# Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Mei-Ling Buddha Matter (EP5030)

An episode of [The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/335549005), 31 Jul 2026, 24 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/997ffb/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73208607/gd5030.mp3

Today's Mystery: Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is sent to Boston after a priceless jade statue known as the Mei-Ling Buddha is reportedly spotted for sale in a Paris antique shop—even though it should still be locked inside the home of its late owner. Johnny soon discovers that an impossible theft demands an equally unexpected solution. Original Radio Broadcast: June 28, 1959 Originating from Hollywood Starring Bob Bailey as Johnny DollarAlso featuring Virginia Gregg, Paul Dubov, Will Wright, and Boris Aplon Written, produced, and directed by Jack Johnstone Support the podcast monthly at https://patreon.greatdetectives.net Patreon Supporter of the Day: None Support the show on a one-time basis at https://support.greatdetectives.net Mail a donation to:Adam Graham PO Box 15913 Boise, ID 83715 Take our listener survey at https://survey.greatdetectives.net Give us a call: 208-991-4783 Follow us on Instagram at https://instagram.com/greatdetectives Follow us on Twitter/X at https://twitter.com/radiodetectives Join us again next time for another adventure with Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

## Transcript

[0:28] Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
[0:35] Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
[0:38] Speaker 1: gonna bring you this week's episode of Yours truly Johnny Dollar.
[0:42] Speaker 1: But first I want to encourage you. If you're enjoying
[0:45] Speaker 1: the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
[0:49] Speaker 1: And as you're making your travel plans, remember Johnny Dollar
[0:52] Speaker 1: air dot com. Johnny Dollar air dot com is a
[0:56] Speaker 1: Priceline affiliate, so part of the purchase price wills the
[1:00] Speaker 1: great Detectives of Old Time Radio at no additional cost
[1:03] Speaker 1: to you. So remember when making your travel plans, check
[1:06] Speaker 1: Johnny Dollar air dot com first. But now, from June
[1:10] Speaker 1: twenty eighth, nineteen fifty nine, here is the Miling Buddha
[1:14] Speaker 1: manner from Hollywood.
[1:17] Speaker 2: It's time now for Johnny Dollar Mardi Bruce Johnny at
[1:25] Speaker 2: Worldwide Mutual. Oh hi, Marty, how are you? Did you
[1:28] Speaker 2: ever hear of the mailing Buddha? Nope, I'm afraid I never.
[1:32] Speaker 2: It's probably the most valuable piece of jade.
[1:34] Speaker 3: There is a little statue not more than three three
[1:37] Speaker 3: and a half inches high, made during the Meiling dynasty, and.
[1:41] Speaker 2: You've incured it yes, how much forty thousand. What's happened
[1:45] Speaker 2: to it? I don't know. I don't know if anything's
[1:47] Speaker 2: happened to it.
[1:48] Speaker 3: But if nothing's happened to it, I'm not even sure
[1:51] Speaker 3: of that that nothing's happened to it.
[1:54] Speaker 2: Come on over here, let's talk about it. Huh Yeah,
[1:56] Speaker 2: And they got better Bob Bailey in The Exciting Adventures
[2:09] Speaker 2: of a Man with the Action in fact expense account
[2:11] Speaker 2: America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator are truly Johnny Dollar expense
[2:31] Speaker 2: account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to the Worldwide
[2:35] Speaker 2: Mutual Insurance Company home office, Hardford, Connecticut. Following is an
[2:39] Speaker 2: account of expenses encourage during my investigation of the Mailing
[2:42] Speaker 2: Buddha Meta expense account. I don't want a dollar ten
[2:52] Speaker 2: for a taxi from my little apartment to the office
[2:55] Speaker 2: of Worldwide Mutual, where Marty wasted no time in getting
[2:58] Speaker 2: to the point.
[3:00] Speaker 3: Sure if it went for that knuckleheaded Ray Kermer who's
[3:02] Speaker 3: he one of our contment got back from the European
[3:06] Speaker 3: vacation just this morning, But being so stupid, I ought
[3:09] Speaker 3: to fire him. He knew we did ensure that Jade,
[3:12] Speaker 3: Buddha and when he saw it over there in Paris
[3:14] Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago.
