Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: The Rooming House Murder (EP1426)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: The Rooming House Murder (EP1426) · 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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and you can support the show at support dot Great Detectives dot net or
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by sending in a check or money order to Peelbox one five nine one three
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Voice the Altohol eight three seven one five. Well, now it's time for
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today's episode of Crime in Peter Chambers. The original air date is April twenty
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seventh, nineteen fifty four, and the title is The Rooming House, Murder,
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Crime and Beater Chambers, created by Henry King, transcribed and Stein Dan
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Plot. A private investigator, duly licensed and duly swann Peter Chambers. Yeah,
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you're a private eye. That's your business. Anything else that's for laughs.
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It's one of those dark brown knights, dirty with rain. You're home
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and you're doing calisthenics with a Scotch bottle. It isn't so much that you
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enjoy a drink. But after all, you're a private eye. You might
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get waved out of the league if you didn't keep in practice. You're contemplating
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a warm shower and an early go to bed. When, oh, mister
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Chambers, Peter Chambers, that's your service, ma'am, if it's service you
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want, I'm glad. I'm so glad I was able to reach you.
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I'm glad you're glad, lady, What does it please? My name is
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Doyle, Mary Doyle. Hi own a rooming house at Ato one West thy
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third. It's quite near, perhaps ten minutes from where you are. Hell,
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look, mister Chambers, it's kind of kind of a bodyguard job for
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tonight, the night it's murdered. Tonight it's pouring rain. This is it's
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kind of an emergency service. Better be it is one hundred thousand dollars in
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cash. She's got one hundred thousand dollars up. Hello, Hello, a
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fine night to be making a house call. But emergency, the lady said,
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And it certainly sounded like the emergency had bust wide open. So you're
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a fight in the rain, making tracks for a rooming house at eight oh
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one West fifty third, And then you're there and you're shove at the buzzer
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and you got no answer, and you turn the knob and you're inside.
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Inside is a spacious downstairs room, a flight of steps going up. There's
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a phone on a corner table and its receiver is dangling, and as a
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lady seated in front of it, about forty red hair boxing. Quite attractive
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if you're thinking a large times. She's wearing silk lounging pajamas with shoes to
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match, and she's out like the proverbial light. You go to her quickly
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and you slap her back to light. There, come on easy as a
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lady. Are you coming around now? All right? Yuh? Somebody slug
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me? But good miss Doyle? Or is it miss Doyle? Yeah?
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Oh are you? What are you doing here? Who are you? Peter
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Chambers? You were talking to me on the phone. Oh good, No
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copy with you in a moment. Please don't go away. Here's a new
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gimmick. You find an unconscious woman and when you bring around, she shoots
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off like a rocket. Camodigras well screams to a private. The detective are
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like spurs to a race horse. You fly up the stairs and you find
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Mary Doyle in a room with an open door, and there's a lady on
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the floor, quite rigid near her a small instrument of large consequence, a
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nickel plated revolver. Dead. She's dead. They shut her. Don't touch
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that, but the gun. Just leave that line. Now, what's all
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this about? Just a minute, Well, what are you looking for now?
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A little black bag, little black bag? What's that got to do
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with this whole one hundred thousand dollars in cash money? One thing at a
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time. Lady, who's the corpus delicti? And who dad? An opera
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singer? Lidally? She was here in this country for a year Algadino,
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great soprano. What was she doing here? She didn't like cooktails. I
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run a very correct theatrical boarding house here. The best were good friends.
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Look, you better go downstairs and call the cops, and you and I
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we'll pick it up after that, all right, all right, So whatever
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you say. So now you go for the gun. Only you lifted with
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a pinky through the trigger guard. But all your careful care is wasted because
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there's an interruption slightly from mayhem, and the mayhem is directed at you.
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Off all right, people, you still got the gun. You got me
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with my hands up in the air. So what's on next move? What
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are you doing here? What kind of a boarding house is this? Anyway?
