Suspense.
And the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, the master of mystery and adventure,
William M. Robeson.
What you are about to hear is more than the lurid figments of this writer's imagination.
It has happened in the prisons of Michigan and New Jersey, Massachusetts and Colorado
and elsewhere, when desperate men oppressed beyond endurance turn upon their tormentors.
Not a prison break, not a prison riot, but a prison mutiny.
Listen now as Howard Duff stars in Eyewitness, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
All you want is the background for an article on the state's prison.
The managing editor has assigned you because you've never been inside a penitentiary before.
Fresh point of view and so on.
But you get the distinct feeling that you're an unwelcome visitor here.
The warden makes one thing plain.
Of course, anything you may write about the institution will have to be cleared through
me.
And outside the main gate, your guide, the captain of the yard, comes up with a charming
thought.
Inside there you may see somebody you know or there may be somebody who knows you.
May try to speak to you.
If they do, don't answer them and don't speak to anyone.
Don't give anything, don't take anything.
Everybody's better off that way.
Well, I don't want to seem facetious, but I doubt if any friends of mine are in there.
You never know, Mr. Kelly.
You never know.
And as the guard turns the key, you step inside the prison, you feel that you are a prisoner.
You feel you will never walk back through that door alive.
The door opens and you are inside.
This here's the yard, Mr. Kelly.
The yard.
Men.
Hundreds of men.
Sitting in groups talking, standing in groups talking.
A great beast in blue.
Each man dressed alike in faded blue dungarees, blue shirt and blue denim jacket.
These are the disenfranchised.
The men without names, without citizenship.
You step ahead of the captain and he grabs your arm and his fingers go deep.
On the sidewalk, Mr. Kelly.
The sidewalk?
Yeah.
Sidewalks out of bounds.
To the prison?
The inmates?
Yeah.
Why?
We got to have a way to get around too.
Why can't we just walk through?
You want to get yourself killed, okay, but not when I'm responsible for you.
Then you notice something.
As you walk along the side of the yard, they're casing you.
The men in the group standing, squatting, sitting, notice you first and then the captain
immediately turn their backs.
It's a subtle choreography of a faded blue ballet.
A flick of the eyes, a turn of the head and as you pass a solid phalanx of backs, blue
denim backs.
But the faces before they turn, they're the faces of men, not convicts.
The faces of the boy on the bakery truck, the teller in the bank, the checker in the
supermarket and that old one, a lifer probably, might be the face of your father.
And you shudder a little and you think the difference between them and you is that they
got caught.
Captain Wolf shows you the dining hall where dinner begins at 3.30 in the afternoon in
order that five and a half thousand convicts, eating in shifts, can finish their evening
meal by 6.30.
He shows you condemned row.
He shows you the death house.
A feeling of suffocation grows on you.
The pall of prison begins to shroud you.
You've had it and you want to walk out of those gates as fast as you can because you can.
Well, it's been a very interesting tour, Captain.
Now I think...
Wait a minute before you go, Mr. Kelly.
Here's something you ought to see.
What's that?
The old block, that building right ahead, built more than a hundred years ago.
Oh?
That's where we keep the bad ones.
Bad ones?
Yeah, in solitary, the tough guys, the deviates.
It softens them up fast, most of them.
The old block, a fortress prison, and the date chiseled in its keystone, A.D. 1847,
a reminder that it was built when prisons were intended only to punish, never to correct.
This will take only a minute and you ought to see it.
Ain't changed much in over a hundred years, I can tell you.
You stop in front of a heavy steel door, but no guard peers through the bulletproof glass
peephole.
The door is not instantly unlocked like the others had been.
That's funny.
Should be a man on the door at all times.
Oh, there he is.
Go ahead on in, Mr. Kelly.
You walk in, your eyes temporarily blinded by the transition from the bright daylight
to the dimness of this corridor.
The door clangs behind you.
When you feel something sharp jab your back.
All right, both of you, stand where you are.
Say, what is this?
You're referring to what you feel in the middle of your back.
It was once a file from the machine shop, now it's a shiv.
And if you make one move, Wolf, I'll drive it straight through your gut.
Frisk him, Joe.
