Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Geico's motorcycle expertise gives me the coverage I need. Like 24. Seven claims, I'm on cloud nine.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Clouds are wholly unable to support the weight of an adult human.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: What's happening?
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Furthermore, clouds are not numbered. Even if you procured a jetpack and searched, you'd find no cloud numbered nine. However, at that altitude, you'd likely befriend a flock of migrating snow geese. Geese who'd encourage you to leave your 24.7geico motorcycle claims insurance behind as they would take you in and even share their dinner of crickets and clovers with you. GEICO assumes no liability for any indigestion that may occur from a clover cricket dinner. GEICO expertise for your motorcycle.
[00:00:47] Speaker C: Come in.
Welcome. I'm E. G Marshall.
In our world, nothing is lost. The droppings of birds fertilize the ground. The ground sends up grass. The grass nourishes the sheep. Evil lives on as well. A bit of gossip becomes a rumor. The rumor grows into a falsehood. The falsehood engenders fear and the fear leads to a killing. A malicious word wounds a soul. An act of indifference congeals a heart. For good or for evil, nothing is lost.
Our mystery drama Nobody Dies was written especially for the Mystery Theater by Elspeth Eric and stars Terry Keane and Ann Sheppard. It is sponsored in part by True Value hardware stores and Buick Motor Division. I'll be back shortly with Act 1. It is a magic moment. You are at your Buick dealers about to drive home in your brand new Buick Glissabre. It's lean and trim, classic lines. It looks quite unlike any full size Buick you can remember. You get in a heavy new car. Smell surrounds you. Your La Saber feels the way it looks. Tight. You turn the wheel a little. No wasted motion in this car. Big brushed metallic gauges look back at you. That V6 engine is doing great. You rub your hand on the seat. Six people could be really comfortable in here. You swing into your driveway. Your wife, the kids, the dog. Everyone with the parakeet descends on the car and gets in off. You go to nowhere in particular. Life and your Numa Saber are great.
Maybe the dog shouldn't sit on the seats.
This is Dave Herman. Seats are available for this Sunday afternoon.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Jets Bengals football game. You can get them at the Jets Ticket Office.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: 598 Madison Avenue at Shea Stadium ticket window.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: And of course at the gate on Sunday.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: The story has its beginning 50 years ago. It's a beautiful spring day. A young woman stands at the door of a large colonial house. Dignified and serene and surrounded by great stretches of clipped lawn spotted here and there by beds of bright flowers. There is something tentative in the manner of the young woman, something timid as she raises her hand to touch the button by the door.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: I'm thinking to myself, what am I doing here?
The advertisement in the local paper had said, housekeeper wanted live in private quarters. Apply between 9 and 10am it had given the address and the name Holt, and that was all I knew. This was a very fancy section of our town, and the minute I saw the big white house with the green shutters, my knees started to shake.
Would anyone trust me with the care of such a house?
But I pushed the button and said a little prayer.
I was desperate. I needed this job more than anything in the world.
[00:04:16] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: There she stood, the woman who had to be Mrs. Holt, who held my future in her hands. She was about my own age. She was tall, blonde and serene.
And she was very, very pregnant.
[00:04:34] Speaker D: You've come about the position?
[00:04:35] Speaker A: The job, yes.
[00:04:38] Speaker D: Well, come on in.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Oh, thank you very much.
[00:04:41] Speaker D: Shall we go into the living room?
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Yes, thank you.
[00:04:45] Speaker D: Sit down any place.
You look rather young. How old are you?
[00:04:50] Speaker A: 20, 29.
[00:04:53] Speaker D: Aha. Well, tell me about yourself. Or would you rather I told you about the position first?
[00:04:59] Speaker A: That would. That would be fine. Right.
[00:05:02] Speaker D: This house has 10 rooms, five bedrooms. Two of them are in the back of the house and they have their own bath.
Those will be reserved for whoever takes the position.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: That sounds very nice.
[00:05:13] Speaker D: And there's a cook, cleaning woman, comes in three times a week. It's a question of making beds and doing some dusting, answering the door, doing the shopping, things like that. And supervising the cook and the cleaning lady.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: It doesn't sound very hard.
[00:05:28] Speaker D: Well, it's what I used to do myself till I got pregnant.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: When are you going to have your baby?
[00:05:34] Speaker D: Any minute now. Can't you tell? Now, tell me about yourself. Don't think I mind your being young. I'd like to have someone my own age around the house.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Well, I used to have a house. I mean, not a house like this, just a little house. But I did all the work and I think I kept it nice. Clean and nice, you know, and attractive.
[00:05:55] Speaker D: I'm sure you did. But you have a house now.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: I couldn't afford it after my husband left me.
[00:06:03] Speaker D: Oh, I'm sorry.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Since he left me, I've been living in a furnished room. And I've been doing house cleaning by the day.
I'm very good at it, but it's not like living in a real House, I mean, having something to count on.
[00:06:17] Speaker D: Oh, of course it isn't.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Especially when you have a little boy to think of.
[00:06:22] Speaker D: A little boy? You have a little boy? Mm.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Two years old.
[00:06:26] Speaker D: Well, how do you manage working all day in other people's homes?
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Well, I take him with me. He has his toys and his coloring books. And he's never any trouble, really. He never cries and he's never been sick. Never. I mean, not even a cold.
[00:06:39] Speaker D: All right, all right. I understand.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: But if we could be in the same house all the time.
[00:06:45] Speaker D: I understand. I really do.
What would you want in the way of salary?
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Oh, anything. Whatever you want to pay, I'll be.
[00:06:55] Speaker D: As generous as I possibly can.
What's your little boy's name?
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Jamie. His name is Jamie.
That was the beginning of the most beautiful part of my whole life. Mrs. Holt's baby was born about three weeks later. A little girl. And she was named Verity.
Isn't that a beautiful name? Verity? It means truth or reality. I looked it up. It took me a while to get up the nerve to ask her where Mr. Hold was the baby's father. And when she told me he died right soon after she got pregnant, I cried.
