Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar: The Embarcadero Matter (EP5070)

0:02 THE END.

0:28 Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio. From Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're going to bring you this week's episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. But first, I want to encourage you, if you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And remember, as you're making your travel plans, check JohnnyDollarAir.com. JohnnyDollarAir.com is a Priceline affiliate link. So part of the purchase price supports the great detectives of old-time radio at no additional cost to you. So remember, when making your travel plans, check JohnnyDollarAir.com first. But now, from August 23, 1959, here is the Embarcadero Matter.

1:25 Johnny Dollar.

1:26 Monsieur Dallaire, you will be amazed. You will be thrilled.

1:29 Yeah, well, I think I've had all the thrills I need here in Paris.

1:32 And who are you? I, monsieur, am the night clerk here in the hotel.

1:36 Oh, what's all the excitement about?

1:38 Monsieur Dallaire, I.

1:39 Have the telephone call for you and monsieur.

1:42 Yeah.

1:42 It is wonderful. It is the long distance. It is the transatlantic.

1:47 A transatlantic call?

1:48 From the, what you call, the United States.

1:51 Well, I'll call it for you. Yeah, well, put them on and we'll see.

1:58 Hello?

2:00 Johnny?

2:00 That's right.

2:01 George Reed here.

2:02 Well, George. All right, clerk, you can get off the line now.

2:06 What, Johnny?

2:08 You hear me?

2:09 Clerk?

2:09 Oh, monsieur.

2:11 Come on, hang up.

2:12 Very well, monsieur.

2:15 George, you get my cable report on the Olney jewels?

2:17 Yes, you did a great job in spite of all the money you threw around. I mean what you gave that man to Marsac. But listen, I'm glad I caught you before you left.

2:25 I'm flying on back tonight. See you in Hartford in the morning.

2:28 No!

2:28 What?

2:29 Contact Mr. Maurice Rigaud there at our Paris office.

2:32 Oh, what about it? Getting those jewels back to America?

2:35 No, that's all taken care of.

2:37 But in talking with him a minute ago, I happened to mention that you're there, so he wants you to stay around and see if you can help locate a Cellini medallion.

2:44 Cellini? The famous Italian artist?

2:46 Yes, and the medallion was stolen from the galleries of the Louvre two or three weeks ago.

2:51 Priceless, so it has to be found and returned to them.

2:54 Well, I'll do what I can, George.

2:55 Good. Contact this man, Rigaud, at our office there immediately.

2:59 Contact Rigaud, huh?

3:01 That's right. But why do you say it that way?

3:05 Because maybe I won't bother him.

3:06 What?

3:07 George, maybe I've got a better idea. CBS Radio brings you Bob Bailey in the intriguing adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account, America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar. The Floyds of England, North American office. Or maybe it's the Paris office. We'll see. Following is an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the Embarcadero matter.

4:07 Expense account item one, a few francs. Call at Ten Cents American for a telephone call. Not to Rigaud at Floyd's of England, but to my old underworld contact, Louis de Massac. The strange little character who calls himself the Great Cat.

4:20 Oui, oui, monsieur, darling. Je l'accueille.

4:23 You're most loyal, most faithful friend.

4:26 Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Are you living it up on that money I gave you for locating the only jewels for me?

4:32 Alas, monsieur, I have been most unfortunate. Only one small, what you call, investment.

4:39 And now.

4:40 Easy come, easy go, huh?

4:43 Oui, the 5,000 is gone. And I was so sure of this one.

4:48 What kind of an investment, de Marsac?

4:49 What?

4:50 Even you would have been attracted. Oh, she was young. She was so beautiful.

4:55 She?

4:56 Oh, no.

4:57 Oh, that Marcel, Marcel. How could such a lovely vision deceive me so?

5:02 Oh, oh.

5:04 I'm crushed, a man without hope. And, monsieur.

5:08 Yeah?

