Broadway Is My Beat: The Anna Compton Murder Case 09/15/1951

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Podcast: Choice Classic Radio Detectives | Old Time Radio

Episode: Broadway Is My Beat: The Anna Compton Murder Case (09/15/1951)
Host: Choice Classic Radio
Air Date: December 10, 2025 (streamed/replayed)

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Main Theme

This episode of “Broadway Is My Beat” centers around the investigation into the murder of Anna Compton, whose body is found in the front seat of a car on Broadway. Detective Danny Clover and his colleagues unravel a web of jealousy, deceit, and wounded pride among Anna’s husband Leo Compton, her lover Edward Bishop, and others in her life. The episode explores classic noir motifs of alienation and the violence lurking beneath the gaudy surface of postwar New York.

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Key Discussion Points and Investigation Steps

1. Discovery of the Body ([00:39]–[02:29])

• Setting and Mood: Detective Danny Clover paints a poetic, melancholic picture of Broadway in autumn, hinting at the transient, lonely nature of life on the city’s famed thoroughfare.
  • Memorable moment: “It’s the time of the quicken step and the crumpled travel folder and coney-dyed beaver. And the September song is a deep throated sound.” – Danny Clover ([00:53])
• Finding the Victim: A woman is discovered shot in the back and left dead under a blanket in a parked car. Officer Mugavan clues Danny in:
  • “She’s in here, Danny. ... Who is she? ... No identification, no handbag. Just this. Car registered to Edward Bishop.” – Officer Mugavan ([01:43]–[01:57])

2. Tracking Edward Bishop ([03:19]–[05:48])

• Visit to Bishop’s Residence: Danny questions Bishop’s eccentric roommate, who provides comic relief and key info:
  • “My roomie’s been squiring a lady by the name of Anna Compton. ... Just to talk to on the phone. That lovely voice haunts you.” – Roommate ([04:56])
• Name and address of Anna Compton are established.

3. Talking to Leo Compton (Anna’s Husband) ([06:37]–[09:07])

• Leo’s Emotional Reaction: Leo initially believes Anna just hasn’t returned home, then is informed of her death. He confesses to marital conflict:
  • “Anna's dead.” – Leo Compton’s realization ([07:21])
• Jealousy and a Bracelete: Leo admits Anna was seeing Bishop, who gifted her an expensive bracelet. Leo claims to have paid for the bracelet to end the affair, writing Bishop a $200 check, yet Anna leaves with Bishop anyway.
  • “Things can happen. Just because it’s your wife doesn’t mean it can't happen. I called her boyfriend up and I told him to come over, I'd pay him for the bracelet.” – Leo Compton ([08:19])

4. Zoe’s Perspective: Insights from the Auction Gallery ([09:26]–[12:08])

• Edward Bishop’s Character: Zoe, a colleague, confirms Bishop’s romantic involvement with Anna and reveals her jealousy and resentment:
  • “It’s in Eddie to do a thing like that. It’s what’s about him that fascinates a girl. ... That and the clever way he handles an auctioneer’s hammer.” – Zoe ([10:30])
  • “You find Eddie Bishop, give him my message. Tell him I want an invite to his execution. It's been a dull season.” – Zoe ([12:08])
• Zoe testifies to seeing Eddie giving Anna the bracelet, meant for Zoe.

5. Discovery of Bishop’s Body ([12:20]–[13:42])

• Danny and Mugavan find Bishop dead in an excavation site, shot and left with Leo Compton’s $200 check in his wallet.
  • “Check for 200. Signed by Leo Compton. … He’s the man we figured murdered Anna Compton.” – Officer Mugavan ([13:33]–[13:42])

6. The Forensic Connection ([15:51]–[16:44])

• Ballistics Report: The same gun killed both Anna and Bishop, intensifying suspicion on one perpetrator.

