Gang Busters - Quincy Killers

Now Gangbuster is presented in cooperation with police and federal law enforcement departments throughout the United States. The only national program that brings you authentic police case histories.

Gangbusters presents the case of the Quincy Killers. Put it all that a railroad ticket in the hands of alert detectives could be a one way ticket to the gallows.

Gangbusters has asked the Honorable Peter F. Hartman, former Chief of Police Quincy, Illinois, to narrate by proxy tonight's case. Now, Chief Hartman, before we begin, I'd like to remind our listeners about a special feature at the end of tonight's program. It shows how a girl of twelve and a boy of fourteen helped capture a dangerous kidnapper.

I'm quite anxious to hear that, myself, Don Gardner.

Well, Chief Hartman, let's get to tonight's case. Well done.

It's not very often that a situation such as this arises in society. I've been a police officer myself for twenty three years, and this was the first time I ever ran into anything like this case.

Why don't you start right in cheef Hartman? All right done, Let's begin in the city of Quincy. Illinois.

One spring evening a few years ago, in a small two story frame house near the International Shoe Company factory, a man sat on the living room sofa. He was there calling on missus Angela Brookes Stover, already twice widowed. Angela was seated at the old melodeon, and the music coming forth seemed to be a hymn.

We edgie, What don't you know anything except church music? It's music, isn't it.

I learned it when I was a child, and I've never learned nothing since child. Now my husband's like my playing both of them?

Is that what killed him?

Will heize?

I'm never gonna invite you back for another evening? Will I baked the cake this afternoon?

What kind of cake? Chocolate with white inside? Well, let's have some.

You know, I baked every day for both my husbands.

That's so every day. I look, Angie, you're not hooking me for number three. So if you're gonna make hints, good.

Night, Will. What's the matter with us getting married? Is there something about me you don't like?

No, Angie, it ain't that. Certainly, time he was getting married, it's my father. There'd be nobody to look after him.

Since when's he's sick in bed look after himself. It's you that's clinging to him.

Now, wait a minute, I can take care of myself.

You didn't have that old goat drag around with you, maybe you'd get someplace.

In this world.

Is plenty smart. He's smart enough for me to listen to.

Just scared of him, that's all.

Like any minute he was going to take you out in the wood shed, like you were still running around in knee pants.

That ain't so, Angie. You got more company who you expected? Nobody?

I don't think anybody.

Well, don't stand in s see who it is?

All right?

Yes?

What, oh mister Heinsey, Yes, mister Heinse Will it your father?

I guess Will knows me when he sees me. But won't you come in, mister Heinsey.

I was just about to serve chocolate cake.

Well, I like chocolate cake. It's good. Well, I want to talk to you, Angie. It makes good chocolate cake the best. And I got some coffee off and then go get it.

Don't stand here talking about it. The eating is the proof of the pudding.

All right, make yourself at home, mister I will.

It's a matter well if I was a younger man, I'd take a stick and pound some sense into your head.

Shit down, Oh, Pop, I don't really mean to marry Angie, Angie.

Eh. There was two policemen around the house looking for you.

They said Clinger's hardware store was broken into, and they think you did it?

Now, did you, pop A? Did you? Well? Yeah?

All these years I've been teaching you, All these years, I've been trying to make a man out of you. I'm sorry, too late to be sorry, got no respect for your father. Why don't you at least wait until I'm in my grave?

Pop? Don't talk like breaking into hardware stores.

How many times have I got to tell you not to break.

Into anything unless I say so? It looks so easy, It looks so easy. Now you're in trouble.

Every time we got in trouble, every time it's been on account you're running off and doing something like that. It hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have spent that time in the Missouri State Prison, not five years now.

You're not much better than a child. Pop, I told you I was sorry.

Being sorry is not going to chase them. Two detectives wait from the house. There they're waiting for you. I tell you it's lucky for you. Your father has a good mouth on him. I told them i'd go out and find.

You, bring you to the police station. Oh no, Pop, you're not well. I sure ought to, but you ain't.

Just lucky will that you're my inflation blood?

Just lucky for you. What are we going to do? Pop? Now, I'll tell you what we're gonna do.

We're gonna do some traveling again to a resort.

To Spirit Lake. Spirit Lake? Where's that it's up?

And I own near the Minnesota line. I saw an ad in the paper. The people that runs the cottages there need a couple of handymen.

Handy man, we're not gonna work just long enough to get a good look around the resort. We'll leave tonight and day shopping wood just so somebody can burn it up. You find job?

