Perry Mason (1957) s06e08 Episode Script
The Case of the Stand-In Sister
Itheme.]
Sit down, Jahnchek.
l'll let you know when you may go.
Senator Cord, the sub-committee has recessed for lunch.
We are not now in session, so as Mr.
Jahnchek's counsel may l point out You may not.
l subpoenaed you out of a Federal penitentiary because it occurred to me that having served almost all of a 20-year sentence, you might have undergone at least the rudiments of reformation.
lt was my hope that you would co-operate with this committee in its emorts to expose the organized criminality existing in this country today.
Fat chance, Buster.
lnstead of co-operating, you have blocked us at every turn.
ln the course of this first day's hearing, you have evaded, you have lied, you have seen fit to plead the Fifth Amendment no less than 2T times! l didn't ask to come here! Your attitude may be dimerent when you face a Federal Grand Jury on charges of perjury and contempt of a United States Senate Committee! - What.
? - Marshal.
- Yes, Senator? - Have this man returned to the penitentiary.
- l don't want to see him again.
- Now, wait a minute! What's this about a Grand Jury? What's going on here? You've been parroting your counsel's advice -- ask him! All right, let's have it.
What was he talking about in there? - We'll stay here for lunch.
- Never mind him.
l asked you a question! They had you cold, Steve -- every time you lied to that Committee, they were looking down your throat with documented proof.
l didn't say anything but what you told me to say.
l -- Oh, you knew about that proof, before you -- [sighs.]
Big Steve Jahnchek -- l'm elected Public Patsy Number One! That's it, huh? The boys upstairs, the ones who pay me, Steve, they figured the odds, that's all.
Sure, sure! Let's not open up any new cans of peas.
Let Big Steve take the rap, huh? Let him rot a coupla' more years in jail! Why not? Well, l'll tell you why not! l got dough waiting for me-- big dough! Enough to lam out of this country and live like a king, that's why not.
Now, be smart, Steve.
If you've got a bankroll set aside, it'll wait, it'll still be there.
That's where you're wrong.
It won't.
l can't wait! Don't do it, Steve! Steve, they'll throw the book at you! Steve! Yeah.
John Gregory.
GREGORY.
Los Angeles, California.
Night letter.
That's right.
Relax, Nick.
l never saw you so jumpy.
Relax, he says.
You're the captain of one little tuna boat.
Look at me, l've got 25 just like her and 10 more on lease-purchase.
You don't see me sweating it.
No, l'm sweating for you.
l should have my head examined, suggesting this deal in the first place.
You know what happens ifjust one single step goes haywire, don't you, John? You lose your shirt.
l'll make the tonnage, and that means my merger with Bickel's cannery will go through.
Then l'll pay for on my boats.
lf you deliver as much fish as you signed up for.
- If you don't, you're dead.
- We'll see.
- Daddy! - Hello, baby.
Oh! You didn't shave.
Just like when you were a little kid.
Gone a couple of weeks and you complain about your old daddy's whiskers.
Well, they scratch.
l missed you, you big Hunyak.
What you got rigged for me today? Some shopping? Stum for a trousseau, maybe? Nothing so e_ravagant.
We're going to hear Van speak at a Woman's Club rally.
Oh, it isn't bad enough l'm losing my daughter to a rising young politician, l've got to listen to his campaign speeches in the bargain.
l stopped by your omice.
Nothing urgent.
Except, uh, maybe this telegram.
Anything the matter, fisherman? No, no, it's just that, um-- Well, l can't go to the rally with you, Helen.
Tell Van l'm sorry l couldn't make it, but l just remembered, l've got to see somebody on business.
You go on.
l'll use the company car here on the dock.
[car starting.]
[accented speech.]
The story on Jahnchek's escape is almost a week old.
lt's buried way in the back of the paper.
- What? - Don't be alarmed, Mr.
Gregory.
l only wish to speak to you.
My name is Moray.
- l'm not looking for work.
l am retired.
- What do you want? From the Boston omice of the Swiss Federated Bank of Zurich.
Look, Mr.
Moray.
l'm a busy man.
l-- Did you say, ''Swiss''? Federated Bank of Zurich.
For the past 20 years, l've personally handled your daughter's trust fund.
Yes, l remember your name now.
l've seen your name on correspondence.
_200,OOO, half of the trust fund paid when your daughter was ten, the other half is due when she's 21-- in less than a year.
Not an unusual trust fund at all, sir.
Except for the dimerence in the names.
See, a trust fund set up by another man for his daughter, being paid to your daughter: the girl you call Helen Gregory.
You don't know what you're talking about.
As trustee of this trust fund, you've already accepted _100,OOO, and l assume you plan to accept the remaining _100,OOO for your own daughter-- despite the fact that the money was left to someone else.
Get out of here.
The young man who is about to marry your daughter is running for Congress.
What would happen to him, and your daughter, if l lodge a criminal complaint against you? - For what? - Felony fraud.
_100,OOO, and you'll never see or hear from me again.
There is a way-- papers l can sign-- put me in your control, to make sure that you make only this one ''pension'' payment if you go along with me now! Every cent l own is tied up.
Where am l going to come up with that much cash? That's your problem.
l'll call you later.
Good day, sir.
As Mr.
Gregory's attorney, l appreciate your coming here on such short notice, Mr.
Bickel.
You're trying to renege on the merger? No, certainly not, it's just that l-- The fact is, Mr.
Bickel, we'd like to ask a postponement.
As you know, Mr.
Gregory has _300,OOO of his own company stock in escrow.
l have an equal amount tied up, in case you've forgotten.
We realize that.
But Mr.
Gregory finds himself in urgent need of ready funds for another purpose.
For what other purpose? lt's something l can't talk about.
l haven't even discussed it with Mr.
Mason.
l don't know what you're trying to pull, but l don't like the smell of it.
Either this merger goes through, and on the date specified, or it doesn't go through at all.
lf that happens, you fo_eit your escrow.
You ought to know the penalty clause.
You helped write the contract.
Look, Bickel, you won't lose anything by Ietting me om the hook for a couple of days.
- If l could only explain to you-- - It wouldn't do one bit of good.
The answer would still be ''no''.
Nick.
How much money is in that special account you've been keeping for me? I Well, as near as l can remember a little over _1 OO,OOO.
l want you to draw it out.
- All of it? - In cash.
Now, today! l thought you told me you could swing the new fleet and the cannery merger without touching that money-- what's wrong? Don't push, Nick, don't push.
l'd tell you if l could.
Okay, John.
Anything you say.
l'll call and tell you what to do with it.
Just get the money for me.
Don't ask why.
John Gregory, if l know you another 20 years, l'll still not understand you.
Why should l suddenly leave town? Why? Let's say you need a little vacation, Mrs.
Stone-- four or five weeks.
But l'm a nurse, on special call.
What if one of my doctors should want me to take care of a patient? They'll find another one.
l'll run you to the airport.
Or the Union Terminal, if you'd sooner go by train.
Mr.
Gregory, is something wrong? Just go, Mrs.
Stone, please! And don't ask why.
Hey, what's all this? l thought you kids would be at some rally.
Van? No speeches this evening? Yes, sir, at the Armory.
But there was something l thought l ought to tell you first.
l got a phone call a while ago at campaign headquarters.
From a man who said his name was Moray.
[Helen.]
It was such a strange call.
Something about having knowledge that would wreck Van's chances of election.
He said you'd know what we meant if he told you.
He was kidding, baby.
He's a great one for practical jokes, that Moray.
Clowning all the time.
l'll see to it doesn't happen again.
Thanks for relieving our minds, Daddy.
We were a little worried.
Helen, there's nothing l wouldn't do to protect you and your happiness-- nothing! - You know that.
- Well, of course, Daddy.
Darling? Hadn't we better be going? You're due at 8:OO.
Good night, Mr.
Gregory.
Stefan! Did you got my telegram? Make all the arrangements? [laughing.]
Don't be scared.
Nobody knows about us, or l'm here.
They're looking for me in Boston.
lt won't work, Stefan.
Why not? You got the boats.
You put the two of us on one, take us down to Mexico.
l've got contacts there.
l'll need some dough, forged passports, plane fare to Switzerland.
- The two of you? - Sure, me and my daughter.
Who else? - She knows she's going with me? - Twenty years, not a word, not a letter-- How is she? What is she? Now you want her to pack up and run om to Switzerland with you.
- Why? - You want me to draw pictures for you? Why do you think? The trust fund.
The 100,OOO bucks.
She don't sign for it, l don't get it, that's why.
You set up that trust fund for her.
Oh, sure.
For some brat l never even saw.
One l didn't care two cents for.
l set it up for her, yeah.
She already got a 100,OOO bucks.
Or you have, what's the dimerence? The rest of that dough l always figured as my own private nest egg.
For me-- Big Steve-- alone! l wasn't sure, but l'd have bet my life that was exactly how you felt-- what you would say.
