# The Big Story: Pillars of Society (EP4992)

An episode of [The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/335549005), 20 Jan 2026, 35 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/997ffb/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/69430848/gd4892.mp3

Today's Mystery: The mother of a man who was convicted of robbing and beating an elderly storekeeper appeals to a reporter to clear him. Original Radio Broadcast: May 5, 1948 Originating from New York Starring: Arnold Moss; Barbara Weeks; Andy Klein; Mickey O'Day; Bob Sloane; Ed Jerome; Jackie Grimes Support the show monthly at https://patreon.greatdetectives.net Patreon Supporter of the Day: Joey, Patreon supporter since June 2019. Support the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net. Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715 Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.net Give us a call at 208-991-4783 Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectives Follow us on Twitter @radiodetectives Join us again tomorrow for another detective drama from the Golden Age of Radio.

## 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: going to bring you this week's episode of The Big Story.
[0:42] Speaker 1: But first I do want to encourage you, if you
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[1:12] Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts from, and you can find
[1:15] Speaker 1: links to all of our podcasts at Great Detectives dot net.
[1:19] Speaker 1: But now, from mayfef nineteen forty eight, here is the
[1:24] Speaker 1: Pillars of Society.
[1:28] Speaker 2: Well now present the Big Story.
[1:38] Speaker 3: You're ready, Mama's the store locked, just closing the back door.
[1:42] Speaker 4: You're finished store.
[1:44] Speaker 3: Busy week, good week, and the money in the valice
[1:47] Speaker 3: ready for the plazzan first thing in the morning.
[1:51] Speaker 4: Oh customers, it's too late.
[1:53] Speaker 3: It's not too late. Maybe you need something weight Wait.
[1:56] Speaker 4: It's too customers.
[1:57] Speaker 3: All two men, who is better than one? Come in? Gentlemen,
[2:01] Speaker 3: come in? What can I you're an old guy, Pop.
[2:05] Speaker 3: I wouldn't want to hurt you. Have I had to?
[2:08] Speaker 3: I would you want to the valise? Pop the valise?
[2:12] Speaker 3: But you're not rich, Frank. Maybe he doesn't understand polite talk.
[2:18] Speaker 3: Give me that Falice.
[2:21] Speaker 5: Frank talked to the man so he'll be sure and understand.
[2:30] Speaker 2: The big story here is America. It's sound and its fury,
[2:36] Speaker 2: it's joy and it's sorrow, as faithfully reported by the
[2:40] Speaker 2: men and women of the great American newspapers. Cleveland, Ohio,
[2:45] Speaker 2: from the pages of the Cleveland, Ohio Press. The moving
[2:48] Speaker 2: story of Justice and the guy named Joe Tonight to
[2:52] Speaker 2: William Miller of the Cleveland, Ohio Press goes the pell
[2:56] Speaker 2: Mell Award for the Big Story. Now the story as
[3:06] Speaker 2: it actually happened, William Miller's story as he lived it, Cleveland, Ohio.
[3:21] Speaker 6: You sit at your desk, William Miller of the Cleveland Press,
[3:25] Speaker 6: writing the story of a brutal holder.
[3:28] Speaker 3: A man and a woman, both.
[3:30] Speaker 6: In their sixties, owners of a small dry goods store
[3:33] Speaker 6: on East one hundred and second Street, have been beaten
[3:36] Speaker 6: and robbed. The sum taken, two thousand dollars, represents ten
[3:42] Speaker 6: years savings for their kind of people. Their attackers were
[3:45] Speaker 6: kids one nineteen one, twenty one, to whom money is
[3:50] Speaker 6: the final goal, and to whom a storekeeper and his
[3:53] Speaker 6: wife are just two people in the way. You write
[3:57] Speaker 6: that bitter news story, and two months you're write with
[4:01] Speaker 6: satisfaction that one of the robbers was sentenced to fifteen
[4:04] Speaker 6: years in jail. The other robber was never picked up,
[4:08] Speaker 6: but you're happy with the one they got. You enter
[4:11] Speaker 6: his name in the back of your mind under the
[4:13] Speaker 6: category laos Joe mantell loos that done. You forget about
[4:21] Speaker 6: him until four months later the phone on your desk
[4:24] Speaker 6: jogs your back into remembrance.
[4:29] Speaker 4: Mister Miller, there's an old woman out here to see you?
[4:32] Speaker 3: Or who is she? What does she want? Wouldn't say
[4:34] Speaker 3: that's her name? I'm busy, Yes, sir.
[4:38] Speaker 4: H missus man.
[4:39] Speaker 3: Tell mister Miller and tell I don't know, oh, Joe Man.
[4:44] Speaker 3: Tell she anything to do with him his mother? Mister Miller,
[4:49] Speaker 3: what do you know?
[4:51] Speaker 6: Yes, send her in. I'd like to hear what she's
[4:54] Speaker 6: got to say. Yes, send her in.
