Chapter One.
This is the story behind one of the greatest manhunts in history.
Maybe you read about it, or what they let you read about it,
probably as some minor item buried on the back page.
However, what happened in that city
between May 16th and May 28th of this year was so incredible
that to this day the facts have been suppressed
in a massive effort to save certain political careers from disaster
and law enforcement officials from embarrassment.
This will be the last time I will ever discuss these events with anyone,
so when you have finished this bizarre account,
judge for yourself its believability,
and then try to tell yourself, wherever you may be,
"It couldn't happen here."
Sunday, May 16th.
At approximately 2:30 A. M.,
Cheryl Hughes was standing at the intersection
of Casino Center and Fremont Street
waiting for a girlfriend to give her a lift home.
Cheryl Hughes was 23,
5 feet 51/2 inches tall,
118 pounds,
blonde hair, light brown eyes,
swing shift change girl at the Gold Dust Saloon.
Cheryl Hughes, tired and hungry,
but just mad enough to walk the eight blocks
to her small frame house off the corner of 9th and Bridger.
Cheryl Hughes. En route to her doom.
That's odd,
No evidence of dependent lividity, either,
Peel back the chest flap, please,
This should do it,
It's incredible,
Begin the gross work on internal organs,
I'm going to phone the district attorney,
And don't talk about this, to anyone,
I came into it two days later, called back 97 miles
from the first vacation I had had in 21/2 years
because the story is so big no one else can handle it,
according to our lovable managing editor.
Rumor has it that the day Anthony Albert Vincenzo was born,
his father left town.
The story may be apocryphal, but I believe it.
The only point I wonder about
is why his mother didn't leave, too.
Good morning, slaves,
- We are not amused, - Kolchak, you are on it,
A two-day old, third-rate murder...
- You are on it, - What about them?
They have other assignments,
You're beautiful when you're angry,
Out,
First stop, County General, to see one of my most reliable spies...
at least, he used to be reliable.
Hello, Carl,
I thought you were disbarred for malpractice,
I thought we were rid of you for two weeks,
So did I,
Well, about this Cheryl Hughes thing...
why does it say "officially undetermined" under "cause of death"?
- Why don't you ask the coroner? - Come on, you're my spy here,
Haven't I kept quiet about all those illegal operations
you've been performing in closets?
Tell me true, was there anything unusual about the autopsy?
- No, She lost a lot of blood, - Some spy,
I'm just a poor doctor that occasionally takes pity on an aging reporter,
Dr, O'Brien, Any messages for me?
Sounds like a Pulitzer Prize story to me,
Second stop, the Gold Dust Saloon
and a chat with Gail Foster, one of Cheryl Hughes' fellow workers
and a rather close friend of mine.
Poor Cheryl, I feel just terrible about it,
If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to,
No, I want to help if I can,
You said that she never had any boyfriends,
No, none that I ever heard of,
She dated once in a while, but never the same man twice,
I don't think she liked men,
- Yeah? - Yeah,
She even took karate lessons in case one got fresh with her,
You mean that she knew karate?
Yeah, Brown belt,
Oh, I see him, I've got to go, Bye-bye,
In any town the size of Las Vegas,
the murder of one young woman hardly causes a ripple.
But then the ripples started.
Thursday, May 20th, 7:02 A. m.
Over there,
I didn't go down, I couldn't,
Okay, okay, Don, take his statement,
What took you so long, Kolchak?
I got a flat tire,
Not a footprint in sight,
- Is that physically possible? - If it happened, it's possible,
- It sure looks like it happened, - Well, come on,
Bonnie Reynolds, 27, divorced,
cocktail waitress at the Harem Room Casino.
Look at her throat!
She must have lost an awful lot of blood,
Cheryl Hughes lost a lot of blood, too,
You read that in the newspapers?
No, I didn't read that in the newspapers,
This girl lost a lot of blood, Sheriff, but she didn't lose it here,
Anything?
We found a purse,
There's signs of a struggle up here,
But nothing in between,
Only our footprints,
What did he do, throw her?
Who said Bonnie Reynolds was thrown 22 feet into that culvert? The coroner?
