Original subtitles

Wish you hadn't come, Shirley.

Why didn't you wait back in the apartment like I said?

Waited till you got back, waited some more for connection, then you flipped

You know how long since I've had a fix. I gotta get straight, Harry, like now.

All right, here it is.

Now, won't they go long now? You keep walking.

Come on, I'll catch up.

The FBI.

A QM production.

Starring Ephraim Zimbliss Jr.

Also starring Philip Abbott.

Stephen Brooks.

Lynn Loring.

With guest stars Susan Oliver.

Edward Andrews.

Tonight's episode.

Courage of a conviction.

Asparagus with hollandaise sauce, baked potato with sour cream.

Don't forget we want those filets medium rare.

And bring us a side order of mushroom sautéed butter.

Coffee? Yeah, please. Three coffees with a meal.

Did I leave out anything? Not a thing. I'm dazzled. Well, someday, my child,

you'll learn that when a nurse can celebrate, he doesn't mess around.

But I've never seen you celebrate like this over catching a forger before.

I've never caught a forger this slippery before.

And you were in on it, too?

You bet he was. He played a very important part.

Very? Very. Then why don't you recommend him for a raise?

Oh, look at the mercenary gleam in that woman's eye.

Did you raise your daughter to be a money grabber?

Grabber's right. She'll grab your paycheck before you get rid of the

No, really. What brought all this on? I mean, what was so special about this

case? Should we tell him?

Why not?

Let her see what a couple brilliant dogs she's out with today.

Well, the special thing about the case was the man.

Length of time he operated and got away with it.

You see, he was a master forger.

He'd steal a checkbook, a few canceled checks, forge a signature, simply cash

the check and go about his business.

$300 ,000 worth of business in three years.

$300 ,000?

He still wound up broke.

Couldn't even make bail. Mr. John Doe. And we wouldn't have him yet if it

weren't for Ray.

Who's Ray? Oh, your secret operative in St. Louis.

Ray would like that.

No, really. Isn't he your lawyer, pal?

A person the newspapers would call a usually reliable source.

Ray hasn't been anything but reliable yet, and I've known him since he was a

kid.

He's the one who deserves the medals.

Oh, Lou, quit it. He gave us a tip that led to the arrest of a forger. He put

the pieces together and came up with John Doe. Poor man.

Who? John Doe.

Harry Castle.

Well, don't you feel sorry for him?

Sorry for him? Well, I saw his picture in the newspaper.

I don't know, he...

He just looks like such a loser, those sad eyes.

Yeah, he's thinking about that trial he's going to have to face. You know,

lucky if he gets off with ten years.

If you want to see a couple of sad eyes, you better come to St. Louis with us

tomorrow and take a look at a hijacker named Haskell when we walk into court.

How long will you be gone?

Out in the morning, back in the afternoon.

Yeah, maybe we'll have a chance to drop in on Ray, take him to lunch.

In the meantime, may I propose a toast to Ray Lang?

There'd be no celebration without him. Mr. Lang.

Well, hello there, Lou.

Oh, are you ready?

How are you, G -Man?

Fine, thank you. Well, what brings you two back here to St. Louis?

Just finishing up the Haskell case, you remember. Put on your coat, we'll buy

you lunch. On strings?

What's the occasion?

Well, let's say one good turn deserves another. Will you settle for a T -bone?

You bet your life I would.

I'm expecting a long -distance call, but could you wait a few minutes? Yeah,

sure. Good, good. Sit down, sit down, sit down.

Let's have a little snort. Oh, it's too early for me.

Yeah, me too.

You know, I've known this fellow since we were in grammar school together, and

the older he gets, the harder he works.

You know, the only time he ever behaved half human was while he was married.

Ray still gets so because he used to work so hard, no woman would put up with

him. Wait a minute. I didn't have a car.

Fatal handicap.

I didn't realize you two had known each other this long. Ah, sure, forever.

Why, we... Shirley.

Thought I'd surprise you. Come right over.

Business? Oh, no, no, no. Just social. This is Shirley Gregg.