[3:15] Speaker 2: He should have looked into it, found out what it
[3:17] Speaker 2: was doing there, doing just exactly where Marty in a
[3:21] Speaker 2: dingy little antique shop, somewhere on the route to something
[3:24] Speaker 2: or other. He didn't even have sense enough to get
[3:27] Speaker 2: the address or the name of the place. Where was
[3:29] Speaker 2: it supposed to.
[3:30] Speaker 3: Be locked up in the home of the late Darryl
[3:33] Speaker 3: Harcourt up in Boston.
[3:34] Speaker 2: And of course it isn't. Well, that's the point. I
[3:37] Speaker 2: don't know. There's been no report of effect. Well, if
[3:41] Speaker 2: somebody seen it in Paris, is that Buddha pretty well
[3:44] Speaker 2: known among collectors and so on.
[3:47] Speaker 3: I told you it's probably the most valuable piece of
[3:50] Speaker 3: jade in the whole world.
[3:52] Speaker 2: And let me use your phone. Sure here, but if
[3:55] Speaker 2: we don't even know what shop or where it is
[3:57] Speaker 2: in all of Paris, leave it to me. My phone
[4:04] Speaker 2: call was to a slimmy little character whose name is
[4:07] Speaker 2: de Marsac, but who calls himself with Chagri, the great cat,
[4:11] Speaker 2: who knows the Paris underwear like the back of his hand.
[4:14] Speaker 2: He's been a lot of help to me some months
[4:15] Speaker 2: before and locating a painting that was stolen from my
[4:17] Speaker 2: good friend and the actor and I collector Vincent Pride
[4:21] Speaker 2: certain one. If you are willing to pay me, well,
[4:25] Speaker 2: if you can dig up the information I want, I'll
[4:27] Speaker 2: maybe you a check for one hundred bucks American immediately, Johnny,
[4:30] Speaker 2: only two hundred what you call bucks for my in
[4:34] Speaker 2: the scheme of both services? Okay, two hundred. Now listen,
[4:39] Speaker 2: there's a little idol the mailing Buddha. I know it
[4:42] Speaker 2: will Oh, I saw it only this morning here in
[4:47] Speaker 2: Paris where patty shop of Monsieur Dubuisson on the Rue
[4:50] Speaker 2: de Parte l He was smuggled in only a few
[4:54] Speaker 2: weeks ago. And the price on it, well, for such
[4:57] Speaker 2: aware and exquisite piece. Oh, how much you thirty two
[5:04] Speaker 2: million francs. That's around eighty thousand dollars. So it must
[5:09] Speaker 2: be the McCoy you wish me to.
[5:12] Speaker 4: Shall we see obtain it for you?
[5:14] Speaker 2: You mean steal it? What a purch was you? But
[5:18] Speaker 2: for a price? No, no thanks, I'll send you a check.
[5:21] Speaker 2: You're giving him two hundred bucks just for back, a
[5:24] Speaker 2: lot cheaper than my flying over there. Well, yes, so
[5:27] Speaker 2: now i'd better check at the home of this what
[5:29] Speaker 2: do you say. The name is Darryl Harcourt in Boston.
[5:32] Speaker 3: I'll put down the address for you, sed about two
[5:35] Speaker 3: years ago.
[5:36] Speaker 2: Home's in charge of his.
[5:37] Speaker 3: Old housekeeper and missus Mary Pascal, and I take it
[5:41] Speaker 3: his property, his final tapestries and the furniture.
[5:45] Speaker 2: Yes, will to various museums here, everything but.
[5:48] Speaker 3: The contents of Missus Haskell's Roman to study the ladder
[5:52] Speaker 3: he willed to a nephew, Charles Curtis, to be given
[5:55] Speaker 3: to him the day he finishes at Harvard. Well, that's
[5:57] Speaker 3: a funny sort of arrangement. Harcott was a funny man.
[6:01] Speaker 3: The Buddha was the only thing of real value in
[6:03] Speaker 3: that room, and he figured it was enough to get
[6:07] Speaker 3: his nephew started in the business of some kind.
