And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Tonight, the story of a perfect fraud that succeeded only too well. It's called Final Payment.
So now, starring Harry Bartell with Peter Leeds, here is tonight's Suspense play, Final Payment.
Silence! Silence in the courtroom!
There's another outbreak such as this, our Lord of the Courtroom, clear. Your Honor.
Yes, Mr. Sheridan. I'd like to request a 30-minute recess. I assure you, Your Honor, we were certainly not prepared for anything like this.
I understand, Mr. Sheridan. And in view of the unusual circumstances, I grant your request.
This court is recessed and will reconvene in 30 minutes.
All right, all right. What's everybody staring at me for? What's wrong?
You can't possibly suspect a thing, not a thing.
But maybe, was there something we missed? Something we didn't think about?
The day it started, Chicago. The day I ran into Sam at the lunch counter. Maybe there was something then. Maybe that's when we made a mistake.
Gee, Joe, it sure has been a long time, hasn't it?
Ten years. You know, it doesn't seem that long.
Hey, what happened to you after the Italian campaign? One day you were there, the next day gone.
Well, I was shipped back to the States and then out to the Philippines.
Do you see any action?
Oh, some. A little.
You know, Sam, you haven't changed a bit. Put on a little weight, maybe.
Haven't we all? And some gray hair.
Oh, I'm a lot grayer than you.
Well, maybe I haven't got as many worries as you have.
I guess you live right.
I guess I do. Oh, you're married, Joe?
Oh, yeah. I got a couple of kids.
Oh, that's wonderful.
I'm working with a construction gang right now. It isn't what I want, but it'll do.
Temporarily, you mean?
Yeah.
Got to keep the family eating, huh?
Sure do.
Bet it gets rough sometimes.
Yeah, sometimes.
It takes a lot of sweat to keep a family these days.
You got a family, Sam?
Oh, no, no. But I know the problems.
Hey, what are you doing in Chicago? You live here?
No. I'm just passing through.
What kind of work you're doing?
Well, Joe, right now let's just say I'm in between jobs.
Actually, Joe, I'm looking for a partner.
A partner?
Mm-hmm. A partner to split a profit of $100,000 with me.
A hundred? Say, Joe, I'll tell you what.
I'm going to be in town for another couple of days.
Look, here's the phone number of the hotel where I'm staying.
You know, it never occurred to me, but you might be interested in hearing about this deal.
Sam, I don't have an old spare tennis shoe. I couldn't invest in a business.
Joe, I said I'm looking for a partner to split $100,000 with.
I didn't say anything about investing money.
If you're interested, give me a call.
Maybe it was the night I called Sam at his hotel.
I remember I called him right after work.
And then I called Mary, told her I'd met a friend and wouldn't be home for dinner.
And there was that bar over on Halsted where we met.
Maybe somebody in there remembered.
It's a new twist on an old racket, Joe, a guy who pretends he's hurt, only he isn't.
The insurance company's a wise, Sam. You never get away with it.
Wait, wait. Now, first I got to know if you're interested, Joe.
First I got to know that. Then I'll tell you the twist.
Well?
Yeah. Yeah, all right. I'm interested.
Good. Now, this is the way it works.
You and the family move to a small town.
You buy yourself a moderately cheap car. Get a job.
You live there a couple of months and you call on the insurance agent of a big company.
You take out a small policy.
A couple of months later, you increase this policy to $100,000 liability.
In the meantime, I arrive in the same town, take up residence.
Now we both live there, maybe on the opposite sides of the town.
You still with me?
Yeah, go ahead.
Then one day, a year later, I step off the curb at a certain intersection.
You're driving home from work. You hit me.
Hit you?
Yeah.
I dodged a lot of tanks in Italy, but somehow I can't dodge the right fender of your car.
I tell you to forget about it. You do.
You don't even bother to tell the insurance company about it because I seem like such a nice guy.
Only I'm not a nice guy because a couple of weeks later, I got you in court and I'm suing you for a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
You know, Joe, I figure by the time we settle, it'll be an even hundred thousand.
But when the insurance company finds out...
It'll be too late.
I don't get it, Sam. They'll fight it. They'll...
Oh, sure, sure. They'll have some notice before and they'll come to you and give you a big thing on how they're going to fight this case.
That's what I mean.
And you, Joe, you're going to cooperate with them 100%.
And now the twist. It takes place the day you go under cross...
