← The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas
The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas
The Big Story: New Facts About a 26-Year Frame-Up (EP4967)
00:32:22
Today's Mystery: Reporter Ralph Goll becomes suspicious of the results of a murder case when he learns that the detective involved had later been convicted of graft and the sheriff at the time had committed suicide before the trial. Original Radio...
Loading summary
Transcript9 lines
- [00:02]
A
And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty, Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Book a Loved by Guest property with VRBO and you get a top rated vacation rental that's loved for all the right reasons, like being in a great location or having great amenities. Ugh, I love my VRBO for the view. Good reason. Ooh, and the sauna. Sweet. Another good reason. And that it's one of those good saunas with the hot rock thing. Ugh. Love a good hot rock thing. Fancy. That's also a reason. Don't worry about surprises. Book a verbo you'll love with the Love by guest filter. If you know you verbo. Foreign.
- [01:29]
B
Welcome to the Great detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're going to bring you this week's episode of the Big Story. But first, I want to encourage you. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And I want to encourage you to check out our other podcast. And today I'm highlighting the great adventurers of Old Time Radio, featuring two great adventures every week, including Burzan and Counterspot. You can find it at greatadventures.info or wherever you get your podcast from. But now, from March 1, 1950, here is the somewhat long winded title, New facts about a 26 year frame up.
- [02:24]
A
The Big Story. Hey, Stanley. Stanley, just a second. How about a statement before they lock you up? Okay, I'll tell you the whole truth, but you won't print it. I'm guilty. I'm guilty because I'm nobody. I'm guilty because somebody wanted to get somewhere and in order to get there, he put his feet right in my face, stepped on me, sent me up for life to get where he wants to get. I'd like to see you printed. Freedom of the Press. Detroit, Michigan. From the pages of the Detroit Free Press comes the story of a frame up so cold, so calculating, so perfect that it took 26 years to explode it. Detroit, Michigan. The story as it actually happened. Ralph G's story as we lived. It's a dream writing assignment. Ralph Gall of the Detroit Free Press. A six month job of digging into the unsolved crimes of Michigan and you've written a dozen views. The Riddle of the Blue Icicle. That one called. A special Coroner's interest into being the case of the Severed Hand. This one brought a well deserved promotion to a curse Cop on the beach. And the others? All good, honest stories. And with the public clamoring for more, you kept digging in. And then out of the morgue. In the yellow pages of a case 25 years old. Three things hitching. First, the name. The case of the picnic murder. Second, the byline by Teddy Larkin. Teddy Larkin, now dead, died at 31, was one of the best reporters on the paper. And an old friend. One of the very best. His byline on a story meant something through. And three. The third thing that hit you was facts. A Fourth of July picnic celebration 25 years ago in Sylvan Gardens, just outside the 20th. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Is that all you made, Edna? Cheese? I thought Willie was coming. You know how he is about cheese. They have to work, you think? One holiday in the year they take time off. And that fillings table. What are you complaining about? You know why they're working? Sure, I know. I honestly wouldn't mind waiting the extra month to get married. They just see us once on a Sunday or a holiday. Tuna fish and a deviled egg. Did you bring the pickles? What do you think this is? What's a picnic and no pickles? The first girl be was dead instantly. The second girl, Edna, terrible pain in the shoulder. A bullet embedded and a memory that'll live with her forever. He was big and dirty. He had some kind of a bag over his shoulder. He came up to me, close and frozen. Then he took out the cotton melt on him. Like chloroform or something. Then I don't remember. I don't remember. A posse of over 500 men combed the area of Sylvan Garden. Combed the downtown flop houses looking for a man six feet tall, dark, dirty, with a shoulder bag, gun and maybe still the traces of the cotton and the chloroform he'd use. There was one suspect, Tony Stanley. Tom Vinton, local policeman picked him up. What do you mean, what was I doing? I told you what I was doing, officer. They were pouring drinks. Free drinks all along Michigan Avenue. Fourth of July celebration. I was lapping them