Episode Transcript
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0:01
A note to the listener. The following
0:03
story contains some adult content and language.
0:16
Once was a square, such
0:18
a square, little square, and
0:20
he loved the trim triangle. But
0:24
she was a flirt, and around a skirt vainly
0:27
she made him dangle. Oh,
0:29
he wanted the wed, and he had no dread
0:31
at the mess that woes and wrangles, for
0:34
he thought that his fate was to pro cuiriate
0:37
cute little squares and triangles. That's
0:41
a good one. Girl
0:45
has a dream. Girl moves to tinseltown.
0:48
Girl gets a day job where girl meets
0:50
doctor, renowned playboy doctor.
0:52
The doctor falls for the girl. Maybe the girl rejects
0:55
the doctor. The doctor doesn't like that because the
0:57
doctor is used to getting what he wants. The
0:59
girl is later found dissected in a parking
1:01
lot. Must have been the doctor. That's
1:05
the only theory that I've ever read about the prime
1:07
suspect in the Angel of Vine case. And
1:10
unfortunately for Dr Adler Harrison, it
1:12
was the only theory that anyone read. Montgomery,
1:16
Palmer and the detectives in the investigation had
1:18
nothing. They were grasping
1:20
at straws from the get go, and due
1:22
to the geographic happenstance of Marlene
1:24
and Adler's respective workplaces. Adler
1:28
was the longest straw, and
1:30
so the media paid more attention to the possibility
1:32
of his guilt than his actual exoneration. This
1:36
led to the end of a prominent medical
1:38
career and any aspirations as a Hollywood
1:40
socialite. Harrison
1:42
was doctor to the Stars. He
1:44
ran with the original rat pack, which
1:46
did not include Sammy and Dean. By the way,
1:49
Sinatra recall Bogard, Hepburn,
1:51
Spencer, Tracy. The list goes on. He
1:54
was hob nobbing with royalty,
1:57
but once Confidential magazine to follow up
2:00
off piece labeling him the Surgeon Slasher,
2:03
he became an instant pariah, ousted
2:06
from high society as well as their annual
2:08
physicals, and so Adler
2:10
Harrison disappeared from the public eye along
2:12
with his practice. But
2:14
if Adler Harrison really is innocent, then
2:18
why is he standing in the office of the man who might
2:20
know where Marlene Marie Evans was the night of her
2:22
death from
2:29
Vox Populai and the Los Angeles.
2:31
Harold, this is the Angel
2:34
of Vine. My
2:37
old heart ain't
2:41
gaining no ground
2:46
because my angels
2:50
appies
2:59
here. Drop up the script.
3:02
Oh no, no, need to get up. I could just hand it right
3:04
to it. I'm
3:07
sorry, he just ship. Should
3:10
I call security? You're Adler, Harrison Adler.
3:13
Should I call security? No? Not if you
3:15
want to keep your job you want. I don't think
3:17
Leonard shouted be too happy to know that just any random
3:20
stranger could get into his office. All right, just
3:22
calm down, that won't
3:25
be necessary, imagin Just close
3:27
the door and go back to work. Yes, Adler,
3:33
who are you? Doesn't concern you,
3:36
says the man who's breaking and entering.
3:38
What are you doing here? You don't get
3:40
to ask the questions right now? You're not supposed
3:43
to be in here? What were you looking
3:45
for in there? Where the hell do you get
3:47
off telling me where I am
3:49
and am not supposed to be? So you're
3:51
saying, that's Leonard Show secretary. That's
3:53
what you're telling me. Sure you want to stick
3:55
to that story. That's
3:58
not show secretary. That is
4:01
Mr Shaw's secretary. Why
4:03
wouldn't you think she was his girl? His
4:06
girl? You Hollywood people have got
4:08
a strange way of thinking. Because
4:11
she calls you Adler genius twice,
4:14
you should tell your lookout to be a little more formal.
4:17
Mr Harrison ah
4:22
Shaw is not going to improve of this. Have
4:25
you two shacking up? Shall
4:28
send you to spy on me? No,
4:30
you didn't send me, but she'll get caught eventually.
4:34
Actually never met the man towards
4:37
the plan you do ransack in the office
4:39
running away together. What if
4:42
you don't tell me why
4:44
you're here? I may change my mind about that call
4:46
to security. What
4:50
the hell I'm
4:52
invested getting a murder? Yeah?