[5:04] Speaker 4: You're very kind to see me, mister Miller.
[5:07] Speaker 3: You read the stories I wrote on your son, didn't you,
[5:08] Speaker 3: missus mantell, Yes, I did.
[5:11] Speaker 6: You know just how I feel. I'm only sorry you
[5:13] Speaker 6: didn't get twenty five years.
[5:15] Speaker 4: I'm not a proud woman, mister Miller. If to get
[5:19] Speaker 4: to the truth, I have to scrub floors or take
[5:22] Speaker 4: a little insult. A mother doesn't mind that, mister Miller.
[5:26] Speaker 3: Oh, look, what do you got to say.
[5:30] Speaker 4: Joey didn't do it anymore than I did.
[5:32] Speaker 3: Jury thought otherwise.
[5:34] Speaker 4: Joey wasn't there, He wasn't near the store that night.
[5:37] Speaker 3: You said that in court. What do you want anyhow?
[5:39] Speaker 6: Man gets a trial, a fair trial, a jury of decent,
[5:42] Speaker 6: honest people find him guilty.
[5:43] Speaker 4: What more do you want, mister Miller. I'm a reader
[5:47] Speaker 4: of your paper fifteen years. I like the way you write. No,
[5:51] Speaker 4: that's not flattery, it's the truth. You remember the Sullivan
[5:56] Speaker 4: Boy about eight years ago, mister Miller. He was found
[5:59] Speaker 4: gilly by a jury of honest people too, But you
[6:02] Speaker 4: wrote about it, and you helped prove that he was innocent.
[6:07] Speaker 4: The Ginsburg girl it was about four years.
[6:09] Speaker 3: Look, look, I studied your son's case. The only thing
[6:13] Speaker 3: that makes me saw was that they didn't catch the
[6:14] Speaker 3: other crook, and your son only got fifteen years. Those
[6:17] Speaker 3: people were in their sixties, Missus Mantel.
[6:21] Speaker 4: I'm sixty seven, mister Miller. At sixty seven, a woman,
[6:25] Speaker 4: don't lie. My boy was home in the garage fixing
[6:30] Speaker 4: the car.
[6:31] Speaker 3: Why was he fixing a car in the evening.
[6:33] Speaker 4: Because when a boy wants to make a new start,
[6:35] Speaker 4: he don't care if it's afternoon or eveninging. What Joseph Mantel,
[6:41] Speaker 4: My son was a bad boy, And it's a mother
[6:45] Speaker 4: saying that, mister Miller. When he was sixteen he stole
[6:49] Speaker 4: the car. At eighteen he robbed a candy store. So
[6:53] Speaker 4: of course any jury would say that at nineteen he'd
[6:57] Speaker 4: hold up another store and steal two thousand dollars.
[7:00] Speaker 3: And beat up the storekeeper and his wife. I'd say
[7:02] Speaker 3: the same thing.
[7:03] Speaker 4: You see, the night of the robbery, he was going away.
[7:08] Speaker 4: I got three hundred dollars together. More like it's there.
[7:11] Speaker 4: You see, my husband is dead, and we bought Joey
[7:15] Speaker 4: a second hand car, and he was going away. I
[7:19] Speaker 4: was sitting on the steps that night and he was
[7:22] Speaker 4: in the garage fixing the car.
[7:26] Speaker 3: What's California like, mae.
[7:28] Speaker 4: Oh, it's nice, Joey. A boy could well, he could
[7:32] Speaker 4: find himself there.
[7:34] Speaker 6: You don't know me, ma'am.
[7:35] Speaker 5: I got two strikes against me.
[7:37] Speaker 4: If he tries hard, he could find himself.
[7:41] Speaker 3: Mam.
[7:43] Speaker 5: Sometimes I think when they had it out luck, I
[7:45] Speaker 5: was out for a beer.
[7:46] Speaker 4: Now, don't make smart jokes, Joey okay.
[7:50] Speaker 5: They must have seen you coming when they sold you
[7:52] Speaker 5: that jollobby.
[7:53] Speaker 4: It'll get you to California, and that's all I want. Look, Joey,
[7:58] Speaker 4: people in California never heard.
[8:01] Speaker 5: It's not so easy. CoP's hurting me. Man, other kinds
[8:05] Speaker 5: of people do. I'll get yourself, but.
[8:07] Speaker 4: You've got nothing to be ashamed of. It did your
[8:09] Speaker 4: time for the wrong thing that you did. You'll go
[8:13] Speaker 4: there and make a new star.
[8:14] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, sure, who knows, Maybe I'll be the next
[8:17] Speaker 5: Van Johnson. Joe mantell him home on arrange playing at you?
[8:22] Speaker 4: What is it?
[8:22] Speaker 3: Joey okay?
[8:24] Speaker 4: Man, tell come on, what's the met officer? What's happened?
[8:28] Speaker 3: Didn't they tell you?
[8:29] Speaker 6: No, you'll find out.
[8:30] Speaker 3: Let's go.