No, Stefan.
Even if she were alive, l wouldn't let her go with you.
You wouldn't y-- ''Even if she were alive''? What are you talking about? Your daughter's dead.
You lie to me, l'll cut your heart out! There was a mix-up in the hospital records.
l didn't know about it till years later.
Your daughter's dead, Stefan-- dead! You cheap, chiseling thief! What about the money? The money from the trust fund.
- What did you do with it? - Held it, for you.
Ten years ago, the first hundred thousand, l put it in a special account.
For you, for when you were released.
It's untouched.
What about the other 100 grand? With the kid dead, how do l get it? l've got everything you need.
Notarized statements, records, everything.
You'll give me a hundred grand in cash, get me outta the country on one of your boats, fix me with papers so l can pick up the other hundred grand myself? - Yes, yes.
- When? - l'll need a couple of days.
- No, no.
It's too risky.
Tonight.
l want it tonight! [phone rings.]
lf that's the cops-- - Hello? - This is Franz Moray, Mr.
Gregory.
Hold on a minute, please.
Somebody's coming over, now.
You'd better get out of here.
Tonight.
l want the money tonight.
All right.
San Pedro Harbor.
The tuna clipper Helen G.
Near the oil dock.
It'll be empty.
Meet me on board, in the galley, 9:30.
Don't fool with me, l warn you.
Moray? Listen, the money? You can have it.
Tonight, sir, tonight! _1 OO,OOO, cash! Tonight.
You know where we talked? The dock? Our boat, the Helen Z? There won't be anyone on board.
Meet me there at 10:OO.
The money? The papers? - You'll get them.
l promise.
- Promise? - What are you pulling om here? - Nothing, believe me! l told you it would take time.
You've got to help me.
Now listen, here's what l figured-- if you'll stay here, out of sight for a couple of days, l'll -- - l said tonight! - Listen to reason.
ls there a reason? [grunting.]
What's going on here, Gregory? Mr.
Bickel, l-- l've got to talk to you.
Mr.
Bickel.
Wait! Listen! lt's nothing, nothing at all.
Just one of my sailors.
Drunk.
That's all, drunk.
l had to hit him.
You hit him, all right.
He's dead.
l'm sorry, Perry.
There's nothing l can tell you.
You don't seem to realize the position you're in, John.
l didn't kill him.
What was he doing here? What were you doing here? This is one of my boats.
l've got a right to be here.
You know, John, when a man doesn't trust his attorney, he ought to get another one.
What's that supposed to mean, Perry? That l want the truth.
- Well, Lieutenant? - Homicide, Perry.
All we have to find out now is why he was killed.
Plus who he is, what he was doing here-- and why Mr.
Bickel just happened along at so opportune a time.
Don't start hinting that l've got anything to sweep under the rug.
l wanted to talk to Gregory, but he wasn't home when l phoned him.
l knew that he had a habit of coming to whichever of his boats happened to be in port whenever he was upset.
Why should l be upset, Mr.
Bickel? Why not? That man was trying to e_ort money from you.
You know what you're saying? Very much so, Mr.
Mason.
l was curious when he wanted me to e_end that escrow.
And tonight, l received a telephone call from someone who calls himself Moray.
He said he had information on Gregory that could be disastrous.
He suggested l ask him about it.
Well, Lieutenant, if that doesn't suggest e_ortion, then l don't know what-- Look here, Bickel-- Sorry, Mr.
Gregory, l'm afraid l'll have to take you in.
What's the charge, Lieutenant? Suspicion of murder, Counselor.
l'll see you downtown, John.
According to his emects, his name was Franz Moray, formerly with the Boston omice of the Swiss Federated Bank of Zurich.
- Paul, l'd like you to-- - l know, be on the ne_ plane to Boston.
No, l don't know why my father went down to the harbor tonight.
l don't know anything except my father isn't a murderer! l'll go along with that, Mr.
Mason.
ln all my life, l've never met a man less capable of killing.
And neither of you ever heard of this Franz Moray? No.
Not until l got that crazy phone call at my campaign headquarters.
Mr.
Gregory shrugged it om as a practical joke.
l'd say it was anything but a joke.
Helen, do you know of any business dealings your father had with the Federated Swiss Bank of Zurich? lf he had, he never spoke of it.
l must know the truth about his relationship to Moray.
lf the man was a-- an e_ortionist, l want to find out what hold he had over your father.
Can you recall anything at all-- any possible occurrence in your father's life that might furnish us with a lead? No, nothing.
My father never harmed anyone in his life! Except.
.
.
- Oh, that couldn't be.
- What couldn't be, Helen? The automobile accident.
Back east in Boston, 20 years ago.
l don't remember it, l was only a few months old.
My mother and baby sister were both killed.
Helen's told me about it.
You see, Mr.
Gregory was driving, but the accident wasn't his fault.
The other car ran into him, so there couldn't possibly be any basis for e_ortion there.
Besides, Mr.
Gregory's the one who sumered, losing his wife and child.
l think the tragedy still weighs on his mind, the fact that they both died and we came out without a scratch.
- We? - Dad and myself.
And the nurse who was staying with us, taking care of us.
Can you remember the nurse? No, l don't remember her-- but there's a picture of me in an album, as a baby, in her lap.
The name underneath the picture Stone, that was it.
Mrs.
Margaret Stone.
Operator, this is Paul Drake, Room 806.
l'd like to place a long distance call to Los Angeles, please.
- [knocking at door.]
- Come on in, it's open.
Yes.
l'd like to speak person-to-person to Perry Mason.
What about, Paul? Perry, l went to the-- Never mind, operator.
Thank you.
What are you doing here? Hi, Beautiful.
How did you make out at the Swiss bank omice? Oh, just fine.
l talked to a stumed shirt named Corby who wouldn't give me the time of day-- except that Franz Moray, the dead man, worked there but retired over a month ago.
Well, we'll have to see Mr.
Corby again.
But before we do that, l want you to do some ambulance chasing, Paul.
We're checking all the hospitals near the wate_ront.
The man's name was Gregory.
And when did this accident happen? About twenty years ago.
lf you don't mind waiting.
l think l have what you want on that automobile accident.
lt was a couple of months later than you thought.
Thank you very much.
They were transferred to a private ambulance and taken to the hospital.
This can't be the only clipping, Perry.
It doesn't say what hospital.
l know, Della, but we can follow it up in some other newspaper omice.
- Well, Paul? - Hi.
Pay dirt! l found the hospital where the car-crash victims were taken, and it turns out to be the same hospital where Gregory's daughter was born.
Here.
Look at this maternity record.
Notice it lists the birth of a primapera female infant, Susan Gregory.
Susan? Susan-- but l thought-- Yeah, well, uh-- This is the auto accident admittance record, dated exactly two months later.
lt lists the mother and baby Susan as Dead on Arrival.
The survivors, Gregory the father, a nurse named Mrs.
Stone, and a baby daughter, Helen, three months old.
How could that be? l mean if Susan was-- Exactly, Della.
If Susan was a firstborn infant, then how could the Gregorys have another child only a month older? You think that might be necessary? Yes, Mr.
Corby.
l'll have to examine your records.
A man's life is at stake.
To defend him, l must know the facts.
The head omice in Switzerland would, l'm sure, be most disturbed that the Boston records and personnel should be introduced as evidence into a Los Angeles court.
That wouldn't be necessary if l were to be given the information l needed.
l suppose you're right.
l, uh, haven't the file here, but l can probably answer your questions.
Susan was the name of the Gregory's real daughter, but of course you know that already.
Yes, she was the only child the Gregorys had.
According to the records, Helen was adopted as an infant about the time Susan was born.
At least the adoption papers were prepared and being processed.
And as you said before, that trust fund-- that _250,OOO trust fund was set up for the adopted child by her real father.
The adoption was started before Helen was born.
You see, the-the mother didn't want the child.
Would you please give me the name of the real father? lt's been in the headlines often enough since he escaped from the Senate committee.
Jahnchek, Stefan ''Big Steve'' Jahnchek.
lf l'd wanted you to know, Perry, l'd have told you! What actually happened the night of your automobile accident, John? Ah, there was a mix-up in the hospital admittance records.
Somebody made a mistake.
The death certificate was made out in my daughter's name, Susan.
But it was really Stefan's child, Helen, who was killed.
You knew all this, yet you didn't make any attempt to correct it? l didn't know.
Not right away.
When l learned about the truth of the mix-up, two years later, l corrected it.
Except for the name.
l didn't that was important.
But you didn't correct that mix-up with the Swiss bank that handled Helen's trust fund? Now, as trustee-- knowing your own daughter, Susan, had no legal right to that trust fund-- you still accepted the first installment of _1 OO,OOO.
Perry, that money hasn't been touched.
Not a cent of it! Whom did you fight aboard the clipper? Nobody.
Nobody, l-l just had too much to drink.
l fell down, l got messed up.