up as fast as I could. What's the matter? There's no crime? Let's go. Stanley. I don't want to hear anymore. Didn't ask any one of the bartender's officers. I was an 8, 10, 12 joint Baskin. They wouldn't remember. You got mud on your shoes. Mud from Sylvan Gardens, where you were tramping around before you did it. And you got blood on your lapel. How'd you get blood on your lapel? I came out of one of the bars the back way into the yard there. I didn't know where I was going. It was dark and muddy and I fell. It was a can there, an old sardine can I fell on. I cut myself. Maybe I wiped it off on my lapel, I don't know. Where's the shoulder bag? What'd you do with the gun? And where's the chloroform? Come on, out of your feet. Walk. So you cut your finger on a sardine can, huh? Did you have iodine handy? The rest was equally bizarre, equally fantastic, terrifying. Then the identification by the frightened girl. Get him out. Please, get him out. He's the one. He did it. Get him out. Is the judgment of the court that you, Anthony Stanley, will spend the rest of your natural life in prison? Will you stand guilty of the crime of murder? I wish it were in my power to sentence you to further punishment. And the fourth fact about this case, the fourth unusual aspect struck you, Ralph G. As you read the yellowed sheets. You said it to night editor Fred Sandler. Remember this case? Sandler? Yeah, vaguely. Vaguely. Why? They never disproved this sardine can theory about the blood. Lots of things not proved in lots of cases. So the girl didn't testify at the trial. So they took their deposition somewhere else. They never found the shoulder bag or the gun or the cotton or the chloroform. So what? So what? How old is this chestnut, anyhow? 20 years? More. You know who wrote it? Ted Larkin. So who filed this story where it's filed now? What are you talking about? I mean, what's an open and shut murder case doing in the file of unsolved crime? Who put it there? Was it misfiled or was it. And if you read this story, he never put it down. In so many words, but in every line, in every sentence, almost, Ted Larkin implied. Watch out. Frame up. Well, maybe he'd been on this stuff too long. Not Larkin. He was quite a guy, you know that? He wouldn't imply frame up unless he meant frame up. You remember what Larkin used to say about the guys in stir? Just quote a piece of poetry, Walt Whitman. Remember I am one with these convicts and felons. What about that? Maybe it's good poetry, Ralphie, but it don't make a story. And if I prove that it does. If, if, if. If you print a paper with this knock off for a week, will you take the political side? Lay off, Features. When you guys get to quoting poetry, brother, You drop it. Because orders are orders. But all that week, you ignores that joke, Ted Larkin's quote of Whitman. And then, dear Ralph Gall, I've been reading this series about unsolved crimes and I only got one question to ask. Would you laugh if A fellow said, 25 years ago, I was trained. If you would tear this up, don't read no more. But if you're a decent guy, like Ted Larkin was, he once worked on your paper, interviewed me. Then I got something to say. My name is Tony Stanley. Just one of those things that happen. One of the fantastic coincidences that make up life. Well, Sandler. Oh, go ahead. If you want to go ahead. I don't care. All I want to do is go up and see the guy at Mark, I told you to go ahead. I am one with the convicts and felons. At first I thought I'd grow azaleas, hyacinth, maybe some of them little zinnias. But nothing grows up here. Nothing. Bad soil. I'd like to talk about your letter, Mr. Stanley. Sometimes morning glories grow some six, seven feet high. You like them? Yeah. Yeah, they're nice. Mr. Carl. When a guy gets somebody to believe in him just a little bit, you don't want it to be over with right away. I had this experience 10 times. Maybe somebody gets a little bit interested, learn not to talk about it all at once. It'll bust right out of you and disappear. Maybe. If you do. Do you understand? Sure. Who cares about a broken down bum on skid row? Who cares about the shoulder bag or the cotton or the gun or sardine can? I'll tell you who cares. Former Chief of Detectives Tom Benton cares. He cares a lot. He's the one who sent me up framed. Used my face to get where he was going. Do you know that scum? You remember the name of Tom Mittens? You remember the cup on the beat, Tom? You remember he got a conviction. You remember he got another sergeant victim by now. And another and another. Skid row bums. Nameless people. He became Lieutenant of detectives, the big roundup of Michigan Avenue dives. And then Chief of Detectives Thomas Jeff Linton got sent up for framing. Two guys caught at it right. That