The Big Story
The Ambitious Hobo
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A young garage mechanic, John LeClair, is shot in 1935, and his body is found beside a road. When his widow and mother persuade Iowa’s governor to offer a reward for information, the case draws the attention of John Kennedy, a 56-year-old itinerant cornet player and part-time barber known as “the ambitious hobo.”
Kennedy hopes to earn enough from odd jobs to pay for dental work, return to playing the cornet, buy a new suit, and enjoy a steak dinner. His information helps lead to the arrest of Donald Lammey for LeClair’s murder. Lammey is convicted and later escapes from prison more than once; Kennedy’s own story continues beyond the investigation, with a final escape taking him to Arizona.
The Big Story presents dramatized accounts of newspaper reporting and the real cases behind it. This episode brings together a murder investigation and the modest, vivid ambitions of an unlikely informant, giving the crime story a human focus alongside its pursuit of justice.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.