I haven't heard about it,
Who said this new killing is connected with the Cheryl Hughes murder?
The police? Not to me, they haven't,
Who said Cheryl Hughes died of massive blood loss?
The coroner again?
He hasn't even turned in his report yet,
And who, may I ask, said that a super-powerful madman
is running loose in Las Vegas?
You hearing voices, Kolchak?
I did not make up the facts on this story,
I know you're bored,
Big-time reporter like you,
condemned to the sticks with us journalistic rubes,
I know you'd like a big, fat byline on a big, fat story
so you can pay your way back to a big, fat city job,
but Kolchak, I expect you to report,
not to come up with fairy tales,
And, Kolchak...
Quit bugging the P.D.
If something turns up, they'll let us know,
Meanwhile, use your head and lay off,
Whatever they're up to,
they don't want any help from amateur bloodhounds like you,
Friday, May 21st, 8:06 A. m.
Apartment of Carol Hanocheck,
swing shift cocktail waitress
in the Bird of Paradise Show Lounge.
She'd gotten home around 2: 15 A. M.,
poured herself a glass of milk,
opened the back door of the kitchen for reasons unknown,
and died like the others...
suddenly, quietly,
without disturbing her sleeping roommate
only a few feet away.
Something of a pattern had started to form, and it was ugly.
It was then that people stopped talking.
Does that surprise you?
Look, you're not the only one that likes to play detective,
The police, the Sheriff boys, they all think they're pretty good,
And they don't need you,
You know, you really make me feel wanted,
We've had three murders in town, Bernie,
We have one tremendously strong guy, maybe more,
who goes around killing young girls,
and they all lost a lot of blood,
You aren't supposed to know about that,
I'm not supposed to know about that, And I know it,
What about your people down at the Bureau?
No, this is nothing for the Bureau to mess with at this stage,
You could make some unofficial inquiries for me,
Like?
You could check around the country and check all the hospitals
and see if any of them have had corpses recently like ours,
all with a big loss of blood,
You could check all the insane asylums across the country,
see if they released recently a nut who thinks he's Count Dracula,
even if he hasn't done anything to prove it,
Do you believe in vampires, little boy?
That's funny, That's very funny,
That's very funny, Bernie,
Are you gonna do it, or sit there like a cheap goniff guzzling my beer?
I'll think about it, okay?
Meanwhile, I hope it doesn't disillusion you to know
that the local law enforcement people go along with your views... somewhat,
At this moment, they're waiting for a special report from the coroner
and two pathology experts who were flown up from L.A.P.D.
along with a small truckload of equipment,
Oh, hi, Marilyn, how are you?
- I like your luncheon place, - Yeah,
If you want to hear that special report,
meet me at the sheriff's office, Starts at 6:30,
- Hey, thanks, - Don't thank me, Just be there,
Where are you going?
Mr. Kolchak, telephone please. Mr. Kolchak.
Carl Kolchak, telephone, please. Carl Kolchak.
Kolchak,
Hi, Carl,
I heard the Parkway Hospital was knocked over,
Knocked over for what? Cash, drugs, equipment, what?
Blood?
That's right, Every container in the place,
Their entire stock,
What about blood type?
Seems blood type and Rh factor didn't much matter,
- Can't stop now, See you, - Yeah, but...
6:30 p. M., Clark County Courthouse.
Present in addition to myself
and two incompetents who called themselves reporters
were Warren Butcher of the Sheriff's Office,
Thomas Paine of the District Attorney's Office,
Captain Edward Masterson of the Las Vegas Police Department,
and old buddy Bernie Jenks.
Holding forth with his inimitable cool,
Dr. Robert Makurji, boy coroner.
We found that death in each case was extremely swift,
coming in something less than a minute,
After the initial wounds were inflicted,
the blood was drained very quickly,
some kind of suction device being used,
This would explain why no blood was found anywhere in the victims
or in the areas they were discovered,
Doctor, Kolchak, Daily News.
Do you have any idea what could have made these wounds?
They're not unlike the bite of a medium-sized dog,
What do you mean, dog?
What are you telling us, a dog did these murders?