Yep.
Here's a sabbath.
Good.
Here's a gun.
Good.
We can use them.
Now this one's clean.
He's an outsider.
You can't get away with this.
We can't.
We have.
I'm happy to report, Captain Wolf, that the old cell block is completely controlled by
its 32 inmates, with the four guards and the captain himself as hostages, not to mention
an anonymous outsider.
Now listen, you're asking for trouble.
Mr. Kelly here is from the Capital News Telegram.
Oh, a journalist.
I couldn't ask for a better host...
Well, a guest.
I think, Mr. Kelly, you'll serve us better than even the warden could.
I trust we didn't tear your jacket when we were forced to stick you a moment ago, Mr.
Kelly.
I don't think so.
I hope not.
The name, Mr. Kelly, is J. Conrad Allen.
That's spelled with one L, Mr. Kelly.
Whether I end up a live lifer, a dead hero, be sure, Mr. Kelly, to spell it with one L.
Hey, Connie, I...
Don't call me Con.
The name is Conrad.
I'm sorry, Conrad.
What do you want me to do with these two?
Lock them up with the guards?
Oh, not yet.
I'll need Captain Wolfe's cooperation.
You won't get it.
Would you like to bet on that?
Well...
How about you, Mr. Kelly?
Are you going to cooperate?
I don't know.
I...
Well, we'll see.
All right, men, listen to me.
Now, look, here's why we stand.
We got Limpy to thank for this.
He pretended to be sick and got that Greenhorn guard to open his cell.
He conked the guard, locked him in his cell, and let Big Joe and me out.
We took care of the rest of the guards.
They're all locked up in cell number three.
All right, quiet, quiet.
Wait a minute.
That's not all.
Just after we got them locked up, who should walk in but our old friend, the captain of
the yard, Lord Cub Wolfe?
I'm next.
Come on.
We also have another guest, Mr. Kelly of the Capital News-Telegram.
An outsider.
He ain't no good to us.
Well, don't be too sure about that.
Now, there are 32 of us and we have the guards for guns.
Now, let's handle this thing in a democratic fashion.
What do you want to do next?
Let's break out of here.
Come on.
All right.
Wait a minute.
Break out, Tony.
How far would we get?
As far as the yard, you think, all the way to the slot with gun guards in every tower,
you think our four rods would get us very far?
Yeah, he's right, Tony.
We can't break out of here.
We can't get anywhere.
I say let's get back in our cells and spring the guards.
We're only asking for more trouble, if we're out.
You would figure that way, Pop.
From your point of view, you're right.
You aren't going anywhere.
You're in here for life.
All right, then let's go.
Let's make a break for it.
Come on.
No, that won't work.
But I'll tell you what will.
The three guards, Lord Tub Wolf and Mr. Kelly will work for us.
I don't get it.
What are you driving at, Conrad?
Don't call me Con.
I'm sorry, Conrad.
We're going to get plenty out of this.
We're going to get a square deal.
We're going to get better food.
We're going to get bars on those cells instead of solid doors.
We're going to get rid of straight jackets and leg irons in the dungeon.
Oh, we're going to get a lot of things out of this.
How are we going to get all that?
You just stick with me.
I'll show you.
First, they don't know anything's happened yet.
So let's tell them.
Come on, get on the telephone, Captain Wolf, and call the warden.
I will.
I got it.
What did you say?
It is sharp, ain't it, Lord Tub?
Come on, get on the phone.
Tell the warden where you are and what's happened.
Tell him to send over our supper just the same and to wait for further instructions.
Here.
All right, I'll dial it.
Here now.
Talk.
Warden speaking.
Warden, this is Captain Wolf.
Yes, Wolf?
I'm talking from the old cell block.
The cons have taken it over.
What?
They got me and McGuire and that new kid and Feeney.
Yeah, Mr. Kelly.
Warden, if I was you, I...
I'm giving out the advice around here.
Give me that phone.
And stop whimpering, Joe.
I only stuck you a little bit.
Lock him up in free cell, Joe.
Okay, Conrad.
Come on, you.
Hello, Warden.
What have you done to Captain Wolf?
Oh, don't worry, Warden.
