Broadway Is My Beat: The Eleanor Corbett Murder Case 05/26/1951

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Broadway Is My Beat: The Eleanor Corbett Murder Case

Show: Choice Classic Radio Detectives | Old Time Radio
Episode Air Date: October 22, 2025
Original Broadcast: May 26, 1951
Detective: Danny Clover (portrayed by Larry Thor)

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Episode Overview

Set against the atmospheric and often mournful backdrop of mid-century New York, this episode follows Detective Danny Clover as he investigates the mysterious death of Eleanor Corbett. Unraveling a story of suspicion, domestic turmoil, and ultimately confession, Clover's investigation traverses the everyday lives and secrets of tenement dwellers, defense workers, and lonely neighbors. The episode is rich in noir dialogue, evocative city imagery, and the classic pathos of radio’s golden age.

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Key Discussion Points & Narrative Developments

1. Discovery of the Crime Scene

• Setting: A tenement backyard, under the harsh illumination of a squad car spotlight.
• Detective Clover and his colleague Mugavan examine Eleanor Corbett’s body. Initial speculation includes suicide, but Clover quickly dismisses it due to evidence of a struggle.
  • Notable Quote:
    • "Women don't pick backyards of tenement houses, Muggerman. They register in high class hotels or find a bridge. You know that." — Detective Clover [02:01]
• Key forensic detail: Bruising on Eleanor’s throat indicates a beating, not suicide. She was thrown from a window post-mortem.

2. Notification and Interrogation of the Husband

• Walter Corbett, Eleanor's husband, is called in to identify the body.
• His grief and bewilderment create an aura of emotional complexity.
  • Notable Quote:
    • "Why did it have to happen to her? You tell me why." — Walter Corbett [04:05]
• Danny Clover presses him about Eleanor’s habits and the couple’s relationship. Corbett denies knowing about any affairs, insisting Eleanor was a good wife who went out alone occasionally.

3. Tenement Inquiry and Super's Testimony

• Clover questions the building’s superintendent ("Lust the super"), who saw Eleanor seeking Al Martin’s room the previous night.
  • Notable Quote:
    • "I don't scratch over nobody's grave. That's for you to come scratch it." — Lust, the Super [07:09]
• Points Clover toward Al Martin, a defense worker.

4. Al Martin’s Room and Roommate Frank Hagen

• Frank Hagen, Al’s roommate, provides an alibi and claims to have met Eleanor briefly.
• According to Frank, Al Martin is missing—supposedly headed to California.
  • Notable Quote:
    • "It could have been. I didn't take the time to remember. I said hello and walked up." — Frank Hagen on Eleanor [07:49]

5. The Defense Plant and Search for Al Martin

• Clover consults Bernice Faf, an assembly-line worker and supervisor at Al's workplace.
  • Memorable Interchange:
    • Bernice Faf: "No loitering, no lighting around my work area... Approach. See the sign?" [08:43]
• She reports Al Martin missing and directs Clover to a bar on Nice Avenue where Al might be found.

6. Al Martin Found Dead

• Clover locates Al Martin at Patty’s bar, dead from a stab wound. Bartender describes Al's grief and excessive drinking the night before.
  • Notable Moment:
    • "The stain of blood under his coat told me that the paper flowers on the doorway rustled with a new wind. Al Martin was dead." — Detective Clover [11:16]

7. Police Headquarters and Evidence Review

• Technical investigators find two dozen fingerprints on the murder weapon; none match suspects so far.
• Evidence confirms Eleanor was pushed from the tenement after death.
• Frank Hagen is suspected due to his proximity and lifestyle but lacks motive.

8. Reevaluation of Walter Corbett

• Clover visits Corbett again, finds him packing up Eleanor's belongings for donation.
• Corbett mentions Eleanor attended ceramics classes at a neighbor’s encouragement, contradicting his prior statement that she was merely out for a movie.

9. Neighbor's (Ms. Grover) Testimony

• Ms. Grover discloses the night of Eleanor’s death: Eleanor confided she had an urgent personal matter to attend to—she was going to confront a man for unwanted advances.
  • Notable Quote:
    • "She made me swear I'd keep it a secret. Girls like Eleanor always trust me, Mr. Clover. I'm that kind of girl." — Ms. Grover [19:04]

10. Confrontation with Frank Hagen

• Frank is further interrogated but reveals nothing concrete; his alibi still stands.

