Suspense!
Auto Light and its 96,000 dealers present Mr. Danny Kay in I Never Met the Dead Man,
a suspense play produced and edited by William Spear.
Hello?
Wake up Mr. Wilcox, it's a brand new year. Happy New Year!
Okay. Oh, what a sleep. Hey, did she say a new year? Boy, let me at it.
At that Auto Light stay full battery I promised myself. That wonderful water
wagon, that thirstless, thrilling three-timer.
Yes sir, it needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
Hello again. Are you up Mr. Wilcox?
Am I up? I'm as up as an Auto Light stay full battery is up and away at a single
starter shove on a winter's morning that's as cold as Blitzen
and alive. Alive as an Auto Light stay full battery, built with fiberglass
retaining mats
to give seventy percent longer average life according to tests based on SAE
life cycle standards
compared to batteries without those stay full features. Mr. Wilcox,
it's time for... Oh yes, yes, suspense.
And now with I never met the dead man
and the performance of Mr. Danny Kay, Auto Light hopes once again to keep you in
suspense.
I never even met the guy. I was just walking along humming
on an empty side street on New Year's Day.
Humming
Gunshots
Hey there! Hey you! Stop!
I didn't do anything officer. Oh, nobody ever does anything.
Why they pay us cups of salary I don't understand.
You know me Mr. Callan, Joe Wickhoff. I was on my way home from the plant.
Running home boy? No, I wasn't. Bullets were flying around here. Somebody killed
that man in the car.
Sure, somebody. Are you crazy or something? I had nothing to do with it.
Ask anybody. Ask who for instance boy?
There wasn't anybody else on the street when I turned the corner.
Well how about these buildings around here? He could have been shot from one of them.
That's right, he could have. But you better stick around anyway boy.
That's how it started. Just walking along humming.
All of a sudden bang, bang and a half hour later the cops have me in the yes room at headquarters.
No rubber hose, none of that kind of stuff. Just where did I hide the gun?
Where did I hide the gun? Where did I hide the gun?
And I keep telling them I don't even own a gun. All the time I know they got nothing on me
that they're playing a long shot but just the same I'm scared. Murder rap, who wouldn't
be scared? Finally after a couple of hours they let me go.
Callan, the cop that nabbed me was standing on the sidewalk outside.
Well, well. Look Mr. Callan, I wanted to tell you I know
you were just doing your duty and there's no hard feelings.
Well, that's real generous of you boy. I was only trying to be nice about it.
I'm wondering why you're trying. You're worried aren't you Wyckoff?
You're holding something back. You're worried.
Ah, you guys. You're lying, I can tell.
You know so much why don't you sound off inside headquarters?
I'm just a neighborhood cop, a beat man. But even a beat man gets a good idea once in a while.
What are you holding back boy? Nothing Mr. Callan, nothing I tell you.
Bad business lying to the police. I'm not lying.
Go on homeboy, talk it over with your wife. Maybe she's got some sense.
Bella, my wife with some sense. That was funny only Callan didn't know.
Bella's like a friendly kitten. Pretty and lovable and full of fun.
Oh Bella could think was gee, her husband's name was in the evening paper.
Look Joey, right here on page 27. The only witness to the murder was Joseph R. Wyckoff.
They misspelled it. Only one F. Wouldn't you think they'd know better?
Joseph R. Wyckoff, a truck driver on his way home from work.
The victim has not yet been identified.
The guy that got killed, the cops don't know who he was.
No papers on the body and his face was full of bullet holes.
Terrible. The police expect to make an arrest within 24 hours.
It says so right here.
A professional job like that is going to take the cops more than 24 hours to pin down.
I don't understand, professional?
A hired gunman steps off a train from Detroit or someplace.
He fires a couple of shots and takes the next train back. No clues, nothing.
Oh, well then how come the police...
Oh, let's forget it a while, will you honey? I don't feel like talking about it.
All right, Joey. Okay.
You sick or something, Joey? You're all jumpy. You didn't eat hardly any supper.
Well, I've got no appetite. Lots of times I'm like that. No, no appetite.
It's a shame. All that good spaghetti gone to waste.
Joey.
What?
We ought to celebrate your name in the paper. Let's go out dancing some way.
I'm tired, Bella. Bushed.
Gee, we never go out anymore.
Some other time, Bella.
That's what I mean. We're all jumpy.