[8:31] Speaker 2: The sergeant is waiting for you.
[8:32] Speaker 3: Man.
[8:32] Speaker 6: Tell now, judge and a jury and I think there'll
[8:34] Speaker 6: be a nice, comfortable cell too.
[8:36] Speaker 4: Now come on, that's the God's truth, mister Miller. He
[8:44] Speaker 4: was going away to turn over a new leaf too.
[8:46] Speaker 6: Okay, missus Mantel, I heard you. If you excuse me,
[8:49] Speaker 6: I got a lot of work to do. Free witnesses
[8:51] Speaker 6: saw him.
[8:52] Speaker 4: Maybe Joey was right. Who strikes against you? He said,
[8:58] Speaker 4: chances are break out.
[9:00] Speaker 6: I'm sorry, take that door out, William, Missus Mantel. I'm
[9:03] Speaker 6: not a charitable institution, but I'm not a dope either.
[9:11] Speaker 6: And that's all you close your mind to. It happens
[9:14] Speaker 6: every day. Every crook with a mother is innocent. You
[9:18] Speaker 6: go back to the real world of being an honest reporter,
[9:21] Speaker 6: and then something happens and you realize that you haven't
[9:24] Speaker 6: shaken the Mantel case from your mind because you.
[9:28] Speaker 3: Write the story Smith. Yeah, why but the two guys
[9:31] Speaker 3: that held up the gas station told you I did
[9:34] Speaker 3: send them the manner? Oh no, nothing, just but did
[9:38] Speaker 3: you see the crooks?
[9:39] Speaker 7: Sure?
[9:39] Speaker 3: I saw them? Hey, what's eating you? Just sis?
[9:44] Speaker 6: The two criminals Bud and frank Enright nineteen and twenty one,
[9:49] Speaker 6: in addition to robbing the attendant.
[9:50] Speaker 3: Beat him cruelly as well. The injuries may prove fatal
[9:54] Speaker 3: because the attendant was a man well in his sixties.
[9:58] Speaker 3: So nothing. Just just reminds me of another case. Just
[10:03] Speaker 3: wonder if three witnesses couldn't be wrong, jury couldn't be
[10:09] Speaker 3: that wrong? Yeah, oh how could they? Smithy went jail?
[10:18] Speaker 3: Of those two crooks in Sergeant? Can I see this
[10:29] Speaker 3: butt hand? Right? Sure? It's a free country. What's the
[10:32] Speaker 3: point Miller? But I just just that I want to
[10:36] Speaker 3: make sure I didn't insult an old lady.
[10:40] Speaker 8: H I don't know what you're talking about, But go ahead,
[10:43] Speaker 8: go as far as you like.
[10:44] Speaker 3: I want to leave me in the cola. Will you?
[10:52] Speaker 3: You look like him? You know that? Don't you like
[10:55] Speaker 3: Joe Joe Mantel? Is he a boy who was set
[10:59] Speaker 3: up for beating and robbing a couple who ran a
[11:01] Speaker 3: dry goods store on East one hundred and second Street
[11:03] Speaker 3: six months ago? So what I looked like him? Did
[11:08] Speaker 3: you do that job? Don't be stupid? I look but
[11:11] Speaker 3: you're in a bad way. You may get life, you
[11:12] Speaker 3: know that. Don't you get out of here. I got
[11:14] Speaker 3: a right to be alone. You and your brother stuck
[11:16] Speaker 3: up that couple, didn't you.
[11:17] Speaker 1: Yeah?
[11:19] Speaker 4: Yeah, we stuck him up and tipped the cops to
[11:21] Speaker 4: pick up this man.
[11:21] Speaker 3: Tell what do you got to lose? Tell the truth.
[11:25] Speaker 3: Maybe an innocent kid is up for fifteen years for
[11:27] Speaker 3: what you did. My heart's bleeding.
[11:31] Speaker 9: I got out of here, and leave me alone.
[11:33] Speaker 3: What kind of jalus anyhow? Anybody can come and here
[11:35] Speaker 3: see anything he wants. Leave me alone. Mister Jenkins, you
[11:44] Speaker 3: identified this man as the robber of the dry goods store.
[11:47] Speaker 9: Ooh, young man, I testified to that effecting court.
[11:50] Speaker 3: This is the man, isn't it. This is his picture,
[11:52] Speaker 3: that's right now.
[11:53] Speaker 9: If you don't mind that this is.
[11:54] Speaker 6: Not Joe Mantel, that's right. This is butt End, right,
[11:58] Speaker 6: not Joe Mantel. But then you're not sure it was
[12:01] Speaker 6: Mantell who held up that store. I might have been
[12:03] Speaker 6: this man. Yes, thanks, that's all I wanted to know.
[12:12] Speaker 6: Is this the man, missus smothers?
[12:16] Speaker 4: It certainly is. I'd know his faith anywhere he came
[12:19] Speaker 4: in our store as well.