11. Crucial Forensic Clue: The Painted Coat

• Clover traces a man's coat, donated by Walter Corbett to the Goodwill Mission.
• The coat bears yellow paint matching that from Al's tenement building—evidence of Corbett's presence at the crime scene.

12. Confession

• Confronted with the evidence, Walter Corbett breaks down, recounts how he followed Eleanor to Al’s room, and, in a fit of rage during a confrontation, struck and killed her. Afterward, he killed Al Martin, fearing exposure or out of further anger.
  • Notable Quote:
    • "I tried to reason with her. And then she slapped me. Eleanor hit me. Eleanor. And that made me furious. I hit her. I hit her. I hit her. Then I didn't want her anymore. So I threw her away." — Walter Corbett [26:37]

13. Epilogue

• The episode closes on Clover's signature reflective, noir monologue, meditating on Broadway’s dark underbelly—a city of violence, loneliness, and relentless fate.
  • Notable Quote:
    • "Broadway is sleeping now. The furious avenues of the night are still. Only the sleepwalkers are there—the seekers, the thought, the huggers. Close of nothing at all. It's Broadway. The gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway, my beat." — Detective Danny Clover [27:39]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Discovery of Body: [00:26]–[02:19]
• Husband Notified, Initial Interrogation: [03:38]–[05:14]
• Superintendent & Tenement Interviews: [06:23]–[07:12]
• Frank Hagen Interview: [07:25]–[08:24]
• Defense Plant & Bernice Faf: [08:43]–[09:55]
• Bar Scene, Al Martin Found Dead: [10:14]–[11:16]
• Police HQ, Evidence Review: [13:07]–[14:09]
• Walter Corbett at Home Packing Eleanor’s Things: [15:00]–[17:23]
• Ms. Grover’s Testimony: [18:01]–[19:21]
• Final Investigation and Confession: [24:00]–[26:37]
• Epilogue: [27:39]

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Memorable Quotes

• "Women don't pick backyards of tenement houses, Muggerman." — Detective Danny Clover [02:01]
• "I don't scratch over nobody's grave. That's for you to come scratch it." — Lust, the Super [07:09]
• "Why did it have to happen to her? You tell me why." — Walter Corbett [04:05]
• "She made me swear I'd keep it a secret. Girls like Eleanor always trust me, Mr. Clover. I'm that kind of girl." — Ms. Grover [19:04]
• "I tried to reason with her. And then she slapped me... I hit her. Then I didn't want her anymore. So I threw her away." — Walter Corbett [26:37]
• "Broadway is sleeping now... Only the sleepwalkers are there... It's Broadway. The gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway, my beat." — Detective Danny Clover [27:39]

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Tone and Atmosphere

The language is classic hard-boiled noir, poetic yet unsparing in its depiction of the city’s undercurrents. Clover’s narration blends gritty realism with lyricism, capturing the sorrow and silence that follows violence.

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This episode is a haunting exploration of human jealousy, the secrets kept in small apartments, and the stark loneliness of a city that rarely sleeps. For classic radio detective fans, it is a quintessential case—rich in atmosphere, emotion, and classic detective work.

Transcript

[Walter Corbett]

Welcome to Choice Classic Radio where we 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 My Beast from Times Square to Columbus Circle, the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway is my beat. With Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. There's a special moon over Broadway. It dips low and mixes with the laughter, the clack of heels and the lights flung downwards in the spectaculars. And occasionally people notice it and free somebody's hand, point at it, wink at it, then walk into whatever shadow is planned for the night. The moon holds, briefly rides its long slow curve cross town, then drives the river. Broadway's happier. But where I was in the land of the tenement, the district of the rat and the low rent, the moon completes its transit rapidly. That's why the light had to be furnished by the city. Specifically the spotlight from the squad car parked in the alley, cutting the darkness out of the backyard. The smoke from Detective Mugavan's cigarette curls up into it. Key point too.