We just drew a little blood.
Now you get this.
Who is this speaking?
J. Conrad Allen.
Oh, number 6720.
No, Warden, J. Conrad Allen is the name.
What do you want?
We don't want any funny business from you.
Now look here.
No, you look here, Warden.
Now look, you just sit tight until you hear from me again.
And don't you forget, you're not the only one who's going to get hurt.
You're going to get hurt.
Now look, you just sit tight until you hear from me again, and don't you forget to send
supper over as usual.
I will not.
Okay, Warden, okay.
Don't send the supper then, but you better send a stretcher, because we're just about
to beat up a guard.
Big Joe.
Yeah, which one, Conrad?
The one who's so handy with the chain strap.
Finney?
Yeah, that's him.
Here's his chain.
Use it on him.
It'll be a pleasure.
Your throat goes dry as you watch it, and your insides turn over.
It's amazing how little time it takes to beat a man into an insensible pulp with a length
of chain.
And then it's all over, and they toss Finney's bleeding hulk out into the yard.
You are listening to Eye Witness, starring Howard Duff.
A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
After they've carried Finney's broken body away, it doesn't take long for supper to arrive,
rolled up to the door on steam carts by frightened trustees.
The men of the old cell block fall, too, with an appetite you can't share.
Not only because the soup is greasy and thin, and the bread rough and thick, but also because
you've just seen a man nearly beaten to death.
Why, you're not eating, Mr. Kelly.
I'm not very hungry.
I don't blame you.
But after a while, you get hungry in here.
You get so hungry you'll even eat this duck.
Yeah, I suppose you do.
But don't think just because this is punishment food that it's much better than the mess hall.
It isn't.
It's just more filling over there.
Did you have to do it?
What?
Beat up the guard.
Of course.
Why?
Force.
That's the only thing they understand.
The guard's the warden.
That's the way they treat us.
You don't have to do anything.
You just have to have a guard down on you.
And it can mean three days in a straight jacket.
You get in a real rhubarb and you can go down to the dungeon for anywhere from a week to
a month.
The dungeon?
Yeah.
The dungeon.
It's down in the cellar of this block.
Cells are five feet long, five feet high, and three feet wide.
So you can't lie down, you can't stand up, and there's no light.
It's not a pretty place, Mr. Kelly.
You see what I mean?
I'm beginning to.
Okay, Mr. Kelly.
It's your story.
What do you mean?
Oh, Mr. Kelly, for a newspaper man, you amaze me.
It's your story, eyewitness.
You gonna let me out?
Oh, no, indeed, we need you.
Well, then how can I?
Phone it in.
When's the morning edition go to press?
Bulldogs put the bet at 815.
All right, you got a little more than an hour.
Can you do it?
Sure, if I can get a call through.
You'll get a call through.
Hello?
Outside line, please.
What?
You heard me, Warden.
Tell the operator to give us an outside line.
What are you trying?
Mr. Kelly wants to file a story.
Well, no story goes out of here without my okay.
No?
I bet you're holding a press conference in your office right now, aren't you?
Well, so am I.
Mr. Kelly wants to file his story.
I will not be intimidated.
How's Feeney, Warden?
Is he resting easy?
Who do you want next, McGuire or that green kid who opened the first cell?
Name him.
We'll deliver him to you in pieces.
Look here, Alan, don't you realize what will happen to you men?
You can't get out of there.
You're already in bad trouble, all of you.
You've forfeited your chance for parole by breaking out.
You've extended your sentences by beating up Feeney.
You're only making it worse on yourself.
Now, if you don't give up, you'll all spend the rest of your lives right where you are,
in the old block.
Uh, threats, Warden?
You threatening us?
What's the matter?
Scared?
Because we're not.
We're sitting pretty, Warden.
You, you've got plenty to lose.
You might lose your job.
And where could you ever find another one so cushy?
You better play ball with us, Warden, because we're playing for keeps.
Now get me an outside line.
I will not.
Okay, Big Joe, go to work on the next goon.
Sure.
Wait a minute, you can't.
It's inhuman.
I suppose the dungeon isn't.
But you can't.
Get me that outside line, Warden.
