detective and has one
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lousy little clue. You crumple a sheet of paper and you pitch it to
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the waste basket and you throw a strike but it pops out of the basket
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because the basket's brim full of junk. You cast an accusing glare at the
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fastidious mister Jenkins. Is something, mister Chambers say, what's with this bank
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anyway? Don't people have a clean up around here? Matter of fact that
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baskets in this cage haven't been emptied since yesterday? What's the matter? Can't
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the bank afford it? We employe one cleaning lady who working through the night,
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does an excellent and furniture sold Our lady came down with, of all
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things, measles, and we were informed today to secure a substitute. So
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when the men came in this morning, each one of them cleaned and emptied
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their own waste baskets. And since mister Sloan's cage was then occupied, today
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his baskets are still food. Did you tell this of the police, please?
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That a child woman came down with the measles would to ridiculous, ridiculous.
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These waste baskets are still full of sloan stuff, yesterday's stuff before he
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walked out for that famous lunch hour. You make a die for those trash
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baskets like there's gold, And then our hills of refuse and gold. There
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is because you come up with a sheet off a deskpad diary. Yesterday's date
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and honored is written Ranky twelve fifteen, Real Estate, Stanley. What is
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it, mister Chambers? What is it? Your faith than human nature?
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What are you talking about? Still hold's good, mister Jenkins. Donald Sloan
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is not an embezzler here read this Frankie twelve fifteen. Read Estate, Stanley,
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Bild twelve fifteen. Lunchtime yesterday. This guy was knowing bezzler, mister
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Jenkins. And bezzlers don't tip their mits like that. Tip their mits,
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mister Chambers. Mister Chambers, you're off and running. Destination Stanley Building,
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which turns out to be a dilapidated, flea bitten crumbhole decked out to be
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an office building. It's down near the battery wedge, in between a couple
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of warehouses. There are a few like it in every town, fitted out
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for fly by nine operators. It's four stories high, and a peak of
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the billboard downstairs informs you that f Lake real Estate is on the second room
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two oh one. There is no elevator, so you creak up the wooden
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steps. But when you face up to the solid oak of two oh one,
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it's locked and nobody answers your knock. Downstairs, you flash your credentials
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at a seedy looking janitor, give off with some important detective routine for Laver,
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But twenty dollars bill is the final convincer. He gives you a key,
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tells you to say you stole it in case of emergency, and back
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you go to two oh one. You turn the key in the lock,
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and you open the door. Come in, buster, and close the door
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behind you. You don't close the door just because he told you to.
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His order carried additional authority and the form of a chunky revolver held in a
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pudgy fist. The guy seated behind the desk is fatter than a bookmaker's bank
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roll. He's really huge, decked out in a white palm beach suit with
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a floppy panama hat square on his head. He's big, thick, red
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faced, with tiny, gleaming pig eyes set within many folds of fat.
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Like this little man, you're liable to get killed, Like what like badging
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inn where you ain't invited? Who invited you? You're not f flake I
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ain't. So who are you? There's a hot one, A boyd brazes
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in why don't belong? And right away he starts pecking with the stupid questions,
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Shit on, jump over there, Okay, I'm sitting and I'm standing
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at or you're a large one, little pal. I don't know who you
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are, but sticking your nose in where it don't belong it picks up trouble.
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I got a large hunch you're gonna be awful. Sorry you came here,
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a little pal. Yeah, I'll tell you a little secret. I'm
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sorry I came here. I'm sorry I ever came here. Now I'm gonna
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blow. At first, I take your key like so, and then me
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I blow, and I'm gonna lock you in. And you're here and I
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ain't. Goodbye, little pal, and take it from me. You ain't
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gonna be lonesome. Mhm. For a few seconds, you sit there like
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you're rooted to the chair. Who wouldn't. Then you bounce up and start
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moving, and then behind the desk you find him Donald Sloan, sprawled on
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the floor, dead, a knife stuck in his back. You reach for
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the phone, but the phone's as dead as Donald. So you're back to
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being a detective. You frisk the dead donald and you come up with the
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usual items, but you're working at your trade and some of the usual items
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are unusual. For instance, he's a smoker, cigarettes in his pocket,
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and seven packs of matches, but four of them bear the same ad.
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Cafe prints Cafe Prince. You check it in the phone book and it's down
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on Sullivan Street. The next problem is getting out of there. The door
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is too tough, but it develops that your fat friend isn't too bright.
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The windows are sealed, but glass is breakable, and there's a fire escape
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right handy. So you're moving again, but you stop off at your office
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for your gun, and then it's the Cafe Prince. A sign on the
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door says closed, moving out, but when you try the door, it's
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opened. What's on your mind, Bob? The question comes from a redhead
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at the check room. She's black eyed and pretty, with a cuter assortment
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of curve. It was in a World series picture. You stick your head
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around the bend the joints deserted. A saloon with most of the chairs on
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the table, but the liquor bottles are still shining behind the bar. Joints
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closed. Mister, we're moving out to me. Uh okay, I check
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my hat because it was you I had left to check my head. Look,
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Mac, If you got a thing for check girls, go somewhere else.
