Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: The Dentist and the Extortion Murder (EP1444)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: The Dentist and the Extortion Murder (EP1444) · 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, send it
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to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
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Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com
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slash Radio Detectives. Before we do get started, I want to encourage you
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to pick up my first ever detective novel, Slim Incorporate it. You can
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pick it up at store Dock Great Detectives dot net, along with all of
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the other books, ebooks and audiobooks that I've relace member Storredock, Great Detectives
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dot Net. Well, now it's time for today's episode of Crime and Peter
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Chambers. There was a lost episode between this week and last week, a
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title unknown. The original air date is May the fifth of nineteen fifty four
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and the title is The Dentist and the Extortion Murder. Crime and Peter Chambers
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created by Henry Kane, transcribed and starring Vanecluck, private investigator, duly licensed
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and duly sworn Peter Chambers. Who you're a private eye, that's your business.
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Anything else that's for labs you're sitting in a little French restaurant enjoying the
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onion soup. But it's not the onion soup that brought you here. Rather,
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as a prospective client, he asked you to meet him here at La
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Grand Maison, third booth to the right, mister Chambers, Peter Chambers,
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you uh, doctor Burns, that's right? May I sit down? Doctor
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Philip Burns, tall, black haired, black eyed, and he looks more
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worried than Papa when his teenager hasn't met her curefew. I'll begin quickly,
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mister Chambers. I asked you to meet me here because it's near my office
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and I can't get away for long. Well, you're the case history.
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Then I married wife and two small children, who at the moment and for
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the next three months are vacationing in the White Mountains. And I'm a dentist,
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and you're supposed to have quite a lot of money by inheritance. Yes,
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now about this Grace Chandler. Yes, you mentioned her when you talk
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to me on the phone. Right, patient of mine, with whom I've
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become rather well acquainted lately, I understand, Doc, Now where do we
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fit the prosaic private eye into this well. About two weeks ago, at
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nine o'clock in the evening, I was home. My family had already left
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on vacation, and I was about to go out for a date with miss
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Chandler. Oh, I saw no harm in it. We were just good
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friends. Yes, of course. I received a phone call from an important
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patient, Missus Griffin. She said it was an emergency. I asked her
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to meet me at the office, and I rushed over there, and this
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is what happened. I got to the office, walked into my operating room,
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and there was a man, a strange man, sitting in the operating
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chair. He had a gun in his hand. This is a nice little
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thirty eighth you got die? Is that mine? It's yours, all right?
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Got it out of your cabinet over there? What do you want?
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What are you doing here? I'm going to use the gun, doc,
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and I'm going to use it on you. That's what I'm doing here.
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But I don't understand. You know a Grace Chandler. Yes, I'm her
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husband. Now do you understand? He rose up out of the operating chair,
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a tall man with white hair and a white mustache. He lunched towards
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me, and suddenly the lights went out, but I grabbed at him and
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we fought furiously, and then then somehow I had the gun, but his
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fingers were at my throat, throttling me in self defense the trigger. I
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got up and groped in the darkness. I tried to find my flashlight,
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but it was gone. Finally I reached my work table. I found smelling
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sauts and used them on myself. Then I stumbled around until I got back
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to him, and I kneeled down beside him. He was dead. I
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got up. The gun was still in my hand, and finally I found
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the phone on my desk and I tried to use it, but that too
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was dead. I ran my fingers along the wire it was cut. I
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left the gun on the desk and I got out of there. Somehow I
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got out of there a block away. I found an open drugstore and I
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called the police. They used their flashlights, found a loose fuse, fixed
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it. The lights came on, but there was nobody on the floor.
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There was no dead body. There was nothing, and my gun that was
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gone too. I absolutely thought I was crazy, mister Tambers. I look,
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doctor, Was there a dead man on the floor? No question that
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man was dead. Oh, I admit the terrible misgivings. I've been trying
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to get up enough courage to put myself in the hands of a psychiatrist,
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and you've been wrestling with this problem for two long weeks. Huh. Yes,
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But yesterday, yesterday, finally I knew that I was sane. Well
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because why, Doc, why Suddenly yesterday we had a new patient, one
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Slocum Blackstone, who prefers to be called Blackie. That's when I knew I
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wasn't crazy. I was drilling his tooth blandly. He said, Doctor Burns,
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you killed a man, didn't you. Why? That's what he said.