scum, he's right in this jail now. He was behind it. He did the whole thing. Is that it, Vinton? The only thing I ever smile about now. The only thing is that I know where that scum is. He's sitting in there, across the yard, see? Right in there. Solitaire for the rest of his natural life. We got five minutes. Don't get too close to him. Thanks. I told him they'll visit us. Who's that? Leave me alone. Don't come near me. I'm Ralph Gall of a Fleet Press reporter. I said I don't want to see anybody. I never want to see nobody. Leave me alone. Don't come near me. I'm not going to touch you. I wouldn't touch you. You don't know. Nobody knows. Maybe because you're in solitary, because you got bars in the cellar. You think you're safe, huh? Look at this. My neck. Hit me with a spoon. One of the trustees, they did. You say they get you. They'll kill me. They'll kill me, I know it. I pleaded with the warden. I got down on my knees and I told him, send me it somewhere. You framed a lot of guys, didn't you, Venti? You got to be chief. Stepping on a lot of people's faces, didn't you? What about Tony Stanley? What about the Sylvan Gardens killing? That's all I need to talk to. Say it. That's all I need. Then it would get around that I said it. But I framed the guy that I said I did it just once. And you know what they do? They'd move in with me. They'd squeeze me. What they did before would be like nothing. If they heard I told in just one case. Then they'd make me tell them all, just get out of here. But in the horror, in the incredible foulness of a completely corrupt human being, one simple fact emerges. Tony Stanley was framed 25 years ago. And you feel the phrase of Walt Whitman as never before. I am one with the convict and felons now. Prove it, Gollum. Prove? You mean it's. This is Cy Harris returning it to your narrator. And the big story of Ralph Gall as he lived it and wrote it. You, Ralph Gall, feature writer for the Detroit Free Press. Ponder the biggest question you've had in your reporter's life. How to reopen a case 25 years dead. You begin at Detroit Police headquarters. The mugging shots, routine pictures taken. The history of the criminal. The psychologist report, all yellowed, frayed. All very unsubstantial. Bits of paper. Hey, Sarge, look at this. No previous arrest. No previous record. Not even a minor narcotics rap. Nothing. Look. One of the nicest murderers I ever met. Never made a single wrong move. Not even one. Till the day he blew up his father. Family. Killed his wife and six kids. Oh, you're informed today. Here's what I don't get. No bag was ever found, no gun. The girl testified the murderer was six feet tall. Stanley's no better than five. Six, maybe five, seven. And listen to this part of the psychologist. Report criminal tendencies. Dubious. Adds up. Psychologists, brother. You go on up to Marquette someday. Give some of them intelligence tests and stuff to the guys in cell block T. They'll knock over most of them profess anytime. Don't tell me you believe that stuff. Where do you go to find corroboration on a 25 year old crime? Where? Skid row. The Michigan Avenue dives. Who would remember? Well, maybe somebody would. The old guy who's been selling papers for 37 years at the corner. He remembers Stanley. Maybe the guy went over to Africa, found that other guy. Remember Mr. Stanley? Dr. Livingston. What did he do now? Get himself lost? The mission of the friendly heart. As old as Detroit's waterfront almost. With characters that go at the place and there for decades. But the organist doesn't remember. The guy who collapses the plate around doesn't remember. Or the man who stands up and speaks of the brotherhood of derelict. But one does. Incredibly, one does. One who steps off from the platform, gets his bowl of soup. He talks. Yeah, yeah, him and me. Like the same thing. Flowers. Saddest little guy in the whole world. Framed, neat. Like a picture framed strung up on a wall. Saddest little guy in the world. How do I know? I know. Prove it. Prove that a dead guy is dead. He's dead. That's nothing in a series of nothings. Nothing and nothing compounded. In Pontiac, nearby where the trial was held. Because Sylvan Gardens is in Rockland County. You get the compounding of nothing. Just a minute, young man. One question at a time. The judge. Well, he died 11 years ago. Heart attack. The prosecuting attorney. That was Botvin. He was a major in the infantry. Died at Guadalcanal. What about the jurors? Jurors? You can search all over America. Spend the next 50 years, you might find one. I doubt that. But miraculously, in only six months, you actually find one. Juror number seven. You say I served. Yeah, Maybe I served. Yes, you did. So long ago, standing funny, can't remember A thing. You send a man