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In this gripping episode of the Mystery Theater, host EG Marshall sets the stage for a chilling tale of fear and family dynamics. The story revolves around Julie Connors, a young girl haunted by nightmares and a mysterious boogeyman. As the narrative unfolds, we learn about Julie's troubled relationship with her father, Seth Connors, and the traumatic experiences from her childhood that have left her with a deep-seated fear of the dark and confined spaces. The episode explores themes of love, redemption, and the power of understanding as Julie's father grapples with his own feelings of guilt and responsibility.
As the plot thickens, Julie finds herself entangled in a criminal investigation following a botched liquor store robbery. With the help of Dr. Sarah Browning, a compassionate psychiatrist, and Reverend Sam Pryor, the story delves into the psychological and emotional struggles faced by both Julie and her father. Through a series of revelations and heartfelt conversations, the episode highlights the importance of confronting one's fears and the healing power of love and forgiveness. Join us for a suspenseful journey into the depths of the human psyche and the bonds that can ultimately bring us back together.
(00:49) Introduction to the Mystery
(01:32) Julie's Nightmares and Family Tensions
(07:41) A Risky Night Out
(12:23) The Aftermath of the Hold-Up
(15:24) Exploring Julie's Fears
(27:43) A Father's Dilemma
(36:08) Confronting the Past
(40:01) Reconciliation and Closure
Listen to our radio station Old Time Radio https://link.radioking.com/otradio
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Remember that times have changed, and some shows might not reflect the standards of today’s politically correct society. The shows do not necessarily reflect the views, standards, or beliefs of Entertainment Radio
[00:00:00]
Unknown:
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[00:00:47] Unknown:
Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. It's pleasant out with the moon riding high, bright enough almost to read by. The very opposite of the night that Julie Connor's story begins for us. A black and lowering night, the atmosphere heavy with the promise of rain, dark. The dark, not being able to see, only to imagine what surrounds us. For some, it is people with presences, things, and unimaginable horrors. Why? That's what our story is about. It begins as we listen to Julie move and moan in her sleep. Our mystery drama, The Dark Closet, was written especially for the mystery theater by Ian Martin and stars Fred Gwynne.
It is sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division and Sineoff, the sign of medicines. I'll be back shortly with act one. For the goblins will get you if you don't watch out. No American kid of my generation escaped the dire prediction of little orphan Annie, for whom James Whitcomb Riley had begun his poem prophetically with the words, came to our house to stay. I know for me she did. I can still remember the little boy who went to bed, and when they turned the covers down, he wasn't there at all. Or the little girl who says, two great big black things are standing by her side who snatched her through the ceiling for she know what she's about.
For the goblins will get you if you don't watch out. I wonder what goblin holds Julie Connors in his stall.
[00:02:54] Unknown:
Help me. Oh, help. Julie, what is it? The light pump. Put it on the light, please. Oh, thank
[00:03:04] Unknown:
God. Oh, thank God. Why didn't you turn on the light by the
[00:03:09] Unknown:
bed? Did you have to break that lamp? I didn't mean to. I was just so scared. I reached out to turn it on and knocked it over by accident. That was one of your mother's favorites.
[00:03:19] Unknown:
Pop, don't blame me too much. Someone turned it off. Someone meaning me.
[00:03:24] Unknown:
I told you time and time again, Julie. Waste not, want not. I looked in here when I got home and you were sound asleep. Lamp's still lit. I only keep it that way this time of the year when it gets dark so early. Just till I know you're home. Uh-huh. Why? What are you afraid of? And you you don't have to go to bed so early.
[00:03:43] Unknown:
I
[00:03:44] Unknown:
got nothing else to do. Oh, oh, we're in town. You've got the television.
[00:03:49] Unknown:
I'm tired of that old tube living other people's lives. I wanna live my own. Yeah. Time enough for that. I'm 17 going on 18. All the more reason you don't need lights on when you're sleeping.
[00:03:58] Unknown:
And stop having those nightmares. I reckon that's what it was again. Another one of them?
[00:04:04] Unknown:
Yes. But What?
[00:04:08] Unknown:
Doesn't matter.
[00:04:09] Unknown:
Then I'll say it for you. The boogeyman again. That's boo. I swear. I don't know what I'm gonna do with you, child. Child, that's the trouble. That's what you ain't anymore, except in half the time you act like you was one.
[00:04:25] Unknown:
Maybe with help, pop. If you stop trying to treat me like one. You think you're not? I mean, my last year of high school. I've been keeping house for you ever since. Mom had Doc, we won't talk about your mother. Okay, pop. All I meant to say was if you can trust me to take care of the house, well, you could trust me to take care of myself. You work a four to midnight shift. I I get lonely here nights.
[00:04:52] Unknown:
I could date except I don't want you dating when I'm not around to meet the kind of guy you're going with. Not these days. The riffraff that's abroad.
[00:05:00] Unknown:
Because maybe a guy has long hair and wears old jeans should make so much difference. On the farm, all we wore was jeans. I just don't wanna see you running around with trash.
[00:05:08] Unknown:
You was always a rebel, rebel, Julie. Don't try to be one here in the city. Thank, thank you, Ma. That's the way you ought to turn on.
[00:05:20] Unknown:
Except in she. Can't you ever forget Ma?
[00:05:23] Unknown:
What?
[00:05:24] Unknown:
I mean, try to hide her away in the back of your mind like we all have to. Just think of today. Yeah. I can
[00:05:33] Unknown:
I can never set your mother away? Yeah. I just wish you could learn and live like it. Make your peace with the world. Then maybe you could set out these dreams that hurt you. Yeah. Yeah. And hurt me too. Maybe if I just had a little more freedom. In a couple of months, you'll be 18. I have no control over you then. But until you reach that birthday, I will not let you run wild like all the other kids. I promised your mother that before she died.
[00:05:56] Unknown:
Why don't you trust me, pop? Leave me to make my own decisions. I can. I promise Mary. She wanted only the best for you. She isn't here to find it for me anymore.
[00:06:06] Unknown:
Let me do my own finding. No, by heaven. I give my word. I keep it. Tim Sathers asked me for a date tomorrow night. Yeah. I don't hear good things about him. You mean I can't go? I mean, you better not. I have six months left to bring you to your mother's image. I will do everything I can to make you that.
[00:06:23] Unknown:
But about your dream? Forget it. It doesn't matter anymore. I was just being a child, and I know it. I can see that it's time for me to grow
[00:06:36] Unknown:
up. Good night, Pop. You need your sleep. Me too.
[00:06:40] Unknown:
Yeah. You sure you're okay?
[00:06:44] Unknown:
Don't worry about me. Sweet dreams.
[00:06:49] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I mean, left for me. I just wish I could make sure there's a whole lifetime on my head for you. Well, I'll turn off the lights. No.
[00:07:01] Unknown:
I mean, I'll I'll get it. I have I have to go to the bathroom. Alright
[00:07:05] Unknown:
then. Pop? I
[00:07:08] Unknown:
love you.
[00:07:10] Unknown:
Sure. Alright. You know how I try to feel, Julie. Since since Mary, I've yeah. There isn't much to give. Good night.
[00:07:23] Unknown:
Good night. Even when she was alive, there wasn't much for you to give. Oh, god.
[00:07:33] Unknown:
Will the daylight never come?
[00:07:41] Unknown:
Hey. You look pretty freaked out there, my old lady. Thanks for the lift. And I'm not your old lady. Oh, these last few weeks, I thought we were finally gonna begin to make it. Oh, Tim. It's not you. It's I know. Your father.
[00:07:55] Unknown:
No. No. Not that so much. Something else. A what? Oh, something I can't explain. Maybe you ought to dump me.
[00:08:05] Unknown:
I'm not any good for you. Well, you have been stringing me along there. What's got you down? Sneaking out with me nights behind your old dodo's back? I don't like it. But what other way is there?
[00:08:16] Unknown:
Still expect you to sit on the net or something, What's the way he was brought up? And mom, they were farm people.
[00:08:22] Unknown:
Your mother's been dead for, six years, hasn't she? Yeah. That's a big hang up, really. Pop goes overboard about trying to, you know, protect me like he thinks mom would have.
[00:08:33] Unknown:
Oh, forget it. Look. We still got a date for tonight. Right? Oh, sure.
[00:08:39] Unknown:
I even tried to tell pop about going out with you when he came home.
[00:08:42] Unknown:
When he blew a gasket, I let it go. I didn't wanna upset him. Upset him? He's down out of style, baby. He belongs to a wax museum. You should take a good look at yourself in the mirror. You got circles under your eyes like some old, broader 30. I told you that isn't pop.
[00:08:59] Unknown:
It's it's just this crazy nightmare I have all the time.
[00:09:03] Unknown:
Oh, yeah. Okay. Listen. I tell you what. You're gonna get a good sleep tonight. Old doc Tim is gonna guarantee it. Oh, how? I'm gonna borrow some wheels and take a little booze and you're gonna take a couple of belts. See what you need is to relax.