I'm sorry, Bella. I shouldn't have yelled off like that.
Those cops this afternoon, they got me upset.
Oh, honey. I don't blame you being upset.
They got their nerve practically saying you killed a fella.
You can't blame the cops, Bella. They know they got their work cut out and they ain't missing any bets.
They're trying to advance themselves too.
But you never been in trouble before. You'd think that'd be enough for them.
Well, the only thing is I...
I have been in trouble.
Huh?
Back in New York before I met you, I did a stretch in prison.
You?
Yeah, it was nothing very much. Robbing a grocery store. The kind of crazy things young guys do.
Joey.
You never told me.
Well, you spend a year with the bad boys, you certainly don't hire a sky rider to tell people about it, Bella.
But I'm your wife, Joey.
I wanted to tell you and I would have.
Well, I'd understood.
Sure. Sure, Bella.
But lots of times you talk without thinking, honey.
I was scared you might let it slip and...
Oh, I never would have blabbermouthed about a thing like that, Joey.
You know that.
Did you tell the police, Joey?
No. No.
They asked me did I have a record and I said no.
Oh, golly.
Maybe I shouldn't have lied, I don't know, but I was rattled. I'm still rattled.
Well, will they find out anyway?
I don't see how.
They didn't book me this afternoon, so...
Well, there's no fingerprints to check with.
Oh, well then.
Well, the Calon, the comp I told you about, he worries me. He's the one.
He knows I got something on my mind and he keeps needling and needling.
So let him needle.
You know how it would look.
Guy with a record spotted near the murder and Calon that...
Mr. Calon's got plenty other things on his mind.
In a couple of days, he'll forget all about you.
You think so, Bella?
Why, sure.
And I'm supposed to be the dopey one around here.
Ha ha ha.
I got to thinking maybe Bella was right.
Maybe it was just another side street killer and it wouldn't amount to a hill of beans.
I might even have had a good night's sleep if we hadn't stayed up for the late news broadcast.
An obscure murder lost in the back pages of tonight's papers will be headlined on page one tomorrow morning.
The victim has been identified as Willoughby Roberts, feature reporter of the News Gazette.
And that newspaper has already posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer.
Willoughby Roberts, it was revealed tonight, had been engaged in an undercover investigation
of the county's illegal gambling palaces.
Today, President Truman made an address to...
My luck.
Now, Joey.
$10,000, every cop in town will be out for that reward.
If they find out about my record, they'll...
Oh, Joey, don't.
Bella, what am I going to do?
There was nothing I could do but wait and pray that the cops would let me alone.
Next morning, I went to work same as usual.
All day long, I sat behind the wheel of my truck, trying to act like nothing was wrong.
Finally, I went back to the plant.
Hugo, he was the boss of us truckers. He had left word for me to see him in his office.
Come in. Sit down, Joe.
Now, I'm not supposed to tell you, Joe, but you're in trouble.
Bad trouble.
Yeah?
A cop in here all afternoon pumping me.
Was his name Callan?
Why, he didn't mention no name.
Thick neck, hard eyes.
All the time, looks like he's smiling at something he don't think is funny.
That's Callan, all right.
His wick off a friend of Pigeon Watts, he asks me. And I tell him...
Pigeon Watts?
The gambler, the big gambler. He owns that place outside of town.
The Pigeon Coop.
The reporter, the guy that was killed, he was working on Pigeon Watts.
The cops figure the Pigeon paid someone to do the job.
Maybe you.
I don't know any Pigeon Watts.
That's what I told this cop, this Callan. Joe Wickoff mixed up with gamblers.
I said, don't make me laugh. He can't even beat his wife, Gin Rummy.
And anybody that can't beat Bella, Gin Rummy.
Thanks, thanks. Thanks, you.
I slowed him down a little, Joe.
Now, now comes the bad part.
Go ahead.
This cop, he went nosing around the trucker's locker room.
He found a gun, Joe.
Where?
In the box for dirty towels.
Near where you keep your stuff.
Was it the gun that...
No, no, it wasn't the one he was looking for. Not the one that did the killing.
But it makes things look bad for you.
Now look, you go...
All I'm telling you is what he said, Joe. What Callan said.
He said at headquarters, you swore up and down you didn't own a gun.
And when he found this one in the locker room, he...
He said it makes things look bad for you.
