Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar: The Really Gone Matter (EP5075)

The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas

Johnny Dollar is hired by TriWestern Life Insurance Company to locate a missing beneficiary, Jonathan Doe, who was set to receive $50,000 from the estate of recently deceased farmer Harvey Wakeman.

Key takeaways

• Johnny Dollar is hired by TriWestern Life Insurance Company, specifically by Percival Leslie / Les Fairford, to find missing beneficiary Jonathan Doe or prove him dead.
• Harvey Wakeman died and left his farm to his widow and son Ben, but the $50,000 insurance policy names Jonathan Doe as first beneficiary and Ben as secondary beneficiary after seven years of presumed death.

Main topics

• missing insurance beneficiary
• estate planning and legal fiction

Notable quotes

For the simple reason that he was never alive.

Conclusion

The episode is a clever twist on the missing-person mystery, using an invented

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore. Because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began. Turning dreams into direction. Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond Borders. Speaker 1 (0:58) Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio. From Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're going to bring you this week's episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. But first, I want to encourage you, if you're enjoying the podcast, to please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And a reminder, as you're making your holiday travel plans, remember JohnnyDollarAir.com. JohnnyDollarAir.com is our Priceline affiliate link. you can go to JohnnyDollarAir.com and part of the purchase price benefits the great detectives of old time radio at no additional cost to you. So remember JohnnyDollarAir.com But now we've got a program. Opening's a bit clipped but please enjoy from August 30th, 1959 here is The Really Gone Matter. Speaker 5 (2:08) Oh, brother, with a name like that, what's bothering the dear boy, Pat? Yeah, how'd he lose it? What's the name of this beneficiary? Jonathan? John Doe? Oh, Speaker 6 (2:26) now, wait Speaker 3 (2:27) a Speaker 5 (2:27) minute. You sure this isn't a gag of some kind? Speaker 3 (2:32) Okay, Pat, I'll take your word for it. I Speaker 5 (2:35) also take it that Percy wants to hand over the money but can't find this John Doe. Expense account at my usual commission based on face value of the policy? Speaker 5 (2:51) But in this case, you'll stretch a point and give it to me. I didn't say that. Okay, Pat, it's a deal. I'll be in touch. Speaker 6 (2:56) Johnny! CBS Speaker 5 (3:05) Radio brings you Bob Bailey in the intriguing adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account. America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. Yes, truly. Johnny Dollar. Speaker 5 (3:33) Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar. Speaker 4 (3:36) To Speaker 5 (3:37) the Speaker 4 (3:37) TriWestern Life Insurance Company, Eugene, Oregon. Attention, Mr. Christopher Leslie Fairford. Speaker 3 (3:42) Wow. Speaker 5 (3:43) Following is the account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the really gone matter. Fairford. And a missing beneficiary by the name of John Doe. Oh, well, it's a living. So in spite of the late hour, item one is 162.85, plane fare Hartford to New York to Portland, Oregon. For some reason or other, I couldn't get to sleep during the cross-country flight. Of course, it may have had something to do with the good-looking redhead in the seat next to me. In any event, by the time we pulled into Portland a few minutes after 4 a.m., I was bushed. Then I had to wait some four hours for the local flight to Eugene. Speaker 4 (4:19) It Speaker 5 (4:20) was after 11 a.m. when I finally walked into the office of Tri-Westman on Jefferson Street. I was tired, hungry, and in no mood to bandy words with anybody by the name of Percy. The Speaker 6 (4:29) office made a head, Mr. Dollar. Speaker 5 (4:31) Thanks. Speaker 6 (4:31) He's expecting you. Very happy to see you. Oh, I Speaker 5 (4:34) am sure. Speaker 4 (4:35) Well, come in, Dollar. Close the door and come in and sit. Speaker 5 (4:39) You're Percival Leslie? Yeah, Speaker 4 (4:41) that's right. Call me Leslie. Come in, come in. Speaker 5 (4:44) Yeah, sure. Speaker 4 (4:45) Well, you look like you can run through a ringer, Johnny. How about a little drink? Speaker 5 (4:48) Did you have my help? No, no, thanks. Speaker 4 (4:50) Or is it because you've been nipping at the jug all the way out here? Oh, hardly. Of course, there was that redhead in the seat next to Speaker 5 (4:56) mine. Speaker 4 (4:56) Oh, yeah, those redheads, they'll do it to you every time. Good looking. Speaker 5 (5:00) Well, I told you I didn't get any sleep. Oh, Speaker 4 (5:02) baby, you're a man after my own heart. But now listen. Did Pat McCracken tell you why I wanted to see you? Speaker 5 (5:09) Something about a missing beneficiary. Speaker 4 (5:10) Here's a story in a couple of nutshells. We got a lot of farms around here. Big ones, little ones, all kinds. A few years ago, Harvey Wakeman and his family came out here. That's Mrs. Wakeman and his 20-year-old son, Ben. It's Wakeman's policy that's involved? Just let me give it to you my own way to save time. Yeah, shoot. Well, Wakeman used to be a professor at some agriculture college somewhere back east. When his doctor told him if he didn't stop teaching and retire, he'd die before his time, why, he came out here and bought this farm up this side of Coburg and went to work on it. He called that retiring? Oh, he did wonders with it. Speaker 5 (5:42) And Speaker 4 (5:42) when he died a few weeks Speaker 5 (5:43) ago... Speaker 4 (5:43) Now, wait a minute, Les. Yeah? A wife and son... That's right. Had left the insurance to somebody by the name of... That's right. To a man named Jonathan Doe. Just who is this John Doe? Ask me, Johnny. He isn't. Speaker 5 (5:56) Well, Speaker 4 (5:57) what Speaker 5 (5:57) do you mean by that? Speaker 4 (5:57) Ask me. Jonathan Doe is dead. And he must have known old man Wakeman was leaving him this money, so why isn't he around to collect it? Speaker 3 (6:03) Yeah, I Speaker 4 (6:04) see. Tell me one thing, Les. What's that? How did Wakeman die? Sound asleep in his own bed in his own house. Nothing to be... Okay. Now, let's get back to Jonathan Doe. Wakeman's best friend, Johnny, had a farm just north of Wakeman's on a little side road. The way I understand it, Wakeman spent almost as much time this past year over at Jonathan's helping him out as he did on his own farm. Speaker 5 (6:26) His best friend? Speaker 4 (6:27) Yeah, that's why he left him the Speaker 5 (6:28) insurance money. Speaker 4 (6:30) After all, he left his widow and his boy his own farm worth three or four times that much. I see. But now my problem is I can't find Jonathan Doe. Well, he just disappeared? Just disappeared. When? About the same time Harvey Wakeman died, near as we can figure it. That was three months ago. What did the police think? Well, they decided the only thing we can do is wait. Maybe he'll show up again. But you ask me, Johnny. Yeah? That means wait for seven years until he's legally presumed not to be alive, and then give the money to the secondary beneficiary. Legally presumed Speaker 5 (7:02) not Speaker 4 (7:02) to be alive? That's a funny way to put it. That's the way Harvey Wakeman had me write it in