Besides running the house, I helped take care of the baby. The little girl, Verity. And you don't have to believe this if you don't want to, but Jamie was never one bit jealous of Verity. Children are, you know. Very often they're jealous of new babies and you have to be careful. But even Mrs. Holt noticed how Jamie loves the baby.
[00:07:56] Speaker D: Alice, you'll never believe this.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: What won't I believe?
[00:07:59] Speaker D: I was in the nursery this morning and Jamie was standing by the baby's crib. And you know what I heard him say? I want you, Verity. A bristle and a pet and a hug around.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Really?
[00:08:11] Speaker D: I heard him. That's what he said.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: That's what I used to say to him when he was a baby. I said, still, say it.
[00:08:17] Speaker D: You're a wonderful mother, Alice.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Life just went on that way. And I was as happy as it was possible to be.
[00:08:29] Speaker D: Alice, look at this.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: What? Why, it's a drawing in pastels of a little bird on a branch.
[00:08:38] Speaker D: It's very good, don't you think?
[00:08:41] Speaker A: It's. It's very touching. Very sweet.
[00:08:45] Speaker D: Jamie gave it to me.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Jamie?
[00:08:47] Speaker D: He made it in school, but he's.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Only 8 years old.
[00:08:52] Speaker D: No, I'm going to frame it and I'm going to hang it on the wall.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: That's the way it went every day. Better than the one before. And nothing but nice things to look forward to.
[00:09:07] Speaker D: Where did Jamie learn so much poetry, Alice?
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Well, I suppose he learned it in school.
[00:09:12] Speaker D: I heard him the other day. He and Verity were out here in the garden. And I could hear them through the window, loud and clear.
Stay, O sweet, and do not rise the light that shines comes from thine eyes. The day breaks not. It is my heart because that you and I must part.
Stay, or else my joys will die and perish in their infancy.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Well, for heaven's sake.
[00:09:40] Speaker D: I happen to know that's John donne from the 16th century. And why a boy of 14 would bother to learn it, I can't imagine.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: Jamie went on learning poetry. I never asked him about it. Why he bothered. I thought it was nice that he did. One day I heard his voice in the conservatory. I stopped to listen. And then I realized he wasn't alone.
[00:10:06] Speaker C: For thy sweet love remembered Such wealth brings that then I scorned to change my state with kings.
[00:10:13] Speaker E: Oh, Jamie, that's beautiful.
[00:10:17] Speaker C: At Shakespeare?
[00:10:21] Speaker A: Jamie was just 16.
I didn't know a line of Shakespeare and I'd never known that he did. I couldn't help asking him about it.
[00:10:29] Speaker C: I know all of Shakespeare's sonnets by heart.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: My goodness, I am impressed.
[00:10:33] Speaker C: I hope Verity was impressed.
I was trying to tell her how much I love her.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: Love?
You told her you loved her?
[00:10:43] Speaker C: I've always loved her. She knows that.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: You're both very young.
[00:10:49] Speaker C: Romeo and Juliet were even younger, Mom.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Well, life went on. Jamie got into the local college right in the same town. Lucky for us, because he could go on living at home. He'd finished his second year and Verity was enrolled to start that fall.
[00:11:08] Speaker C: Mom, I'm going to ask Verity to marry me. Jamie, I. I don't mean right away. I mean when she's finished college. But by then I'll be making a living.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: You're sure about that?
Of course I'm sure, darling. There's no need to rush into anything.
[00:11:23] Speaker C: I'm not rushing.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: I'm just asking. But you'll meet other girls.
[00:11:27] Speaker C: Mom, I've loved Verity all my life. Don't you know that?
[00:11:38] Speaker D: He asked her to marry?
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Well, of course he didn't mean right away. After she finishes college. And he wouldn't expect her to marry him.
[00:11:45] Speaker D: That's very considerate of him, Mrs. Holt.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: I don't think we have to take it seriously. They'll both meet other people. Jamie says that won't make any difference. But you never can tell, can you?
[00:11:56] Speaker D: I think I'll send Verity away to College, Some good Eastern school.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Oh, would you do that? They're both so happy here.
[00:12:07] Speaker D: Alice, how much did you have to do with this?
[00:12:11] Speaker A: With what, Mrs. Holt?
[00:12:12] Speaker D: With this, this. This attachment. This liaison between your son and my daughter.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Well, I didn't have anything to do with it.
[00:12:20] Speaker D: You plotted, didn't you?
From the beginning you plotted and you schemed to make everything turn out this way.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: No, I had no idea anything like this.
[00:12:29] Speaker D: First you wormed your way into this house, bringing your son with you. Then you made yourself indispensable. You pretended to be my friend.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: I did not pretend. None of this is true.
[00:12:38] Speaker D: I'm some kind of witch.
I think you are. And you've been weaving spells up there alone in your room.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: No, Mrs. Holt.
[00:12:46] Speaker D: How do you know? You've always known that my daughter could never marry a son of yours. It's unthinkable.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: But I had had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.
Or had I had everything to do with it?
I don't know. And I have thought long and hard about it. I'm reduced to calling it fate, simply fate.
Or call it the machinations of some spirit. Some spirit perhaps lodged in me. A spirit whose name I don't know.
If such a spirit chose to work through me, it was without my knowledge or my will. I swear that's true.
I swear.
I believe, I think it's true.
Oh, I hope it's true.
[00:13:42] Speaker C: Of course there are spirits in all of us. Spirits full of energy and of huge power. Some drive the people they inhabit to great accomplishment. Then of course there are other spirits, equally potent Spirits which move their possessors to cowardice, to morbidity, to self destruction. Even to the annihilation of those they love. I'll be back shortly with Act 2.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Just in time for Christmas. Trubandu Hardware stores offer an expensive looking watch at an inexpensive price.
[00:14:15] Speaker C: Hi, Pat Summerall to tell you about.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: The time band ladies watch from Fairchild. The first low priced digital watch that doesn't look inexpensive. It's stylishly slim, elegantly contoured and has the dependable 5 function performance of expensive electronic digitals. It shows hours, minutes, month, day and seconds on command. Has a quartz crystal that makes it capable of accuracy to within one minute a year. A calendar that automatically adjusts to the proper number of days in each month. So you only have to adjust it on leap year. And the time band ladies watch from your true value hardware store is entirely solid state. So there are no moving parts to wear out, oil or maintain. Get the expensive looking Fairchild Time Band ladies watch for as low as 29.95.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: At participating true Value Hardware stores.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Remember, True Value. More than just a name. Their way of doing business.