Give me your word you won't harm that man.
I'll give you my word for now.
You get me that line.
What number do you want?
Get me the Capital News Telegram.
The managing editor.
Yeah, person to person to the managing editor, Mr. Wiley Brooks.
How did you know?
And make it snappy.
How did you know V.M.E.'s name?
Why, uh, I've been around some, Mr. Kelly.
I needn't warn you, I suppose, not to double-cross us.
How could I?
I don't know, but just don't.
You saw what happened to Feeney.
Yeah, I saw.
But I have to include that in my story.
I want you to.
It happened.
We're not ashamed of it.
Oh, and here.
You'll want to include this.
What's this?
A list of demands.
Oh, I want to get that in.
I want the warden to see that in print and the prison board and the governor.
News Telegram, Brooks speaking.
Hello, Wiley.
This is Conrad Allen speaking.
Conrad?
I thought you were in prison.
Yeah, I am.
Well, then what...
What's going on up there?
We got a flash that there was some trouble.
There is.
We got a man up there, but we haven't heard from him.
You will.
Say, what is this?
Well, I've never forgotten what you did for me during my trial.
Well, I knew you were framed.
After all, you were the best city hall reporter I ever had.
Oh, thank you.
I told you I'd return the favor some day.
I got an eyewitness story for you on the mutiny in the old cell block.
Well, let's have it.
Well, you know me, Wiley.
I was never very good at phoning a story in.
I think better to typewriter, so I'll turn you over to your Mr. Kelly.
Is he there?
Yeah, he's one of our hostages.
One of your...
Take it from here, Mr. Kelly.
Hello, Wiley.
What are you doing up there, Bob?
I'll fill you in when I get out of here, if I get out.
Right now, here's the story.
Ready?
Ready.
At 3.43 this afternoon in the old cell block at State's prison, John J. Casey, Ilias Lempi...
You dictate the story as fast as you can, including the mutineers' list of demands.
Abolition of the dungeon, better food, abolition of the use of straightjackets, chains, whips,
and blackjacks, and no reprisals against the prisoners involved in the mutiny.
Well, that winds it up as of this minute, Wiley.
Wait a minute, I got something to add.
Just a minute.
Conrad Allen, that's spelled with one L.
I know.
He wants to add something.
Hello, Wiley.
Yes, Conrad.
Look, I got three guards left.
Your bulldog still hits the street at 10 p.m., doesn't it?
That's right.
If they don't meet our demands by midnight, we beat up a guard.
The next one goes at 4 a.m., the last one at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning.
You can print that.
Yeah.
Okay, Conrad, but listen, let Bob Kelly out of there, will you?
I need him on this story.
Uh-uh, Wiley, he's on the story and we need him.
And if they don't give in by 8 a.m., when I run out of guards, I'll need your Mr. Kelly
very badly.
You hear it, you don't believe it.
And then you think of Feeney, and you're not so sure.
Time drags on.
Some of the men go back to their cells to sleep in the unaccustomed half-freedom of
open doors.
A couple of them pull the doors quietly shut because sleep is impossible when the door
is open.
Eight o'clock, nine o'clock, ten.
Well, the paper's on the street now.
Eleven o'clock.
The tension mounts.
Slowly Conrad's midnight deadline approaches.
The hands creep toward twelve.
They meet, point upward.
Ten seconds.
Fifteen.
Nothing happens.
Okay, boys.
Who's next?
How about Maguire, the blackjack specialist?
Use his own on him.
Okay, Conrad.
Warden speaking.
Send a stretcher, Warden.
Maguire will be ready for you in five minutes.
Here's your answer, Conrad.
Hey, the lights!
Somebody turn off the lights!
So that's the way he wants it.
What word do you want to use?
Pandemonium, chaos, anarchy?
They all fit.
While the screaming guard is beaten into unconsciousness, the roaring men break apart
the wooden furniture, dump the cots over the balconies, rip open the mattresses, and build
a fire in the middle of the cell block.
And at last, after the guard has been dumped into the yard and carried away, their anger
subsides into sullen silence.
Four more hours drag by, and at last Conrad's next deadline arrives.