7. Leo’s Odd Sales Behavior and Motive ([17:02]–[18:58])

• Leo returns to claim Anna’s bracelet, arguing “It’s a kind of remembrance of the dead.” ([17:39])
• Despite his professed grief, Leo’s concerns are tinged by financial pettiness and pride in cost-saving:
  • “Scrimp and save all my life. ... The cost of things, Mr. Clover, it’s outrageous. Food, furniture, clothes and transportation. You know what cab fare cost me from New Rochelle? Five sixty. It's outrageous." – Leo ([17:42]–[18:01])

8. Background on Leo: Testimony from Mervyn Mago, Mission Helper ([19:35]–[20:59])

• Leo’s old friend describes him as calculating and shaped by poverty:
  • “Leo is a product, Mr. Clover. The making of a living, the background of poverty. ... Even now, now that he's well to do, it still eats him.” – Mervyn Mago ([20:59])
• Leo has a compulsion to balance his books, take a cut, and avoid waste.

9. Suspicious Transaction: Selling the Bracelet ([22:12]–[23:09])

• Mr. Scott, a bystander, returns the bracelet to police after Leo tries to pawn it off for only $5.60—far less than its real value.

10. Forensic Analysis and the Turning Point ([23:25]–[24:24])

• Analysis reveals Anna likely was not shot in the car, but elsewhere—the car only used for disposal.

11. Danny Confronts Leo with the Truth ([24:52]–[27:32])

• Danny pieces together Leo’s elaborate attempt to fabricate an alibi. Leo killed Anna (after marital strife), then called Bishop under the pretense of buying back the bracelet, killed him as well, and staged the scene to look like they eloped.
  • “You'd already killed her when you called Bishop. ... Then when Bishop arrived, you killed him too. Wrote out a check and stuck it in his pocket.” – Danny Clover ([26:36]–[26:44])
• Leo’s motives are a tangle of wounded pride, possessiveness, and obsession with economic balance:
  • “I put my own price on things. My wife belonged to me. She was mine.” – Leo Compton ([27:00])

12. Poetic Coda ([28:04]–[28:22])

• The episode ends as Danny Clover reflects on the loneliness and violence hidden on Broadway, echoing the show’s signature melancholy.
  • “It’s Broadway. The gaudiest, most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway. My Beat.” – Danny Clover ([28:22])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “When it’s September and the summer sighs away, Broadway is festooned with the colors of fall.” – Detective Danny Clover ([00:53])
• “A woman was found murdered in his car.” – Detective Danny Clover, breaking the case open ([05:45])
• “Anna’s dead.” – Leo Compton ([07:21])
• “I could call Technical. They’d find blood in your house no matter how hard you scrubbed.” – Danny Clover, leveraging for a confession ([26:54])
• “My wife belonged to me. She was mine. And nobody gets it. Not for a $200 bracelet, they don’t.” – Leo Compton, revealing true motive ([27:00])
• “It’s Broadway. The gaudiest, most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway. My Beat.” – Danny Clover ([28:22])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening & Discovery of Body: [00:39]–[02:29]
• Questioning Bishop’s Roommate: [03:19]–[05:48]
• Interview with Leo Compton: [06:37]–[09:07]
• Zoe’s Testimony at Auction Gallery: [09:26]–[12:08]
• Discovery of Bishop’s Body: [12:20]–[13:42]
• Ballistics Confirmation / Motive: [15:51]–[18:58]
• Mission Helper Testimony: [19:35]–[20:59]
• Bracelet Sale Confession: [22:12]–[23:09]
• Confrontation & Confession: [24:52]–[27:32]
• Final Reflection: [28:04]–[28:22]

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Summary Flow

The episode masterfully weaves from poetic noir narration into procedural investigation, alternating between cityscape musings and pointed interrogations. Suspects and witnesses each display richly drawn personalities: from the bitter, comic roommate to the embittered but pitiable Leo. Snappy dialogue, period slang, and hardboiled wit create a vivid sense of New York’s underbelly. The solution, built on psychology and solid detective work, underscores themes of possession, pride, and the cost of betrayal.

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For those who love classic detective fiction, “The Anna Compton Murder Case” encapsulates the moody, morally complex, and rivetingly human storytelling that defines the Golden Age of Radio.

Transcript

[Detective Danny Clover]

Welcome to Choice Classic Radio where we.

[Officer Mugavan]

Bring to you the greatest old time radio shows like us on Facebook, subscribe to us on YouTube and thank you for [e-mail].