[00:09:18] Unknown:
Maybe you're right, Tim. I'm so uptight. I you know something? The last few weeks, I I
[00:09:27] Unknown:
feel like I'm afraid I'm gonna put my lens.
[00:09:30] Unknown:
Well, tonight, we're gonna do better than that. You're gonna blow your mind.
[00:09:40] Unknown:
Gee. Where'd you get a call like this?
[00:09:43] Unknown:
Presto. Presto. Jingle bingo. Marvel the magician. I wave my magic wand then pow. Well you've been drinking. How could you tell? Hey. Open the glove compartment.
[00:09:55] Unknown:
Oh, fit the liquor.
[00:09:57] Unknown:
Where'd you get that? It's on the family, kiddo. Wait. My old man puts it down. He'll only miss one bottle, here there. And the car's my uncle Joe's. Go ahead. Take the bottle out.
[00:10:08] Unknown:
I I don't want that.
[00:10:10] Unknown:
You shouldn't have anymore. Oh, come on. I'm just putting you on. I only had one little drink. And as I remember, you promised you were gonna join me.
[00:10:19] Unknown:
Okay. Why not?
[00:10:21] Unknown:
Right out of the bottle? I got no glasses. Okay. Here it goes.
[00:10:28] Unknown:
Hey. It's almost empty.
[00:10:30] Unknown:
Did you No. No. No. I didn't just need a full bottle. Go ahead. Come on. Kill it.
[00:10:36] Unknown:
No. I just want a small sip. Where are we going?
[00:10:41] Unknown:
Starland. Live it up big. Gollum ride the game to this girls. I lick a Star Land. What are you gonna use for money? That is no problem. What are we slowing down for? There's, liquor still up ahead of you. Oh, why don't we forget it? I I I don't want anymore. Baby. Baby. Don't you remember tonight's tonight? We're gonna open up your skull and let all those little men out. You just keep on running. I'll be right back. This street is so deserted. Yeah. Stay on the radio. Keep it company.
[00:11:16] Unknown:
Okay.
[00:11:22] Unknown:
It
[00:11:24] Unknown:
sounded like Julie. Oh my Julie. Jim. Julie.
[00:11:29] Unknown:
Help me. Hey, Tim. What happened? Holy. Holy man. I can't speak. Yeah. You gotta get to the car. Come here. Alright. I've got you. You hit the gun. You cut a gun. Give me that. You doing with the gum? It is a lie, love. Love it.
[00:11:55] Unknown:
Okay, Jake. Get inside the liquor store and see what happened. I'll handle this end of it. I'll put your hand behind your back. But opposite that, I didn't Do you want your sidekick here to bleed to death now behind the back?
[00:12:05] Unknown:
Alright.
[00:12:07] Unknown:
Oh, no. I'm sorry. Please don't. I'm sorry. You play rough games. You gotta take what comes with them. Now come on over to the car. I've got a radio emergency for an ambulance. Well, doctor Sarah Browning, what are you doing here this time of night?
[00:12:28] Unknown:
Well, I'll tell you, Reverend's annual prior. I've been called in as a special consultant on the shooting case that was brought in. Oh, you mean the boy killed the liquor shop owner? Mhmm. Mhmm.
[00:12:40] Unknown:
Well, he doesn't need a psychiatrist, Sally. He's more apt than me than me. They've had him in OR two and a half hours already. He's not my patient. The little girl who was with him. Well, they took him back to the station house for questioning and to lock her up.
[00:12:55] Unknown:
Only she didn't stay locked up. There's a sergeant, Lawrence, on the way back here with her. Oh. Oh, I guess they're here now. Let me go, please.
[00:13:03] Unknown:
Connors, just you calm down now. If you'll only talk twice not saying anything until oh, you're not gonna lock me up again.
[00:13:11] Unknown:
This time I will burst my head wide open. I won't let him get me. Of course, we won't let him get you, whoever he is, Julie. This is a hospital. You're perfectly safe. Now aren't you being foolish? How do you know me? Come on. I've been expecting you. I'm doctor Browning.
[00:13:28] Unknown:
Oh, sure. The head doctor. Well, don't figure out putting me in any padded cell. Because if you do, you'll be the biggest wingding yet. No padded cell. No keys.
[00:13:38] Unknown:
You'll have to be confined to your room, but you don't have to close the door, and there are two big windows. What?
[00:13:46] Unknown:
Honest. When what?
[00:13:49] Unknown:
It's late. I want you to get undressed and get into bed. Then I'll give you something to help you sleep. And while we're waiting for it to work, we'll talk a little. Nurse, will you show miss Connors to her room?
[00:14:00] Unknown:
Miss, do I have to have these?
[00:14:03] Unknown:
Sergeant, does she have to be handcuffed?
[00:14:05] Unknown:
No. If you don't think she needs them now, doctor. No. I don't. Okay.
[00:14:11] Unknown:
Oh, thank you, doctor. You go with the nurse and the sergeant. I'll be up in a moment. I will.
[00:14:16] Unknown:
For you.
[00:14:18] Unknown:
Well, looks like you just made a friend.
[00:14:22] Unknown:
Yes. And I need you, Sam. Could we go to my office for a moment or two? Something's haunting that child. Something beyond tonight. You talked to her earlier. Maybe you can give me a clue to who her private boogeyman is.
[00:14:41] Unknown:
It's so easy for all of us, no matter how sure we think we are, to panic at what we don't understand. Terrors and strange noises that come to us from the dark outside. But when the nameless fight wells up from inside, creating our own boogeyman, call it what you want, then we are truly possessed, and the only last hope is to exercise the unnamed thing within us. I'll return shortly with act two. Exorcism is a convenient old fashioned word. It conjures pictures of the damned or possessed writhing under the influence of some foul demon. It once was the sole province of the religious, and even in modern terms, still is.
But it is well established by now that the psychiatrist is equally important, and church and medicine work as partners, like the reverend Sam Pryor and doctor Sarah Browning.
[00:15:56] Unknown:
So the police want a psychiatric evaluation of Julie Connors. They were holding her for bail and locked her in a cell, and she went berserk. Did you see the bruises on her forehead? I did.
[00:16:07] Unknown:
Claustrophobia?
[00:16:08] Unknown:
Apparently. But that's for later. The point is that even if it is bona fide, it's only a symptom, not a disease. What worries me is less the girl than the father. Oh, what's the matter with mister Connors? What kind of father abandons a 17 year old girl who's never been in in any real trouble
[00:16:28] Unknown:
to face jail before she's been found guilty? Well, she's a suspected accomplice in the murder of a liquor store hold up or even the murder. Sam,
[00:16:37] Unknown:
can you honestly believe that child could handle a heavy gun like the one that was used? There's no way of proving that until the boy she was with comes to,
[00:16:46] Unknown:
if he ever does.
[00:16:48] Unknown:
That bad, Sam?
[00:16:50] Unknown:
He's young, but not so good, Sally.
[00:16:53] Unknown:
What was the bond on the girl? The police don't really suspect her as a principal. Only a few thousand. Mhmm. Except that her father refused to post it. Well, maybe he can't afford it. He can. I called him this morning. He refused to talk to me.
[00:17:09] Unknown:
Do you seriously imagine that my winning personality might succeed where yours failed, doctor?
[00:17:17] Unknown:
You might apply a little occupational leverage.
[00:17:20] Unknown:
The father is a deacon at the Plainview's church. Oh, of which the minister happens to be a close friend of mine. Sam
[00:17:29] Unknown:
I can't judge the girl without knowing something about her background, her history, her life. There isn't time for deep analysis. Her father is the only one who can tell me quickly. Oh, no mother or relatives? No mother. No relatives close enough to be of value. I know it's an imposition.
[00:17:48] Unknown:
Well, not when you ask me, Sally. You give me the address and I'll go and beard your lion in his den.
[00:18:00] Unknown:
Hello, Julie.
[00:18:01] Unknown:
Oh, dear doctor. How's Tim?
[00:18:06] Unknown:
He's still in the recovery room. How are you? I don't know. I promised you a view from a window. Is it alright?
[00:18:15] Unknown:
Ever since the sun came up. Trees and shrubs, flowers,
[00:18:21] Unknown:
green rolling out as far as you can see
[00:18:24] Unknown:
just like the farm was. The farm? Where I grew up before we moved to the city about a thousand years ago. But maybe five thousand.
[00:18:37] Unknown:
Okay, doc. What do we start with? The lie detector? Don't fight me, Julie. I'm on your side. Do me a favor.
[00:18:46] Unknown:
I guess I owe you one, getting those handcuffs awfully.
[00:18:49] Unknown:
So I'll trade. Just tell me the truth about everything. Good, bad, indifferent. Just all the truth. That's what I'm after.
[00:18:59] Unknown:
You don't ask them much,
[00:19:01] Unknown:
When I was a little girl, my father used to say to me,
[00:19:05] Unknown:
Sally? Sally.