5:09 I'm also very, what you call, broke.

5:12 Uh-huh.

5:13 Uh, think a hundred dollars might help to raise your spirits?

5:17 Five hundred dollars? Oh, oui, monsieur. But for what?

5:21 One hundred. For some information. About what happened to the Cellini Medallion.

5:26 Ah, oui. Stolen from the Louvre.

5:28 Oh, you know about it, then?

5:29 But of course.

5:30 You know where it is? No, no.

5:31 Uh.

5:33 But for you and me, I will somehow find out.

5:36 Good.

5:36 But it may be dangerous, monsieur. The people, I will have to see the cutthroats. I will have to pay for the information.

5:44 But for you and the $ 400 you have promised me.

5:48 Okay, okay, $ 150. Want to call me when you've got the dope?

5:53 No.

5:54 If I bring the information to you, I can then collect for it right away.

5:57 $ 200?

5:57 I'll... Wait to hear from you. Okay, now, George, don't flip your lid over some more money for Dumasac. After all, he knows more about what goes on in the Paris underworld than any other man alive. And if in a day or two he can come up with the information I need, I'll put it this way. He saved the company a lot of time and money in the past, and I'm sure he can do it again. Also, if his poking around is as dangerous as he seems to... Hey, yeah? Well, come in, come in. Demarsak.

6:38 The dangerous mission you send me on is a fait accompli.

6:41 But I only talked to you on the phone about an hour ago.

6:43 I've wasted no time. You have the $ 300 for me?

6:48 $ 150. You have the information?

6:50 Oui.

6:50 The Cellini Medallion.

6:52 Well?

6:52 Well, it's on the way to your own country.

6:54 On the way? How?

6:56 Hidden away in a case of wine aboard the ship, the Clemper Hall, out of Le Havre.

7:01 The Clemper Hall, huh? Destination?

7:02 San Francisco.

7:04 And when's it due to arrive there?

7:05 Late tomorrow night. The cargo is many cases of wine. It's bottles of wine. The medallion is hidden away in one of them.

7:13 You're sure of all this, de Marsac?

7:14 But of course, one of me.

7:16 Because if I fly all the way to San Francisco and find out you're giving me a wrong steer... Oh, no, no.

7:20 How can you, my oldest, my dearest.

7:23 Yeah, sure. Now, this means that someone over there is going to have to pick it up.

7:27 Oui, at the warehouse at the pier. A monsieur Frank Gerstel.

7:32 Gerstel?

7:33 You know?

7:33 If he's the one I'm thinking of. A fence who used to operate New York, but I can never pin anything on him.

7:38 He must be the same.

7:40 But in the shipload of wine, how will he know which case has the Cellini medallion in it?

7:45 By this mark, mon ami.

7:48 Yeah. So? A tiny circle, yeah?

7:50 Yeah.

7:52 Ah, where the Maltese cross in it.

7:53 Oui, l'axo.

7:54 Okay, de Marsac. You'd better pack up and catch a plane back to the States.

7:58 Mon ami.

7:58 Oh, yeah, sure.

8:01 Here you are.

8:02 Fifty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty.

8:05 Oh, monsieur, such a dangerous... Okay, okay.

8:10 A hundred, seventy, ninety, two hundred.

8:13 Ah, merci.

8:14 Merci beaucoup. Bon voyage. Au succès.

8:17 Wait a minute.

8:17 Hein?

8:18 You dug up an awful lot of information in a very short time, de Varsak. Even about that mark on the case of wine.

8:25 But of course, monsieur. You see, I put it there myself.

8:30 You what?

8:31 Oui. When I helped my friends to smuggle the medallion aboard the ship.