Bad, Joe.
All the truckers use that room, but right away it's my gun.
Why didn't he ask the other guys who...
He did, he did ask, Joe. They all say no.
Well, so do I say no.
Why does Callan believe the other guys and not me?
I asked him that. He said...
Oh, well...
He said the other guys didn't do a stretch in the jail house.
Oh.
So he found out already, huh?
It's...
It's true, then, huh, Joe?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's true.
What am I gonna do, Joe?
I don't know what you mean. I don't get it. What are you gonna do?
Well, these trucks, sometimes the cargo is valuable.
What am I gonna do, Joe?
Yesterday I'm your best friend.
Today I'm an ex-con who might steal a monkey wrench.
Well, I got the owners to answer to, Joe.
Suppose you were me. Suppose you had a driver you liked,
but it turned out he had a wrecking.
What would you do?
Same thing you're gonna do.
There are other jobs.
Sure, sure. All kinds of jobs for an ex-con, a murder suspect.
Babysitting, maybe.
Don't do anything crazy. Please, Joe.
Well, suppose you were me. What would you do?
I'd go out and get drunk.
But I ain't a married man. Bella will need you, Joe.
She's not having any picnic.
Does she know what's been going on?
Well, the cop was heading for your apartment when he left here,
so I called Bella to...
Well, just to call her.
In case there's any evidence to hide. Was that it?
Oh, Joe.
My buddy. My trusting buddy.
Ah, don't feel that way, Joe.
Well, what way do you expect me to feel?
Who's there? Who is it?
It's me, hon. You all right?
Oh, Joey. I've been so scared, Joey.
A policeman, that Mr. Callan. He only just said that it was awful.
Oh, now take it easy, honey. Take it easy.
Everything will be all right if you'll just take it easy.
He kept asking me, did you know Pigeon Watts?
And I kept saying no, and all the time I had these things in my pocket.
Things?
I was afraid they'd fall out and he'd see them.
It was awful, Joey.
What things?
Look, these chips or whatever you call them.
But these are gambling chips.
I found them in your bureau drawer just before Mr. Callan came.
They all got a pigeon marked on them,
and I figured you wouldn't want nobody to see them.
So I hid them in my pocket.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I don't get this. It doesn't make sense.
On account of the bird on them, the pigeon.
I knew right away you must have got them at Pigeon Watts gambling house.
So I hid them.
I never saw them before. Never.
Oh, we better drop them down a sewer or a cell place where nobody will find them.
Bella, look, listen to me.
I never saw them before.
Oh.
You believe me, Bella, don't you?
Sure.
Sure, I believe you.
Bella, why were you looking at my bureau?
I...
Oh, don't ask me that, Joey.
Why, Bella? Why were you looking?
Please, Joey, don't.
Oh, listen, it's raining.
Why?
All right, Joey.
It was on account of all the crazy things that have been happening.
Like about you having been in jail.
And then Hugo, your best friend,
he found it so funny over the phone when he said they found a gun in your locker.
Near my locker.
Not in, near.
Near, then.
I was scared Mr. Callum might find something else when he got here.
So I searched all through the apartment.
And you found these chips from Pigeon Watts' joint?
Yeah.
Oh, Joe.
You think I'm mixed up in this murder, don't you, Bella?
No, Joey, no.
It's just that I don't know what to think.
What does that mean?
Oh, I guess I'm kind of dumb, like you're always kidding me.
And all these crazy things happening.
I don't know what to think.
First Callum, then you go and now you.
You're sore, Joey.
I can tell just by looking at you.
You're sore clean through.
Yeah, I'm...
No, no, Bella.
Maybe it's better you're honest, then I know where I stand.
But...
Maybe it's good I'm sore.
Maybe now I'll get off the dime.
Off the dime, Joey?
Bella, I want you to listen to me now.
Did you go out today, Bella?
Did you go out at all for shopping or anything?
Well, it was just a few minutes at noon.
I went in to talk with Mrs. Minnelli and 4G, just gabbing.
Well, try to remember now.
Did you leave the door open, the apartment door?
Yeah, I think so.
Then somebody could have sneaked in here and planted these gambling chips while you were gone.
I guess so.
Sure.
But who'd do a thing like that?
Somebody who wants the $10,000 reward.
Somebody who wants it bad enough to frame an innocent guy.
Joey.
I'm a natural.
