Adam Graham (6:30)

Yeah.

Narrator/Announcer (6:30)

Bol. Who are you? Se. Gestapo. If you would like to know, why are you kidnapping me? They are going to open the door of the plane and you are going to fall out. No, you cannot. You will be Found on American soil and a very delicate international situation should result. You are a fool. All my bones will be broken. They will know I was thrown from an airplane. The Gestapo is not so stupid. He will fly very low so you will not be killed, but your body will not be mangled either. Drop as low as you can. Soon Mexico, like the United States, will belong to Germany. And you will be glad that you are dead. You pig.

Adam Graham (7:15)

Laugh.

Narrator/Announcer (7:15)

Laugh. Now, counselor, I shall open the door and we will make ready for your big experience. Libra admi. The hostess. Hombres. What are you doing? Praying, you fool. I cannot fight. I'm tired. Therefore I must pray. Pray to whom, fool? Superstition. I will not hear such dribble. Hello. Enough. Hans here. While you have a crayon in your hand, give me that. Please, senor, give me a chance to leave. Now I shall push you through the door. Scream. Hola. Go on. Oh, he falls. So here's it. Put the plane back on the course. Hello? Hello? Proceed. This is Harding speaking. I'm in the testing laboratory of the Walker Optical company. In an hour I shall take a plane for Washington. Set up my appointment for me at three o' clock with Colonel Marvin. Tell emergent emergency. Yes, sir. You wish me to continue, Mr. Harding? Yes, Mr. Walker, and this is a grave emergency. Now, those light bulbs you have lined up over there, are they lit now? Yes, but naturally as they are high frequency lights, you cannot see them with your naked eye. I see. You cannot see the light, Mr. Harding, unless you are wearing this green hypey lens in your glasses. This is a five tray one. Now look through it. Yes. As I can see, the left light's burning, but I can't tell whether the one on the right is burning or not. Well, you would need another specially colored lens to see that one. Oh, in other words, Mr. Harding, these high frequency lights can be burning, but you cannot see them unless you are wearing specially prepared lenses. Mr. Walker, as I explained to you, this is a case of great emergency. It involves an international incident with Mexico. I see. How soon could you make me 12 pairs of each of these two different lenses? I believe by 8 in the morning, Mr. Harding. Good. I'll have a navy plane waiting off Pier 3 and a government car here to deliver them to the plane at 8 sharp in the morning. Right now I'm going to fly to Washington. What can I do for you, Mr. Harding? Colonel Marvin, we've known for some time that certain Gestapo agents have been getting into this country by flying over the border from a Ranch in Mexico. Now, they're landing in a deserted section of Texas where they usually stay for several days before leaving for different parts of the United States. In other words, you've allowed them to enter this way because you know how they're entering. And that's better than stopping this route and forcing them to find some other method which may take you months to discover, Is that it? Exactly. Colonel Harding, you know we'll do anything possible to help you. Now, Colonel, tomorrow night I'd like to have about eight army planes from field A46 fly all over the state of Texas and into Louisiana. Now, I'll be at field headquarters in Texas with a map to get their reports. What information are you looking for, Harding? Now, one house which we recently raided had up the chimney a high frequency light. That light can't be seen at night when you're flying over the house unless you have a certain colored lens in your glasses. I feel sure that there are a certain few houses for, let's say, 200 miles in Texas which have these lights hidden up the chimney. I see. Now, the pilot who's flying these foreign agents in wears these special colored glasses. He can see these high frequency lights placed in the chimneys and these help keep him on his course. And you want to locate every house which has such a light? Yes, and it's vital. I'll have a plane ready to leave in two hours. Harding. And I'll fly down with you to see that you have everything you need. Thank you, sir. Our Colonel. If we can have the houses which have these invisible lights spotted from the air, we'll know the exact route the plane's flying. Which brings in these spies right to the ranch where they land and say for a few days. When that time comes, we'll be able to make a mass raid. I see. Yes, yes, But, Harding, what are we doing about that prominent Mexican official found tied and murdered on American soil? That's a very embarrassing situation. Well, Colonel, there's something about that murder that I can't tell as yet. I want to check certain additional facts before I speak. All right, Harding, you're doing a wonderful job. And I'll see that eight army planes will be flying over the designated section of Texas tomorrow night. Thank you, sir. Just look at this chart, Mr. Harding. That last report mentioned this house Southwest Square, 411. Let me have that other chart, Kelly. Yes, sir. Yes? Notice how this route's beginning to shape up. 42P calling. 