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He told me that the police had fished up a body from the river,
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that the face was battered than the rest in fairly good condition. He
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said that that was the man I had killed, and that he could prove
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it. What else did he say? He refused to speak any further.
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He told me to think about it. He said he'd be back tonight to
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talk business. Oh, good old blackmail. Uh. Before I make up
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my mind on this, I want somebody, somebody experienced and somebody trustworthy to
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advise me. You're that somebody, Sir, good enough. Now, what
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time is this blackie coming to your office for that talk? At eight tonight?
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Okay, I'll be there at about seven thirty. And to anybody,
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anybody at all, I'm a new patient, I'm let me see, I'm
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Martin Barnett. All right, mister Chambers Barnett. Anything you say, he
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gives you a few of the less pertinent facts, like addresses and things,
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and then the good doctor takes his leave. You order another onion soup,
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but you're no longer an epicure. Everything tastes lously to you, so you
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pay and you blow. You have a short visit with a rich witch by
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name of Griffin, and it causes a lifted eyebrow. And then you're downtown
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at headquarters for a chin fest with good old Louis Well Pat Chambers, the
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private Eye for it's good to see you. Things were getting a little boring
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down here, Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker, Homicide Strong send you of the New
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York Police Force, a good cop, a good citizen, and a mighty
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good friend. You got some crazy questions, roll, Louis. Things have
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been rolling so normally around here. We begin to miss you. Crazy clients,
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crazy questions. Well, since I pride myself on being a gentleman,
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I won't add crazy. Private Eye got any crazy corpses around your morn?
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It's my peet never fails. Have you crazy corpses like? How? Oh?
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Like maybe one that likes to walk around after he's dead, or that
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maybe has a special passion for stealing a gun from a dentist. You're building
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up to something, people, or that maybe has three bullet holes in him
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no finger, Just a minute, What do you know about what we've got
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in the morgue? Path? Don't know nothing, Pal, Why you're here,
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path? Because I love your pal? Look Pete, I look Pal.
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If it so happens, by some peculiar circumstance, you're harboring a corpse
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in your public morgue that meets with the specifications laid down by the Private Eye,
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then as a favor, the private Eye would like a look see in
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the public morgue. And what else? Oh little chop chop chop chuck,
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you know, talkie talkie, All right, trouble, trouble, Let's go
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to the morgue. Talk A morgue is a temporary stopover for dead bodies.
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They keep them refrigerated catalysts, and after autopsy they're either claimed or buried in
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Potter's field. Parker produces the one you're interested in. There's your baby,
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white hair, smashed up face. You look over the hands. They have
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the hands of a mature man. Had enough, Paudy boy, Oh yeah,
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yeah, I've had enough. Let me shove him back. He's our
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prize possession. Nobody knows him, nobody claims him, nobody identifies him.
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Fiahed him up out of the ribbon, dead by drowning, No, no,
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dead before drowning. Oh, three bullets in him from a thirty eight,
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And we've got the bullets. They were still in him when we found
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him. Now, all you need is a gun the bullets came from,
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and whoever owns that gun. The only additional information a medical examiner could give
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us was that that battered face had had a mustache. White mustache. Yeah,
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that's right, a white mustage. You know this guy. No,
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I want you to level with me. Pete, okay, Lieutenant, let
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us level. I've got a case that might involve our mister unknown, so
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far as confidential, but well, let me spread my wings a little,
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and I'm liable to fly right back to you. So at seven point thirty
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that evening you keep your date. You're seated in the operating chair at doctor
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Philip Burne's office, which is on eighty sixth Street, one flight up,
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and the good doctor is drilling. There you are, sir, grins please,
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Janet, would you fill mister Barnett's cup again? Yes? Doctor,
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here you are, sir. All in all, I'd say you have an
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excellent set of teeth, sir, thank you, but the drilling I can
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live without, looking like a good normal American citizen. Doctor. Do you
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want me to make out a card for mister Barnette Martin Barnett, mister Barnett,
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my nurse, Miss Janet West? How do miss West? How do
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you do? Sir Janet West? A tall brunette with eyes like saucers and
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going from saucers to saucy That was her expression, saucy, pert and very
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cute. There's no reason to keep you this late, Janet. I don't
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take care of the paperwork, card and things, mister Barnett, Thank you,
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doctor, but if you wish no, no, we'll run along now.