4:56
Funny, I should find you here, don't you thank you? Murder?
4:59
Well? What the hell would Leonard Shawn know about a murder?
5:02
I don't know yet, but I wouldn't share
5:04
that with you if I did. Fair
5:07
enough, I went she I'm going to
5:09
be back. I don't know. Well,
5:12
seeing as I'm already here, maybe you can clear
5:15
up a few things for me. I would
5:17
rather we do this elsewhere. You're
5:19
afraid of image and all of a sudden, we
5:22
can talk to my office. Your
5:24
office, Yes, my office. I'm
5:26
the studios doctor, not a damn production liey.
5:30
Congratulations, Yeah,
5:32
sure, I can't wait to see what you've done
5:34
with the place. From
5:43
here, they take a long, silent walk
5:45
across the lot to Adler's office. All
5:48
you can hear are their footsteps and
5:50
a bicycle ball at one point, to which Adler
5:52
responds, good morning. It
5:56
felt very intense, and I'll admit
5:58
that that maybe that's because of all the
6:00
questions running rampant through my mind while listening
6:02
to it for the first time. But
6:04
why wouldn't it be tense? This
6:07
man was a potential killer who
6:09
had either a sixth sense of humor or
6:11
an involuntary sense of irony, because
6:14
the only thing he asked Hank on the walk was
6:16
this, have you seen that new picture?
6:18
Twelve angry men? I
6:20
have not. Mhm, you
6:23
should? Everyone should. I
6:28
want to take a moment here to acknowledge those
6:30
of you who have followed the angel le Vine prior
6:32
to this podcast and have been waiting very patiently
6:35
for this part of the story. Immediately
6:38
following our first episode,
6:40
I started getting tweets and emails like
6:43
it was Dr Harrison, wasn't it? Oh, come on, you
6:45
can tell me? Or is there
6:47
anything new with Adler Harrison. The
6:49
most popular sentiment by far was similar
6:52
to this, please tell me there's a tape
6:54
of Adler Harrison's confession. Please.
6:57
Almost every character of that tweet was any
7:00
and I get it even I jumped
7:02
the gun and brought up Adler's involvement more than a few
7:04
times prior to this episode. Actually,
7:07
I would cite his name while recording these little
7:09
transitions, and my producer would tell
7:11
me I couldn't because anyone unfamiliar with
7:13
the case wouldn't understand what the hell I was talking
7:15
about. Well, here we
7:17
are. We're finally going to get everyone caught
7:20
up. It's the attraction
7:22
to the unknown. Here, the
7:24
what if. Let's
7:26
say that everything that we can research in
7:28
this case about dr Adler Harrison is
7:30
analogous to your typical Sunday
7:32
flea market. Right. You go back,
7:35
maybe not every week, but often enough
7:37
that you're sure you've seen everything it has
7:39
to offer. Um rusted
7:41
soft drink signs, stainless steel lighters,
7:43
and loose pezz Dispenser's restored
7:46
mid century living room set, a radio flyer
7:48
full of old toys. But you
7:50
you can't help but look around, just in case
7:52
there's something you may have missed, maybe
7:54
some unknown treasure, something that looks
7:56
like junk, but it it's actually worth a
7:58
fortune. The seven all our oil painting
8:01
that turned out to be an original renoir. But
8:05
that's the thing. No matter
8:07
how many times you go back, there's
8:09
never a rent war. It's always
8:11
the same information as before. But
8:15
there is an almost rabid fascination
8:17
with Adler. Theorists
8:19
and self proclaimed fanatics of this
8:21
case have gone as far as to create anagrams
8:24
from his name, as if that were
8:26
going to uncover some long lost clue.
8:29
And if you can tell me the significance of overran
8:32
harmless adrenaline, I will personally
8:35
let you host the final episode of this podcast.
8:39
So why, hm, why
8:42
are we so sure that he did it? It
8:44
isn't because the press of the police told us
8:47
that he was the most logical suspect. It's
8:51
because he was the most logical
8:53
suspect exhibiting.
8:58
Marlen Murray Evans worked part time as a
9:00
receptionist for a pediatrist in the
9:02
same medical building that housed Adler's practice.
