Speaker 1: A note to the listener. The following story contains some
Speaker 1: adult content and language. At the close of our first episode,
Speaker 1: Hank Briggs was visited by an anonymous man. This man
Speaker 1: wanted to hire Hank to unearth something the detectives of
Speaker 1: the l a p d Had failed to determine for
Speaker 1: over a year. Who killed the Angel of Vine. On
Speaker 1: this episode, we will get to know much more about
Speaker 1: this not so mysterious individual and be able to answer
Speaker 1: at least part of the question what made Hank Briggs
Speaker 1: the guy for the job from Vox Populi and the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Harold, this is the Angel of Vine. My
Speaker 1: old heart ain't gain and no ground because my angela easy.
Speaker 1: I said, just a second, the Dame of Rush I'm
Speaker 1: in here. I'm not going anywhere. Yeah, how can I
Speaker 1: help you, Hank Briege. That's what it says in the door.
Speaker 1: May I sit? That's what it's there for. You come.
Speaker 1: Highly recommended, Mr Briggs. Urban was especially pleased with your discretion. Everyone.
Speaker 1: You don't strike me as a Hollywood type. I'd like
Speaker 1: you to help me find someone how. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to be a little bit more specific, Mr Briggs. I
Speaker 1: want you to help me find whoever killed Marley Marie Evans.
Speaker 1: Who are you? My name is Samuel Tench, Mr Briggs.
Speaker 1: You're gonna make your work for aren't you? Okay? Mr Tench? Samuel?
Speaker 1: What do you do? Where are you from? What's your
Speaker 1: favorite drink? Why me? Which of the questions would you
Speaker 1: like answered first? Mr? Briggs? Well, I don't know answer
Speaker 1: them in any or You're like, look, I got things
Speaker 1: to do. Forgive me if I don't have time for
Speaker 1: twenty questions. My apologies, Mr Briggs. I didn't mean to
Speaker 1: give you the impression that I was here merely to
Speaker 1: waste your time, ah as state did. My name is
Speaker 1: Samuel Tinch. I am an artist. You may know some
Speaker 1: of my work, you may not. That is of no
Speaker 1: concern to me. I am from many places, but I
Speaker 1: live in Los Angeles. I am partial to a dry Gibson,
Speaker 1: but if it would make you feel more comfortable, I'm
Speaker 1: also quite fond of a tumbler of Scotch neat with
Speaker 1: water back. I was kidding about the drink. No, you weren't.
Speaker 1: Why me? As I mentioned, you were recommended by Irwin?
Speaker 1: And how do you two know each other? Do you
Speaker 1: interrogate all of your prospective clients, Mr Briggs, or have
Speaker 1: I on something to offend you. No offense. It's just
Speaker 1: not often that someone comes through that door asking me
Speaker 1: for the impossible. Don't sell yourself so short, Mr Briggs.
Speaker 1: Irwin has commissioned a few paintings from me through the years.
Speaker 1: We ran into each other at the Fountain Coffee Room
Speaker 1: and I said I was in the market for a
Speaker 1: private investigator. He said, you'd be able to assist me murder.
Speaker 1: I didn't divulge what the purposes of my hiring you
Speaker 1: would be for, sir Mr Tench, but I still don't
Speaker 1: understand how I can be of help to you. Mr Briggs.
Speaker 1: This may surprise you, but in what little I know
Speaker 1: of your background, you strike me in very much the
Speaker 1: same way as Pablo Picasso. That's a no one. You
Speaker 1: were a police officer in the same way that Picasso
Speaker 1: began as a formerly trained artist, but at the point
Speaker 1: where instinct and the creative mind took over his genius emerged.
Speaker 1: He began to experiment with different theories and ideas, influences
Speaker 1: and techniques. It's safe to say that through his artistic
Speaker 1: evaloue from Cubis too neo classical to surrealist. His instincts
Speaker 1: surely must have evolved as well. So you think I'm
Speaker 1: a genius. I think you have the same capacity for creativity,
Speaker 1: Mr Briggs, the same instincts. I'm sure I don't need
Speaker 1: to tell you all of this. No, Mr Briggs, My
Speaker 1: point is that the rules haven't managed to obtain anything new.