[6:09] Speaker 2: I see this Curtis boy at the house too. No, No,
[6:12] Speaker 2: that goes to Missus Haskell. After Curtis gets the contents
[6:16] Speaker 2: of that one room. Well, look as though i'd better
[6:19] Speaker 2: hie myself up to Boston and make sure that Buddha's
[6:21] Speaker 2: really gone. I had him too. The two hundred dollars
[6:30] Speaker 2: check to my informant in Parrots, who was sure he'd
[6:32] Speaker 2: seen the mailing Buddha was sure it had only arrived
[6:35] Speaker 2: there recently. But if so, why hadn't it been reported
[6:39] Speaker 2: missing from the home of the late Darryl Harcourt up
[6:41] Speaker 2: in Boston. I had him three fifty bucks to posit
[6:44] Speaker 2: on a rental car. When I reached Boston, I headed
[6:47] Speaker 2: west on Deacon Street a couple of miles beyond Kenmore Square,
[6:50] Speaker 2: and there, on a little side street found the Harcourt Hall.
[6:53] Speaker 2: It wasn't much of a place anymore. The lawn and
[6:55] Speaker 2: garden had been neglected, and the building itself was in need.
[6:58] Speaker 2: Abir pair was the old fashion time. Yes, missus Haskell,
[7:06] Speaker 2: I'm Johnny Dollar insurance investigator.
[7:08] Speaker 5: Oh, of course, do come in, mister Dallas rather dismal.
[7:14] Speaker 2: That's what you live here all the time.
[7:18] Speaker 5: I am responsible for this house until the terms of
[7:21] Speaker 5: the will I've fully met.
[7:22] Speaker 2: That's when Charles Curtis finishes school.
[7:24] Speaker 5: Yes, of course, my own quarters at the back or
[7:28] Speaker 5: its tide is there's always been, and mister Harcourt studies
[7:32] Speaker 5: exactly as it was when he passed away.
[7:34] Speaker 2: I want to see that study.
[7:36] Speaker 5: No to be left as it is until master Charles
[7:40] Speaker 5: opens it to play his inheritance.
[7:43] Speaker 2: You're talking about the mainling.
[7:44] Speaker 5: Buddha, furniture, books and things.
[7:47] Speaker 2: How long since you've seen that little jade idyl?
[7:50] Speaker 5: Well, not since mister Harcourt died. I locked the door
[7:55] Speaker 5: and it hasn't been open since.
[7:56] Speaker 2: Except that is well. I'm sorry, but I have to
[7:58] Speaker 2: look around in there.
[7:59] Speaker 5: But you have the key, of course, keep it on
[8:02] Speaker 5: this chain about my neck at all times.
[8:04] Speaker 2: Let me have, mister Dallas. I can get a court
[8:08] Speaker 2: order if necessary, but it would only waste time.
[8:11] Speaker 5: Am I to nose?
[8:12] Speaker 2: You're even? Well? That is here, my creatacious I'm a
[8:19] Speaker 2: fully authorized agent of the company that ensured that Buddha,
[8:22] Speaker 2: but i'm responsible. Has it occurred to you, missus Haskell,
[8:26] Speaker 2: that the mailing Buddha might possibly have been stolen? That's impossible,
[8:30] Speaker 2: is it? Okay, where's the study.
[8:33] Speaker 4: I'll go with you and I'll open the door.
[8:42] Speaker 2: No, mm hmmm. This door looks a couple of inches thick,
[8:50] Speaker 2: just like.
[8:51] Speaker 5: The one to the library. Mister Harcourt kept all his
[8:55] Speaker 5: lovely pastry.
[8:57] Speaker 4: Dear, look at all that dust.
[9:02] Speaker 2: Dust is right? It was on everything, the accumulation of
[9:05] Speaker 2: a couple of years. On the desk that shares the
[9:08] Speaker 2: open floor, bookshelves and tables. They're almost dark and glooming.
[9:14] Speaker 5: Yes, it looks just the same except for all this
[9:19] Speaker 5: horrible dust. But as I told you, mister Dalla, this
[9:24] Speaker 5: is the first time the door has been opened.
[9:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, now where is the Oh? Oh, I hope you
[9:31] Speaker 2: didn't hurt yourself. I just didn't see it.
[9:34] Speaker 5: But he always insisted on keeping the electric fan on
[9:37] Speaker 5: that little table next to the door.
