Mysterious Days: 22 March, 1921: E.W. Hornung

On 22 March, 1921, E.W. Hornung, dies at Saint-Jean-de-Luz. He is the creator of A.J. Raffles, Gentleman Thief, who had created the charadcter to tweak the nose of his more conservative brother-in-law, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Bibliography
The Mystery Book of Days, William Malloy, The Mysterious Press, 1990

British Radio Mystery: Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery Part 4

Jonathan Mystery Episode 4: The Encounter

Cast
Paul Temple
Margo Temple
Sir Graham Forbes
Inspector Gerrard
Mavis Russell
Mrs. Gulliver
Cockney vacuumer

I.
The first few lines of the previous episode are repeated. “We arrived about 8 o’clock,” says Mrs. Ferguson. She tells them that Richard’s landlady, Mrs. Gulliver, had received a letter from Jonathan, and was in quite a flap about it. She’d telephoned them that morning, asking them to come up to Oxford.

Before she can hand the letter to Paul, her husband Robert knocks on the door, and enters. He is inclined to scoff at the importance of the letter.

The letter:
Dear Richard,
This is just to wish you a happy birthday. Hope to see you at the end of the week.
Regards, Jonathan

Robert suggests that Jonathan is just a friend of Richard’s who is on holiday and hasn’t taken the trouble to read the papers, so he hasn’t heard about the murder.

Helen Ferguson also wanted to come down to Oxford because she believes that Richard is being blackmailed. Robert disagrees with her.

Paul asks what would Richard have done if he’d suddenly needed two thousand pounds. Robert says he’d hesitate about giving him the money…but Mrs. Ferguson declares that if Robert hadn’t given him the money, she would.

Mrs. Ferguson then says they’ve discovered the identity of Europa, a woman named Mrs. Mavis Russell. Her husband suggests that Paul already knows this. He also suggests that Richard may be afraid of being murdered, which is why he’s not coming out in the open.

II.
Paul and Steve are eating breakfast in the hotel dining room. They are joined by Sir Graham Forbes. He had just been talking with Inspector Gerrard. The cryptographic people had examined the first post card Richard Ferguson had received – and a list of letters and numbers was found. Steve suggests that they are car license plates. Paul then recognizes one of the numbers – it had been the registration of the car, the Lombard, which Red Harris had been driving.

Sir Graham then says it’s a curious coincidence - he tells Paul and Steve that a French criminal, head of a car racket, had been arrested the night before.

Paul then tells Sir Graham what had happened the night before. He explains that they’d met Mrs. Russell who’d given him a signet ring belonging to Richard Ferguson. They then go to the Encounter restaurant, where he loses the ring – stolen either by Mark Elliot, Reggie Macintosh or Diana Nelson. Then, when they’d got back to the hotel, he’d received the phone call from Richard Ferguson asking him to give the ring to Mrs. Gulliver, and that if he did he would meet Paul that night at the Encounter to explain what it was all about.

Paul tells Sir Graham that on the signet ring had been scratched A4 and D4.

Rudolph Charles joins them. He tells them that Max Wyman actually hasn’t been in Scotland, and hasn’t been seen for over a week.

Paul asks for a description of Wyman…and wonders if Wyman was killed instead of Richard Ferguson.

III.
Paul says farewell to Sir Graham.

Steve and Paul have hired a car and driver, but before they can leave, Mark Elliot drives up on the opposite side of the street, and gives Paul the signet ring, saying that one of his waiters had found it the night before at the restaurant.

They then drive to Mrs. Gulliver’s house, using a rental car. Once there, they meet a young man using a vacuum cleaner, which he doesn’t turn off because he says he’ll never get it going again. He ushers Paul and Steve into a room, then says he’ll go up and get Mrs. Gulliver. The phone rings – it’s Diana Nelson. She wants to talk to Mrs. Gulliver. Paul turns off the vacuum cleaner, and they can hear Mrs. Gulliver’s moans. She’s been badly beaten. She keeps repeating, “Don’t hurt me. I haven’t got the ring.”

IV.
Sir Graham and Paul are discussing the case. Inspector Gerrard enters the room in the hospital where Sir Graham and Paul is, and gives the condition of Mrs. Gulliver. They discuss the ring. Paul says he’s going to be taking Steve to the Encounter later that night. A police officer delivers a message – the letter Paul had gotten from Mrs. Ferguson had no cipher. The note also confirms that it was Max Wyman who was murdered.

