Adam Hatt presents...
The Strange Doctor Weird.
Good evening.
Come in, won't you?
Why, what's the matter?
Surely you're not nervous.
Perhaps it will calm you if I tell you a story.
It's a rather odd story about a rather odd individual.
You see, he was a morgue keeper.
I call his story, The Man Who Talked With Death.
My story, The Man Who Talked With Death, begins in the city morgue on a raw autumn evening.
Two men have just entered the badly lighted basement of the gloomy stone building.
Phew, I don't know whether it's cold in here or outside.
Where's Pop Hanson?
I want to get my pictures and get out of here.
This place gives me the creeps.
Well, Pop's around some place.
Hey, isn't that him?
Talked to somebody down there about the ice boxes, about the keeper's stiffs?
Yeah.
I know it's been strange at first, but you get over there.
Why, there's nobody there.
Pop's talking to himself.
Unless he's talking to a ghost.
Come on.
There is someplace else you go on to, but it's not a place you have to be frightened or believe in.
Now it's time for you to go.
Goodbye, Gene.
Goodbye.
Say, Pop.
Oh, hello, boys, and here you come in.
Say, Pop, who are you talking to?
Oh, that was Gene Williams.
She came in last night.
What do you mean she came in last night?
I mean her body was brought in.
Here, I'll show you.
There she is.
So young and so pretty.
No wonder she was frightened when she found she was dead.
You say you were talking to her?
Why, yes, Harry.
You see, when you die, a part of you goes on to someplace else.
But it always stays near its body for a while till it gets used to things.
It was that Gene Williams I was just talking to, of course.
Pop, you've been working down here among these stiffs too long.
You mean I just imagine I talk to them when they talk to me?
No, Tom, it's really true.
Someday you'll know I'm telling the truth.
Well, maybe. Let's calm the chatter.
We want to get the picture of John Wainwright.
Wainwright? Yes, they brought him in last night.
Everybody who dies a violent death comes here for old Pop to talk to.
Here he is.
Okay, Harry, get yourself a couple of pictures and we'll be gone.
Yeah, it won't take a minute.
I sure would like to know who killed Wainwright.
The killer didn't leave a clue.
Why, Chris, that's young Professor Higgins who shot Wainwright, Tom.
Higgins? Pride and Joy of the City University?
How'd you know?
Wainwright told me so himself.
Wainwright told you? What are you giving me?
It's true. You see, he was a blackmailer and he was blackmailing Higgins White.
Professor Higgins had to kill him to save her.
Wainwright told me so just before he left a little while ago.
But Wainwright's dead. There's his body right there in the icebox.
I know. I explained about that.
Oh, you're crazy.
But I'm not, Tom.
Wainwright even told me that the gun Professor Higgins used is hidden now
in the left-hand bottom drawer of the professor's desk in his home out at the university.
Okay, Tom, let's scram now.
Just a second.
Pop, I don't know why you've got your tip, but I'm going to look into this.
Oh, no, you mercant.
You see, Tom, the things that the dead tell me, they can't be used in any way by the living.
It's too dangerous to the living. They just can't be used.
Well, this can if it's true.
If Higgins killed Wainwright and I can prove it, boy, what a story it'll make.
No, Tom, you mustn't try to prove it. It'll do you no good.
Try and stop me. Come on, Harry.
Now, thanks very much, Dean.
Goodbye.
There you are, gentlemen. You've just talked to the dean himself on the phone,
and he's told you I was playing cards at his home at 11 o'clock last night.
Does that satisfy you?
Yes, Professor Higgins. Wainwright was shot at 11, so the alibi lets you out.
Who in the world ever suggested that it was I who shot Mr. Wainwright?
Nobody in the world, Professor. It was a ghost, Wainwright's ghost.
I'm afraid I don't understand.
Oh, it's just a gag, Professor. Thanks.
Come on, Harry, let's get back to town.
I told you the whole thing was a wild goose chase.
You don't really believe that crazy stuff Pop told us about talking to Wainwright's ghost?
No, of course not. But I thought maybe Pop knew something
and was trying to give us a tip without admitting it.
Say, wait a bit.
Huh? What is it?
Higgins is a smart guy. Maybe that alibi was fake.
Oh, now, Tom.
Pop said the murder gun was hidden in Higgins' desk.
I think we ought to go back and search that desk.
Oh, but that's crazy.
Hey, hey, Tom, what are you doing?
Just putting on the brakes. Now I'm going to turn around and go back.
Yeah, but the road's all wet here.
Hey, Tom, where's Higgins?
I'll get us out of it.
Yeah, there's a hundred foot drop into the gully there.
Hey, look out. Look out, Tom, we're going over. Jump, jump.
While my stumbles go away and we all wait to learn what happens next,
I'd like to ask Dr. Weird a question.
Yes, yes, young man. I'm all ears.
Well, point them the other way, please, and answer me this.
One of our listeners wants to know why you're on the air only 15 minutes instead of a half hour.