8:51 Expense account item two is the couple of hundred bucks to Dumarsac for the information about the stolen Cellini medallion. Item three, $ 92 American for my hotel there in Paris and then a taxi out to Worley. Item four, $ 5. 99 even, plane fare, Paris to New York to San Francisco and a taxi to my favorite hotel, The Hunting Inn, up on Knob Hill. A pea soup fog had settled over the city and the driver had to practically feel his way the last couple of blocks. By the time I cleaned up and changed my clothes, it was late and I was hungry. And after the long plane trip, I was glad for a chance to walk over to the Fleur de Lis on Sutter Street. Cocktails and a rare good dinner ran up item five, eleven dollars even. Then

9:30 I started back to the Huntington, again on foot. I say I started. It was late, remember, and dark. Not many people on the streets. And suddenly I was conscious of someone behind me, slowly catching up with me. In the fog, he was only a shadow. But I was sure he was following me. I slipped out my gun under my coat and slowed my pace. All right, brother, what... Huh?

9:57 Yeah.

9:58 Hi, Johnny. Smokey Sullivan.

10:01 Yeah.

10:02 Well, what under the... How are you, Smokey?

10:04 I thought that was you coming out of that fleur-de-lis. Had you better put that back in your.

10:11 Coat, huh?

10:12 Oh, yeah, sure. Hey, listen, you're just the man I want to see.

10:15 Yeah?

10:15 Yeah. Yeah. And if you can dig up some information for me about somebody, I'll make it worth your while.

10:20 You're real good to me, Johnny.

10:22 I'll do anything I can.

10:23 And listen.

10:24 Yeah?

10:25 I don't know why you're out here this time, and maybe this ain't got nothing.

10:29 To do with it. What's that, Smokin'? I've.

10:31 Been hanging around the docks the last couple of days, down to the Embarcadero.

10:36 Doing a little honest work for a change?

10:37 Yeah.

10:38 I'm real clean now, Johnny.

10:40 I've been going straight.

10:41 That's the stuff.

10:42 But I know how to keep my eyes open. You know what's going on down there?

10:47 What? Smuggling, Johnny.

10:49 There's a lot of smuggling.

10:50 All the time.

10:51 You know what I mean? Keep talking, Smokey.

10:53 Yeah.

10:54 Well, most of it comes in from Japan and China, places like that.

10:58 It's the boys on the boats bringing stuff in.

11:01 Ah.

11:01 Well, what I'm interested in.

11:02 Narcotics, Johnny. Mostly heroin, stuff like that.

11:06 Yeah. Well, now, Smokey, when you get any info about that kind of stuff coming in, you tip off the Treasury Boys, the narcotics division. Me, Johnny? Me go to the cops? You mean because of your past, right?

11:17 Yeah.

11:18 They wouldn't believe me, Johnny.

11:20 That's the trouble with going legit.

11:22 I mean, the kind of guy I was. Don't ever kid yourself. I don't want to lecture you, Smokey, but believe me, it's the best way in the world for you to make up for some of the things you've done in the past. Look what you've done in helping me.

11:34 Yeah, I know.

11:35 And it was you got me going straight.

11:38 But don't you see, if anybody was to find out that I was informed.

11:41 Don't worry. The Treasury boys will never talk.

11:44 Okay, Johnny.

11:45 Well, the man I'm interested in... But now, like I was going to tell you... Smokey, listen. Like I said, most of this stuff is from the Orient.

11:53 But down there to the docks, a couple of nights running now.

11:57 Well, Johnny, you ever hear of Frankie Gerstel? Are you kidding? That's the man I was going to... You mean the one who used to be a fence back in New York?

12:06 Yeah.

12:06 Yeah.

12:07 Long time ago, I done a couple of jobs for him.

12:10 That was before you. You seen Gerstel around here?

12:13 Down to the Embarcadero.

12:15 Sure, waiting for the Klemper Hall to pull in from Europe.

12:18 The Klemper Hall, Johnny?

12:20 Yeah. With a cargo of French wives? Yeah, that's it.

12:23 How do you know?

12:24 I helped unload it. You what?