[12:20] Speaker 6: This is not the man your testimony convicted, Missus Smothers.
[12:24] Speaker 3: This is another man.
[12:25] Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, that's terrible.
[12:30] Speaker 3: You're sure I told you I didn't do it.
[12:40] Speaker 1: We are you gonna leave me alone?
[12:41] Speaker 3: And right, I've got affidavids from three witnesses saying you
[12:44] Speaker 3: were the man, not mantel from the storekeepers too. I
[12:47] Speaker 3: why don't you stop it? You're gonna get life anyhow, playball,
[12:50] Speaker 3: Maybe something can be done.
[12:51] Speaker 9: I don't want any part of it.
[12:53] Speaker 3: Maybe it's a stupid thing to say about a little
[12:57] Speaker 3: thing like your conscience.
[13:00] Speaker 6: About a little thing like that fact that this kid's
[13:02] Speaker 6: mother is sick to death. Because right, I swear I'm
[13:07] Speaker 6: gonna haunt you to you tell me the truth.
[13:08] Speaker 4: I'm gonna rise right, shut up.
[13:12] Speaker 3: I got a statement right here. I read it and
[13:16] Speaker 3: read it carefully. Okay, let me see it.
[13:35] Speaker 6: Hell there it is Commission of the works, signed confession
[13:38] Speaker 6: by and right Affidavit's an error by the witnesses. And
[13:41] Speaker 6: now all you have to do is see the governor.
[13:43] Speaker 3: Suppose we go slow, melone, What do you mean slow?
[13:46] Speaker 3: Everything's right here in front of your commission. Sure? Sure?
[13:49] Speaker 9: What is the confession of a life termal word? What
[13:53] Speaker 9: did you are from the sign of sympathetic treatment in
[13:55] Speaker 9: your paper? No, Peter, little sentiment. The most crooks they'll
[13:59] Speaker 9: oblige you. What have they got to lose. That confession
[14:03] Speaker 9: isn't worth the papers written on? What about the affidavits
[14:06] Speaker 9: of the witnesses. What about missus smothers who owned the store?
[14:09] Speaker 9: What that they made a mistake that they said Enright
[14:12] Speaker 9: was Mantell? I could get them to say man Tell
[14:15] Speaker 9: was enright, or maybe somebody else. Maybe instead of making
[14:19] Speaker 9: one mistake, they're making two mistakes.
[14:21] Speaker 3: What proof have.
[14:22] Speaker 9: You got, real proof, absolute proof that would warrant our
[14:25] Speaker 9: reversing the jury?
[14:26] Speaker 3: What this man is innocent?
[14:28] Speaker 9: I know, I know an innocent man is in prison
[14:32] Speaker 9: makes a great story. But how does this one strike you?
[14:36] Speaker 9: A guilty man is a pardon? How do you like
[14:39] Speaker 9: that stime?
[14:40] Speaker 3: Mantell didn't do it. He was fixing his car that night,
[14:42] Speaker 3: he was going to California. A jury thought otherwise.
[14:46] Speaker 9: Twelve honest men and women as honest as you or
[14:48] Speaker 9: I they thought otherwise. You think you've got enough to
[14:51] Speaker 9: throw that decision away In the Sullivan case and the
[14:54] Speaker 9: King's walla, sure you bet at a thousand there, only
[14:58] Speaker 9: this time you might be betting zero. Nothing you've shown
[15:01] Speaker 9: me would make the government give man Tell a pardon. Nothing.
[15:07] Speaker 3: I want proof, Meller proof. Maybe this will sound high
[15:10] Speaker 3: handed to you.
[15:11] Speaker 9: But it happens to be my philosophy, the philosophy of
[15:14] Speaker 9: the course of this country. A jury has the last word.
[15:18] Speaker 9: Trial by jury is the pillar of decency and law.
[15:21] Speaker 9: You don't throw that over for a whim or an idea,
[15:24] Speaker 9: even because a smart reporter comes in and presents you
[15:26] Speaker 9: with something that indicates, maybe, just maybe something is wrong.
[15:32] Speaker 9: Think that over, Miller. Any time you want to speak
[15:34] Speaker 9: to me again, come right in. I'm honest, but I'm
[15:39] Speaker 9: hard headed. You'll be the same.
[15:55] Speaker 2: We'll be back in just a moment with tonight's big story.
[16:05] Speaker 6: Now back to your narrator, Bob Sloan, and the big
[16:08] Speaker 6: story of William Miller as he lived it and wrote it.
[16:13] Speaker 6: You walk out of the commission this office slowly weigh
[16:16] Speaker 6: his words because you're just a reporter, Bill Miller, a
[16:20] Speaker 6: reporter for the Cleveland Press. You think over what he
[16:24] Speaker 6: said that courts and trial by jury are the pillars
[16:27] Speaker 6: of our society. And you know he has a point,
[16:30] Speaker 6: a big point. And so as you move ahead now
[16:33] Speaker 6: you look for proof, proof that'll be important enough to
[16:36] Speaker 6: reverse the decision by a jury of twelve men and
[16:38] Speaker 6: women tried and true. Your first step is taken with
[16:42] Speaker 6: a specialist, doctor Thompson, an expert for the light detector.