[Walter Corbett]

Right there.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Danny. Huh? Died not too long ago.

[Walter Corbett]

Could be suicide, you think?

[Detective Danny Clover]

No.

[Walter Corbett]

No, I don't.

[Detective Danny Clover]

This girl fell or was pushed. Neck broken. See the attitude of her body?

[Walter Corbett]

Yeah, I saw it. That's why I said maybe suicide.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Women don't pick backyards of tenement houses, Muggerman. They register in high class hotels or find a bridge. You know that.

[Walter Corbett]

Yeah, most of them, Danny. Not all.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Take a look. Bruises on the throat. Here, look here, Bruce. Another one here. This girl died instantly. These bruises were from a beating.

[Walter Corbett]

And she got thrown, huh?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I say.

[Walter Corbett]

So who is she? I can't tell. No identification, Danny? I'd say she was about 22. Huh? 22 what?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Nothing. Take care of the technical boys when they get here, Mugglen. I'll get back to you later. And the rows of masalift windows, like yellow posters piled one on top of the other against the foot grime tenement walls. And centered in them, the leaners upon sills, the man whose arm warms the bare shoulders of the woman at his side. The kids leaning far out, shrieking to each other across the littered yard, littered now with a new refuse. The dead girl with the black hair, broke, thrown away. And finally the shroud over that draws the curtain on the spectacle and turns out the 20 watt bulbs in tenement gallery. Then the nighttime used up by the seekers of their private dead. The men and women beckoned out of sleep. To identify the girl lying in the morgue. And while rubbing sleep out of their eyes, they tell you they don't know her, had never seen her. The halting, dragging parade of lost faces. And then the one that dawn touches the one easily forget. The one who looks at the girl and knows her and tells you.

[Walter Corbett]

Well, she went out last night early. Said she'd be back a little while.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Who is she, Mr. Carter?

[Walter Corbett]

Eleanor. That's Eleanor.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Someone you've known long? A friend of my wife.

[Walter Corbett]

Ellen is my wife. May I sit down? Please. Is all right if I sit down?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Of course. On that bench against the wall.

[Walter Corbett]

Mister.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Can I get you something? A glass of water. You understand, I'll have to.

[Walter Corbett]

You know something? I didn't know that she was gone all night. I woke up this morning and she wasn't beside me. That's the first I knew. And I reported to the police and they asked me to describe her. And I did. In detail. They said, please come down. Why didn't it have to happen to her? You tell me why.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Help us find out why, Mr. Carter.

[Walter Corbett]

I can. I don't understand it. I just don't understand it at all.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Your wife went out like this at other times, Stayed out all night.

[Walter Corbett]

What are you trying to say to me?

[Detective Danny Clover]

We have to know, Mr. Carbert. If you want your murderer, she'll have to tell us a lot of things.

[Walter Corbett]

Maybe. Well, there's nothing. There's nothing to tell us. I know. It was a good wife. She was beautiful. Sometimes she liked to go out in the evening alone, to move here, just for a walk.

[Detective Danny Clover]

She told you she was going to a movie last night?

[Walter Corbett]

Yes, that's what you said. But I never checked on her. I just go to bed and read and wait for her. Last night I fell asleep. Just leave me alone with him. Just for a minute. Please. Please.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'll wait in the hall for you, Mr. Corbett. I waited for as long as it took me to smoke two cigarettes. For as long as it took Mr. Corbett to consider that his wife lay dead in a public morgue. Then Mr. Corbe, out into the corridor, took a drink of water from the fountain and nodded that he was ready to go. I showed him to the street and watched him go. Near the corner, he stopped walking, leaned against the building, bowed his head, ran his hand alongside his cheek. Once the woman stopped and stared at him, then hurried away. Then back into my office. Consider the various reports from the coroner, the technicians, the lab boys, and stare at the photograph taken of Mrs. Eleanor Corbett in death, printed and Retouched to represent a reasonable facsimile of Mrs. Corbett living. And go now back to the tenement. Knock on the door, show the picture, ask the question, get no answer. And between the fourth and fifth floors, a man walks your way. He's painting the banisters. And you wait until he straightens up. Tough job, huh?