I didn't mean to indicate the wounds were actually inflicted by a dog,
only that they're similar to those which might be caused by a dog,
A rather interesting point is that we found another substance
mixed in with the traces of blood in the throat wounds, namely saliva,
What do you mean, saliva?
I mean saliva, Sheriff Butcher,
Human saliva,
If Makurji had suggested that the murders
were committed by a giant butterfly,
he couldn't have made more sparks.
Now... what do you mean, human?
Are you suggesting that each of these women
was bitten in the throat by a man?
At present, the evidence points that way,
However, I couldn't and wouldn't hazard a guess as to motivation,
I can only be sure they each died from shock
induced by massive loss of blood,
Dr, Makurji, is it possible that he killed these women
by biting them in the throat for the express purpose
of drinking their blood?
Kolchak, you're here by the mutual suffrage of us all,
- Sufferance, - What?
It's "sufferance," Sheriff,
Well, whatever it is, just shut up!
I'll answer that,
There have been cases of people who, through some mental derangement,
have come to believe they were vampires,
In Germany in the 1920s, there was one fellow
who did use his teeth to rip out his victims' throats,
We are not going to jump to any conclusions
about who or what killed these women,
It is possible, you know, to type a person's blood from his saliva,
If I were you gentlemen, I'd look for a very anemic fellow,
possibly with some rare blood disease,
I don't care what kind of a nut killed these women,
But I'll tell you this... he's out there,
and I'll bet he's high on pot or the hard stuff,
and he's going to kill again unless he's stopped,
What have your people got on this Parkway blood theft?
Well, the latest is the nurse said
she saw something funny out there last night
or early this morning,
Seems that a tall, skinny guy dressed as an orderly
was nosing around the refrigerated storage area,
That's where they keep the blood and the plasma,
She didn't think much of it then,
but later when she spoke about the guy to the floor super,
she was told that there was no such tall, skinny guy on duty there,
Description as follows...
white male adult...
6- feet-2 to 6-feet-4, thin,
about 175 pounds with pale complexion,
Dark hair,
So we start looking for a man,
local resident or, worse yet, some outsider
who may not even still be in the area,
We'll check the airport, the bus terminal, railroad station,
blockade the highways, and if we're lucky, we'll get him,
if he's stupid enough to still be hanging around after three crimes,
You got any other suggestions?
Just do it, All right, let's break this up,
Thank you, Doctor MA... MA...
Thank you, doctor,
Mr. Paine, I shouldn't be too inclined
to reject Mr. Kolchak's theory out of hand if I were you,
It is at best highly speculative, but not altogether unwarranted,
You can throw away that cassette,
Now, this "vampire" stuff
is to stay right in this room,
Until we have the assailant in custody,
we say nothing about these women being drained of blood,
There will be no rumors, no reports in the paper,
The official opinion at this time is that the cause of death is undetermined,
We don't want to cause a panic,
It's bad for police operations, It's bad for the people,
And it's bad for business,
Thank you for your cooperation,
Kolchak, I want to have a talk with you,
Boys, there's no reason to bother the doctor anymore,
I have a prepared statement in my office,
You can go back to the lab,
You're becoming a real pest,
I'll have to have a word or two with Vincenzo about you,
Maybe one of the other boys at the office
should handle this from here on,
Keep your nose clean, son, Stay out of other people's business,
It's healthier that way,
Will you watch what you're saying? You know these guys,
You could find yourself out of a job and 86'd all over town,
That go for you, too?
Who can talk to you when you get like this?
Listen, I'll nose around unofficially for you on anything you bring me,
just between the two of us,
but do me a favor and stay away from me for a few days,
just for friendship's sake,
Did I say it was a vampire?
What does your suggested headline say?
The story makes it clear,
"Vampire Killer in Las Vegas," question mark, Do I misread?
The story makes it clear,
Do I misread, or did you use the word "vampire"?
Some screwball who imagines he's a vampire
is loose in Las Vegas, and people ought to be told,
If there's a screwball loose in Las Vegas,
his last name begins with a "K,"
I've heard about the little scene you had with the boys downtown,
No vampire stories, clear?
How about a special featurette with a border of roses...
an interview with the two girl victims in heaven,
with a celestial choir in the background,
Out!
