Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.

This is your host, Adam Graham.

In a moment, we are going to bring you this week's episode of Yours truly, Johnny Doller.

But first I want to encourage you.

If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software, and our listener support and appreciation campaign continues, and you can become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for his Little Lass two dollars per month at Patreon dot Great Detectives dot net.

Now today we're playing another one that this one was a home recording's only recently come into circulation, and we played it for Bob Bailey's one hundred and tenth birthday a couple of years ago.

But now from June the first, nineteen fifty eight, here is the Froward Fisherman.

Manor from Hollywood.

It's time now for Johnny Dollar Clark Sources, mister.

Donnar Continental Insurance Trust Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

What can I do for you, sir?

If you're halftime, I wish you'd come out here and see me.

Mind telling me what it's all about.

Well, as I understand that you're quite a fisherman.

Well, I like to think, though, if you fish all over the country at one.

Time or another.

Not as much as I like.

But now, what's on your mind?

Tell me?

In the course of your travels, have you ever run across a client of mine named berkhamar holwithy No.

I can't say that I have.

He a fisherman too, that's all he's done for the last ten or fifteen years.

What man is he looking for?

A fishing clown?

His wife has just filed the twain against his life insurance policy one hundred and sixty dollars.

Oh God, huh disappeared, mister dollar.

I think you might be able to find him for it.

I think I could try.

Expense accounts committed by Special Investigator Johnny Dollars to the Continental Insurance and Trust Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana office.

Following is an account of expenses incuraged during my investigations the Forward Fisherman Matters expense account out of one forty six eighty transportation in New York and a mainliner to Fort Wayne, Id'm two for seventy taxi from Baarfield and the Continental off on Calhoun Street West.

Just got right to the point hurt.

From Hallsworthy and his wife lived in Angola, mister Dollar, or rather just above it on Lake James.

Oh, yeah, that's nother here, isn't Yes, about.

Forty five miles or so.

He made a lot of money in his younger days.

Invented a lot of things too, mostly in the line of fishing tackles.

Say, way, doesn't he the man who invented that fast strike metal hook.

No, that was somebody out on the West Coast.

I used that hook myself.

Anyhow.

When he retired, it was to spend all of his time fishing.

That's why he bought the place on Lake James.

And now you say it's disappeared.

Yeah, what Well, all I know is what I've learned from his wife, and that isn't much.

He took off one day last February and headed down to Florida, the seat in the Gulf of Mexico, alone alone.

His wife doesn't care for the sports the way he does.

Doesn't care for it at all.

Unfortunately, I find that's cool of a lot of wives, I know what you mean.

Oh, then you're married too, oh sir, I tell John Fisherman.

But go on, Well, then in April.

He showed up at home again, very briefly, just for a few hours, then took off again.

That's the last we know of this, and that's all you know.

Yes, the police have done a lot of leg works, checked out a lot of possibilities and so on, but have got nowhere.

Then why don't I head on up there and see his wife?

Unless you have a better idea, I wish I had.

I had him three fifty dollars deposit on a rental car.

I headed north through garrett, Auburn and Waterloo.

When I reached Saying Golda, I stopped at a mobile gas station across from the campus of tri State College, who ass direction.

The attendant knew all about the halls where they played some Lake James.

I could see why when I got there a few minutes later.

It was a beautiful, big large built of native log sitting about one hundred fet above the water's edge, with its own private dock poking out into the calm blue lights.

As I stood there on the broad stream porch, a big fish jumped hear off of the water a pipe, probably a baby.

What is it?

I didn't know you Raine, Oh excuse me.

I was admiring your beautiful view of the lake.

Was beautiful to some people.

What is it you want, Missus Hackworthy, It's right.

I'm missus holliswith.

My name is Johnny Dollar.

I'm an insurance investigator.

Oh you can news about my husband, No.

Ma'am, I'm afraid I haven't come.

Mister Dallas, thank you.