[16:46] Speaker 6: You too, sit down with Joe Mantel, and as the
[16:49] Speaker 6: doctor gives him a test for truth, you can hear
[16:51] Speaker 6: his heartbeat.
[16:55] Speaker 8: No, just relax, mister Mantel, if you please and answer
[16:58] Speaker 8: the questions.
[16:59] Speaker 3: I'll ask you yes, yes, sir. Are you innocent?
[17:03] Speaker 5: Yes, sir, doctor I am.
[17:06] Speaker 3: Where were you on the night of the robbery fixing
[17:09] Speaker 3: my car? What kind of car? Was it?
[17:14] Speaker 9: A Chevy invertible?
[17:16] Speaker 3: How many times were you convicted before? Twice, both times
[17:22] Speaker 3: for robbery, But this time you're innocent, Yes, sir, I'm innocent.
[17:24] Speaker 3: I never everywhere, missus smothers. The storekeeper said you hit
[17:30] Speaker 3: her husband on the head. That's a lie. I never did.
[17:32] Speaker 9: I wouldn't hit a man old enough to be my father.
[17:37] Speaker 10: All right, mister man Tel, that'll do. That'll do very nice.
[17:46] Speaker 10: Just sit still in right. This is a lie, Detective.
[17:48] Speaker 3: I signed your statement, didn't I.
[17:50] Speaker 9: We gotta boto me with all.
[17:51] Speaker 3: This four Just answer the questions.
[17:53] Speaker 6: Nothing's going to happen to you, all right, mister Miller.
[17:56] Speaker 3: I'm ready.
[17:58] Speaker 8: Now, mister Enwright, describe what happened when you went into
[18:01] Speaker 8: the store.
[18:03] Speaker 3: I walked in here, my brother.
[18:06] Speaker 5: It wouldn't add over the money, so I took it.
[18:09] Speaker 3: They had it in the little police and then you
[18:11] Speaker 3: hit him. Frank hit him. We wanted to be sure
[18:15] Speaker 3: they wouldn't call the cops.
[18:17] Speaker 9: Then you walked out and we put out the lights
[18:19] Speaker 9: and then walked out.
[18:20] Speaker 3: How much money was in the police two thousand bucks.
[18:24] Speaker 4: Ain't got enough.
[18:25] Speaker 6: Your brother says you hit him, and he's a liar,
[18:29] Speaker 6: a dirty liar.
[18:30] Speaker 3: All right, mister enlright, fine, thank you.
[18:33] Speaker 9: I'll do me a favor, Miller, get that man, tell
[18:36] Speaker 9: Punk out of jail and leave me alone.
[18:37] Speaker 3: I'll try, buddy, I'll try.
[18:49] Speaker 8: The tests Commissioner established in my judgment the Innocence of
[18:53] Speaker 8: Joseph Mantel, and demonstrate that bud Enwright was telling the
[18:57] Speaker 8: truth when he admitted the robbery.
[18:59] Speaker 3: I see or what do you say, Commissioner, my detectors
[19:03] Speaker 3: of funny things?
[19:05] Speaker 9: Tell me, doctor, how do you explain this chart for
[19:07] Speaker 9: wild beatings and vibrations during Mantell's testimony that he was
[19:10] Speaker 9: telling the truth. Well, he's young and excitable. Anyone would
[19:15] Speaker 9: have such reaction. Then they're not conclusive. He might have
[19:18] Speaker 9: had the same reactions if he were lying.
[19:20] Speaker 6: Well, Commissioner, and writes, Chard shows that he wasn't lying,
[19:23] Speaker 6: not to me.
[19:23] Speaker 3: It doesn't well, why doesn't it?
[19:25] Speaker 9: Because check me on this doctor. The lie detector breaks
[19:29] Speaker 9: down when it comes to hardened criminals. I mean a
[19:32] Speaker 9: man with a record who over a period of years
[19:34] Speaker 9: has built himself up to lie evenly. Such a man
[19:38] Speaker 9: could fool a lie detector. Right well, there would be
[19:41] Speaker 9: some difficulty in such a case, read and writes record
[19:45] Speaker 9: Miller seven major crimes in six years, everything from smuggling
[19:48] Speaker 9: to assault to Washington robbery. Such a man is constitutionally
[19:52] Speaker 9: unable to distinguish between right and wrong.
[19:54] Speaker 6: But for Heaven's sake, commission I still see a jury
[19:56] Speaker 6: of twelve people deliberating in a closed room settling fate
[20:00] Speaker 6: of a man.
[20:01] Speaker 9: I don't see this kind of half evidence changing what
[20:03] Speaker 9: went on.
[20:04] Speaker 3: In that room? Or what do you want?