[9:39] Speaker 2: Now where's the Buddha?
[9:40] Speaker 5: The little wooden casket on the desk?
[9:43] Speaker 2: I must seem ah wow, I was afraid of this,
[9:58] Speaker 2: afraid of what.
[10:01] Speaker 4: Oh no, it's gone. The Buddha's gone.
[10:04] Speaker 2: Oh no. I searched the room thoroughly and found no
[10:10] Speaker 2: trace of the mailing Buddha. Somehow someone had got in
[10:14] Speaker 2: that locker room and stolen it. Must have happened recently.
[10:18] Speaker 2: A piece as valuable as that wouldn't be allowed to
[10:20] Speaker 2: lie around for long. If Issaka told me had arrived
[10:23] Speaker 2: in Paris only a few weeks ago, and I had
[10:25] Speaker 2: no reason to done it, How could anyone possibly have
[10:29] Speaker 2: got in there without leaving marks in the dust that
[10:31] Speaker 2: swirled about our feet every time we moved. That showed
[10:34] Speaker 2: a clear imprint of every step we made. That left
[10:37] Speaker 2: a mark on everything I touched.
[10:39] Speaker 4: Oh dear, oh dear, this is terrible.
[10:42] Speaker 2: You're sure you have the only key to this room,
[10:45] Speaker 2: missus hask Yes, it was.
[10:47] Speaker 5: In trusted to me to prevent this very thing.
[10:50] Speaker 2: Oh dear, what about the nephew, Charles Curtis.
[10:53] Speaker 5: No, I'm sure he's never had one.
[10:56] Speaker 2: You think he could have got hold of yours and
[10:57] Speaker 2: had a copy made impossible?
[10:59] Speaker 4: In Oh dear, where that's school at Harvard?
[11:03] Speaker 2: I think i'd better see that boy.
[11:05] Speaker 5: Certainly you can't think that Master Charles did this.
[11:08] Speaker 2: I don't know what to think yet. Tell me you're
[11:12] Speaker 2: absolutely sure you've let no one in here since mister
[11:15] Speaker 2: Harcourt died.
[11:16] Speaker 5: You can tell by the dust over everything that no
[11:19] Speaker 5: one has been in here, not for years, absolutely, except
[11:25] Speaker 5: for the federal tax man of course. The appraiser for
[11:28] Speaker 5: the estate was that a month or so after mister
[11:33] Speaker 5: Harcourt passed away.
[11:35] Speaker 2: And he showed up in Paris on.
[11:38] Speaker 5: I was within mister Dollar, and so was the attorney attorney,
[11:42] Speaker 5: mister Howard Bancroft in town.
[11:43] Speaker 2: Do you have his address?
[11:45] Speaker 5: Office is just off Copley Square, And I've.
[11:49] Speaker 2: Got two people to see Charles Curtis and Howard Bancroft.
[11:52] Speaker 4: Mister Dollar about master Charles, he's a good boy.
[11:58] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I'm sure.
[11:59] Speaker 5: Simply ants thinks that he Anyhow, no one could have
[12:04] Speaker 5: gotten here without leaving a trail.
[12:09] Speaker 2: I want you to close up this room again and
[12:10] Speaker 2: leave it close. I'll be back, please, how about childs
[12:14] Speaker 2: listen to me? Maybe later, Missus Haskell later, Yeah, after
[12:19] Speaker 2: I've talked to him. One thing puzzled me. If young
[12:37] Speaker 2: Charles Curtis did steal the Buddha, why did he do
[12:39] Speaker 2: it after a few months more at Harvard to get
[12:42] Speaker 2: it anyway, and he'd be able to sell it on
[12:45] Speaker 2: the legitimate market for a lot more than it would
[12:47] Speaker 2: ever bring on the Paris black market. On the way
[12:50] Speaker 2: and to look him up, I stopped at the office
[12:51] Speaker 2: of the lawyer Howard Bancroft. I can't believe it, mister
[12:55] Speaker 2: donne Well. The fact remains, mister Bancroft, that the Buddha
[12:57] Speaker 2: is not only missing from the Harcourt home but has
[12:59] Speaker 2: turned out in Paris. But the only person who had
[13:02] Speaker 2: access to that room with Missus Haskell. In accordance with
[13:05] Speaker 2: mister Harcourt's wish, that room hasn't been added for years
[13:08] Speaker 2: until today. And yet if the Buddha has shown up
[13:12] Speaker 2: only recently, I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir. Mister
[13:16] Speaker 2: Harcourt willed it to his nephew, didn't he. That's right,
[13:19] Speaker 2: Charles Curtis, when he finishes school, and he willed the
[13:21] Speaker 2: house to missus Haskell, didn't he? Yes? And it will
[13:24] Speaker 2: be little enough reward for her years of service to him?