Hey. Duvernay is a really special drink that started over in France, but you can enjoy it right here. Straight up on the rocks are mixed with your favorite beverage, Duvernay. Before. Before lunch or dinner or whatever you got cooking. There's a drink you may not know about.
It's gonna. Whispers 1 those others have to shout Duvernay. Anyway, a taste that's not too sweet. Oh, no, it's not too girl. It's made for those who finish what they start.
[00:15:58] Speaker C: A product of USA New York, NY.
[00:16:04] Speaker F: Kitchen Live means less cooking, more time for fun. So whether for family dinners, parties or friends dropping in, Polish ham is your answer. Crackus or Atalanta Bran. These are fully cooked right in the can. All gristle and bone have been removed, so you buy only lean, tender meat. This is great for your budget, too. All you need do is open the can and slice whatever quantity you need. Of course, you can also heat Polish ham if you prefer a warm meal. Crocus and Atalanta are the only imported hams to have continuously earned both the Parent's Magazine Seal of Commendation and the Good Housekeeping Seal. All this and great flavor too, in handy two, three, five or seven pound tins. Or sliced in whatever quantity you need. Get Crackers or Atalata hams at food stores in your neighborhood. You'll love its convenience. Your family will love its great taste. These have been imported for more than 25 years by new York Commodities Corporation. Available at all Acme supermarkets.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: When Alice became housekeeper to the affluent Mrs. Holt, it was a relief from a life of drudgery and anxiety. And a haven both for herself and for her son, Jamie, 2 years old when her employer soon after gave birth to a daughter. It was only natural that Alice should retain her position in the household and that the two children should grow up together. However, at the close of act one, we heard.
[00:17:39] Speaker D: Alice. How much did you have to do with this?
[00:17:42] Speaker A: With what, Miss?
[00:17:43] Speaker D: With this. With this. This attachment, this liaison between your son and my daughter.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: I didn't have anything to do with it.
[00:17:49] Speaker D: You plotted, didn't you? You plotted and schemed and made everything turn out this way. Surely you know. You've always known that my daughter could never marry a son of yours. It's unthinkable.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: My beautiful life in her beautiful house had come to an end.
Our friendship had ended, too, if indeed it had ever been. The friendship I thought it to be.
For the first time she had reminded me that I was her servant and my son was the son of a servant. And that the marriage of her daughter to the son of one such as myself was.
What was the word?
Unthinkable.
I started to pack our clothes. Jamie's in mine.
Is that you, Jamie?
[00:18:37] Speaker D: It's Mrs. Holt, Alice.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: Oh, just a minute.
[00:18:46] Speaker D: I want to talk to you, Alice.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Well, all right. Come in.
[00:18:53] Speaker D: Thank you.
You've been packing.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: You don't want us here anymore.
[00:18:59] Speaker D: Oh, Alice, I didn't mean anything like that.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: You are afraid Verity might want to marry Jamie and he's not good enough for her.
[00:19:06] Speaker D: But as you said, Alice, they're both very young. They'll meet other people. Now that I've had a little time to think about it, I realize how right you are. I.
It was just a kind of shock when you first told me. There's the end.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Old enough to marry anyone, you said. I planned it. For them to fall in love and get married.
[00:19:27] Speaker D: That was a ridiculous thing for me to say. Please forgive me. We've been together so long.
Won't you forgive me? Please.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: I.
I suppose the idea was kind of a shock to you. It was.
[00:19:45] Speaker D: Or I couldn't have said those things.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: Well, if you. If you really didn't mean that.
[00:19:52] Speaker D: I didn't. I didn't.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Then I guess it's all right.
[00:19:57] Speaker E: Alice.
[00:19:59] Speaker D: Thank you. You'll never regret it. And you will stay on here, won't you?
[00:20:05] Speaker A: I've always loved it here, Mrs. Holt. And so is Jamie.
[00:20:08] Speaker D: Then it's settled. You'll stay on and so will Jamie.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: But she sent Verity away to a college in the east.
Mrs. Holt had said she would do it, and she did.
Verity and Jamie wrote to each other almost every day. I think he wrote every day.
His ways grew quieter, more reserved. But he'd always been like that, more or less. And I didn't worry about him.
Not until Verity came home for her vacation.
[00:20:40] Speaker C: Verity's engaged to some guy.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: Some guy.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: Some guy she met in the East.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: Oh, Jamie.
[00:20:49] Speaker C: What's the matter?
[00:20:50] Speaker A: Well, you. You mean you. You don't care?
[00:20:53] Speaker C: Well, why should I care? She won't marry him.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: How can you be so sure?
[00:20:59] Speaker C: Very belongs to me. She always has. Ever since she was born.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Jamie's confidence frightened me.
I thought Back to when Mrs. Holt had called me some kind of a witch.
I didn't want to hear those words again from her lips.
Besides, Jamie could be right. Maybe Verity wouldn't marry the man she met. In the evening.
Maybe in some way I didn't comprehend she belonged to my son.
But then, a year later, it happened.
[00:21:32] Speaker D: We'll have the wedding right here in the house, I think.
Or would it be better in a church?
[00:21:39] Speaker A: I think a church wedding would be the nicest.
[00:21:42] Speaker D: You're probably right. His parents will be here. They'll expect it. His father's in the diplomatic service. Did I tell you?
[00:21:49] Speaker A: No, you didn't tell me.
[00:21:51] Speaker D: Yes, I think we'll have the wedding in the church.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: I think that's best, Alice.
[00:21:58] Speaker D: Of course Verity will want Jamie to be there. But he needn't attend if he doesn't want to. We all understand.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: It wasn't there. Understanding. Understanding I cared about. It was Jamie's. He had to understand that he'd aspired to something too far above him. That he would never have the girl he'd loved from the day she was born.