[20:06] Speaker 9: I want a reason, a better reason than you've given me,
[20:10] Speaker 9: for reversing a jury.
[20:19] Speaker 6: You write articles in your paper bill alone, articles pointing
[20:23] Speaker 6: out the validity of your case. You call upon outstanding
[20:26] Speaker 6: citizens to rally around the innocence of Joe Mantel. You
[20:29] Speaker 6: bring support to your case in the person of the
[20:31] Speaker 6: most respectable citizens of Cleveland, and then you go to
[20:35] Speaker 6: see the commissioner once more.
[20:38] Speaker 3: No, I won't change my mind. Oh look, this has
[20:41] Speaker 3: gone beyond the stage of reasonable doubt. Here are the
[20:43] Speaker 3: names of two hundred of the most prominent citizens of Cleveland.
[20:46] Speaker 9: I was just as impressed with the names of the
[20:48] Speaker 9: witnesses and the storekeeper's wife. Size doesn't change this. The
[20:53] Speaker 9: importance of the people who signed doesn't change it. They
[20:56] Speaker 9: didn't sit on that jury. They didn't hear all the evidence.
[20:58] Speaker 6: Well, suppose I got the juris themselves.
[21:00] Speaker 3: Would that change your mind? How could you do that?
[21:06] Speaker 9: The jury was empaneled over a year ago. A lot
[21:09] Speaker 9: of those people are who knows, all over the state,
[21:13] Speaker 9: maybe some out of the state.
[21:15] Speaker 3: How could you get them? I suppose I did? What
[21:18] Speaker 3: would you say? Then? You really believe in this, don't you?
[21:23] Speaker 3: Just as much as you believe in the sanctity of
[21:25] Speaker 3: the courts.
[21:26] Speaker 9: If you will get the jury, Miller, I'll get you
[21:30] Speaker 9: some action from the governor.
[21:40] Speaker 3: Now you've said something, Bill Miller, You're going to.
[21:43] Speaker 6: Get the jury to reverse themselves. And in saying it,
[21:46] Speaker 6: you've set a mouthful, because, just as the commissioner thought,
[21:50] Speaker 6: half the jurors can't.
[21:51] Speaker 3: Be located easily.
[21:52] Speaker 6: Some have moved out the cities, some other states that
[21:55] Speaker 6: you go after them.
[21:56] Speaker 3: You reach them.
[21:57] Speaker 6: Wherever they are and present the testimony of the ways,
[22:00] Speaker 6: you show them the photos, you bring them the lie detective.
[22:03] Speaker 9: Tests, and finally, after.
[22:05] Speaker 3: A year of hard work, you've.
[22:08] Speaker 6: Got eleven jurors agreeing that Joe Mantel should be pardoned.
[22:13] Speaker 6: But eleven isn't twelve, and the twelfth dura, Missus Anna Ryder,
[22:17] Speaker 6: can't be found anywhere. And then your phone names.
[22:23] Speaker 4: Miller speaking mister Miller, this is Missus Mantel.
[22:26] Speaker 3: Hello, Missus Mantel.
[22:27] Speaker 4: Oh, I'm fine, I'm tined. I haven't had a tendency
[22:30] Speaker 4: yet to tell you how much I appreciate all that
[22:32] Speaker 4: you've done.
[22:33] Speaker 3: I wish it, you know, I haven't been able to
[22:37] Speaker 3: finish when I started.
[22:38] Speaker 4: Yes, I know, Missus Ryder, the twelfth juris.
[22:41] Speaker 3: Yeah, we can't find her anywhere.
[22:43] Speaker 4: But that's why why I called you.
[22:45] Speaker 3: I found that we've done your father.
[22:50] Speaker 4: Where mister Miller, she's very sick and she's in the hospital.
[22:53] Speaker 3: Could we stay her?
[22:54] Speaker 6: Well?
[22:54] Speaker 4: I don't know that the doctor says her condition is
[22:57] Speaker 4: very serious.
[22:57] Speaker 3: Give me the name of the hospital. Maybe we can
[22:59] Speaker 3: do it, Missus Mantell. Maybe we can. And that's the story,
[23:16] Speaker 3: Missus Ryder.
[23:17] Speaker 4: Thank you for coming.
[23:19] Speaker 7: You see I'm dying, mister Miller. Oh yes I know,
[23:24] Speaker 7: but I thank you for coming. Always, since I saw
[23:29] Speaker 7: your first articles in the paper months ago, always there
[23:33] Speaker 7: was a little cloud of doubt in my mind. And
[23:37] Speaker 7: if I died with such a thing on my conscious No, no,
[23:42] Speaker 7: you see his mother, this innocent boy's mother, she might
[23:46] Speaker 7: have been me. No, no, mister Miller, I thank you
[23:52] Speaker 7: for coming. You have a paper for me to sign,
[23:57] Speaker 7: Give me the paper, and bless you, blessed you for coming.