9:06
What got the attention of the police was
9:08
Exhibit B numerous accounts
9:11
of Marlene and Adler seen together around
9:13
the common areas of the building Exhibit
9:16
C. One very specific
9:18
account was that of Anderson Lobli, one of
9:20
the security guards at Midway Hospital. He
9:23
recalls Adler visibly upset
9:25
while talking to Marlene He said he remembered
9:27
thinking he would have to intervene when Adler grabbed
9:30
her by the arm. But Exhibit
9:32
D was what led to his arrest,
9:35
the fact that he wasn't just any old doctor.
9:38
One. He had access to
9:41
both pentobarbital and cicco barbatal,
9:43
the drugs found in marlene system. Two.
9:47
Adler's father, Dr Richard Harrison,
9:49
was a neurosurgeon who studied under one of
9:51
the pioneers of neurosurgery, Harvey
9:53
Cushing, so we can assume that from an early
9:55
age Adler was exposed to knowledge
9:57
of the human spine. Three.
10:01
Adler was set to follow in his father's footsteps
10:03
after medical school, so he would have been well
10:06
versed in anatomy, dissection, and the
10:08
ability to deftly wield sharp surgical
10:10
instruments. Four.
10:14
Neurosurgery was in its infant stage. Back
10:17
surgery required large posterior
10:19
incisions, or more graphically, cutting
10:21
through the muscle and tissue of the back.
10:24
It's a reach, but it was similar enough
10:27
to the way Marley Marie Evans was mutilated that
10:29
the detectives arrested Adler in his office
10:31
three days after she was found. But
10:34
with a lack of evidence and a decent alibi
10:37
that placed him out of town at the time of the murder.
10:40
They couldn't hold him.
10:42
Adler Harrison was released from police custody
10:44
and became a dead end the moment he walked
10:46
out of that precinct. So
10:52
where were are you at night? You're not even
10:54
slightly amazing. I wasn't trying to be
10:57
Okay, who are you, thank brag.
11:00
I'm a private investigator who
11:02
hired you. Where were you the night of the murder?
11:05
You're kidding? You said, wait until we were in
11:07
your office. We're in your office. Now, where
11:09
were you? I was cleared, not
11:12
by me, you weren't. Don't
11:14
make me ask you again. I
11:21
was in Phoenix. Yeah, yeah, I read
11:23
the statement from the surgeon at Northern Mount Hospital.
11:26
What the part I missed was what you were doing there?
11:30
I can't answer that. Don't give me that doctor
11:32
patient confidentiality speech you gave
11:34
the detectives. I'm not a cup
11:37
and I don't have to behave like one. How
11:40
would you like drink talk? My
11:45
patient was shooting a movie
11:47
on location and felt ill. Then
11:49
I have doctors in Phoenix. You
11:52
must know who some of my patients
11:54
were, and it is essential
11:57
to them, not only to them, to their employers
12:00
at their reputations remain
12:02
protective. I don't care about patients, studios,
12:04
and reputations. The only thing I care about right
12:07
now is that I'm not talking to the man who killed
12:09
an innocent woman. Oh Christ, will you shut
12:11
your trap already? Bonanza
12:14
Airlines round trip. I wasn't
12:16
anywhere near Los Angeles. You
12:18
told me to shoot anything again, and you're gonna
12:21
taste that disk. You
12:25
always keep your boarding passes? Uh
12:27
No, But under the whirlwind of circumstances
12:29
I returned to I thought it would be best to hold onto
12:31
that one. Smart. It
12:34
was an emergency appendect to me. Okay, while
12:37
they were filming, my patient experienced an abdominal
12:39
pain severe enough that he fell off his horse. Why
12:42
wouldn't you just tell the cops that, Oh
12:45
come on, and he was a leading man, a cowboy
12:47
falling off his horse. Can you imagine Hopper's headlines?
12:49
No, I took my
12:52
job very seriously, and
12:55
I still do what happened that day
12:57
you grabbed Marline. I never
12:59
grabbed her. I don't know why Anderson.
13:02
I don't know why he would say that, other than he's yearning
13:06
for the spotlight. You
13:08
know how it is when you rent a cops. But
13:11
you did have an altercation. She
13:13
was always flirtatious,
13:17
a lovely smile. I thought
13:19
we were flirtatious. It was
13:21
wrong, I guess she uh if you had heard
13:23
about my reputation, went too many stories
13:26
about nights out on the strip. And she wouldn't
13:28
accompany me to dinner. She was afraid
13:30
that people would immediately assume the wrong idea of
13:32
her. I told her she was being ridiculous.
