← The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas
Counterspy: The Case of the Gasoline Barge (A0066)
00:33:45
Today's Adventure: David Harding suspects the Axis is behind a ring making counterfeit gas coupons. Original Radio Broadcast: November 2, 1945 Originating from New York Starring: Don McLaughlin as David Harding Popular...
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- [00:01]
David Harding
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- [00:58]
Adam Graham
Foreign. Welcome to the great adventurers of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This is your host Adam Graham. In a moment, we're going to bring you this week's episode of Counterspot. But first I do want to encourage you. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. Today's program is brought to you in part by the financial support of our listeners. You can support the show a one time basis support.greatdetectives.net and also become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as $2 per month. Just go to patreon.greatdetectives.net but now, from November 2, 1942, here is the case of the Gasoline barge.
- [01:52]
David Harding
Washington calling CounterSpy Washington calling CounterSpy. Calling Counter Spy Washington calling counterspy. Washington calling Counter Spy. Counter spy calling washington hardy counter spy colleague washington. Phillips. H. Lord, counter spy. Network is proud to present C Lord Counter Spy, a dramatization packed with thrills and adventure. The exciting story of our undercover agents fighting against enemy spies within our borders. Sinophate's Lords Counter Spy all over this great country tonight is an invisible army of men and women highly trained to protect us from professional enemy spies within our borders. Imagine Chief Counter Spy of them all as David Harding. Imagine it's storming tonight. Just what state we can't say we're at war. Giving out of weather conditions is now prohibited, but there's a bad storm tonight. We can tell you it's in a southern state. It's especially bad in a dark, swampy section where a little shack is built on silt out over a shallow beach on the ocean. It's windy too. Inside the shack Two men are seated at a table with greasy, dirty cards obeying G Money. Hey, Butch, close the door, will you? How can I think with the sound of a wave and a wind? Okay, Okay. Butch, you drawing or you taking the queen of hearts? I'm taking the queen of hearts. Ah. Saving queen, huh? Yeah. There's a pretty kind of tree. You want it? Well, who that is? Put that gun back in your pocket, you fool. Come in, Commander. Shut that door. You want to throw us out of here? Well, what do you want? Listen, Mr. Tony, I'd like to get my pay. I'm getting through and I want to get my resignation. What's the matter, Sam? Have we paying you enough? Yes, you paying me enough. But I'm a man that's got 14 children. And you gentlemen ain't mine. I think I was gonna retire. Now, look here, you only been here two weeks. We just got you broke in. Yeah, that's the big idea, trying to quit. Well, I don't like so many secrets. Everybody got secrets. Things is awful funny. I was a man with 14 children. Ever since I've been married, I've been going to church once a month. I don't like the funny things that's going on yet. I just want my pets. Listen here, Sam. Before you started working for us, there were two other men working here. They wanted to quit. That was the last time they was ever heard of. Yes, I knows about that too. They done work here and then they go away. And nobody near the inn and bonds. I want to quit. But we don't want you to quit. You're not going to quit. I sorry, sir, but my mind's made up. Stop fooling. When he saw me, I'll tell him straight. Hey, you. Listen. I got damn waters, a lot of alligators and less than 20ft from you to the sharks. Come in. You don't want to quit, do you? I does. I was a man with 14 shillings. When I makes up my mind, it's made up. If you had 14 shillings, you'd know that. When you makes up your mind and said something, there ain't no one made it. Now, you listen for the last time, if you don't want to be shocked. Faith you change your mind, understand? Yes, sir. Are you staying or leaving? I was leaving, sir. I was telling you I was a man with 14 children. Well, Butch, looks like we gotta find a new handyman. Yeah. Yeah, but come on, let's drag him on. We get enough with that wind blowing and that storm. I don't want to have any Corpses laying around here. Grab his feet. Okay, I got him. Drag him to the edge. The tide's going up. He'll be out in deep water in an hour. Yeah. Come on, let's get back to our card game. You know, it's just going to go gym. Yes. Yes. 462,091. Thank you. All civil service employees working on rubber statistics, file your reports immediately. Aging