Will what what that acts up?

Will? Missus? Miller says dinners on the table. It's a bad time where you've been all day? What's eating you?

Will?

A little work never hurt nobody. It can't hurt you. You're never doing. Will you have some respect?

I thought you said we'd only be around here long enough to find out where they keep their money. I thought you don't think so much. Come on inside. You know the first guests are becoming soon. Pop. When the cottages get rented up, it'll be tougher and tougher to do what we gotta do. You just leave all that to me.

I'll tell you when we can handle a Millica, right, they won't be no trouble, might defeat off.

Oh yeah, sure, O yay, thank you, missus Miller. You got lambs too. It's getting cold. That still sounds pretty good. Done it?

It's awful good. Don't you think you ought to wash your hands?

Well? Oh yeah, yeah, Pop, excuse me, I'll be right back. Sit down, Pop, thank you. Missus Miller.

Sometimes will calls you pops if you were really his pop.

Well, I guess it's natural him not having a father and I together.

So along my everything sure looks good. And help yourself, mister Miller. Going to eat with us?

Oh, mister Miller went to town. He went to range for the bus. First guests to come in tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Well, that's it's kind of early in it too. Nights are still pretty cold for vacationing.

Oh, we get lots of early guests. Oh take some more of that's too Pop. That little bit isn't going to hold you to the supper.

Well, oh why stuff? Sit down?

Will?

Oh help yourself? Oh that lamb still looks awful? Good good us, good will Will.

The first guests are arriving tomorrow.

Oh no, kidd.

That's right.

We're in for some real excitement. I guess we are.

Oh that must be mister Miller calling from town. Excuse me, I'll get it.

Help yourself to everything.

Don't do that. Say this lamb stew is good. Hang the lamb stew. Well, it's good, missus. Miller's a good cool. Guests coming earlier, ruin everything? What can we do about it? They're coming? I tell you what we can do.

We can finish our business tonight, tonight, That's what I said.

Yeah, but we don't know where mister Miller keeps all the money. We'll find it. But how are we going to have time to find it with them around? That's easy, We kill them, kill them? Yeah? Oh no, Pop, that ain't good. Now you look here? Did I ever put you wrong yet? Will?

The only times we've been in trouble is when you did something on your own that's the only times.

But do we have to kill them if we're going to find out what we want? Yes?

Oh, when tonight half supper, neparla. But Pop, will I made up my mind? Okay, if you made up your mind.

Hmm, you're right, will Missus Miller does make good lambs do, very good lambs.

Do so, don.

If the afternoon seemed like an eternity to Philip and William Heinzee as they waited their moment, the events that night must have seemed to occur in a split second. But sometimes split seconds are remembered better than eternities by murderers and their pursuers.

Now back to Gangbusters.

You were telling us, Chief Hartman that the criminals Philip and William Heinze, father and son, planned to murder and rob their lawyers, mister Missus Miller, operators of a lakeside resort in northern Iowa.

That's right, Don, And that night, after supper, the two criminals were in the kitchen about to enter the parlor, whereas usual, they were invited by the Millers to spend the evening.

You do like I told you, and we'll come out all right.

But Pop, do we have to kill and I told you we did.

You just brought me the signal.

Good evening, missus Miller, thank.

You, we will. How did go in town today? Mister Miller? Fine? Will just fine? Do you finish with the sports section? Miss Miller? Yes, sir, it is on the couch. I thank you, big rainstorm Chicago says, Is that so, mister Miller?

Yes it.

Where'd you get that gun? I'm going to use it to kill you, mister Miller, but you pull fool taid you buy it? Hit her again? Yeah? Out here, shooter? No, Pop, you do it.

I have to do everything all your life. I've been doing things for you. Now here, you shoot yourself. Gone, shooter, Pop, I said.

Shooter, And she might still be lying out there, her unconscious and mister Miller's body if the bus driver hadn't come by with a guest. I think we've got a case, Sarah. Well, this is Cousins Furniture store.

Are here? Oh well, before we go in.

Besides being the leading furniture merchant and undertaking, mister Cousins is also corner of the county. He'll probably want to talk to us about holding.

The in question. I understand. Well, let's go on in afternoon, John had known Cherff. Mister John Cousins.

This is Agent Ike Welburn of the Iowa Bureau of Investigation. It came out from des Moines to help with the case. And have you we got a mystery on our hands. Sit down here any place it's a second answer.