V.
Paul and Steve arrive and are seated at the Encounter. Paul goes into the cocktail bar (Steve always goes to powder her nose.) Mrs. Mavis Russell is at the bar, drunk. Paul asks her if she’d heard about Mrs. Gulliver, and tells her its because “they” thought she had the signet ring. Mrs. Russell denies knowing anything about it.

The barman tells Paul that he’s wanted on the telephone. On the other end is Richard Ferguson. Richard asks Paul to bring the ring to him – take it to the first AA box on the Oxford Road. (AA = Automotive Association – an organization that had telephone boxes on strategic roads, so that anyone who had a breakdown could call for assistance.)

Old style AA phone box

They drive to the box, and approach the car parked there. Mark Elliot gets out of the car, waving a revolver.

“You’ve asked for this, my friend, and now you’re going to get it!”

Mysterious Days: 21 March, 1907: David Alexander

On 21 March, 1907, David Alexander was born. The author of eight novels that are "expert portrayals of New York's Time Square in the 1950s. The first novel, Terror on Broadway (1954), features a Ripper-style character who leaves calling cards on his victims reading "Compliments of Waldo," and who is later vanquished by Alexander's series' newspaper columnist-detective, Bart Hardin of The Broadway Times Newspaper.

Bibliography
The Mystery Book of Days, William Malloy, The Mysterious Press, 1990

Movie: Dirty Harry (1971)

I had never seen this movie before, as cop-chases-psycho-killer movies have never appealed.

I was familiar with the franchise and the iconic "Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?" bur I had never realized that Eastwood's character was called "Dirty Harry" because he did all the dirty jobs no one else wanted to do, as opposed to being a "dirty cop" - one who took bribes. I guess I should have known that a Clint Eastwood character would never take a bribe!

Andrew Robinson is the villain, Scorpio. I think some of his more brutal scenes - for example he apparently verbally abuses some kids on the hi-jacked school bus, but in the version shown on ION television tonight the kids are singing Old McDonald Had A Farm quite happily one minute, and the next minue are sitting in the bus in tears, with no intervening scene to explain why.

And of course most of the swearing was bleeped out.

I read at Wikipedia that Andy Robinson was so convincing as the psycho killer that he actually received death threats in real life! Can you imagine that? A movie made in 1971 and people can't distinguish the movie characters from the actors who portray them?

This was the film that launched Clint Eastwood on his Hollywood movie career, and the Dirty Harry franchise.

British Radio Mystery: Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery, Part 3

Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery
Part #3: The Ring

Paul Temple
Steve Temple
Sir Graham Forbes
Diana Nelson
Reggie Macintosh
Mrs. Mavis Russell
Mark Elliot
Richard Ferguson
Mrs. Ferguson

I.
First is the recap. Paul Temple has called his wife who is in the lobby of the hotel, and told her that the man she is accompanying isn’t Max Wyman. Paul gives her instructions to dump Wyman, while she pretends that she’s talking to an old friend so as not to make him suspicious. She successfully escapes, but the false Wyman also drives off – but they get his license plate number.

Temple explains how he knew Wyman was an imposter. Sir Graham had told him that Wyman was the author of a book on Justinian, but when Wyman spoke to them he misidentified a name that he should have known. But Temple hadn’t remembered it until he and Steve had already left.

In the lobby, Paul asks the reception to put through a call for him to London, to Sir Graham Forbes. Reception also hands him an evening paper. The front page says, “Is Richard Ferguson still alive.”

“Someone must have talked,” deduces Paul. “It’s either one of the Fergusons or Reggie Macintosh.”

They return to their room, where they speculate that the attempted kidnapping was because “they” must think that Paul is on to something. Then the call to Sir Graham is connected, and Paul asks him if he’d gotten in touch with Max Wyman. Wyman was away, says Sir Graham, and that he had spoken to Rudolph Charles, Wyman’s roommate.

Paul gives the car number to Sir Graham, they discuss the incident a bit more, then Paul hangs up.

Steve and Paul discuss the case to date, then there’s a knock on the door and Rudolph Charles is there. He had seen the paper that said that Richard Ferguson was still alive, and wants to know if Richard Ferguson is still alive.