Mr. Erskine, Mr. Rhodes.

How do you do? Hiya.

Ray, honey.

Baby need bread.

Lou, I tell you what. Why don't you just give me a brain check on that lunch,

huh?

Call me up the next time you're in town.

Sure, Ray.

It's Greg.

Nice meeting you.

You saw it in me, honey?

What's the matter with you? Don't you know who that was?

It was the FBI.

The man who picked Harry up.

So who cares? They don't know me.

That's a lot of woman in there.

You see those tracks in her arms?

It's funny, a guy like Ray getting mixed up with a junkie.

Even a dish like that.

Did her face look familiar to you?

No, why?

I've seen her before.

Somewhere.

Where?

With Ray.

Outside the bank.

At the daily rest at Castle.

Busy?

What's on your mind?

Shirley Gregg.

She was Harry Castle's girl.

Yeah.

Well, that's it.

When I got to thinking, so I called identification, had her checked out.

Now, she had herself voluntarily admitted to the hospital the day after

arrested.

And now her address at the time was the same as his, but when she left, she was

released to Ray Lang.

So she switched boyfriends. What's bothering you?

Well, I don't know, but why should Lang take over his girlfriend like that?

I mean, that's quite a coincidence.

A coincidence implies the complete lack of even a casual connection. There's a

very clear connection here.

Ray met her when he was checking on Castle and went for her.

According to these dates, he kept her out of sight the whole time we were

investigating.

Which would suggest he didn't want us to know he was involved with her.

Why?

Yeah, that's a good question. I've put it to myself several times.

You have?

Mm -hmm. As a matter of fact, I called that dead, too.

Oh. My guess would be that, well, Ray felt guilty.

Uncomfortable, because the tip that led us to arrest Castle also gave him a free

hand with Castle's girl.

I've known him long enough to understand that he... He might feel bad about a

thing like that.

David and Beth Sheba all over again, huh?

There's one essential difference, Jim.

David set Uriah up for the kill.

Did they come up with anything else?

Nothing that had any bearing as far as I could judge.

Oh, yeah, the lab did make a handwriting comparison between the work of John Doe

and Castle.

And? Nothing conclusive.

Does the date May 10th, 1963 mean anything to you?

May 10th?

Uh -huh.

That's the date John Doe, using the name John Lester, cashed a forged check for

$100 in Louisville, Kentucky.

That's practically pin money.

I don't remember seeing it on the transcription.

We didn't use it. We had so many, we didn't need it.

Well, then?

Well, it says here that in May 1963, Shirley Gregg was working at a club

the Red Velvet Pad in Baltimore.

Interesting to know if she was with Castle at the time, wouldn't it? Let's

out.

The SAC Baltimore.

Lou, what are you thinking?

I'm trying not to think.

Hello?

When will I be back?

Okay, skip it.

The whole office is tied up on a special.

I think I'll drive out there myself tonight.

I could look around.

All right, you two, come on in.

You never have any trouble here at all, you know what I mean? No trouble

whatsoever at all. I run a strictly legit operation here, if you know what I

mean. You beat it. Get out of here and don't come back.

Now, if this chick got herself into some kind of situation, you understand, that

is strictly not my worry, because she left here a long time ago. She was

here in May 1963, right? That's right.

All right, come on in here.

You ever see this man before?

What did he do?

I asked you a question.

Okay.

This character used to be my night cashier. He never shorted me a nickel.

Harry. Harry Castle.

Him and Shirley had a big thing going, you know what I mean? The only trouble

ever gave me was over this chick. If anybody get out of line with her, he'd

on very strong. You know, like they took the vows or something.

Where were they living?

The Oriole Motel.

All right.

Mary Castle, Mr.

and Mrs.

The law doesn't require us to ask for any marriage certificates.

Do you understand that?

Yes, I understand.

Well, they checked in March 2nd, 1963, and they were with us through July the

21st. Very sorry to lose them. Never any trouble, never any drinking.

A very steady couple.

Have a nice, relaxing evening?

Well, I made a rather relaxing discovery.

Well, let's have it.