up for the rest of his life, can't remember his thing. Oh. Oh, wasn't there a sheriff? There was something about a sheriff, Something. Don't remember what. Sheriff is my father. I don't mind speaking of it. He said I was there at the time he died. He said Tony Stanley never had a chance. Your father, I mean. I don't mind if you say it. He took his own lies. I think he did it because of what he was made to do about Tony Stanley. He said just before he died, that poor little guy never had a chance. Freeing from the word go. Tom Vinton's work. Now the blood begins pounding within you. The first real basis for a reversal. Something tangible not slipping through your fingers. A deposition from the daughter of the sheriff who killed himself because of the Stanley case. Get the proceedings. Get the transcripts. You get them. And it's worse. It's worse than if you found nothing because. What do you mean they've never been transcribed? They must have been transcribed sometime, somewhere. Look, mister, that's all I know. Those notes in the handwriting the court sent out, they never were transcribed. And that system he used was his own private system. There ain't a soul alive that I ever heard of. Make sense of them. Well, that's impossible. Aeno's notes can be read. Well, you try it, mister. Six other people tried it. You know how far they got. I have studied the notes, Mr. G, and they can be transcribed. Task will take roughly six months. The cost, well, there. Would $1,500 be too much? Are you kidding? Short of that, I couldn't help you. Well, is there anything in there? Can you tell me anything about the hearings at all? I spent the time on one section that dealing with the witness, Edna Purcell. And on the basis of my difficulty with this section, I made my estimate. There is, incidentally, a bill of $50. Can you give me her address at least? Yes, of course. You handle the bill. One Slim Hope, a girl. Edna Purcell is her name. Is it still the same? Is she still in Detroit? What'd she remember? Where can you find her? You've got this far, so you keep going. In the city directory for 1929, you learn. Edna Purcell, married Henry Stamper, June 7, 1262 Euclid Avenue. Do you want to Repeat that, please, Mr. G? I just want to know, Mrs. Stamper, if you can remember anything at all about an incident 26 years ago the Fourth of July. Mr. Gall. I started teaching school about, oh, 20 years ago. And one of the teachers at the school was very kind to me. He was a slightly older man. Very understanding. Mr. Stanton. We went around together seven years before he asked me to marry him. I never told him anything. I can't. I never talked about it to anyone. And then Ellen was born. She's getting out of college this month. And Jimmy and Donna. I've got my children, my husband, this house. I do the usual things that a woman does. And I paint a little. What did you want me to say? What do you want? Mr. Gough? You're here. Ralph Gough. It's the moment and the place. But you don't ask, you don't pursue the line you've been pursuing for over a year. Why? Because here is the girl of self now. A woman. The horror is behind her. A life has been built, a structure, a family. Can you upset all this by bringing up the past? Now you must ask yourself whether the innocence of one man is more urgent than the lives of five people. It's okay, Mrs. Stamper. Not important. Not that important, Mr. Gower. Who's important? Which one of us? Which one of us is or isn't? Oh, don't think I don't appreciate that you didn't ask me. I want to talk. All these years I've wondered. Did I lend myself in a moment of hysteria to the frame up of an innocent man? Did I identify the wrong man? And I think now I did. If you'll just let me get my coat and leave a note for Mr. Stanton, I'll be right with you. Now we read you that telegram from Ralph Gall of the Detroit Free Press. Cooperation of Edna, plus my series of big stories and the recommendation of circuit bench of Rockland county all led the governor of Michigan to issue a commutation of Stanley sentence. Stanley is a useful citizen today, earning decent living in large factory in Detroit. Tom Vinton, although never directly connected with crime of framing Stanley, will surely die a prisoner in Marquette Prison. In order to protect the names of people actually involved in tonight's authentic big story, the names of all characters in the dramatization were changed. With the exception of the newspaper reporter, Sam. This is the United States Armed Forces Radio Service. The voice of information and education. Sam. And Doug. There's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Together we're Married me to a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways, get a'@libertymutual.com or with your local agent.