If we can scare people half to death in 15 minutes, well, I'd take twice as long.
Very logical, doctor. The Adam Happ people use similar logic in their business.
Take the famous Adam Five just for instance.
Their feeling is, if we can deliver real hat quality for $5, why charge twice as much?
And so on with Adam Hats in every price range.
Every Adam Hat might well sell for more.
Master craftsmen design every Adam style, up to the minute in fashion, correct in the best of good taste.
Stroll into the nearest Adam Hat store and look around a bit.
Try on a few that strike your fancy.
You'll find perfect fit, perfect style, and perfect price.
And Adam does something for a man.
Now, Dr. Weird.
Now I'll continue my story of the man who talked with death.
It's a few moments after the crash, and Tom and Harry are picking themselves off the ground
on the very edge of the deep gully into which their car was just plunged.
Harry, Harry, where are you?
Over here.
I'm just making sure I'm all in one piece.
How about you?
I'm all right, I guess. It's a miracle we weren't both killed.
Look at the car down there. It folded up like an accordion.
Yeah, I got the car door open.
I'm sorry we were going over and must have both been thrown clear, but now what are we going to do?
We're going back to the university, and we're going to get into Higgins' office
and see if the murder gun is really there in his desk.
Pop was just talking nonsense when he said we'd find it there, Tom.
Maybe and maybe not. I don't believe in his little conversations with ghosts,
but I do believe he knows something. And if he does, I'm going to crack this case.
A short time later, Tom and Harry reached Professor Higgins' residence again
and gained entrance to his office unseen through an open window.
Okay, here's the desk. Which drawer did Pop say?
The bottom left hand one. This is the one, then.
It's open. And there is a gun here. Look!
Yeah. 45 automatic. And Pop was right.
You bet he was. And he was also right when he said Professor Higgins shot Wainwright.
Higgins faked his alibi.
Here, I'll get the gun out with you. No, no, don't touch it.
The cops will have to find the gun here in this desk to be convinced it really belongs to Higgins.
Yeah, of course. Then let's call them and get them out here.
No, no, not yet. We're going back to the morgue and ask Pop a few questions.
Back to the morgue?
Tom, listen. You suppose Wainwright really could have told Pop all this after he was dead?
Of course not. That stuff we're talking to the stiffs is a lot of malarkey.
Pop knows something and he's hiding it.
We're going to find out what he knows and how, and then we're going to break the biggest story this town has ever seen.
Slipping away in the darkness, Tom and Harry tried vainly to thumb a ride back to the city.
In the end, they had to walk the whole distance.
And it was well after midnight when they once more stood outside the cold, gray morgue building.
Oh, what a night. I've never walked so far in my life.
Why do you suppose those drivers wouldn't stop and give us a lift?
Well, I guess they're afraid of a stick-up.
Well, let's get inside and give Pop the old third degree.
Yeah, I wish we didn't have to.
I hate to go in there again, Tom. This place upsets me.
Well, come on. We're the lucky ones. We can walk out again.
Hey, somebody's left the door open. Come on in.
Tom, Tom, I'm frightened. I don't want to go in there and try to keep the bodies. I just don't want to.
Oh, you're acting like a kid. Now, come on. There's Pop over there by the iceboxes.
Pop! Hello, boys. I've been kind of expecting to see you, too.
Pop, we want to ask you some questions.
Tom, you went out to talk to Professor Higgins, didn't you? And I asked him not to.
I told you it wouldn't do you any good. Not any good at all.
Oh, but it did. We found the gun just where you said it would be.
Boy, what a story this town's going to read tomorrow morning.
No, they'll never read it. The Wainwright shooting's never going to be cleared up. It's always going to be a mystery.
It has to be that way.
Like fun it is. Pop, how'd you know about Higgins and that gun?
Don't you realize yet I was telling you the truth? That Wainwright himself told me after they brought his body here?
Tom, I think Pop's telling the truth.
Well, you may be crazy, but I'm not. Now, Pop, come clean.
I should never have told you, Tom. That caused all your trouble.
I'm sorry, Tom. I'm awful sorry, but I warned you not to go, remember? If you hadn't, it would never have happened.
What are you talking about? What would never have happened, huh?
I think I know what Pop means. I think I know.
Sure you do, Harry. Tom will understand in a minute, too.
Look, Tom.
Look here. Two bodies badly smashed up. Well, so what?
Tom, don't you know now? It's true. Pop really can talk to the dead. He really can. That's why he can talk to us.
Harry, get a hold of yourself. What's the matter with Tom?
Those two bodies, they're ours. We're both dead. We were killed when our car crashed into that ravine.
So Pop could talk to the dead after all. At least Tom and Harry found the proof very convincing.
But if you find it hard to believe, why not drop in at the morgue and see for yourself?
Of course you'd have to go there as a dead body, but we could easily arrange that.
Oh, you're leaving now? Well, perhaps you'll drop in again soon. I'm always home.
Just look for the house on the other side of the cemetery. The house of Dr. Weird.