I don't understand anything about it. I don't understand. But my gosh, you just stood there like this.
Oh, no, I don't...
You go under cross examination. You're going to break down and confess it was your fault.
Confess? But, Sam...
Joe, the worst you can get is maybe a charge of criminal negligence, maybe a fine, your driver's license suspended for a year.
But it's... it's worth 50 G's, isn't it? It's crazy. So crazy it could come off.
Well, Joe, $50,000.
You know, if I thought for one minute...
What can go wrong?
I don't know. I don't know.
I got to talk this over with Mary.
Oh, no. No, you don't talk this over with anyone. You understand me? No one.
You're the only one besides myself that knows. We can't afford to take a chance, Joe. Not even on your wife.
But if I just pick up stakes and take off of some small jerk water town, Mary's going to want to know...
Take up some excuse. It doesn't matter anything. Better climate for the kids. You want to get ahead?
Well, what do you say?
All right. Count me in.
When I told Mary what I decided to do about the move and all, she raised some questions, but that was the end of it.
I took the few dollars we had in the savings account and bought a cheap car.
And a week later, we piled our belongings into it and headed for a small town in Indiana.
Sam picked this town in Indiana because a big insurance company had a local office there.
I got a job with a machine shop. The pay wasn't high, but it kept us in food and clothes.
And there was enough left over to make payments on the insurance policy I'd taken out.
Three months later, I called the insurance agent and told him I wanted to increase my liability policy to $100,000.
Was it then? Was there some slip up that night Mr. Hirsch came to the house? Did something happen then?
Well, Mr. Thurston, I think we've got everything. All you do now is just sign right here.
Here you are, Mr. Hirsch.
Well, that does it, Joe. You're all set.
Sure makes me feel a lot better.
I'm sure it does. Well, I guess I'll be on my way.
I want to thank you very much, Mr. Hirsch.
Oh, my pleasure.
It wouldn't have been then, there wasn't anything.
Then one day on a coffee break at a little cafeteria, I noticed someone out of the corner of my eye.
He sat down on a stool next to me.
Hiya, kid.
Sam.
I got in town about a week ago. How's everything going, Joe?
Fine.
You're keeping up the payments on the policy?
Yeah.
Good. I'll contact you again right before we're ready to pull it off.
Six months passed, six months of waiting.
I got a promotion at the machine shop.
Mary seemed real happy.
But every day I waited for some word from Sam.
Maybe something had gone wrong.
And then one night I went to a union meeting.
I sat and listened to the guys discuss plans for the company's annual picnic.
Then we took five for a smoke.
Pardon me, mister, you got a light?
Yeah, sure.
Thanks.
The time's ripe, Joe.
Are you sure?
I'm sure.
Now listen carefully and get this in your head.
Yeah, I'm listening.
Day after tomorrow, 515 at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Wabash Boulevard.
Yeah.
I'll be on the southeast corner.
I've clot you the last week. You hit the corner at 515 exactly.
Remember that?
515, corner of 3rd Avenue and Wabash Boulevard.
You'll be on the southeast corner. I got it.
Good.
Now go on home, buddy.
The next time I see you, we're gonna have an accident.
An accident worth 50,000 bucks.
You are listening to Final Payment,
tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
This Sunday night on CBS Radio, Cornell Wild stars as Charlemagne
in a radio hall of fame dramatization spotlighting great moments in French history.
Edward Arnold is your host, as the radio hall of fame brings to light
stirring events of bygone days with pomp and splendor and high drama.
That's Sunday night on most of these same stations.
And now we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage, Harry Bartel and Peter Leeds,
starring in tonight's production of Final Payment,
a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
I've got to think.
I've got to go back over everything to remember if there was a slip.
I've got to remember.
The instructions.
Sam gave me the instructions that night at the union meeting.
I memorized them. I memorized them. I know I did.
Thursday was like a nightmare.
I could hardly concentrate on what I was doing at work.
All day long I was nervous.
Then it was five to five.
Time to wash up and get moving.
Punched my time card, put it back in the rack,
walked out to my car in a parking lot and started.
I drove east on Wabash Boulevard.
My watch said 513.
Traffic was light.
Third Avenue was six long blocks away.
My hands were so wet from perspiration,
I could hardly grip the steering wheel of the car.
I kept in the right-hand lane.
Four blocks away.
Kept the car going slow.