- [28:21]
B
Welcome back. Before we talk about anything else, let's go ahead and get into the cast. And this episode starred Nat Poland as our hero. And he is a future great detectives actor. He would star in Indictment as the assistant district attorney during the late 1950s. Also in the cast, Athena Lord, Joan Shea, Bill Smith, Scott Tennyson, Walter Griese, Tom Heaphy and Humphrey Davis. This is a fascinating story and I think to appreciate it you do have to have the actual timeline. This particular case, the murder occurred in 1917 and our intrepid reporter investigated it in 1943. And you just had to appreciate all of the barriers he faced based on how the world had changed and all of the niche things about the case like, oh yeah, this was never transcribed and the court reporter did it. He's dead and it's indecipherable. In this case, the name of the man who was convicted on this evidence was Allen Livingston. They did find the witness who identified him and she admitted she could have been mistaken in her identification. And this is a quoting from the stories behind the big story by Dr. Joe Webb saying she only caught a
- [30:05]
A
glimpse of the murderer.
- [30:06]
B
Police had stacked the lineup in 1917 to ensure the selection of one of two bums in the five person lineup. The witness said she felt pressured to pick one. Now some of the incidents that Dr. Webb notes lines up with the story. The sheriff did commit suicide before the trial. The judge was killed in an auto accident, which wasn't in the story. The detective did go to prison for, but it was for graft for a gambling ring. One thing that wasn't mentioned is that after a new trial was granted, the original prosecutor committed suicide. I guess the only other observation I had on this episode is I think that really put Gol in this position, that the prisoner felt like reaching out to him was that he really believed that Gol was someone who helped people. And indeed some of the. I think a lot of the strength of the press was a belief that at least some of them specific ones were on the sides of the angels, whether they were or not. And that they cared about people. And I think that that reputation is something that you don't really see a lot in modern journalism, which I think does affect our view of the press and our ability to trust them. One other note, the stories behind the big story. Note that goal not only worked in journalism, but he also became a successful fiction writer and at one point wrote for both the Green Hornet and the Lone Ranger at wxyz, which was also based in Detroit. Well, now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day and I want to go ahead and thank thank you to Bruce patreon supporter since March 2024, currently supporting the podcast at the Psalmist level. $4 or more per month. 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'll be back next Tuesday with another episode of the Big Story, but join us back here tomorrow for Broadway's My
- [32:31]
A
Beat, where, after all, what? The do not Disturb sign has been hanging on the front of the door all day. And here it is, almost midnight. So. So a place like this. Rent a room for 350, pull out the old pills, leave the world to its own sorrow. Ms. Savannah's getting quite a reputation for. Oh, this is the room. That's how I found her. Right there on the bed. I could tell right away she wasn't a suicide. That bullet hole. No gun. Who is she? Took the room yesterday. Registered as Mary Smith. I keep a straight face as long as the payment is made in advance. Even she didn't have luggage. So what? Quite a few of my friends have not a presentable suitcase to their names. What about her visitors? This is her home away from home. That's our philosophy here at the Savannah. Why shouldn't she have visitors after? Did she have them? I don't know. People come and go. A regular little world in itself, this Savannah. I remark this to myself often as I stand at the desk, like I was looking on into a regular little world. That's why I always say, don't say it. Mr. Burgess, I'll take it from here.
- [33:35]
B
I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime, send your comments to box13greatdetectives.net Follow us on Twitter Radio Detectives and check us out on Instagram. Instagram.com/great Detectives from Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Graham, signing off.
- [33:54]
A
And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone, Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. If you're into tech, you'll love this. TikTok is a live lab where users post instant reviews of the latest trends. Download TikTok and check it out. And, Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone. Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your league. Anyways, get a quote@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.