You told Bickel you fought with a sailor.
No, l just made that up about the sailor.
l didn't know what l was saying.
Why? Because you had just Ieft Moray dead on the galley floor? No.
l never saw Moray! He wasn't due on board till-- You did have an appointment with him.
To pay e_ortion money! l didn't kill Moray.
You started adoption proceedings before Helen was born, and that was a month before your own daughter was born.
Now, why would a gangster like Jahnchek ask you to adopt his baby? Because he and l-- Look, Perry, 25 years ago in Boston, Stefan was a wate_ront hoodlum.
He smeared dirt on the name of Jahnchek.
Such dirt that it made me ashamed.
l changed my name from Gregor Jahnchek to John Gregory.
Stefan is my brother.
l only wish l could help you, Mr.
Mason.
But l don't know anything.
Not about the murder, perhaps, but there are other areas where you might be of assistance.
The matter of Mr.
Gregory's real name, for example.
Okay, Mr.
Mason, for whatever good it does.
l knew John Gregory when he was Gregor Jahnchek.
He's been my closest friend.
There's nothing he wouldn't do for me, and there's nothing l wouldn't do for him.
Does that include hiding his brother from the police? You think l've got Big Steve aboard this tub? You're dreaming.
You must be.
What better place for a wanted man to take cover? The scene of a murder when the police have come and gone? You're wrong, Mr.
Mason.
Absolutely wrong.
Jahnchek is not on this boat.
Then you will have no objection to my going aboard and looking around.
You're just like my brother, a double-crosser.
That's a lie, and you know that, Steve.
- He's never double-crossed you in his life.
- He's been doing it for 20 years! l gave him my kid to adopt.
l set up a trust fund for her.
Then when she gets killed in an accident, he puts his kid in her place so he can collect the money.
You make it sound like he was crooked.
l'll give you something else to worry about.
That Moray guy.
He must have known about the automobile accident and the switching of the kids.
He must have used it to put the squeeze on my dear brother.
Jahnchek, you say those things in court, you'll send your brother to the gas chamber.
You are so right! l'll send him straight to the gas chamber.
Now, Doctor, can you tell us, please, the condition of the decedent's body? Yes, sir.
There were bruises and scratches on the face of the decedent.
l would say he had been engaged in a struggle before he was killed.
And what was the cause of death? Composite occipital fractures inflicted by several heavy blows with a blunt instrument on the head of the victim.
l show you this wrench, Doctor, People's Exhibit One.
l ask you if it could be the blunt instrument which inflicted those heavy blows? This, or something very much like it, yes.
When we arrested the defendant, John Gregory, his clothing was disheveled, and he was bruised and marked up-- as though he had just been in a fight.
l see.
Lieutenant Anderson, l show you this wrench.
People's Exhibit One.
l ask you if you've ever seen it before.
Yes, sir.
It has my mark on it.
We found it on the galley floor, near the body.
And did you have this wrench subjected to Iaboratory analysis, Lieutenant Anderson? lt was looked over carefully by the lab.
There were many sets of smudged and obliterated fingerprints, and over them, on the handle, one clear set.
- And whose fingerprints were these? - The defendant's.
John Gregory's.
Thank you, Lieutenant Anderson.
That will be all, sir.
Yours, Mr.
Mason.
Uh, Lieutenant Anderson, where on board the clipper Helen G.
were the wrenches kept? ln a rack in the machine shop, adjacent to the galley.
Was there a wrench missing from this rack? Yes, sir, there was.
Just one, Lieutenant? No, sir, there were two wrenches missing.
Did you look for the other one? - We looked.
- Did you find it? No, sir.
No further questions.
Oh, by the way, Captain Paolo, you are aware, are you not, that charges are being brought against you for harboring a fugitive? Okay, okay.
So l admit it.
Okay? Sure l knew Steve Jahnchek.
l knew he was my boss's brother, and l let him hide out on the boat.
Okay? As your boss's close and accommodating friend, were you aware of the meeting between the decedent and John Gregory the night of the murder on board your boat? The first l knew of that was when the police got me out of bed at home and brought me down to the boat in the middle of the night.
Your landlady is ready to testify that you received a phone call late that afternoon from John Gregory.
- Do you deny that? - No.
And you immediately thereafter went down to the docks and ordered the shore watch of the Helen G.
om the boat, explaining that the owner had insisted that he wanted no one aboard the boat that night.
Do you deny that? No.
l wish l could.
And when Helen-- Miss Gregory and l-- left the house and went out to my car, she discovered she had left her gloves in the house.
l went back in to get them.
And what happened when you returned to the house? l saw a man.
l didn't see his face, so l couldn't recognize him.
But l saw this man leaving by the back way.
Mm-hmm.
And as l started past the study, l saw Mr.
Gregory-- the defendant-- inside.
And was he alone? Yes.
He was speaking on the telephone.
He was telling someone to meet him at 10:OO at San Pedro Harbor.
Did the defendant address the person to whom he was speaking on the telephone by name? He called him Mr.
Moray.
Moray, on the phone, intimated rather than stated that he could make trouble for Gregory because of certain information he had.
And Moray suggested that if l wanted to protect our business deal, that l should urge Gregory to be-- l think the word he used was ''cooperative.
'' Yes, l think that explains it, Mr.
Bickel.
You were worried about your merger deal with the defendant.
And you became more worried as a result of this strange phone call from Moray-- isn't that correct? l tried to get Gregory at home, a few times.
As l told the Lieutenant, l knew that whenever Gregory was worried, he always went to one of his ships.
and l went looking for him down at the docks.
- It's all pe_ectly legitimate! - Of course it is, Mr.
Bickel.
You don't have to worry, sir.
You're not on trial here.
Well, l should hope not! Now, after you discovered the body of the decedent, did John Gregory make a statement to you? Oh, he rambled on with some nonsense about a drunken sailor.
And then he said, and l remember his words exactly, then he said, ''l hit him.
'' - Any luck? - Nope.
And l had a small army Iooking for her.
Mrs.
Stone is either dead or out of the country.
ls she that important, Perry? l have a feeling she's very important.
An elderly nurse who was involved in an accident almost twenty years ago.
What can she tell you? What my stubborn client has refused to tell me.
Speaking of clients, Bickel's story certainly didn't do John Gregory any good.
He sounded almost as if he hated him.
Or stood to gain financially.
Can he? Aside from the escrow, Gregory sank most of his capital into those fishing boats on lease-purchase to meet the merger terms.
You know, l think we ought to look into that lease-purchase transaction, Paul.
Find out if Bickel's involved.
l'll get a man right on it.
Gertie, this is Paul, can you ring my omice, please? Cele, is Jack Farnham there? l want-- He has? All right, let's have it.
Okay, Cele, thanks.
Well, no wonder we couldn't find the missing nurse, Mrs.
Stone.
Burger's had her on ice for days.
He plans to spring her in court tomorrow as a prosecution surprise witness.
Mrs.
Stone, approximately 20 years ago, you were involved in an automobile accident in Boston.
Do you remember that? Well, it started out a pretty happy day as l remember.
You see, Mr.
Gregory was coming home after three months at sea, and they were going to meet him at the dock.
They, Mrs.
Stone? Mrs.
Gregory, of course, their infant daughter, Susan, and the infant child they had adopted, Helen.
Now, Helen was a month older than Susan, l believe.
l say ''believe,'' Mr.
Burger, because l didn't know.
You see, l was hired by Mrs.
Gregory that very morning.
Mrs.
Stone, Let's get this very clear.
When he stepped om his ship twenty years ago, John Gregory had never seen his own daughter, or his adopted daughter? No, sir, he hadn't.
Now, what happened, Mrs.
Stone, after you picked John Gregory up at the dock? Mr.
Gregory was driving home when-- when we had the accident.
Mrs.
Gregory and one of the children were killed.
The other child and l were not injured.
But you all went to the hospital? Yes.
With-With Mr.
Gregory unconscious, l had to make the identifications.
l'm afraid, Mr.
Burger, it was then l made my mistake.
l improperly identified the dead infant and the live one.
Helen, not Susan, had been killed.
Why, l really wasn't sure of it myself.
Until two years later.
And what happened two years later? Mr.
Gregory was moving from Boston out here to California.
l couldn't leave with them, but before they left, l told Mr.
Gregory of my doubts.
Of the remote possibility that the surviving child was really his own daughter.
Then, of course, he took some sort of steps to check out the true identities of the girls.
And what did he find out? Susan, his daughter, was alive.
Helen, his adopted child, had been killed.
Before Mr.
Gregory went to California, he had me swear out some notarized statements and things, corroborating her identity.
And did you keep in touch with the Gregorys after that? No, l didn't.
lt wasn't until five years ago when l came out here myself on a sort of semi-retired basis, that l looked Mr.
Gregory up.
My appearing seemed to bother him a great deal.
So much so he paid me _5,OOO if l promised never to see him or his daughter again.
