Detectives on the Air

Originally Aired: March 6, 1956 Johnny Dollar #342, "The Plantagent Matter Ep 2," Johnny finds himself entangled with the Vicksburg Police Department after a mysterious young woman dies in his arms at the emergency hospital. Lieutenant Jim Aikens brings Johnny in for questioning, pressing him for details about the unidentified girl he met in the hotel parking lot the previous evening. Johnny can o...

Originally Aired: March 5, 1956 Johnny Dollar #341, "The Plantagent Matter Ep 1," Johnny Dollar flies to Vicksburg, Virginia, to investigate a burglary at the Plantagent Hotel for Eastern Seaboard Casualty Insurance. The case appears straightforward when hotel manager Mr. Costello reports that police have already caught the burglar and recovered all the stolen property. After wrapping up the routi...

Originally Aired: March 2, 1956 Johnny Dollar #340, "The Fathom Five Matter Ep 5," Johnny faces a baffling twist when William Markey's body washes ashore, proving the insurance investigator wrong about his fraud theory. Detective Barney Wilson summons Dollar to the county morgue, where the medical examiner's autopsy reveals impossible findings: Markey has only been dead eighteen hours, not five da...

Originally Aired: March 1, 1956 Johnny Dollar #339, "The Fathom Five Matter Ep 4," Johnny Dollar confronts Edna Markey with his theory of an elaborate insurance fraud. He lays out the whole scheme: her supposedly dead husband William Markey, a champion long-distance swimmer facing bankruptcy, bought a car under an assumed name, then deliberately sank the Fathom Five in heavy fog and swam to shore....

Originally Aired: February 29, 1956 Johnny Dollar #338, "The Fathom Five Matter Ep 3," Johnny meets with Deputy District Attorney Barney Wilson to compare theories about the mysterious burning and sinking of the cruiser Fathom V. Wilson is convinced it's murder, believing that young Danny Haynes killed his employer William Markey to pursue Markey's attractive wife. According to Wilson's theory, Ha...

Originally Aired: February 28, 1956 Johnny Dollar #337, "The Fathom Five Matter Ep 2," Johnny Dollar continues his investigation into William Markey's mysterious death at sea as salvage crews prepare to raise the sunken cruiser. He meets with Special Deputy Barney Wilson, who invites him to witness the recovery scheduled for eight o'clock that evening. Dollar remains skeptical about whether Markey...

Originally Aired: February 27, 1956 Johnny Dollar #336, "The Fathom Five Matter Ep 1," Johnny Dollar receives a poetic summons from Ralph at the Hartford home office about a suspicious drowning case worth $75,000. William Markey, a 46-year-old consulting engineer from New York, allegedly died when a charter boat called the Fathom Five caught fire and sank off the coast of Miami Beach. The only wit...

Originally Aired: February 24, 1956 Johnny Dollar #335, "The Bennet Matter Ep 5," finds Johnny and Andy Cord waiting anxiously at the courthouse as the jury deliberates the fate of George Foley, the arsonist who torched Arnold Bennett's building. When the guilty verdict comes in, a desperate Foley summons Johnny to his cell, claiming he wants to help bring down Bennett. What follows is a frustrati...

Originally Aired: February 23, 1956 Johnny Dollar #334, "The Bennet Matter Ep 4," Johnny returns to San Francisco where the arson trial against George Foley is underway, but insurance investigator Andrew Cord worries they haven't yet connected Foley to their real target: Arnold Bennett. Despite compelling evidence, Defense attorney Jake Eggleston, described as one of the best in the business, thre...

Originally Aired: February 22, 1956 Johnny Dollar #333, "The Bennet Matter Ep 3," Johnny Dollar continues his investigation into the arson of Arnold Bennett's building, with suspect George Foley refusing to talk despite police interrogation all night. With insufficient evidence to tie Foley to Bennett, Johnny and insurance investigator Andy Cord search for a breakthrough. Johnny decides to track d...

Originally Aired: February 21, 1956 Johnny Dollar #332, "The Bennet Matter Ep 2," Johnny Dollar investigates a complex case that takes a violent turn when Arnold Bennett is shot at his home and rushed to the hospital with a 50-50 chance of survival. Fire investigator Bill Underwood confirms the Bennett building fire was arson, started by a professional using celluloid and a paraffin wick. Police a...

Originally Aired: February 20, 1956 Johnny Dollar #331, "The Bennet Matter Ep 1," insurance investigator Johnny Dollar heads to San Francisco with Four State investigator Andrew Cord to probe a suspicious fire that destroyed a ten-story office building owned by Arnold Bennett. The building, insured for half a million dollars by five companies, went up in flames just a month after completion. Arson...

Originally Aired: February 17, 1956 Johnny Dollar #330, "The Cui Bono Matter Ep 5," Johnny Dollar prepares to close his investigation into the death of Dan Parker, shot by his daughter Luann in what she claims was a tragic accident. Despite exhaustive investigation, Johnny finds himself unable to answer the central question: when Luann fired down those dark stairs, did she know she was shooting he...