Speaker 1: You were trained to know how to play by the rules,
Speaker 1: but you also know how to break them, how to
Speaker 1: read between the lines? Has the same fact, Mr Briggs.
Speaker 1: How did you discover that the man Irwin Fogelman's wife
Speaker 1: was having an affair with was his financial advisor? I
Speaker 1: thought you don't divulge your information. I don't, but I
Speaker 1: have no control over what comes out of other people's mouths.
Speaker 1: Did your discovery of the identity of her lover come
Speaker 1: from good old fashioned police work? Now who's doing the interrogating.
Speaker 1: I'm merely making my point. I think that your expectation
Speaker 1: of what I can obtain maybe a tad unrealistic. I
Speaker 1: don't think so. A majority of the inhabitants of the
Speaker 1: city don't talk to the police, Mr Briggs. They hide
Speaker 1: from them. However, someone has yourself who has the techniques
Speaker 1: and the instincts required to gather information poses absolutely zero
Speaker 1: threat too, said inhabitants, would you mind not at all? Right?
Speaker 1: I don't have any war make it, do you? See?
Speaker 1: Mr Briggs? You can ask questions that a member of
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Police Department cannot ask. You can ask
Speaker 1: very ugly questions to very ugly people, and in very
Speaker 1: ugly ways, without breaking any laws, of course. And my
Speaker 1: guess is that without a badge or a grudge or
Speaker 1: a uniform, these ugly people will bestow upon you answers
Speaker 1: containing viable, helpful, and hopefully useful information. I'm certainly not
Speaker 1: hiring you to bring anyone to justice. What do you mean?
Speaker 1: Nothing more than chasing information? So wait, you want me
Speaker 1: to find out who killed the Angel of Vine? And
Speaker 1: then just white say hello, why did you do it? No,
Speaker 1: Mr Briggs, I would like it very much of the
Speaker 1: person who killed Marlene was caught, But as you are
Speaker 1: no longer an officer of the law, I'm merely stating
Speaker 1: that person won't be you. So you see, my expectations
Speaker 1: are quite grounded in reality. After all, what's this? That
Speaker 1: is my offer per week for your services? This is
Speaker 1: a week? Yes, that's a that's a lot of money.
Speaker 1: It is. If you prefer, I can pay you in
Speaker 1: the amount of ten tho dollars up front. Either way,
Speaker 1: you will receive an additional ten thousand when your work
Speaker 1: is done, a thousand dollars when you solve the case. Yes, Jesus,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of money. Yes, m hm. Weekly is fine.
Speaker 1: UM an artist U a painting canvas. Mr Briggs ship
Speaker 1: to pink canvas. The conversation goes on from there and
Speaker 1: we'll come back to it, but I want to stop
Speaker 1: here for a couple of minutes to talk about Samuel Tench.
Speaker 1: First off, Yes, that is contemporary artist Samuel Tench. You
Speaker 1: may not recognize the name, but you would definitely recognize
Speaker 1: a painting or two of his. Amidst Hank's things, Beth
Speaker 1: found the very piece of paper that we heard Tench
Speaker 1: hand to Hank. It's a piece of light yellow stationary
Speaker 1: with the powder blue letter head st on. It is
Speaker 1: written Hank Briggs Detective Agency, fifty p W that's per
Speaker 1: week for where services rendered, and at the bottom is
Speaker 1: an actual Samuel Tench signature. A little background for those
Speaker 1: who may be unfamiliar. Samuel Tench was born in Paris
Speaker 1: into quite an artistic family. His mother, Liliana, was a
Speaker 1: very well known dancer and stage performer. She toured throughout Europe,
Speaker 1: which is how she met Samuel's father, Andre, a theater
Speaker 1: owner in the Ninth Arrondissement during the height of Label epoch.
Speaker 1: The First World War began a few years after Samuel
Speaker 1: was born, and by the time Parisians adjusted to the
Speaker 1: German bombardment, Andrea had reopened the theater and Liliana was
Speaker 1: once again performing nightly. This left Samuel in the custody
Speaker 1: of a menagerie of caregivers, as he refers to it
Speaker 1: in his autobiography, one dancer in particular by the name
Speaker 1: of Genevieve, whom he regards quite fondly as gifting him
Speaker 1: with the very first materials with which to express himself.