[00:19:07] Unknown:
Well, my name's really Sarah, but I always hated it, so I got to be called Sally. Anyway, pop that's what I call my father. Anyway, pop always said to me, don't do a power of wishing, Sally, because the Lord's too busy to come through for everyone. But if you do wish, always wish big. So that's how it is with you and me, Julie. I'm wishing big. You'll tell me everything.
[00:19:34] Unknown:
Gee, Dot. Oh, what's the difference? What have I got to lose?
[00:19:48] Unknown:
So Tillich is like any other boy. I had to bust out of home for some kicks some of the time.
[00:19:53] Unknown:
But you've known him for a while. Oh, sure. We were in the same class at school.
[00:19:57] Unknown:
You weren't surprised when he picked you up in a car this time? Sure. I was. Especially when he said we were heading to Starland Park. You know, the rides and all. And he wanted to go to the disc attack.
[00:20:08] Unknown:
I just didn't feel that. He never had money like that before.
[00:20:11] Unknown:
But you went.
[00:20:13] Unknown:
Yeah. I went. I was ready to go anywhere that night, I thought. I even had a drink. Now I don't usually because it it makes me feel kinda dizzy. But I thought it might chase away the the guy that follows me.
[00:20:30] Unknown:
Go on. Tim had an almost empty bottle. He gave me a drink and and he he said he wanted to stop and get more. Tell me about the man you say follows you. I don't wanna talk about that. Then don't. Tell me more about what happened.
[00:20:47] Unknown:
Well, we stopped at this liquor store, and Tim left me in the car. He told me to turn on the radio. I heard him throw away the empty because it broke and smashed in the street. I didn't like that. Why? Well, things should be tidy and neat. Normally, well, I I was listening to the radio, and then there were these two noises. I just couldn't believe they were shot. When Tim came out, he was all bleeding. He could hardly stand up and then I don't know. The police came at the ambulance. They took Tim away to the hospital and needed the station out.
[00:21:27] Unknown:
And booked you as an accessory? Yes. Do you know the charges? Well, robbery and You didn't know Tim was driving a stolen car?
[00:21:41] Unknown:
No. He said it was his uncle's and he meant it to him.
[00:21:46] Unknown:
Why are you asking me all these questions? Well, some of them I'm asking because I felt she rather had me do it than the police. Oh, why doesn't Tim tell him the truth? Julie, dear, Tim is still unconscious. He can't talk. And Tim isn't my interest. You are. Tell me more about the police station.
[00:22:05] Unknown:
Oh, I don't know. Things took forever. They came, took my fingerprints, and then, they put me in a cell and, locked the door.
[00:22:19] Unknown:
Yes?
[00:22:21] Unknown:
Well, it turned out the light. I tried to tell him not to because my pop was coming. I asked him to call him. They just didn't pay any attention and suddenly the wall and he was there. I knew he was gonna get me. I just screamed and screamed. The police lady came. I told her to get my pop to get me out of there. And what did she say? She said he'd been there, and he wasn't going to let me out. And I've just been the whole night. That's when I went bananas. I beat my head against the wall in the bar. Then, I don't know, everything just went black.
[00:22:57] Unknown:
And when you woke up?
[00:22:59] Unknown:
They were bringing me in here to the hospital. When I met you.
[00:23:05] Unknown:
Alright, Julie. Just a few more questions. Sit on the bed. Okay, dear? Okay. Why don't you just lie back? That's right. Look. I know you've been through a bad time. A jail would scare the daylights out of me. But why would it drive you up the wall the way it did?
[00:23:27] Unknown:
Because it it was just like like when I was a kid. And, I I could walk
[00:23:37] Unknown:
in the closet. To punish you? Yes. Who? Who what? Who locked you up? Like,
[00:23:47] Unknown:
my mother.
[00:23:49] Unknown:
And inside in the dark, you were terrified?
[00:23:52] Unknown:
I always thought I'd choke. There there wasn't any light. You couldn't see. The walls, you could just feel them. You could feel them moving in. I close my eyes. I always hope my own private dark wouldn't be as scary as the other. And the other would come.
[00:24:17] Unknown:
The other?
[00:24:20] Unknown:
First first I could hear his breathing.
[00:24:26] Unknown:
This voice.
[00:24:29] Unknown:
Oh, terrible, whispering sound. But how did you know that this
[00:24:53] Unknown:
this boogeyman wouldn't get you?
[00:24:56] Unknown:
I always knew pop would come to set me free. And he always did. That's right. Except this time. How could he do that to me? How could he leave me shut up when he loves me? Just the way I love him.
[00:25:10] Unknown:
How could he let me be there alone to be swallowed up by the dark forever?
[00:25:15] Unknown:
Alright. Alright, Julie. It's gonna be alright. Don't worry. We're gonna get you all straightened out. Oh, don't deprive me. I'm so afraid. We're all afraid, Julie, of so many things. If I asked you to call me Sally as I called you Julie, would that make it easier?
[00:25:34] Unknown:
Oh, you're so kind. I I do trust you. Whatever you say, but I just want my pop. I know you do. Lily, please. Don't let him walk away from me. If he did, I I couldn't live. You don't think I really will, do you?
[00:26:05] Unknown:
Doctor Ronnie isn't back in her office, but, she should be shortly. We can wait for her there. I don't know why I was talking to this except that you and my pastor are good friends driving by. A friend in need.
[00:26:17] Unknown:
Yeah. What does that mean? Well, something we all need on particular occasions, but, really all the time. Yes. This is doctor Browning's office.
[00:26:29] Unknown:
I can't imagine going to a woman psychiatrist. Well, neither can I? Well, why? Because you're a minister?
[00:26:36] Unknown:
No. No. Because I don't need one, and, my collar, you must remember, makes sex immaterial. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Hey. Whatever criminal aspect this case involves can scarcely touch your daughter. She was, by all evidence, she was an innocent bystander except for the impetus that, well, drove her out of an empty house and involved her. What are you trying to say? I'm not trying. You see, I've discussed this case with doctor Browning, and we are both in agreement. Your daughter is possessed by, a malignant spirit, something beyond her comprehension or ability to handle, which has driven her into a horrendous situation.
One innocent man's death and another possible one. The young man was the instrument of the first. But where does your daughter's guilt lie? Or has she any real guilt at all to bear on those young, shaken shoulders? The holdup of a liquor store goes wrong. The owner is shot to death. A boy is the apparent murderer. A girl with him, a possible accomplice. What peculiar twist of fate put her there? What punishment or resolution should come from the circumstances? We will leave you to judge that after I return shortly with the third act.
This is a story which wanders the fields of modern psychiatry and tries to plumb the depths of subjective terror, grown from within rather than impressed from without. So we return to a minister who faces an anguished father and a history still buried in the shadows of the past. I don't know why I let myself get talking to this, reverend. For your daughter's sake. Yeah. I told you. I'm through with her. Miss Connors, you cannot abandon your child. She's only been arrested, not sentenced.
[00:28:50] Unknown:
She hasn't been proven guilty. She was in a stone car with a boy who had a record. Oh? Well,
[00:28:55] Unknown:
I don't know that. So isn't it just possible that Julie didn't need it? Forget it.
[00:29:01] Unknown:
She she lied to anyone to try and take him in. But this time, she didn't get away with it. Except she managed to fake a way out of jail. I mean, why are you so bitter against her? I'm not bitter.
[00:29:10] Unknown:
Are you sure? And doctor Browning doesn't think she's faking. She thinks Julie has real claustrophobia.
[00:29:17] Unknown:
Yeah? What do you mean?
[00:29:19] Unknown:
I'll I'll I'll terror her being shut away in a confined or narrow space.
[00:29:23] Unknown:
So that's the story she's trying to sell. Mhmm. Well, we all have it more or less.
[00:29:28] Unknown:
Now perhaps your daughter had I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I just had a long talk with your daughter, mister Connors. I think it's true. Who are you? Oh, well, this is doctor Browning, the psychiatrist in charge of your daughter's case. A psychiatrist. That's right. A profession I gather may not be too popular with you, mister Connors,
[00:29:46] Unknown:
but I'm going to be important in your life. How?
[00:29:51] Unknown:
I wanna be frank, and I don't wanna sound arbitrary, but what happens in a few weeks until the trial as far as Julie is concerned is almost entirely up to me. If you're trying to trick me into posting a bond for her, the answer is no. Let us stay in jail. Learn a lesson for once. That's just what your daughter shouldn't well, I'll amend that. Can't do. She's a very insecure and disturbed girl. Yeah. Am I supposed to be responsible for Julie? Am I to take the blame? I don't like the word blame. Let's say you might be a factor along with others.
[00:30:23] Unknown:
What others? Julie's mother, for example. Don't you say one word against Julie's mother. Mary was a saint.
[00:30:30] Unknown:
From what Julie told me, a different picture could be imagined. Whatever she said was lies. Lies. Possibly. But if she's lying, I'd like to find out why.