So the insurance company man and the police all I know.

But I suppose I may as well tell you too that I'm convinced now that Bertram's dead where I don't know, but I'm certain I would have heard from him long before this year.

Is still alive?

Is that your only reason for believing him dead?

That's position?

Well, I don't know.

It's because you never knew Britom nor me.

Brigram loves to see so while I'll never know.

Once a family grew up and got married, and he retired.

That's all he cared about.

As I understand it, he left here sometime.

In several words, he went to Florida.

The fair throw to Florida for some reason or others seemed to prepare the salt water tissue.

Oh, in spite of settling here on Lake Change.

That's right.

The only reason we did he buy somewhere on the coasters because I.

Wouldn't put up with the dampness and mess.

I have yet to find a place on the ocean where all the fishy drags into the house don't smell.

So Lord knows this place is bad enough.

With all the mosquitoes bugs during the summer, and the birds and the frogs croaking all that.

Uh.

I take it you and your husband haven't been too happy together recently.

We haven't, and that's why I'm not sitting around moping and moaning and weeping over his passion.

And you have no idea what might have happened to him?

No, that is, yes, well, and that is unless he got drowned or something like that on one of these.

Silly fishing expeditions.

Oh, unless someone found out how much money he was playing and clothed.

In for that.

He took a great deal of money with him, Yes, he always did.

How much, missus Althorp.

He never told me, but it was thousands of dollars.

And may be sure that he left here in several warri Yes, the weather was two.

Cold in Florida, two cold all along the Atlantic's coastly.

That's what he said in his regular weekeep post pods.

So he tried up in Alabamadon Tennessee, and in Kentucky and hea an nosewhere.

Then in April he's come back to here.

How long he was here?

I don't know.

I was in Fort Wayne.

For a few days.

Then, how do you know he was here at all?

He moved one of the kids in.

The living room to get to the floor safe to get some more money to waste on fishing.

Well, how do you know he was going fishing again?

Because of the noady left and the big freezer with the fish he brought back to put into it.

Oh, may I see that note?

I don't know.

Why not if the making persons beer done in Fort Wayne and willing to stalk to you?

Oh I see.

And you're sure your husband left no clue as to where he was going.

I'm very sure, mister Dollars.

Yes, my husband is dead.

He weren't I would have heard from him.

You're doing nothing but wasting your time here my time.

I've told everything I know to.

The police over and over again.

If you think you can accomplish more than they have, why don't you go down there and talk with the tenants basket.

Maybe i'd better funny.

She didn't seem too concerned about a husband's disappearance, and obviously she had a lot of gain by his death, his property, whatever money was lying around, and the must be funny and a big hung of insurance.

Sure, maybe a top of the police would do some good.

So I left.

But you know something I unknowingly left behind me, the one big fat clod of the whole situation.

This is Burstram Halls for me.

There is a lodge on Lake James, Indiana had given me no clues to the all as to the whereabouts of a missing husband.

Lieutenant bash Com at the Bureau of Missing Person's in Port Wayne with some help, but not very much.

Yeahnny.

We even put out calls to every place at Old Halls Worthy was ever known to go stations, and believe me, there was a lot of territory.

He's done nothing else the last ten or fifteen years, and he's been all over this end of the United States.

If why said he left some kind of a note, here's a note right here.

Oh thanks, be home again one of these days.

Maybe meantime I'm going back to get some more of these beauty ad means the fish he left in the freezer up, it's a lott as usual.

You'll be happier with me away And you know something, Martha so alive?

Fine Bert, Wait a minute, lieutenant, Yeah, what kind of fish did he need in that freezer?

Well?

I didn't recognize him, but Hal Warren, who used to time to be back in Jersey City did, and what I think stripe Bass, Oh, stripe at Bass said he used to catch him along the Jersey shore.

So we blanketed the whole Jersey coast.

The pictures, description, license member of his car, description on the car, everything we had on old halls.