13:36
She didn't deserve that, and
13:39
she just left the way she was. You saw
13:41
the crime scene photos, Yeah,
13:46
the first thing they showed me when they brought me in to
13:51
quote Detective Perkins, Maybe
13:53
this will shake you up. What
13:57
can you tell me about Leonard Shaw? What
13:59
do you I don't know. He's quite the entertainer
14:02
I hear, mm hmm. It
14:05
was not for a while now, Well
14:08
then it must be pretty quiet and bell air these
14:10
days from what I heard about those parties. What
14:15
what was that? What that's
14:17
smirk? Let's smirk? You smirk
14:20
just now? What didn't smirked?
14:23
What aren't you telling me you
14:25
are out of here? Don't you ship ad at me? What?
14:29
Doctor patient confidentiality. He's
14:33
sick, yeah, and
14:35
he pays me a lot of money to
14:38
make sure that stays out of the papers. Well,
14:41
I need to see him. Well, I wish you the
14:43
best of luck in your endeavors. I
14:46
need to ask him some questions, Adler, And
14:49
you want me to do? What? Interrupt his ranting
14:51
to say, Oh, Leonard, this p
14:53
I just broke into your office and he wants to give you the third
14:55
degree in the privacy of your own home. I
14:58
think you should hear him out. I mean, m
15:00
hm. He would certainly
15:02
find the energy to crack a Brandy snifter across
15:04
my skull. I don't really care how you get
15:06
me in there. Give him
15:09
this and tell him I won't take
15:11
up much of his time. What could
15:13
he possibly have to offer you? Sorry,
15:17
investigator client confidentiality.
15:28
Now, to all the devotees, theorists
15:30
and fanatics, I
15:32
don't know what to tell you, and I
15:35
have a feeling many of you maybe in doubt after
15:37
all, and I'm playing devil's advocate here. We
15:39
can't see what Adler placed on the desk. We
15:42
don't know if the boarding pass was real, right it
15:46
was his alibi checked
15:49
out? And you don't have to take my
15:51
word for it. Take Hanks.
15:57
Oh no, there's no way you're
15:59
getting me up in one of those things. He
16:03
sunny legs, looking better. Yeah,
16:07
the old lady says, you can hardly notice a limp anymore.
16:09
How's she doing? Same? Old ready
16:12
to pop? I tell you, hoping
16:14
for a little boy, just out for healthy with ten
16:16
fingers and ten toes. You know it. Hank's
16:19
staying out of trouble. You know who I am.
16:22
The more bars, the more more
16:24
cop bars. Anyway, Well that makes two
16:26
of us. How's that doing it? I
16:29
haven't heard from him. Yanked him right
16:31
off the street after all of that, stuck him
16:33
trapped in a box. Those guys were
16:35
killed. It wasn't gonna let
16:37
that happen. You're a good kid, always
16:40
been a good kid. You just gotta stop
16:42
stepping in piles of trouble. No more
16:45
of that for me, Hank. I promised you guys,
16:47
straight and narrow, good boy. I mean,
16:50
other than this, this doesn't
16:52
count. Do you get the list?