12:27 Yeah, come in ahead of time, early this morning.

12:30 Then I got here too late.

12:31 Huh?

12:32 Or maybe I haven't. Come on, let's get on down to the Embarcadero. Item six, a buck and a half for a taxi. Pier 93, where the Clamper Hall was birthed, was dark. Except, that is, for a dim light in the office on the street side. Back in the huge warehouse, extending out over the waters of the bay, there wasn't even a glow from a nightlight. Sure funny, Charlie.

13:01 They're not having some kind of.

13:03 A light in the warehouse.

13:04 Yeah.

13:05 Well, we'll find out about that for the watchman there in the office, if we can wake him up.

13:09 Yeah.

13:11 Sleeping on a job like that, why, you.

13:13 Hey, watchman. Watchman, come on, open up.

13:20 Johnny.

13:20 Yeah, I see. Come on, Smokey, give me a... Here we go, now. All right, wake up, mister. Come on, I said wake up. Yes, Johnny. He's asleep all right. For good. Bog shrouded San Francisco by the Embarcadero at night. There in a little office on the shore end of Pier 93, we found the watchman. We found him dead with a bullet in the back of his head. which meant that in all probability Frankie Gerstel had gotten there before us, had already taken the Cellini medallion out of its hiding place. Or was it still there, in one of the cases of wine, stacked up in the warehouse in the long, dark pier? There's only one way to find out.

14:17 We'd better get out of here, Johnny. If the cops come around to find this watchman laying here dead, even with Johnny Dollar to explain it.

14:25 Reach up and pull off that light, will you?

14:26 But, Johnny.

14:27 All right, here, I'll do it.

14:28 But.

14:29 Look, don't you see, if the cops come around, they see this office dark.

14:33 Yeah, yeah, we got a chance of that. Now, if this watchman had a flashlight on him... Yeah, in the side pocket of his coat.

14:40 Side pocket.

14:42 Yeah, here it is. What are you going to do, Johnny? I'm going back into that warehouse. But, Johnny, don't you see, if you put on the lights back there... That's why I've got this flashlight. I've got to locate a case of wine in there with a peculiar.

14:54 Mark on it.

14:55 Well, Something else in that case? A priceless medallion that was stolen from the Louvre. It was smuggled in so Gastel could pick it up.

15:02 But if he's already been in here and taken it.

15:05 Well, I gotta make sure. You wait right here. Johnny, if a prowl car comes down the street... Okay, shove the watchman's body under the desk. Turn the light on again and sit there in that chair with your hat pulled down over your face. If a prowl car comes along, wave to it. Whatever you say, Johnny. If anybody else comes along, tries to get in here, yell bloody murder and get out the best way you can. I'm going back in the warehouse. And don't switch on the lights in there.

15:30 Be careful, Johnny.

15:31 Yeah. The light in the office, when Smokey turned it on again, made only a thin yellow line beneath the sliding door. It showed me nothing. It seemed only to accentuate the gloomy darkness of the huge warehouse. Cautiously, I felt my way to a pile of crates, stuck my head around the corner of it and flicked on the flashlight for a moment to get the lay of the land. Bales, crates, packing boxes and barrels filled the place. The cargo of the Clemper Hall. And there at the far end were the cases of wine I was looking for, hundreds of them.

16:12 After mentally plotting a course through the mass of shipping, I turned off the flashlight and worked my way back to them in the darkness, finally reached them. And when I tilted one of them, it gurgled slightly. I was about to flick on the light again when I realized that if Frankie had come here, if he'd killed the guard but hadn't left, then somehow I had to find the case with the identifying mark on it. I put on the light again, and there in front of me was a case that someone had pried open. The cinch bar was lying beside it. On one corner was the mark that.

16:42 Someone.

16:44 I heard someone else in there. Behind me. Behind one of the packing cases. I'd felt my way around in the dark. I had him again. So I picked up the cinch bar. And I waited. Then.