[Walter Corbett]

It is.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You work here all the time or just this job of paint?

[Walter Corbett]

Who are you, mister?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Police. Danny Clover.

[Walter Corbett]

I work here all the time. Name's Lust the super. I go with the rent in the cold water.

[Frank Hagen]

Right now I'm up on my elbows in yellow paint.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That answer you take a look at this picture?

[Walter Corbett]

It's coming now, huh?

[Detective Danny Clover]

What?

[Walter Corbett]

I've been expecting cops to tap me on the shoulder. The picture. What about it?

[Detective Danny Clover]

You ever seen this girl before?

[Walter Corbett]

Last night? About 10. How? Explain the last question. What do you mean, how?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Under what circumstances? That means how.

[Walter Corbett]

I just finished putting on the first coat of paint and I was in my room. She rang the bell, wanted to know where was the room of Al Martin. Rumor I told her. Went back to my coffee and locks.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where's Al Martin's room?

[Walter Corbett]

Top of the stairs, right there. Look, mister, you want to know why I didn't come running to the police? The girl's dead. I don't scratch over nobody's grave. That's for you to come scratch it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Stick around. Lust sure.

[Walter Corbett]

I got a week's banisters yet to think.

[Frank Hagen]

Yeah?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'm Danny Clover, Police.

[Frank Hagen]

Come on in. You want a drink? Some Johnny Walker on the bottom of that bottle.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Your name? Al Martin.

[Frank Hagen]

Al Rohm's here with me. I'm Frank Hagen.

[Detective Danny Clover]

It's about what happened last night, Frank.

[Frank Hagen]

Yeah, I know. I fig it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Have you ever seen this girl before? Let me see.

[Frank Hagen]

It's the girl you found, huh? Yeah.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Yeah, I saw last night with your roommate.

[Frank Hagen]

Came to see him. I got introduced.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Her name's Eleanor Corbett.

[Frank Hagen]

It could have been. I didn't take the time to remember. I said hello and walked up.

[Detective Danny Clover]

How long did you stay away?

[Frank Hagen]

As long as it takes to walk from here to 40 seconds. Feed for your double feature and come back. Wait a minute. It was longer than that. All night movie house. I fell asleep. Got back here long enough to put on a clean shirt and go look for the job again.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Was Al here when you got back?

[Frank Hagen]

Nobody. Just a smell of perfume. Had to scrub a lipstick stain off a cheese glass to get a drink of water.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where's your roommate now?

[Walter Corbett]

Al?

[Frank Hagen]

Al wakes Rivet down at Atlas Air Frame. If he ain't on his way to California. He always wanted to go to California.

[Bernice Faf]

I'd say this was an A1 excuse for going.

[Walter Corbett]

Wouldn't you say it was an A1 excuse.

[Bernice Faf]

You no loitering, no lighting around my work area. I have permission and I got a schedule. Approach. See the sign? The front office pin on my denim that says Bella faf. Final assembly. And you see this yellow river on the sign? That means I'm the pusher and attention must be paid.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'll pay attention, Ms. Faf. I promise.

[Bernice Faf]

Mrs. Mrs. Faf. I'm working at it, so no hanky Frankie, huh?

[Detective Danny Clover]

I wouldn't think of it.

[Bernice Faf]

Hey, they sent you to me for work. I got news for you that'll break your heart. This morning I can use you that bank with a working mission from in front of it. You take that one. Go steady your hands a little in honest toy.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Let me try to explain it to you, Mrs. F. I'm from the police.

[Bernice Faf]

From the police? So that'll prevent you from picking up a few part time nickels.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'd like to talk to Al Martin.

[Bernice Faf]

Al Martin? A worker who don't show up for work.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You mean Al Martin hasn't shown up this morning?

[Bernice Faf]

Now the telephone. How much can they demand from a woman? Better fell start crying, huh? El Mocknet.

[Walter Corbett]

No good.

[Bernice Faf]

Where? All right, so I'll send some boys down to mop him up. You want a job as a poor lady, Mr. Police.

[Ms. Grover]

Take mine.

[Bernice Faf]

Well, it's in good health.

[Walter Corbett]

Martin drunk?