[Detective Danny Clover]

Broadway's my beat From Times Square to Columbus Circle. The gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest milestones in the world.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Broadway is my beat. With larry thor as detective danny clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

When it's September and the summer sighs away, Broadway is festooned with the colors of fall. The pastels of the cotton dresses mix sadly with the brown and gray of the flannel. And here and there Broadway shapely foliage turns to plaid. It's the time of the quicken step and the crumpled travel folder and coney dyed beaver. And the September song is a deep throated sound. The mob voice, the hay fever and the oysters being torn from the half shell. Another season, kid. One more. Three months band to get where you're.

And the autumn days have their 6 o' clock in the morning time. The just beginning. Another daytime. It was a street where Broadway turns a corner into the 40s where I was and Detective Mugavin and a woman.

[Officer Mugavan]

She's in here, Danny. This car.

Right there on the floor in front.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Who is she?

[Officer Mugavan]

I don't know. No identification, no handbag.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Just this.

Car registered to Edward Bishop. 1110, 160th.

[Officer Mugavan]

Uh huh. Slippers in the glove compartment.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Who found her?

[Officer Mugavan]

Officer Kaplan. Tagged it late last night for traffic violation. Parking. 5 o' clock when he was going off duty, he noticed the car still wasn't moved. Opened it looked. Found her under that blanket. I'd say she was about 27, huh?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Shot once in the back. From up close, yeah.

[Officer Mugavan]

Death probably instantaneous. Here they are, Danny.

In the front of the car. Doc.

Hey, you're a new doc, aren't you?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Don't move her, doctor. Wait for the photographers.

[Officer Mugavan]

But don't just stand there, Doc. You gotta.

You'll get used to it, kid. This kind of thing happens a lot.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And the cluster of the walkers to work the people of the subway glad for the delay of the dead woman. The dead woman who lies at the beginning of another day. Stops it for a time, holds it. The desolate pause, the time for turning back. But the hungry day will not wait. Subways are empty and must be filled. The clever machines in the offices long for the fluttering caress of quick fingers, can't stop for the dead kid. A buck has to be made. Give someone else your place in line.

And in the corridor of the address on the registration Slip. A woman in a raveled coat sweater sweeps away the night litter and autumn mists gathers them on a dustpan, throws them into the street. You ask for Edward Bishop and she shrugs you to a scarred door at the end of the hall. Watches you as you knock. Waits with you for the door to open.

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

You're an early bird, mister.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Police, huh? The woman drops her broom, scurries away to tell her friends and neighbors.

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

Early bird out to catch a worm, huh, mister? Not me. Not for something I've done. I never do anything bad.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You Edward Bishop?

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

Oh, not me. Mr. Bishop's my roommate. He gone and done something naughty. Come in, mister, and tell me all about it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where is he?

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

Out frying his nightly kettle of fish. I presume his bed ain't been slept in.

[Detective Danny Clover]

No, huh?

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

Oh, my. That. That hollow you see in the bed clothes is where I tried it. I'm an experimenter. Long as he wasn't in it, I thought my roomie's bed might be better than my own. It wasn't. Mr. Bishop's gone and done something naughty, huh?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Do you know where he is?

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

I want to tell you something about Mr. Bishop, my roomie. He's a tight lipped man. Rock face, I call him when he ain't looking. That's because he never whispers a secret to me or shares a Coke. When I offer him part of mine, he just lets me dab his hanky with cologne. Sometimes when he's going out for a heavy evening.

[Detective Danny Clover]

He had a lot of them. Evenings like that.

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

Well, for a man who has to shave twice a day, he has more than his share.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You wouldn't know with whom.

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

I might. But first you tell me what my roomie did to you.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Maybe you'd find it cozier down at headquarters. Maybe that Japanese kimono you wear makes.

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

It look you're getting rough. Hello there, mister. I'll tell you what I know. Then you tell me what you know, huh?

My roomie's been squiring a lady by the name of Anna Compton.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You know her?

[Leo Compton]

Who?

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

Just to talk to on the phone. That lovely voice haunts you.

[Detective Danny Clover]

When'd you talk to her last?

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

Oh, two or three days ago. I'll tell you just how it was. She kept calling here evenings, asking my roomie to call her back. Just leave her name. Anna Compton.

My roomie. Squiring a married lady.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Bishop never shared anything with you, and.

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

Still I'll tell you about that too. Her haunting voice made me nervous. I told you, I'm an experimenter. So one day I Sat down with a phone book and called every Compton there is. Then a man answered and said his wife Anna wasn't home. Who was calling, of course. I hung up.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Then you know her address in the.