Then I had to stop for the light at the corner of Fourth Avenue.
Looked at my watch again.
It was 514.
The light changed.
I moved ahead.
I was just supposed to keep driving.
And then I saw him.
Standing alone on the curb at the corner of Third.
He stepped off.
I didn't see him.
Is he hurt bad? Is he going to be all right?
Somebody please call an ambulance, quick!
Gee, mister, I'm sorry. I'm awful sorry.
No, no.
Oh, there, there.
Hey, hey, I can stand up.
There's no broken bones.
I guess I'm okay, fella. Just shook up a bit.
Don't worry about it.
Yeah, sure, but you ought to see it.
Now, look, look. I'm okay.
See?
The cop came. He took our names.
No one had actually seen the accident,
so there were no witnesses.
We both told the cop that we didn't know who was wrong.
Then the ambulance arrived,
and they took Sam down to the emergency hospital
for a general checkup.
He said he had a headache.
He made it look good and sound good.
My car hadn't even touched his head.
When I got home, I told Mary about the accident.
Accident? Where, Joe?
Down the corner of Third Avenue and Wabash Boulevard.
What happened?
Some guy stepped off the curb
and didn't bother to look where he was going.
He stepped right in front of the car.
Oh, Joe.
Now, don't worry, honey.
I guess I'm lucky.
Guy wouldn't even hurt.
Shook up a bit. That's about all.
But, Joe, you never can tell.
Did you get his name and address?
Look, look, honey.
I said never mind about it.
It's all taken care of.
The police were there. There's nothing to worry about.
But I do worry about it, Joe.
Did you get in touch with the insurance company?
Insurance company?
What for? I didn't even scratch a paint on the car.
Oh, that isn't what I meant.
I mean about if he should suddenly find something wrong,
and then he'd sue yours.
Oh, don't be silly, honey.
I told you he was a real nice guy. He told me to forget it.
Well, you never can tell about these things.
What are you doing?
I'm gonna call the man from the insurance company.
I said to forget it. Do you hear me?
Why, Joe, I don't understand.
I'm sorry, honey. It's just...
Look, the guy was a nice guy.
He knows it was his fault.
He's not gonna cause me any trouble.
What about dinner?
Let's have dinner, huh? I'm hungry.
All right, Joe.
We'll forget it if you say so.
A week later, the insurance company got served with the papers.
Sam filed a suit against me for $200,000.
Naturally, as soon as the insurance company received the papers,
they called me on the telephone.
They were upset. Real upset.
I just wish you'd called us when it happened, Mr. Thurston.
You made a big mistake by not calling us.
Yeah, I know, Mr. Hirsch. I guess I ought to have my head examined.
My wife told me to call. I guess I should have.
But you see, when it happened, he seemed like such a nice guy.
He told me not to worry about it.
Even when the ambulance carried him away, he told me to forget it.
Well, sure. That's an old trick. A lot of them pull it.
What do you mean, an old trick?
Well, a lot of people try to beat the insurance companies that way.
You'd be surprised.
Well, what's going to happen?
Well, I think we got a good case.
We've got no witnesses, but then neither has he.
The police report gives a pretty comprehensive picture of the thing,
the way it was reported.
So, in the final analysis, it's your word against his.
Yeah, I see. Well, that's good, isn't it?
Well, it means we've got at least a 50-50 chance. Maybe better.
You see, when they got him to the hospital,
he put up a big fuss about being examined.
Why?
Unless he'd already figured cashing in on this thing.
Things like that make me suspicious, Mr. Thurston.
Very suspicious.
The lawyers got together and agreed on an early date for the trial.
The attorney for the insurance company, a Mr. Sheridan,
met with me a number of times and made me go over and over the details of the accident.
And then the day the case arrived,
according to Sam, I was supposed to break down and confess it was my fault
while I was being cross-examined.
And Sam didn't show up in court.
His attorney said he'd been indisposed,
but he would deliver the brief without his client's presence.
That kind of upset me. I depended on Sam to be there to give me reassurance.
All right, Mr. Thurston, now in your own words,
tell the court what happened on that day.
Well, I...
Go ahead, take your time.
Well, I was driving home from work.
I was going maybe 30 miles an hour,
maybe a couple of miles one way or the other.
I...
You were driving home?
Yes, sir, and I was in the right-hand lane,
and this fella, Mr. Monroe,
he stepped off the curb and right into the path of my car.