42P calling. 4X. Come in. I'm flying over Sandville. Check Your chart. Chart square TS4. Chart square TS4. Here's the square he's talking about, Kelly. This square. Northeast beam intersection, main highway two miles from corner. Can you locate on your chart? Yes, yes. This house right here. 42p. We have located it, 42p. Timing off. I've got that marked. Your signal lights on. Kelly. The upper frequency. Yes, sir. 42R calling. 42R calling. Come in, 42R. Come in, 42R. Charge square six. TS6. Northeast corner intersection military highway out in port of road. I've got that one too. It's right here. Cross check with field lights southeast Due West. That no. 42R signing off. Kelly, these houses being spotted are on a perfectly straight line from the border right to the ranch we've been suspecting. Now, tomorrow night we'll fly this route. Check all of the houses we're marking and go right to their landing field. Now bring a short wave set along with you in your suitcase. We've seen every light the pilots reported last night, Mr. Harding, as we should spot that ranch in their landing field most any minute. Yes, sir. Kelly, I'm going to tell you something that nobody else knows. It sounds plenty serious, Mr. Harding. You know that high Mexican official found murdered on American soil? Yes, sir. Well, he was murdered by members of this spy ring we're after right now. You mean they got him in Mexico, flew him over the border and dropped him from a plane? Yes. That isn't all. It wasn't the body of a high Mexican official, but his papers. He was identified. I did the identifying. Oh, and who was it? One of our own counter spies, Kelly. Tato Zalis. Yes, I was working with the Mexican authorities. We suspected this Mexican ranch, so the Mexican counselor was taken into our confidence. He went into hiding for a few days, and Tato, posing as a counselor, visited the ranch. But he was evidently surprised by them. And he dropped out of a plane. Good Lord. But how do you know he was flat from a plane, Mr. Hart? The old trick. When the scalpel got a pencil from his breast and hid it in the palm of his hand while his hands were tied together, he was able to write on the palm of one hand the word air. There's the landing field, Mr. Harding. There's the large ranch house, the two barns. Ah, it's barren all right. Cador Murder. We'll land and I'll have the pilot take off immediately. Oh, Lieutenant, Land as far from the house as you can. We'll hide the suitcase with a short wave set out in the field. Perhaps they won't hear us land. We can get to the house before they know we're here. What do you want? Who are you? BR2. We want to stay a couple of days. My name is Mr. David. This is Mr. Kelly. Where did you come from? Hacienda Pedro, over the border. We've been traveling a long time. We want to rest a day and then go on. Yes. I have a room for you. You can have food here too. Are you empty now or do you have any more guests? We have an Italian and a Japanese. I did not want to take him in, but we are under orders. And your husband? He is out in the barn. We will meet him when he comes in. Is the Japanese of the Black Dragons? Yes. And the Italian of the oeuvre? Yes. Heil Hitler. Heilig Hitler. Now I ask for one must be most careful in our work. Do you expect any more guests tonight? Not for several days. You wish to go up to your room now? Just to clean up. Then I think I'll take a walk around and get a look at things. After you have washed, you will find my husband in the barn. You will again identify yourself to him. Calling 42B. Calling 42B. Calling 42B. Come in. Calling from field at location specified. Locate for me immediately. German couple, about 60. Want couple opposed to Nazi rule. Check my file numbers for names of couples already examined. Fly this couple to Our present location. 11:30 tomorrow night. Check. Report sufficient. 