Yeah a wait a minute.

Those fish are found on the coast of New York, on the whole I know, down the whole cells Atlantic coast too.

But if you've ever fished the Atlantic coast, I have a lot, and you ought to know what the cops back there kept shoving down our roads.

What's that?

Sure it's right for country, all of it, but not this time of year.

Oh yeah, yeah, you're right.

Okay, Now listen, I think I know what you're going to say.

Sure you're going to jump to the Thames inclusion.

I did that with the way they haven't been getting along with all.

He has the game and he's put out of the way.

It is a possibility as this note.

Yeah, it's his handwriting, all right, check, But it could have been written at any time in the last fifteen years about any kind of fish.

So it all adds up, doesn't it.

She knocked him off.

Nobody else in town saw him around when he was supposed to be here in April, so she may have done it any time sinto less than February that was supposed to all of us.

Can't be proved, however, until you find his body.

Cuss proof that she did it make it a lot easier for us he did.

Wait a minute, I'll tell you where those fish could have come from, and this same of year, the Pacific coasts.

They're in Atlantic fishhos diapers exclusive.

No, no, not anymore.

Some years ago punch of them were shipped live and Tom's liver in New Jersey to up around San Francisco the Sacramento River.

Oh no, sure, and now off in northern California.

Is that one of the best game fish they have?

Brother?

That means I start all over again.

That's ride fast.

Maybe I better stick to the series as he did it and buried his body somewhere around here.

Now, look, get on the telescape to the police on the west coast.

I'll take back with you.

Meantime, I'm going to see what I can find out about her in the next three days.

I think I talked to everybody in northern Indiana, anybody who could possibly know I have contact with a hawflet.

Sure, it was pretty admitted that she and her husband didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things.

But nowhere did I find any reasons at the office suspecting she might have done him in.

I talked to friends, neighbors, what's you're the baker, the candlestick makers, shopkeepers, businessmans, bankers.

Nothing.

Then finally it was the old family lawyer who gave me a priceless piece of intervation.

Long submit you to even tolerate the thought such a thing could have happened.

I should strike you down for suggesting such a possibility, mister Dollar.

Well, sir, I'm sorry, But after all that, he was a roward thought of man, even in the station forwards.

Yes, yes, that's a good description of him in recent years.

Growers.

Now maybe it's a ast fault.

But that is not in any way.

What to weaver imply that anything might do is jake, but possibly because that fine will be Wait a minute, one word.

That one word held the keyt of a whole match growers even in a station.

But I didn't realize the end.

Even if I had, it probably wouldn't have meant anything that isn't ntil.

I got a break the following day, the time that comes once in a lifetime.

Let's play some cards on the table.

An investigator is assigned to a case.

That case gets solved, so he takes the credit, whether he deserves it or not.

Happens all the time.

But this is one time I have to admit I deserve no credit at all, except perhaps for just being around.

All right, After checking up A.

Martha hall'swady, I was convinced she didn't kill her husband.

The fact remained he was still on the comet floor, and strangely enough, the only clue is to where he might have gone was a couple of fish credit bath left in the freezer.

There's Lakeside Lodge in Angola, Indiana.

All right, I went back to the missing person's girl in Fort Wayne to Lieutenant vess.

Sorry, Johnny, but the police on the West Coast gave us nothing.

Ne're a thorough bunch too.

If Fall's worthy of his car had showed up out there anywhere at there, they'd have had a lead for us.

But they haven't nothing.

Then those two lousy fish are still our only clothes at something else.

But stripers haven't been running out on the West Coast either the last couple of months.

But he wants to have got him somewhere and brought him back.

But Lieutenant, what is there any way of knowing how long the fisher been in that freezer?

This is eight says her husband dropped him off in April.

Wait, you think maybe he caught him a long time ago, that they'd been there ever since.

But Johnny, that would only incriminate it.

I know, and you just finishedself.

I know, I know, and I listened.