He stepped into the path of your car?
Yes, sir, that's right. I guess he wasn't looking.
Is that all?
Yes, sir, that's all.
Your witness?
Any cross-examination, Mr. Green?
Yes, sir.
Proceed.
Now, Mr. Thurston, I have a few questions I'd like to ask you.
Yes, sir.
Try to answer these questions as honestly as you can.
I object, Your Honor. That is not...
Objection sustained.
Now, according to your earlier testimony, Mr. Thurston,
you were going east on Wabash, is that right?
Yes, sir.
Mr. Thurston, do you know if there is a stop signal
at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Wabash Boulevard,
the intersection where the accident occurred?
Yes, sir, I think there is.
There is?
Mr. Thurston, do you remember if the light was green or red
as you approached the corner?
I think it was green.
I see.
Now, according to your testimony,
you said you saw Mr. Monroe step off the...
No, no, no, excuse me.
I didn't see him. I mean, I kind of saw him and yet...
Mr. Thurston, you either saw him or you didn't.
Now, which is it?
Or perhaps you can explain to the court
how you can kind of see a person step off.
Well, what I meant to say...
Either you saw him or you didn't.
Which is it, Mr. Thurston?
Well, I...
May I remind you that you are under solemn oath
to tell the truth?
Is it possible you didn't see him and the light had turned red,
is that the way it was, yes or no?
No.
No, I didn't see him.
What did you say, Mr. Thurston?
I didn't say him. I said I didn't say him.
Why didn't you see him, Mr. Thurston?
Where were your eyes when they should have been watching the street
in front of you while you were driving?
Where were your eyes, Mr. Thurston?
I don't know.
Yes, you do. You know very well where they were.
Now, tell us.
On the light? On the traffic in front of you?
They couldn't have been on the light.
You told us yourself you didn't know whether the light was green or red.
You said you didn't see the plaintiff.
Well, then, where were your eyes?
Somewhere else, I guess.
Where, Mr. Thurston? You tell us where.
I buy a paper every night.
It was on the seat next to me.
Maybe for just a second I took my eyes off the road
and looked down at the paper.
You took your eyes off the road to look down at the newspaper
on the seat beside you.
And it was during that time that the light changed to red.
The plaintiff stepped off the curb and you hit him.
Isn't that right, Mr. Thurston? Isn't that the way it was?
Yes, that's what happened.
I didn't see him. I didn't mean it.
I can't hear you, Mr. Thurston. Speak up.
I didn't see him. I didn't mean it.
That's what happened. It was my fault, but I couldn't help it.
I swear I couldn't.
Nothing.
There wasn't a slip in the whole setup.
It was perfect. I know it was.
Now the recess is over.
Everybody is against me. I can feel it.
Even Mary.
But she'll understand. I know she'll understand.
Your Honor, I am sure you realize that under the circumstances
of what has just happened, the defense would like to request
to stay on the verdict at this time.
We would like to probe a little more thoroughly
into what to us appears to be a definite reversal of opinion
on the part of the defendant. Something...
Your Honor, if I may interrupt.
Mr. Green?
Your Honor, his request may not be necessary
in view of some news I've just received.
Whoa, this is highly irregular.
My client's absence in this courtroom has been most conspicuous.
I can now tell you the reason.
This morning he was rushed to the Veterans Hospital.
I have received some news from the hospital.
He suffered a severe brain concussion when he fell.
His head struck the pavement.
Your Honor, my client died an hour ago.
No. No, Sam didn't die. It's a trick.
You're lying. He couldn't have died.
I didn't hit him that hard.
You're lying to try to trick me.
Now that isn't the way you had it planned.
He wasn't hurt. He said he wasn't.
This isn't the way it was going to be!
I'm waiting for another trial.
My trial.
A manslaughter.
I shouldn't be here.
This isn't the way it was going to be.
Sam didn't tell me he had a steel plate in his head.
Suspense.
In which Harry Bartel and Peter Leeds starred in Dick Pedicini and Phil Cole's Final Payment.
Next week, the story of a man who insisted upon finishing the murder he had never committed.
We call it the case history of a murderer.
Next week on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed by Anthony Ellis.
The music was composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by Wilbur Hatch.
Featured in the cast were Vivi Janis, Barney Phillips, Victor Rodman, John Lark, and Byron Cain.
America listens most to the CBS radio network.
Next week on Suspense.