Thanks.

I hope I can help you solve that mystery.

Well, Corpus delector is back in the undertaking department.

How's missus Miller and.

The doctor's give her a fifty to fifty chance, John, We got the slugs out of mister Miller's body, looks like they came out of a thirty two.

Both of them.

Will send them down the laboratory in the mone for a complete ballistics check.

What about these two men, the suspects.

Well, the only time they were seen in town was the day they got off the train.

And when was that?

Ten days, two weeks ago. They asked Chet North, the station agent, for directions to the Miller's place. Check phoned out and Miller drove in for him. Yes, missus Miller give you more information about them than anyone else.

Apparently Missus Miller won't be able to give that information for a while, if at all, if they'd already been hired by the Millers, must have been some correspondence between them.

My men certainly couldn't find anything, No payroll book, nothing, nothing at all. You know, it's strange how the young one and the old ones seemed to travel together.

Mister Miller was talking about them at the feed store one day. He had an idea they were some kin, but.

He never asked, wasn't the nosy kind? As long as they did the work?

They did their work, all right, manche air. Let's walk over to the depot and talk to that station agent. I want to see if I can make certain of the exact day they got off the train.

Well, all right, just a minute, Yes, who is it?

It's me, Angie Will Will? Well, where have you been?

Where'd you disappeared to for three weeks?

Oh? Pop decided we should take a little trip, and.

You go away without telling me?

Well, ain't you gonna invite me in?

Come in?

Will?

What's obliged that you now tell me? Was that nice what you did to me?

No, Angie, it wasn't.

I don't know whether I even ought to ask you to stay.

Angie.

I'm through listening to my pop. I'm gonna start doing things on my own.

It's about time more than about time.

Will just by coincidence, I made a chocolate cake today.

You did. Would you like some later? But right now? Would you play one of those hymns for me?

A hymn?

Yeah, sure will if you want?

Angie, Yes, sometime in in near future. Would you care to marry me? Oh? Will?

I don't know what to say.

Say what you said to the two before me?

Say yes, yes, will yes?

Come to the church in the world, Come to the church in one of these bones.

Would be best to put the call through on Sheriff.

Hey, you can tie this one up as long as you want. Welburn, Thanks, yes, please, operator, I want a.

Place to call the chief auditor, Rock Island Railroad colgw Illinois.

Yes, sir, I'll call you back.

Thanks.

It looks pretty hopeless to me, Welburn. The railroad takes up thousands of tickets every day.

I know they do, but each one of them is handled and audited individually. If we can trace the ones these two men used for their passages Spirit Lake, we might know where they came from. That's a big step in the investigation.

Answer that But suppose they change trains at the mineer someplace, then where are we.

If they bought their tickets through the Spirit Lake when they left home, it doesn't make any difference how many times they change. The stamp of the originating office is on the back. If the railroad can locate those tickets, we've got a chance.

That's right. Maybe you've got something, Sheriff, it's all we've got. Where have you, ben? Will? You had me worried?

The Quincy cops might still be looking for you on account of that hardware store.

Just over to see Angie?

But I thought I told you to stay away from her. She's been widowed twice and proposes to make you number three.

I asked her to marry me. Pop, You what Angie and I are going to get married? You won't marry her. As long as I'm alive, I ain't listening to you no more. Pop, You got me in trouble all my life. Listening to you. Steal is steal. That will't turn me loose power, My boy? You do what I send me? Look will.

Push your poor old father. There's been nothing but good to you all your life.

Oh good to me.

That's a laugh making me spend years and years in chail, making me steal and kill.

You wouldn't have known what to do over one for me. You wouldn't have known nothing. I wouldn't have killed nobody.

You didn't even do a good job with that. I told you to kill her. You messed it up. You never did anything right.

I can't kill pop if I want to. Angie and me are getting married, and if you step one foot in the way, I'll kill you. I swear I'll kill you.

Agent Welburn, Mister Welburn, Detective Watson the Quincy, Illino Police Department is ready to talk.

Now, we're good. Put him on Hello, Yes, Watson, how are you okay?

I'm thinking about our phone conversation last night.

Any ideas Watson?

You say those two definitely bought the railroad tickets here in Quincy.

That's the railroad, says well, I don't want to make any promises, Welburn.

Maybe I know the manure looking for father in the son.

That could be the.

Name sin Se. We've suspected them in a couple of buglaries around here. It disappeared about three weeks ago. I could start checking around for them.