He had to understand and go on living as best he could till some other girl could fill the void in his life.
[00:22:32] Speaker C: I'll be there.
Why not Jamie?
[00:22:35] Speaker A: If it's too painful?
[00:22:37] Speaker C: It will be painful. But that's all right.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: I'm so glad you're taking it this way.
[00:22:43] Speaker C: What way am I taking it?
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Well, realistically, facing up to it.
[00:22:49] Speaker C: Didn't you tell me that's what Verity means? Reality, the truth?
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yes, I did tell you that.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: Well, then.
Besides, Verity still belongs to me. No matter what she does with her life or I do with mine, Verity still belongs to me and she always will.
That's reality and that's truth.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: His words echoed in my mind all during the ceremony, just as he'd said he'd be. Jamie was in the church, standing up way in the back, his eyes never leaving the handsome young couple at the altar.
The young married couple took off on their honeymoon. Jamie went on to finish college and Mrs. Holt and I went on in the big house.
Not quite the friends we once had been, but on good terms.
And one day, another letter from Verity.
[00:23:47] Speaker D: It's from London.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: What does she have to say?
[00:23:49] Speaker D: Oh, lots of things. Dear Mummy, we're settled here in the dearest flat you've ever seen. It's in Chelsea, a very old part of London, but fashionable in an arty sort of way.
[00:24:02] Speaker E: We go to the theatre all the time. The theatre is so wonderful here. And not too expensive, I mean, compared with other things. And we go to parties mostly with other couples living the same kind of life. We do diplomatic service life. I mean, we've made some dear friends.
[00:24:18] Speaker D: And here she goes on about their friends. Bibsy and Punko and Tupper and Jinky. I can't make out all the names. Now. Here's one here that looks like.
Did somebody come in?
[00:24:32] Speaker A: I think it's Jamie.
[00:24:34] Speaker D: Jamie, is that you?
[00:24:36] Speaker C: I was just going upstairs.
[00:24:37] Speaker D: I've got a letter from Verity. Oh, and I was just reading it to your mother. You want to hear it?
[00:24:42] Speaker C: Well, I was just going upstairs.
[00:24:44] Speaker D: Well, I'm almost finished here. Let's see. Where was I? All about. Ah, yes.
[00:24:49] Speaker E: I've.
[00:24:50] Speaker D: I've saved the best news for the last. Mummy, I'm going to have a baby.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Oh, a baby. Verity's going to have a baby.
[00:24:59] Speaker D: Oh, why didn't she send me a cable or call up?
[00:25:03] Speaker A: When is she going to have.
[00:25:04] Speaker D: She says wait. Wait. Not for eight months, but she couldn't resist telling. Oh, I wonder if I should go over there or if she'll. She'll want to come here. Oh, dear me, there's so much to think about.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: My first grandchild.
[00:25:16] Speaker D: Imagine.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Jamie.
Where did Jamie go?
[00:25:21] Speaker D: Alice, I'm going to go down to the cable office and tell her to phone me collect tonight. I'll be back right away.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Jamie? And are you upstairs?
[00:25:29] Speaker D: I. I'll give her your love, Alice.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Jamie, where are you?
Jamie?
Jamie, are you all right?
[00:25:42] Speaker C: Jamie.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: Oh, no. Dear Lord, don't let it be. Don't let it.
Oh, my.
[00:25:48] Speaker D: Jamie.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Jamie, what have you done?
[00:25:52] Speaker C: I. I missed.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: You're bleeding.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: I missed twice.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Your head is bleeding.
[00:26:03] Speaker C: Not so easy to kill yourself.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: No. I'll get the doctor.
[00:26:08] Speaker C: No, don't leave me.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Stay with me, Jamie. I have to call a doctor. Please let go of my arm.
[00:26:14] Speaker C: I want you to stay with me, Mom.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Please. Janie, let me.
[00:26:17] Speaker C: I'll be all right. I want you with me, Mom. It's always been you and me. You've always been with me. You've never gone off and left me. Don't go off and leave me now.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: Please. You've got to let me call the doctor. Please. I won't die.
[00:26:33] Speaker C: Nobody dies, Mom.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Jamie, please.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: And I want.
I want you to tell that to Verity.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Mom.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: Would you.
[00:26:42] Speaker D: Would you do that?
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Tell her nobody really dies.
Everybody goes on and on. Please. Please.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: Good old Mom. You're really the best.
Oh. Always there when I needed you. Always right nearby. Always where you could see me and hear me.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Remember, Mom? All my life.
[00:27:08] Speaker C: From way back.
Be near me now, Mom.
Listen to me now.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Yes. Yes, all right. Did.
[00:27:19] Speaker C: Did you understand what I told you.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: About what to tell Verity? You mean nobody died that's right.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: Tell her that.
She'll understand.
Just say nobody dies.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: The blood was still running from his poor head and he was still staring at me.
But the hand that had been gripping my arm went limp and I knew he was dead.
The light had gone out of his eyes.
The light had gone out of his life.
My son was dead.
My son was dead.
I tried to take that in even as his last words echoed through my mind.
Nobody dies.
Nobody dies.
[00:28:37] Speaker C: The beginning of mourning is the acceptance of the fact of death. We twist and turn to evade the reality. We make up fantasies to deny it. We comfort ourselves with memories which hurt while they comfort. There simply is no way to escape the awful pain. Unless.
Unless perhaps we can bring ourselves to believe what appears to be a flagrant lie. Unless we can believe that nobody dies.
I'll return shortly with Act 3.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: When a woman buys a shirt for her man, it's usually a pretty good sign that she loves him. And because she loves him, she wants that shirt to be something special. Something you'll be happy with for a long time, even if he's hard to please. Buying a shirt for the man she loves is one place a woman doesn't want to miss. That's why for a long time now, women have been buying more Arrow shirts than any other kind. Because it's hard to miss with arrows. Arrow makes shirts that look good, feel good and fit good from the collar to the tail. Shirts that look like today but don't look like yesterday, a month after you bought them. Shirts that are worth exactly what they cost, button for button and stitch for stitch for the man you love, even if he's hard to please. It's hard to miss with Arrow.