16:55
Yep? That's
16:58
the one. YEA got it? What
17:02
can I see? It's Sonny? Oh
17:04
oh yeah, yeah,
17:08
and uh he got what you're looking for, the
17:11
son of a bitch was in Phoenix. Yeah,
17:15
yeah, it does here
17:18
you go for your troubles. Oh yeah, if
17:21
I spotty? Are you sure you're
17:24
better? Positive? Before I changed my mind? Put
17:26
that list back where you found it. You
17:28
gotta heck, let's see how to add
17:30
for me, will you? And thanks? Come
17:37
on, Hank, thank you. Headler
17:40
didn't do it, then, who the hell did? That's
17:43
the sixty four question, sounder,
17:47
bitch, Let's
17:50
see how much of this we got left? No
17:55
Shaw, no more Adler,
17:59
no their leads. The
18:03
five tapes that follow are of Hank from
18:05
his office. He's talking
18:08
to himself, pacing, cursing, racking
18:10
his brain to the point of mental exhaustion. On
18:13
one tape, he falls asleep, and it's nothing but snoring
18:15
for four hours. He
18:17
tries to make sense out of literally
18:19
nothing, everything short of anagrams of Adler's
18:22
name. He goes over every
18:24
detail we've covered so far, and
18:27
then he goes over all of it again. He
18:29
reads the autopsy, Perkins crime scene
18:31
report, picks apart every sentence
18:34
of Adler's file, and the only conclusion
18:36
that he comes to is that someone, at
18:38
one point everyone is
18:40
lying to him. He starts to sound
18:43
a little desperate and juvenile, sometimes
18:45
drunk and incredibly onely. I
18:48
felt sorry for him,
18:50
but that faded quickly when I remember that Hank
18:52
had a family through all of this, his
18:55
wife Lois, seven year old Phillis,
18:58
and her younger sister Arlene. In
19:01
my own mental exhaustion, my marathon
19:03
of listening to tape after tape, I
19:06
still had no idea how long it had been
19:08
since he'd been home, and
19:10
I remembered my exchange with Phyllis. My
19:14
mother used to say, all he cared about was
19:16
that dead girl met and Angel.
19:19
It makes more sense now. Gi
19:22
was a tough cookie, all
19:26
right, Maybe the mccombo or the truck. Are
19:30
you kidding me? It's gonna have any idea?
19:32
What the hell you're talking about it? You're
19:35
an idiot, damn
19:39
it. Two
19:44
little girls you've fostered. Calm down,
19:47
What the hell did you? You don't forget about
19:49
me? I don't care about me. You can tell me to
19:51
go to hell for all though. All I care about but what they
19:53
missed? You working, always working
19:55
for? What? Take her home? What you
19:58
like? Other propos lives better than yours? This
20:01
of this, piles and piles of ship
20:07
and who's watching the kids look at
20:09
this thing. Damn it. This wasn't cheap, the kids
20:12
of the dotty It's not been the damn thing.
20:14
Well, why do you even need to turn it on? You had
20:16
no business bringing it down here. And I'm on a case.
20:18
Hen turn that thing off. I think better
20:21
with it on. There's too many thoughts to
20:23
connect that I don't know when something's gonna
20:25
click. You're worry me, man, This
20:27
this is the work. Ain't not gonna worry
20:29
about what says? You've been hold maybe
20:31
five times in the past month. It's able.
20:35
Have you been sleeping here when I got to explain
20:37
myself to you now too? And
20:41
I had a lead. Go home,
20:43
Hank, see your daughters,
20:53
and this is the work. Yeah.
21:10
I can only assume that Hank made an occasional
21:12
appearance at home because there were no further visits
21:15
from Lois or ed. That
21:17
said, the next eleven tapes
21:20
of Hank are more of the same of what I described
21:22
earlier. He sounds almost manic
21:24
at times as he airs his frustrations. Eleven
21:28
tapes weeks
21:30
of self imposed mental torture over a lack
21:33
of clairvoyance. What am I missing? What am I
21:35
not seeing? What
21:37
he couldn't have seen were the two
21:39
looming phone calls that would change everything.
21:50
Hey Briggs Hello.
22:02
The Angel Levine is a podcast produced
22:04
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22:07
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Premium free. The Angel
22:43
of Vine is directed by E Ryan Martz, written
22:46
by Oliver Vacare, Story by e Ryan
22:48
Marts, Jason Salwalt and Oliver Vacare.
22:51
Sound designed by Joel Robbie and Matt Tamarillo.
22:54
Produced by Vox Populi in association
22:56
with Forever Dog Podcast Network. This
22:58
episode's performances is by Joe
23:01
Manganello, Constant Zimmer Camilla
23:03
Luddington, Mike Colter, Misha
23:06
Collins, Matthew Mercer, Rebecca
23:08
Field, Delaney, Helen Cree,
23:11
Summer, and Oliver Vakare. Angelis
23:13
is performed by Desy Dennis Dylan piano
23:16
and arrangement by James Harper. Composed
23:19
by Matt Dennis, lyrics by Earl Brent
23:23
from downtown Los Angeles. This
23:25
has been the angel le Vine. You'll
23:28
hear more from us soon. Oh
23:37
is my a Joe?
23:41
Excuse
23:47
me? While
23:53
live DEEPPI.
24:01
His is
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