[00:30:39] Unknown:
Now, mister Connors, won't you sit down and help me? I'm sorry, doctor. I have a job to do. I don't see how I can help you. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm superfluous in this discussion, and also I have work to do. I promise to visit your daughter. Can I tell her you'll be up to see her, mister Connor? No. You can tell her I never wanna see her again. Well, that's a message you'll have to convey by yourself. Excuse me. I, Reverend Pryor. Is this intensive care? Yes. I wanna ask about Tim Sadler, the boy who was shot in the holdup. I see. Well, if there's any change, I'll be on 04:50. Would you notify me, please, immediately? Yeah. Thank you.
Hello, miss Connors.
[00:31:34] Unknown:
Hi. Oh, excuse me, reverend.
[00:31:37] Unknown:
For what?
[00:31:39] Unknown:
You're a minister and all. I I didn't mean to be rude.
[00:31:43] Unknown:
I I don't wanna answer any more questions. Oh, who does? So we'll avoid them. Leading ones anyway. Oh, it's a pretty nice view out of that one there. Reminds me of the farm I was,
[00:31:54] Unknown:
well, where I grew up.
[00:31:56] Unknown:
You like being out there?
[00:31:58] Unknown:
Better in the city. Mhmm. He's pop up happy out there.
[00:32:02] Unknown:
Nice. Well, he still seems pretty nice. He's here in the hospital
[00:32:07] Unknown:
talking to the shrink.
[00:32:09] Unknown:
The shrink? You know doctor Browning?
[00:32:11] Unknown:
Uh-huh. They won't come and see me.
[00:32:15] Unknown:
You don't have to tell me. I know.
[00:32:18] Unknown:
It doesn't matter. Nothing matters.
[00:32:21] Unknown:
Don't give up hope, Julie.
[00:32:23] Unknown:
Oh, I gave it up soon after mother died.
[00:32:26] Unknown:
When I got old enough to realize he never wanted me,
[00:32:29] Unknown:
I could never take her place. I ought to have died too. Never been able to admit it. He hates me for being alive instead of her.
[00:32:41] Unknown:
Only why can't I even it up and hate him back? And I don't mean to pry, but you did love your wife very much, mister Connors.
[00:32:54] Unknown:
My life began and ended with her. She returned that love. Oh, yeah. Mary loved me.
[00:33:02] Unknown:
Is that why she resented it when Julie arrived?
[00:33:06] Unknown:
Mary resent Julie? She loved her. You? Of course. Who doesn't want kids? Oh, sure. On a farm, maybe. I was kinda disappointed it wasn't a boy. A farmer needs a boy more than girls, but that was only a first.
[00:33:23] Unknown:
At first?
[00:33:24] Unknown:
Well, there was things went wrong. We weren't to have any more kids. That was the Lord's will. Then after all the years we tried and found God set against us, Julie was growing up, and bad streak was showing through. I told Mary she was too soft on her.
[00:33:42] Unknown:
What bad streak?
[00:33:44] Unknown:
The things she'd do. When she was eight, she climbed that big old maple behind the house and got treated like a cat. We had to get the county hook and ladder from the fire department to set you down. And then one summer, she fooled us all. She was down the river. By the time she was 10, she run away from home regular. Not so far she couldn't be found. Then at 12, I swear I couldn't blame them. The boys came swarming around. To tell you the truth, she was lovable and damnable to handle that.
[00:34:15] Unknown:
And your wife tried to punish her somehow or at least control her. So she took to locking her in the closet? Who told you that? What? Julie.
[00:34:24] Unknown:
That was what she said?
[00:34:26] Unknown:
Yes.
[00:34:27] Unknown:
Damn. If now you don't see what a liar she is. Someone had to punish her. Now I was the one that locked her in the
[00:34:34] Unknown:
closet. Oh, I see. But you were always the one who came back to let her out. Up till now, doctor.
[00:34:41] Unknown:
But I'm not bailing out anymore as a father or a bailiff. This time she bought her whole problem and she can stay in the closet for good. Mister Connors, I want you to listen to me. No, ma'am. You can take up for Julie all you want, but you ain't gonna change my mind. I'm not taking up for Julie. I'm taking up for both of you.
[00:34:58] Unknown:
And I'll thank you not to call me ma'am. I am doctor, doctor Sarah Browning and a specialist in human relationships. Two minutes is all I ask.
[00:35:09] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:35:10] Unknown:
Two minutes. Well, a reasonable time.
[00:35:14] Unknown:
No. That isn't what I mean. It's just that's what Mary always used to say to me when she wanted something good for us. I reckon I'll give you your two minutes, doctor. For what?
[00:35:30] Unknown:
To try to get you to look at your lives clearly, yours and Julie's. To give you what you need, mister Connor's. Love.
[00:35:38] Unknown:
I had that and lost it. Your wife's, but not your daughter's. Julie don't love me. Not life. Not not the way You couldn't be more wrong. All her life, she was set against me, trying to bedevil me, show me her own way, fight me. Because all her life, you couldn't give her what she really wanted, a father's love.
[00:35:58] Unknown:
Try to see it from her point of view, mister Connors. She was a child who grew up in a house where her parents loved each other so much she felt excluded. An only child with nowhere else to reach for love. But Mary loved her. Well, of course, a girl takes her mother's love for granted, except that she so often thinks of her as a rival for her father's affections. How much love did you offer her? Did she ever find from you? I was a farmer.
[00:36:25] Unknown:
I was up from Donald's sundown. Then there were still chores. Nights I was so tired of I never had much time. Exactly.
[00:36:35] Unknown:
And there was always the thought that had Julie been a boy, she could have worked with you, taken some of those chores off your shoulders,
[00:36:42] Unknown:
been more of a companion Listen here. Don't make me out no ogre. Maybe some of the things you say are true, but Julie didn't have to act up the way she did. That's just the point.
[00:36:51] Unknown:
Of course, she did. She was trying to win your love the only way she could or at least attention. She climbs a tree, pretends to drown, runs away from home, anything to get you to come and rescue her. Even the punishment was worth it. The agony of the dark closet because she knows you'll be the one to come and save her. I ain't proud of that. Oh, we're human. We do what we do. But have you any idea what that child suffered for your love? What do you mean? Claustrophobia is the most common fear people have. Have you ever been locked up in the dark, mister Connors?
[00:37:28] Unknown:
Mhmm. Ever since my wife died, I've shut myself in a closet. I hide in it because I don't wanna wake up and open the door to life again. I had such love that You could have it again,
[00:37:43] Unknown:
a different way, from Julie. No.
[00:37:46] Unknown:
She doesn't love me. She she hates me. She wants to love you.
[00:37:51] Unknown:
Do you wanna love her? I don't know, miss. Now don't throw it away. I've talked to her, mister Connors. Do you know about the boogeyman? Oh, not childish nonsense. Yeah. Childish, perhaps, but not nonsense. Imagine. Just shut your eyes and try to think back to your kid years. Thrust into inky blackness, the key turned, no escape, the gradual feeling that the air was getting too thick to breathe, above all the dark and the fear that you were locked in a coffin. And then from somewhere, some fairy tale or ghost story, you begin to hear a voice.
No
[00:38:42] Unknown:
one to help you. No one to love you. At last, I can get rid of you the way Stop it. Stop it. Don't you know how wrong I was? Don't you see no matter what she says, I know she hates me. But she doesn't. In spite of everything,
[00:39:15] Unknown:
you couldn't be better loved, and I can prove it to you. How? Whose voice do you think it was she heard? Because she wasn't a boy but just a little girl. Because she felt unwanted. Whose voice, mister Connors? Oh. Oh, no. Oh, yes. Yours.
[00:39:37] Unknown:
God forgive me. He will.
[00:39:39] Unknown:
And Julie. It isn't too late. All her rebellion, everything she's ever done, even last night, if she has any guilt in what happened, has been
[00:40:02] Unknown:
I I I thought you'd I never thought you'd come. Yeah. Well,
[00:40:08] Unknown:
about time. I I didn't rob anybody, Pop. Honest, I didn't. I didn't know I It doesn't matter, hon. All all I know is you're released from the hospital and you're getting dressed. And you and me and go into the police station to post that bond. And then we're going home. And no matter what happens, I'm gonna fight to keep you there.
[00:40:30] Unknown:
Oh, Pa. Pop. I don't know what to say. No.
[00:40:34] Unknown:
Not a darn much. It ain't gonna be easy. So many years to make up for.
[00:40:40] Unknown:
You you could. Just one way. With one move. What? Could you could you just hold out your arms?
[00:40:50] Unknown:
Julie. Julie, my little girl. Oh, pop.
[00:40:56] Unknown:
All my life. Just this. It's all I ever wanted.
[00:41:12] Unknown:
All of us have closets in the mind where skeletons rattle and boogeymen breathe heavy in the dark. Thank the Lord for the people who open the doors for us, and pity all those who don't have the doors opened. I'll be back shortly. Well, Julie and Seth Conners made their piece the hard way. Perhaps this time it will stick. At least there won't be any more dark closets. Life is too full of them, and the trick is to find out how to open them. The key is easy to find, of course. It's something very simple, love. What the real trick is, however, is to be able to give it to the right person.