I'm an ex-con.
I happened to be right there when the shots were fired.
I would be the...
But, Joey, who?
Who's framing you?
I don't know who.
But whoever it is, he got these chips from Pigeon Watts' joint.
Where are you going, Joey?
To have a talk with Mr. Pigeon Watts.
Maybe I can get some information out of Mr. Pigeon Watts.
Just a minute, Joey.
I'm going with you.
I thought I was so smart.
If I only hadn't gone on with it.
If I'd only just stayed there and let the cops arrest me, convict me, burn me, anything,
just so it wouldn't have ended up like it did.
Auto Light is bringing you Mr. Danny Kay in I Never Met the Dead Man.
Tonight's production in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Hello?
Mr. Wilcox, it's cold outside.
Button up your...
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And now, Auto Light brings back to our Hollywood sound stage, our star Danny Kay in I Never
Met the Dead Man, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
I was a lot more scared than I let Bella know when we drove through the rain at Pigeon
Watts' place.
I didn't know what to expect, so I told Bella to stay in the car with the lights out and
the motor running.
Then I started toward the door of the gambling place.
What are you doing?
It looked more like a warehouse, an old, dirty warehouse.
Yeah.
One of Watts' bouncers finally opened out.
He told me to beat it.
On account of all the stuff in the papers, they were only letting in regulars, people
they were sure of.
He said Pigeon Watts wasn't seeing anybody, and he began to get mean mad when I wouldn't
go away.
I saw the flicker of brass knuckles coming at me, but I didn't duck.
I had to talk to Watts, even if it meant getting my lumps first.
All right?
Still feel like a hard guy?
No.
No, sir, I'm not a hard guy.
I just wanted to see Mr. Watts a few minutes.
You're seeing him.
My name is Wyckoff, Mr. Watts.
Wyckoff.
You're the one that saw the reporter get it?
Yes, sir.
Just a second.
Nobody bother me a while.
All right, hard guy, what's on your mind?
Well, it's like this, Mr. Watts.
And I told him the whole story.
Everything that had happened, and he just sat there and looked at me.
No expression at all, just sat there and looked at me.
It was like talking to a chair or something.
Even when I showed him the gambling chips Bella found in my bureau drawer,
it didn't seem to mean anything to him.
Two-bit chips for the piker trade.
Anybody could have walked out of here with a handful.
Sorry, I can't help you.
I gotta have help.
The cop I told you about, he really thinks I killed that reporter.
I don't blame him.
It's a good frame, nothing obvious about it.
Just little things pointing to you.
Good frame, all right, a very good frame.
But I didn't do it, honest I didn't.
I know you didn't, but there's nothing I can do to help.
Sorry.
What makes you so sure I didn't kill the guy?
Nothing I can do.
I just asked why you're so sure I didn't kill him.
Because I know who did.
Because I paid an out of town torpedo 1500 rockers for the job.
Well, well then.
You expect to tell that to the police?
You've gone to Mr. Watts, I could get the chair for this.
So could I, you or me.
Then you won't do nothing?
No, it's a tough break for you, like I said.
I'm sorry, but that's the way the ball bounces.
If you think I'm going to take this lying down, you're crazy.
Maybe you're not so tough as you think.
I've got a couple...
Our friend's getting hard again, outside with him, Roy.
I'm not going anywhere.
You heard the man, outside.
No.
Hey look, I don't get no pleasure slapping people around.
Outside before...
Hey, a raid.
Yeah.
Should open up.
Let them pound their way in this time.
Maybe you'll talk for the cops, Mr. Pigeon Watts.
What'll I do with this monkey pigeon?
Why a raid? I mean why right now, this minute?
Who cares why? They're here and that's a...
I'll tell you why, Wyckoff.
If so, you and I get pulled in together.
You got a car outside?
I'm staying right here.
Cops ain't brainless, Wyckoff.
They're pretty sure I ponied up for that killing.
The only place they went wrong, they figured I paid you for the job.
They'd have paced us both before this if they could have found any connection between us.
So what?
So this. If they nab us together in this raid, it takes care of the connection.
You're right, hot guy. Now will you get out of here?
But how'd the cops know I'd be here?
Whoever's framing you planted those chips so you'd come here.
He even knew when you'd come and he tipped off the police a $10,000 phone call.
Yeah. Yeah.
Now beat it. Open the window, Roy.