I'm sorry, I guess I fell asleep,
Yes,
What were you saying?
You do great things for my masculine ego, you know?
Yeah,
Actually, I was saying that I think that Vincenzo
has the news sense of a tree stump,
It's got to be one man, It's got to be,
Big, strong, psychotic,
You're certainly making me very glad that I work nights,
Well, I told you to quit working nights, didn't I?
I am forever in your debt, love,
What was that?
The killer's done it again,
Oh, no,
Only this time, he was seen,
I saw him standing over there,
I thought he was kissing her,
Then he turned, and she fell down over there by the car,
He must have followed her home,
I'm sorry, I can't,
Victim number four.
Mary Branden, showgirl, 25,
five feet eight inches tall, 125 luscious pounds...
less the weight of 12 pints of blood, of course.
Looks like Bela Lugosi struck again,
Knock it off, That's her daughter,
Oops,
I'm all right now,
Now, the car he drove away in... was it new?
No,
It was a few years old, I think,
It was a maroon coupe,
I'll call it in,
Barney, may I, uh...?
Yeah, but take it easy,
I'm sorry, ma'am, Kolchak, the Daily News.
That was your daughter?
My best contact in Las Vegas has always been Helen O'Brien,
chief switchboard operator at the county courthouse.
Hello, adorable,
You're a sadist,
Oh, I could take it back,
Over my dead, plump body,
Listen, you magnificent morsel,
the DMV is checking on the suspect's car,
You couldn't help me in that area, could you?
Of course not,
Bribed again,
What?
How'd you like to see the killer's face?
Sherman Duffy of the Chicago Globe
once described a reporter as follows...
socially, he fits in somewhere between a hooker and a bartender.
Spiritually, he stands beside Galileo,
because he knows the world is round.
Not that it does much good when his editor knows it's flat.
Shelley Forbes has got to be his fifth victim,
Look at the way her dog was killed,
- You never give up, do you? - What do you mean?
I mean this is unacceptable,
I'm very close to firing you,
even though the owner of this paper has a soft spot in his head
for has-been big city reporters,
I am tired of your pressure,
I am tired of the owner's pressure,
I'm tired of the pressure all around me to blow this story up on the one hand
and keep it under wraps on the other,
I am tired of being the middleman,
Do you understand that?
Can you understand that?
What do you want, Vincenzo?
A testimonial from Count Dracula?
Out! Get out!
What is this "Out! Out! Get out!" game we play?
This nut thinks he is a vampire,
He has killed four, maybe five women,
He has drained every drop of blood from every one of them,
Now, that is news, News!
And we are a newspaper!
We are supposed to print news, not suppress it!
You know darn well why we're soft-pedaling this thing,
No! Tell me why!
Could it be because we have been told to?
You are an idiot,
Worse, You're irresponsible,
All these murders mean to you is a byline,
What difference does it matter what it means to me?
The point is that we are suppressing news,
we are withholding information,
Everybody in town knows what's going on...
the police, the D.A... the coroner's office,
Every reporter on every newspaper in Las Vegas knows what's going on,
The only people who don't know are the people,
At last you got the point,
The people in Las Vegas don't know,
because the people would come unglued if they did know,
even more than they're coming unglued already, Capisce?
Tuesday, May 25th, 7:30 p.m.
Helen O'Brien had told me
that the DMV had come up with 16 possibles.
All but one had been eliminated.
The car owner's name, Martin Lubin,
address on Spring Mountain Road,
name and address both phony.
Name of salesman who sold car, Fred Hurley.
So I sets him a price,
He don't say nothing, just stands there looking at me,
How'd you find out about this?
A fat little bird told me about it,
- Just keep your mouth shut, - Yes, sir,
Okay,
Well, like I said, he just stands there looking at me,
Then he tells me the price is too high...
$300 too high,
He keeps staring, as if daring me to tell him the price is $1200,
Is this the fellow?
Stop doing our job for us, That's already been established,
You see, I told them only he had a mustache,
Mustache, Did you sell him the car?