42B off. That is all. All right, Kelly, close the case. Slipping under the bushes again? Yes. Step. Step. That Nazi woman in there was a brutal looking character. Now let's get right back to the house. I don't want them to notice that we've been gone too long. What did you think of her husband? I'll answer that a little later. If I'm not mistaken, I've got a complete report on him in Washington. A fanatic, isn't he? Are they all? Would they be Nazis if they weren't? Well, if you weren't in on the inside of things, though, you could stop at the ranch and not guess anything was wrong. Oh, yes, they're clever. What was that? Quick, get back to the house. What's the matter? What's going on? Where is everybody? I heard footsteps upstairs. Let's get up there. Where are you? What do you want? Oh, I was in my room at the other end of the house. I heard a scream from this room. I come running. This Italian and I got here just at the same time. I. I was at the other end of the house in a Maya room. You'd better fix your collar. Looks like someone had grabbed it and torn the button off. Here comes my husband. He will be very angry. Where were you, may I ask, when this happened? And the other gentlemen? We were walking toward the house. We heard the scream. We ran in here as quickly as possible. Very pleasant alibi. What has happened? Why did one of you scream like that? Why you are standing, Sir? Lutyna. I see. He was evidently stabbed in the back while he was sleeping. I am not angry because the Japanese is killed. I hate him. But he should have been killed somewhere else. Who did it? None of us seems to know. Did you? I was at the other end of the house in my room. And you? I would not have done it inside the house. You know that. You too? No. We were outside walking toward the house. You left me 20 minutes ago. Where have you been since? Why did you not come right back to the house? Because we were all cramped up from traveling. We wanted to stretch our legs, take a little walk. Zof. There are so many ways it could have been done. To leave. No tell tale the river out of a plain. Yes, like possibly you would do with a Mexican. Why do you say that? Harlow told me of it. The Hacienda Pedro in Mexico. They all thought it very clever. Said man. Hello. Talks too much. Here. Let me get him up on my shoulder. I will take him out and bury him in the field. Gladly. There. Come with me. We will bury him to leave no traces. I will go with you and hold a lantern. Do you two wish to come? Not interested. Thank you. Kelly, will you do me one favor? What, sir? Kick me just as hard as you can. Why? Wait a minute. I saw that Jap had been murdered. By habit and instinct, I started to ask questions. I knew the Italian had killed him. And all I'd have had to do was ask about three more pointed questions and there'd have been plenty of trouble. Come to think of it, you're right. You didn't think the woman killed the Jap spy. I think they were all in on it. It was planned before we got here. But that teaser you put out, Mr. Harding. You got results, didn't you? Yes. He fell for it. He's the one who thought Zales was a Mexican official and threw him out of the plane. What's our next move? Just sit tight until the army plane arrives at 11:30 tomorrow. Mr. Harding. That's the army plane, all right. Take these glasses. It's signaling with the invisible light. Just to the right of the Moon, see? Yes, Good, good. Now we've got to work fast while the plane's landing. The German couple and the Italian are in the sitting room. Let's go in. And you will leave. I will be leaving in the morning. I have already American money which I will supply with. If you two gentlemen don't mind my intruding. And if it's all right with you, madam, I'm going to have to ask you all to get your hands up. Don't move. We both have you covered. You won't have to do much persuading for me to put a bullet right through you. Limping fool. We don't operate like your Gestapo, Burger. We give them that chance according to our laws. Why do you call me Burga? That is not my name. The name I have you listed by in Washington. You forget your activities in the boon before the war broke out. And incidentally, the Mexican government official you threw from the plane wasn't the Mexican councilor. I don't know what you're talking about. He was an American counterspy. One of my assistants posing as a counselor. I'll promise you, Burger, you're going to pay for that and pay plenty. I'll give you money. I'll tell you all I know. Enough of this. An army plane just landed outside. Now march out that door to the plane and keep your hands up. Mr. Harding. That's a sweet old couple the plane brought down. Motherly looking soul, isn't she? You wouldn't think that this couple who just arrived and the other couple who we took out to the plane were both German. Well, there are some Germans who are not Nazis. Well, I'll let them finish looking around the house and we'll leave in the army plane with those others we're