[Bernice Faf]

Drunk as this sunken Patty's bar on Nice avenue.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Keep pushing, Mrs. Craft. I'll go get Martin for you. My pleas.

[Frank Hagen]

Good night.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Owl. Martin. Is he here?

[Walter Corbett]

Since last night. You'll need a drink to make you as equal. Honest you will. You'll need a Carlos.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where is he?

[Walter Corbett]

Yes. Bend your nose to the crook of my long slender finger. I'll glance your eye along it and back will be Al Martin in the back booth around the corner through the paper flower draped doorway.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks.

[Walter Corbett]

Hey, don't go yet. I'll give you a jig around the house for taking him out of here.

[Detective Danny Clover]

He made trouble.

[Walter Corbett]

Not trouble, only grief. All last night he was in here wiping his tears on my bar apron. Then he passed out over that table to sleep it off. I come to open the joint in the early morning hours. He's waiting for me. Still passed out. I'm tired. Sobering him up this time you try.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Can I go now?

[Walter Corbett]

I just thought I'd explain him being a defense worker. He can't afford Moods like this at a time like this. This is a time when every man must come to the aid, not go to California.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Al. Al. I'm from the police. I want. Al, Wake up.

[Walter Corbett]

Wake up.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I shook him. The bottle slipped out of his fingers, fell, rolled on the floor. The jukebox bled and Patty at the bar blew on the glass and polished it. I shook him again. None of. None of it would ever wake him. The stain of blood under his coat told me that the paper flowers on the doorway rustled with a new wind. Al Martin was dead. You are listening to Broadway's My Beat, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin and starring Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. The new summer's day is only a few hours old on Broadway and already the street wads up its screaming and bounces it against the morning. The gutters have been swept down, washed clean, the neon dusted, the bow replaced in the spectaculars, the swarm released from the steel trap, hurtling, juggling underground. And the summer's day stretches out before Broadway, languid and empty, waiting to be filled, waiting to be torn apart. At headquarters we didn't have that problem. The day was planned, maybe the night and the days and nights after. All that had to be done was to fill it in with reason that two people were newly dead in the city, Eleanor Corbett and Al Martin, who had met for a time in the tenement room, then parted, then in another place, in another darkness, found death waiting for them. And to help you rid yourself of it, your left hand, sergeant Protective.

[Walter Corbett]

Danny, I am not in the mood for chit chatter this morning.

[Detective Danny Clover]

All right, Gino, any way you want it.

[Walter Corbett]

The events of the past two days, the murders have drawn a blind, so to speak, down across my naturally good natured self. Exercise. I will not even regale you with the flavor of the Zimmerman buns now lying in my locker waiting for my teeth to sink into them.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Take it back a notch, Gino.

[Walter Corbett]

Zimmerman bun baked by my neighbor, the baker down the street from me, Mr. Zimmerman. His specialty, Zimmerman buns.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks for clearing it up for me.

[Walter Corbett]

Don't mention it. To work. In the matter of the death of one Al Martin, the murder weapon, the steak knife, is now being handled by the boys and Technical.

[Detective Danny Clover]

They come up with anything?

[Walter Corbett]

2 dozen assorted fingerprints from the fingers of inhabitants of the bar who have been questioned, recorded and sent on their way. As not one so far has failed.

[Frank Hagen]

To produce an alibi.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Anything else?

[Walter Corbett]

Established by technical that according to the position of her body in the yard, Mrs. Corbett was pushed out of the tenement hall window after death established that Frank Hagen, roommate of Martin, is a man who cannot hold a job.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Established for something else.

[Frank Hagen]

Yeah.

[Walter Corbett]

A personal question, Danny. How is it a man doesn't know where his wife disappears tonight? I'm speaking of Mr. Corbett, Danny. How can a husband not know?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Good question detector. Why don't I go ask the man Such a good question, your mind goes without saying.

[Walter Corbett]

I need an answer to such a thing. Go, Danny. Oh. Oh, hello, Mr. Clover. I'm busy. Oh, well, come on in, Mr. Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks. You started to say you were busy, Mr. Corber.