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Let me tell you. I'm sure I can come up with a good
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answer if I think about it. And now you get another interruption, But
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this one's of the opposite gender. She stands in the doorway, blue eyed,
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red lipped, blonde, and statuesque. And you'd be wildly interested if
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it weren't for a slight matter of murder. You with a gun? What's
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between you and mister Brown? Who wants to know? My name is Joan
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Bradley. Well, I do a low bow, Miss Bradley, except I've
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got to keep the gun point at our friend here, at mister Brown.
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Oh, mister Brown, you maybe Bill Cragg to me a hood from Louisiana
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hiding out from my grand jury investigation. Mister Brown, never mind him.
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I'll take a look at this, miss a very dead and very murdered.
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You live here, yes, what do you do? I'm a lady magician?
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Who else lives here? Mister Brown? All good, Ralph Hardwood,
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me and mister Doyle at all in the entire house being renovated. That's all
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she could accommodate at this time. Okay, Now my name is Peter Chambers,
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and right now I'm in charge here. Yes, miss is Ralph Hardwood
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at home? Yes he is. All right, then, my dear lady
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magician a favor, please, yes, make yourself disappear and tell mister Hardwood
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to stay in his room, and you you stay in yours. We'll come
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to you in due course. All right, sir, if you say so.
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And now you're alone again with a corpse and mister Bill Cragg sporting around
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under the name of Brown in a theatrical boarding house in New York. Bill
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Cragg tall, rugged, shrewd, and rotten as a wormy apple. Any
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questions, paper, Oh a lot of them, pal As you know,
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I'm hiding out from a little heat in New Orle So I'm here. Is
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Bill Brown, retired actor? That's a cry. I don't know it ain't.
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But what's with jumping me and tussling for that gun? Simple? It's
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my gun. Hey. That's a pretty frantic ambission for a wise guy that
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figures to be the heat of that de heated our lady here. I got
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the same figure. So it's my gun. Period took a look at my
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suitcase. A couple of minutes ago. My gun was lifted. I'm coming
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down past this open door. See the dead dame, see you with a
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gun. It begins to ad maybe I lost my head. I can't use
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trouble, brother, And how I can't use trouble? Where were you this
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evening? Took in a movie lousy one, Cops and robbers? Whence you
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get back? About half an hour ago? Asked miss Doyle. I called
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down for coffee, maybe five minutes after I got in. Do you know
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anything about a little black bag? Sure? No, it was in it
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one hundred thousand cash. But how do you know everybody in this house?
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Nose luck? Bill? You didn't kill this dame? Did you know?
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But I got a hunter? Whoever? Did use my gun to make it
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look like I did this? Joan Bradley? Did she know about that little
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black bag? Now? I told you everybody knows. I'm wasting my time
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with you, for I can get the same information, and she's prettier your
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time. People, you get Bill cragged back to his room, admonish him
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that a runout powder would be a clean admission of guilt. And then you
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mosey along to Miss Joan Bradley, who keeps growing on you by leaps and
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bounds. Come in, mister Chambers, make yourself at home. You're awfully
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pretty. I wish I had the time, so do I really? Well,
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you're sort of pretty yourself. Let's make a date. Then as soon
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as this thing is over. You twisted my arm, mister Chambers. I
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sort of like the way you twist arms. Okay, then let's get back
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to cases. What's with a little black bag? Oh well, we were
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talking about it at dinner to day all of us were here, don't stairs,
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missus Doyle was sot. All right, all right, let's have it.
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Well it begins with Algadino, fine sweet woman. Oh about forty five.