[24:20] Speaker 4: I'm so glad you came, mister Miller. Joey is so
[24:23] Speaker 4: happy since he was pardoned by the governor.
[24:25] Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad too, Missus Mantel. It's a very nice party.
[24:28] Speaker 4: Yes, it's a coming home party and going away party too.
[24:33] Speaker 4: Did you have some turkey.
[24:34] Speaker 3: Just like I did? What do you mean going away?
[24:37] Speaker 4: You haven't seen Joey, have you?
[24:39] Speaker 3: No? I was beginning to wonder work.
[24:41] Speaker 4: Well, he's out in the back in the garage, fixing
[24:44] Speaker 4: up the car. He said, he don't want a party,
[24:48] Speaker 4: he just wants to go away. He's changed, mister Miller,
[24:53] Speaker 4: thanks to you. No chip on his shoulder now no
[24:58] Speaker 4: two strikes against.
[25:01] Speaker 5: Go out, mister Miller.
[25:03] Speaker 4: Shake his hand and wish him luck. Joey had liked
[25:07] Speaker 4: that better than anything in the world.
[25:26] Speaker 2: In just a moment, we'll read you a telegram from
[25:28] Speaker 2: William Miller the Cleveland Press with the final outcome of
[25:31] Speaker 2: tonight's big story. Now we read you that telegram from
[25:40] Speaker 2: William Miller of the Cleveland, Ohio. Pretz couldn't write story
[25:43] Speaker 2: of my meeting that day with Mantell a little too personal,
[25:47] Speaker 2: little too private, but could tell that by way he said, Hi, useful,
[25:52] Speaker 2: life had been reclaimed. Feeling was justified when two years
[25:55] Speaker 2: later received postcard from Mantell in California. He was happy,
[26:00] Speaker 2: had a good job, doing well. Many thanks for tonight's
[26:03] Speaker 2: Pellmell Award. Thank you, mister Miller. The makers of Pell
[26:06] Speaker 2: Mell proud to have named you the winner of the
[26:08] Speaker 2: Pell Mell five hundred dollars Award for notable service in
[26:11] Speaker 2: the field of journalism.
[26:13] Speaker 6: Listen again next week, same time, same station, when Pell
[26:16] Speaker 6: Melts will present Another Big Story. A Big Story from
[26:20] Speaker 6: the front pages of the Indianapolis Star Byeline Robert Early.
[26:25] Speaker 6: A Big Story about racing cards, reckless men and the
[26:33] Speaker 6: driver who gambled and lost.
[26:51] Speaker 2: A Big Story is produced by Bernard J. Potter with
[26:54] Speaker 2: music by Voda Mistelinski's Tonight's Program was written by Arnold Pearl.
[26:59] Speaker 2: Your narrator will Bob Sloan and Arnold Moss played the
[27:02] Speaker 2: part of William Miller. In order to protect the names
[27:05] Speaker 2: of people actually involved in Tonight's authentic Big Story, the
[27:09] Speaker 2: names of all characters in the dramatization were changed, with
[27:12] Speaker 2: the exception of the reporter, mister Miller. This is Ernest
[27:25] Speaker 2: Chappel speaking for the makers of Palnel Famous Cigarettes.
[27:32] Speaker 11: This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company, Welcome Back.
[27:45] Speaker 1: The cast of this episode, in addition to mister Moss,
[27:49] Speaker 1: included Barbara Weeks, Addie Klein, Santos Ortega, Mickey O'Day, Edgerome's
[27:56] Speaker 1: Jack Rohymes, and narrator Bob Sloan, who took on a character.
[28:02] Speaker 1: As usual. These episodes are fascinating time capsules. Well, the
[28:06] Speaker 1: commissioner ended up wrong. Miller was right that he had
[28:10] Speaker 1: a point. Letting jury verdicts get overturned because of pressure
[28:14] Speaker 1: from the press really could set a bad precedent. And
[28:18] Speaker 1: I appreciated that the commissioner didn't just change his mind
[28:22] Speaker 1: because important people thought that the results should be changed,
[28:26] Speaker 1: but their stubbornness, and then there's just being obstinate, and
[28:33] Speaker 1: the sort of level to a proof that Miller had
[28:37] Speaker 1: to go through and getting all jurors to agree is
[28:42] Speaker 1: really just ridiculous, because he provided a lot of evidence
[28:47] Speaker 1: to cast doubt on the results of the case, even
[28:51] Speaker 1: though for the time the commissioner's view of the jury
[28:57] Speaker 1: verdict was exalted beyond beyond reason. Now, I did dig
[29:02] Speaker 1: up the original story as to what happened. It all
[29:07] Speaker 1: culminated in the January seventeenth, nineteen thirty seven issue of
[29:11] Speaker 1: the Cleveland News. It involved a young man named Frank
[29:15] Speaker 1: Basey who was convicted in nineteen thirty four and pardoned
[29:20] Speaker 1: by Governor Martin Davy in nineteen thirty seven. Now, the
[29:25] Speaker 1: actual story is very similar to what we heard on
[29:29] Speaker 1: the radio, even getting all twelve yeurors degree and the
[29:33] Speaker 1: last year being on their deathbed, but there were some
[29:36] Speaker 1: things that were different. The lie detector was arranged not
[29:41] Speaker 1: by Miller, but by the Cleveland Association for Criminal Justice,
[29:46] Speaker 1: who actually issued a full report to the governor in
[29:51] Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen thirty six. They talked about the
[29:55] Speaker 1: lie detective results, they talked about the confessions and the
[29:59] Speaker 1: evidence that they had gathered, and this made its way
[30:03] Speaker 1: to the governor's executive secretary, who recommended clemency be given.