[Walter Corbett]

Oh, no, no, no. It's all right in here. In the bedroom. Look, it's a small bedroom, Ms. Clover. No chairs, if you don't mind. I know it's not made up, but don't sit on the bed. Look, I'll bring in something. No, that's all right.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'll stand right here.

[Walter Corbett]

I was packing Eleanor's things, storing. No, no, don't think I. Well, I know other husbands save their wives clothes. I'm giving Eleanor's away. I called the Goodwill Mission. They're sending a truck.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Just go ahead, Lee.

[Walter Corbett]

Pat. She looked nice in this dress. Fitted her well. Guess that's no way to talk.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You're happy together, Mr. Corbett?

[Walter Corbett]

Oh, I was proud when I was with her. Maybe there wouldn't be people anywhere around, but people didn't have to see me with it and make me feel proud just to touch her. She had beautiful hair, I see. Oh, just beautiful. You should have seen me in this, Ms. Clover, when she got it. She danced around the room. I watched. And when she got near me, she threw her arms around my neck. She kissed me. I remember because her hair was flying and got between her lips.

[Detective Danny Clover]

We laughed, Mr. Corbett.

[Walter Corbett]

We laughed and danced and lay there.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mr. Corbett, did you know where your wife went the night before last? The night she was killed?

[Walter Corbett]

Of course I do. She went to school. School?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Well, what school?

[Walter Corbett]

Well, my wife was learning ceramics. Her friend next door talked her into going. I didn't want her to go. Ceramics? What's that? Ashtrays. But Bernice talked her into going.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Why didn't you tell me this yesterday?

[Walter Corbett]

Because my wife was found in a strange place. My wife was found on the edge of an alley in a place she should never have been. So I lied. First thing any husband would have done.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Do you know what she was doing there? No.

[Walter Corbett]

And I don't want to know. Even if you find out, I don't want you to tell me. You've got to promise me that, Ms. Grover. Even if you find out why Eleanor was where she was, don't tell me. I don't want to know. I. I don't want to know.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Finally got his hands away from me, from clutching my coat, trying to pull out of its way fabric of promise he wanted, needed, so the pride could well up inside him once more. Then he turned away and began packing her things again. And the dead wife belonged only to him. He turned once to show me another dress she had worn. I never really saw it. The door I was closing blotted it out. Next door, the girl who asked me in Washington, plain except for the eagerness in her eyes, except for the hunger in them that waited, the feast on the excitement I brought into her chintz curtained life.

[Ms. Grover]

I did my whole room myself, Mr. Clover. Redid the whole thing. Well, you should have seen it when I moved in. Bare and ugly.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I only want you to tell me now.

[Ms. Grover]

It's happy, don't you think? The room, I mean. Right happy. I lie awake at nights and I can hear it sing. I mean, inside me, it's singing.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And you went to school night before last with Mrs. Corbett?

[Ms. Grover]

That's the night she was found dead, wasn't it? In that awful place. What happened to her, Mr. Clover? How was she killed, I mean. Well, you know, the papers. They don't always.

[Detective Danny Clover]

She'd been beaten, thrown out of a window.

[Ms. Grover]

That's all a paper said. I saw it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What? Pennies?

[Ms. Grover]

I don't know. Don't ask me. I don't know what I thought.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Was it usual for you to go to ceramics class with Mrs. Corbett every week?

[Ms. Grover]

Of course, there was this time when she had somewhere better to go. She was very pretty.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where did she go?

[Ms. Grover]

The secret. She made me swear I'd keep it a secret. Girls like Eleanor always trust me, Mr. Clover. I'm that kind of girl.

[Detective Danny Clover]

She went to Al Martin. Did she tell you that's where she was going? You can tell it now, Bernice.

[Walter Corbett]

She's dead.

[Ms. Grover]

Was the only time she ever went there. The only time she ever told me about it. I mean, she said she had to tell him off. He was bothering her.

[Detective Danny Clover]

She told you it was Martin?

[Ms. Grover]

No. No, she. She didn't say his name. She just said there were two boys living in this room together, and one of them had been making advances and she wanted it to stop. And why are some people so lucky, Mr. Clover? Me, I take night classes and try to improve my mind. And I should have been dead, not a girl like Galinor.