[00:29:58] Speaker C: It's hard to miss with Arrow.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Arrow.
[00:30:05] Speaker C: Arrow.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: America's shirt maker.
[00:30:09] Speaker C: You'll find Alexander has what you're looking for.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: How lucky can they get?
[00:30:16] Speaker C: You'll find Alexander's Hun money by more.
How lucky can you get?
[00:30:23] Speaker F: Are you in for a sensational fashion buy? Mrs. Genuine suede coats reduced from 99 to $69 right now at Alexander's you save $30 and these genuine suede coats are warm as toast with lush dyed lamb fur colors and rich furry acrylic pile linings even in the sleeves. And the suede is butter soft and supple. Luxury to the touch in wonderfully flattering belted wrap style in Black or brown, Mrs. Fur trimmed and pile lined genuine suede coats were 99. Right now just 69 in Alexander's leather and suede shop. What a warm, luxurious Gift for that special woman on your list you'll find.
[00:31:01] Speaker B: Alexander's house what you're looking for.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Wow. How lucky can you get?
[00:31:08] Speaker F: Now, this message from your four dealers.
[00:31:10] Speaker C: Is a sweet Louise, I'm home.
[00:31:12] Speaker D: Hi, Arnold.
[00:31:13] Speaker C: For you.
[00:31:14] Speaker E: Ooh, a bouquet of long stem roses.
[00:31:17] Speaker A: What's the occasion?
[00:31:18] Speaker E: Something on your conscience? Tell me.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: The occasion is that I sold four Granadas today.
[00:31:23] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a new record for my Ford dealership.
[00:31:25] Speaker E: Your idea of putting a Mercedes 280 on your showroom floor alongside a comparably equipped Granada really paid off.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: It sure did. Almost everyone who comes in can't figure out which is the Granada and which is the Mercedes. They look so much alike. That is, until they so they see.
[00:31:39] Speaker E: Their base sticker prices don't look at all alike.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:41] Speaker E: And did you take them for a test drive in both the Granada and the Mercedes?
[00:31:44] Speaker A: Yep. And all four Granada buyers who drove a Mercedes said the Granada had a remarkably smooth and quiet ride.
You forgot one thing. What's that? You're allergic to roses.
[00:31:55] Speaker C: Your Ford dealer has the smooth riding.
[00:31:57] Speaker F: Car that looks like the Mercedes 280.
[00:31:59] Speaker C: But at less than half the list price.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: The new Ford Granada.
[00:32:18] Speaker C: Toward the end of the act, just completed, Alice's son, Jamie shot himself after hearing the news that the girl he had loved all his life, who had married another man, was now preparing to give birth to that man's child. Holding fast to his mother's hand, Jamie had spoken his last words. Hello. That Mom.
Verity will understand.
Tell her nobody dies.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: Mrs. Holt, of course, was dreadfully shocked when she came home and I had to tell her what had happened.
We never discussed it or referred to it in any way.
But I'm certain she knew as well as I that the fact of Verity's being pregnant crushed Jamie's last hope. That one day she might return to him.
At any rate, Mrs. Hope persuaded her daughter to come back to her mother's house to have her child.
[00:33:18] Speaker E: Oh, Alice, it's so marvelous being here. You know, I really didn't know I'd need my mother so much. But the first time. You know how it is. It's all so new, so important.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: Your husband couldn't come with you?
[00:33:31] Speaker E: No, not right now. They can't spare him in London. Maybe later.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Verity, I have something I want to give to you, if you don't mind.
[00:33:40] Speaker E: How could I possibly mind?
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Well, I don't want to make you sad, but these are some of Jamie's baby clothes. Oh, Al. Now, they may be old fashioned by now. I Don't know what babies wear these days.
[00:33:52] Speaker E: Not very much.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: But they are all made by hand and you don't see much of that anymore.
[00:33:56] Speaker E: Oh, they're lovely.
You know, Jamie was my dearest friend for years and years. More than a friend, more like a. Like a brother.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: He loved you.
[00:34:11] Speaker E: I know he did.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: The last words he spoke before he died, they were for you.
For me?
[00:34:19] Speaker D: Really?
[00:34:20] Speaker A: He said, nobody dies, Mom. Tell Verity that.
She'll understand.
Nobody dies.
That was the last thing he ever said. A couple of seconds later, he was dead.
[00:34:40] Speaker E: Alice.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: Verity.
Do you know what he meant?
[00:34:47] Speaker E: Well, no, not exactly.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: He said that you would know. He was very definite about that.
[00:34:54] Speaker E: Well, perhaps he meant that. That as long as a person is remembered by the people who loved him, that he isn't really dead.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: You think that's what he meant?
[00:35:05] Speaker E: I can't think of anything else.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Well, Verity had her baby. A darling little boy named John, after his father.
And a few months later, Verity went back to London. But she phoned once a week at least. And the letters flew thick and fast across the ocean. Sometimes Verity would write to me about the. They be nice chatty notes full of all sorts of details.
Then one day I got a present in the mail.
Well, imagine. All the way from London. Imagine Verity thinking of me. That's really wonderful of her.
[00:35:45] Speaker D: What is it?
[00:35:47] Speaker A: Well, it's a drawing.
[00:35:51] Speaker D: Well, so it is.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: A drawing of a bird sitting on the branch of a tree.
So it is.
She said it's little John's first drawing and she wants me to have it.
[00:36:08] Speaker D: Turning pastels?
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Yes, it.
It's very good, don't you think?
[00:36:17] Speaker D: Alice, how old was Jamie when he did the picture of the bird sitting on a branch?
[00:36:27] Speaker A: I said I didn't remember, but I did.
It was when Jamie was precisely the age that little John was when he painted his bird on a branch.
One night the phone rang. It was London calling. Verity was on the other end. And Mrs. Holt told me to listen in on the upstairs extension.
[00:36:47] Speaker E: Mother.
[00:36:48] Speaker D: How are you, darling? I'm fine.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: How are you?
[00:36:50] Speaker D: Fine, fine.