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She had a hundred thousand dollars in a vault, and tomorrow morning,
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at nine, she was taking the ship to return to Italy. They were
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going to be married on board. They who's the they? Olga and Ralph
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Hardwood, same guid lives here. Yeah, they met here, young English
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acted. So she drew the money out of the vault to day she was
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taking it wither and she had it in that little black bag. Everybody in
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the house knew about her. That was August, sweet, trusting, That
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was the way she was. Never had a bad word for anybody, never
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a bad thought. She felt that the money was just as safe here as
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in the bank fold. But Mary, missus Doyle kept after all day,
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well, Mary Doyle and sister, that I'll go hire somebody sort of a
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custodian bodyguard, somebody properly trained and equipped it to act as custodian. Until
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tomorrow morning when they got to the ship. She kept after all day and
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by night time she probably convinced her meaning me, I don't understand. Let
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me explained to you. There'll be lots of cops here shortly, h e
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jeamus, come on down here downstairs. The place is crawling with cops.
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Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker, friend and gentleman is in charge. Louis is involved
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in the interrogation of miss Mary Doyle and a fine looking young man who turns
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out to be Ralph Harwood. You turn the gun over to Louis and you
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bring him up to date on your end of the affair, and then he
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returns to his questioning, two things we got established. Definitely, the Dame
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is dead and that bag of loot ain't in the house. That's definite,
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now you Hotwood, Yes, lieutenant, that aur good Dino was fifteen years
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older than you. Was it love or was it money? Love? Liftenant
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with the dame fifteen years older than you? Oh, she was younger than
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any of us left in it? All right with the left. Let's not
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make with the metaphors. Were you out of the house tonight, yes,
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Lieutenant, I was visiting my sister. Got back about three quarters of an
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hour ago, after the rain started, Yes, sir, after the rain
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started, Miss Doyle, Yes, lieutenant. What about that Joan Bradley?
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Was she out to? She was at a rehearsal. She returned about fifteen
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minutes before I called, mister Chambers. Everybody was out in the rain tonight
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except me. You sure there were no strangers around here? Very sure?
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I wasn't out of the house for a minute, Cassidy. Get the rest
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of them down here. Soon the whole quorum will be gathered. Uh,
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Pete, come over here and you and me alone. So what do you
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make of I don't make a thing Yet, Lieutenant, crazy artists carrying their
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loot in a bag, begging to get knocked off. It figures that Bill
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Crag's gun was a weapon. Oh, I'm sure that three bullets out of
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the gun, three in the dame. But he's already produced a license for
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it. So don't give us no office to hold him. Yet you think
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he'd killed for one hundred gees. You know he's pretty much of a big
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shot. Never tell with them, any of them. Well, how do
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you make it? Well, in fact, we've got Mary Doyle is calling
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you, but somebody doesn't want a bodyguard around, so she gets cocked on
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the cranium, put out a commission, and that alga gets knocked off,
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and the bag of loot has stolen gets taken out of the house. Our
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murderer returns before Miss Doyle recovers consciousness, joins the rest of the boys and
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the girls. Then you show up in the deal bus, wide up as
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the rest of them. Let me go and make a speech, Eat you
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away, lieutenant. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going downtown to
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the lab to see what the science boys may have dug out for me.
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But my cops stay here. That understood. Sure, all right, nobody
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leaves. It's clear. What about me? Lieutenant? Sooner you leave,
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the less trouble we're likely to get into hana a lieutenant, you're you need
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to sound like a lieutenant. No objection to my mosing around little is there?
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No objection provided you report your findings to Papa and I'm Papa, Yes,
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sir Papa. Oh buy now, everybody try to act like good little
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murderers. Well, first step in the mosing around apartment. Anybody hear the
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shot? Oh? That would have been quite impossible. Mister Chambers. How
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do you know my name? Miss Doyle told me. I let Miss Doyle
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tell the rest. Why would it be impossible to hear a shot, Miss
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Doyle? Because I've been sound proving the house it's a theatrical boarding house.
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Yes, yes, yes, yes. Step number two. Are all of
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you dressed as you've been dressed save for the last couple of hours, of
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course? Good? Now, Step number three, get your shoes off all
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of you. Look here, old man. It's a rather high handed procedure.