Speaker 1: By the age of thirteen, it was evident that he
Speaker 1: had an incredible gift. At the age of seventeen, with
Speaker 1: the support of his parents and a little promotion, of course,
Speaker 1: Samuel Tench held his very first exhibition in the neighborhood
Speaker 1: of Montparnasse, where every single one of his painting sold
Speaker 1: without going into the entirety of Tench's backstory, it is
Speaker 1: clear that he had one eye on his work and
Speaker 1: the other eye on the rise of Nazism in Germany.
Speaker 1: Having already lived through one war, he wasn't eager to
Speaker 1: wait out the possibility of a second. In the spring
Speaker 1: before Samuel left Paris, he narrowly survived a fire that
Speaker 1: consumed half of his parents theater. Genevieve was one of
Speaker 1: twelve people who died in the flames. His final painting,
Speaker 1: on European Soil depicts a tattered pair of dark stockings
Speaker 1: under the scorched brim of a top hat. The silhouette
Speaker 1: in the background is presumed to be Tench as he
Speaker 1: exits through the doorway. The pain ing is appropriately named
Speaker 1: The Agony. Flash forward to Los Angeles, where Tench found
Speaker 1: himself drawn to a community of artists such as Philip
Speaker 1: Gustin and Reuben Kadish. As a result, his early work
Speaker 1: in the u s is very politically charged and almost
Speaker 1: industrial in nature. Around the time Gustin moved to New York,
Speaker 1: tenches paintings became more and more colorful, large canvases, explosive
Speaker 1: with elaborate brushstrokes, but most notable are his abstract portraitures
Speaker 1: in watercolor and acrylic. Those are closer to what you
Speaker 1: would expect. If I showed you one of those, you'd say, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen that painting. So that is who Samuel Tench was.
Speaker 1: But as far as we're concerned, who he is now
Speaker 1: is Hank Briggs employer. Just out of curiosity, why this case,
Speaker 1: Mr Briggs? Have you ever been to the Plaza Arts
Speaker 1: Center and A right, yeah, it's just uff from Little
Speaker 1: Joe's on College Street. Your baseball fan, I gather you're
Speaker 1: not much of a baseball fan. I no, it doesn't matter, sorry,
Speaker 1: Plas Art Center. No, I've never been. A Mexican muralist
Speaker 1: by the name of David Alfaro Ciceros created a fresco
Speaker 1: entitled America Tropical or La America Tropical. I've never seen
Speaker 1: it and I'm afraid you won't. Sorry. Sigeros was hired
Speaker 1: to paint someone else's idea of a docile and romantic
Speaker 1: fictional Mexico that Los Angeles would be comfortable with. What
Speaker 1: they wanted was an illusion. What he gave them was
Speaker 1: brazen honesty. The crucifixion of an Indian peon being attacked
Speaker 1: by an American Eagle. It sparked outrage, and so they
Speaker 1: white washed the wall to create an illusion that honesty
Speaker 1: can be easily forgotten, not frolling. I don't want Marlene
Speaker 1: Marie Evans to be forgot, Mr Briggs. She was an
Speaker 1: innocent and what honesty she found so brutal in its
Speaker 1: act that she was made famous only to be forgotten.
Speaker 1: Every story should have an ending, Mr Briggs. Don't you
Speaker 1: think I'm glad you understand? Where will you begin to look?