Our cast included Fred Gwynn, Jada Rowland, Christopher Tabory, Frances Sternhagen, and Earl Hammond. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown's. Radio Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice and Anheuser Busch Incorporated, Brewers of Budweiser. This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time. Pleasant dreams?
[00:42:57] Unknown:
Tonight's WOR Mystery Theater was also brought to you in part by ShopRite Supermarkets where you get a lot more or a little less. The preceding program was furnished by the Columbia Broadcasting System. You dial a set for news with John Scott, WR New York, and RKO general station.
Taxes was taxing. Now taxes is relaxing when you file for free. I can file for free? TurboTax
[00:00:07] Unknown:
free edition. Roughly 37% of filers qualify. Simple form ten forty returns only. See if you qualify at turbotax.com/free. I can file for free.
[00:00:19] Unknown:
Now this is taxes. File for free with TurboTax free edition and get your maximum refund. No schedules except for earned income tax credit, child tax credit, and student loan interest. See if you qualify at turbotax.com/free.
[00:00:47] Unknown:
Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. It's pleasant out with the moon riding high, bright enough almost to read by. The very opposite of the night that Julie Connor's story begins for us. A black and lowering night, the atmosphere heavy with the promise of rain, dark. The dark, not being able to see, only to imagine what surrounds us. For some, it is people with presences, things, and unimaginable horrors. Why? That's what our story is about. It begins as we listen to Julie move and moan in her sleep. Our mystery drama, The Dark Closet, was written especially for the mystery theater by Ian Martin and stars Fred Gwynne.
It is sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division and Sineoff, the sign of medicines. I'll be back shortly with act one. For the goblins will get you if you don't watch out. No American kid of my generation escaped the dire prediction of little orphan Annie, for whom James Whitcomb Riley had begun his poem prophetically with the words, came to our house to stay. I know for me she did. I can still remember the little boy who went to bed, and when they turned the covers down, he wasn't there at all. Or the little girl who says, two great big black things are standing by her side who snatched her through the ceiling for she know what she's about.
For the goblins will get you if you don't watch out. I wonder what goblin holds Julie Connors in his stall.
[00:02:54] Unknown:
Help me. Oh, help. Julie, what is it? The light pump. Put it on the light, please. Oh, thank
[00:03:04] Unknown:
God. Oh, thank God. Why didn't you turn on the light by the
[00:03:09] Unknown:
bed? Did you have to break that lamp? I didn't mean to. I was just so scared. I reached out to turn it on and knocked it over by accident. That was one of your mother's favorites.
[00:03:19] Unknown:
Pop, don't blame me too much. Someone turned it off. Someone meaning me.
[00:03:24] Unknown:
I told you time and time again, Julie. Waste not, want not. I looked in here when I got home and you were sound asleep. Lamp's still lit. I only keep it that way this time of the year when it gets dark so early. Just till I know you're home. Uh-huh. Why? What are you afraid of? And you you don't have to go to bed so early.
[00:03:43] Unknown:
I
[00:03:44] Unknown:
got nothing else to do. Oh, oh, we're in town. You've got the television.
[00:03:49] Unknown:
I'm tired of that old tube living other people's lives. I wanna live my own. Yeah. Time enough for that. I'm 17 going on 18. All the more reason you don't need lights on when you're sleeping.
[00:03:58] Unknown:
And stop having those nightmares. I reckon that's what it was again. Another one of them?
[00:04:04] Unknown:
Yes. But What?
[00:04:08] Unknown:
Doesn't matter.
[00:04:09] Unknown:
Then I'll say it for you. The boogeyman again. That's boo. I swear. I don't know what I'm gonna do with you, child. Child, that's the trouble. That's what you ain't anymore, except in half the time you act like you was one.
[00:04:25] Unknown:
Maybe with help, pop. If you stop trying to treat me like one. You think you're not? I mean, my last year of high school. I've been keeping house for you ever since. Mom had Doc, we won't talk about your mother. Okay, pop. All I meant to say was if you can trust me to take care of the house, well, you could trust me to take care of myself. You work a four to midnight shift. I I get lonely here nights.
[00:04:52] Unknown:
I could date except I don't want you dating when I'm not around to meet the kind of guy you're going with. Not these days. The riffraff that's abroad.
[00:05:00] Unknown:
Because maybe a guy has long hair and wears old jeans should make so much difference. On the farm, all we wore was jeans. I just don't wanna see you running around with trash.
[00:05:08] Unknown:
You was always a rebel, rebel, Julie. Don't try to be one here in the city. Thank, thank you, Ma. That's the way you ought to turn on.
[00:05:20] Unknown:
Except in she. Can't you ever forget Ma?
[00:05:23] Unknown:
What?
[00:05:24] Unknown:
I mean, try to hide her away in the back of your mind like we all have to. Just think of today. Yeah. I can
[00:05:33] Unknown:
I can never set your mother away? Yeah. I just wish you could learn and live like it. Make your peace with the world. Then maybe you could set out these dreams that hurt you. Yeah. Yeah. And hurt me too. Maybe if I just had a little more freedom. In a couple of months, you'll be 18. I have no control over you then. But until you reach that birthday, I will not let you run wild like all the other kids. I promised your mother that before she died.
[00:05:56] Unknown:
Why don't you trust me, pop? Leave me to make my own decisions. I can. I promise Mary. She wanted only the best for you. She isn't here to find it for me anymore.
[00:06:06] Unknown:
Let me do my own finding. No, by heaven. I give my word. I keep it. Tim Sathers asked me for a date tomorrow night. Yeah. I don't hear good things about him. You mean I can't go? I mean, you better not. I have six months left to bring you to your mother's image. I will do everything I can to make you that.
[00:06:23] Unknown:
But about your dream? Forget it. It doesn't matter anymore. I was just being a child, and I know it. I can see that it's time for me to grow
[00:06:36] Unknown:
up. Good night, Pop. You need your sleep. Me too.
[00:06:40] Unknown:
Yeah. You sure you're okay?
[00:06:44] Unknown:
Don't worry about me. Sweet dreams.
[00:06:49] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I mean, left for me. I just wish I could make sure there's a whole lifetime on my head for you. Well, I'll turn off the lights. No.
[00:07:01] Unknown:
I mean, I'll I'll get it. I have I have to go to the bathroom. Alright
[00:07:05] Unknown:
then. Pop? I
[00:07:08] Unknown:
love you.
[00:07:10] Unknown:
Sure. Alright. You know how I try to feel, Julie. Since since Mary, I've yeah. There isn't much to give. Good night.
[00:07:23] Unknown:
Good night. Even when she was alive, there wasn't much for you to give. Oh, god.
[00:07:33] Unknown:
Will the daylight never come?
[00:07:41] Unknown:
Hey. You look pretty freaked out there, my old lady. Thanks for the lift. And I'm not your old lady. Oh, these last few weeks, I thought we were finally gonna begin to make it. Oh, Tim. It's not you. It's I know. Your father.
[00:07:55] Unknown:
No. No. Not that so much. Something else. A what? Oh, something I can't explain. Maybe you ought to dump me.
[00:08:05] Unknown:
I'm not any good for you. Well, you have been stringing me along there. What's got you down? Sneaking out with me nights behind your old dodo's back? I don't like it. But what other way is there?
[00:08:16] Unknown:
Still expect you to sit on the net or something, What's the way he was brought up? And mom, they were farm people.
[00:08:22] Unknown:
Your mother's been dead for, six years, hasn't she? Yeah. That's a big hang up, really. Pop goes overboard about trying to, you know, protect me like he thinks mom would have.
[00:08:33] Unknown:
Oh, forget it. Look. We still got a date for tonight. Right? Oh, sure.
[00:08:39] Unknown:
I even tried to tell pop about going out with you when he came home.
[00:08:42] Unknown:
When he blew a gasket, I let it go. I didn't wanna upset him. Upset him? He's down out of style, baby. He belongs to a wax museum. You should take a good look at yourself in the mirror. You got circles under your eyes like some old, broader 30. I told you that isn't pop.
[00:08:59] Unknown:
It's it's just this crazy nightmare I have all the time.
[00:09:03] Unknown:
Oh, yeah. Okay. Listen. I tell you what. You're gonna get a good sleep tonight. Old doc Tim is gonna guarantee it. Oh, how? I'm gonna borrow some wheels and take a little booze and you're gonna take a couple of belts. See what you need is to relax.
[00:09:18] Unknown:
Maybe you're right, Tim. I'm so uptight. I you know something? The last few weeks, I I
[00:09:27] Unknown:
feel like I'm afraid I'm gonna put my lens.
[00:09:30] Unknown:
Well, tonight, we're gonna do better than that. You're gonna blow your mind.
[00:09:40] Unknown:
Gee. Where'd you get a call like this?
[00:09:43] Unknown:
Presto. Presto. Jingle bingo. Marvel the magician. I wave my magic wand then pow. Well you've been drinking. How could you tell? Hey. Open the glove compartment.