Acting as trustee for Helen Gregory, the defendant accepted _100,OOO on the occasion of her 10th birthday.
When he had you sign those statements did John Gregory say to you that among the records he had to set straight was the matter of a _200,OOO trust fund which his daughter Susan was not entitled to receive? Why, no.
l never knew anything about a trust fund.
Thank you very much, Mrs.
Stone.
Counselor.
Your Honor, l would like to request that you adjourn these proceedings and grant a brief conference in chambers.
You can't go on with it, John.
Every step you've made gives it away.
You call the girl who lives with you ''Helen'' because that's really her name.
There was no baby mix-up after your automobile accident.
That it really was your child that was killed.
That Helen is your adopted daughter.
No, Perry.
No, you mustn't say that.
Why mustn't he, if it's true? Oh, the bereaved father! Your heart bleeds, doesn't it, brother Stefan? You never wanted her you never cared for her! ! All she ever meant to you was a gimmick.
a clever way to bury money you could get your hands on when they let you out ofjail.
l'm going to see you fry! Now, Jahnchek, that's enough.
Mr.
Mason, l permitted this highly unorthodox hearing in chambers On yOUr aSSUranCeS it would help solve the case.
But if the record's going to show nothing more than a vituperative exchange of insults, l shall deem none of it in evidence, strike it all from the record, and reconvene back in the courtroom.
lf Your Honor will just be patient for a moment, l believe we can get at the truth.
John, why this deception over identities? Was it because you wanted to get the money and still claim Helen as your daughter? l love that girl more than anything in the world.
Too much to let her be hurt, knowing her real father is a gangster, a criminal.
And the _100,OOO from the trust fund.
You put it aside for her, in a special account.
l also know that you borrowed against it, as against all your assets, in order to close that cannery merger.
You were lying when you told me you'd give me that money? - You were lying? - No, no.
You don't understand.
There were two accounts.
l couldn't rob Helen of the money you set up for her.
The special account in her name is my money-- money l've saved over the years, to match what you left her.
Well, what happened to my money? That was the second account, the one Paolo kept for me.
Your money, Stefan, untouched.
He was to leave it for me on the boat.
There was Moray-- he wanted the money.
You wanted the money.
l didn't know that to do.
l thought you would help, would wait! Your Honor, l-- l fail to see the purpose of all this.
lt really doesn't have anything to do with the murder.
Even if this man did rig himself into this impossible situation for the sake of the girl, we're still faced with the fact that the situation led to an e_ortion, and the e_ortion led to a murder.
Judge, l'm willing to plead guilty.
Well, l find your omer quite paradoxical, Mr.
Gregory.
ln order to keep your adopted daughter from learning that her true father is a convicted felon, you're willing to expose yourself to a possible murder conviction.
Wouldn't that have the same emect upon her future? Maybe, l don't know.
You see, my fine brother there is quite a guy.
His wife didn't die when Helen was born, for the simple reason she wasn't his wife.
He hadn't even bothered to marry her.
Neither of them wanted the child.
The least l could do was to give her a home, where she was wanted, and a name that was not only clean, but legally hers.
Will everybody please rise? Mr.
Mason, l believe we recessed before you had an opportunity to cross-examine Mrs.
Stone.
l have no questions of Mrs.
Stone, Your Honor.
Very well.
Mr.
Burger, you may call your ne_ witness.
lf it please the court.
To anticipate Mr.
Mason, and to make abundantly clear for the record exactly how the District Attorney's omice feels on this matter let me state now that it is with e_reme distaste and reluctance that the State finds it necessary to call as its final witness a notorious, convicted felon, now serving time in a federal penitentiary.
l call Stefan Jahnchek to the stand.
Yeah, that's the statement l gave to the cops.
So what? It's not true.
Not true? Don't you try to play games with me, Jahnchek! lt's not true that you thought your brother lied to you, and double-crossed you? lt's not true that you wanted _100,OOO you thought he stole from you? - Those things are not true? - No.
l asked him for enough cash to get out of the country, that's all.
You expect me to believe a story like that? A fantastic story like that? Why, just a few minutes ago, in the Judge's chambers, you said that-- That's enough! l told you the truth.
Mr.
Jahnchek, do you know what the penalty for perjury is? Yeah.
They send you to jail, don't they? No further questions.
What time, on the night of the murder, did you go aboard the tuna clipper? No time on the night of the murder.
l went down there the ne_ morning, after the cops had left.
A little after 10:OO that night, the man was seen in a Gregory company power launch drifting from the oiling dock to another dock some distance away.
Now, he tied the launch there and went ashore.
l can produce a witness to swear to that fact.
Shall we call that witness now, and ask him if you were the man in that launch? All right, so l went down to the wate_ront.
But l no sooner got aboard the clipper when l heard someone coming along the dock.
l was scared, so l scrammed.
You were scared because someone was coming? Yet you had gone there for the express purpose of collecting _100,OOO from your brother? All right, all right.
So l was there.
At a quarter to 10:OO.
Satisfied? John Gregory was marked up from a fight.
lt wasn't a fight with Moray, it was a fight with you, was it not? Yeah.
l tried to hit him with the wrench.
But he knocked it out of my hand and we wrestled.
Then he got hold of it, and hit me with it.
But l wasn't out, see? Just stunned when he went up on the deck.
Then you heard Bickel shouting to your brother? Well, how'd l know some cop hadn't come along? l couldn't go back on the dock, so l went to the other side.
And l saw this motor boat tied up at the clipper -- Just a minute.
Are you saying that that motor launch just happened to be tied up alongside the clipper? Sure.
How else would it be there? Because it was left there by the man who planned to use it to get to the boat and to leave the boat without being seen.
Nah.
l saw the launch.
l took it.
But l didn't bring it there, l don't know where it come from.
Your Honor, if l'm allowed to recall a witness, l think we might determine the truth about this motor launch.
Your Honor, this motor launch has nothing to do with the issue.
l must protest.
l believe the use of the motor launch by Stefan Jahnchek is the key to the entire murder, Your Honor.
Very well.
You may recall your witness.
Captain Paolo, when not in use, the motor launch is kept at the marina? Yes, always.
Mr.
Jahnchek stated that he called you for permission to hide aboard the clipper.
Now, may l take this to mean that you gave him permission? - Yes.
- Did you tell him he could take the power launch from the marina and bring it to the clipper? Absolutely not! You have heard testimony that the decedent, Franz Moray, made phone calls to many of Mr.
Gregory's friends and associates in an emort to exert greater pressure for his planned e_ortion.
Now, did Moray ever phone you? Did he, Captain? Why, yes.
Then you knew about Moray.
And you knew that Mr.
Gregory was meeting someone at 10:OO that night on the tuna boat, and you correctly guessed that it was Moray? Did you not then phone Moray and tell him to be there earlier than ten? At 9:OO, say? Or nine 9:15? No! Why should l? Did you bring the motor launch alongside the clipper so you could get away without being seen? Me? What is this, Mr.
Mason? You're talking about a killer.
l'm Gregory's best friend.
Would l commit a murder and then let him take the blame? You may not have meant to, but when Jahnchek and Gregory unexpectedly arrived and had the fight, you had already killed Moray with that wrench, that is still missing.
And you were hiding with the body of the man you had killed, in the machine shop, right ne_ to the galley.
You're crazy! Jahnchek panicked and took away the launch, so you had no alternative but to leave your victim's body in the galley, slip om the stern of the boat in the shadows and hurry home.
How wrong can you get? l work like a slave to keep that outfit going for John.
For yourself, Captain, not for John Gregory.
My investigator has discovered that it was you, acting through a dummy corporation, who furnished the defendant with ten tuna boats on a lease-purchase agreement.
Okay.
Okay, so Gregory pays for those boats, and l make a profit! Is that illegal? This trust fund, which you kept in a special account under your own name-- lsn't that why you had to get Moray out of the way? Because Gregory had asked you for that money to pay om Moray? Asked you to bring it to the boat that night? But you couldn't, could you? You'd already used that money to get control of the ten tuna boats.
Captain? Why not? Why not? Why should l be the skipper of one lousy tuna boat while he got rich? Sure.
Sure, l used the money to tie up the boats.
lf that cannery deal went through, John would pay plenty to get those boats.
l could put the money back and still make a fortune.
And then came the e_ortionist, and Gregory wanted the money.
And the money that wasn't there.
l-- l only meant to knock Moray out, and and ferry him to a freighter.
l was going to have him kept on one of the southbound tuna boats.
l never, never figured to kill him.
l never meant to kill him.
You must believe that.
But l l hit him too hard! l hit him too hard! [sobbing.]
l hit him too hard! - Congratulations.
- l'll see you later.
Right.
Well, was it worth it, John? What do you think, Perry? Stefan? ln the Judge's chambers, you said you'd see me executed.
But on the witness stand, you deliberately lied.
- Why? - Wise up.
l gotta be nice.