Is there anybody around who could tell us how long they've been in that freezing?

Well, I guess one of the professors at the university, you know, Science department, Biology something like that.

Professor kindled, huh, we'll drag him up to the lunch and have him take a look.

Whatever you say, I don't think then came with choke of luck I mentioned earlier, just George un luck as Lieutenant pask him and I were about to step into my car.

An old truck with a camper's body and a boat on the trailer behind it pulled up to a stop.

Excuse me, offic can you tell me?

Emmett?

Emmett gowan world famous writer of fishing, the Irons and articles who spent his whole life touring the country, fishing and writing about it.

Emmett, you old son of a gun?

How are you this?

Great?

Johnny?

You remember my wife Claire?

Yeah?

You go sure, Claire?

How are you?

Emmitt?

What are you doing around here?

Looking for a place called Lake Games?

Oh, don't mention it.

I want to do an article about it.

So wanted the Okay, why don't you come along?

He listen, listen?

Did you ever run across an old character by the name of Bertram Hall's wedding?

Sure?

Here and there, all over the country when all lifetime was early last winters.

Plenty of old coots, good baseman, But a real character.

How do you mean, Oh, you know, perverse contrary obstinate cores.

Uh?

Go on, EMMITTT Well, you know, real land conformers.

Oh that's what I mean.

Place use live baby, use plugs, sol and water, use the fly rods.

A man who want to catch private baths when they run on you.

Yes, this is Johnny.

Now listen careful.

I will tell you something about those old saltwater Dale was you may now believe, but so help me.

I hopped into my rental Cohn and took off.

I went south on about thirty one, then east into Ohio.

I swung southand twenty five in Nxville, Tennessee, and then east on seventy thousand and sixteen, and I finally reached Columbia, South Carolina, then east again to a freshwater lake lake mostly nearly one hundred miles in lands in the organ.

On the expense the Countess that im poured thirty one dollars earn and my luck tail health.

It was almost dust when I pulled up at the dock of a fishing camp at the west end of the lake.

Climbing out of his boat was a grizzled old timer with a string of fish that made my eyes pop out.

One of them must have been close to thirty pounds.

This was a man I wanted to talk to, oh, rather listen to and I did back in his cabin over a glass at brothers, Yo said, it does.

I don't understand how the stripe at bass got into this fresh water lake anymore than anybody else tas even the fishing game people snipers and freshwater, yes, and only hearing mostly and had over the lake millions.

They tried planting in another lake, but nothing happens.

They don't reproduce.

And I thought I knew a lot about fishing.

I couldn't believe it myself when I stumbled on to it impossible o head, but hear the eyes lunky see.

But sooner or later, every time they can hand it owns a fishing pool, he's gonna find out about it, and that's when I'll move along.

Yeah.

Yes, I'm just a contrail cut like to do things a little bit different.

So when everybody else comes in, well, I'll be doing something different.

Fraud the meantime, I'm gonna what was that wood?

He says, fraud, the fraud fisherman.

It sounds like a lawyer, I know back in Why are you gonna go back home with the hall living?

How did you use this?

Well?

If he did this way My wife Masa has been a hind backing me a mike too long about all the time I spent fishing, And I think it maybe if I worry her a little bit about what maybe happened to me, maybe she'd be a mite more talent.

And I hate to admit it, I really do.

If she will, maybe maybe I could be a little more tolerant too, and then maybe he'd be happy again like we used to do.

Yeah.

Maybe so, I hope.

So.

I don't know.

Wife is really funny.

Sometimes old man hopes what he did stay away a while longer, and when he went home, his wife must have seen the light, because, believe it or not, a couple of weeks ago, I saw her picture in the Fisherman magazine.

She was holding up a nine pounds pipe she had caught in late James expensic out of total one hundred and eighty one dollars even Yeah sleeve, Johnny.

Dall, welcome back.

Well this one.

The recording didn't have the credits, but John Abbott included them in his book The Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter.