Well, I started to say no,
but something inside tells me, "Don't mess with this guy,"
I mean, he's a creep, with them red eyes and that voice,
He's enough to keep a guy from working nights,
All my life I've waited for a story like this, All my life!
When it finally comes, I can't get it printed,
Do you know the holes in Mary Branden's neck
were airbrushed out before they printed the photographs?
If you keep going on like this, you're going to get fired again,
Let's see... how many times has it been?
Twice in Washington,
three times in New York,
twice in Chicago,
and once... or was it twice? In Boston,
Oh,
I'm becoming extinct in my own lifetime,
Homo Newshawkus.
Natural habitat, a pool of sour mash bourbon,
You know, I really ought to light a candle to Ben Hecht,
Here,
You ought to quit your job, you know,
And you'll support me?
Well, I... Come on, honey, I'm serious,
That weirdo's hit five girls, and they were all night workers,
Five?
Yeah, five,
A girl named Shelley Forbes is missing,
and I'll bet my bottom dollar she's victim number five,
You know, you iron a shirt pretty good there,
I've been doing some thinking,
What do you know about vampires?
Only that they wear dinner suits
and talk with marbles in their mouth,
Will you please be serious?
Watch my natural habitat there,
Open it,
"Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Vampires.
But Were Afraid to Ask."
No, you're going to look at it,
Come on, Why?
- What if the killer's a real vampire? - I've had a very long week,
He's done everything that's in this book,
You're going to read it,
Yes, all right, I'm going to read it,
Oh, now, come on, you're a big, tough reporter,
You can take it, You might even get a good feature article out of it,
That's it,
"Since the beginning of man's existence,
"there have been creatures of the night,
"crazed monsters that track their bloody prints
"through the pages of fact and fiction,
"Of them all, the vampire seems to have accumulated
the largest body of documentation,".
"By night, the vampire is virtually indestructible,
"fearing only the sign of the cross,
"Before daybreak, he must return to his coffin,
"otherwise he will be destroyed by the purifying rays of the sun,
"It is then, while he lies dormant,
"he can be destroyed
by hammering a wooden stake through his heart,".
According to the legend,
the victim of the vampire will ultimately rise again
as the living dead,
and must be destroyed in a similar manner.
From any source available, the vampire must have blood.
Help! Help!
Someone help!
He's in there,
I was doing double duty as night editor
when the P.D. squawk box went crazy
about a wild brawl at the Old Town Hospital.
Thursday, May 27th, 8: 20 A. M., and things were rolling.
Our morning edition hit the streets
recapping all the action at the hospital.
The TV people, as usual, had missed out completely,
and the radio stations were literally reading our copy on the air.
But now the whole lid was really blown off.
The maniac had been identified.
Sorry I'm late, I just got these out of the soup,
Now, here's a rundown
on the Scotland Yard and the Interpol findings,
Subject... Janos Skorzeny,
Born in Craesti, Romania, 1899,
Now, wait just a minute,
You trying to tell me this guy is over 70 years old?
Come on, Bernie, your boys have come up with the wrong man,
Like hell we have!
These facts have been triple-checked and confirmed,
I've been up all night, and I'm pretty tired,
Do you want it or don't you?
Just take it easy, Let's hear it,
All right,
Skorzeny's father died in 1923,
He left somewhere between $75 and $100 million,
At this time he began to travel,
and he became known throughout Eastern Europe
as a big lover of nightlife,
We don't have a lot more on him before World War II,
Scotland Yard reports he showed up in England
just in time for the German blitz,
I'm sure Mr. Kolchak will find the following facts of interest,
Such formality from a man who always guzzles my beer.
While in England, he passed himself off as Dr, Paul Belasco,
specialist in hematology research,
His work involved freshly killed air raid victims
from various London emergency rooms,
As a matter of fact, at his residence in Shafto Court,
he installed several kinds of sumps, tubs,
and an extremely large commercial meat freezer,
In 1948, he turned up in Canada, still as Dr, Belasco,
Further checking made his presence known
in almost every place along the US-Canadian border
where rioting and violence
and a number of dead bodies were found,
We believe he left Canada for Vegas April 19th
under the name of Detective Constable Alan Hensley,
Now, because of his British citizenship,
he is an international fugitive,
so my people are very interested in him,
This is no longer just a local matter,
Now, gentlemen,
the one constant that has shown up in all of our reports is
that Skorzeny's travels have always been accompanied
by a number of unexplained killings,
many of which have one thing in common...