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

New Rochelle phone book for everyone's eyes to see. Now it's your turn. What did Mr. Bishop do?

[Detective Danny Clover]

A woman was found murdered in his car.

[Roommate of Edward Bishop]

My, oh, my, that's as naughty as you can get, ain't it?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mr. Blackburn said that. Then Mr. Blackburn reached over to my lapel, pinched off a piece hanging from the buttonhole and dangled it accusingly under my nose. This is the way I left Mr. Blackburn.

Then back to headquarters. Issue an all points bulletin for Edward Bishop. Then down one flight to the photo lab. Be handed a picture. Tuck it in the black notebook where you've jotted the name of Leo Compton and his address in New Rochelle. Then the ride there to the community where the houses have the built in attitude that violent death never visits here in the next street. Maybe it happens or to a friend of a friend. But it never happens here.

[Leo Compton]

Anna? Anna, is that you?

Lost your key? Anna, where have you been?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Your name? Compton.

[Leo Compton]

Leo Compton.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm from the police. My name is Danny Clover.

[Leo Compton]

Oh, yeah?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mind if I come in?

[Leo Compton]

Well, I guess so. All right. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute there.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah. Police, Mr. Compton.

[Leo Compton]

It's about Anna. It's about Anna, isn't it? What's happened to her?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Listen to me, Mr. Compton.

[Leo Compton]

All right, all right, I'm listening.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Is Anna your wife?

[Leo Compton]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Detective Danny Clover]

This woman, this picture I have here.

[Leo Compton]

Yes, that's Anna. Yeah. How did you get there? How'd you get Anna's picture?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I wish I knew some way to say this.

[Leo Compton]

Anna's dead.

[Detective Danny Clover]

We found her this morning. She'd been shot. Oh, she. Her body's at the morgue. Anna, I've got to ask.

[Officer Mugavan]

I know.

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

I know.

[Detective Danny Clover]

She didn't come home last night, Mr. Compton.

[Leo Compton]

No, no, you're wrong. She came home. Anna came home to me.

It was my fault, really. I sent her away. I told her I didn't care. And the things I said to her, the names. Suppose the last words you ever said to your wife were names like that.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What happened last night, Mr. Compton?

[Leo Compton]

She came home. It was about 7 yesterday evening. And she had the bracelet on.

[Detective Danny Clover]

She was wearing a bracelet when we found her.

[Leo Compton]

She had the bracelet on. And I asked her where she got such an expensive bracelet to wear. And she said she got a bargain.

A bargain?

[Detective Danny Clover]

What do you mean?

[Leo Compton]

From her boyfriend. Well, she told me and it told me. All right. And listen. Listen. You know what I did? I called him up. I'm not narrow minded. Things can happen. Just because it's your wife doesn't mean it can't happen. I called her boyfriend up and I told him to come over, I'd pay him for the bracelet.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Did he come over?

[Leo Compton]

Oh, he came over. And it was stunned, all right. And I wrote a check for the bracelet. $200. Don't you think Anna wasn't stunned, Mr. Compton? Did you know what she did? She left with him anyhow. Bracelet, check. She and him. And that's when I saw.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What was the man's name?

[Leo Compton]

Bishop. Edward Bishop. He's an auctioneer for the Hunter Galleries.

There's something else.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yes, I'll call Fran.

[Leo Compton]

I'll take her out of that place where she is.

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

Come in. Off the Avenue of the Americas, Misty. Behind these dirty shop windows, there are bargains.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Edward Bishop work here?

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

He did till he killed himself. A woman ran up a parking ticket.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You know all that for sure?

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

I know Eddie. He works for me. The pitchman to end all. Pitchman, the spiel that kills. That's Eddie Bishop. He talk you into buying something you don't like?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mister, you said he killed her.

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

Why, you're a cop, aren't you?

Come inside. I'll brew you something warm. It gets cold for everybody on the Avenue.

No, leave the door open. A looker might want to come in to browse. That's how it is in the world. Lookers, browsers, handlers. Then walk out just like my Eddie.

You want a sip of the warm brew?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Why did you say he killed her?