[00:09:55] Unknown:
Oh, fit the liquor.
[00:09:57] Unknown:
Where'd you get that? It's on the family, kiddo. Wait. My old man puts it down. He'll only miss one bottle, here there. And the car's my uncle Joe's. Go ahead. Take the bottle out.
[00:10:08] Unknown:
I I don't want that.
[00:10:10] Unknown:
You shouldn't have anymore. Oh, come on. I'm just putting you on. I only had one little drink. And as I remember, you promised you were gonna join me.
[00:10:19] Unknown:
Okay. Why not?
[00:10:21] Unknown:
Right out of the bottle? I got no glasses. Okay. Here it goes.
[00:10:28] Unknown:
Hey. It's almost empty.
[00:10:30] Unknown:
Did you No. No. No. I didn't just need a full bottle. Go ahead. Come on. Kill it.
[00:10:36] Unknown:
No. I just want a small sip. Where are we going?
[00:10:41] Unknown:
Starland. Live it up big. Gollum ride the game to this girls. I lick a Star Land. What are you gonna use for money? That is no problem. What are we slowing down for? There's, liquor still up ahead of you. Oh, why don't we forget it? I I I don't want anymore. Baby. Baby. Don't you remember tonight's tonight? We're gonna open up your skull and let all those little men out. You just keep on running. I'll be right back. This street is so deserted. Yeah. Stay on the radio. Keep it company.
[00:11:16] Unknown:
Okay.
[00:11:22] Unknown:
It
[00:11:24] Unknown:
sounded like Julie. Oh my Julie. Jim. Julie.
[00:11:29] Unknown:
Help me. Hey, Tim. What happened? Holy. Holy man. I can't speak. Yeah. You gotta get to the car. Come here. Alright. I've got you. You hit the gun. You cut a gun. Give me that. You doing with the gum? It is a lie, love. Love it.
[00:11:55] Unknown:
Okay, Jake. Get inside the liquor store and see what happened. I'll handle this end of it. I'll put your hand behind your back. But opposite that, I didn't Do you want your sidekick here to bleed to death now behind the back?
[00:12:05] Unknown:
Alright.
[00:12:07] Unknown:
Oh, no. I'm sorry. Please don't. I'm sorry. You play rough games. You gotta take what comes with them. Now come on over to the car. I've got a radio emergency for an ambulance. Well, doctor Sarah Browning, what are you doing here this time of night?
[00:12:28] Unknown:
Well, I'll tell you, Reverend's annual prior. I've been called in as a special consultant on the shooting case that was brought in. Oh, you mean the boy killed the liquor shop owner? Mhmm. Mhmm.
[00:12:40] Unknown:
Well, he doesn't need a psychiatrist, Sally. He's more apt than me than me. They've had him in OR two and a half hours already. He's not my patient. The little girl who was with him. Well, they took him back to the station house for questioning and to lock her up.
[00:12:55] Unknown:
Only she didn't stay locked up. There's a sergeant, Lawrence, on the way back here with her. Oh. Oh, I guess they're here now. Let me go, please.
[00:13:03] Unknown:
Connors, just you calm down now. If you'll only talk twice not saying anything until oh, you're not gonna lock me up again.
[00:13:11] Unknown:
This time I will burst my head wide open. I won't let him get me. Of course, we won't let him get you, whoever he is, Julie. This is a hospital. You're perfectly safe. Now aren't you being foolish? How do you know me? Come on. I've been expecting you. I'm doctor Browning.
[00:13:28] Unknown:
Oh, sure. The head doctor. Well, don't figure out putting me in any padded cell. Because if you do, you'll be the biggest wingding yet. No padded cell. No keys.
[00:13:38] Unknown:
You'll have to be confined to your room, but you don't have to close the door, and there are two big windows. What?
[00:13:46] Unknown:
Honest. When what?
[00:13:49] Unknown:
It's late. I want you to get undressed and get into bed. Then I'll give you something to help you sleep. And while we're waiting for it to work, we'll talk a little. Nurse, will you show miss Connors to her room?
[00:14:00] Unknown:
Miss, do I have to have these?
[00:14:03] Unknown:
Sergeant, does she have to be handcuffed?
[00:14:05] Unknown:
No. If you don't think she needs them now, doctor. No. I don't. Okay.
[00:14:11] Unknown:
Oh, thank you, doctor. You go with the nurse and the sergeant. I'll be up in a moment. I will.
[00:14:16] Unknown:
For you.
[00:14:18] Unknown:
Well, looks like you just made a friend.
[00:14:22] Unknown:
Yes. And I need you, Sam. Could we go to my office for a moment or two? Something's haunting that child. Something beyond tonight. You talked to her earlier. Maybe you can give me a clue to who her private boogeyman is.
[00:14:41] Unknown:
It's so easy for all of us, no matter how sure we think we are, to panic at what we don't understand. Terrors and strange noises that come to us from the dark outside. But when the nameless fight wells up from inside, creating our own boogeyman, call it what you want, then we are truly possessed, and the only last hope is to exercise the unnamed thing within us. I'll return shortly with act two. Exorcism is a convenient old fashioned word. It conjures pictures of the damned or possessed writhing under the influence of some foul demon. It once was the sole province of the religious, and even in modern terms, still is.
But it is well established by now that the psychiatrist is equally important, and church and medicine work as partners, like the reverend Sam Pryor and doctor Sarah Browning.
[00:15:56] Unknown:
So the police want a psychiatric evaluation of Julie Connors. They were holding her for bail and locked her in a cell, and she went berserk. Did you see the bruises on her forehead? I did.
[00:16:07] Unknown:
Claustrophobia?
[00:16:08] Unknown:
Apparently. But that's for later. The point is that even if it is bona fide, it's only a symptom, not a disease. What worries me is less the girl than the father. Oh, what's the matter with mister Connors? What kind of father abandons a 17 year old girl who's never been in in any real trouble
[00:16:28] Unknown:
to face jail before she's been found guilty? Well, she's a suspected accomplice in the murder of a liquor store hold up or even the murder. Sam,
[00:16:37] Unknown:
can you honestly believe that child could handle a heavy gun like the one that was used? There's no way of proving that until the boy she was with comes to,
[00:16:46] Unknown:
if he ever does.
[00:16:48] Unknown:
That bad, Sam?
[00:16:50] Unknown:
He's young, but not so good, Sally.
[00:16:53] Unknown:
What was the bond on the girl? The police don't really suspect her as a principal. Only a few thousand. Mhmm. Except that her father refused to post it. Well, maybe he can't afford it. He can. I called him this morning. He refused to talk to me.
[00:17:09] Unknown:
Do you seriously imagine that my winning personality might succeed where yours failed, doctor?
[00:17:17] Unknown:
You might apply a little occupational leverage.
[00:17:20] Unknown:
The father is a deacon at the Plainview's church. Oh, of which the minister happens to be a close friend of mine. Sam
[00:17:29] Unknown:
I can't judge the girl without knowing something about her background, her history, her life. There isn't time for deep analysis. Her father is the only one who can tell me quickly. Oh, no mother or relatives? No mother. No relatives close enough to be of value. I know it's an imposition.
[00:17:48] Unknown:
Well, not when you ask me, Sally. You give me the address and I'll go and beard your lion in his den.
[00:18:00] Unknown:
Hello, Julie.
[00:18:01] Unknown:
Oh, dear doctor. How's Tim?
[00:18:06] Unknown:
He's still in the recovery room. How are you? I don't know. I promised you a view from a window. Is it alright?
[00:18:15] Unknown:
Ever since the sun came up. Trees and shrubs, flowers,
[00:18:21] Unknown:
green rolling out as far as you can see
[00:18:24] Unknown:
just like the farm was. The farm? Where I grew up before we moved to the city about a thousand years ago. But maybe five thousand.
[00:18:37] Unknown:
Okay, doc. What do we start with? The lie detector? Don't fight me, Julie. I'm on your side. Do me a favor.
[00:18:46] Unknown:
I guess I owe you one, getting those handcuffs awfully.
[00:18:49] Unknown:
So I'll trade. Just tell me the truth about everything. Good, bad, indifferent. Just all the truth. That's what I'm after.
[00:18:59] Unknown:
You don't ask them much,
[00:19:01] Unknown:
When I was a little girl, my father used to say to me,
[00:19:05] Unknown:
Sally? Sally.
[00:19:07] Unknown:
Well, my name's really Sarah, but I always hated it, so I got to be called Sally. Anyway, pop that's what I call my father. Anyway, pop always said to me, don't do a power of wishing, Sally, because the Lord's too busy to come through for everyone. But if you do wish, always wish big. So that's how it is with you and me, Julie. I'm wishing big. You'll tell me everything.
[00:19:34] Unknown:
Gee, Dot. Oh, what's the difference? What have I got to lose?
[00:19:48] Unknown:
So Tillich is like any other boy. I had to bust out of home for some kicks some of the time.
[00:19:53] Unknown:
But you've known him for a while. Oh, sure. We were in the same class at school.