Charles tells them that a friend of his, a woman, thought she saw Richard go into the Encounter restaurant. No one believed her, but now he, Charles, believes that she was probably right.

They invite Charles to go down to the lobby for a drink, but he turns them down. He has a date.

II.
In the lobby they part. Steve goes into the lounge, Paul goes to get some cigarettes from the front desk. The desk clerk says they he doesn’t have any, but he can get some in the bar. Mrs. Mavis Russell approaches and asks the desk clerk if there’s a Paul Temple staying there. The desk clerk introduces them.

Mrs. Russell explains that she was a friend of Richard Ferguson’s, and that people are talking of her like she had led Ferguson astray.

She scoffs at the news in the paper about Richard being alive.

“I know Richard’s dead,” says Mrs. Russell. “I had a letter this afternoon from the man who murdered him.”

III.
They are in the Temple’s bedroom, and Mrs. Russell explains her relationship to Richard Ferguson, and then shows them the letter.

It’s a type written letter.

“Dear Mrs. Russell,
I feel quite sure that you more than anyone else would like to have the enclosed. It belonged to Richard Ferguson.”

She then shows the enclosure – the signet ring.

Paul asks Mrs. Russell if she’d ever met someone named Jonathan.

Inside the ring are some initials – A4 and D 4. Mrs. Russell has no idea what they mean.

Paul asks her if she knew a man named Mark Elliot. Mrs. Russell says yes, he owns a restaurant called The Encounter.

Paul then asks her about her writing as Europa and the New Feature. “If you want to know who murdered your son, ask Europa.”

Mrs. Russell says that’s a beastly thing to do, but doesn’t understand why anyone would do it.

IV.
Paul and Steve are having dinner at the Encounter. Steve goes into the ladies’ cloakroom, which is on the first floor. Dinah Nelson and Reggie Macintosh (her brother in law) come up to him. Macintosh explains that he’d let the cat out of the bag because he’d had too much to drink when he’d been talking with a friend who was a reporter.

Diana sounds happy, she believes Richard is alive and there’s a perfectly simple explanation to the whole mystery. Paul points out that if the victim wasn’t Richard, then Richard was probably the murderer.

Macintosh usually pops up to Oxford two or three times a week. He’s in the textile business.

Paul shows the signet ring to Diana, who immediately gets a bit hysterical, and tries to get Paul to give her the ring. Paul refuses.

Mark Elliott comes up to them. He greets Macintosh and Diana, and they have what seems to be a rather pointed exchange. Reggie and Diana leave, and Elliot asks Temple if he’d like to have a drink.

They go into the cocktail bar. Elliot said he’d never liked Ferguson. “I prefer my intellectuals to be over 40.” He says that he had a motive to kill Ferguson – he was being blackmailed by him.

V.
Steve and Paul are back in their hotel room. Steve is yawning and very tired. They discuss Mark Elliot and that Elliot had paid Ferguson over two thousand pounds in the last six weeks.

Steve says she took a favorable view of Mrs. Russell.

It’s 11.45 pm. The phone rings. It’s Richard Ferguson. He begs Paul to bring the signet ring to his landlady Mrs. Gulliver first thing the next morning. If he does so, he’ll meet Paul at the Encounter the next night to explain what it’s all about.

Paul searches for the ring, he thought he’d put it in his inside pocket, but it’s gone.

Paul wonders if Reggie Macintosh took it, but Steve says Elliot took it.

There’s a knock on the door, and Mrs. Ferguson comes into the room. She and her husband are staying in the hotel also. They’d come down to see Mrs. Gulliver. A letter had arrived for Richard that morning, and Mrs. Gulliver had opened it by mistake.

“It’s from that friend of Richard’s. The one no one seems to know anything about. Jonathan.”

British Radio Mystery: Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery Part 2

Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery part 2 of 8

Episode 2: “That Good Old Intuition”

Cast
Paul Temple – Peter Coke
Steve Temple – Marjorie Westbury
Charlie (their manservant)
Robert Ferguson
Helen Ferguson
Inspector Gerrard
Sir Graham Forbes
Max Wyman

I.
In a recap, Mrs. Ferguson tells Paul Temple that she saw her son Robert outside the hotel that morning. Before she could run across to him, he had disappeared (walking away down the Strand).

Paul asks her to explain it from the beginning. He also points out that if Robert wasn’t the victim of the crime…he was probably the killer.