A massive loss of blood,
So, if Skorzeny is not the vampire of Mr. Kolchak's theories,
he is certainly the suspect of multiple homicides
extending back some 30 years,
Mr. Jenks, you seem to be running this show,
Could I have a minute to say something?
- You have the floor, - You keep it short,
I was at the hospital yesterday, and a lot of things were happening
that you just simply cannot explain away,
Sheriff, your own men shot at him, some at point-blank range,
How come it didn't even slow him down?
How come a man over 70 years old can outrun a police car?
How come this same man, slugged in the head, doesn't even bleed?
I saw those gashes in his head, and whatever it was
that was trickling from those wounds was clear. It was not blood!
This guy's got a motor mouth, Can't we shut him up?
No, let him hang himself, Then we'll finally be rid of him,
So far he has killed four, probably five women,
The coroner said that those bite marks on the throat
were made by human teeth,
He practically confirmed the fact that he actually drank their blood,
Now, wait, Whatever this Skorzeny may be,
he seems to be functioning as if he were a vampire,
You can go on operating as if he were an ordinary man,
That's up to you,
But I know that the only way you're going to get him
is if you proceed under the assumption
that he's a real-life vampire!
Now, the research that I've been able to find...
Wait a minute, Have you lost your mind?
Can you imagine the total blind panic this town would be in
if the public were told we were actually looking for a vampire?
Not to mention the irreparable damage
it would do to the image of law enforcement in Vegas,
That's what it's all about, isn't it? That's it,
Boy, I really can't believe that you guys
are so afraid of appearing stupid
that you'll ignore the only possible way of nailing him!
You listen, and you listen good,
We'll handle this by ourselves,
and without undue public observation,
No undue public observation? You've blown it already!
Look what's appeared in my paper today,
People are going to be calling for a grand jury investigation,
You can't stop the rumors!
Sit down!
I don't care what's been printed in the newspapers,
This man is still classified as an ordinary maniac,
and he'll be settled by standard police procedures,
And you'd better start cooperating with that fact,
or you're going to get your pushy tushy kicked out of town,
You dig?
Yes, sir, I dig,
But just remember the next time you blow it
who's got the answers... sir,
All right, Ed,
Let's get on with it, What have you got?
Our two departments combined have 650 men on full-time duty,
All leaves are canceled,
and everyone's working a 16-hour day,
Our chopper is going from dusk to dawn,
We've got unmarked cars patrolling the Casino Center and the Strip,
All roads are blocked,
and we're receiving complete cooperation
from the Highway Patrol and the Jeep Posse,
- You got it? - Got it,
Repeat,
What did I say?
Show every real estate agent in town the picture of this guy's puss,
and ask 'em if they sold a house to anybody that looks like him,
Good boy, You got it, Now get going,
Now, wait a minute, Wait till I lose this last dollar,
Mickey, has the idea of winning ever occurred to you?
Winning?
Oh, boy, oh, boy,
You spoke,
You know, I have a very strange, unhappy feeling
that the police are never going to catch this murderer,
I also have another very unhappy feeling,
Which is?
This case may be even bigger than I thought it was,
Bigger?
Stranger, then,
I've seen a lot of weird things in my life, love,
I have never, ever seen anything like this,
You don't tell me that you're finally going to believe...
I don't even want to think about it,
Car 14, check out the report on the two ladies
downtown on Casino Drive.
Code 10-33, code 10-33. All units, all units.
Janos Skorzeny spotted
in 1969 green, unpaneled station wagon,
intersection Oakey and Houssels.
I.D. confirmed.
Positive visual contact made.
Units 7 and 8, seal off Rexford and Houssels at Oakey.
Repeat, Units 7 and 8.
Unit 3, close off Park Paseo at Las Vegas Boulevard.
Units 4, 6, move north to face Unit 3 at Park Paseo and 5th.
