The Stanley Price Matter

Originally Aired: September 1, 1953Johnny Dollar #178, "The Stanley Price Matter,"Johnny Dollar takes on a perplexing case when the New York police confiscate $100,000 worth of rare gems hidden in a water pipe. The jewels may belong to one of his company's European clients who was robbed three months earlier, but they've been removed from their settings and recut, making positive identification nearly impossible. The discovery comes with a murder: Robert Wells was shot twice in the head after a mysterious tipster named Stanley Price called the police about the jewels. Wells' widow claims the gems are rightfully hers and denies any knowledge of how they ended up hidden in her apartment, while Price has vanished without a trace.Dollar begins tracking down the elusive Stanley Price, a small-time hood and bookmaker who recently skipped out on debts around town. His investigation leads him from police headquarters to Greenwich Village and finally to the waterfront, where he learns that Price had been renting a fishing boat despite having no apparent fishing skills. As Dollar follows the trail of this suspicious "fisherman" with a commercial license, he must unravel how an international jewel heist, a murder, and a disappearing bookie all connect.