Robert Wallace. Robert Wallace, ordered by Chief Harding at once. Report to Counter Spy executive office. Robert Wallace wanted by Chief Harding immediately. All those compiling train schedules are to use blue form. All those compiling trade schedules use blue form. You sent for me, Mr. Horton? Yes, madam. Has the statistical department turned up anything of great importance? Yes, sir, they have. Just as you thought. Gas rationing coupons show a forgery of nearly a million gallons. Mm. I was afraid of that. Hello? Miss Howard? Yes, Mr. Harding. Want to see Mr. Baxter immediately. Send for him. In the meanwhile, I wish you'd come in and give me your report. Yes, sir. This is going to be a tough nut to crack, Mr. Harding. Half a million forged gasoline coupons. Bud, counterfeiting or altering gasoline coupons is just as bad now as counterfeiting money. Perhaps worse. I have a hunch that this is even more serious than it appears on the surface. How do you mean? I'm afraid that this gas is being obtained by counterfeit coupons to be used to refuel enemy submarines. You think it goes that deep? Yes, sir. Hyde. Mr. Howard. Concerning those hundred counterfeit gasoline coupons I gave you to analyze, were all those coupons printed on the same type of paper? Yes, Mr. Harding. They were printed on Wilson paper, made with Cooper ammonium hydroxide instead of the zinc chloride solution. I see. How many concerns manufacture that certain type of paper the counterfeiters have used? 4, sir. Two in the south, one in the north, and the Active Paper Company out west. Check every one of those companies, Mr. Howard. I want the names and addresses of all shipments of any size made during the past year of that type of paper. That's all. Yes, sir. Mr. Baxter's waiting outside. Have him come right in. Yes, sir. This looks very serious, Mr. Harding. Yes, Bud, it does. Mr. Harding, I. I took the liberty of bringing Miss Bixby along with me. Good. How do you do, Mr. Bixby? Good evening, Mr. Harding. Black, sir. Those counterfeit coupons I gave you to analyze, were they all printed on the same counterfeiting plate? They were. Mr. Harding. Can you tell me about the kind of plate the counterfeiter used? Well, the printing was probably done On a vertical press plate, sir. I see. I took the liberty of passing these counterfeited gasoline coupons on to Mr. Bixby for ink analysis. He has some very interesting reports. Good. What is your ink analysis of these counterfeit gasoline coupons, Mr. Bixby? Well, Mr. Harding, analysis shows the ink was compounded of hydrochloric solutions of Gallic and tannic iron salts with the usual sugar and gum arabic. Applying a reagent of 3% oxalic acid made the counterfeiters ink disappear while the Negro stink of the genuine coupons was unaltered. How many concerns manufacture this certain type of ink, Mr. Bixby? 3. One is a very small one and sells almost entirely in northern New England. Mr. Bixby, cover all of the ink manufacturers who use this compound of hydrochloric solution of Gallic and tannic iron salts in the right. Yes, sir. Check all of their shipments over the past nine months. Give me the address of every shipment that they've made. Yes, sir. Hardy seeking. Get me Commander Army Base Airfield. Bud, pack your suitcase and meet me at 11 tonight at the base airfield. Yes, sir. Clothes for a warm climate or cold, Mr. Harding? Hot. Well, Mr. Harding, now that the rush is over somewhat, where are we flying to? The Florida Everglades, Bud. We land in Miami and proceed south by car. What did you find out from those statistical reports? Well, our statistical department has reported part that a number of shipments of gasoline have been made by six different companies to a certain gasoline launch supply station along the main road in the Everglades. We also found out that a certain shipment of will and paper was also sent to this gasoline station. You probably recall the forged coupons were printed on will and paper. Yes, and also ink similar to that used on the counterfeited coupons was also shipped to this gasoline station. Hey, that's hot. Exactly what kind of a filling station is it, Mr. Harding? Are you familiar with the Everglades, Bud? No. No, I'm not, sir. There's one main road which has been built up on artificial ground and piling. Runs for nearly 120 miles across the peninsula. Goes over about 40 different little islands. On a few of these are gasoline stations. This gasoline station in question is just about 100ft off the main road. It services automobiles and also fishing boats. Yes, but how could it service any enemy submarines? People are driving over that road constantly. Must be dumb neighbors down there. That's the catch. That's what you and I've got to find out. But if anything wrong is going on down there, a Mighty