[00:36:51] Speaker E: How's Alice?
[00:36:52] Speaker D: She's on the extension. Alice, say hello.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: I'm fine, Verity. How's the boy?
[00:36:57] Speaker E: He's marvelous. Simply marvelous. Almost as tall as I am.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: No, you mean it.
[00:37:01] Speaker E: And bright.
[00:37:02] Speaker A: You'd hardly believe it.
[00:37:03] Speaker D: Of course I'd believe it. Why wouldn't I?
[00:37:06] Speaker E: Well, I never was. Listen, he knows poetry.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: Really?
[00:37:10] Speaker D: That's remarkable. He was.
[00:37:12] Speaker E: Recited a whole poem to me today. Not a long poem. Well, I should hope something by John donne. John donne, 16th century. Can you imagine something about Stay, oh, sweet, and do not rise.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: I forget the light that shines comes from your eyes. Yes, that's it.
[00:37:32] Speaker E: Alice, is that you?
[00:37:34] Speaker A: The day breaks, not it is my heart. Because that you. You and I must part. You know it.
[00:37:40] Speaker E: You really know it.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: Stay, or else my joys will die and perish in their infancy. That's it.
[00:37:48] Speaker E: Can you imagine a young boy knowing something like that?
[00:37:51] Speaker D: Verity. Verity, my dear, we've talked long enough.
[00:37:56] Speaker E: Oh, but I have all kinds of things to tell you yet.
[00:37:58] Speaker D: Yes, it'll have to. It'll have to do for now. We're rather busy here.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Oh. Oh, okay.
[00:38:05] Speaker E: Well, I'll call you next week then.
[00:38:08] Speaker D: Bye.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Bye.
[00:38:09] Speaker D: Alice.
Alice.
Alice, will you come downstairs, please?
[00:38:19] Speaker A: There was nothing I could say to Mrs. Holt.
Of course. It was the same poem Jamie had learned and recited at exactly the same age.
But Jamie had died a full year before this boy was born.
This boy lived 3,000 miles away in a foreign country.
Then came the fateful day. Verity arrived from London.
[00:38:45] Speaker D: Darling, how wonderful. You've come home.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: Mother. How are you, Verity? Welcome back, Alice.
[00:38:52] Speaker D: Darling. You don't look at all well.
[00:38:54] Speaker E: Don't I?
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Have you been ill?
[00:38:58] Speaker E: No.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: Did your husband come with you?
[00:39:01] Speaker E: No, no, my son came with me.
[00:39:05] Speaker D: Well, for heaven's sakes, where is he?
[00:39:07] Speaker E: Oh, he'll be along presently.
I wanted to see you alone first.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: Well, I'll just go upstairs and see if anything.
[00:39:15] Speaker E: Alice, please stay here. I want to talk to both of you.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: All right.
Mother.
[00:39:23] Speaker E: This is going to come as a shock for you.
My husband has left me.
[00:39:31] Speaker A: Oh, darling. Oh, Verity, I'm so sorry to hear that.
[00:39:36] Speaker D: Perhaps it's. It's not final.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: Well, whatever happened, I'm sure it wasn't your fault.
[00:39:42] Speaker E: I don't know whose fault it was.
[00:39:43] Speaker D: There are always two sides to you.
[00:39:45] Speaker E: Maybe it was your fault, Alice.
Mine? Or maybe it was the fault of your son.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: What? What could Jamie have to do with it?
[00:39:54] Speaker E: I believe that he was some kind of sorcerer or a wizard of some kind.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: And you are a witch and a hag. Melody, don't. Don't. I believe the two of you conspired.
[00:40:02] Speaker E: Against me from the very start. From the day you entered this house.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: What are you talking about?
[00:40:08] Speaker E: You don't know.
You really don't. I don't know.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: I swear I don't know.
[00:40:13] Speaker E: Stay where you are, both of you.
I have something to show you.
Johnny.
Johnny, can you come in here, please?
[00:40:23] Speaker A: Mrs. Hoad? What's happening?
[00:40:25] Speaker D: Quiet.
[00:40:25] Speaker C: Quiet. Alice.
[00:40:27] Speaker D: Mother.
[00:40:29] Speaker E: Alice.
This is my son, John.
[00:40:34] Speaker C: Grandma. It's been so long now.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: How many years?
[00:40:39] Speaker D: Good. Many years.
[00:40:41] Speaker C: Well, you got a kiss for me?
[00:40:44] Speaker E: Of course.
[00:40:47] Speaker D: My boy.
[00:40:48] Speaker C: And you're Alice. Hello, Alice.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: I could only stare dumbstruck at the handsome young man who stood before me holding out his hand.
A warm, friendly smile on his face.
For that face, that smile, that voice.
All were exact replicas of the face and the smile and the voice of my dead son.
Young John, in the innocent innocence of his youth and the ignorance, was the only one of the household who retained any self possession.
Verity moved about the house with a tight mouth and baleful look. Mrs. Holt kept to a room most of the time. When I took her something to eat, she told me that Verity and John would stay on with her.
John was going to teach at the local high school. And Verity.
Well, where could could Verity go?
[00:41:54] Speaker D: Verity's child was destined to be the precise image of Jamie. Why?
I don't know.
But I don't blame you.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Perhaps you should.
I hoped for so many years that they would marry and have a child. Perhaps all my hoping, my wishing, my praying for something that never came to pass.
But you mustn't think Jamie had anything to do with it.
[00:42:21] Speaker D: Didn't he wish, hope and pray?
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Yes, but he loved her so.
He'd never have wanted anything like this to happen.
[00:42:30] Speaker D: I don't know. I don't know. I cannot tell. But this I do know for a certainty.
There are forces in the world over which we have no control. Alice, I think you best leave this house.
Tonight if possible.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: I did leave that night and moved into a furnished room.
I got work almost immediately, cleaning by day, just as I'd done before Jamie and I became part of Mrs. Holt's household.
Every now and then I would walk by the high school just to catch a glimpse of young John was teaching there.
It was a thrill.
Strange, macabre, but still a thrill.
To see that straight young figure, that fresh young face so exactly like that of my dead son.