Well, the day of the Louisville forgery, Harry Castle was working in the red

velvet pad in Baltimore.

He was on the job at seven in the evening on the 10th of May.

Banks close at three.

Couldn't he have made it back by plane? No way. I checked the schedules.

Newcastle's been identified again and again as John Doe.

He had accomplices.

He usually has somebody do the burglaries to procure the blank checks

Then why can't we assume that he sometimes had an accomplice to pass the

he forged while he had an alibi working at some job 500 miles away?

I suppose we could assume a lot of things.

But you know, ever since this thing came up again yesterday, I've been thinking

of something that Barbara said the other night.

She said Harry Castle looks like a loser.

It irritated me at the time, but you know she's right. He does look like a

loser. And a man who'd operated as long and successfully as this fellow would

never have that look, not even when he was caught.

Arthur, I think John Doe is still loose.

Well, I'll go with you. No, no, you stay here.

There's something I have to do alone.

Sometimes you try me, Lewis.

Well, it's not a pleasure, Arthur, believe me.

But I just can't duck the fact.

What facts?

You built an airtight case against Castle as the man wanted for three

you clinched it with five positive identifications.

Now you expect me to go to the director and tell him it's all a mistake based on

a hunch?

A hunch?

If it were a hunch, I wouldn't be here, Arthur.

I personally established that Harry Castle was working in Baltimore on the

day that we had him passing a forged check in Louisville, Kentucky.

Established on what basis? An identification.

The owner of a club identified him as his cashier at the time. That's not good

enough, Lewis.

Not in the face of the original evidence.

The fact is, you personally caught this man, Castle, at the counter of the St.

Louis Community Bank.

Right.

Passing a check.

One he'd forged right under your nose. He's a forger, he's a criminal, and you

caught him in the act.

I caught Castle in the act, and he's a forger, and he's guilty.

But I no longer believe he's the man I thought I had.

Or the man who deserves to get 15 years as a master forger. And he will if we

don't come up with the right man before the trial begins.

I have to run this down, Arthur.

I have to.

I swear anybody would think you were about to send an innocent man to the

Well, I don't like it, putting a man in that position.

I just don't like it.

Boy Scout, all right, Lou, suppose you're right.

Suppose this Castle fella isn't the big operator you thought you'd nail. So

what? Let the lawyers and the courts worry about it. It's out of your hands.

I wish I could feel relaxed about it.

As a matter of fact, I'm a little surprised it doesn't bother you.

Well, why should it?

Look, Lou, what's the beef?

I gave you a lead, and you arrested a forger who'll probably get ten years.

who's going to miss him?

Hey, wait a minute. I don't understand.

Are you trying to say that I steered you wrong?

You turned a forger.

No question.

And what do you want from me?

Come on, Lou. What are we fighting about?

Let's go have a drink, huh? Tell me something.

Yeah?

How come a guy like you gets hooked up with a junkie?

That's none of your business.

It might be.

Shirley Gregg was Harry Castle's girl. Look, Lou, a lot of pieces started

falling into place after I saw her here.

And they make an ugly picture.

All right, buddy, I have had it with you.

Get out.

Go on, get out.

We've been friends a long time, Ray.

And if I'm wrong, I'll owe you one.

But if I'm right...

Sit down, Castle.

You remember me?

Who could forget?

I want to talk to you.

I already heard all you got to say.

That's what I want to talk to you about.

Maybe I said too much.

I don't get you.

I'm willing to be convinced I got some of the story wrong.

You want to convince me you're not John Doe? I'm... I'm here to listen.

You know a lawyer called Ray Lang?

Never heard the name.

He's Shirley Gregg's new boyfriend.

Since when?

Since you were arrested.

That figures.

She's got to have somebody.

How long have you known her?

Two years. I met her in Baltimore.

She's an entertainer in a joint where I was night cashier.

I flipped for her.

And I would have done anything for that chick.

And did.

Was, uh... Was she on narcotics then?

You know it all, don't you?

She spent a month in the hospital after your arrest.

Voluntary admission.