[Frank Hagen]

What do you want from me, Clover? Just tell me what you want. I got enough trouble. I gotta have you.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What kind of trouble have you got, Frank?

[Frank Hagen]

I'm 32 years, Clove. My home's a stinking room and a stinking walk up. I got no job. I once had a friend, but he got stabbed. Now you tell me. Your trouble will knock our heads against each other and shed tears.

[Detective Danny Clover]

How come you're not working plenty jobs around?

[Walter Corbett]

Sure, plenty.

[Frank Hagen]

Me, I got qualifications to get the kind of job where they call you boy. My old man was the same way. He filed things in a big office.

[Walter Corbett]

Called him boy till he noticed the bald head.

[Frank Hagen]

Then he was called Pop.

[Detective Danny Clover]

How do you live, Frank?

[Frank Hagen]

Sometimes I tout. Sometimes I ride pool balls. I know a man that drives a long black car. He thinks I'm good luck. Takes me to card games and rubs the back of me hand for luck. Go away, Clover. Leave me alone.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I can't do that. You're still my prime suspect.

[Frank Hagen]

Oh, you think I lied to you?

[Detective Danny Clover]

It's been done in murder cases.

[Frank Hagen]

Like maybe it was the other way around.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's right. Like maybe Eleanor Corbett came to see you and it was Al who took the walk.

[Frank Hagen]

And later I killed him, huh?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Maybe. Come on. I said come on, Frank. Let's go downtown.

[Walter Corbett]

All right, all right. Look, Clover.

[Frank Hagen]

Can't just wait till tomorrow? My friend wants me to play lucky tonight.

[Walter Corbett]

He wins.

[Frank Hagen]

He slips me a softball sometimes. He gives me a couple of shakes.

[Walter Corbett]

Come on.

[Frank Hagen]

Oh, crowd me. Look, I got this one suit. It don't have to be ruined yet.

[Walter Corbett]

Yeah, yeah.

[Detective Danny Clover]

What? Back in your room, Frank.

[Walter Corbett]

Sure.

[Frank Hagen]

Sure thing, Clover.

[Detective Danny Clover]

You keep your clothes in this closet, Frank.

[Frank Hagen]

Me and Al. There it is. The one suit Al mind's on me back. But the combined shapes and unmentionables are in that chest of drawers. You want to look, Clover?

[Walter Corbett]

Clover did.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Frank helped me. He had quite a collection of shirts. Monograms. But that's not what I was looking for, Al. Shirts were broadcloth and plain. But they didn't have what I was looking for either. I didn't need anything within that room. Then I went to a place within the Bowery. And the guilt on the window that spelled Goodwill Mission was flaked. And inside the man told me his name and told me the coffee and stew would be served right after the prayer meeting.

[Walter Corbett]

But you don't look like the kind of man who needs a hand.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Thanks. Mr. Stamponi? I'm from the police.

[Walter Corbett]

I suspected that. Whoever you want to see can't you wait until after the prayers. They start in 10 minutes.

[Detective Danny Clover]

From time to time, Mr. Stamponi, as I understand it, people call you and have you sent around a truck. Pick up magazines, newspapers, old clothes.

[Walter Corbett]

There are many such kind people.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Did Mr. Corbett call you?

[Frank Hagen]

Why, yes.

[Walter Corbett]

Yes, he did. The truck received his donation just a few hours ago.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Has it been delivered to you?

[Walter Corbett]

Well, the truckload is all over there in the corner. After the prayers. The men who sorted. Hey, come on, I'll show you. Didn't have such a good day today. Let's see. I think this is it. Oh, yes. There's a tag on it from Mr. Walter Carter.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Do you mind opening it, Mr. Stamponi?

[Walter Corbett]

It'll have to be done anyhow. Ladies, dresses.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mind if I look pretty?

[Walter Corbett]

Dresses. Let's say young woman's.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Does this look like a young woman's dress to you?

[Walter Corbett]

Of course not. It's a man's suit coat. He can use that. We'll clean off the paint and don't bother about it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

I'll take it. Thanks, Mr. Stamponi.

[Walter Corbett]

Oh, you again, Ms. Culver.