One day, as school was letting out for the day, I summoned my courage and spoke to him.
Mr. Holt. John.
[00:43:41] Speaker C: Well, it's. It's Alice, isn't it?
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Yes, it's Alice.
[00:43:44] Speaker C: Well, I've asked mother about you. Why aren't you living with us anymore? You moved out so suddenly.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: Well, with you and your mother there, you needed the room.
[00:43:53] Speaker C: Oh, there's plenty of room. Now come on. Why don't you move back?
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Oh no, no, really I couldn't.
Tell me, what are you teaching? What subject?
[00:44:03] Speaker C: English Literature. What I've always wanted to teach.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: Oh, that's nice.
[00:44:07] Speaker C: With special emphasis on the greatest writer of them all.
You mean Shakespeare? Of course.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: You like Shakespeare?
[00:44:16] Speaker C: I worship him. I always have. I knew all of Shakespeare's sonnets. All of them, by the time I was 16.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: I stayed away from the school after that.
I was afraid of what might happen. Not a tangible fear, you understand, for I had no idea what there was to be afraid of. Only, I think, that I might indeed be a witch.
A sorceress.
But then came a day when it was imperative that I see not John, but his mother. Verity.
[00:44:54] Speaker E: What was it you wanted to tell me? Alice, you said it was important.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: It is.
Tomorrow is John's birthday.
[00:45:02] Speaker E: I know that. Did you think I'd forget my own son's birthday?
[00:45:06] Speaker A: No, of course I didn't think that.
But you might not remember.
After tomorrow, John will be of the same age as Jamie was when Jenny.
[00:45:19] Speaker E: When he died.
Is that what you mean?
[00:45:23] Speaker A: When he killed himself?
[00:45:27] Speaker E: Killed himself?
Alice, no one ever told me that. Mother said it was an accident.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: Verity, he shot himself twice when he heard that you were going to have a child. Oh, Alice.
[00:45:40] Speaker E: I should have been told that.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: What could you have done? Nothing.
[00:45:45] Speaker D: Alice.
[00:45:47] Speaker E: Alice, I must tell you something. If there was any sorcery or any witchcraft, it was wrought by me.
Every day of the nine months I carried John within me, I wished. I wished with all my heart and all my soul that I could be carrying Jamie's child.
[00:46:09] Speaker A: A whole a year has passed. Nothing untoward has happened to John.
I believe him to be safe.
I still live in a furnished room and go out to work by the day.
But on Thanksgiving and Christmas and sometimes on other holidays, I go to the big white house and spend a pleasant day.
And when I hear John's voice, his laughter, when I look at his handsome face, his friendly smile so often directed at me, then I think to myself, it's true, quite true, what Jamie said to me at the last.
Nobody dies.
Not really.
Nobody really dies.
[00:47:10] Speaker C: Our drama appears to end on a placid note. Four people gathered round a festive table. If you walked in on them today, you would never guess that behind their light talk, their pleasant smile, their solicitude for one another, their consideration and their kindnesses lies a deep and mysterious tragedy which no one of them comprehends. I'll be back shortly.
There are two kinds of first class.
First class. First class and second class. First class. As the Red Baron of Lufthansa, German Airlines, I would like to explain the difference. Mine Is first class. First class, that is. Fresh orange juice, freshly scrambled eggs, fresh flowers, caviar. And you'll find at least seven entrees on the menu.
[00:48:00] Speaker B: Just a few reasons many professional travelers.
[00:48:03] Speaker C: Call mine the best. First class service across the Atlantic. But I won't go into greater detail about them. There's a better way for both of us. Fly my first class. First class on your next trip to Europe. You'll never fly second class. First his class again.
[00:48:34] Speaker D: Testing.
[00:48:34] Speaker A: Is this on?
[00:48:35] Speaker C: Santa's elves are about to hold a.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: News conference regarding the production of this.
[00:48:38] Speaker C: Year'S Automat Snapshot Christmas Cards.
[00:48:40] Speaker B: And as the band strikes up Hail.
[00:48:42] Speaker C: To the elves, we take you now.
[00:48:43] Speaker B: Important.
[00:48:45] Speaker D: Listen, if you can all just keep.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: Your questions as short as we are in a jiffy.
[00:48:49] Speaker C: How hard is it to buy these things?
[00:48:51] Speaker A: As hard as cottage cheese.
[00:48:52] Speaker D: You just bring a negative of your favorite family snapshot. You select a card style and Photoman does the cards in about a week.
[00:48:57] Speaker A: Number two. Yes, I understand you got a little behind. Well, I wear a 6 waist 4 inseam pants. No, I mean, are there enough cards for everyone? Now, what's the opposite of no? Yes, yes, that's what we can say. El's got it covered.
[00:49:07] Speaker B: The variety of these custom designs.
[00:49:09] Speaker A: A wide variety. They must be expensive, inexpensive.
[00:49:12] Speaker C: I should interject here that 25 cards with envelopes are just 6.95.
This has been an unrehearsed commercial for Photo Match Snapshot Christmas cards. Friday, December 10th is the last day to order.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: How do you think it went?
[00:49:27] Speaker C: I thought we were all going to.
[00:49:28] Speaker A: Wear red and green.
[00:49:28] Speaker C: We said red and green, but I.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Couldn'T find red and green.
[00:49:30] Speaker E: I don't think they noticed we're all sitting down.
[00:49:42] Speaker C: If there is a moral to be gleaned from our story, and I do not think there is, and certainly there was never meant to be, it is the old one. Be careful what you wish for. You might get it. But if you take my advice, you will not look for a moral. You will simply accept the whole thing for what it is and no more. A story.
Our cast included Terry Keane, Ann Shepard, Jack Grimes and Morgan Fairchild. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. Radio Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division and True Value hardware stores. This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre.
Until next time, pleasant dream.
[00:50:40] Speaker F: Mystery Theater was also brought to you in part by Shoprite Supermarkets, where you get a lot more for a little less furnished by CBS Radio.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Hard to.
[00:50:55] Speaker F: Believe, but Christmas is right around the corner.