Speaker 1: Most likely wherever the investigation came to Hall? Do you
Speaker 1: still have access to that information? Will is Montgomery Palmer
Speaker 1: going to be a problem? Shouldn't be good? I don't
Speaker 1: need to know any more than that. Good because I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to tell you any more than that. Well,
Speaker 1: Mr Briggs, I shall take my leave of you. It
Speaker 1: has been a pleasure, it sure has. Thank you for
Speaker 1: taking all this responsibility. We will be in contact, sure
Speaker 1: will h Holy shit, Dotty attack. Can you do me
Speaker 1: a favor? Yeah? Can you have ed call me as
Speaker 1: soon as he gets in. Yeah, now, everything's fine. Just
Speaker 1: I just need to run something bybe she's good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's she's good. Yeah, Yeah, I do that. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: sure she'd love to hear from me. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: thanks Dotty. There is only one reason for Samuel Tends
Speaker 1: to have mentioned the name Montgomery Palmer, or I should
Speaker 1: say Captain Montgomery Palmer. He was worried, even if you
Speaker 1: can't hear it in his voice, which you can't for
Speaker 1: the briefest of moments, He's worried that, from an investigative standpoint,
Speaker 1: hanks strained relationship with the l a p D Might
Speaker 1: render him impotent. Why Montgomery Palmer, Why not any other
Speaker 1: member of the force. Well, at that time, Montgomery Palmer
Speaker 1: was the face of the Angel Levine investigation. He protected
Speaker 1: information at all costs. If there were any obvious setbacks,
Speaker 1: he was more than happy to blame them on the
Speaker 1: interference of the press and their lack of discretion. So
Speaker 1: as far as any inside information pretending to the case,
Speaker 1: Montgomery sure as hell wasn't going to approve of Hank's involvement.
Speaker 1: Side note. Through all of this digging, the one difficulty
Speaker 1: I've had with hanks recordings is that they're not dated.
Speaker 1: So while I have figured out a general timeline, the
Speaker 1: following conversation with Ed could have been days even we
Speaker 1: after tension. Just gives me that minute, not I promise
Speaker 1: you won't take a minute when it gets cold. You
Speaker 1: can hate it up yourself, even I won't keep him wrong.
Speaker 1: What's your guy for me? Pointner? But that's it. Tell
Speaker 1: me you're not recording this. Come on And that's where
Speaker 1: the recording cuts out, But a few seconds later it
Speaker 1: starts up again. There's no indication of how much time
Speaker 1: passes or how much of the conversation has missed. All
Speaker 1: I know is that Hank didn't tell Addie. That's the gist.
Speaker 1: How can nobody know where she was at night? Not
Speaker 1: one person who's interviewed you you see for yourself. How
Speaker 1: can this be? All of it? It's so thin. Everything
Speaker 1: else is all bogus leads and confessions. Well, can you
Speaker 1: give me any of those, Hank? None of them checked out,
Speaker 1: any co workers, the receptionist, nursing staff, eating security guard.
Speaker 1: They all messition that she mainly kept to herself, and
Speaker 1: that she was seen once or twice with Dr Harrison.
Speaker 1: And that's all in this one. He was cleared, Hank.
Speaker 1: That's a damn shame too. The only viable suspect and
Speaker 1: his our bite checks out. Still I gotta go through
Speaker 1: all of it. It's in there with the Perkins Report.
Speaker 1: Don't you have an office or rough family? No boyfriends,
Speaker 1: no ex boyfriends, all back in Idaho. I told you, man,
Speaker 1: there's no one new. You're gonna be chasing your tail
Speaker 1: man telling you at least I'm getting paid for him,
Speaker 1: and that man is either crazy or has a very
Speaker 1: interesting sense of humor. My money's on a little bit
Speaker 1: of both. He ed, Yeah, I problems. I'll get these
Speaker 1: back to you just as soon as I'm finished with him.
Speaker 1: No rush partner, nobody's gonna miss him. Hey, what about
Speaker 1: this roommate of hers? Gladys prints mag Pritts Prits Pritts.
Speaker 1: Gladys Pritt said she didn't know much, Marlene, never lift
Speaker 1: a room at night. Come on, there's plenty I know
Speaker 1: about people I wish I didn't. Then I don't live
Speaker 1: with him, probably too eight now huh tomorrow tomorrow, Bright
Speaker 1: and early. I don't know why Hank risked putting ed
Speaker 1: in jeopardy by recording the exchange, maybe force of habit
Speaker 1: insurance for what though, I can't say. But he did
Speaker 1: forget to turn it off as he drove away and
Speaker 1: All that remains until the tape runs out are the rare,
Speaker 1: uneventful sounds of the Los Angeles city streets at night,
Speaker 1: whether it was the very next morning or a morning
Speaker 1: soon after that. Hank didn't waste any time all these years.
