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tonight
auto light bring you to report
hotbed play starring
battleground
go ahead and look at the waiting for you
uh...
if you know captain
all right then i got it
yeah
everything here everything
sorry it had to be this way then yeah
but i couldn't come out of the other way to take it what you want to do with my
true report
and just a moment mister pat o'brien in the first act of true report
well hi a half welcome back to the spirit of a little light alley harlow
wilcock they no more have got to get proclaiming after my summer fiesta
proclaiming that when you replace worn out by plugged in your car with new
ignition engineered auto light spark plugs you'll get
motor performance
saving don't forget i know
all-time spark plugs are ignition engineered right half ignition engineered
by the same auto light engineers who designed the coil distributor and all the
other important parts
that go to make up the complete ignition system used on many of america's leading
makes of cars and trucks
that's why you can't buy better spark plugs for your car and auto light so
friends have a spark plugs in your car checked before you start on that long
labor day weekend drive and if replacements are needed insists on
move nappy ignition engineered auto light spark plug
and whether you choose the resistor type of the standard type
you're always right without a life
and now with true report and the performance of pat o'brien auto light
hopes once again to keep you in
all this very one
captain walbert dot
manor accident investigation division
the police department
from
lieutenant benny j kennedy
no undetailed
real on stacker
attached by supplementary traffic accident report completed this date
disregard other file concerning saying that the decision
today's ago
nine a m
what's your office for the day's assignment
i didn't know it was going to be needed to do
uh...
uh...
well
you're on
and
well given up to leave them
well out there
they have
anything new
that's a good one
i've been i feel
like asking if anything about that
so i think that all routine
sometimes i think i never should have been a car yeah
over hit and run artist named uh... edward franken right
but what's at the bottom of that
i'd good job baghdad
for the lifetime of
too long then
would you believe i used up
three hundred eighty five probable witnesses to that accident came out with
just who knew what they were talking about
but i'm gonna figure out a system for questioning
uh... we go
the gun
uh... good morning man
downplayed make it up
uh... no calls for the next half hour but
well i think i'm initial traffic accident reports twenty two
twenty two traffic accidents in our city in the last twelve hours three of them
fatal
most of them were in accidents
most of them could have been avoided if people are just realize that an
improperly handled causes dangerous as a loaded gun
routine for us but not routine in the lives of the citizens involved
let's get that
nine different people lined up an emergency hospital at night
we've had to test for a look like they won't make it
here's the list
i hate to hand out things like this
hop over there if you can get any statement from them for the
or no
late last night a woman went to a boulevard stop at a button to park our
print calgary
extensive property damage he was all right but a six-year-old daughter was
injured critically
the woman failed at the bride at f
that's how i think i and she couldn't even walk to the police cruiser without
stumbling
report says under attitude abuse claimed he was under drug why do they
always pull that part of the group
because people are afraid to face the truth
one thing i know if you know about it all doesn't smell like
look into it and don't worry about it and you got it
it run on center dot twelve about three thirty this morning victim unidentified
anyway you've uh... enough all night with on that frankly i don't like that
i think another one i know you better not get the then actually
it'll be all day
find a good little ran that for devil down and didn't stop the fever is a
live up to it
and that's the way i got the assignment
that's a statement of two patrolmen with this to me
and i want to work on
like any other case
i would be a little accident report and state to the witness
and happen to be first
and any
police
they were here while they're here again
where's your uniform
how do i know
traffic investigator lieutenant ben kennedy
need where you can
field five this morning you reported a hit-and-run accident for this address
and here i don't like that
gone over all this stuff with them off
that showed up right after i called in man there was run over died receiving
hospital without regaining consciousness
uh... driving a car
what's the problem again
i would
hot
i think that that that
i think that i don't think that i think that
that
cartons off well
i think that
next on the top
two-door the four-door on the car
the office report you say it was a sedan two-door the four-door
i don't know if i'm trying to tell you how to look at
independent world blue green
nighttime no more
three-part bloodline
shared black
black
dark color
shining
uh...