You're still holdin' my 200,OOO bucks, brother.
Sit down, Jahnchek.
l'll let you know when you may go.
Senator Cord, the sub-committee has recessed for lunch.
We are not now in session, so as Mr.
Jahnchek's counsel may l point out You may not.
l subpoenaed you out of a Federal penitentiary because it occurred to me that having served almost all of a 20-year sentence, you might have undergone at least the rudiments of reformation.
lt was my hope that you would co-operate with this committee in its emorts to expose the organized criminality existing in this country today.
Fat chance, Buster.
lnstead of co-operating, you have blocked us at every turn.
ln the course of this first day's hearing, you have evaded, you have lied, you have seen fit to plead the Fifth Amendment no less than 2T times! l didn't ask to come here! Your attitude may be dimerent when you face a Federal Grand Jury on charges of perjury and contempt of a United States Senate Committee! - What.
? - Marshal.
- Yes, Senator? - Have this man returned to the penitentiary.
- l don't want to see him again.
- Now, wait a minute! What's this about a Grand Jury? What's going on here? You've been parroting your counsel's advice -- ask him! All right, let's have it.
What was he talking about in there? - We'll stay here for lunch.
- Never mind him.
l asked you a question! They had you cold, Steve -- every time you lied to that Committee, they were looking down your throat with documented proof.
l didn't say anything but what you told me to say.
l -- Oh, you knew about that proof, before you -- [sighs.]
Big Steve Jahnchek -- l'm elected Public Patsy Number One! That's it, huh? The boys upstairs, the ones who pay me, Steve, they figured the odds, that's all.
Sure, sure! Let's not open up any new cans of peas.
Let Big Steve take the rap, huh? Let him rot a coupla' more years in jail! Why not? Well, l'll tell you why not! l got dough waiting for me-- big dough! Enough to lam out of this country and live like a king, that's why not.
Now, be smart, Steve.
If you've got a bankroll set aside, it'll wait, it'll still be there.
That's where you're wrong.
It won't.
l can't wait! Don't do it, Steve! Steve, they'll throw the book at you! Steve! Yeah.
John Gregory.
GREGORY.
Los Angeles, California.
Night letter.
That's right.
Relax, Nick.
l never saw you so jumpy.
Relax, he says.
You're the captain of one little tuna boat.
Look at me, l've got 25 just like her and 10 more on lease-purchase.
You don't see me sweating it.
No, l'm sweating for you.
l should have my head examined, suggesting this deal in the first place.
You know what happens ifjust one single step goes haywire, don't you, John? You lose your shirt.
l'll make the tonnage, and that means my merger with Bickel's cannery will go through.
Then l'll pay for on my boats.
lf you deliver as much fish as you signed up for.
- If you don't, you're dead.
- We'll see.
- Daddy! - Hello, baby.
Oh! You didn't shave.
Just like when you were a little kid.
Gone a couple of weeks and you complain about your old daddy's whiskers.
Well, they scratch.
l missed you, you big Hunyak.
What you got rigged for me today? Some shopping? Stum for a trousseau, maybe? Nothing so e_ravagant.
We're going to hear Van speak at a Woman's Club rally.
Oh, it isn't bad enough l'm losing my daughter to a rising young politician, l've got to listen to his campaign speeches in the bargain.
l stopped by your omice.
Nothing urgent.
Except, uh, maybe this telegram.
Anything the matter, fisherman? No, no, it's just that, um-- Well, l can't go to the rally with you, Helen.
Tell Van l'm sorry l couldn't make it, but l just remembered, l've got to see somebody on business.
You go on.
l'll use the company car here on the dock.
[car starting.]
[accented speech.]
The story on Jahnchek's escape is almost a week old.
lt's buried way in the back of the paper.
- What? - Don't be alarmed, Mr.
Gregory.
l only wish to speak to you.
My name is Moray.
- l'm not looking for work.
l am retired.
- What do you want? From the Boston omice of the Swiss Federated Bank of Zurich.
Look, Mr.
Moray.
l'm a busy man.
l-- Did you say, ''Swiss''? Federated Bank of Zurich.
For the past 20 years, l've personally handled your daughter's trust fund.
Yes, l remember your name now.
l've seen your name on correspondence.
_200,OOO, half of the trust fund paid when your daughter was ten, the other half is due when she's 21-- in less than a year.
Not an unusual trust fund at all, sir.
Except for the dimerence in the names.
See, a trust fund set up by another man for his daughter, being paid to your daughter: the girl you call Helen Gregory.
You don't know what you're talking about.
As trustee of this trust fund, you've already accepted _100,OOO, and l assume you plan to accept the remaining _100,OOO for your own daughter-- despite the fact that the money was left to someone else.
Get out of here.
The young man who is about to marry your daughter is running for Congress.
What would happen to him, and your daughter, if l lodge a criminal complaint against you? - For what? - Felony fraud.
_100,OOO, and you'll never see or hear from me again.
There is a way-- papers l can sign-- put me in your control, to make sure that you make only this one ''pension'' payment if you go along with me now! Every cent l own is tied up.
Where am l going to come up with that much cash? That's your problem.
l'll call you later.
Good day, sir.
As Mr.
Gregory's attorney, l appreciate your coming here on such short notice, Mr.
Bickel.
You're trying to renege on the merger? No, certainly not, it's just that l-- The fact is, Mr.
Bickel, we'd like to ask a postponement.
As you know, Mr.
Gregory has _300,OOO of his own company stock in escrow.
l have an equal amount tied up, in case you've forgotten.
We realize that.
But Mr.
Gregory finds himself in urgent need of ready funds for another purpose.
For what other purpose? lt's something l can't talk about.
l haven't even discussed it with Mr.
Mason.
l don't know what you're trying to pull, but l don't like the smell of it.
Either this merger goes through, and on the date specified, or it doesn't go through at all.
lf that happens, you fo_eit your escrow.
You ought to know the penalty clause.
You helped write the contract.
Look, Bickel, you won't lose anything by Ietting me om the hook for a couple of days.
- If l could only explain to you-- - It wouldn't do one bit of good.
The answer would still be ''no''.
Nick.
How much money is in that special account you've been keeping for me? I Well, as near as l can remember a little over _1 OO,OOO.
l want you to draw it out.
- All of it? - In cash.
Now, today! l thought you told me you could swing the new fleet and the cannery merger without touching that money-- what's wrong? Don't push, Nick, don't push.
l'd tell you if l could.
Okay, John.
Anything you say.
l'll call and tell you what to do with it.
Just get the money for me.
Don't ask why.
John Gregory, if l know you another 20 years, l'll still not understand you.
Why should l suddenly leave town? Why? Let's say you need a little vacation, Mrs.
Stone-- four or five weeks.
But l'm a nurse, on special call.
What if one of my doctors should want me to take care of a patient? They'll find another one.
l'll run you to the airport.
Or the Union Terminal, if you'd sooner go by train.
Mr.
Gregory, is something wrong? Just go, Mrs.
Stone, please! And don't ask why.
Hey, what's all this? l thought you kids would be at some rally.
Van? No speeches this evening? Yes, sir, at the Armory.
But there was something l thought l ought to tell you first.
l got a phone call a while ago at campaign headquarters.
From a man who said his name was Moray.
[Helen.]
It was such a strange call.
Something about having knowledge that would wreck Van's chances of election.
He said you'd know what we meant if he told you.
He was kidding, baby.
He's a great one for practical jokes, that Moray.
Clowning all the time.
l'll see to it doesn't happen again.
Thanks for relieving our minds, Daddy.
We were a little worried.
Helen, there's nothing l wouldn't do to protect you and your happiness-- nothing! - You know that.
- Well, of course, Daddy.
Darling? Hadn't we better be going? You're due at 8:OO.
Good night, Mr.
Gregory.
Stefan! Did you got my telegram? Make all the arrangements? [laughing.]
Don't be scared.
Nobody knows about us, or l'm here.
They're looking for me in Boston.
lt won't work, Stefan.
Why not? You got the boats.
You put the two of us on one, take us down to Mexico.
l've got contacts there.
l'll need some dough, forged passports, plane fare to Switzerland.
- The two of you? - Sure, me and my daughter.
Who else? - She knows she's going with me? - Twenty years, not a word, not a letter-- How is she? What is she? Now you want her to pack up and run om to Switzerland with you.
- Why? - You want me to draw pictures for you? Why do you think? The trust fund.
The 100,OOO bucks.
She don't sign for it, l don't get it, that's why.
You set up that trust fund for her.
Oh, sure.
For some brat l never even saw.
One l didn't care two cents for.
l set it up for her, yeah.
She already got a 100,OOO bucks.
Or you have, what's the dimerence? The rest of that dough l always figured as my own private nest egg.
For me-- Big Steve-- alone! l wasn't sure, but l'd have bet my life that was exactly how you felt-- what you would say.
No, Stefan.
Even if she were alive, l wouldn't let her go with you.