clever device is being used. What's your plan, sir? Well, in the morning, we land in Miami. We'll get an oil truck, fill it full of gasoline. And find out when a delivery is supposed to be made to this gasoline station. Then you and I will make the delivery. Now back to david harding and counter spy. I've ridden in things more comfortable than this gasoline truck, Mr. Harding. Good for the digestion. But that light ahead, I think that's where we turn off. You know, it's strange if they insisted we deliver the gasoline at night. There's no sense of surmising or guessing. But just got to wait and see what develops. Here's where we turn, all right. Sort of a primitive looking place, as you can see of it. Turnaround. Take it easy. Here comes a man out of that shack. You from the NATO oil refinery in Miami? That's us, buddy. Drive out on the dot. All right, little D. Will that hold us? Bigger sluts than yours have been out there, buddy. Go ahead. Okay, we go through it, it'll be our funeral, not yours. You make quick time. Yeah, we said otherwise. Miami. Man, it sure it's dark out here. I'll have to use my flag fly. Now where do we put this guy? We got a tank under the dock. That's a pipeline to your left. Okay, I need a drink now. You can unscrew the cap at your hand. Yeah. Okay, bud, let's have a hole coming up. One rubber hose. Okay, merman, the guy's come full. Yes, you are. Waiting for the tank to fill. Do you want a drink, mister? Sure. Not supposed to touch it while I'm on duty. But I guess a little one wouldn't hide in half. There's a bottle. Help yourself. Thanks. In fact, I always carry two bottles. One for a friend, one for myself. I'll take a little nip out of mine. Here's Dale. Here's to you guys. Blast it. What a lumbering fool I am. What'd you do, drop your bottle? Yeah, more. It's like a hill on the top of this iron stanchion and busters. Yeah, you'll have to have a nip out of this other bottle then. What do you stand it living down here? Nobody for five miles on either side of you. Oh, yeah? You ought to spin it. What's that? Alligator. Just wanted to navy. Harding calling J8, Palm Beach, Florida. You get contact? Harding calling J8, Palm Beach. Coming through. Notify all counterfiers on Florida, east and west coast to investigate all ocean going tugs. Check the last five or six feet of their rope hovers. I broke a bottle of nitric acid on iron stanchion which bore mark of a rope hawser having been tied to it. This acid will burn hemp fibers of hawser. Notify immediately of any tug having hawser burned at end. J8 reporting to Harding, Miami counterspy field headquarters. Tugboat Anna Louise out of Cape City as hawser showing acid burn. Contact me immediately as soon as that tug leaves and returns to her home birth. Want exact times of leaving and returning. J8 counters by reporting to Hardy. Tugboat Anna Louise left Perth 7:35 last night, returned 5:35 this morning. Average speed when up towing is 14 miles. That is all. All right, Bud. This is the information we've been waiting for. Now, let's look at this chart of the west coast of Florida. Do a little figuring. Yes, sir. Aleana Louise's home port is 23 miles from this gasoline station in. If she cruises at 14 miles an hour, that'd take her one hour and 45 minutes to get from her home to the gasoline station. Correct. One hour and 45 minutes for her return from the gasoline station back to her home berth. The entire time being three hours and a half. But she was gone 10 hours. That leaves six and a half hours of her time to be accounted for. That's right. 6 and 12 hours. Now, suppose she hooks onto a 10,000 gallon barge at the gasoline station in question and towed her out to sea to meet a submarine. It'll take two hours to unload the 10,000 gallons after she met the sump. Which leaves two and a half hours for her to throw the loaded barge out and the people hutch back. Correct again. Now, I checked with the Navy. In a tug which makes 14 miles an hour by itself is slowed to 12 miles an hour when she's towing an empty barge. When she's towing a loaded barge of 10,000 gallons, she'd be slowed to 8 miles an hour. Her average is therefore be 10 miles an hour. 2 1/2 hours till accounted for. That means in 2 1/2 hours the sub could cover 25 miles. So she'd be meeting a sub 12 1/2 miles off the southern Florida coast. That's beautiful deduction, Mr. Harling. Good reasoning. But where does it get us? What makes you think she did pick up a 10,000 gallon barge at the gasoline station in question? Where was the barge? Oh, Bud, I haven't been entirely honest with you. I kind of suspected it. Did you notice, Bud, the night when I put the nozzle of the gasoline hose into that pipe. The pipe was just flush with the duct. No, it didn't. Well, it took us 45 minutes to put that gas in. When I took