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Let me see now, by cuspid, can we talk now? Rather
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not? She'll be ready to go in a second. Well here she is
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now, good night doctor, mister Barnett. Good night, Janet night.
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All right, now, where'd you keep that gun right there in that cabin
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to have a license for it? Of course? In your flashlight right here
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in this draw? Have you come up with anything at all, mister Chambers?
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Well, two things. There's a stiff down at the morgue. That
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tally's with what mister Blackstone told you, And I checked with missus Griffin.
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She never called you that night. Doctor. What's in this room back here?
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Well, that's my workroom, connects directly with the operating room here.
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Well, I'll be able to listen to them in there. Oh shure,
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where's that from outside the waiting room? What time is it? Eight o'clock?
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That's our boy? Okay, pluck me in here, that's it,
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I remember. Listen them out and stall them. We're a laon dock,
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ain't we. Of course? You think I'm crazy? Well not you dog?
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Crazy like a fox. That's you the way you stall them cops,
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and you were a dead pigeon here on the floor. How do you know
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he Just listen, sweetie, I own a pool room downstairs, right downstairs
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from here. Yes, business, you should pardon the expression. It stinks
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out loud. So that night I'm outside getting a bit of the ozone when
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I hit them shots up here and then I see you come tearing out.
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I figure it some kind of hazzle. So what have I gotta lose?
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Going upstairs for a gander. You found him here on the floor, right
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you are, sweetie. So I figured I could lend what you call a
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help in hand. I goes down from a flashlight and then I do the
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bit. I snatched the gun and I lug him out of here, and
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like that, you're guilty and nothing, you know what I mean? Nothing?
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What did you do with him? Put him in my car and dump
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him in the river, and like that, I'm in business. I don't
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quite understand. Yeah, well, just keep the ears picked up. I
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got your gun down in my bank vault, and the cops they got a
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stiff with three bullets in him, and they got the bullets. If the
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slugs they got match the gun I got. You know what you got trouble
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by the bushling the peck clear, Yes, So we're gonna work it like
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in the nowaity. Just what are you selling? Life insurance, sweetie,
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on your life, and we're making an easy premium three hundred dollars a week
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for how long it's a life insurance policy you pay for the rest of your
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life. Ain't unreasonable? Three hundred dollars a week and you know it and
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you can afford it. Think what I'm doing for you, Doc? Yes,
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I'm thinking you want to hear the funniest sweet sweetie. My one worry
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in the world is going to be your help keep well, Doc, And
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if I don't agree to your demands, you'll agree. You're not one of
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them big dopes. You got brains, sweetie. Look, I give you
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a few days to think about it. Monday at five I show up for
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my three bills, and then after that every Monday like clockwork. Goodbye,
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Sweetie, See you on Monday. See gun. Yes, real cutie?
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That one? Yeah, real cute. What are you going to do?
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Doc? Going to pay him? And what happens when he raises the ante?