Originally Aired: February 16, 1956 Johnny Dollar #329, "The Cui Bono Matter Ep 4," Johnny Dollar faces mounting hostility from Tom Bates, the acting county attorney who's replaced the murdered Dan Parker. Bates insists on being present when Dollar finally gets to interview Lou Ann Parker, the daughter who shot her father thinking he was a prowler. Dollar turns the tables on Bates, suggesting that...

Originally Aired: February 15, 1956 Johnny Dollar #328, "The Cui Bono Matter Ep 3," Johnny Dollar continues his investigation into the death of Dan Parker, despite mounting resistance from acting county attorney Tom Bates, who threatens to block Dollar's attempts to question the victim's adopted daughter, Luann Parker. Bates claims the young woman is too upset to be interrogated, but Dollar suspec...

Originally Aired: February 14, 1956 Johnny Dollar #327, "The Cui Bono Matter Ep 2," Johnny Dollar confronts Acting County Attorney Tom Bates about the suspicious death of longtime county attorney Dan Parker. Despite the official ruling of accidental death, Dollar presses Bates for cooperation, threatening subpoenas and legal action when the young attorney initially refuses to talk. Bates, who's in...

Originally Aired: February 13, 1956 Johnny Dollar #326, "The Cui Bono Matter Ep 1," Johnny Dollar heads to Green Pass, Virginia, to investigate a suspicious death that looks almost too convenient to be an accident. Dan Parker, the county attorney, was shot dead by his stepdaughter Lou Ann Parker, who claims she mistook him for a prowler when he returned unexpectedly from a business trip. The probl...

Originally Aired: February 10, 1956 Johnny Dollar #325, "The Mcclain Matter Ep 5," Johnny Dollar races to a Los Angeles hospital after learning that Dr. Dave McClain has been shot three times by Riley, the devastated boyfriend of Teresa Corbett. Despite his critical injuries, McClain refuses to make any statement about the insurance fraud case, betting on his own survival rather than cooperating w...

Originally Aired: February 9, 1956 Johnny Dollar #324, "The McClain Matter Ep 4," Johnny Dollar confronts Dr. David E. McClain at his Pacific Palisades office about a patient who disappeared two years ago. Before the meeting, Dollar encounters George Riley, the heartbroken fiancé of Teresa Corbett, who has just learned from police that they're exhuming a body they believe to be his missing love. R...

Originally Aired: February 7, 1956 Johnny Dollar #322, "The Mcclain Matter Ep 2," Johnny Dollar continues his investigation into Doris McClain's shocking confession that she faked her own death so her husband, Dr. David McClain, could collect her life insurance. While Don Taylor at Tri-State Insurance is eager to press charges based on her signed statement, Johnny isn't convinced she's telling the...

Originally Aired: February 6, 1956 Johnny Dollar #321, "The McClain Matter Ep 1," Johnny Dollar is called to the office of Don Taylor at Tri-State Insurance to meet a woman with an extraordinary claim. Mrs. McClain, a well-dressed woman in her late twenties, reveals that she is legally dead and her husband, Dr. Dave McClain, collected ten thousand dollars on her insurance policy two years ago in L...

Originally Aired: February 3, 1956 Johnny Dollar #320, "The Flight Six Matter Ep 5," Johnny Dollar's investigation in Acapulco takes a deadly turn when Marvel Terrence, the key witness who promised to reveal who caused the Flight 6 explosion, is murdered and her body pulled from the surf below her hotel. With his assistant Gino Romero, Johnny pursues a prowler on the hotel grounds, discovering sus...

Originally Aired: February 2, 1956 Johnny Dollar #319, "The Flight Six Matter Ep 4," Johnny and Inspector Gino Romero discover that all the Flight 6 beneficiaries have fled Mexico City for Acapulco. Marvel Tearns, Bill Blakely, and Ramon de Lagos each took separate commercial flights, while the mysterious Don Serrano chartered a private plane. Despite Gino's superstitious dread that their own flig...

Originally Aired: February 1, 1956 Johnny Dollar #318, "The Flight Six Matter Ep 3," Johnny Dollar receives an unexpected visit at his Mexico City hotel from Don Serrano de Almeida Ypico, the brother of crash victim Maria de Lagos. The aristocratic Don Serrano arrives with strong accusations, convinced that Maria's husband Ramon is a diabolical maniac who planted a bomb on Flight Six to kill his w...

Originally Aired: January 31, 1956 Johnny Dollar #317, "The Flight Six Matter Ep 2," Johnny investigates the wreckage of Flight 6, learning that dynamite planted in the baggage compartment brought down the plane. A suspicious baggage handler named Ramirez had insisted on loading one particular suitcase himself just before takeoff. At the crash site, Johnny encounters the enigmatic Marvel Terence,...