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

It's in Eddie to do a thing like that. It's what's about him that fascinates a girl. That and the clever way he handles an auctioneer's hammer. I could show you a three time bruise. Three times in your soul on a man like Eddie.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You read in the papers a woman is found dead in Bishop's car. And that makes you know he's a murderer.

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

And the way he spoke my name. Sometimes after we closed up the shop. Zoe, he'd say to me. Zoe killed a long day for me. You don't argue with a man like Eddie when he talks like that.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You knew Mrs. Compton.

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

When the summer began to fade, Eddie started talking to me about how she looked when she walked in one day to bid on an object of art. Then how she looked over a cocktail, a corner bar. And then how it was with the lights of Coney on her face. And In Eddie's car on the long way to New Rochelle. All this, my auctioneer told me. That's how I know the dead Mrs. Compton.

I'm glad for her.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You never saw her with him.

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

It was last night. I watched from behind the counter. I saw her shove her wrist at Eddie. Eddie put a bracelet on it. One he'd bought from stock. I thought it was for me. Right in front of me, he did it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

If it was like that for them, why would he kill her?

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

Who knows? Maybe she rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe she asked him for it. Eddie was a man to oblige a lady.

[Detective Danny Clover]

All right. Thank you.

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

Do something for me, mister.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What?

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

You find Eddie Bishop, give him my message. Tell him I want an invite to his execution. It's been a dull season.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Danny.

[Officer Mugavan]

Over here in the squad car.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You got something, Mugavan?

[Officer Mugavan]

Well, maybe, maybe not. Guy was found dead in the building excavation over on Third. Nobody wants to touch him.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah. Let's.

Drive down the ramp, Mugavan.

[Officer Mugavan]

Yeah. This sidewalk superintendent's really got something to stare at now.

Yeah.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Hey, what happened?

[Sergeant Tartaglia]

Mr.

Scoop happened. Half hour ago I decided to scratch this ground. First scope full of shovel come up with was him.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Hey, let's get it down, huh?

[Sergeant Tartaglia]

Sure.

[Leo Compton]

Okay.

[Officer Mugavan]

Yeah, real good.

I'll take a look.

Shot down. Here's a wallet.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Look at this.

Check for 200. Signed by Leo Compton.

[Officer Mugavan]

Uh huh. Pen to the order of Edward Bishop.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Edward Bishop?

[Officer Mugavan]

He's the man we figured murdered Anna Compton.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah. The man we figured murdered Anna Compton.

[Officer Mugavan]

What? What'd you say, Danny?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Nothing. I didn't say anything at all.

[Narrator/Announcer]

You are listening to Broadway Is My Beat, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin and starring Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. Singers Alan Dale and Sarah Vaughn will be Steve Allen's guests on Songs for Sale just a little later tonight. Once again, Steve will be playing host to four amateur songwriters and their unpublished songs, one of which will be chosen for nationwide hearing for merriment and melody. Here's Songs for Sale later tonight on most of these same CBS radio stations.

[Detective Danny Clover]

September morn dips a dainty toe into a Broadway billboard and unshivering gazes down upon a street that only yesterday was choked with summer. But the refuse is there where summer has passed and left pieces of itself in the scratch and warp of summertime blues still screeching out of the loudspeakers. The sunny mannequins, wax slightly melted, waiting in shop windows to be replaced by the fall and winter models. The faint odors of the sun warmed perfume, the Souvenir of the golden girl who walked right past you. Turned a corner, vanished into a place where summer never dies. A place not open to you, kid. Only autumn's ahead of you, kid. Start using it. It's already given you. Two murders. A woman in the front seat of a car. A man scooped out of the earth on the teeth of a steam shovel. What more can you ask? September's showering her gifts on you, kid. Take them. They're all yours.

And at headquarters, Sergeant Dattaglia brings you your share of them. Holds them from you with a smile that shows he slept well last night.

[Sergeant Tartaglia]

He accumulated datums on the murders, Danny. In these papers, I tease before you.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Have a good night, Gino.

[Sergeant Tartaglia]

No complaints come to mind, Danny. The evening was a fulsome one. Father McCleary came to call. A pleasant time was had by all. As is our usual procedure.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Father McCleary is a fine man, salt of the earth.

[Sergeant Tartaglia]

I ask Mrs. T to break open a bottle of Morgan Dovered wine. He don't even blink an eye. Sips with you, talks with you, Brings presents for the Tartaglia brood. This is a man who also brings you the gift of restful sleep.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Remember me too, M. Gino.