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Lots of check girls in this town. I got it for you.
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Cut well, I have some food. How's about some food? Can I
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guess you change? I saw the bar still open, so all I want,
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honey, I need a drink. That's all argue when with a rumpot
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adds up to a rumpus, and as we don't need it, Come on,
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honey, I need a drink. I need a best Okay, okay,
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go on in, have your drink. Have two drinks, tell aboutender
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the check girls said you can have them for free, and then get out
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of here. You understand. You weave around the bend into the deserted room
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and there's no one behind the bar, so you go into the usual drunks
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routine. You slam your hand down. How's a bottle of service around here?
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Ey? A curtain moves at the far end of the bar and a
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man comes into view, and what do you know, it's your fat friend
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from the Stanley Building. He's wearing an apron now and on this trip,
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you've got to jump on him. I look, Mack, what the heck?
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You see the pre little gun in my hand? Fat boy? Yeah,
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I see. It'll be a nice little fat boy, and come out
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and behind that bar. Sit down here at the table, and let's you
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and I have a chat. That's a nice little fat boy. Sit down.
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What do you want the story? And how come you're locked in a
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room with a cadaver which turns out to be Donald Sloan who lifted one hundred
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thousand samples out of a little old bank or the trade who? Well you,
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as far as you're concerned, I'm the law cop, private cop.
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I didn't do it. What's your name? George? Se uh? George
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all the way? Okay, let's have your story. It might do you
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a little good with the DA. Little Pell, if Private Law is sitting
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here right opposite me, public Lord, don't figure it before behind that's smart
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enough for a stupid guy. If I spill you figure I can make a
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deal with the DA. It's happened before. Will you help, little Pell?
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I'll do what I can. Okay, it was the Dame Francis Lake.
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Well, how'd you know? You haven't been reading the quarterbooks. Lady
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pal, that'll be private izer junior. Come on talking up parky. Okay,
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Now she happens to open an account of that bank. That sloan guy.
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He goes for it like a ton of bricks. She figures a guy
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who works in the bank, a junior office, a guy. It's an
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opening. So she punches acuity. That one real cuty. Keep talking.
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She don't go to rob the bank. She makes the bank come to her
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like how she opens the phony little real estate office. She tells him about
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a deal. She's got to buy a piece of property worth three quarters of
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a million dollars. She tells him she needs one hundred thousand bucks for an
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option that she can turn a profit within five days. Harker chief figured you
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could keep one hundred g's out of the bank for five days. I told
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her she's acuity. She sold to him good but good. Like how me,
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I'm supposed to own his hunker property A next boot leggo with plenty of
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old mula. Robberty's supposed to be worth three quarters of a minion. Okay,
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you're the boot legger with the property. He brings it a hundred thousand
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bananas. It's supposed to be her money. Then the two of them yesterday
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at twelfth thirty are supposed to wait for me. Why is he waiting?
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Why did I show that boot deal? Listen, I'm supposed to arrive.
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She hands me the option money. The papers are all drawn. Then I
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turned the money over to him so his bank can hold it in this grove.
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For what Either she buys the property within five days or she's supposed to
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lose the option money. He figured the money goes back to the bank,
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so he's protected. Huh. Now, this is how it's supposed to work
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out. I give him a hundred gee's he's an officer at the bank.
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Him and I sign a paper. He picks up the dough and brings it
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back to the bank supposed to be holding it on the deal, all the
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old round robins. That's right. He's going to cover up for her with
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the bank records like that. According to her, nobody gets hurt. The
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money's back in the bank. She's got a tight option on the property.
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She tells him she's already got a sucker's going to buy the property within five
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days. Then within the five days she's supposed to sell the property at a
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neat commission. She's used the bank's money for the option, but the bank
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still got the dough and nobody's hurt. Smart thing, So how come the
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guy winds up that that's my beef. I don't mind taking money from her
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bank. It's like taking a jelly bean from a candy factory. But murder
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whether that ain't my departn't mind the philosophy, fat stuff. Just keep talking.
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Well, yesterday I wasn't even there. You mean you weren't even there?
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Well, Sloan thought I was supposed to be there. I understand the
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plan was that there was her job to clip him over the nuggin, tie
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him up, and then beat it with the hundred thousand bananas. Instead,
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she sticks to seven to him, why so she can't ever put the finger
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on her No, I don't know nothing about that. I was here today.
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I read it in the papers how he disappears, And I asked her,
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and then she breaks it to me. That's why I was there when
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you botched it. Just what were you doing there? Figure in the angles?
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How to get the body out of there? Maybe folded him in the
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trunk something. But you're the guy that don't want no truck with murder.