Unit 5, move up Bracken to 5th Place.
All units...
Hold it!
Get up, slowly,
Somebody find a light switch!
He's holding Chambers down!
Friday, May 28th, 3: 17 A. m.
Despite the helicopters, the Highway Patrol, the Jeep Posse,
despite the blocking of every major road and highway,
despite the mass coverage of Las Vegas
by every available man in both police and sheriff departments,
Janos Skorzeny was still at large.
The courthouse conference room had been a scene of chaos
for more than three hours now.
Messages were still flooding in from every outside unit.
Every available man who had taken place in the capture attempt
was being debriefed.
At the hospital, two officers had died
and a third was hovering on the edge.
Reports on them were still coming in
as the greatest manhunt in the history of Las Vegas
continued in vain.
Oh, thanks, Bernie, Yeah,
Well, what are we gonna do?
Now are you willing to listen to my insane ideas?
Get out of here!
Hold it, hold it, You were there, weren't you?
Yes,
Every man we've questioned insists
not only that Skorzeny was possessed of incredible strength,
but that he was shot more than once
during the capture attempt,
I'd say 30, 40 times,
I'm sorry, I'm not buying that,
Captain, you have two choices,
Either he was shot,
or your entire police department is blind,
Ed, let's admit it,
We had the man, had him cornered, and we couldn't hold him,
Let Kolchak have his say,
Before I do,
is it agreed that in return for my help
you will grant me the exclusive rights
to the entire story?
Let's say it's agreeable if
we decide to follow your suggestions regarding the suspect,
Fine, because if you don't follow my suggestions,
you're going to be chasing your suspect till doomsday!
Just get on with it,
Of course,
Each man in the field is to be issued one of these...
to be carried in his pocket,
- This, gentlemen... - Where'd you get that?
I have a friend who's got a furniture repair store,
I woke him up and had him make it,
Each man in the field is to be issued one of these
and one of these,
Are you suggesting that we pound one of these into Skorzeny's chest?
No, into his heart,
There's a legal phrase for that,
You might have run into it once or twice in your broad experience,
It's called premeditated murder,
It's the only way you're going to stop him,
You heard your own men, Can they all be wrong?
You can stop your nighttime chases from now on, too, gentlemen,
The only hope you have is to spot Skorzeny
and then track him back to where he lives
and wait until sunrise before finishing him off,
He's only vulnerable during the day, At night he's much too strong,
Yes, gentlemen, I hate to say this...
but it looks as if we have a real, live vampire on our hands,
- Ed, - Yes, sir,
- Warren, - Yeah,
Tom, I'd like to be in on this, too,
Okay, you've got yourself a deal,
- Conditional, - What's that?
Butcher here will issue the crosses, the mallets, the stakes,
The one thing he won't do is depart from established police procedures,
If feasible, Skorzeny is to be taken alive and held for trial,
Trial?!
That's right, trial, Trial,
All right, In return for what?
You'll get the exclusive rights to the story...
when the blackout is lifted,
Any other conditions?
- One more, - What's that?
If it turns out you're wrong, you're to be out of town in 12 hours,
Take it or leave it,
All right, I'll take it,
Because I know I'm right,
And you know I'm right,
Right,
Ciao.
I'll take Manhattan,
the Bronx, and Staten Island, too,
Watch out, you great big wonderful Big Apple,
Kolchak's coming back,
Yeah!
Kolchak! It's me, Crawford!
What are you doing driving off with me in the backseat?
What are you doing in my backseat?
I wanted to talk to you,
I saw your car parked here,
so I got in to wait for you and I got sleepy,
You got sleepy!
Hey!
I think I found the house,
I told Crawford to give me 30 minutes
before telling Jenks where I was.
That way I could get to see the house alone for a while,
and also keep the police from arriving before dawn,
which I knew they'd do if they got the chance,
no matter what I told them.
Shelley Forbes?
I'll get us out,
His own private blood bank. Wow.
Hold still, It won't stick,
You think they'll print it?
I know they will, We've got an agreement,
You look kind of tired,
You want me to drive you to the office?
Go on, hush-a-bye, will ya?
I want to finish this in time for the special edition,
Why don't you stop working nights...