You wouldn't y-- ''Even if she were alive''? What are you talking about? Your daughter's dead.
You lie to me, l'll cut your heart out! There was a mix-up in the hospital records.
l didn't know about it till years later.
Your daughter's dead, Stefan-- dead! You cheap, chiseling thief! What about the money? The money from the trust fund.
- What did you do with it? - Held it, for you.
Ten years ago, the first hundred thousand, l put it in a special account.
For you, for when you were released.
It's untouched.
What about the other 100 grand? With the kid dead, how do l get it? l've got everything you need.
Notarized statements, records, everything.
You'll give me a hundred grand in cash, get me outta the country on one of your boats, fix me with papers so l can pick up the other hundred grand myself? - Yes, yes.
- When? - l'll need a couple of days.
- No, no.
It's too risky.
Tonight.
l want it tonight! [phone rings.]
lf that's the cops-- - Hello? - This is Franz Moray, Mr.
Gregory.
Hold on a minute, please.
Somebody's coming over, now.
You'd better get out of here.
Tonight.
l want the money tonight.
All right.
San Pedro Harbor.
The tuna clipper Helen G.
Near the oil dock.
It'll be empty.
Meet me on board, in the galley, 9:30.
Don't fool with me, l warn you.
Moray? Listen, the money? You can have it.
Tonight, sir, tonight! _1 OO,OOO, cash! Tonight.
You know where we talked? The dock? Our boat, the Helen Z? There won't be anyone on board.
Meet me there at 10:OO.
The money? The papers? - You'll get them.
l promise.
- Promise? - What are you pulling om here? - Nothing, believe me! l told you it would take time.
You've got to help me.
Now listen, here's what l figured-- if you'll stay here, out of sight for a couple of days, l'll -- - l said tonight! - Listen to reason.
ls there a reason? [grunting.]
What's going on here, Gregory? Mr.
Bickel, l-- l've got to talk to you.
Mr.
Bickel.
Wait! Listen! lt's nothing, nothing at all.
Just one of my sailors.
Drunk.
That's all, drunk.
l had to hit him.
You hit him, all right.
He's dead.
l'm sorry, Perry.
There's nothing l can tell you.
You don't seem to realize the position you're in, John.
l didn't kill him.
What was he doing here? What were you doing here? This is one of my boats.
l've got a right to be here.
You know, John, when a man doesn't trust his attorney, he ought to get another one.
What's that supposed to mean, Perry? That l want the truth.
- Well, Lieutenant? - Homicide, Perry.
All we have to find out now is why he was killed.
Plus who he is, what he was doing here-- and why Mr.
Bickel just happened along at so opportune a time.
Don't start hinting that l've got anything to sweep under the rug.
l wanted to talk to Gregory, but he wasn't home when l phoned him.
l knew that he had a habit of coming to whichever of his boats happened to be in port whenever he was upset.
Why should l be upset, Mr.
Bickel? Why not? That man was trying to e_ort money from you.
You know what you're saying? Very much so, Mr.
Mason.
l was curious when he wanted me to e_end that escrow.
And tonight, l received a telephone call from someone who calls himself Moray.
He said he had information on Gregory that could be disastrous.
He suggested l ask him about it.
Well, Lieutenant, if that doesn't suggest e_ortion, then l don't know what-- Look here, Bickel-- Sorry, Mr.
Gregory, l'm afraid l'll have to take you in.
What's the charge, Lieutenant? Suspicion of murder, Counselor.
l'll see you downtown, John.
According to his emects, his name was Franz Moray, formerly with the Boston omice of the Swiss Federated Bank of Zurich.
- Paul, l'd like you to-- - l know, be on the ne_ plane to Boston.
No, l don't know why my father went down to the harbor tonight.
l don't know anything except my father isn't a murderer! l'll go along with that, Mr.
Mason.
ln all my life, l've never met a man less capable of killing.
And neither of you ever heard of this Franz Moray? No.
Not until l got that crazy phone call at my campaign headquarters.
Mr.
Gregory shrugged it om as a practical joke.
l'd say it was anything but a joke.
Helen, do you know of any business dealings your father had with the Federated Swiss Bank of Zurich? lf he had, he never spoke of it.
l must know the truth about his relationship to Moray.
lf the man was a-- an e_ortionist, l want to find out what hold he had over your father.
Can you recall anything at all-- any possible occurrence in your father's life that might furnish us with a lead? No, nothing.
My father never harmed anyone in his life! Except.
.
.
- Oh, that couldn't be.
- What couldn't be, Helen? The automobile accident.
Back east in Boston, 20 years ago.
l don't remember it, l was only a few months old.
My mother and baby sister were both killed.
Helen's told me about it.
You see, Mr.
Gregory was driving, but the accident wasn't his fault.
The other car ran into him, so there couldn't possibly be any basis for e_ortion there.
Besides, Mr.
Gregory's the one who sumered, losing his wife and child.
l think the tragedy still weighs on his mind, the fact that they both died and we came out without a scratch.
- We? - Dad and myself.
And the nurse who was staying with us, taking care of us.
Can you remember the nurse? No, l don't remember her-- but there's a picture of me in an album, as a baby, in her lap.
The name underneath the picture Stone, that was it.
Mrs.
Margaret Stone.
Operator, this is Paul Drake, Room 806.
l'd like to place a long distance call to Los Angeles, please.
- [knocking at door.]
- Come on in, it's open.
Yes.
l'd like to speak person-to-person to Perry Mason.
What about, Paul? Perry, l went to the-- Never mind, operator.
Thank you.
What are you doing here? Hi, Beautiful.
How did you make out at the Swiss bank omice? Oh, just fine.
l talked to a stumed shirt named Corby who wouldn't give me the time of day-- except that Franz Moray, the dead man, worked there but retired over a month ago.
Well, we'll have to see Mr.
Corby again.
But before we do that, l want you to do some ambulance chasing, Paul.
We're checking all the hospitals near the wate_ront.
The man's name was Gregory.
And when did this accident happen? About twenty years ago.
lf you don't mind waiting.
l think l have what you want on that automobile accident.
lt was a couple of months later than you thought.
Thank you very much.
They were transferred to a private ambulance and taken to the hospital.
This can't be the only clipping, Perry.
It doesn't say what hospital.
l know, Della, but we can follow it up in some other newspaper omice.
- Well, Paul? - Hi.
Pay dirt! l found the hospital where the car-crash victims were taken, and it turns out to be the same hospital where Gregory's daughter was born.
Here.
Look at this maternity record.
Notice it lists the birth of a primapera female infant, Susan Gregory.
Susan? Susan-- but l thought-- Yeah, well, uh-- This is the auto accident admittance record, dated exactly two months later.
lt lists the mother and baby Susan as Dead on Arrival.
The survivors, Gregory the father, a nurse named Mrs.
Stone, and a baby daughter, Helen, three months old.
How could that be? l mean if Susan was-- Exactly, Della.
If Susan was a firstborn infant, then how could the Gregorys have another child only a month older? You think that might be necessary? Yes, Mr.
Corby.
l'll have to examine your records.
A man's life is at stake.
To defend him, l must know the facts.
The head omice in Switzerland would, l'm sure, be most disturbed that the Boston records and personnel should be introduced as evidence into a Los Angeles court.
That wouldn't be necessary if l were to be given the information l needed.
l suppose you're right.
l, uh, haven't the file here, but l can probably answer your questions.
Susan was the name of the Gregory's real daughter, but of course you know that already.
Yes, she was the only child the Gregorys had.
According to the records, Helen was adopted as an infant about the time Susan was born.
At least the adoption papers were prepared and being processed.
And as you said before, that trust fund-- that _250,OOO trust fund was set up for the adopted child by her real father.
The adoption was started before Helen was born.
You see, the-the mother didn't want the child.
Would you please give me the name of the real father? lt's been in the headlines often enough since he escaped from the Senate committee.
Jahnchek, Stefan ''Big Steve'' Jahnchek.
lf l'd wanted you to know, Perry, l'd have told you! What actually happened the night of your automobile accident, John? Ah, there was a mix-up in the hospital admittance records.
Somebody made a mistake.
The death certificate was made out in my daughter's name, Susan.
But it was really Stefan's child, Helen, who was killed.
You knew all this, yet you didn't make any attempt to correct it? l didn't know.
Not right away.
When l learned about the truth of the mix-up, two years later, l corrected it.
Except for the name.
l didn't that was important.
But you didn't correct that mix-up with the Swiss bank that handled Helen's trust fund? Now, as trustee-- knowing your own daughter, Susan, had no legal right to that trust fund-- you still accepted the first installment of _1 OO,OOO.
Perry, that money hasn't been touched.
Not a cent of it! Whom did you fight aboard the clipper? Nobody.
Nobody, l-l just had too much to drink.
l fell down, l got messed up.
You told Bickel you fought with a sailor.