[Frank Hagen]

What now?

[Detective Danny Clover]

We'll talk about it inside.

[Walter Corbett]

I told you I didn't want to know anything more. Eleanor's dead. Now, just leave her alone. Leave her alone.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Let's just go inside, Ms. Cor.

[Walter Corbett]

I just come back from Eleanor's funeral. Very well.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Come in.

[Walter Corbett]

Come in. Now, what do you want?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Did you kill your wife?

[Walter Corbett]

Kill Ellen? Do you mean that? Yes. You do. I can see by your face you mean it. And I thought you were a kind man, Mr. Kluger. Well, you're a cruel man.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Did you kill Al Mar.

[Walter Corbett]

Is this what happens to people like you?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Nice piano, Mr. Carbon.

[Walter Corbett]

It's paid for. Eleanor wanted to study music, and I bought it for her. She lost interest in it. Makes the place look homey.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That happens that way.

[Walter Corbett]

I didn't mind.

[Detective Danny Clover]

This snapshot album.

[Walter Corbett]

Oh, all my life with Eleanor's in there.

[Frank Hagen]

Here, Here, now.

[Walter Corbett]

Just let me show you something. You remember I told you she had beautiful hair? Just look at that. On Far a Rockaway last year, when I took my vacation. Look. Look at that. Look at the sun on it.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Then why'd you kill her?

[Walter Corbett]

Why, you. You kill. You make me remember things, good things. And then you say I destroy them. Are you through in here, Mr. Crow? You're gonna get out now and leave me alone.

[Detective Danny Clover]

This is a case of seashells. Another memento of your happy life together.

[Frank Hagen]

Put them down.

[Bernice Faf]

Put them down. I bought those.

[Walter Corbett]

I bought those for Eleanor. I told her I found Them on the beach. But I set away for them. I wanted to. She was so interested in so many things.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Sure she was. Al Martin. You followed her to his room, waited outside in the hall. When she left Al, you slugged her and threw her out of the window.

[Walter Corbett]

Even when no one was around.

[Detective Danny Clover]

And waited for Al. Followed him, too. To a bar. Sat with him, maybe talked to him, stabbed him.

[Frank Hagen]

Was never there. I never followed her.

[Walter Corbett]

I never followed anybody.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Mr. Corbett, I have a cold out in my car. A man's coat. Yours? The one you sent to the Goodwill Mission.

[Walter Corbett]

What are you talking about?

[Detective Danny Clover]

The mission will get it back. They'll have to clean it. But they've got ways to take paint off. Clothing?

[Walter Corbett]

Paint?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Green paint. From the tenement where I'll live. Off the door, off the banister. Off something.

[Walter Corbett]

Where?

[Detective Danny Clover]

Where you struggled with your wife. On your coat. Green paint.

[Walter Corbett]

You're crazy. I was never there.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Green paint on your coat.

[Walter Corbett]

Oh, yes, I remember. Yes, I did get some pain in my throat. That's why I gave it away. But it wasn't green. It was yellow.

[Detective Danny Clover]

That's right.

[Walter Corbett]

Yellow.

[Detective Danny Clover]

The color of the paint in Al's tenement house. The color that's on your coat.

[Walter Corbett]

I loved Eleanor. She didn't know how much. I tried to tell her. Even out in the hallway, when she came from Al's room. I tried to tell her. I wasn't angry. I just wanted her to know how wrong she was. She was the one who was angrier. I tried to reason with her. And then she slapped me. Eleanor hit me. Eleanor. And that made me furious. I hit her. I hit her. I hit her. Then I didn't want her anymore. So I threw her away.

[Detective Danny Clover]

Broadway is sleeping now the furious avenues of the night are still Only the sleepwalkers are there the seekers the thought, the huggers Close of nothing at all It's Broadway. The gauntiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway, my beat.

[Walter Corbett]

Tonight on FEN Presents, you've been listening to some of the best in radio drama with Bibber McGee and Molly and Broadway is My Beats. Join us again Monday evening at the same time 905, when FN presents Dragnet and Escape.

[Bernice Faf]

Sam.

[Frank Hagen]

Race.