Ready to give in, Warden?
Are you thirsty, Conrad?
What do you mean?
You will be.
Why the crummy...
Hey, Limpy!
Yeah?
Turn on the water tap in your cell.
Huh?
Turn it on.
It's just a trickle.
It stopped.
Well, come here.
Yeah.
Yeah, Conrad.
Look, keep it to yourself, you understand?
Well, what does it mean?
They turn off the water?
Just keep it to yourself.
Don't tell the other guys.
Oh, they'll find out soon enough.
Yeah, but let's not tell them, huh?
Let them find out by themselves.
Look here, Conrad, don't you see they got you licked?
No, they haven't, Mr. Kelly.
They're scared.
They're plenty scared.
In the name of humanity, why don't you stop this?
Stop now?
We can't stop.
Hey, Conrad, something's going on outside.
What is it?
I can't tell.
Sounds like digging out and back.
Well, can't you see?
You kidding?
We ain't got no lights, remember?
And the yard lights are out.
Hmm.
Time to throw him another bone.
Which one this time?
How about the greenhorn kid?
Oh, but he's the one who let me out.
Well, he's a guard, isn't he?
Go to work on him.
So the greenhorn kid gets his and is dumped into the yard.
And you sit and wait in the darkness until gray light spreads over the gray walls and
through the tiny windows, turning the blackness of the block into a lighter black.
And one by one, the men awaken.
Hey, Conrad, there ain't no water on the taps.
I know.
What is this?
Did they turn off the water?
Yeah.
Another hour goes by, and it's breakfast time.
Hey, Conrad, when do we eat?
We wait and see.
Well, I'm hungry.
We wait.
Eight o'clock.
That's the deadline.
And at last, eight o'clock.
Okay, boys, this is it.
What?
What's the matter, Conrad?
Phone, kid, they cut off the phone.
What?
Gee, Conrad, what are we going to do?
We got no lights, no water, no phone, no food.
I told you, son, we better give ourselves up.
Oh, go back in your cell and get lost, Pop.
But what are we going to do, Conrad?
Well, boys, how would you like a little exercise?
Big Joe.
Yeah?
Unlock the lard tub.
With pleasure.
Come on, give it to me.
Come on.
Now, now, boys, with lard tub wolf, it's going to be different.
Everybody gets a crack.
Because everybody's got unfinished business with tub, isn't that right?
Okay, Big Joe, then cuff his arms behind him and stand him up by the door.
All right, now, boys, line up.
But, fellas, be fair.
You guys at the head of the line go a little easy, so the fellas at the end still have
something left to work on.
Okay.
Go to work.
You thought you'd seen cruelty before, but this is mass bloodlust.
The tormented turning on their tormentors, each man delivering his retribution on the
captain of the yard, calculatingly, deliberately, one with a fist, another with a foot, a third
with a length of chain, still another with an iron cot length, and you turn away.
And the effort of your retching blots out the sounds of agony and empty victory.
Good old lard tub.
Boy, I got an idea he might quit his job.
After he's able to walk again.
Hey, Conrad, I just thought of something.
Yeah, what's that?
What are we going to do next?
Nothing.
It's their move.
Yeah, but we ain't got any more guards to beat up.
That's right.
But we've still got Mr. Kelly.
Your heart stops beating for a long instant as the wild bloodshot eyes of 32 desperate
men center on you.
Yeah, that's right.
I was forgetting we still got Mr. Kelly.
Now, wait a minute, Conrad.
He ain't done nothing to us except do us a favor.
He got the story out for us.
Now, listen, boys, let's not get ethical.
We're all in this all over our heads.
If Mr. Kelly's what it takes to win our point, we'll use Mr. Kelly.
Now, look, I don't think it's right.
You're not supposed to think.
I'll do the thinking.
You agree with me, don't you, Kelly?
You'd do the same thing if you were in my place, wouldn't you?
You're asking me.
You don't know how long you sit there across the table from Conrad.
Time has stopped.
You wait.
Conrad waits.
The men wait in silent little groups.
You wait for the next move.
The wardens move.
And at last it comes.
You men and the old cell block.
Hey.
What's that?