You're all right, Watts.
You can think pretty fast. You just told me the answer.
I think I can find the guy now.
That's fine. Go on, kid. Out the window.
It's two stories down.
All right, it's two stories down.
I can make it.
So long, hot guy.
Oh! Oh, my leg!
Oh, my back! My leg!
I'll make it.
I gotta make it. I gotta know.
I gotta know who's the guy.
Nobody's following, Joey.
You can slow down now.
What happened in there?
Your leg hurt, Joey?
You're looking so funny.
Who's the guy, Bella?
These roads are wet, Joey. Not so fast.
Who's the guy?
What guy? What are you talking about?
The guy, Bella. The guy you're framing me with.
You crazy or something, Joey?
Slow down.
Not until you tell me the name of the guy.
I don't know what you're talking about, even.
I'm talking about you getting rid of your husband
and collecting $10,000 at the same time.
You weren't smart enough to figure it out yourself, Bella.
Somebody had to tell you what to say, how to act.
Who was it?
Joey, please, you'll kill us both.
Those gambling chips.
You planted them in my bureau yourself.
No, no, no.
Then while I was in the gambling joint,
you slipped away and telephoned the guy,
and he tipped off the cops.
Oh, honest, Joey.
There ain't no way out of it, Bella.
You're the only one knew I was with Pidgeon Watts.
Oh, you gotta believe me, Joey.
Who's the guy you phoned, Bella?
Watch out, Joey!
Who's the guy, Bella?
All right, Joey.
I'll tell you.
Only slow down.
It was Hugo, Joey.
Sure.
The gun in the locker room, sure.
It had to be Hugo.
Oh, it wasn't like you think, Joey.
It was just when you were away on a job,
Hugo'd take me out dancing once in a while.
And who gave me those out of town halls?
Hugo.
My good friend Hugo.
When I blabbed to him about you having been in jail,
he got this idea telling Officer Callan,
I didn't think what it would mean, Joey.
I just didn't think.
And then when it started,
there didn't seem any way to stop it.
You know I love you, Joey.
Crazy kid.
Can't we start all over, Joey?
Like it never happened?
Crazy, crazy kid.
Please, Joey.
Please.
I won't never see Hugo no more.
Oh, Joey, please forgive me.
I forgive you, crazy kid.
Oh, Joey.
Oh, my God!
So Bella's dead.
Killed in an accident, the newspaper said.
But maybe it wasn't really an accident.
But what you may call him here at the hospital,
a psychiatrist, he says lots of automobile accidents happen
and the drivers want them without knowing they want them.
Down underneath they want them, that isn't.
And they get careless.
He says that any...
Yeah?
It's me, boy.
Officer Callan.
Oh, you.
The nurse said I could only stay a minute.
I'm sorry, Joe.
I'm sorry what happened.
Not your fault.
I wanted you to know, we got the guy that killed the reporter.
Professional gunman.
He's still singing down at headquarters.
Pigeon Watts won't like the tune.
Good. Yes, well.
And Joe, that guy, that Hugo,
he won't be getting any more bright ideas for a while.
I talked to some people at the plant and, well,
Hugo's job is waiting for you when you get out of here.
That's well, Callan.
Thanks a lot.
About, you know, your wife.
The only thing to do is try to forget everything that happened.
Sure.
Be seeing you soon, boy.
And, well, I'm sorry.
Try to forget it, he says.
Forget.
Forget it.
Suspense presented by Auto Light.
Tonight's star, Danny Kay.
Hello?
Mr. Wilcox, did you make your New Year's resolution?
I promised myself the pleasure of another year of telling about Auto Light stay full batteries.
The batteries that need water only three times a year in normal car use.
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Next Thursday for Suspense, Robert Taylor will be our star.
The play is called Four Hours to Kill and it is, as we say,
A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Tonight's Suspense play was produced and edited by William Spear and directed by Norman MacDonald.
Music for Suspense is composed by Lucian Morrowak and conducted by Lud Gluskin.
I Never Met the Dead Man is an original radio play by William Bruckner.
Danny Kay can currently be seen in the Warner Brothers Technicolor production, The Inspector General.
You can buy Auto Light stay full batteries, Auto Light resistor or regular spark plugs,
Auto Light electrical parts at your neighborhood Auto Light dealers.
Switch to Auto Light. Good night.
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