No, l just made that up about the sailor.
l didn't know what l was saying.
Why? Because you had just Ieft Moray dead on the galley floor? No.
l never saw Moray! He wasn't due on board till-- You did have an appointment with him.
To pay e_ortion money! l didn't kill Moray.
You started adoption proceedings before Helen was born, and that was a month before your own daughter was born.
Now, why would a gangster like Jahnchek ask you to adopt his baby? Because he and l-- Look, Perry, 25 years ago in Boston, Stefan was a wate_ront hoodlum.
He smeared dirt on the name of Jahnchek.
Such dirt that it made me ashamed.
l changed my name from Gregor Jahnchek to John Gregory.
Stefan is my brother.
l only wish l could help you, Mr.
Mason.
But l don't know anything.
Not about the murder, perhaps, but there are other areas where you might be of assistance.
The matter of Mr.
Gregory's real name, for example.
Okay, Mr.
Mason, for whatever good it does.
l knew John Gregory when he was Gregor Jahnchek.
He's been my closest friend.
There's nothing he wouldn't do for me, and there's nothing l wouldn't do for him.
Does that include hiding his brother from the police? You think l've got Big Steve aboard this tub? You're dreaming.
You must be.
What better place for a wanted man to take cover? The scene of a murder when the police have come and gone? You're wrong, Mr.
Mason.
Absolutely wrong.
Jahnchek is not on this boat.
Then you will have no objection to my going aboard and looking around.
You're just like my brother, a double-crosser.
That's a lie, and you know that, Steve.
- He's never double-crossed you in his life.
- He's been doing it for 20 years! l gave him my kid to adopt.
l set up a trust fund for her.
Then when she gets killed in an accident, he puts his kid in her place so he can collect the money.
You make it sound like he was crooked.
l'll give you something else to worry about.
That Moray guy.
He must have known about the automobile accident and the switching of the kids.
He must have used it to put the squeeze on my dear brother.
Jahnchek, you say those things in court, you'll send your brother to the gas chamber.
You are so right! l'll send him straight to the gas chamber.
Now, Doctor, can you tell us, please, the condition of the decedent's body? Yes, sir.
There were bruises and scratches on the face of the decedent.
l would say he had been engaged in a struggle before he was killed.
And what was the cause of death? Composite occipital fractures inflicted by several heavy blows with a blunt instrument on the head of the victim.
l show you this wrench, Doctor, People's Exhibit One.
l ask you if it could be the blunt instrument which inflicted those heavy blows? This, or something very much like it, yes.
When we arrested the defendant, John Gregory, his clothing was disheveled, and he was bruised and marked up-- as though he had just been in a fight.
l see.
Lieutenant Anderson, l show you this wrench.
People's Exhibit One.
l ask you if you've ever seen it before.
Yes, sir.
It has my mark on it.
We found it on the galley floor, near the body.
And did you have this wrench subjected to Iaboratory analysis, Lieutenant Anderson? lt was looked over carefully by the lab.
There were many sets of smudged and obliterated fingerprints, and over them, on the handle, one clear set.
- And whose fingerprints were these? - The defendant's.
John Gregory's.
Thank you, Lieutenant Anderson.
That will be all, sir.
Yours, Mr.
Mason.
Uh, Lieutenant Anderson, where on board the clipper Helen G.
were the wrenches kept? ln a rack in the machine shop, adjacent to the galley.
Was there a wrench missing from this rack? Yes, sir, there was.
Just one, Lieutenant? No, sir, there were two wrenches missing.
Did you look for the other one? - We looked.
- Did you find it? No, sir.
No further questions.
Oh, by the way, Captain Paolo, you are aware, are you not, that charges are being brought against you for harboring a fugitive? Okay, okay.
So l admit it.
Okay? Sure l knew Steve Jahnchek.
l knew he was my boss's brother, and l let him hide out on the boat.
Okay? As your boss's close and accommodating friend, were you aware of the meeting between the decedent and John Gregory the night of the murder on board your boat? The first l knew of that was when the police got me out of bed at home and brought me down to the boat in the middle of the night.
Your landlady is ready to testify that you received a phone call late that afternoon from John Gregory.
- Do you deny that? - No.
And you immediately thereafter went down to the docks and ordered the shore watch of the Helen G.
om the boat, explaining that the owner had insisted that he wanted no one aboard the boat that night.
Do you deny that? No.
l wish l could.
And when Helen-- Miss Gregory and l-- left the house and went out to my car, she discovered she had left her gloves in the house.
l went back in to get them.
And what happened when you returned to the house? l saw a man.
l didn't see his face, so l couldn't recognize him.
But l saw this man leaving by the back way.
Mm-hmm.
And as l started past the study, l saw Mr.
Gregory-- the defendant-- inside.
And was he alone? Yes.
He was speaking on the telephone.
He was telling someone to meet him at 10:OO at San Pedro Harbor.
Did the defendant address the person to whom he was speaking on the telephone by name? He called him Mr.
Moray.
Moray, on the phone, intimated rather than stated that he could make trouble for Gregory because of certain information he had.
And Moray suggested that if l wanted to protect our business deal, that l should urge Gregory to be-- l think the word he used was ''cooperative.
'' Yes, l think that explains it, Mr.
Bickel.
You were worried about your merger deal with the defendant.
And you became more worried as a result of this strange phone call from Moray-- isn't that correct? l tried to get Gregory at home, a few times.
As l told the Lieutenant, l knew that whenever Gregory was worried, he always went to one of his ships.
and l went looking for him down at the docks.
- It's all pe_ectly legitimate! - Of course it is, Mr.
Bickel.
You don't have to worry, sir.
You're not on trial here.
Well, l should hope not! Now, after you discovered the body of the decedent, did John Gregory make a statement to you? Oh, he rambled on with some nonsense about a drunken sailor.
And then he said, and l remember his words exactly, then he said, ''l hit him.
'' - Any luck? - Nope.
And l had a small army Iooking for her.
Mrs.
Stone is either dead or out of the country.
ls she that important, Perry? l have a feeling she's very important.
An elderly nurse who was involved in an accident almost twenty years ago.
What can she tell you? What my stubborn client has refused to tell me.
Speaking of clients, Bickel's story certainly didn't do John Gregory any good.
He sounded almost as if he hated him.
Or stood to gain financially.
Can he? Aside from the escrow, Gregory sank most of his capital into those fishing boats on lease-purchase to meet the merger terms.
You know, l think we ought to look into that lease-purchase transaction, Paul.
Find out if Bickel's involved.
l'll get a man right on it.
Gertie, this is Paul, can you ring my omice, please? Cele, is Jack Farnham there? l want-- He has? All right, let's have it.
Okay, Cele, thanks.
Well, no wonder we couldn't find the missing nurse, Mrs.
Stone.
Burger's had her on ice for days.
He plans to spring her in court tomorrow as a prosecution surprise witness.
Mrs.
Stone, approximately 20 years ago, you were involved in an automobile accident in Boston.
Do you remember that? Well, it started out a pretty happy day as l remember.
You see, Mr.
Gregory was coming home after three months at sea, and they were going to meet him at the dock.
They, Mrs.
Stone? Mrs.
Gregory, of course, their infant daughter, Susan, and the infant child they had adopted, Helen.
Now, Helen was a month older than Susan, l believe.
l say ''believe,'' Mr.
Burger, because l didn't know.
You see, l was hired by Mrs.
Gregory that very morning.
Mrs.
Stone, Let's get this very clear.
When he stepped om his ship twenty years ago, John Gregory had never seen his own daughter, or his adopted daughter? No, sir, he hadn't.
Now, what happened, Mrs.
Stone, after you picked John Gregory up at the dock? Mr.
Gregory was driving home when-- when we had the accident.
Mrs.
Gregory and one of the children were killed.
The other child and l were not injured.
But you all went to the hospital? Yes.
With-With Mr.
Gregory unconscious, l had to make the identifications.
l'm afraid, Mr.
Burger, it was then l made my mistake.
l improperly identified the dead infant and the live one.
Helen, not Susan, had been killed.
Why, l really wasn't sure of it myself.
Until two years later.
And what happened two years later? Mr.
Gregory was moving from Boston out here to California.
l couldn't leave with them, but before they left, l told Mr.
Gregory of my doubts.
Of the remote possibility that the surviving child was really his own daughter.
Then, of course, he took some sort of steps to check out the true identities of the girls.
And what did he find out? Susan, his daughter, was alive.
Helen, his adopted child, had been killed.
Before Mr.
Gregory went to California, he had me swear out some notarized statements and things, corroborating her identity.
And did you keep in touch with the Gregorys after that? No, l didn't.
lt wasn't until five years ago when l came out here myself on a sort of semi-retired basis, that l looked Mr.
Gregory up.
My appearing seemed to bother him a great deal.
So much so he paid me _5,OOO if l promised never to see him or his daughter again.