17:00 Holy.

17:03 At least... At least I'd seen the flash of the gun. But again, I waited.

17:09 Give up, Dollar.

17:11 I've been here over an hour.

17:12 I can see it here, but you can't.

17:16 Now... Well, I can see the flash of the gun. You see what I mean?

17:28 Dollar?

17:29 Just keep on talking, Frankie.

17:32 What?

17:34 What'd you say?

17:35 Dollar?

17:40 The cinch bar.

17:44 All right, here, Frankie.

17:49 Now, that's a stupid trick.

17:58 Close, too close. No, no, wait a minute. Hey, your last shot, wasn't it, Frankie?

18:05 Yeah.

18:06 Hey, Smokey.

18:08 Okay, Smokey, come out here in the warehouse. Turn on the lights and we'll.

18:11 Didn't figure I had two guns, did you, darling?

18:17 But you haven't.

18:19 Not now.

18:21 You're through.

18:23 And by the time you can reload.

18:26 Yeah.

18:27 Smokey, put on the lights.

18:28 I can use them now.

18:30 No, no, Smokey, no. That's right. And leave them on.

18:34 And, Dollar, I'm going to.

18:36 Dig you out from behind those crates and kill you.

18:40 You hear me, Dollar?

18:41 You can't get away.

18:43 Yeah, because now I see you.

18:48 So I pull this trigger.

18:54 Smokey. Johnny.

18:55 Johnny.

18:56 Johnny.

18:58 I took the gun off the dead watch for them.

19:01 Are you all right, Johnny?

19:03 Yeah.

19:03 Are you all right? Yeah, yeah, sure, sure I am. You saved my life, Smokey, thanks. Yeah, yeah, you're welcome, Johnny. But listen, listen, the cops are coming. Yeah, I hear them. Well, and Johnny... Stop worrying, Smokey. But don't you see... You're on their side now, remember?

19:19 But if they. Yeah.

19:24 Yeah, I guess I am. Sure. The Cellini medallion and Frankie's pocket. It was pretty obvious that he'd killed the watchman, taken the medallion out of the wine case and was about to leave when we'd showed up. Smokey's shot had killed him. Had Smokey a bit worried, too, when the police barged in on us. But now, now he's a public hero. I'm sure there'll have to be some kind of a hearing on the whole affair. My deposition's already in.

19:55 But Smokey's really in the clear. As for the couple of hundred bucks I gave him, well, forget it, George. It came out of my own pocket. So, expense account total, including the trip home, $ 1, 174 even. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Now here is our star to tell you about next week's story. Instead, let me say hi to three new CBS affiliates. They're KAAB in Hot Springs, Arkansas, WRIG in Wausau, Wisconsin, and WOMI in Owensburg, Kentucky. Welcome to CBS Radio. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Yours truly, Johnny Dollar, starring Bob Bailey, originates in Hollywood and is written, produced, and directed by Jack Johnstone.

20:58 Heard in our cast were Forrest Lewis, Vic Perrin, G. Stanley Jones, Tony Barrett, and Frank Gerstle. Be sure to join us next week, same time and station, for another exciting story of yours truly, Johnny Dollar.

21:11 This is Dan Cumberley speaking. This is the CBS Radio Network.

21:16 Welcome back. Well, this is an interesting story because it really does play into John Stone's strengths in an unusual way. I've talked before about how one of the hallmarks of John Stone's era is is the recurring characters that he used. You've got Durango Laramie, Alvin Peabody Cartwright. You have Meg and Betty Lewis. And there were some that didn't take off as well, like the ex-mobsters from the village of Virtue Matter. But, in general, you have these sort of characters who come back, but it tends to be a situation where they really do come back one at a time.

22:11 A Durango Laramie story is generally not going to also be a Betsy Lewis story or an Alvin Cartwright story. But here you feature two Johnny Dollar allies in the same story, and I think John Stone does something interesting here. He doesn't go for the easy route and find some really implausible way for these two characters to directly interact or even be on the same continent. They're on other sides of the planet, each working in their own way.