taking with us. Well, I believe we have seen it all, Mr. Harding. It is quite a place. Now, do you two feel that you can live here and pretend to be Nazis and run this place for the spies who come over? Yeah, Mommy's a great actress when she needs to be, and so is papa. I will run the house and he will look up to the outside and the little radio station to send you the information. Good. Now, as soon as the spy arrives, we shall want his complete description, something that he's touched so we can get his fingerprints, knowledge of where he's going, and any information about what he has in his bag. They shall see you have it all, eh, Papa? We shall do everything. We shall give our lives to see the Nazis crushed and wiped off the face of this earth. You too must have had a terrible experience. From the report. We lived just outside of Hamburg. We were happy and our two boys had graduated and were the ministers of the German Lutheran Church. It was in the middle of the night, Papa. The Gestapo broke in the front door and dragged our two boys out of bed. Then they came and got mamma and me. Julie forgot. They beat our boys because they were ministers of the church. They dragged him outside. They tied our boys to defense. They made us watch. The Gestapo stepped back and took aim and shot them. Our youngest boy, Hans, he did not die. So the leader Gestapo put a pistol to his head, spit at him on trial. The leader of Gestapo tore off the crucifix that Hans fought around his neck. He threw it on the ground, stepped on it. Then he raised his arm at the Nazi salute and said, Heil Hitler. The Fuhrer will rule the world. We left Germany, Ma mon. It took us four months to escape across the border. But we did it. Now we are in this country. God bless it. Then you know what it means to have the Nazis rule. Wait, wait. I hear footsteps. Somebody's coming. Careful now, there may be trouble. Yeah, come in. I'm a traveler. X4 from Mexico. From the Hacienda Pedo. You have arrived at the right place, X4. Good. Our plane was forced down. I have had to come the last hundred miles by motorcycle. Heil Hitler. The Father will rule the world. The father will rule the world. I remember. I shall show you to your room. Why these men? We don't ask questions like that around here. Yes, you are right. Take my bag. Yeah, Mama. Bring a light from the mantel. We will show this gentleman to his room. Yeah, Papa. This way, please. I don't think, Kelly, that we're needed here anymore. No, let's go to the plane. Look how bright the stars are tonight, Mr. Hardy. Yes, Kelly. Now they're one of the things in this world that are permanent. Permanent? Like the faith of Christian people. At the time of the Crusaders, barbarians tried to crush faith from the face of the earth. But the Christians rose up and pushed those hordes right back into the sea. The great Christian army has risen again. And Nazism will be wiped from the face of the earth. All over this country tonight is spread a great army of counter spies. Men whose names may never be known or their deeds ever revealed. But 24 hours a day, Spirit, seven days a week. These counter spies are the guardians of our home front. Counter spy will not be heard next week, June 29th. Starting Monday night, July 6th. Counter Spy. A Phillips H. Lord Production will be presented at a much more convenient time, 8 to 8:30pm eastern war time, 7 to 7:30pm central time, 6 to 6:30pm mountain time and 5 to 5:30pm in the Pacific Time Zone. Tell your friends. Invite them to listen to these exciting dramatized cases. Make it a date for Monday, July 6th at the New hour. Join the 10% club whose membership is composed of all patriotic Americans who are voluntarily putting 10% of their incomes regularly into war bonds and stamps. Here's all you have to do to become a member. Arrange to buy war bonds on a regular basis to the extent of 10% or more of your present income, or authorize your employer to deduct 10% or more from your regular salary or wage checks. Your government is making special efforts to have everyone a member of the 10% club. Join today. CounterSpy originated in New York. You are listening to the Blue Network. This Precedence Day. Upgrade the look of your home without breaking your budget. Save up to 50% site wide on new window treatments@blinds.com blinds.com makes it easy with free virtual consultations on your schedule and samples delivered to your door fast and free. Free. With over 25 million windows covered and a 100% satisfaction guarantee, you can count on blinds.com to deliver results you'll love. Shop up to 50% off site wide plus a free professional measure during the President's Day Mega Sale happening right now@blinds.com terms apply.