The cast was Byron Kan, Virginia Gregg, Harry bartel Will write, Forest Lewis and of course Howard mcneir.

I like this story a lot in general.

It's one of my favorite later Bob Bailey Johnny Dollar stories after nineteen fifty six, but I like it even more within the context of where we're listening to it.

It was a nice palette cleanser after yesterday's show.

Throughout most of it, it's a pretty whimsical and light story, but still has a nice mystery going and a bit of educational content as well.

I think Jack Johnstone probably did very little research on this particular story.

The man loved his fishing and probably heard about it through reading about it or talking to other fishermen.

And the strip mass is a really nice fish to build a mystery around, and the information in this episode is pretty accurate as far as the story goes.

And then of course we get kind of a heartfelt ending.

I will say that I can't recommend the method of making yourself disappear to make your spouse miss you, but you can say that there was a lot of frustration on both sides of this marriage, and he was wanting things to be better again and owned that he needed to be willing to change as much as her and as better as her words were to Johnny, I do think she missed him.

She was a grown woman, so she couldn't have imagined the insurance company was going to pay off her husband's life insurance because he'd been gone for two months.

But the idea that he would go somewhere on one of these way out of the way fishing trips and would get himself hurt and die and she wouldn't even hear about it was probably a fear that she had, and I think that was her motivation, even though she said that she was well used to the idea of it happening.

Only other thing I'd comment on is that taking large amounts of cash was a lot more common back then.

Out of town checks could present challenges.

You could get travelers checks, but those could have their difficulties as well, and so carrying a lot of cash, while it might post some security issues, made it easy for you to be able to get the things you wanted, particularly if you were going to go out into some far off location.

Today it's far less common, as most people can just take their card and your cards get accepted in even some very very rural location.

And of course, if that had been the case and the whole story doesn't happen, as they'd be able to tell where he was going because he was using his card.

However, I will say this that this mister Holsworthy character was forward enough that if he had lived in the twenty first century, he would have taken cash.

He's that forward.

Listener comments and feedback now, and we have some comments.

First on the ghost to Ghost matter, Norse Jeweler Johnny Dollar, Riot's Dear Fred Daphne, Velma Shaggy's an Adam, this is how you deal with a mystery concerning the ghost.

I wonder if there's any room in his expense account for a mystery machine.

Good one.

And then.

We have this from s Charles martinec and this again on Spotify.

When the writers are six minutes short, they send Johnny fishing, well, this is one of my favorite episodes.

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

And then regarding our special, Dawn writes, any episode that includes Anthony J.

Lyon is a great one, and this is the road to the Valentine Manor.

Susie Wrights have enjoyed programs for many years, hope there are many more to come.

And then Norse Jeweler.

Donny Joweler wrote, Okay, Adam, this may be a long worded question.

I listened to all four or episodes.

Obviously my favorite was Bob Bailey.

Okay, For the most part except one, all scripts were the same, different actors, directors actors in portrayal.

Reagan went comedic, Lund and not be It went hard boiled, and Bailey went sympathetic.

So here's my question.

What makes a great detective program the actor, director, script theme or is it a combination?

Thanks for your time, well, thank you so much and appreciate the question.

I think it's a combination of all of that, with sometimes particularly in the audio drama, music and sound design playing a role as well.

And I will say it's rare for anyone program to hit on all cylinders.

Usually there's a bit of something that doesn't quite work, but you can enjoy it for what does.

To me.

The Pony Dollar cereals and the adventures of Philip Marlow the one with Jerald Moore are about as close to perfect as you get.

And there are others that you enjoy for what they bring, often appreciating the characters or the mystery and overlooking faults in other areas of the production, and of course much of this comes down to individual taste.

It's always fascinating.

I used to lock to read the IMD reviews of nineteen seventies Columbo episodes, and every single episode would have one review saying it was the best episode ever and another saying that it was one of the weaker installments in the series.