Acting as trustee for Helen Gregory, the defendant accepted _100,OOO on the occasion of her 10th birthday.
When he had you sign those statements did John Gregory say to you that among the records he had to set straight was the matter of a _200,OOO trust fund which his daughter Susan was not entitled to receive? Why, no.
l never knew anything about a trust fund.
Thank you very much, Mrs.
Stone.
Counselor.
Your Honor, l would like to request that you adjourn these proceedings and grant a brief conference in chambers.
You can't go on with it, John.
Every step you've made gives it away.
You call the girl who lives with you ''Helen'' because that's really her name.
There was no baby mix-up after your automobile accident.
That it really was your child that was killed.
That Helen is your adopted daughter.
No, Perry.
No, you mustn't say that.
Why mustn't he, if it's true? Oh, the bereaved father! Your heart bleeds, doesn't it, brother Stefan? You never wanted her you never cared for her! ! All she ever meant to you was a gimmick.
a clever way to bury money you could get your hands on when they let you out ofjail.
l'm going to see you fry! Now, Jahnchek, that's enough.
Mr.
Mason, l permitted this highly unorthodox hearing in chambers On yOUr aSSUranCeS it would help solve the case.
But if the record's going to show nothing more than a vituperative exchange of insults, l shall deem none of it in evidence, strike it all from the record, and reconvene back in the courtroom.
lf Your Honor will just be patient for a moment, l believe we can get at the truth.
John, why this deception over identities? Was it because you wanted to get the money and still claim Helen as your daughter? l love that girl more than anything in the world.
Too much to let her be hurt, knowing her real father is a gangster, a criminal.
And the _100,OOO from the trust fund.
You put it aside for her, in a special account.
l also know that you borrowed against it, as against all your assets, in order to close that cannery merger.
You were lying when you told me you'd give me that money? - You were lying? - No, no.
You don't understand.
There were two accounts.
l couldn't rob Helen of the money you set up for her.
The special account in her name is my money-- money l've saved over the years, to match what you left her.
Well, what happened to my money? That was the second account, the one Paolo kept for me.
Your money, Stefan, untouched.
He was to leave it for me on the boat.
There was Moray-- he wanted the money.
You wanted the money.
l didn't know that to do.
l thought you would help, would wait! Your Honor, l-- l fail to see the purpose of all this.
lt really doesn't have anything to do with the murder.
Even if this man did rig himself into this impossible situation for the sake of the girl, we're still faced with the fact that the situation led to an e_ortion, and the e_ortion led to a murder.
Judge, l'm willing to plead guilty.
Well, l find your omer quite paradoxical, Mr.
Gregory.
ln order to keep your adopted daughter from learning that her true father is a convicted felon, you're willing to expose yourself to a possible murder conviction.
Wouldn't that have the same emect upon her future? Maybe, l don't know.
You see, my fine brother there is quite a guy.
His wife didn't die when Helen was born, for the simple reason she wasn't his wife.
He hadn't even bothered to marry her.
Neither of them wanted the child.
The least l could do was to give her a home, where she was wanted, and a name that was not only clean, but legally hers.
Will everybody please rise? Mr.
Mason, l believe we recessed before you had an opportunity to cross-examine Mrs.
Stone.
l have no questions of Mrs.
Stone, Your Honor.
Very well.
Mr.
Burger, you may call your ne_ witness.
lf it please the court.
To anticipate Mr.
Mason, and to make abundantly clear for the record exactly how the District Attorney's omice feels on this matter let me state now that it is with e_reme distaste and reluctance that the State finds it necessary to call as its final witness a notorious, convicted felon, now serving time in a federal penitentiary.
l call Stefan Jahnchek to the stand.
Yeah, that's the statement l gave to the cops.
So what? It's not true.
Not true? Don't you try to play games with me, Jahnchek! lt's not true that you thought your brother lied to you, and double-crossed you? lt's not true that you wanted _100,OOO you thought he stole from you? - Those things are not true? - No.
l asked him for enough cash to get out of the country, that's all.
You expect me to believe a story like that? A fantastic story like that? Why, just a few minutes ago, in the Judge's chambers, you said that-- That's enough! l told you the truth.
Mr.
Jahnchek, do you know what the penalty for perjury is? Yeah.
They send you to jail, don't they? No further questions.
What time, on the night of the murder, did you go aboard the tuna clipper? No time on the night of the murder.
l went down there the ne_ morning, after the cops had left.
A little after 10:OO that night, the man was seen in a Gregory company power launch drifting from the oiling dock to another dock some distance away.
Now, he tied the launch there and went ashore.
l can produce a witness to swear to that fact.
Shall we call that witness now, and ask him if you were the man in that launch? All right, so l went down to the wate_ront.
But l no sooner got aboard the clipper when l heard someone coming along the dock.
l was scared, so l scrammed.
You were scared because someone was coming? Yet you had gone there for the express purpose of collecting _100,OOO from your brother? All right, all right.
So l was there.
At a quarter to 10:OO.
Satisfied? John Gregory was marked up from a fight.
lt wasn't a fight with Moray, it was a fight with you, was it not? Yeah.
l tried to hit him with the wrench.
But he knocked it out of my hand and we wrestled.
Then he got hold of it, and hit me with it.
But l wasn't out, see? Just stunned when he went up on the deck.
Then you heard Bickel shouting to your brother? Well, how'd l know some cop hadn't come along? l couldn't go back on the dock, so l went to the other side.
And l saw this motor boat tied up at the clipper -- Just a minute.
Are you saying that that motor launch just happened to be tied up alongside the clipper? Sure.
How else would it be there? Because it was left there by the man who planned to use it to get to the boat and to leave the boat without being seen.
Nah.
l saw the launch.
l took it.
But l didn't bring it there, l don't know where it come from.
Your Honor, if l'm allowed to recall a witness, l think we might determine the truth about this motor launch.
Your Honor, this motor launch has nothing to do with the issue.
l must protest.
l believe the use of the motor launch by Stefan Jahnchek is the key to the entire murder, Your Honor.
Very well.
You may recall your witness.
Captain Paolo, when not in use, the motor launch is kept at the marina? Yes, always.
Mr.
Jahnchek stated that he called you for permission to hide aboard the clipper.
Now, may l take this to mean that you gave him permission? - Yes.
- Did you tell him he could take the power launch from the marina and bring it to the clipper? Absolutely not! You have heard testimony that the decedent, Franz Moray, made phone calls to many of Mr.
Gregory's friends and associates in an emort to exert greater pressure for his planned e_ortion.
Now, did Moray ever phone you? Did he, Captain? Why, yes.
Then you knew about Moray.
And you knew that Mr.
Gregory was meeting someone at 10:OO that night on the tuna boat, and you correctly guessed that it was Moray? Did you not then phone Moray and tell him to be there earlier than ten? At 9:OO, say? Or nine 9:15? No! Why should l? Did you bring the motor launch alongside the clipper so you could get away without being seen? Me? What is this, Mr.
Mason? You're talking about a killer.
l'm Gregory's best friend.
Would l commit a murder and then let him take the blame? You may not have meant to, but when Jahnchek and Gregory unexpectedly arrived and had the fight, you had already killed Moray with that wrench, that is still missing.
And you were hiding with the body of the man you had killed, in the machine shop, right ne_ to the galley.
You're crazy! Jahnchek panicked and took away the launch, so you had no alternative but to leave your victim's body in the galley, slip om the stern of the boat in the shadows and hurry home.
How wrong can you get? l work like a slave to keep that outfit going for John.
For yourself, Captain, not for John Gregory.
My investigator has discovered that it was you, acting through a dummy corporation, who furnished the defendant with ten tuna boats on a lease-purchase agreement.
Okay.
Okay, so Gregory pays for those boats, and l make a profit! Is that illegal? This trust fund, which you kept in a special account under your own name-- lsn't that why you had to get Moray out of the way? Because Gregory had asked you for that money to pay om Moray? Asked you to bring it to the boat that night? But you couldn't, could you? You'd already used that money to get control of the ten tuna boats.
Captain? Why not? Why not? Why should l be the skipper of one lousy tuna boat while he got rich? Sure.
Sure, l used the money to tie up the boats.
lf that cannery deal went through, John would pay plenty to get those boats.
l could put the money back and still make a fortune.
And then came the e_ortionist, and Gregory wanted the money.
And the money that wasn't there.
l-- l only meant to knock Moray out, and and ferry him to a freighter.
l was going to have him kept on one of the southbound tuna boats.
l never, never figured to kill him.
l never meant to kill him.
You must believe that.
But l l hit him too hard! l hit him too hard! [sobbing.]
l hit him too hard! - Congratulations.
- l'll see you later.
Right.
Well, was it worth it, John? What do you think, Perry? Stefan? ln the Judge's chambers, you said you'd see me executed.
But on the witness stand, you deliberately lied.
- Why? - Wise up.
l gotta be nice.
You're still holdin' my 200,OOO bucks, brother.