Speaker 1: I still don't understand these half numbers. I could someone
Speaker 1: have a half of an address living twenty nine, living
Speaker 1: twenty seven. No, he's gotta be eleven thirty three. Excuse me, Yep,
Speaker 1: it's eleven thirty three. No number on the car, right, thanks? Sure, things,
Speaker 1: Christ wouldn't I anywhere else the front door to this
Speaker 1: place around the side. That's no front door on the side,
Speaker 1: thanks again, shop, Let's just things stay up. Don't getting
Speaker 1: you live on earth? What I pretend you living out
Speaker 1: of space? Get it? It's like living next door in
Speaker 1: the norms. Fun fact, the outer space motif of the
Speaker 1: building that Hanks referring to came to be known as
Speaker 1: a ding bat. Imagine two stories stucko shoe box with
Speaker 1: no visible doors, car poared on the ground floor with
Speaker 1: the apartments above it. In some cases, instead of numbers,
Speaker 1: ding bats showcase their elaborate names, names like the Hillside Manner,
Speaker 1: Hollywood Royal Hawaiian palms, or my personal favorite Tiara some
Speaker 1: added starburst decorations similar to the famous Las Vegas sign.
Speaker 1: Any dry cleaner your grandparents may have frequented, or a
Speaker 1: car washer. Two. Norm's restaurant is a twenty four hour
Speaker 1: Los Angeles stable in the same style. So why am
Speaker 1: I telling you this simple answer. I didn't expect to
Speaker 1: fall down a rabbit hole of architectural research because of
Speaker 1: handkarbrikes M Yeah, yeah, Gladdice Prits depends, Gladdie. My name
Speaker 1: is Hank Briggs. I'm a private investigator. You've got the
Speaker 1: wrong address, Dick. It will only take a minute, unless
Speaker 1: you're going to propose. I got nothing here to investigate.
Speaker 1: It's about Marlene Murray Evans. Let me get decent. I
Speaker 1: played the rest of this interview for you in the
Speaker 1: last episode, but I want to revisit one part of
Speaker 1: it for just a second. Remember that Hank is only
Speaker 1: in front of Gladys because he had a hunch six
Speaker 1: nights a week. Even Jane Mansfield took a night off
Speaker 1: from diction. Look, I don't know what to tell you
Speaker 1: about Gladys. Don't look over there. There's no one over there.
Speaker 1: Why aren't you telling me, Gladys, nothing looked me in
Speaker 1: the eyes. Nothing looked me in the eyes. And tell
Speaker 1: me that Marlene worked part time in the doctor's office
Speaker 1: during the day and was home every night in her room,
Speaker 1: but you never saw each other. She didn't want a
Speaker 1: parent style what. She didn't want her parents to know.
Speaker 1: I didn't want her parents to know what, Gladys. She
Speaker 1: started looking knights as a cocktail waitress where cres and
Speaker 1: from that hunch, Hank Briggs uncovered the first new lead
Speaker 1: in over a year in an unsolvable case. It was
Speaker 1: a name, the name of a place, a place where
Speaker 1: no one knew Marlene Marie Evans had worked. The Angel
Speaker 1: of Vine is a podcast produced by Vox popular on
Speaker 1: behalf of the Los Angeles Herald. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to The Angel of Vine. If you'd like to support us,
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Speaker 1: first month of Stitcher Premium free. The Angel of Vine
Speaker 1: is directed by E Ryan Martz, written by Oliver Vacare.
Speaker 1: Story about E. Ryan Marts, Jason Salwalt, and Oliver Vakare.
Speaker 1: Sound designed by Joel Robbie and Matt Tamarillo. Produced by
Speaker 1: Vox Populi in association with Forever Dog Podcast Network. This
Speaker 1: episode's performances by Joe Manganello, Alan Tuteck, Mike Coulter, Cree Summer,
Speaker 1: Matthew Mercer, Rebecca Field, and Oliver Vacare. Angelis is performed
Speaker 1: by Desi Miss Dylan piano and arrangement by James Harper.
Speaker 1: Composed by Matt Dennis, Lyrics by Earl Brent from downtown
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. This has been the Angel of Vine. You'll
Speaker 1: hear more from us soon. Oh well, is my a Joe?
Speaker 1: Excuse me while I deedup piece