So so much of that is down to subjective opinion.

Ingrid wrote thank you on this on Facebook.

Thank you for sharing these four versions of an evolving story.

It was very interesting which pieces moved to the next version or were picked up later.

It was kind of sad that although in both Jeffrey and and not Beat the daughter had a happy ending, the two Johnny Dollar episode were decidedly downbeat.

I did appreciate your opening comments about these episodes.

I might not have listened otherwise.

Thanks for providing hours of listening enjoyment.

Well, thank you so much, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

And it really is a fascinating process.

When I first heard about scriptory cycling, it sounded like this, this lazy sort of copy paste job.

You know, obviously they didn't have coffee paste, but just that sort of thing where you're copying from one work to another.

But I really I think when we went through the serials this last time, I really kind of started to say, well that there was a bit more to it.

There's a bit more art to this creation, and it was fun to explore this.

And I think the four episodes were interesting, and you're right, the first two had more of a happy ending for the daughter and the last two had sad ended.

I think that the last two were probably taking on the same question but in a more direct way.

In the first two episodes, you were dealing with someone trying to blackmail this released mobster.

But the reason that the blackmail threat was Bible was because if it got out, people would make judgments about the daughter and it would wreck her life in potential marriage.

It's somewhat indirect because the focus is on the blackmail plot.

In the last two it's a lot more direct because she ends up being shot down because her grandfather, who never met her, who doesn't know her, has decided she's bad because her dad was bad.

And for that matter, the grandpa doesn't even know the man that her dad has become after all these years in prison, but he's made the judgment.

He's made the decision, and so it more directly takes us to questions about justice.

When is enough enough?

At what point do you let people who are trying to move on go ahead and live their lives rather than constantly coming after them and their families.

And of course there are complicating questions in that regard.

And then I think the Grandfather raises so many questions in the way that you see someone who has become so self righteous and so vengeful that he destroyed his whole family, and it just leaves you to center of that what type of society do you want and what type of person do you want to be?

And that was more hinted at in the Jeff Reagan and not Beat stories, but really brought to the forefront when it was done on Johnny Dollar.

Thank you so much, and we have a review on the Apple podcast store.

This is the Johnny Dollar Feeds, specifically the John Reiner Rights.

This is by far my number one podcast.

I'm a huge fan of classic radio drama shows, and yours truly is my favorite.

I listen while driving, I listen while doing dishes, I listen next to the fireplace in the winter and I even go to sleep with it.

Plane Adam, thank you for putting this together week after week.

Well, I'm so glad I appreciate you taking the time to leave that review.

John.

Now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day, and I want to thank Philip, Patreon supporter since December twenty nineteen, currently supporting the podcast at the Detective Sergeant level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or more per month.

Thanks so much for your support, Philip, and that will do it for today.

If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.

And if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment, all those great things that help YouTube channels to grow.

We'll be back next Friday with another episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and of course next Monday, be sure and listen to our latest series, Danger with Granger, and we'll be back tomorrow with the great adventurers of Old Time Radio and Cloak and Dagger, where.

I'm afrit the breakfast is not this sumptuous it once in the old Day's poor do.

Not apologize, but what they cannot change.

And Tilda is right.

It was very good.

The Rogua Blude was just as I remembered it.

And these current buns, these creton blutes, are wonderful.

I will leave you.

I have a house to clean.

You're still suspicious of me?

Have I any reason not to be it enough?

Paul is my sister's son.

I will stake my own life's blood that he's to be trusted.

Let us hope you.

Do not have to hilt aunt Hilda.

Look this pistol.

I'm giving it to you.

It's the only one I.

Have, the only one you have, and you give it to me.

Yeah.

I put myself at your mercy.

If at any time you have proof even the slightest that I'm not what I claim to be, take my own gun and turn it on me.

I will take your gun.

I hope you'll be with us then.

In the meantime, send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot nit, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.

This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.