Adam Graham (32:19)

Welcome back. First of all, I just have to say regarding the end credits that I felt scene that the Mountain time zone was mentioned. You know, growing up watching television, when they had schedules and they mentioned the time zone, they would say it would be on at this time Eastern time and that time Central time, or they would say it would be on this time Pacific time. But nobody would ever mention the Mountain time zone. Not unless I was watching something local. And in old time radio you don't hear a bunch about time zones unless usually the main time zone that I've heard is eastern or eastern wartime. I think this is the first time that I've heard the Mountain time zone mentioned that I can remember. So as someone who has spent the majority of my life in the Mountain time zone, I was just really pleased by that. Now of course you'll see here what I mentioned about the title, because while there are Nazis, they aren't really from Mexico. They're coming. Well, I mean they're coming up from Mexico, but they're not from Mexico, they're from Germany. So that's a Little bit confusing now for the episode itself. It's a mix of what we knew and what we didn't. Now, wartime media tended to really lean into, heavily into the idea of a very intricate Axis spy network working its way into the United States. There was no Axis spy activity that was too outlandish. And some of that may have been just a war propaganda efforts to keep people vigilant. But there's also a certain fog of war element. The FBI is not going to go ahead and call up Philip Lord and let them know what the Nazis are up to. What's actually going on is top secret. So you can make up whatever you want as long as what you don't make up just happens to be too close to the truth. In reality, the sort of Axis spine that we dealt with in the country really came as a result of things such as you could say in the movie the house on 92nd street where the Nazis set up a spy network using people they already had in the United States to spy and report back to Berlin on the preparations and actions of the American national security apparatus. The reality is that there was a limit to the Nazis resources. The war was an intensive effort, both in terms of manpower and financial resources. So there's a limit to what the Germans would feasibly do at that point in the war dealing with the United States, which again, pretty far from their front lines. Certainly they couldn't afford the scale of operations that kept fictional heroes very busy during World War II. The random murder thrown in was kind of interesting. And I like the idea that Harding had to restrain himself from solving the case just as a matter of habit. The suggestion of kind of a racial animus between the European fascist and the Japanese is interesting. Now there's an argument to say that it would not have happened and that there wouldn't be that animus. For example, Hitler declared the Japanese honorary Aryans. But that is one of those sort of practical compromises on ideology that people who have to operate in the real world have to make. But to me, it's not that implausible that people who are fully bought into these sort of ideologies would follow them to their rational conclusion, regardless of the practical real world implications. The final thing that was interesting was the sort of religious angle that came in at the end. And I found myself just instinctively wondering, okay, what, what occasion was this? Because it's too late in the year for Easter. But then I remembered it was 1942. This type of program could really air any type of the year and it would be appropriate. And the history of Hitler's relationship with the church is somewhat fraught as a pure ideological matter. Nazism had very little use for traditional Christian beliefs, but was more than happy to co opt the church for his own ends. And certainly there were some churches more than happy to go along with it, and other churches who just really tried to keep their head down and avoid coming into Hitler's ire. But then there were those who did stand up against him and they paid a price. And there are all kinds of historical examples of that, whether you're thinking Martin Niemoller or Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Corrie Tim Boone and her family. And some details of the sort of persecution of the Nazis had made its way back to the United States due to people that had gotten out, though a lot was left to the imagination. And there were some very broad pictures painted for the purposes of war propaganda, though. Honestly, when I look at or listen to these sort of stories that were told during World War II, where they're just kind of imagining what. What might be going on, you know, they don't have solid information of everything going on, but they're making up and embellishing and telling stories that portray the Nazis as the bad guys. And oftentimes when you have these sort of wartime propaganda, it turns out that there's been major exaggeration and things aren't as bad as the propagandists were saying. But what we actually found when we went in is that things were actually worse. Shifting quickly. I do want to talk about our star, Don McLaughlin. This is one of McLaughlin's best known roles, his second best remembered role. He had been on radio since 1933, a lot of soap work. He starred in a chaplain gym during the war and drew on his background because he came from a long line of ministers and had actually been planning to study the ministry and went into acting instead. And he also ended up being one of the actors to play Tennessee Jet. But his most noted role was on television soap operas. He was one of the original stars of as the World Turns, where he played Chris Hughes. And he played that role for 30 years, though with a few interruptions, particularly during the early 80s. And he brings a really steady presence to Counterspot, although he's not always the man of action and would give increasingly more of the dangerous stuff to another star, which we'll meet in a few weeks, although technically we've met him multiple times before on other New York radio programs. But we'll talk about that later. Now let's go ahead and thank our Patreon Supporter of the Day. And I want to thank Gigi patreon Supporter since February 2020. Currently support supporting the podcast at the Secret agent level of $4 or more per month. Thanks so much for your support GG 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 it from. We will be back next Saturday with another episode of counterspy. But on the Great Detectives Podcast, join us back here on Monday for Danger with Granger and on Tuesday join us back here for Tarzan on the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio. From Boise, Idaho, this is your host Adam Graham signing off. Abercrombie's new spring collection has every outfit you need for the season of long weekends full of linen shirts, sweaters and coastal shorts designed to go from your desk straight to days off. For me, the collection's must have are the baggy trousers with the casual fit and tailored look for endless versatility. Get your closet ready for spring plans. Shop Abercrombie the app online and in store. Worse.

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