Just put a loud speaker truck into the yard.
Where?
Oh, yeah.
Can you hear me?
Now break out this window.
Yeah, warden, I hear you.
I am not talking to you, Alan.
I'm doing the talking for the guy.
I am talking to all of you men.
I have just come from a meeting with the prison board, the governor.
We are in agreement that we will not permit the authority of the state to be bullied by
a tiny group of men who haven't even the rights of citizens.
Make it simple, warden.
You turning us down?
I am willing to discuss your grievances with you, but I will not be forced to give in to
your demands.
That's final.
Now men, I urge you, come out of there peaceably and we'll see what can be done for you.
Thanks a lot for nothing, warden.
We'll sit tight.
Men, don't listen to Alan.
He must be crazy to keep you there, and I think he is keeping you there.
Now listen to me.
I have cut off your lights, your water, your food.
I couldn't let you rot in there, but I don't want to do that.
Come out peaceably.
Ah, go blow it!
All right, I will.
My watch says 17 minutes after nine.
Exactly 9.30 I will blow up the cell block.
You're bluffing!
I think so.
During the night we planted dynamite all around the building.
Hey Conrad, you remember I said I heard noises out there during the night, huh?
Yeah, yeah.
You men, don't listen to Alan, listen to me.
Now you've got 12 and a half minutes to make up your minds.
Ah, you're forgetting something, warden.
We still got the newspaper reporter in here, Mr. Kelly.
I can't be responsible for him.
I got all my cards out.
I won't bargain any further.
There's just a little more than 12 minutes.
Think it over boys.
Well Mr. Kelly, looks like you aren't as valuable as I thought you'd be.
I'm sorry about that.
Well, we're licked.
We've got to give in.
Give in!
Give in after we've gone this far!
Give in and lose everything!
Do you realize that in this state they can give us all life for what we've done so far?
Me, I'd rather be blown up than spend the rest of my life in this hole.
No, no, no, Conrad, please, you've got to get us out.
It's all your fault, you little punk.
What do you mean?
If you hadn't cocked that greenhorn guard yesterday just because you wanted to make up
to Conrad, we wouldn't be in this fix.
Lay off the kid.
Why you little jerk, I ought to break your head.
I said lay off the kid!
You've made a lot of mistakes, Conrad.
This is one too many.
Made yourself a ball ordering us around, promising us you'd mastermind us out of here.
Where you got us?
Five minutes from Kingdom Come.
Now the warden's only bluffing.
He wouldn't dare blow us up.
I'll get you all out of this.
No, Con.
Call me Conrad!
No, Con.
I'm not waiting no five minutes to find out if he's bluffing.
I said you made a lot of mistakes and the biggest one was passing out the guard's guns,
remember?
No, no, stand right where you are.
I'm taking over now.
Why you stick a little grease ball.
Not your move, Con.
You call me Conrad!
Less than five minutes, boys.
I'm going out.
Anybody joining me?
Mr. Kelly, I feel I must have apologized for the inconvenience and discomfort you've suffered.
That warden is the understatement of the year.
As I said yesterday, you will of course clear any stories you write about the situation
through me.
I doubt it.
But we can't permit-
Look, warden, I'm going to report it just as it happened.
And when I get through, I don't think J. Conrad Allen, spelled with one L, mixed up
and twisted though his values may have been, I don't think he will have died in vain.
Suspense, in which Howard Duff starred in Eye Witness, written, directed, and produced
by William N. Robeson.
Listen.
Listen again next week when we return with Herbert Marshall in Back for Christmas, a
tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Joining Mr. Duff in Eye Witness were John Danaer, Lou Merrill, Joe Kearns, Jack Kruschen,
Court Falconberg, Barney Phillips, Tony Barrett, Dick LaGrand, and G. Stanley Jones.
The original musical score was composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith.
Every weekday evening, most of these same stations bring you three of the greatest stars
in all show business, Bing Crosby and Amos and Andy.
In their music hall, Amos and Andy let still another star, the Kingfish, join the proceedings
as they play host to lady wrestlers, symphony conductors, and anyone who will make music
or laughter or both.
Hear them every weekday night on CBS Radio.