carter
feeding
that mark
and it goes right by this window
and i'm looking at it
and i don't know where he came from
big noise like black breaking in the form and lying half on the street and
happened that are
the car
and i don't know
now i call the police that your job traffic accidents have become everybody's
job
if you look at the driver of the car
that
woman and dot
the officer who wanted you to say she didn't see the driver at all
wasn't a call up about that
and i can't wait to get later i remember that the woman
the young
and that kind of thing that you know
but you're doing out of three in the morning with no good at all i'll give
the possibility of things in this one that was the top of the car and not the
person back
well i don't need it
try to get the license number
to dr
i did not do the the citizen i reported but i thought that
thanks mister
very first and one of the very reliable
well
i don't know if you're going to bring that
gave me enough to start on
and they both have talked to thirty people so the neighborhood and dropped
by the more to look at the victim
period of time
unidentified
the doctor
one other thing both legs
well-known
over five years
well-known
well-known impact
last article including the other hip
with it broken
dot figures wait i can't
high bumpers
that it may get something before nineteen thirty nine
cross-strait
bumpers
and they want us a big truck scrambled on their street like center right all
right
the youthful
both long-term
hi ready
last week of out of them
with the technicians not about paint
not on the body maybe on the floor
technicians of got those two okay but all i need from this with this isn't
we've got a lineup now
that's guys still a john dole
we've got a print on the wire hoping you'll be recorded somewhere but i
recorded somewhere right down time
change that fact along stanker
aren't going to have to do it
arrested him in nineteen thirty six and i was on a lot of detail
small-time grifter
track rolling bookmaking breaking and entering
thirty previous arrest and i think i'm not you are the time i've been the
fighting
at least you know my victim
and all my witness and
they all right
the broken glass and the paint found on the victim of the better story
part of the hit-and-run killer the crime land they don't miss it
and the
the lab
we got the top
i don't have it
the class letters came from a headlight lamp used on port of remixed cars between
thirty seven
about paint
also very
there's a bump on a fender on a broken headlight
maybe a front door
and that's a lot they over twelve years old probably can travel twenty miles
without breaking down
so my hit and run is in town somewhere trying to get a new headlight in the
fender
uh...
yeah
you can't let you know that one of our pro-black that and this morning
direction goes like this
back for a little bit and here thirty seven make unknown
right on headlight shattered
right front bumper dented got it
i want every garage auto parts junk dealer and repair shop in town contacted
on that somebody's going to try and take the bumps out of a car and buy a new
headlight they shouldn't be hired but
before o'clock that afternoon the bulletin was out
we know what kind of car
eight pairs of offices out doing the legwork
with luck i expect to pick up in a matter of hours
uh... i got high
that's up with this time no not too tough
that you're home sleep or you know me got nothing else to do but be a cop
any help no thanks that's my time
i think it won't go
charlie
last year it was in the literature
next year
you're lucky
alice are yes
when you come over for dinner
ike
i don't know what's with me even when i have time off now i come sniffing
it seems to have been
uh... so long
okay
august twenty nine
and that's it
the father of course
not one of the part of the
but it was finally came from a phone call placed by a man named loper
London auto repair shop on
i don't know if it's what you're looking for a little time but it might be
i don't know
i got it in yesterday that he broke the land and then the defender on the road
uh... the only one of that right from the real ones in a lot with j
no registration
the car you're looking for
uh... maybe
and i think that
become up when it comes back
hi mister loper
when i look at the very end of the week atlantic
and the shimmy in the right front wheel of the winfield white
i bought it for charlie first year in college
my own
although i did bring you pat o'brien and who reports
night production in radio about standing here for a thrill
and tomorrow but along labor day weekend
i hope that you make sure that your car is running right before starting on long
trip
that you will have worn out by club replaced with new ignition engineered
auto life
but i have carefully wanted to date tomorrow
because the life you've paid
maybe you're on
and now
all right
while hollywood town stage pat o'brien
in eliot lewis is production of
who report
upheld well calculated to keep you in
group
five improvement
directly he
well
like that addicts mca próximo
play them work with the medics
Pretty soon, you know what the car looked like and you start looking for it
But what do you do when you're a cop and you find the car and you're supposed to arrest your own son and a man for it?
Oh, sorry. What do you do? I drove up to the State University that afternoon to have a talk with my sister.
Rick! Rick! Oh, Mr. Kennedy. Hello Rick, how are you? Uh, you seen Charlie around?
No, I haven't. I went over to the room, the landlady said you were here in the recreation hall. I thought maybe Charlie was with you.
Sorry. Rooming with that guy is like rooming with a ghost. I never see him.
I, uh, you didn't see his salami around anywhere, did you?
No, I didn't.
Was he taken out of town or anything?
Well, sometimes we go over to the county hospital for surgery classes. Maybe he drove over there.
Did I call him there?
No, not in class.
Oh, well...
Well, stick around Mr. Kennedy. You can probably pick him up at the hash house around dinner time. Anything wrong?
No. Say, shouldn't you be studying or something instead of playing that thing?
I'm majoring in the piano. Piano and law, Sergeant.
Lieutenant.
Lieutenant. That'd be 5100 per annum, right? Civil service.
Seem to know all about it, Rick. You should be a cop.
Nope. I'm like Charlie. I want something better.
What?
No offense, Lieutenant, but... well, I mean it's hard going to college.