Her husband tells Temple that he had seen Richard’s body that morning. Paul presses him – if he hadn’t been told that Richard was dead, would he have believed that it was Richard. [There was fingerprint evidence that it was Richard, but that will be dismissed with shortly.]

Paul tells the Fergusons to go back to their hotel and just carry on as normal for the next few days.

Charlie comes in and says that Sir Graham Forbes has arrived.

Paul comments on Red Harris’ statement about “they forgot the ring.” He also points out that the fingerprints they took that confirmed his identity were only taken from other items in his apartment – cigarette case, wallet, hair brush, and so on.

Sir Graham refuses to believe it, feeling that Mrs. Ferguson’s evidence is just that of a hysterical woman, and he, Paul and Steve argue about it for a few minutes.

Charlie comes in again. Reggie Macintosh has arrived and insists on speaking with Paul, Macintosh then comes in without waiting to be invited. He tells the assembled gathering that he’d taken Diana Nelson to the train – she had to return to Oxford, and when he went down to the Underground, he saw Richard Ferguson getting onto a train!

II.
It’s the next night, and Steve gives Paul some coffee and asks him what had happened that afternoon.

Paul tells Steve that he and Sir Graham went to Scotland Yard with Macintosh, and took a sample of Macintosh’s handwriting to compare against the magazine, the New Feature, that had been sent to the Fergusons.

“Paul, what do you think really happened?”

Paul says he was talking to Gerrard about those postcards, the ones from Jonathan. But the handwritings on those was different too, from the New Feature writer.

Steve says she doesn’t think that Macintosh actually saw Ferguson. She doesn’t know why she thinks that, only that she does.

Steve then tells him that she read Mavis Russell, aka Europa’s book, The Purple Moon. She says Paul should make a point of meeting Mrs. Russell, as she now believes that Russell might have had an evil influence on a young man.

They decide to go to Oxford for two or three days.

Paul receives a phone call from Robert Ferguson. He’s heard from Richard. He’s asked for money. Robert asks Paul to pick him to help him deliver the money.

III.
Paul and Steve drive up to where Ferguson is waiting outside the hotel. He is in distress, he has a bad heart and its acting up on him.

He’s to take the money to a flat in Lewisham, where he is registered as a Mr. Griffith. Paul tells Ferguson to go back into the hotel, because of his heart trouble, and he and Steve will go out to Lewisham and collect Robert.

IV.
Steve and Paul arrive at the Lewisham flat. It’s pouring with rain. They ask for Mr. Griffith. The landlady is stroppy, it’s almost half past 11. “You’re not one of the regulars.”

She lets them into the house, and says she’ll go up to let Mr. Griffith know they’ve arrived. But when she opens the door, she finds him dead.

Steve and Paul rush up. Paul goes into the room, then comes out again. “It’s not Richard Ferguson. It’s Red Harris.”

V.
The telephone rings and rings.

Paul answers it, breathless. He and Steve had been halfway down the stairs.

On the other end is Sir Graham.

Paul tells him he and Steve are going to Oxford .

Sir Graham tells Paul that he’ll have Max Wyman look him up. He wrote a book about Marcus Aurelius. Sir Graham will phone Wyman and have him look Paul up.

Sir Graham fills him in about Red Harris. He’d been using the name Griffiths for some time – he had a driving license in that name.

VI.
Paul and Steve are unpacking in their hotel room. Steve has brought dozens of dresses for their 2 day journey.

There is a phone call. The hall porter tells him that a Mr. Wyman is there to see him.

Wyman enters, and says that he has been invited to a cocktail party being given by Mavis Russell. He suggests that he and Steve go to the party, and then introduce Paul to her later.

They talk about Wyman’s writing for a minute, then Steve and Wyman go downstairs.

Wyman goes to get his car, and Steve is told that she has a phone call in the lobby. It’s Paul, He tells her that Max Wyman is an imposter!

End Part 2

Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery part 1 of 8

Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery part 1 of 8
(A BBC radio drama broadcast from 14th October - 2nd December 1963
Starring Peter Coke (pronounced Cook) as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve Temple, his wife)

Episode 1: “The Fergusons”

Cast
Paul Temple
Steve Temple
Robert Ferguson
Helen Ferguson
Inspector Gerrard
Sir Graham Forbes
Red Harris
Unidenitified barman


I.
Paul Temple and his wife Steve are in the first class section of an airplane, heading from New York to London. They decide to go to the “little lounge” to get a drink.