[30:10] Speaker 1: But apparently the whole thing got lost as not a
[30:16] Speaker 1: thing happened with it for nine months. Sorry for leaving
[30:22] Speaker 1: you in prison all that time. That is an unpardonable
[30:27] Speaker 1: clerical error. Miller had reported on the story and really
[30:32] Speaker 1: started to beat the drum, particularly on New Year's Eve
[30:36] Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six, covering the fact that the family have
[30:42] Speaker 1: mister Basie back and that there had been no response
[30:47] Speaker 1: from the governor's office. One key emission from the radio
[30:52] Speaker 1: episode was that Basie had a brother. In fact, Basie's brother, Max,
[30:58] Speaker 1: was actually put on trial at the same time as Basie,
[31:02] Speaker 1: but he was acquitted and he was a key part
[31:07] Speaker 1: of finding the last juror. It was him, not the mother,
[31:13] Speaker 1: who found the juror. And then Max Bazie went to
[31:17] Speaker 1: Columbus and sat outside the Governor's office for eleven straight
[31:24] Speaker 1: days until the governor issued a pardon. It's unlikely that
[31:29] Speaker 1: the commissioner represented a single person, and really, if you're
[31:35] Speaker 1: a newspaper, do you really need the police commissioner's support
[31:41] Speaker 1: to get someone out of prison. He may have represented
[31:46] Speaker 1: a composite of different people who had objections at different
[31:52] Speaker 1: stages of the efforts to free Frank Bazie. And the
[31:57] Speaker 1: adding of such a composite character and kind of taking
[32:02] Speaker 1: some of the things that Max Bazy did and attributing
[32:06] Speaker 1: them to the mother is completely understandable because of some
[32:11] Speaker 1: of the challenges that come into producing radio drama. Every
[32:17] Speaker 1: single actor in this episode was doubling up another part,
[32:22] Speaker 1: and you even had the narrator acting. Oh, you have
[32:27] Speaker 1: limits time, the budget as well as the cast size,
[32:32] Speaker 1: and you just had to keep things manageable while trying
[32:37] Speaker 1: to reflect what happened as best you can within the
[32:41] Speaker 1: limits that you have in producing a radio drama. Well,
[32:45] Speaker 1: now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
[32:48] Speaker 1: and I want to thank Joey, Patreon supporter since June
[32:51] Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, currently supporting the podcast at the rookie level
[32:55] Speaker 1: of two dollars or more per month. Thanks so much
[32:57] Speaker 1: for your support, Joey. That will do it for today.
[33:00] Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
[33:03] Speaker 1: favorite podcast software, and be sure to rate and review
[33:07] Speaker 1: the podcast wherever you download it from. We'll be back
[33:10] Speaker 1: next Tuesday with another episode of the Big Story, but
[33:14] Speaker 1: join us back here tomorrow for Broadways My Beat.
[33:17] Speaker 12: Where the man who was with you last night he
[33:20] Speaker 12: said you wanted to talk to me.
[33:21] Speaker 13: It could have waited, Miss Carroll, until you felt better,
[33:24] Speaker 13: and until you it will.
[33:25] Speaker 12: Not be forgotten that easily, mister Clover, That's what you mean.
[33:30] Speaker 12: If you have something to ask, ask only don't prolong it,
[33:33] Speaker 12: don't make me wait and wonder. SoRs enough by itself, don't.
[33:36] Speaker 13: You think, yes, yes it is, and you try to
[33:40] Speaker 13: understand us scale A.
[33:42] Speaker 12: Man I loved, who loved me is dead by his
[33:46] Speaker 12: own hand, by his own will. He could have lifted
[33:50] Speaker 12: his burden onto me, whatever it was, but he didn't,
[33:56] Speaker 12: and now he's dead.
[33:57] Speaker 13: You want more than that, maybe because this is my job,
[34:01] Speaker 13: because I can't rule out the possibility that David Blaine
[34:04] Speaker 13: was murdered.
[34:07] Speaker 12: Awful, how ugly of you to think a thing like that,
[34:12] Speaker 12: that anyone could have wanted my David dead. It's ugly.
[34:17] Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
[34:20] Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot nat,
[34:24] Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter, Radio Detectives, and check us out
[34:27] Speaker 1: on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
[34:34] Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.

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