That... That don't make sense.

I begged her.

You asked me a question.

Oh, yeah.

She was used when I first met her.

Not much of a habit, but even then she couldn't support it.

Not on her regular earnings.

So I started forging prescriptions and boosting and shoplifting, anything.

Anything to keep her from going with some other guy.

Do you have any idea what it's like to be crazy in love with a junkie?

I can guess.

You say you forge prescriptions.

What about checks?

Once.

And look where it got me.

You were positively identified by five people.

Would you lay off?

Those five will get me ten in a federal pen just for one lousy job just because

I had to look like somebody else.

Guard!

Guard!

Sit down, Castle.

Told you I was ready to listen.

I may be able to do you some good.

What have you got to lose?

All right, it was your first bad check.

That's quite a jump from forging prescriptions.

Where'd you get the idea?

Shirley got it out of a magazine.

What magazine?

I don't know.

I remember it was the night she was straight.

She's not high.

She had just enough junk into her to be sort of normal.

When she got like that, she was...

That's the use.

She said, jump off the Empire State Building, you do it.

That's the way she gets to it.

You ever see her?

Yeah.

She okay?

She look.

That night she said, why don't you stop taking chances for peanuts?

And she told me about his job.

And she said she knew this guy who lived in East St. Louis.

He's got a small business out there and he's going to be away for three or four

days.

He says it would be a cinch to take the blanks and some cancer checks to

practice the signature.

And you know why I went along with it.

Because it gave me a bang.

Just the idea to get even.

Taking this creep she knew. Like taking him so it hurt.

Yeah.

That's it.

You know the rest.

You think you were framed?

What else?

Shirley couldn't have come to this by herself in a thousand years.

Now here it is.

2B.

Who are you looking for? Shirley Gregg.

Don't you answer?

No.

FBI, would you take us up, please?

Follow me.

Miss Gregg, you in?

Something's wrong. I better check.

She's in all right.

Take a look, mister.

I hate having to leave you like this, but I've got an emergency at the

She'll be all right. The shot should do it.

It may be a little while before it takes effect, so you better get some coffee

into her.

And make sure she doesn't go to sleep.

She just might not wake up.

All right, Doctor. We'll take care of it. Good night.

Good night.

Get the coffee. Yeah.

And a wet towel.

You all right, Shirley?

Try to stay awake.

Man, that was a high.

Higher than that, you just don't go.

Where's Ray?

He was here.

He was?

When did he leave?

Why don't you get lost?

Where do you keep the coffee?

What is this, a convention?

Where's the coffee?

I don't know.

Where did you get this stuff, Shirley?

You a narco?

No, no, I just want a few answers.

Drop dead.

I saw Harry Castle.

Wake up, Shirley. You're nodding.

I saw Harry Castle.

How is he?

He still loves you.

What's the matter with that man?

Only thing in the whole world to love is junk.

So you went with Ray and he slipped you an overdose?

Shirley?

Ray is so hung up on me, it's pathetic.

Did Ray bring you this stuff, Shirley?

Was he here when you shot up?

Was he?

Okay, Shirley, let's take a little walk.

That's the girl.

Come on.

There we go.

Who are you, anyway?

FBI.

I don't think...

You know Ray framed Harry Castle.

You were in on it.

Your evidence could ruin him, or at least get him disbarred.

Oh, you've got to be higher than I am, mister.

Why should I want to hurt Ray?

With Ray, I got it made.

You had it made.

He can't afford you anymore, Shirley.

He'll be shooting rat poison tomorrow if he has his way.

Shirley, drink this.

Yeah. Shirley, drink it.

Come on. No. Come on. Okay, see if you can locate Lang. Yes, sir.

Here, drink it.

You don't dig, mister.

You don't know how it is with Ray and me.

All right, Shirley.

Well, you tell me how it is.

Yeah, operator, I've been trying to get a number. It's Main 1 -8997, but I keep

getting a busy signal. Would you check that for me, please, see if the phone's

out of order?

Main 1 -8997?

That's right, Jess.

One moment, please.

Thank you.