the nozzle out of the pipe, the pipe was 4 inches lower than the level of the duct. Oh, then the tank under the dock was a floating tank that went up and down with the tide. The dock was really a disguised oil barge with just the shell of a dock over it to camouflage it. Exactly. And before morning, the tug brings the empty barge back and it's shoved under the dock again. What's our next move? Tap out the signal through the counterfeit headquarters, Washington. Have the contact relay to our field testing laboratory. And get me Tex Walker. Tex is an expert chemist on gasoline and all fuel oils. The next time a submarine's refueled with that gasoline, they're going to have a surprise coming to them. Motors, full speed ahead. I said full speed ahead. Why are they slowing the motors? Captain? I'm very sorry, sir. We having trouble with the motors. What's the matter? One motor has stopped entirely. You started taking it apart. The whole inside is burned as if there were acid in the gasoline. That cannot be. How long would it take to repair? I'm afraid to. It is beyond repair. And the other motor is giving us trouble. The staunch Patil Dunbar idiot who turned out the lights. Switch on the lights, you fool. Still we are having the same troubles with our gasoline generators. Switch the current to the battery. You must repair them. We'll be at the mercy of the Americans. Are you sure it's trouble from the gasoline? Yes, sir. The carburetor and filters in the gasoline line have all been eaten away by acids too. Malluda, notify Herr Himle at once. Tell him we're ruined. We've been sabotaged. Notify half hitchman in New York. It's his fault. Hoffman slows a tomb cub, he will suck. Counters by headquarters Washington. Emergency message just intercepted from disabled German submarine off Florida coast to Herr Himmler Berlin. Submarine also trying to contact Gestapo agent in this country. But Canada's yet locate contact point. That means a Gestapo agent will be sent to the Everglades to investigate trouble. Notify Florida police to proceed on Observation Plan 3B. Reporting to David Harding according to issued counters by orders black limousines speeding down Everglades Trail at 70 miles an hour. Drivers alone in car out of state Car license number New York 1 4C. 319. Shall we stop this car at next police intersection? No, let it proceed. Washington you contact Maxer? Yes, sir. I'm in the New York License Bureau. As you requested. Your call is being relayed directly to me. This is Harding. I'm still in Miami. Check for me immediately. New York license 14C319. Yes, sir. I have the files. Just a minute. One four three. Herbert R. Teachman. 1142 East Riverside Drive. Teachman. Teachman. That name's very familiar. I'm having our suspect firing clerk listen into our conversation. He's probably even out checking on Teachman. And you should hear from him within the next two minutes. Excellent, Baxter. That's using your head. I'll wait right here for his report. Suspect filing clerk. If you're listening on this wavelength, come in as soon as possible. Time's an important element. Bill Harding, Miami. Counters by headquarters. Come in. Herbert R. Keachman. Wealthy broker, German born. Has lived past six years in Berlin. Returned to state August 24, 1940. Bachelor sworn in Gestapo at Hamburg, 1937. Thanks. Bang off. Okay, bud. Now we know what we're up against. It's the big boss himself. Peachman's on his way to check his operators to that gasoline station. We've got to fly down there and quick. Miserable pigs sitting there playing cops. The boss. We were just playing a little gin rummy. So, Couch, I don't want to. Unspeakable idiots. What's the matter? We ain't done it in far Ferris. We ain't. Who have you been letting put acid into gasoline? You have been taking out to the submarine. Nobody ain't done nothing, boy. I told you that one of you must always stay awake to guard that dock. That you must guard it with your life. But somebody has been putting acid in that gasoline. The last three submarines you refueled. Their motors are spoiled. They're helpless. You have ruined them. I have an order here from Herr Himmler himself. My own life isn't worth 2 cents. I have failed because of you stupid things. Now you're going to pay for your silly blunders. You don't shoot me. You know how the Gestapo saddles with imbeciles. Noon. Don't kill me. It was Tony who was supposed to look after things. He was my boss. I just saw what he told fighting. Take a good look at Tony. He's dead. Take a good look at a cough. Because that is what you are going to feel right now. Don't. Please. Please. Take it easy. I don't know then I have ever done anything that has given me more pleasure. Don't. You can what? Please.
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Adam Graham
Please.