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Dunge shoes off all of you under the supervision of the good officer here,
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mister Cassidy, And now come on, come on off, off there
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I lay them there on the table. Good. That's good, very good.
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And what now, sir? And now you all go upstairs, each
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of you to your respective room. Come on, come on, off you
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go, my barefooted brigade, Come on, let's go, let's go.
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Really a most high handed procedure. And so, under the rather astonished eyes
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Parkers, policeman, you do the old sherlock. You examine the shoes,
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you feel them, you touch them, you bend them, and you put
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them back. Then you wriggle into your raincoat, and you wave goodbye to
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the test and gentlemen of the see around fellas, I remember, lieutenants orders.
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Nobody comes, nobody goes except me. And now you're walking in the
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rain, trying to think. An idea is beginning to glimmer in your mind,
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and you're waiting for it to catch fire. Then a block away you
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see a subway station, and the fire on your head has started. You
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jog down the subway steps, but you're not going anywhere. You've got no
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train to catch. And downstairs you see an object of interest, a tall
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section of public lockers. You go near and insert your dime, but you
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don't check a thing. Then you prance up the stairs and you make for
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the nearest tavern and a couple of drinks. But this time they have a
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purpose to ward off pneumonia because you're wet through and true. And then you're
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back in the boarding house and you're greeted well, well, well, the
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return of Sherlock Coles Parker's got them all downstairs again. But none of them
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are wearing their shoes yet my orders. Look, my dear friend, I
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like my murder suspects wearing shoes. If it's all right with you, It's
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not alright with me, not yet, Lieutenant boy. When I pray,
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but I goes nuts, it's a matter for the paddy wag. Look,
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I'm just trying to put two and two together. Lout you certainly got a
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crazy way of adding point. I'm attempting to produce the murder of Algadino.
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Produce away, Detective pray, don't let me interrupt, Well, sir,
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First off, we've got motive one hundred thousand motives, all green and all
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stuffed into a little black bag. Right. Also, we've got a small
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but select group granted, So when do we produce some are Lieutenant gently gently
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come here, dig these shoes. Okay, I'm a hipster. I dig
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these shoes the most. Notice they're all damned. What did you expect them
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to be dry? It's pouring out? Remembering yourself, Lieutenant, I am
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contained. All right, let's get back to the beginning. Mary Doyle called
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me on the phone. Purpose to protect Algadino's little black bag. Yeah,
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and the killer heard her and had to act fast. He slugged her,
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then knocked off the opera singer, then clipped the bag all before you got
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here. How long did it take? About ten minutes? Okay, So
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what's with the damp shoes? Joan Bradley's figure to be damned and mine didn't.
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They didn't mind. Why don't you? He's right, Lieutenant, his
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figure to be damned too, And so did Bill Crags. They were all
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out in the rain, but not Mary Doyle. What you weren't out of
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the house, williamss Doyle, that's what you told the lieutenant. Remember,
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not for a minute, not you. What are you trying to say?
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I'm asking you to explain why were your shoes wet? No? Look,
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you you're not gonna push me around with your smart Alec private cup. Politics
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maybe the shoes are wet. So what I got a leaky pipe in the
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kitchen, the floor is damp, the hot one explanations for what shoes?
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Your shoes are wet from the rains a lot. Were you out in the
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rain misdoing? Absolutely not? Oh yeah she was. Can you prove it,
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Pete? Certainly I can prove it. But she's the one that called
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you, the one who was most worried about that opera singer and her loot.
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Strictly, I cover up, lieutenant. Let me do a right side
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up for you. First she knocked off Algadino up there with the door closed
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and the sound proof room, and then she called me, lie, lie,
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Lie, you be good lady, or I'm gonna have to put you
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into a restraint. Let me get you straight, Pete, accordney you she
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sort of conkeered herself on the head. You found it like that supposed to
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be uncunn and she made surely the outside door unlocked so I could get in.