22:50 And they have some similarities. Both are contacts with ties to the Underworld. And Johnny has used both of them as sources on different cases. But the two men have two very different approaches to the world and how they handle the whole world of crime. You have Smokey's efforts to go straight. And I think that the story does a good job of portraying all those instincts. built on a lifetime in crime that make this so difficult and how Johnny encourages him each step of the way. Obviously, it's a different case with the gray cat because, honestly, the last thing in the world he would be interested in is reform.

23:53 He is.

23:55 Someone who has an absolute delight in the life of crime. Johnny recognizes him as a valuable source, but with Smokey, he makes an effort, which shows that when it comes down to it, even though it brings him no profit, Johnny tries to do right by people whenever he can. Listener comments and feedback now, and we turn to Darren, who writes regarding the loss by a hair matter. This one felt quite short, but as you say, a very efficient episode. However, at the start when the lady was saying she had three suspects waiting, I expected them to turn out to be cats or dogs. Well, to your first point, I'd say... It really is the challenge of writing during this era. In terms of the length of stories that they could tell, they are far closer to

24:59 the length of a single day's serial episode from the serial episode than they are to the amount of story time they were able to use, say, during the John Lund era. But regarding the dogs and cats, usually that's an outrageous exaggeration. But then you remember some of the cases Johnny has had, and I guess that's one of his strengths. Johnny has to be ready for a case to be relatively mundane, straightforward.

25:38 And then.

25:40 Also for it to be filled up with all kinds of eccentric characters. He really has to be ready for anything when that phone rings. And then we have a comment from the site called X regarding the Cronin Matter Omnibus. This is one of my favorite episodes. Thanks for all your podcasts. Well, thank you so much. And now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day. Thank you to Rebecca, Patreon supporter since February 2021. Currently supporting the podcast at the Shamus level of $ 4 or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Rebecca. And that will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And be sure to rate and review the podcast wherever you download

26:35 it from. We'll be back next Friday with another episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. But join us back here tomorrow as we give way to the great adventurers of old-time radio and counter-spyware.

26:48 Ah, you must be Mr.

26:50 David Hodge.

26:50 Well, I'm sorry we missed you when you came down the gangplank. This is my assistant, Harry Peters. I'm very pleased to meet you both. Won't you join me? You probably think it odd of me to eat as soon as I land. But you see, I consider myself a gourmet with the food on the floor.

27:08 I understand. I hope the voyage was good otherwise, though. On the contrary, Mr.

27:13 Harman.

27:14 It was traffic.

27:15 Oh?

27:16 My secretary, Rudolf, was lost at sea.

27:19 Lost?

27:20 He fell overboard. Evidently in a pack of business. Poor Rudolph. Strange we haven't heard of it, Mr.

27:27 Harvey.

27:28 Well, dear friend, I see. Ship of foreign registry, I suppose, Mr. Peters. They would not trouble your counter-spies with such a minor, though tragic, accident. Oh, is everyone sure it was an accident? It was seen both by myself and another passenger. But there was no question. It was definitely an accident. Was he a close friend, Mr.

27:47 Vernon?

27:48 Very.

27:49 Hmm.

27:51 Well, my business in seeing you this morning, Mr. Borning, was to welcome you to our country and arrange whatever protection you desire while you're here. Good.

27:58 Thank you, sir. Mr. Harding, I have a great thing to do in your country. A great thing to see. Well, that's right.

28:05 This is your first time outside your own country, isn't it?

28:07 Yes.

28:08 And I'd rather not have your agents tagging after me. I'll show you on the stand.

28:14 I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime, send your comments to box13 at greatdetectives.net. Follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives and check us out on Instagram, instagram.com slash greatdetectives. From Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Graham, signing off.