In the lounge, Steve is sitting on Mr. Ferguson’s magazine. They are Robert Ferguson and his wife, Helen. Mrs. Ferguson recognizes him as the author Paul Temple. Mrs. Ferguson says she never forgets a face.

The Fergusons have a boy, Richard, at Oxford, at Maudlin College, and they are flying to England to visit him. Richard has been at school in England since he was 12.

Robert Ferguson is a furniture dealer, but his son, Richard, has told his parents he wants to be a writer.

The plane lands, and the Temples are met by Charlie, their manservant, and also by Inspector Gerrard, “one of Sir Graham’s bright boys.” Gerrard asks them to point out the Fergusons to him – their son has been found murdered.

II.
Sir Graham is in his office, discussing something with Inspector Gerrard. Paul Temple comes in. He’s interested in the Ferguson case, and he wants to hear all about it. “Let me have the facts. Assume I know nothing whatever about the case.”

The Inspector tells the story. Ferguson lived in a self-contained flat on the top floor of Mortimer Close, which is owned by Mrs. Gulliver. Mrs. Gulliver left for the pictures, seeing Richard as she left. He told her he had a dinner date with a Diana Nelson.

Richard didn’t keep the date. The next morning, Mrs. Gulliver goes to the bedroom door with a pot of tea, to find Richard’s body there – most of his face blown away by a close-up shot.

The police haven’t found a motive. “Was anything missing?” asks Temple. “A gold ring. A signet ring.”

And a post card from Harrogate which reads: Having a wonderful time. Jonathan.

But none of Richard’s friends had ever heard of Jonathan.

Temple then tells his story of the night before. He and Steve had been called by the Fergusons, who asked them to come by their hotel room. They had received an envelope in which was a magazine called The New Feature, a high-brow periodical. On page 14 was an article on the international situation by a writer called Europa. There was a note: “If you want to know who murdered your son, ask Europa.”

The Fergusons then ask them to investigate the case.

When they return to their car, there’s someone sitting in it – Diana Nelson. “I was a friend of Richard Ferguson’s.” She lives and works in Oxford, and has come up to London to see the Temples.

Diana tells them that she and Richard had been unofficially engaged for about a year, then his attitude changed toward her. “He suddenly got awfully cynical and bitter about things.” He started comparing her to a writer, Mavis Russell, who writes under the name of Europa. Diana thinks she had an evil influence over Richard, and was responsible for his death.

Diana had been talked to by Inspector Gerrard the day before, and he’d asked her questions about Jonathan, whom she’d never heard of.

Diana denies sending the magazine to the Fergusons. So she’s not the only person who dislikes Mavis Russell, concludes Steve.

Inspector Gerrard says that he’s interviewed Mavis Russell, and liked her.

Then Inspector Gerrard asks if Temple remembers a man named Red Harris. Temple does remember him – he (Temple) had provided the evidence that had cleared Harris from a criminal charge. Harris had spent three days in Oxford, including the night that Ferguson had been murdered.

Gerrard asks Temple who he thinks sent the magazine, and Temple suggests Mavis Russell. She might try to throw suspicion on herself, as a blind, he says.

III.
When Temple returns to his home, he finds that Reggie Macintosh, who is the brother-in-law of Diana Nelson, (Diana Nelson is staying with him and his wife, her sister, in London) has come to visit them. Macintosh tells them that they have received a postcard from Harrogate. “Having a wonderful time. Regards, Jonathan.”

Macintosh doesn’t show the postcard to Diana, instead he takes it to the Temples.

Macintosh leaves, and Temple calls up Red Harris. Red refuses to speak to him about why he’d been in Oxford. He just warns Paul to keep out of the Ferguson business.

Temple decides to go to the public house and speak to Harris in person. They go out of the public house and sit in Harris’ car, a 2-and-a-half liter Lombard, for which he wants 1750. Harris refuses to tell Temple anything. He sees a car driving past them, and a shot is fired. Harris tells Temple he’ll give him one tip, and after that they’re square. “They forgot the ring.”

IV.
Paul returns home, to find that Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have arrived. Mrs. Ferguson is almost in hysterics. She claims that she saw Richard – her son – that morning.

End Part 1