[00:50:57] Speaker C: This is Ray Heaven reminding you your.
[00:50:59] Speaker B: Gift to the WOR Children's Christmas Fund.
[00:51:02] Speaker C: Will brighten it up for a lot of kids in this area. Give what you can.
[00:51:05] Speaker F: Send your check or money order to.
[00:51:07] Speaker C: The WOR Children's Christmas Fund, Box 7, 10. Times Square Station, NY 10036 W. New.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: York.
[00:51:17] Speaker B: City has big welfare mess. United Parcel strike settled. When is a surplus not a surplus?
It's 26 degrees Fahrenheit, minus 3 Celsius. Cloudy outside. Weather watch outlook cloudy tonight. Not so cold as last night.
Good evening. John wingate with the 8 o'clock report from WOR News. New York City has a big welfare scandal on its hands. Two agencies, the Investigations Commission and the Human Resources Administration have come up with evidence of a really big welfare fraud. This said to have been on behalf of more than 600 public employees. They're accused of collecting almost 3 million in payments they did not deserve. The alleged cheech came from many parts of government, but the big guys and gals are said to be on the city payroll. For example, 247 listed as working for the board of education, 37 with the police Department Investigations Commission Special assistant Stuart Holzer tells WOR's Lester Smith these workers were employed regularly.
[00:52:20] Speaker G: People were employees who were earning a living working in these government agencies. They were not part timers.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: Can you tell us, was the matching of the computer information of welfare recipients against those Social Security numbers? Was that something that had been triggered for some particular reason or was that a routine operation?
[00:52:39] Speaker G: This was a plan which was put into effect by the Human Resources Administration to attempt to find individuals on the welfare rolls who were not entitled to welfare. After they called that information out, the matters involving criminal fraud were investigated further. And those are the ones that we're referring to here. In fact, I think the Human Resources Administration today projected that they would save some 14 and a half million dollars on an annualized basis for all forms of public assistance cheating which they had discovered by use of these computer matches.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: Is there reason to believe perhaps that this is even more widespread than you have found, or have the computers done a pretty good job of turning up the culprits?
[00:53:21] Speaker G: Well, the computers have turned up a substantial number here and we intend to continue this kind of thing in the future.
[00:53:30] Speaker B: Investigations Commission spokesman Stuart Holzer with WO's Lester Smith. Striking teams of union members have overwhelmingly okayed a new contract with United Parcel Service that ends an 84 day strike. There's no immediate word, however, when UPS deliveries will resume in the 15 eastern states from Maine to South Carolina affected by the strike. Company and union officials had previously indicated indicated operations could resume tomorrow if a new contract was ratified by the 17,000 Striking Teamsters. A Teamster official, in announcing the results of the balloting, said the union members were available to go back to work, but he didn't indicate when they would return to their jobs. WOR710 news time exactly three minutes past 8:00. Senator Frank Church has criticized the State Department for refusing to give a Senate committee information on negotiations between Saudi Arabia and a key US Oil firm. Church said the talks on the future status of Aramco, that's a consortium of four US Oil companies in Saudi Arabian oil production, will directly affect U.S. security and the price of oil. However, the Idaho Democrats, as the State Department contends the talks are confidential.
A Utah judge will consider tomorrow whether convicted killer Gary Gilmore will stand trial on another murder charge. The 36 year old Gilmore had been sentenced to death for the killing of a Provo Motel clerk last July. The execution has been stayed three times over the strong objections of Gilmore, who says he wants to die.
WOR 7:10 news time now six minutes past 8:00pm imported by the Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Harrison Golden, New York City Controller, says no gimmick is involved that is involved in the story. The city has a year end surplus of $300 million. However, the money is there purely in an accounting sense and it did not come from additional revenues, golden tells wor. It indicates improved collections and a better cash flow.
[00:55:28] Speaker G: Well, surplus is an accruing term that refers to what levels of cash you.
[00:55:33] Speaker B: Have at the end of the year.
[00:55:35] Speaker G: And at the end of the year we'll have more cash in hand, as we now project than had been anticipated before some of these changes that the city has acted on and before some of our costs got reduced borrowing costs because of lower interest rates and so forth. So it is an accurate accounting term, but it doesn't really mean that we've got a windfall and that all of a sudden there's a lot more money.
[00:55:55] Speaker B: Hanging out there to do things with.
[00:55:56] Speaker G: Than we had anticipated.
[00:55:57] Speaker B: Does it mean $300 million?
[00:55:59] Speaker G: What it means is a substantially improved cash position at the end of the year and that cash position could be $300 million or even better.
[00:56:08] Speaker B: City Controller Harrison golden, as he was interviewed by WOR's Lester Smith, New Jersey State Insurance Commissioner James Sheeran, who recently announced a six month freeze on auto insurance premium rate increases says he might even cut the existing rates over there. Some insurance companies have threatened to stop doing business in New Jersey unless Sharon backs away from the freeze, he announced on Monday. But Sheeran now says he has no intention of dropping the plan and says it's well within the realm of the possible that the rates they're getting now are too high. He says he'll order a full review of all car insurance rates now in effect in the Garden State.
A man and his common law wife were found shot to death at their Upper west side apartment in what police describe as a homicide suicide. Department spokesman declines to identify the victim as pending notification of relatives. Spokesman said the woman usually babysat for a neighbor. When she didn't appear to sit with the child, the neighbor went to her husband to the woman, sent her husband to the woman's apartment at 11 and a half West 102nd Street. The husband looked through the apartment window from the fire escape and noticed a body on the floor. He called the police, who found the woman shot in the neck and chest and the man once in the head. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
There's also this Teachers at Nassau County Community College voted to continue contract negotiations and delay a possible strike until January 24. Teachers at the college in Garden City, Long island, have been without a contract for three months. Members of the Federation of Teachers Local 3160 met early this evening and authorized the union's executives to call a strike, but not to do so earlier than January 24th.
Union local spokesman Doris Shaffer says she still hopes for a contract and she says wants to negotiate. We'll have moderating weather coming up. WOR 7:10 news time 12 and a half minutes past 8:00pm.
