The Woodward Manila Matter

Originally Aired: June 29, 1954Johnny Dollar #221, "The Woodward Manila Matter," finds the globetrotting insurance investigator traveling to the Philippines to investigate a $75,000 burglary at a Woodward Company hardware store. Ralph Wheaton briefs Johnny before his departure, revealing that not only has the cash been stolen from the store's safe, but an American clerk named Daniel Blake has mysteriously vanished. Upon arriving in Manila, Johnny meets with Floyd MacDonald, the local manager who discovered the theft, and his assistant Irving Morgan. While MacDonald refuses to believe that his trusted employee Blake could be responsible, Morgan has no such doubts about the missing clerk's guilt.The investigation takes an unexpected turn when Sergeant Malvar of the Manila police reveals he has already captured the thief: a fifty-year-old native named Miguel Mazaleva, arrested while robbing another store. However, when Johnny interviews the suspect, Miguel's desperate poverty and his logical argument that he wouldn't be stealing five pesos if he had $75,000 convinces the investigator that the police have the wrong man. With the real thief still at large and Blake's whereabouts unknown, Johnny faces the challenge of unraveling the truth in unfamiliar territory.