That line is busy, sir.

Yeah, well, would you tell me, would you interrupt it, please? It's an

emergency.

All right, thank you very much.

Here, wrap this around you.

He's, uh, he's, uh, sick, you know that?

I'm saying to him as, uh, junk is to me.

So, uh... Here.

Let's go.

So he...

He figured out this deal, and I snowed... snowed Harry.

See, he... Harry was scared, but he... he went along because Harry would, um,

always go along for me.

Well,

Lang's in his office, but the phone's busy all the time.

So I made an emergency call.

The phone's been taken off the hook.

Our colic squad will be here in a minute.

Good. Why did you go to the bank with Harry that morning?

Because I needed the price of a fix.

So I knew that Ray would be there and he'd come through.

He'd sworn that he would stop me from using. He would

let me get all the junk I wanted.

He got me my last fix.

Then Ray was with you and you shut up.

I need it again.

Don't you ever knock?

Shirley says hello.

The next time you want to kill a junkie, use an axe.

What do you want?

An explanation.

What's happened to you anyway?

You went out of your way to mislead me. Why?

And tonight you gave that girl an overdose and just left her there to die.

But the Boy Scout came along just in the nick of time and did his good deed.

You can thank God for that.

Oh, knock it off, Lou.

That girl was a known junkie. She was found dead. There wouldn't even be an

investigation. There wasn't a basis for a charge, and you know it. That would

have been that.

That... You want a drink?

I don't know you anymore.

Your old pal?

Why, Ray?

You would not understand.

You know something, Lou?

I don't understand it myself.

Why does a hard -working, middle -aged guy like me fall for

a junkie? You know, I'd like to have the answer to that, Lou. I mean it. I

really would.

I never went for a woman like this before in my life.

Do you think... I wanted to do it?

You know what she did to me?

Ah, no, sure, sure, sure. I had to have her. I had to have her all to myself,

all alone.

But she was pulling me under, Lou.

Framed the boy's friend. That was a simple step.

Why did you involve me in it?

If I'd have gotten out of that stand, I'd have identified the wrong man. I'd

have had to. You were a natural.

From all I could find out about Castle, he was clean. Well, just petty theft.

Not worth more than a couple of months.

And I couldn't even get him on those prescription forgeries because it would

involve Shirley.

So I... So I dreamed up that check bed.

I had him steal the blanks across the river so it'd be a federal case.

And then I tipped you off so he couldn't beat the rap.

You can take that as a compliment, Lou.

Boy, you walked right into that one, didn't you?

Yeah.

Because I trusted you.

Don't bleed on me.

I'm bleeding myself. I'm bleeding to death.

we go from here you go to police headquarters for attempted murder

Morning, Arthur.

Good. Have you read the papers?

No, sir.

Well, the director has.

Just called my attention to it. He's a very angry man, Lewis.

Rumor has it that longtime FBI informer Ray Lang arrested last night in St.

Louis on a charge of attempted murder was so hipped on a sexational young

that her petty larceny boyfriend may get the book thrown at him.

courtesy of a Lang Hatchet job that got the boyfriend mistaken for a master

forger who is still, repeat, still free.

The director wants to see us in his office in five minutes.

What do you propose to do about this, Lewis?

What can I do, Arthur? Find the right man.

Or resign.

Resign?

It's not your fault Lang gave you a phony tip.

It would be my fault if Harry Castle gets 15 years in Atlanta.

Lou, there hasn't been another job like Doe's since Castle was arrested.

Have you ever thought that maybe Doe is dead or reformed? I have.

And where would that leave you?

Some law office.

I can find one to hire me.

All right.

Where do we start?

From scratch.

Some scientist said that the cruelest murder man can commit is the killing of

fine theory by a hard fact.

That's just about our position right now.

The facts killed our pretty case.

Let's stick with the facts to begin with.

I want the complete Harry Castle John Doe file.

And get me a large -scale map of the United States.

San Diego National Trust, June 10th.

Major cities.

I'm missing a factor.

What's the connection?

Random samplings, as far as I can see.

John, don't know anything at random.