Oh, Carl, not that again,
and marry me? What?
Well, you're a good cooker and a good kisser,
Why not?
Oh, baby, you're gonna love New York City,
Honey, after this story hits the news services with my byline...
- Us, married? - Yes! Us, married!
Don't look now, baby,
but Kolchak's coming back, in style!
There you are, Vincenzo,
and if I do say so myself, it's sensational,
I'm sure it is, Carl,
You're going to put it in the special edition? With pictures?
And the news services?
Okay, fine,
What's got into you? You sick or something?
Nothing, This is all fine, Carl, fine,
Jenks has been trying to reach you,
Yeah? What'd he want?
He wants to see you at the D.A.'s office,
Why don't you run over there now?
Yeah,
You're one hell of a reporter,
Thank you, sir,
And a bright "good morning" to all of you,
Bernie, what did you...?
Is your name Carl Kolchak,
and do you reside in the city of Las Vegas?
You know my name's Carl Kolchak, What's going on?
You're under arrest on the charge of murder,
The state requires that you be informed
that you have the right to remain silent,
No, Oh, no,
No chance, You're not going to pull that one on me,
You are under arrest,
All right, Paine, just what kind of a dirty deal is this?
You have a very short memory,
A few hours ago, Sheriff Butcher himself
saw you actually pound a wooden stake
through a man's heart with this mallet,
A man wanted for questioning... questioning, mind you,
He hadn't been arrested,
He hadn't even been charged,
You broke up our stakeout,
and after we were kind enough to invite you to go along,
You just charged in there in front of us
and killed Janos Skorzeny
before we had a chance to do anything,
Why, you were even ranting and raving
about this Skorzeny being some kind of a vampire,
and you had to save the world,
And that, Mr. Kolchak, is murder one,
If you plead insanity, you might get lucky, but I promise you this,
you'll be committed to an asylum for the rest of your life,
I pull your fat out of the fire, and you do this,
Will you just sit down a minute and listen to them?
You were there!
Just listen,
Now, this is your story, Kolchak,
It's already being printed,
"This morning shortly before sunrise,
"Las Vegas Sheriff's deputies
"under the command of Sheriff Warren A, Butcher, 45,
"surrounded the home of Janos Skorzeny,
"a fugitive from a federal warrant,
and, in a pitched gun battle, were forced to kill him,".
Never, You'll never get away with it,
- What's to stop me...? - You're going to stop yourself,
Because if you open your mouth, we'll find you,
bring you back, use this warrant,
and put you away forever,
Pick 'em up, Kolchak,
Pick 'em up and get out of town, Now,
We'll take care of your back rent,
I want to call Gail,
She's not there, Carl,
What have you done with her?
Nothing,
We just asked the young lady if she'd be
good enough to leave town,
She's an undesirable element, Kolchak,
and we don't want undesirable elements in Las Vegas,
There's nothing I can do,
You let me know where you end up, huh?
Yeah, sure, I'll keep in touch,
So all the loose ends have been gathered together
and tied into a pretty knot,
right around the neck of guess who.
After I left town, I began putting notices in the personal columns
of newspapers from San Francisco to St. Louis.
Until I ran out of money, that is.
So far, I've received no answers,
but I'll keep trying
even though I don't think I'll ever find Gail Foster again.
Maybe it's just as well.
So that's it. The book's finished.
And now you'll have to judge for yourself.
I must warn you, however,
if you try to verify this account,
you will find it quite impossible.
Item... in Washington, D. C.,
there is no longer a file listing the suspect
under his true name or any of his alleged aliases.
Item... in Las Vegas, all of those who were involved
have either left town, aren't talking,
or are dead.
I haven't had a decent night's sleep since all this happened,
and now you might find it difficult, too,
because there is still one fact that cannot be buried.
After the death of Janos Skorzeny,
he and all of his victims
were immediately cremated.
Why?
Remember the legend?
All those who die from the bite of the vampire
will return as a vampire
unless destroyed first.
So think about it, and try to tell yourself, wherever you may be,
in the quiet of your home, in the safety of your bed,
try to tell yourself, "It couldn't happen here."