[Sergeant Tartaglia]

Roger Wilco. Now to the papers I am about to bestow upon you. In them you will find a report from Technical to wit, the bullets that killed Mrs. Compton and Mr. Bishop. Technical states came from the same gun. Markings are identical. The rundown on the past histories of Mrs. Compton and Mr. Bishop is contained in reports from interested neighbors and relatives gathered by.

[Leo Compton]

You'll spare me a moment, Mr. Clerk.

[Sergeant Tartaglia]

Look, you, standard operating procedure is to knock when one desires a moment of Danny Command.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mr. Compton.

[Leo Compton]

I've come to demand some of you. Ms. Clover, and I intend to not leaving here until you give it to me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What would that be?

[Leo Compton]

Anna's bracelet. The one that.

Everyone'S dead? It belongs to me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Because you gave Bishop a $200 check for it.

[Leo Compton]

I stopped payment on my check after all that. That Mr. Bishop did give it to Anna. I needn't have made that stupid gesture. And now she's dead and he's dead.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yes, your wife is dead. You loved her. You told me.

[Leo Compton]

The bracelet's mine. You want to quibble about it, have me spend money on lawyers.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You're right, Mr. Compton. It's yours. Take it. We've no more use for it. We have photographs.

[Leo Compton]

You understand? It's not the money. It's only that if it once belonged to her, it now belongs to me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

It's a kind of remembrance of the dead.

[Leo Compton]

Well, I'm not going to think about it. I have enough trouble living in an empty house with no one to. I scrimp and save all my life. Share it with Mrs. Compton. And the cost of things, Mr. Clover, it's outrageous. Food, furniture, clothes and transportation. You know what cab fare cost me from New Rochelle? Five sixty. It's outrageous.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You could have come in another way. Oh, yes.

[Leo Compton]

And be mocked at? Pointed to as the husband of a murdered woman. They put my picture in the paper, you know. And that makes me a curiosity.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

A freak.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You didn't tell me when I last saw you, Mr. Compton. What did you do after your wife left you with Bishop?

[Leo Compton]

What's that?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I said, what did you do? Go anywhere? Talk to anyone?

[Leo Compton]

Well, of course I talk to someone. A man's wife walks out on him when he's given her all this. Mervyn Mago. He's an old friend from boyhood. I go to him whenever I'm in trouble. He's a professional helper. He's in that business.

[Detective Danny Clover]

He makes money by helping people.

[Leo Compton]

He runs a mission on East 40th. You like him, I think. Well, thank you, Mr. Clover. You were easier to deal with than I thought.

[Sergeant Tartaglia]

Danny. A man's wife is murdered and he comes back for Danny.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You think it's something to think about, huh, Gino?

It was something to think about. Consider a man whose wife had been murdered. Consider, in space of 20, his tears had dried. The shock of death had dwindled into something much more negotiable. A $200 bracelet, for example. The grief tempered by the high cost of taxicab fares. Leo Compton had motive enough to commit two murders. His wife, because she had run out on him. Edward Bishop because he had run with her. Motive, certainly. So check on his story. Item. He was a man who needed companionship at the time of stress. Specifically, he liked to talk to a man who ran a mission. Go to the man who ran a mission and ask questions.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Glad you came to see me, Mr. Clover. I really am.

[Detective Danny Clover]

So am I, Mr. Megal.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Now, dozen checkerboards and a few back issue magazines. You'll admit I do the best I can. Then there's always the coffee and donuts. The boys expect them. Standard fare for places like this.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Sure.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Now, once I got a bright idea. Put in a ping pong pong table. Build it myself. You know, ping pong for the boys. A little physical exercise.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What happened?

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

The boys didn't understand about ping pong. Took down the net. Made A backstop out of the old magazines. Well, I confiscated the dice loaded.

[Detective Danny Clover]

How often does Leo Compton come down here?

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Sometimes.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Often.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Sometimes. Not for months at a time. Whenever Leo feels the need.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Need of what?

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Someone to talk to.

[Detective Danny Clover]

But why do you?