You didn't answer me.
All right. He didn't go to college. Charlie's put in six hard years already and still a couple to go.
Plenty tough. I live with him. I watch him go through it all. He's building something good here, something important.
Kids sometimes get the wrong idea of how important they're going to be.
They forget about right now. They run around making mistakes and getting themselves into a lot of trouble they can't handle.
They take all their work and study and throw it right out the window when they get in that kind of trouble.
Yeah.
Well, you sort of rung out the philosophy today, haven't you, Mr. Kennedy?
Tell Charlie to call me at home, please.
If I'd waited for him, I don't know what I would have said or done.
If it was, I'd have felt like a rookie with his first course throwing my cap in front of a punk kid.
So I just got out of there and drove back to the city. Lieutenant Geiger was sitting at my desk.
Oh, Ben.
Oh, you want some, Geiger?
Been waiting for you.
What for?
Have you heard of a mechanic named Loper?
Oh, Ben, don't look like I caught you from the dead body at his Loper call here a while ago.
I took the call for you. I said you were in to see him at his garage today.
Wanted to know if the car he had turned out to be the one you were looking for.
No, it wasn't.
Oh, that's not a good way to describe it. Maroon coupe, headlights gone, Ben.
Well, there wasn't a one.
But you think I know what I'm doing on this case?
Sure, Ben, you know what you're doing. Can I see the file?
I have made it out yet.
No.
Come on, give me the file. A cop might put me on this, would he?
I've been with the department 14 years. Don't you think I can handle a simple hit and run case home?
Sure, Ben. I know you can handle it alone. I lost one yet.
I just want to help you keep that perfect record. Perfect.
I took the file home with me. I didn't want Giger to see it until I was good and ready for him to see it.
I couldn't believe that my son Charlie, the kid I'd caught to drive myself,
I couldn't believe that he'd ever kill anyone with his car.
But there was the evidence in an auto body shop on Crestville Street, and I'd
been on too many cases and dragged too many hit and run criminals in to start fooling myself and all.
And trying to tell Alice about it was like trying to tell her that Charlie had suddenly died.
I just couldn't do it.
I'm sorry. Potatoes? Ben, potatoes?
Oh, yeah, thanks.
Your dinner came over today. You can try to do the church bazaar. Tell me my quota is six pies.
Sure, I think I'll make up some of those graham cracker pies.
The ones you always start eating before they're even cool.
Oh, you're not even listening to me. You can tell when you get that not listening look.
Ben. What?
Oh, I guess I've still got my mind on some things.
You don't look well to me. You don't look at all well.
Let me look at your eyes.
I have bloodshot.
You've got a nervous twitch at the core in your mouth.
Your arthritis isn't hitting again, is it?
I'm all right.
I think you better have a doctor look at you.
Next time Charlie comes home, I think he should give you a checkup from Toby.
I think he should give you a checkup from Tota Toml.
Oh, give me that kind of a look.
He's as good as a doctor already. Only two years to go.
I don't want Charlie checking up on my health.
Oh, dear. Oh, I'm upset.
Work is going badly. Another hit and run?
Yeah, 12th and center.
I guess you weren't on that detail anymore.
I wish I'd never been on it.
Oh, Dan. Why, dang dear. Once a man like you, it wouldn't be safe to walk on a city street these days.
Every time you arrest a lawbreaker, you protect somebody's life.
What do you know about it?
Sometimes people just get panicky and forget what they're doing.
Dan...
Besides, the victim in this case was an opalex con, a bum.
Nobody cared whether he was alive or dead.
He didn't sound like you, Dan. He was a human being.
Whoever struck him down should be found and punished to the limit of the law.
Alice. Alice, suppose I had been driving that car.
That's the most foolish thing I ever heard you say.
It takes a certain kind of person to do something like that.
A thoughtless, selfish person. You're not the kind. Not mine, or Charlie, nor anybody we know.
Anyone's capable of doing it.
Anyone capable of driving thoughtlessly, passing red lights,
beating just a little, even having an accident.
Any of them are bad enough. But the runaway was criminal.
I hope you get over it, Dan. I hope you get him quick, too.
Because as long as that kind of person is free to drive a car, he's free to kill someone else.
I couldn't sleep that night thinking about the case, Chief.
Thinking about the case, Chief. Charlie had a full, useful life in Farnham.
If a doctor could save hundreds of lives and pay back the one worthless life he took hundreds of times over.
Justifications? Maybe.
But by midnight, I decided what I had to do.
I stayed up all night and worked on my report.
And I brought it down to your office the next morning.
Is everything, Dan?
Yeah. Incomplete.
No finish, huh?
Finish as far as I'm concerned.
Bird is Geiger out there.
Just walked in.