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And you got here during that ten minute period from the time she called
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that's when she got her shoes. He's all wet. You're gonna have to
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prove those things, mister Whi's guy, because I'm gonna assue you. I'm
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gonna drag you in the court and teach you a lesson. It's about time
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one of you guys gotta lie up. Lady, will you please shut up?
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I wait a minute, Pete. About the shoes. She could have
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changed them. No, no, she couldn't. They're lounging shoes that go
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with her outfit. If she changed the shoes, she'd have to change the
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entire get up. She simply didn't have the time. Remember, ten minutes,
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So she wiped the shoes as best she could, which left them damp.
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She had to work fast in those ten minutes. While you were down
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the lab with your bright boys, Lieutenant, I was out in the rain
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figuring angles. What did you come up with? A subway station? What?
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There's a subway station a block from here. Downstairs, they've got a
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flock of those dime parcel checkboxes. Now that figured to be the closest drop.
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Remember, she was in a hurry, so she checked the little black
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bags. July checkboxes have little keys. I got no key, Search me
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search the house. That'd be no key here. Backing down, figured i'd
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break down onto your phony. Third. Why what? Why there's no key
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here? Yeah, why tell me why, because I've got it see right
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here in my hand. What the heck is all this about? She used
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the oldest gag in the world, probably thought it was new because she dreamed
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it up. They all do, who all do? Amateur criminals? Sure,
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she didn't keep the check key on a person too risky. Instead,
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she put in an envelope and she mailed it to herself the old mailer room.
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It's a lie, miss Doyle. You made one mistake. Under certain
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circumstances, mail can be intercepted, and that's exactly what's been done. See
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this key, that's the final bit of evidence that's going to fasten you to
22:47
the electric chair for murder. The rest is easy. A bit of expert
23:02
prodding from Parker and she breaks down and they caught her away. The police
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opened that panel of lockers and find a little black bag in downtown. She
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confesses that she mailed the check key to herself care of an aunt in Brooklyn,
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And one hour later, you and miss Joan and Bradley are at your
23:18
place, bunching corn beef sandwiches and drinking beer. You've kissed her a couple
23:23
of times, but you've gotten very little response. So you ask why,
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because when my mind is trouble and I can't concentrate on kissing. But uh,
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what's troubling you? Malarkey about intercepting the United States mail? Malarkey is
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precisely correct. Mary Doyle was a type would fight back and tied. You
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had her convinced even if they found a bag in that locker, they still
23:51
have to tie it up with her. So I had to dream up a
23:53
ruse to convince her. But where'd you get the key that wasn't The key
24:00
was a key, but of exactly the same type, out of exactly the
24:03
same group of checkboxes. I went there, I paid a dime, I
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checked nothing, and came away with the condenser. Very good, very good,
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indeed, thank you, and for all that work, not even a
24:18
fee. Well, everything isn't measured in dollars. My sweet, You've got
24:22
all the right answers. Come here. Your mind's still trouble, No,
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sir, you got a trouble in the world. Can you concentrate now?
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Try find out? Uh mma quiet please, man of work mm hmm,
24:53
and there you've had crime and Peter Chambers Dane Clark was starred as Peter Chambers.
25:07
Crime and Peter Chambers Transcribed was created and written by Henry Kane. Bill
25:12
Zuckert was heard as Lieutenant Parker with Briana Raeburn and William Griffiths. Was directed
25:18
by Fred Way. And this is Fred Collins inviting you to tune in next
25:22
week, same time, same station, or Dane Clark in Crime and Peter
25:29
Chambers. This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. Welcome
26:52
back. A nice twist on the idea of the criminal being not as clever
26:57
as they think, and getting another key was a good, solid, deductive
27:04
step by Pete Chambers here all right, Well, that'll do it for today.
27:08
We will be back tomorrow with the adventures of Philip Morlow. Join us
27:14
next Tuesday for another episode of Crime and Peter Chambers. In the meantime,
27:18
singer comments to 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 from Boise, Idaho. This is your host,
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Adam Grahamson and AF