[13:27] Speaker 2: How do you mean mister Harcourt paid her very little
[13:30] Speaker 2: during all those years? She and I I too, quite frankly,
[13:34] Speaker 2: felt she was entitled to a great deal more. You see,
[13:37] Speaker 2: his will be valuable things. The collection of tapestries he
[13:41] Speaker 2: willed to various museums Soderston. They were kept in an
[13:44] Speaker 2: her medically sealed room, the library her medically sealed practically.
[13:50] Speaker 2: Didn't you notice the tremendous doors on the study and library,
[13:53] Speaker 2: the sealed windows? Then? How could any dust but about
[14:00] Speaker 2: Charles Curtis, mister bangrust, admirable young man. In addition to
[14:04] Speaker 2: the money his uncle always gave him, well, his own
[14:08] Speaker 2: family is very wealthy, you know, No, I didn't know. Yes,
[14:11] Speaker 2: they've given him everything he wants and it hasn't spoiled him.
[14:14] Speaker 2: A bit even during college. He's an excellent, hard working student.
[14:18] Speaker 2: He's going to be a lawyer, mister Dollar, and you'll
[14:20] Speaker 2: be a good one. And maybe my thinking about him
[14:23] Speaker 2: has been wrong or definitely by mister Dollar, He's planned
[14:26] Speaker 2: to donate the mailing Buddha to a museum when it
[14:29] Speaker 2: comes into his possession. You see, AH has just that.
[14:33] Speaker 2: After handing more or less straight insurance cases for so
[14:35] Speaker 2: many years, I almost instinctively suspect anyone close to the
[14:39] Speaker 2: well of the problem in hand in this case, Young
[14:42] Speaker 2: Charles Curtis, even Missus Haskell, maybe even you. I beg
[14:46] Speaker 2: your pardon, but I guess I'd better just shake the
[14:48] Speaker 2: dust out of my brain and tackle this as a
[14:50] Speaker 2: plain ordinary Wait a minute, just eh, it's a little
[14:56] Speaker 2: matter of dust that really has me stopped. That makes
[14:59] Speaker 2: it impossible for that added since tapestries you said I mentioned,
[15:04] Speaker 2: of course, how blind can I be? Look? You better
[15:08] Speaker 2: get ready for some legal action and be having your client,
[15:11] Speaker 2: the late mister Darryl Harcourt. I'm going to play a
[15:13] Speaker 2: hunch with the bankroft. Maybe it's all wrong, maybe it's crazy,
[15:16] Speaker 2: but I'm going to play it to the hilt. No
[15:28] Speaker 2: mister doller, you can't do this. You have no right.
[15:30] Speaker 2: I'll see about that. These are my own personal things.
[15:35] Speaker 2: I don't believe you're and then should investigate her whatever
[15:38] Speaker 2: you like. Have you a warrant to search my room
[15:41] Speaker 2: this way? No?
[15:43] Speaker 5: No, you're just some tea some.
[15:46] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, this bank book your name? No, you
[15:50] Speaker 2: give me that some twenty years of a balance that
[15:55] Speaker 2: never got above six or seven hundred dollars. Give me
[15:58] Speaker 2: that here two months ago, single deposit of twenty one thousand.
[16:02] Speaker 5: That was money that either.
[16:03] Speaker 2: That was the money you got from some crook. We'll
[16:05] Speaker 2: let the police run him down. Some crook who smuggled
[16:08] Speaker 2: the mailing Buddha over to Paris after you stole it
[16:10] Speaker 2: out of the study.