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Because he doesn't have to explain himself to me. The embarrassment of baring himself to someone doesn't have to be done. I know him, Mr. Clover. I know him well.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's what I want you to tell me about Mr. Maggo.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

I guess it was 20 years ago I met Leo. We went to the same summer camp in the Catskills. A charity camp. I was his big brother. Assigned with a counselor. You know, the older camper. I showed him how to put a French tuck in a bed. His swimming buddy, you know.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Uh huh. And since then, whenever he got into.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Trouble with himself or with the world, he. He came to me. I like to think I'm necessary to Leo.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I can understand.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Leo is a product, Mr. Clover. The making of a living, the background of poverty. Even now, now that he's fairly well to do. It still eats him, what does. Even at camp, the pattern was there. He would organize little card games after lights out. Wouldn't play himself, but took a cut from every pot. That sort of thing. All his life.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I see. Tell me something else. When his wife ran out on him, he came down here to talk to you. What did he say?

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Not a whole lot. He told me the story. I listened. That's just about all he wanted down here.

[Detective Danny Clover]

He told you and then he went.

[Leo Compton]

Home, is that it?

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

Not right away, he told me. Then the boys started to straggle in for their coffee and donuts. He joined them. He always does. He ate four of those doughnuts, Mr. Clover.

[Officer Mugavan]

See you for a minute, Danny?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Oh, sure. Mugavin. What is it?

[Officer Mugavan]

I want you to talk to a man.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Come on in, Mr. Scott.

[Officer Mugavan]

This is Mr. Scott, Danny. Mr. Scott, Lieutenant Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I do. Oh, sit down, Mr. Scott. Sure, right there. It'll be fine.

[Officer Mugavan]

Go ahead, Mr. Scott. Give the lieutenant the bracelet.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thank you.

[Mr. Scott]

I thought it was the right thing to do, Lieutenant Colvin. I saw the man's picture in the paper mixed up in a murderer, and then that he should all of a sudden, the bracelet. Mrs. Conklin was out of the side of his mouth, offered a strange.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where did you get this bracelet, Mr. Scott?

[Mr. Scott]

I told you, didn't I?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Oh, I'm sorry. Would you mind telling me again?

[Officer Mugavan]

Go ahead, Mr. Scott.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Please do.

[Mr. Scott]

Well, here I was walking toward the subway entrance on 59th street, and he Come up to me.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Who didn't?

[Mr. Scott]

The man whose picture was in the paper about his wife's being slain at SU Means.

[Officer Mugavan]

Leo Compton.

[Mr. Scott]

I mean, Leo Compton. He plucked my sleeve. He offered to sell me this bracelet. He said he was making deliveries for Jewelry Concern. And the bracelet was left over. And nobody seemed to know where it come from.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Uh huh. How much did you pay for it, Mr. Scott?

[Mr. Scott]

Ridiculous price. He has $5.60 for it, and that's what I give him. You might as well know, too, that he kept turning his face from me. But I certainly recognized him. That's why I've come here.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mugavan, write Mr. Scott a voucher for 560. And thank you very much, Mr. Scott.

[Officer Mugavan]

You called me in, Danny, and you asked me to step over into a department that's not strictly mine. Why don't you wait for the reports from Technical?

[Detective Danny Clover]

All I want is an opinion, Dr. Sinski. Whose toes would you step on if you give me that Gordon of Technical?

[Officer Mugavan]

All right, so he deserves a toastmashing once in a while. What do you want of me, Danny?

[Detective Danny Clover]

You examined Mrs. Compton. The bullet wound, the type of wound where it was in her back. Is it one that would bleed freely?

[Officer Mugavan]

Yes, Danny, but you know these things as well as I. Why, do you?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I just got these photographs. Look at them. The inside of the car where Mrs. Compton was found.

[Leo Compton]

Mm.

[Officer Mugavan]

Well, Dr. Sinski, you know as well as I.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Tell me. Anyway, I want to be sure.

[Officer Mugavan]

It is obvious that the loss of blood in the car was slight, which makes it to me apparent that the woman was not shot in the car, but somewhere else and then put into the car. And I'm a doctor, Danny, not a detective. I didn't mean it to sound like that.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah, yeah, I know. Thanks for the opinion, Dr. Sinski.

[Leo Compton]

It's all around in the backyard. Go through the gate.

Well, I hope you appreciate me crating all this stuff for you. Why, it's you, Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Moving day, Mr. Compton?

