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Detectives on the Air

The Chesapeake Fraud Matter Ep 1

Posted June 25, 2026 · 15 min

About this episode

Originally Aired: October 17, 1955 Johnny Dollar #241, "The Chesapeake Fraud Matter Ep 1," Johnny receives an urgent call from Pat Kelleher at the Universal Adjustment Bureau in Baltimore about a baffling case. Eastern Fidelity paid out twenty thousand dollars five years ago when John Reardon died in a boat explosion on Chesapeake Bay in 1950. The accident killed four people, though Reardon's body was never recovered. After the required three-year waiting period, his widow Elizabeth Jane Reardon received the payout. The case seemed closed until Paul Coombs, a prominent chairman of the board and close friend of the Reardons, walks into Kelleher's office with a shocking claim: he saw and spoke with John Reardon at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver just three nights ago. Johnny flies to Baltimore to investigate what appears to be a massive insurance fraud. When he meets with Coombs, the executive remains adamant about his identification despite the man calling himself Frank Bower and denying any connection to John Reardon. Coombs insists he recognized everything from his old friend's mannerisms to the way he orders bourbon. Now Johnny must determine whether a dead man is walking around Denver or whether Coombs is mistaken, knowing that either answer will devastate someone. Become a supporter of this podcast

From Detectives on the Air by OTR.FM Network. Visit the show’s website.

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