There's a pattern. There's a pattern.

Well, you play your hunch, and I'll play mine.

That's what makes a horse race.

Now, Lou, if you don't mind, I'm beat.

What'd you say?

I said I'm beat.

A horse race. That's what makes a horse race.

Tracks.

New York. Saratoga Springs. That's it.

San Diego. Caliente.

That's right.

What about the dates?

Oh, boy.

Louisville Federal Bank in May. Just before the Derby.

Saratoga. Hialeah.

Checks out. We're looking for a horse player.

Where does that get us?

Well, let's test it.

John Doe's been living off his fat for longer than ever before.

He's overdue.

All right.

Now, assuming he stays consistent in his three -year pattern, he can logically

be expected to hit any one of several cities where there's a big race meeting

coming up.

I'll get me a list in the morning. You know, if we have pictures, we could

circulate the banks.

Then we'll get pictures.

How?

Consider this.

Five tellers out of 20 identified Harry Castle as the man we're after.

They each picked him out of a stack of pictures of other men, and they were

positive.

Now, isn't it reasonable to assume that there's some resemblance between Castle

and John Doe?

Haven't checked mug shots in the morning against the pictures we have of Castle.

Recommendation for fingerprinting.

Any one of these could be Castle.

It might be our John Doe, except that all of them have been in and out of jail

for the past five years.

Well, thanks, Joe. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Let me have the Castle pictures.

You want all of them?

Those do pretty good work down here.

I want you to make him five to ten years older, Jerry.

But more important, I want you to take away that hangdog look. This is a

successful man.

Yes, sir.

You do it?

No problem, Inspector.

Now, Lou, I just put out a circular letter to all law enforcement agencies

cities where there'll be racing meetings coming up.

I told them to notify immediately of the nearest SAC dealing with any burglaries

having to do with checkbooks or canceled checks.

Good.

Is this our boy?

I think it could be.

How's that?

Well, that's fine, Jerry. Just fine.

Thank you.

Did you get a list of the racing dates?

Mm -hmm.

Then run off enough copies of this to distribute to the main branches of all

banks in the cities involved.

Yes, sir.

Then we wait.

Then we wait.

No, checks!

Were there any checks stolen?

Look, all we're interested in is...

It isn't working, Lewis.

Arthur, I... Now, I don't care why it isn't working. I only know that I've

along with you on this approach against my better judgment.

I've given you all the time you've asked for, and I can't give you any more.

I know what this means to you, but there are cases piling up, and you've got

work to do.

So for the time being, as of tomorrow, we'll consider the John Doe case closed.

Jim Lou.

Burglar in Massachusetts a couple of hours ago.

Checkbook and cancel checks on the security bank of Boston.

I'll meet you at the airport.

Fifties and hundreds, if you please.

You won't need them, sir.

What do you mean by that, sir? Who are you?

FBI. You're under arrest.

Well, well, well.

You finally made it, fellas.

Let's go.

All the time in the world, boys.

Fifteen years, I think.

No complaints.

I've made a sight more than you'll ever make in all your worthy lives.

I gave you a good run for your money, though.

Not like that small -time punk, Castle.

Could you ever see me being that stupid?

celebration to make a girl hungry.

You can see the wisdom of a long engagement. It'll be two years at least

you can keep her in desserts.

I'll marry him tomorrow and take my chances.

Speaking of desserts, just desserts.

Our favorite forger got 15 years today.

No intuitive, compassionate feelings for him, I hope.

I mean, he didn't look like he was rejected as a kid or anything, did he?

No, nothing.

My heart is still out to Harry, uh, what's his name?

Castle.

He'll be tried for his one forgery, take his six months to a year, and the day

he gets out, he'll be looking for his girlfriend again.

That's love.

What's happened to her, by the way?

She's in jail on a narcotics charge.

Don't keep her out too late. She has work to do.

Finals.

All over.

Don't keep her out too late anyway. You have work to do. Yes, sir. Early.

You like him?

Yeah.

He's not afraid to make waves.

Even if he's the one who gets swamped.