[00:19:57] Unknown:
You weren't surprised when he picked you up in a car this time? Sure. I was. Especially when he said we were heading to Starland Park. You know, the rides and all. And he wanted to go to the disc attack.
[00:20:08] Unknown:
I just didn't feel that. He never had money like that before.
[00:20:11] Unknown:
But you went.
[00:20:13] Unknown:
Yeah. I went. I was ready to go anywhere that night, I thought. I even had a drink. Now I don't usually because it it makes me feel kinda dizzy. But I thought it might chase away the the guy that follows me.
[00:20:30] Unknown:
Go on. Tim had an almost empty bottle. He gave me a drink and and he he said he wanted to stop and get more. Tell me about the man you say follows you. I don't wanna talk about that. Then don't. Tell me more about what happened.
[00:20:47] Unknown:
Well, we stopped at this liquor store, and Tim left me in the car. He told me to turn on the radio. I heard him throw away the empty because it broke and smashed in the street. I didn't like that. Why? Well, things should be tidy and neat. Normally, well, I I was listening to the radio, and then there were these two noises. I just couldn't believe they were shot. When Tim came out, he was all bleeding. He could hardly stand up and then I don't know. The police came at the ambulance. They took Tim away to the hospital and needed the station out.
[00:21:27] Unknown:
And booked you as an accessory? Yes. Do you know the charges? Well, robbery and You didn't know Tim was driving a stolen car?
[00:21:41] Unknown:
No. He said it was his uncle's and he meant it to him.
[00:21:46] Unknown:
Why are you asking me all these questions? Well, some of them I'm asking because I felt she rather had me do it than the police. Oh, why doesn't Tim tell him the truth? Julie, dear, Tim is still unconscious. He can't talk. And Tim isn't my interest. You are. Tell me more about the police station.
[00:22:05] Unknown:
Oh, I don't know. Things took forever. They came, took my fingerprints, and then, they put me in a cell and, locked the door.
[00:22:19] Unknown:
Yes?
[00:22:21] Unknown:
Well, it turned out the light. I tried to tell him not to because my pop was coming. I asked him to call him. They just didn't pay any attention and suddenly the wall and he was there. I knew he was gonna get me. I just screamed and screamed. The police lady came. I told her to get my pop to get me out of there. And what did she say? She said he'd been there, and he wasn't going to let me out. And I've just been the whole night. That's when I went bananas. I beat my head against the wall in the bar. Then, I don't know, everything just went black.
[00:22:57] Unknown:
And when you woke up?
[00:22:59] Unknown:
They were bringing me in here to the hospital. When I met you.
[00:23:05] Unknown:
Alright, Julie. Just a few more questions. Sit on the bed. Okay, dear? Okay. Why don't you just lie back? That's right. Look. I know you've been through a bad time. A jail would scare the daylights out of me. But why would it drive you up the wall the way it did?
[00:23:27] Unknown:
Because it it was just like like when I was a kid. And, I I could walk
[00:23:37] Unknown:
in the closet. To punish you? Yes. Who? Who what? Who locked you up? Like,
[00:23:47] Unknown:
my mother.
[00:23:49] Unknown:
And inside in the dark, you were terrified?
[00:23:52] Unknown:
I always thought I'd choke. There there wasn't any light. You couldn't see. The walls, you could just feel them. You could feel them moving in. I close my eyes. I always hope my own private dark wouldn't be as scary as the other. And the other would come.
[00:24:17] Unknown:
The other?
[00:24:20] Unknown:
First first I could hear his breathing.
[00:24:26] Unknown:
This voice.
[00:24:29] Unknown:
Oh, terrible, whispering sound. But how did you know that this
[00:24:53] Unknown:
this boogeyman wouldn't get you?
[00:24:56] Unknown:
I always knew pop would come to set me free. And he always did. That's right. Except this time. How could he do that to me? How could he leave me shut up when he loves me? Just the way I love him.
[00:25:10] Unknown:
How could he let me be there alone to be swallowed up by the dark forever?
[00:25:15] Unknown:
Alright. Alright, Julie. It's gonna be alright. Don't worry. We're gonna get you all straightened out. Oh, don't deprive me. I'm so afraid. We're all afraid, Julie, of so many things. If I asked you to call me Sally as I called you Julie, would that make it easier?
[00:25:34] Unknown:
Oh, you're so kind. I I do trust you. Whatever you say, but I just want my pop. I know you do. Lily, please. Don't let him walk away from me. If he did, I I couldn't live. You don't think I really will, do you?
[00:26:05] Unknown:
Doctor Ronnie isn't back in her office, but, she should be shortly. We can wait for her there. I don't know why I was talking to this except that you and my pastor are good friends driving by. A friend in need.
[00:26:17] Unknown:
Yeah. What does that mean? Well, something we all need on particular occasions, but, really all the time. Yes. This is doctor Browning's office.
[00:26:29] Unknown:
I can't imagine going to a woman psychiatrist. Well, neither can I? Well, why? Because you're a minister?
[00:26:36] Unknown:
No. No. Because I don't need one, and, my collar, you must remember, makes sex immaterial. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Hey. Whatever criminal aspect this case involves can scarcely touch your daughter. She was, by all evidence, she was an innocent bystander except for the impetus that, well, drove her out of an empty house and involved her. What are you trying to say? I'm not trying. You see, I've discussed this case with doctor Browning, and we are both in agreement. Your daughter is possessed by, a malignant spirit, something beyond her comprehension or ability to handle, which has driven her into a horrendous situation.
One innocent man's death and another possible one. The young man was the instrument of the first. But where does your daughter's guilt lie? Or has she any real guilt at all to bear on those young, shaken shoulders? The holdup of a liquor store goes wrong. The owner is shot to death. A boy is the apparent murderer. A girl with him, a possible accomplice. What peculiar twist of fate put her there? What punishment or resolution should come from the circumstances? We will leave you to judge that after I return shortly with the third act.
This is a story which wanders the fields of modern psychiatry and tries to plumb the depths of subjective terror, grown from within rather than impressed from without. So we return to a minister who faces an anguished father and a history still buried in the shadows of the past. I don't know why I let myself get talking to this, reverend. For your daughter's sake. Yeah. I told you. I'm through with her. Miss Connors, you cannot abandon your child. She's only been arrested, not sentenced.
[00:28:50] Unknown:
She hasn't been proven guilty. She was in a stone car with a boy who had a record. Oh? Well,
[00:28:55] Unknown:
I don't know that. So isn't it just possible that Julie didn't need it? Forget it.
[00:29:01] Unknown:
She she lied to anyone to try and take him in. But this time, she didn't get away with it. Except she managed to fake a way out of jail. I mean, why are you so bitter against her? I'm not bitter.
[00:29:10] Unknown:
Are you sure? And doctor Browning doesn't think she's faking. She thinks Julie has real claustrophobia.
[00:29:17] Unknown:
Yeah? What do you mean?
[00:29:19] Unknown:
I'll I'll I'll terror her being shut away in a confined or narrow space.
[00:29:23] Unknown:
So that's the story she's trying to sell. Mhmm. Well, we all have it more or less.
[00:29:28] Unknown:
Now perhaps your daughter had I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I just had a long talk with your daughter, mister Connors. I think it's true. Who are you? Oh, well, this is doctor Browning, the psychiatrist in charge of your daughter's case. A psychiatrist. That's right. A profession I gather may not be too popular with you, mister Connors,
[00:29:46] Unknown:
but I'm going to be important in your life. How?
[00:29:51] Unknown:
I wanna be frank, and I don't wanna sound arbitrary, but what happens in a few weeks until the trial as far as Julie is concerned is almost entirely up to me. If you're trying to trick me into posting a bond for her, the answer is no. Let us stay in jail. Learn a lesson for once. That's just what your daughter shouldn't well, I'll amend that. Can't do. She's a very insecure and disturbed girl. Yeah. Am I supposed to be responsible for Julie? Am I to take the blame? I don't like the word blame. Let's say you might be a factor along with others.
[00:30:23] Unknown:
What others? Julie's mother, for example. Don't you say one word against Julie's mother. Mary was a saint.
[00:30:30] Unknown:
From what Julie told me, a different picture could be imagined. Whatever she said was lies. Lies. Possibly. But if she's lying, I'd like to find out why.
[00:30:39] Unknown:
Now, mister Connors, won't you sit down and help me? I'm sorry, doctor. I have a job to do. I don't see how I can help you. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm superfluous in this discussion, and also I have work to do. I promise to visit your daughter. Can I tell her you'll be up to see her, mister Connor? No. You can tell her I never wanna see her again. Well, that's a message you'll have to convey by yourself. Excuse me. I, Reverend Pryor. Is this intensive care? Yes. I wanna ask about Tim Sadler, the boy who was shot in the holdup. I see. Well, if there's any change, I'll be on 04:50. Would you notify me, please, immediately? Yeah. Thank you.
Hello, miss Connors.
[00:31:34] Unknown:
Hi. Oh, excuse me, reverend.
[00:31:37] Unknown:
For what?