[16:11] Speaker 5: That's impossible, and you know it.
[16:13] Speaker 4: That study hasn't been open for.
[16:14] Speaker 2: Nearly two years.
[16:15] Speaker 5: You saw the lair of dustin there yourself.
[16:18] Speaker 2: Oh yes, you pointed it out to me half a
[16:20] Speaker 2: dozen times. I should have caught on. Then, come on,
[16:24] Speaker 2: we're going into that study you need to keep No,
[16:26] Speaker 2: I won't. I don't have to rip it off that
[16:28] Speaker 2: chain your neck all right? Here?
[16:34] Speaker 4: You saw for yourself.
[16:35] Speaker 2: Yes, I saw it, all right, and I didn't have
[16:37] Speaker 2: sense enough to realize what kind of dust that was,
[16:42] Speaker 2: and look at it? Full of earth? What you talking
[16:46] Speaker 2: about about the old fashioned method of cleaning fine tapestries
[16:50] Speaker 2: with full of earth. That's the way mister Harcourt cleaned them,
[16:54] Speaker 2: isn't it. What difference does that man? And there's probably
[16:57] Speaker 2: a supply of it down on the cellar somewhere that
[16:59] Speaker 2: he always kept on. What there is that doesn't prove anything? Yeah,
[17:02] Speaker 2: I was blind, blind as a bat when I knocked
[17:04] Speaker 2: over this electric fan that didn't have any dust on it,
[17:08] Speaker 2: because it's what you use to spread the dust. The
[17:11] Speaker 2: fine particles are full of earth all over this room,
[17:13] Speaker 2: A little sackful maybe held in front of the fans,
[17:16] Speaker 2: and it left proof apparently that nobody's been in here
[17:19] Speaker 2: for a couple of years. Yeah, it had me fooled,
[17:22] Speaker 2: but not anymore. Better get your coat.
[17:27] Speaker 4: No, No, I deserved far more from mister Hockcourt for
[17:40] Speaker 4: my years.
[17:42] Speaker 5: Think of watching him squander his money on the idol ta.
[17:48] Speaker 2: Nephew who had money of his own.
[17:52] Speaker 4: Now I have money, gent.
[17:56] Speaker 2: Gentlemen, more than I lived.
[17:59] Speaker 4: I'm an old woman.
[18:01] Speaker 2: Thank you. You're young. Perhaps you could use some.
[18:09] Speaker 4: Perhaps ten or twelve thousand dollars.
[18:13] Speaker 2: You will have to think of a better way out
[18:15] Speaker 2: than that. And you know something, I have a notion
[18:20] Speaker 2: you're going to have time to think about a lot
[18:21] Speaker 2: of things, plenty of times. Yeah, I know, the mainland
[18:32] Speaker 2: Buddha still has to be brought back from Paris. Maybe
[18:35] Speaker 2: I'll get the assignment. Maybe he'll go to one of
[18:37] Speaker 2: our regular foreign investigators. As for Missus Haskell, well, I'm
[18:42] Speaker 2: sure mister van Craft will lose no time in taking
[18:44] Speaker 2: whatever steps are necessary. So expense account total, including mileage
[18:49] Speaker 2: on my rental car and a few incidentals, Well call
[18:52] Speaker 2: it three hundred bucks, even yours truly, Johnny Dollar, now
[19:09] Speaker 2: here is our star to tell you about next week? Story?
[19:11] Speaker 2: Next week? Well, far be it from me. They get
[19:14] Speaker 2: up on a soapbox. But I hope he'll make a
[19:16] Speaker 2: point of listening to him. It concerns a lot of
[19:19] Speaker 2: money in the wrong hands, in the hands of a
[19:21] Speaker 2: bunch of kids too young to meet responsibility, too young
[19:25] Speaker 2: to realize that cutting loose from family before they're ready
[19:28] Speaker 2: can lead to trouble, in this case, murder. Yeah, I
[19:32] Speaker 2: think you'd better hear it, so join us, won't you
[19:35] Speaker 2: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Yours Truly Johnny Dollar is starring
[19:51] Speaker 2: Bob Bailey, originates in Hollywood and has written, produced and
[19:55] Speaker 2: directed by Jack John Starr. Heard in our cast were Virginia,
[19:59] Speaker 2: Greg Paul Duba, will write and Boris Lewis. Be sure
[20:02] Speaker 2: to join us next week, same time and station Well.