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They always do? Doc? What's your advice mister Chambers? Oh you
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mean I'm still working for you, Like he stated at the deadline, mister
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Chambers, for both you and me, you're a good little detective working on
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a case. So you suddenly remember there's one party who should have been interviewed,
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and who wasn't Grace Chandler. She turns out to be an acrobatic dancer,
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a good looking brunette with muscles in her arms. Yes, yes,
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what is it, mister Chambers. Well, just a couple of questions,
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ma'am about your husband husband. Well, I won't take up much of your
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time. You've got no husband, no husband. Nah. By now,
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hey, say where are you going? The rest of the day develops nothing,
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and so the next day, at about seven o'clock in the evening,
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you're outside Doc Burn's office ready for a bit of a tail job on Janet
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West. She leads you all the way to Riverdale, and there a fine
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looking man opens the door for her. And what do you know, He's
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got white hair and a white mustache, real nice face. You've seen pictures
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of him many, many times, only when you saw them they had numbers
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beneath them, rogues gallery pictures. The mailbox in front of the house,
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says Michael West. So you get to a phone booth and call down to
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Parker. Hello, yeah, Pea Chambers, Look, Louis you remember Mike
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Andy's the old confidence man. That's the one. Is he still in operation
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lately? Well, you're gonna hear do you have a daughter that guy?
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Yeah? Yeah, chip off. The old blood lastly runs in the family.
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Well, come and collect them. What what are you talking about?
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He lives up at the Marinac eighteen ninety seven Belmontade. He lives under the
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name of West. Pick up both of them, the father and the daughter.
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Now look Pete way up there. I'd be happy to do you a
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favor, but I am homicide. Remember, I got more important things to
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do to worry about. Confidence floy How is this stiff in the morgue,
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the one with the bullet holes? Well, still stiffs, still unidentified.
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Still a puzzle to me. Well I'm in the process of solving that puzzle,
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Lieutenant. Yes, I mean pick these two up and deliver them to
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the office of doctor Philip Burns, eighty sixth Street. Pick up Doc Burns
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too, having their at ten o'clock. Keep the old man downstairs out of
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sight till I show up, and don't get anybody any explanations whatsoever. Okay,
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I'll see you in Doc Burns's office. I'll have the doc there and
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the girl there, and the old man stashed away outside. You by now
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gotta go and get the old horse and buggy. So close on to ten
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o'clock. You're visiting a pool room. I'm on eighty sixth Street, and
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business certainly is lousy because you're the only customer. There's one guy there,
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tall and husky in his shirt sleeves, and he's got even bigger muscles than
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Doc Burns, acrobatic dancer. Also, he's got arrogant black eyes that are
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boulder than a burless dance in Union City looking for somebody, Jack, you're
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the boss, Yeah, I'm the boss. You're Blackstone, Yeah, I'm
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Blackstone. Blackstone. You know that was a great jurist, once jurist.
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What's a jurist? Judge? Lawyer? Look, sweetie, I got him
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out faced by name of Rabinowitz. He'll spot your Blackstone ten points and your
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boy won't even know he's been in a tussle. Now what do you want
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here? You what? What's that? We're going to do a little talking
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pal about a body and bullets and a river. You the law, Jack,
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the private law. Oh I think, well, sweetie, here's what
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I think of finks and here's what I think of muscle guys. Ah,
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shut up, get up, sweetie. Com where we're going. We're going
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upstairs and see the dentist. There's a couple of cavities that need filling.
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Upstairs. You're joined the cast of characters, and Parker shakes hands with you.
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I pete everything, taking care of who's your boyfriend? What's going on
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here? They're all there except old Mike, plus a lot of cups.
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And Doc Burne's eyes are popped like he's studying Grace Chandler's muscles. Mister Chambers,
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what what's the meaning of all this? I had your word? It
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was in the strictest confidence. That's just what happened to your doc. Confidence.
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Only add the word game to it. Confidence game. And there stands
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number one, Miss Janet West or whatever the real name is, my nurse.
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You're crazy, man, that's ridiculous. Ah. They figured out a
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beautiful blackmail deal. They who light's going out while you're fighting? Phone wires
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being cut in advance, your flashlight disappearing? What about my corps p D
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with the three bullets in it? Well, come to that, lieutenant,
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now, think Doc, think who knew you had a gun? And where
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you kept it. Who knew where your flashlight would be? And who knew
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you had an important patient, Missus Griffin, that could be used as a
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decoy, And who knew that you were going out with Grace Chandler mind doc.
