Detectives on the Air

Originally Aired: July 21, 1953 Johnny Dollar #172, "The Black Doll Matter," Johnny Dollar travels to Los Angeles to investigate the murder of Judith Thompson, a young woman shot to death in her apartment. The killing appears straightforward but puzzling - someone entered through the back door and shot her once in the chest with a .38, yet nothing was stolen. Working alongside Lieutenant Brickford...

Originally Aired: July 14, 1953 Johnny Dollar #171, "The Shayne Bombing Matter," Johnny Dollar arrives in New York to investigate the death of David Shane, a factory foreman killed by a bomb sent in a package. The victim's brother Charles, who had been working in California, is arrested after Mrs. Shane tells police that David identified the package as coming from Charles before opening it. Lieute...

Originally Aired: June 30, 1953 Johnny Dollar #169, "The Jones Matter," insurance investigator Johnny Dollar heads to Las Vegas to recover a stolen $30,000 diamond necklace belonging to Lily Lasseur, a glamorous aging showgirl who still packs them in at the Billion Dollar Club. Lily has two notorious weaknesses: gambling and collecting young men, both of which prove expensive. When Dollar arrives...

Originally Aired: June 23, 1953 Johnny Dollar #168, "The Jonathan Bellows Matter," Johnny Dollar is called in by Roger Stern of Intercontinental Indemnity after someone takes a shot at Jonathan Bellows, a 63-year-old industrialist insured for half a million dollars. The stubborn, reclusive Bellows refuses police protection and dismisses the would-be assassin as merely a crank, but his wife Edith i...

Originally Aired: June 16, 1953 Johnny Dollar #167, "The Emil Carter Matter," Johnny travels to Los Angeles to investigate the murder of policyholder Emil Carter, who was shot in his apartment. The prime suspect, Janice Late, was seen fleeing the scene by multiple witnesses, but she secretly contacts Johnny, insisting on her innocence. Against his better judgment, Johnny agrees to meet with her pr...

Originally Aired: June 9, 1953 Johnny Dollar #166, "The Oklahoma Red Matter," Johnny travels to Lexington, Kentucky to investigate a suspicious $65,000 insurance claim on a champion racehorse named Oklahoma Red. The prized stallion was allegedly injured by farm machinery and destroyed on the orders of Dr. Pierce, the attending veterinarian. However, Johnny quickly discovers troubling inconsistenci...

Originally Aired: June 2, 1953 Johnny Dollar #165, "The Costain Matter," insurance investigator Johnny Dollar heads to Toledo to examine what initially appears to be a simple shoplifting epidemic. Federal Insurance has paid out over twelve thousand dollars on thirty-seven stolen merchandise claims, and they want answers. When Johnny meets with Lieutenant Sturgis at the Toledo police station, he di...

Originally Aired: May 26, 1953 Johnny Dollar #164, "The Brisbane Fraud Matter," Johnny Dollar arrives in Detroit to investigate Hugh Brisbane, a broker who has mysteriously vanished, leaving behind a twenty-five thousand dollar bond that Johnny's company will have to cover if Brisbane has truly run away. Working alongside Sergeant Pantella of the Detroit Police, Johnny learns that Brisbane's disap...

Originally Aired: May 19, 1953 Johnny Dollar #163, "The Emily Braddock Matter," Johnny Dollar is called in by Frank Preston of Baltimore Liability to track down a cunning female con artist who has been passing bad checks up and down the California coast. The woman, posing under various names including Mrs. Robert Payne and Ellen Bradley, has been targeting luxury resort hotels from Monterey to San...

Originally Aired: May 12, 1953 Johnny Dollar #162, "The Rochester Theft Matter," Johnny Dollar receives an unexpected call from Sergeant Papish of the New York Police Department with news about a cold case: a five-thousand-dollar mink coat stolen six months ago from the Jacobys in Rochester has finally been recovered. The catch is that the coat is being worn by a young woman named Eileen Madden, w...

Originally Aired: May 5, 1953 Johnny Dollar #161, "The Blackmail Matter," Johnny Dollar is called to investigate a suspicious death at Dale Martin's gym, where the body of Frederick Royal, a regular client for over a year, has been discovered with his neck broken. Martin is convinced it's murder rather than an accident, and the police agree—the position of the body suggests someone with considerab...

Originally Aired: April 28, 1953 Johnny Dollar #160, "The San Antonio Matter," insurance investigator Johnny Dollar flies to St. Petersburg, Florida, when notorious bootlegger Mark San Antonio is found shot to death in his home. The case becomes complicated when Dollar learns that Great Eastern Fidelity had established a trust fund for San Antonio's daughter two years earlier. Working alongside Li...

