The Chesapeake Fraud Matter - Ep 1: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (October 17, 1955)

“The Chesapeake Fraud Matter - Ep 1” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast October 17, 1955. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is called to Baltimore to investigate a suspicious claim. Five years after John Reardon died in a boating accident on Chesapeake Bay, Eastern Fidelity paid his widow Elizabeth $20,000. Now Paul Combs, chairman of Eastern Fidelity's board, claims he saw Reardon alive in Denver just three days ago, going by the name Frank Bauer. Johnny must determine whether Reardon really survived or if the widow committed fraud.

Baltimore, Maryland and Denver, Colorado, 1955

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Pat Keller, Paul Combs, Elizabeth Jane Reardon, Frank Bauer

Listen for: Johnny's skepticism about Combs's story and his reluctance to upset the widow without solid evidence; the details of the original boating accident and the legal declaration of death.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.