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Think yes, yes, Jennet you I tailed her home. I tailed
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her home And it turns out her father's Mike. Andy's one of the top
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con men in the country. By the way, where is the lieutenant,
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Cassidy? Bring up Andy's be here in a minute. Pre yeah, yeah,
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you got them all. Huh. Now, look I got conned into
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this too. It was Mike's IV all of it. Look, will it
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help me if I talk? Always hopes if you'd talk. Well, the
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whole deal was Mike Candy. But that's the man I killed. Thought you
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killed. Doctor, just wanted you to identify him. That's all we need
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him for, Louis Okay, Cassi, did you get him out of here?
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Another? Think eyeball is right? The whole deal was a plant.
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Mike got a bright idea after his daughter got this job here or only took
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the job because she knew the doc was plenty while here, Oh, you
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dirty, miserable little squeeze. Where did you get the fall guy? I
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picked up a bum off the bowery, picked out one that looked like Mike.
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We brought him here and Mike pumped three bullets into him from the doc's
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gun. Then we cleaned up and me and the stiff were parking the workroom.
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Also, we reload the doc's gun with blanks, and Janet called Doc
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Burns and gave him the emergency bit about missus Griffin. Huh yeah, I
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think. Then right away the doc comes here to his office and Mike's sitting
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in his chair holding the gun and saying he's this Chandler's husband. And during
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the fight, you turn off the fuse for the darkness. Huh correct,
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think, Hey, the name's Chambers, mister Chambers. And then in the
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darkness, after the doc thought he'd shot him, and while he was stumbling
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around, we pulled the old switcheroo, switched the real stiff for Mike,
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and the phone wire was cut so that you have to go out to make
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his phone call, right, mister Chambers, which gives us time to lug
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the stiff out. We mark up his face and dump them in the river,
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and the whole deal would have worked, except Mike got stubborn like well.
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I begged him to get out of the state, but he figured this
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one was such a wrap up. He'd stay home and take it easy.
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And anytime you think you're smarter than cops, you're dumb. On which philosophical
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note, Lieutenant, I'd say it's time to transfer our transgressors to more appropriate
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surroundings, say like the Who's Gull And there you've had Crime and Peter Chambers.
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Dane Clark was starred as Peter Chambers. Crime and Peter Chambers Transcribed was
24:10
created and written by Henry Kane. Others in the cast were Bill zuckert Herd
24:14
as Lieutenant Parker, Ed Beagley as Doctor Burns, lay On Janny as Blackie,
24:18
and Anne Diamond as Janet. It was directed by Fred Way. And
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this is Fred Collins inviting you to tune in next week, same time,
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same station for Dane Clark in Crime and Peter Chambers. Be with us again
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next week at the same time for another adventure by Peter Chambers in Crime and
25:37
Peter Chambers. This is the United States ar Enforces Radio and Television service.
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It's it's it's welcome back, and what did suspect fraud from the beginning,
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so the conclusion here doesn't have doesn't really surprise me. Here and leaving to
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murderer might be a bit of a surprise, but the guy was loaded.
27:15
I continue to be impressed with the amount of pro law enforcement message in Crime
27:23
and Peter Chambers. In some ways it may be a witness to the overall
27:27
strength of dragnet, because you really would not have heard a whole lot of
27:33
warnings about not taking the police seriously on many of the radio programs of the
27:38
nineteen fifties or nineteen forties. Either Thursday, we will actually be beginning on
27:45
the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio, a five Days Christmas Extravaganta of Christmas
27:52
episodes. There are two shows that won't be included, and I'll mention them
27:57
here. One is and Peter Chambers because their production schedule didn't cross with the
28:04
Christmas season at all. The other is The Adventures of Philip Marlow. The
28:10
Adventures of Philip Marlow does actually have two Christmas episodes, but both of them
28:17
are lost. But we'll begin on Thursday at Nick Harter, so be sure
28:21
and listen to that. All right, Well, that'll do it for today.
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Sender comments to Baux thirteen at Great Detectives dot now, follow us on
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Twitter, Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook
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dot com. Slash Radio Detectives from Boise, Idaho. This is your host,
28:37
Adam Grahamson and Off