Well, I want him right now.
Dan, it's sometimes better if you talk it over with a guy.
Maybe. Oh, come in, Geiger.
It's about that hit-and-run, the tanker case Kennedy's handling.
I know all about that case, Captain.
Then you know more than I do.
Kennedy's bogged down.
I'm not bogged down.
This case has never been out.
I only had one witness.
All she could tell me was the car hit tanker.
All the lab reports were guesses.
We had paint and glass.
Paint and glass that could belong to 10,000 cars in this area.
What about this garage man, Loper?
Did that car...
He was just looking for free publicity.
He had a car and figured he'd get some mention in the papers.
Well, if that wasn't the car, Ben, just keep looking.
Maybe a thousand cars later you'll find the right...
I'm set up with it.
Well, Ben, we all get that way once in a while.
I suppose we take you off the case.
You're the captain.
And Geiger, I'm giving it to you.
Here, you can take Ben's report and work from it.
Ben, that's just what I was waiting for you to do.
Turn the whole thing over to Geiger.
It doesn't make any difference who you turn it over to.
The phony clues I'd planted in it the night before it'd take 10 years to run down.
And then I remembered Danker.
Criminal?
Yes.
But run down and left to die on the street.
And I remembered my own.
Captain, that report...
Oh, excuse me, Ben.
Yeah, Sergeant?
Someone to see you, Captain Geiger.
Oh, who?
Charles Kennedy, Lieutenant Kennedy's son.
Send him in.
No, tell him no.
Ben, what's the matter with you?
What goes on?
Oh, Dad, I'm here.
Come in, Charlie.
What can I do for you?
It's about a hit and run.
It's about a hit and run case.
Charlie, I've got to, Dad.
Captain, it's that Danker case.
I'd have come in sooner if I hadn't been up at the county hospital.
What do you know about the Danker case, Charlie?
It was my car that hit him.
Did you know this, Ben?
I found it out yesterday for me at the garage.
It was my car that did it, but somebody else was driving it.
You... you weren't driving it?
No.
Huh?
Suppose you tell us who was driving it, Charlie.
My roommate.
Ricks Blake.
I loaned him the car a couple of days ago.
When he didn't come back with it, I found out he left it in a repair shop in town.
Well, I went down to take a look at it, and my dad's a cop, and I...
I guess I picked up a few things.
I, um...
I got him on outside.
I dragged him down here myself.
All right, Geiger.
It's your case.
Take over and book him.
Thanks for coming in, Charlie.
Ben, what are you going to do?
I guess, Captain, I...
I guess I better go and make out my report.
So here it is, Captain.
My true report.
And my resignation.
I just want to ask you one question.
I just want to ask you one question. If it had been your kid, could you have done any differently?
Suspense presented by Auto Light.
Tonight's star, Pat O'Brien.
Friends, Auto Light has again opened Suspense's new season with a story that shows how
unnecessarily tragic bad driving can be.
Pat O'Brien performance.
Harlow, you know how much I wanted to play Sergeant Kennedy.
I sure liked the role, but I also wanted to do my part to help prevent highway accidents
this Labor Day weekend.
Driving accidents are horrible to the man, woman, a child, engineer killed,
and they're doubly horrible to their family.
That also always changed each one of his greatest right in the world, the right to live.
Now tonight, on behalf of Ned Dearborn, President of the National Safety Council,
it is my special privilege to present the National Safety Council's Public Interest Award
to Mr. Royce G. Martin, Chairman of the Board and President of the Electric Auto Light Company.
Auto Light, sponsor of Suspense, has won this Distinguished Service to Safety Award
for the second straight year.
Thank you, Mr. O'Brien.
Safety is as much our business as manufacturing, automotive, aviation, and marine products in our
plants throughout the world.
Auto Light has always assisted all efforts of the great automotive industry to make America
a safe driving nation.
Tonight, on Suspense, Auto Light repeats a message that can never be repeated enough.
Drive carefully.
The life you save may be your own.
So let's all be interested this Labor Day weekend in two driving lives,
our own and the other fellow's.
A lot of lives will be saved if we are.
Thank you, Mr. Martin.
Next week, at the same time, Auto Light will bring you Miss Ida Lupino in the tip,
a tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense!
Tonight's Suspense play was produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with music composed by Lucian
Morawec and conducted by Lud Bluskin.
Parts of this program were transcribed.
To report is an original play written for Suspense by E. Jack Newman and John Michael
Hayes.
Paddle Brian may now be seen in Johnny One-Eye.
Auto Light and its 96,000 dealers wish you all a happy, safe Labor Day weekend.
Good driving, good night.
You're always right.
With Auto Light...
...and E. Jack Newman, CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.