It's a good idea of Watson. You start checking and I'll start driving. I'll see you there as quick as I can make.

It, My child, I never heard such pretty music, Pop, even.

You'll get your hat? Will we're going? How did you get in here? I got a knack of getting places? Will you know that? You'll get your hat? Go on? And she finished playing? But will I finish playing? Who will telling me to go home? I can't stand coming with me? Will no more? You're not telling me what to deal wi, you stupid old play away from me?

Pop?

Put that gonna stay away and you two inch.

All these years, I've been taking lessons from you, Pop. So right now I'm gonna show you what I whether. You wouldn't shoot your own father now? Not? After all we've been to each other. You've never been anything to me all my life, I've been scared of you. No, I'm not scared no more.

Well, don't you just beginning to get some sense?

Boys?

Sit down, Pop, I'm gonna shoot you, just like you shot mister Miller.

Will my boy sit down?

Will don't do this?

Yeah, I don't know.

I half a dozen guns, Tanya, old lady, open the door.

Don't do it, Jie the door. All right. One time I said just keep your hands. He's my son. Officer. We were only joking. I was neither joking.

If there's any humor in this situation, it's beyond me. And you won't think it's so funny either when you face the judge in the jury.

That done was how this strange pair of killers, father and son were apprehended. They were returned to Iowa, where they were found guilty of murder in the first degree On March twenty ninth, nineteen forty six. Philip and William Heinsey paid the extreme penalty for their crime on the gallows at Fort Madison State Penitentiary.

Or Thank you, Chief Hartman for this most unusual case history, and Gangbuster's congratulations to all the police officers whose brilliant investigation brought this pair to justice. Now, as a special feature, Gangbusters presents an interview with the two young listeners who are responsible for the apprehension of the dangerous kidnapper, John Harvey Bugg, whom they recognized from the description given on

Through I'm Pinine Virgin, aged twelve, Hoagos Gap.

And I'm the Vorse fourteen andy boy scout.

Well, Pauline and Navar, you've had quite an exciting week, and now you're on Gangbusters. Why don't you just go ahead and tell all these millions of people just how it happened?

All right, mister Hunter. You see, we live in Gearhart, Oregon.

Your heart's about eighty miles from Portland, isn't that right, Pauline?

Yes, sir, Well, you see, I took writing lessons from cowboy Jim and I one night when Saturday night, when I was listening to Gangbusters, I heard the description of him and it said that he had the lamp and the tape on his fingers.

M hm.

The what was What was the description that they gave in Gangbusters? Did they say he had his fingers taped?

Yes?

He did?

Oh I see?

And then this cowboy Jim had his fingers taped too. Well, you were pretty suspicious then, weren't you?

Yes? I was. What did you do about it? Well?

I told my cousin, the var Smith.

Oh I see, Navar, how did you feel about this whole thing?

I thought, if the FBI wanted this kidnappers that the best thing to do is to turn him in. I went over to Seaside and turned him into the policeman. There, you turned the kidnapper in. No, I asked him where I could get in touch with the FBI.

But oh, I see.

He asked me why, and I told him, and so he says that he would do it for us. M M, Well, did you talk to your mother about it, Pauline at all?

Yes?

I did, and she kind of laughed, Oh, I see.

Well you didn't let that bother you at all, though, did you know, well, you say the policeman now was.

Going to do what for you? He was going to turn him into the FBI for us?

Well, I see, and he certainly did from all the activity we've seen around here in the last week. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation did some checking and they found out that Cowboy Jym really was the kidnapper John Harvey Bug and they found him hiding under the baby crib in a friend's house last Friday night. Tell me something, Pauline, what did your mother say after was all over, Well, she was kind.

Of thrilled about it. She didn't think it could happen.

Well, she kind of admitted too that kids can be right sometimes, didn't she. Well, you and Theavar certainly were right and observant too. Now on behalf of Gangbusters. I want to present each of you with a check for one hundred dollars. Oh boy, and we hope you'll continue to be observant young citizens.

Thank you, mister Hunter.

Thank you.

Now.

This is Ben Hunter transcribed from the studios of k ex Portland, Oregon, switching you back to Gangbusters in New York.

Thank you, Pauline Virgin and Navar Smith and Gangbusters. Congratulations to both of yous. Tonight's case was dramatized by Stanley Niss and directed by Ted Corday, with Bill Smith and Bill Zuckert in leading roles.

John Gardner speaking

Gangbusters as a Phillips h Lord production