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It was done, wasn't it. I might have wound up like him if
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I didn't listen to her. I'm talking now, ain't I. I've had
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a little pal, a private eye, and a deal like this. You
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can help a guy like me. You're about up to the jackpot question as
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to where the dough is? When you feel a cold muzzle at the nape
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of your neck. You feel that kind at your neck, mister I feel
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it, okay, and not give your rosc out of fat Stuff. Okay,
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he's got it. No, just before your brains get blown out.
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I bet you're dying to know where that dough is. Huh, dying is
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correct? My lady in a suitcase in the trunk compartment of my car right
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outside, so near and yet so far. You would be Frankie Lake,
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wouldn't you. Yeah? And if I could turn around, you'd also be
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the hatshet girl. Correct. It also happens that I own this joint,
22:02
which is a quite elephant if there ever was one. And now, mister
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nosybody up on, farewell to you. But it was fat Stuff who pulled
22:12
the trigger, and down she goes, and you come up out of your
22:15
seat and you're bent over her doing the inspection. It was the only way,
22:18
the only way. I swear, I never used a heater in my
22:21
life. Never. It ain't in me. I ain't no killer, But
22:23
it was the only way. My daisy does that, fat boy, No
22:26
harm done. More's a pity scratch, flesh wound. Period. They'll patch
22:33
her up nice and pretty, and they'll make her nice and healthy, and
22:36
then she'll stand trial and she'll wind up in the hot seat after all.
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That's the way it goes, fat boy, I'm merry, go round.
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That's life and death. And there you've had. Crime and Peter Chambers.
23:08
Dane Clark was starred as Peter Chambers. Crime and Peter Chambers Transcribed was created
23:15
and written by Henry Kane. Others in the cast where Mary Patton heard as
23:19
Missus Sloan and Jodah Satis as Jenkins. It was directed by Fred Way.
23:26
This is Fred Collins inviting you to tune in next week, same time,
23:29
same station, fort Dane Clark in Crime and Peter Chambers. Some days are
23:44
blue days, some days are happy days. Some days are just ordinary days
23:48
that you don't even notice go by. But here's the word about a day
23:52
you can't miss. It's Tuesday, any Tuesday on the NBC Radio Network this
23:56
fall, we're calling it the biggest Tuesday Night in radio. That's a big
24:00
statement, but it's a big night. Listen. Lux Radio Theater moves to
24:03
NBC in the fall and you'll hear it every Tuesday. Yes, Lux Radio
24:08
Theater on NBC. Your favorite stars, your favorite stories on this station.
24:14
Lux Radio Theater is enough to make any night a big radio night. But
24:17
that's not all we mean. Because your lineup also includes Dragnet. People are
24:21
funny, Fabermagee and Molly and the great Guilders Leave. You can see what
24:25
we mean by the Biggest Tuesday Night in radio. It's so big we couldn't
24:27
wait to tell you about it. Welcome back, Well, another very economically
24:33
done Peter Chambers case and also a good reason for him to find a clue
24:38
that the police had missed with that trash can. Well. Now we do
24:44
turn through listener comments and feedback, and Jason says that thankfully your work you
24:52
do on this great podcast. I started listening because you had Philip Marlow,
24:56
but I really enjoyed Dragnet and Crime and Peter Chambers. During episode fourteen seventy
25:00
four, Peter Chambers made reference to only wanting the facts from Lieutenant Parker.
25:06
Was this a shout out slash homage to Dragnet? Thanks so much for the
25:11
question, And in a way it is, though it's probably more accurately could
25:15
be said to be a tribute or homage to the Stan Freiberg Dragnet parody,
25:26
Saint George and the Dragon Mat. I've said oftentimes that Joe Friday never actually
25:32
used the phrase just the facts man, and there was a snops dot com
25:37
who agreed with that, but they said that it was based on Friday using
25:41
the phrase all we want are the facts man, and having listened to everything
25:45
available Dragnet wise, I've never heard him use that phraseology, though, I
25:52
think you could make a case that there was a basis for the idea of
25:57
the parody in the way that the officers conducted themselves. But this little aside,
26:03
and I'm sorry I didn't bring it up at the time, really does
26:07
illustrate the power and the acceptance and popularity of the parody. When it's referenced
26:15
in an episode of Crime and Peter Chambers about nine months after its release,
26:21
on the same network that Dragnet's broadcast on. In fact, I believe it
26:26
was even broadcast right after Dragnet. So an answer to your question, it
26:30
was homage to drag Nat, but probably more so to Saint George and the
26:33
Dragonnet. All right, well, thanks so much for the question, and
26:37
we'll be back with the show that brought Jason to listening to us tomorrow with
26:42
the Adventures of Philip Marlow, and then join us back here next Tuesday for
26:47
another episode of Crime and Peter Chambers. In the Meanheims Andrew comments to Box
26:52
thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives,
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and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook, book, dot com.
27:00
Slash Radio Detectives from Boiseadaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and off