[Leo Compton]

No, no, no, no. My wife's things. It's hard to live with.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I see. Giving them away, huh? Well, not exactly selling them.

[Leo Compton]

I saw an ad in the paper where they buy merchandise. Oh, yes, yes. I'm selling Anna's clothes. Why?

[Detective Danny Clover]

How much are you getting for them?

[Leo Compton]

Why?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm curious.

[Leo Compton]

Why?

[Detective Danny Clover]

560. For a bracelet worth 200. A man like you to do that? Strange.

[Leo Compton]

How do you know about the bracelet?

[Detective Danny Clover]

The man you sold it to got scared.

[Leo Compton]

The bracelet was mine to sell. Why should he get scared?

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's not the point. Mr. Compton, the point is, why you should sell such a valuable bracelet for so little? You could have gotten more.

[Leo Compton]

I got what I wanted.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah, I guess you did. You broke even. Bishop gave your wife the bracelet, so legally it's yours. But you'd paid him for it.

[Leo Compton]

I told you that.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You gave him the check so we'd find it on him. So your story of what happened the night of your wife's death would hold up.

[Leo Compton]

What's that?

[Detective Danny Clover]

But with Bishop dead and the bracelet legally yours anyhow, why should you be liable for the check? His estate would have the check cash.

[Leo Compton]

Well, that's right, I did. I gave him a check for it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Stopped payment on it, too.

[Mervyn Mago (Mission helper)]

That's right.

[Leo Compton]

Why should I spend money I don't have to?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Sure.

[Leo Compton]

You see what I mean, don't you?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Sure. You know, you're a funny man, Mr. Compton.

[Leo Compton]

Well, I guess people say that about me. I don't care.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You're so careful with money and you're an honest man. But you couldn't stand having that bracelet around. It was a symbol of what your wife did to you. See, you sold it for the cost of your cab fare. Even all round.

[Leo Compton]

That's how much you know. I lost plenty. I lost my wife.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You're a funny man.

[Leo Compton]

I told you my wife had a boyfriend and I was ready to forgive her. She walked out on me anyhow. Oh, she would have come back. Don't you worry.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You'd already killed her when you called Bishop.

[Leo Compton]

I killed? I told you.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah, I know.

[Leo Compton]

I told you how it was. I said.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Then when Bishop arrived, you killed him too. Wrote out a check and stuck it in his pocket. Put your wife and Bishop in Bishop's car as if she left with him. She did. I told.

[Leo Compton]

Oh, you did? I didn't listen at all.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I could call Technical. They'd find blood in your house no matter how hard you scrubbed.

[Leo Compton]

You don't understand anything. I worked hard all my life. I put my own price on things. My wife belonged to me. She was mine. And nobody gets it. Not for a $200 bracelet, they don't. What do you think I am, anyhow?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Let's go for a bracelet.

[Leo Compton]

What good is that? What did you need that for? As if it were something. I'm a hard worker. Things I own didn't come easy.

What's gonna happen to them now? Mr. Clover, you better get in touch with Mr. Mago. He'll know how to advise me. Well, he's just like a big brother to.

[Detective Danny Clover]

It's the journey to the end of all the other streets in the world, this Broadway. You turn a corner and you're there. Walk it slowly, lean your heart against it, shop for the kicks, the bargains, the heartbreak until it all explodes in your face.

It's Broadway. The gaudiest, most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway. My Beat.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Broadway's My Beat stars Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover with Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Crucian as Mugavan. The program was produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with musical score composed and conducted by Alexander Courage. In Tonight's story, Howard McNear was heard as Leo Compton. Featured in the cast were Billy Halop, Lou Krugman, Joe Forte and Francis Chaney.

Two styles of music, both tops in popularity, are heard every Sunday over most of these same CBS stations. Guy Lombardo's sweetest music, this side of Heaven is one the others, the singing style of Mario Lanza, new vocal sensation of the airwaves. Enjoy Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians and the Mario Lanza show tomorrow night. Stay tuned now for Sing It Again, which follows immediately over most of these same CBS stations. Bill Anders speaking. This is cbs, where you meet Adventure with Charlie Wilde on Sundays on the Columbia Broadcasting System.

[Zoe (Auctioneer's associate)]

Sa.