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David Harding
Don't. Well done, Pit food for alligators and sharks won't they are going to get you. I wouldn't. And I wouldn't reach for that gun on the table, Heatman. Or you, Harding, Chief of United States Counterspies. If you make one move, you won't have to worry about the Gestapo getting you. You'll be just as dead as those two countrymen of yours you just killed. Don't shoot. I won't move. Put your hands up in the air, Teachman. A little higher. Just as high as you can get them. So you were the one who was putting acids in gasoline. I was just one. Teachman won a 5,000 counter prize taking every move your Gestapo made. Don't shoot. I do exactly what you say. You just want me to move so you can kill me right now. But I am not going to give you the chance. I do exactly what you want. All right, Beachman, start for the door. But be careful that your two countrymen don't trip you again. Next week, David Harding, Encounter Spire. Will be back again at this same time on Monday evening. Tell your friend. Make it a date. Next, meet. The case of the murdered chemist. Brother versus brother. Death in the laboratory. The corpse that came to life. The mystery of the strange makeup. The secret of the powdered hair. Next week, dripping counterstrike.
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- [28:21]
Adam Graham
Welcome back. A solid case once again. David Harding makes sound deductions out a six. Situation such as this not being a domestic counterfeiting operation and then leverages his own intellect plus the pure size of his operation in order to victorious. I think everything is very well reasoned out here. Now, there are a few points you could nitpick or you might wonder about. One I was curious about was the whole bit at the beginning about giving out weather conditions being prohibited. It kind of is a bit of an overstatement, but it was restricted. The Office of Censorship wrote a few drops of rain at El Paso, high winds in Kansas City and a snowfall in Detroit will indicate to enemy ships which part of the coast will have rough weather or fog. A day or two later and this information comes from April White's really solid article in popular science. On September 19th of last year, even Eleanor Roosevelt, the First lady, got a letter from the Office of Censorship rebuking her for complaining about the weather in her column. Now, this created some real problems. There were some crops that were destroyed because of a lack of access to information. And there were some areas that were found unprepared for major storm, including a tornado in Tennessee and a hurricane in the Gulf region of the South. The censorship rules were rightly relaxed in 1943, in the fall of 1943, because even though the war wasn't over, the essential conclusion was that the benefits of these restrictions were far outweighed by all of the people who and industries that were put at a disadvantage by the lack of weather reporting. And I think by 1943, it was pretty clear that the Axis weren't ready anytime in the near future to open another front on the continental United States. So some of these restrictions which were in place in countries in Europe, did not make a whole lot of sense in the United States. Now, in the context of the episode, it establishes the dramatic tone, but if you think about it a little, there's a bit of silly conceit to it, because the idea is that the announcer cannot say where exactly this is happening because it might be overheard by an Axis spy. But as I was listening to it, I said this sounds a lot like Florida. If you're going to avoid saying where this is to in theory protect the information from the Axis, it seems like you shouldn't make it so obvious it's Florida. And then David Harding goes ahead and says specifically that it's Florida.
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David Harding
Florida.
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Adam Graham
So can the Nazis spies only hear the announcer, nothing else? I'm a little bit unclear on the logic of this. It's an interesting aspect of World War II history, and it always seems like I'm learning something I didn't know about that era before. It's just kind of an odd way to taste this in the context of a fictional radio show. Also, the sub would not likely be sending requests for assistance to Himmler. Himmler had a very large portfolio in the Nazi government, but kind of handling these submarine operations wasn't really part of it. But what Himmler was already in 1942 was a malevolent figure who had perpetrated monstrous evil on the human race already. He was central to the establishment of the secret police and the construction of the first concentration camps. He was also one of the principal architects responsible for the Holocaust. Although in 1942. The full scale of his evil was not known by the American public. They already knew enough to know that you could signal ruthless evil by having the bad guys of your peace report to Himmler. All right, well, now it's time to thank our Patreon Supporter of the Day. And I want to thank George, patreon Supporter since October 2015, currently supporting the podcast at the first mate level of $7.14 or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, George, and that will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcasts often and be sure to rate and review the podcast wherever you download it from. We'll be back next Saturday with another episode of counterspy on the Great Adventurers Podcast. Join us back here on Tuesday for Tarzan and on the Great Detectives Podcast. Join us tomorrow for our first listener Support special. In the meantime, do send your comments to box13xgreatdetives.net from Boise, Idaho, this is your host Adam Graham signing off.
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