Originally Aired: April 21, 1953 Johnny Dollar #159, "The Dameron Matter," Johnny Dollar arrives in San Francisco just ten hours after a violent heist at the National Savings and Loan Company. Lieutenant Benson and Sergeant Friedman have already picked up Bernie Manners, a two-time loser with a lengthy criminal record, after the dying watchman, Henry Fuller, identified him from police mugshots as...

Originally Aired: April 14, 1953 Johnny Dollar #158, "The Madison Matter," Johnny is called to the Hartford office of Paul Dupree at International Insurance to meet a woman with an extraordinary claim. Thelma Walker, a tall, dark-haired woman in her thirties, explains that she is legally dead and her husband, Dr. Frank Madison, has collected ten thousand dollars on her life insurance policy. She r...

Originally Aired: April 7, 1953 Johnny Dollar #157, "The Enoch Arden Matter," Johnny Dollar is called in by Henry Grant when a New York court declares Frank Loring legally dead after seven years, triggering a quarter-million-dollar life insurance payout to his widow, Mrs. Loring. Just as the company prepares to pay the claim, a nurse named Ruth Beloyne contacts them from Boston with an intriguing...

Originally Aired: March 31, 1953 Johnny Dollar #156, "The Lester James Matter (no ending)," Johnny Dollar is called to New York to investigate a seemingly straightforward embezzlement case. Bookkeeper Lester James has confessed to stealing $4,185 from his employer, Wallace Cottons and Company, and is sitting in jail awaiting trial. The Corinthian Liability insurance company needs Johnny to recover...

Originally Aired: March 24, 1953 Johnny Dollar #155, "The Syndicate Matter," insurance investigator Johnny Dollar travels to the booming Tupelo oil fields after four employees covered under a group policy are murdered in identical fashion - beaten to death. Meeting with Wilbur Runyon of the southwestern division, Johnny learns that all four victims were newcomers to the field who had been unemploy...

Originally Aired: March 17, 1953 Johnny Dollar #154, "The King's Necklace Matter," finds insurance investigator Johnny Dollar flying to a private island off the coast of Cuba to look into a suspicious attempted theft. King Rawlings, a retired financial tycoon, has reported that someone tried to break into his safe, presumably after his insured quarter-million-dollar necklace. Waiting on Los Panos...

Originally Aired: March 6, 1953 Johnny Dollar #152, "The Jeanne Maxwell Matter," Johnny Dollar heads to Boston to investigate the death of twenty-one-year-old Jeanne Maxwell, found dead in shallow water beneath a bridge. While the case appears to be suicide, Lieutenant DeRosa shares his suspicions with Johnny that something doesn't add up. The bridge is too low for a typical suicide jump, and Jean...

Originally Aired: February 27, 1953 In The Underwood Matter, insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is sent to Rexford, Wyoming after wealthy businessman Raymond Underwood falls to his death from a fourth-story hotel window. With a $25,000 life insurance policy—and a double indemnity clause if the death was accidental—the insurance company needs to know whether Underwood fell, jumped, or was pushed....

Originally Aired: August 22, 1951 In The Cumberland Theft Matter, insurance investigator Johnny Dollar travels to New York to look into the mysterious disappearance of wealthy grocery chain owner Leland Case. With a substantial insurance policy at stake, the company wants answers—but the circumstances surrounding Case’s vanishing quickly grow complicated. Case’s much younger wife reports him missi...

Originally Aired: May 19, 1951 In The Jane Doe Matter, insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is dispatched to Chicago to investigate the disappearance of a young bank messenger—and the $80,000 in cash he was carrying. When Henry Lillis vanishes en route to complete a routine transfer, suspicion quickly falls on the quiet, dutiful son who seemed above reproach. Teaming up with weary private detectiv...

Originally Aired: February 6, 1953 In The Chicago Fraud Matter, insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is summoned to Chicago when a $50,000 life insurance policy turns suspicious after the insured, Christopher Lane, dies of malnutrition—despite having passed a recent physical examination. As Dollar digs deeper, he discovers that Lane had been a long-time alcoholic in severe decline, raising the uns...

Originally Aired: February 6, 1953 In The Chicago Fraud Matter, insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is summoned to Chicago when a $50,000 life insurance policy turns suspicious after the insured, Christopher Lane, dies of malnutrition—despite having passed a recent physical examination. As Dollar digs deeper, he discovers that Lane had been a long-time alcoholic in severe decline, raising the uns...

Originally Aired: January 30, 1953 In The Kay Bellamy Matter, insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is dispatched to New York to investigate a puzzling application for a two-million-dollar insurance policy on rising radio star Kay Bellamy. Submitted by her ambitious agent, Lou Waltham, the policy raises red flags when inconsistencies begin to surface about the singer’s background and unusual profes...