[20:05] Speaker 2: Another exciting story of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
[20:11] Speaker 1: Welcome back.
[20:12] Speaker 2: Now.
[20:12] Speaker 1: It is tempting to wonder why Johnny would try to
[20:17] Speaker 1: give the Great Cat a low ball offer, But to
[20:21] Speaker 1: be honest, if the Great Cat didn't get an opportunity
[20:26] Speaker 1: to haggle Johnny up, he just would not have a
[20:30] Speaker 1: good day. This is a case where our criminal defeated herself. Now,
[20:37] Speaker 1: the point is that the room was sealed. It wasn't
[20:42] Speaker 1: in any meaningful way hermetically sealed, but there was very
[20:47] Speaker 1: little airflow and she had the only key. So she
[20:51] Speaker 1: goes into this room that has hardly any dust on
[20:55] Speaker 1: it and says, I want to make sure that no
[20:58] Speaker 1: one can tell I've been here, So I'm just gonna
[21:00] Speaker 1: coat this room in Fuller's earth to make it look natural.
[21:06] Speaker 1: Johnstone's stories often have this one does have an element
[21:10] Speaker 1: of social and moral commentary through the spate of Bancroft,
[21:17] Speaker 1: in which he says that essentially mister Harkhart has done
[21:23] Speaker 1: missus Haskell wrong. In life, he was very cheap in
[21:29] Speaker 1: how he paid her, and in death didn't really leave
[21:33] Speaker 1: her a good inheritance. And in some ways it might
[21:38] Speaker 1: be harder to grasp in today's world, where you have
[21:40] Speaker 1: a much more mobile workforce, where people will spend a
[21:45] Speaker 1: few years at a job and then move on to
[21:49] Speaker 1: another one. But you had, particularly among those who worked
[21:55] Speaker 1: for wealthy people who would work for them for decades,
[22:02] Speaker 1: and a housekeeper who lived with you and took care
[22:07] Speaker 1: of the house and looked after you for all those years.
[22:12] Speaker 1: You know, there's the old cliche. Yeah, she's just like
[22:16] Speaker 1: one of the family, which you can, you know, pass over.
[22:19] Speaker 1: But if somebody's been there, you know, twenty thirty years,
[22:23] Speaker 1: then that's a real natural feeling. And the idea Johnstone
[22:27] Speaker 1: is expressing here is through Bancroft is expressing, is if
[22:36] Speaker 1: someone is wealthy and they have someone take care of
[22:41] Speaker 1: them for decades of their life, they ought to take
[22:47] Speaker 1: care of the people who take care of them, both
[22:50] Speaker 1: in life and in death. And Harcourt clearly did not
[22:54] Speaker 1: do that. Well, now it's time to think our Patreon
[22:58] Speaker 1: supporter of the day. I want to thank Rose, Patreon
[23:01] Speaker 1: supporter since June twenty twenty three, currently supporting the podcast
[23:07] Speaker 1: at the Shawmus level of four dollars or more per month.
[23:10] Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your support, Rose, And that'll do
[23:12] Speaker 1: it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow
[23:16] Speaker 1: us using your favorite podcast software and be sure to
[23:20] Speaker 1: rate and review the podcast wherever you download it from.
[23:24] Speaker 1: We will be back next Friday with another episode of
[23:28] Speaker 1: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. But tomorrow we yield to the
[23:32] Speaker 1: great adventures of old time radio and hand it over
[23:35] Speaker 1: to Counterspy, where.
[23:37] Speaker 2: Mister Peters call mister Harding right away. Mister Peters call
[23:41] Speaker 2: mister Harding right away. Yes, we do. Has anything come
[23:48] Speaker 2: in on the investigation of that benefit for the disabled?
[23:52] Speaker 2: There's not routine anymore. Bring whatever you've got to my office.
[23:56] Speaker 2: We've got to go to work fast.
[23:57] Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime.
[24:00] Speaker 1: Send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
[24:03] Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
[24:06] Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash great detectives from Boise, Idaho.
[24:13] Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.

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