[00:31:39] Unknown:
You're a minister and all. I I didn't mean to be rude.
[00:31:43] Unknown:
I I don't wanna answer any more questions. Oh, who does? So we'll avoid them. Leading ones anyway. Oh, it's a pretty nice view out of that one there. Reminds me of the farm I was,
[00:31:54] Unknown:
well, where I grew up.
[00:31:56] Unknown:
You like being out there?
[00:31:58] Unknown:
Better in the city. Mhmm. He's pop up happy out there.
[00:32:02] Unknown:
Nice. Well, he still seems pretty nice. He's here in the hospital
[00:32:07] Unknown:
talking to the shrink.
[00:32:09] Unknown:
The shrink? You know doctor Browning?
[00:32:11] Unknown:
Uh-huh. They won't come and see me.
[00:32:15] Unknown:
You don't have to tell me. I know.
[00:32:18] Unknown:
It doesn't matter. Nothing matters.
[00:32:21] Unknown:
Don't give up hope, Julie.
[00:32:23] Unknown:
Oh, I gave it up soon after mother died.
[00:32:26] Unknown:
When I got old enough to realize he never wanted me,
[00:32:29] Unknown:
I could never take her place. I ought to have died too. Never been able to admit it. He hates me for being alive instead of her.
[00:32:41] Unknown:
Only why can't I even it up and hate him back? And I don't mean to pry, but you did love your wife very much, mister Connors.
[00:32:54] Unknown:
My life began and ended with her. She returned that love. Oh, yeah. Mary loved me.
[00:33:02] Unknown:
Is that why she resented it when Julie arrived?
[00:33:06] Unknown:
Mary resent Julie? She loved her. You? Of course. Who doesn't want kids? Oh, sure. On a farm, maybe. I was kinda disappointed it wasn't a boy. A farmer needs a boy more than girls, but that was only a first.
[00:33:23] Unknown:
At first?
[00:33:24] Unknown:
Well, there was things went wrong. We weren't to have any more kids. That was the Lord's will. Then after all the years we tried and found God set against us, Julie was growing up, and bad streak was showing through. I told Mary she was too soft on her.
[00:33:42] Unknown:
What bad streak?
[00:33:44] Unknown:
The things she'd do. When she was eight, she climbed that big old maple behind the house and got treated like a cat. We had to get the county hook and ladder from the fire department to set you down. And then one summer, she fooled us all. She was down the river. By the time she was 10, she run away from home regular. Not so far she couldn't be found. Then at 12, I swear I couldn't blame them. The boys came swarming around. To tell you the truth, she was lovable and damnable to handle that.
[00:34:15] Unknown:
And your wife tried to punish her somehow or at least control her. So she took to locking her in the closet? Who told you that? What? Julie.
[00:34:24] Unknown:
That was what she said?
[00:34:26] Unknown:
Yes.
[00:34:27] Unknown:
Damn. If now you don't see what a liar she is. Someone had to punish her. Now I was the one that locked her in the
[00:34:34] Unknown:
closet. Oh, I see. But you were always the one who came back to let her out. Up till now, doctor.
[00:34:41] Unknown:
But I'm not bailing out anymore as a father or a bailiff. This time she bought her whole problem and she can stay in the closet for good. Mister Connors, I want you to listen to me. No, ma'am. You can take up for Julie all you want, but you ain't gonna change my mind. I'm not taking up for Julie. I'm taking up for both of you.
[00:34:58] Unknown:
And I'll thank you not to call me ma'am. I am doctor, doctor Sarah Browning and a specialist in human relationships. Two minutes is all I ask.
[00:35:09] Unknown:
Yeah.
[00:35:10] Unknown:
Two minutes. Well, a reasonable time.
[00:35:14] Unknown:
No. That isn't what I mean. It's just that's what Mary always used to say to me when she wanted something good for us. I reckon I'll give you your two minutes, doctor. For what?
[00:35:30] Unknown:
To try to get you to look at your lives clearly, yours and Julie's. To give you what you need, mister Connor's. Love.
[00:35:38] Unknown:
I had that and lost it. Your wife's, but not your daughter's. Julie don't love me. Not life. Not not the way You couldn't be more wrong. All her life, she was set against me, trying to bedevil me, show me her own way, fight me. Because all her life, you couldn't give her what she really wanted, a father's love.
[00:35:58] Unknown:
Try to see it from her point of view, mister Connors. She was a child who grew up in a house where her parents loved each other so much she felt excluded. An only child with nowhere else to reach for love. But Mary loved her. Well, of course, a girl takes her mother's love for granted, except that she so often thinks of her as a rival for her father's affections. How much love did you offer her? Did she ever find from you? I was a farmer.
[00:36:25] Unknown:
I was up from Donald's sundown. Then there were still chores. Nights I was so tired of I never had much time. Exactly.
[00:36:35] Unknown:
And there was always the thought that had Julie been a boy, she could have worked with you, taken some of those chores off your shoulders,
[00:36:42] Unknown:
been more of a companion Listen here. Don't make me out no ogre. Maybe some of the things you say are true, but Julie didn't have to act up the way she did. That's just the point.
[00:36:51] Unknown:
Of course, she did. She was trying to win your love the only way she could or at least attention. She climbs a tree, pretends to drown, runs away from home, anything to get you to come and rescue her. Even the punishment was worth it. The agony of the dark closet because she knows you'll be the one to come and save her. I ain't proud of that. Oh, we're human. We do what we do. But have you any idea what that child suffered for your love? What do you mean? Claustrophobia is the most common fear people have. Have you ever been locked up in the dark, mister Connors?
[00:37:28] Unknown:
Mhmm. Ever since my wife died, I've shut myself in a closet. I hide in it because I don't wanna wake up and open the door to life again. I had such love that You could have it again,
[00:37:43] Unknown:
a different way, from Julie. No.
[00:37:46] Unknown:
She doesn't love me. She she hates me. She wants to love you.
[00:37:51] Unknown:
Do you wanna love her? I don't know, miss. Now don't throw it away. I've talked to her, mister Connors. Do you know about the boogeyman? Oh, not childish nonsense. Yeah. Childish, perhaps, but not nonsense. Imagine. Just shut your eyes and try to think back to your kid years. Thrust into inky blackness, the key turned, no escape, the gradual feeling that the air was getting too thick to breathe, above all the dark and the fear that you were locked in a coffin. And then from somewhere, some fairy tale or ghost story, you begin to hear a voice.
No
[00:38:42] Unknown:
one to help you. No one to love you. At last, I can get rid of you the way Stop it. Stop it. Don't you know how wrong I was? Don't you see no matter what she says, I know she hates me. But she doesn't. In spite of everything,
[00:39:15] Unknown:
you couldn't be better loved, and I can prove it to you. How? Whose voice do you think it was she heard? Because she wasn't a boy but just a little girl. Because she felt unwanted. Whose voice, mister Connors? Oh. Oh, no. Oh, yes. Yours.
[00:39:37] Unknown:
God forgive me. He will.
[00:39:39] Unknown:
And Julie. It isn't too late. All her rebellion, everything she's ever done, even last night, if she has any guilt in what happened, has been
[00:40:02] Unknown:
I I I thought you'd I never thought you'd come. Yeah. Well,
[00:40:08] Unknown:
about time. I I didn't rob anybody, Pop. Honest, I didn't. I didn't know I It doesn't matter, hon. All all I know is you're released from the hospital and you're getting dressed. And you and me and go into the police station to post that bond. And then we're going home. And no matter what happens, I'm gonna fight to keep you there.
[00:40:30] Unknown:
Oh, Pa. Pop. I don't know what to say. No.
[00:40:34] Unknown:
Not a darn much. It ain't gonna be easy. So many years to make up for.
[00:40:40] Unknown:
You you could. Just one way. With one move. What? Could you could you just hold out your arms?
[00:40:50] Unknown:
Julie. Julie, my little girl. Oh, pop.
[00:40:56] Unknown:
All my life. Just this. It's all I ever wanted.
[00:41:12] Unknown:
All of us have closets in the mind where skeletons rattle and boogeymen breathe heavy in the dark. Thank the Lord for the people who open the doors for us, and pity all those who don't have the doors opened. I'll be back shortly. Well, Julie and Seth Conners made their piece the hard way. Perhaps this time it will stick. At least there won't be any more dark closets. Life is too full of them, and the trick is to find out how to open them. The key is easy to find, of course. It's something very simple, love. What the real trick is, however, is to be able to give it to the right person.
Our cast included Fred Gwynn, Jada Rowland, Christopher Tabory, Frances Sternhagen, and Earl Hammond. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown's. Radio Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice and Anheuser Busch Incorporated, Brewers of Budweiser. This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time. Pleasant dreams?
[00:42:57] Unknown:
Tonight's WOR Mystery Theater was also brought to you in part by ShopRite Supermarkets where you get a lot more or a little less. The preceding program was furnished by the Columbia Broadcasting System. You dial a set for news with John Scott, WR New York, and RKO general station.
