Walk East on Beacon

This is a drama of real life,

adapted from the recorded experiences of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Of the FBI's many responsibilities,

none is more urgent than its duty to protect the people of the United States

from a worldwide conspiracy,

which seeks through subversion to destroy established governments everywhere.

Fighting in the front lines of the FBI offensive

against the forces of treason are alert and highly trained special agents.

Their strategy is based on the utmost tactical use

of the scientific techniques of crime detection.

But nothing is more essential

to the success of the Bureau's operations against all criminals

than the support of responsible and alert Americans.

For example, the investigation of these two people

began with a telephone call to the Boston office of the FBI

from a woman who stated that someone named Robert Martin

was forcing her husband to work for an espionage ring.

The anonymous caller declined to give her name,

but her statements were checked,

and they led the FBI to this Robert Martin,

who was then photographed in the Boston Public Garden

by special agents using a concealed camera.

From the Public Garden,

agents followed Martin to the Charlestown district,

where his surveillance was taken over by FBI agents

assigned to the Hoosac Pier section of the Boston waterfront.

Prokiewicz, please.

- SS pier? - Yes.

Berth one.

WFBI Boston. This is Car 11.

Our subject is aboard the Polish freighter.

Okay, Eleven.

It's not our man.

Car 11 calling WFBI.

- Go ahead, Car 11. Someone dressed

exactly like our subject has left the freighter.

We are following him.

Okay, Eleven.

Car 16, please replace Car 11 at Hoosac Pier.

Car 16. Okay.

Soon after this man stepped ashore,

Car 16 reported that the freighter, Robert Martin still aboard,

was heading back to Poland.

Are you in touch with Car 11?

Calling Car 11.

This is Reynolds. Detain your man for questioning.

Car 11. Okay.

In espionage investigations,

the FBI must always weigh the value of apprehending or losing one suspect

against the possibility of uncovering

all the members of an underground network.

The man in custody identified himself as Michael Dorndoff, a deckhand.

Poland is now nothing but one big prison camp.

All the people are slaves.

I planned to jump ship. This is the first chance I had.

You had plenty of opportunities before today.

Sorry if you think I'm lying to you.

Where'd you get those clothes and this visitor's dock pass?

The captain and the visitor were drunk,

so, when this fellow passed out, I stole his clothes.

Did you steal his money, too?

No. My family in Poland, they have saved it for me.

We're going to turn you over to the Immigration authorities

on the charge of entering the United States illegally.

If you send me back to Poland, like that, a bullet in the back of the head.

That's all for now.

I thought you Americans helped people like me.

- I am not a criminal! Let's go.

Well, if you're checking up on my husband,

why don't you ask the people at his office?

They'll tell you he's going to be made a partner.

Just what did you want to know?

Has Mr. Martin ever taken a long trip without telling you where he was going?

Of course not. I know everything he's doing.

Mrs. Martin, it's very important that you give us all the information you can.

May we look through your husband's desk?

Certainly.

Everything is in there.

All right.

Mr. Reynolds, what is it? Has something happened to Bob?

Your husband left Boston yesterday. On a freighter bound for Poland.

Poland?

I... I don't believe you.

Why would Bob go to Poland?

We don't know yet whether he was forced to go

or whether he left voluntarily.

Mr. Reynolds, Washington is on the line.

- Inspector Belden. - Thank you.

Hello?

Charlie, I've just come from the director's office.

He wants us to stay right with the Martin case.

Send us everything you have.

Yes. Put the 16mm film of the surveillance on the plane,

and I'll have it picked up at the airport.

Okay, fine.

Tell Ident in the lab to expedite examination

of everything that comes in from Boston on the Martin case.

What may seem inconsequential

to a layman is frequently significant to the trained investigator.

At FBI headquarters in Washington,

a full staff of laboratory and identification experts

concentrated throughout the night on articles found in the Martin home.

By 4:30 a.m., important information was developing.

the special agent in charge,

to an early-morning conference in Washington with James Belden,

a veteran FBI inspector assigned to domestic-intelligence cases.

We first investigated Martin back in 1939, when he was known as Robert Wedder.

He was twenty years old, a student from Akron, Ohio.

He was a member of the Young Communist League.

In the summer of 1940, while touring Europe with another group of students,

he disappeared.

We were informed, about a year later, that he'd been given Comintern training.

Sorry we didn't take Martin off the freighter.

No. No, we're afraid that might tip our hand.

We're satisfied that his wife knows nothing about his communist affiliations,

and his friends and neighbours speak very well of him.

In other words, he's been a perfect sleeper.

Yes? Thank you.

The conference is ready.

The 16mm movies

taken in the Public Garden were screened for the Bureau's espionage experts,

who handle all cases involving members of the communist underground.

The film you just saw was shot in Boston

one hour before Martin went aboard the Prokiewicz.

I want you to check thoroughly all undercover sources and informants.

Find out when he returned to this country, what he's been doing since,

who his contacts are, when he was activated,

and who replaced him after he disappeared aboard the freighter.

What about the woman?

The film doesn't give us a very good view of her face.

Can anyone add to her description?

- Inspector Belden. Yes?

I took those pictures. She has a peculiar walk.

Peculiar? In what way?

Well, it's difficult to describe.

Would you say she was a trotter, a pacer, or did she single-foot?

No, it's a... kind of a lope.

Send out a confidential bulletin.

Include pictures of Martin and this shot of the woman we just saw,

and have Agent Brown put, in his own words,

his description of the way the woman walked.

We've arranged with Immigration to release the sailor temporarily.

Have him put under 24-hour surveillance.

We're setting up a special squad of agents in Boston.

- Right. - Gentlemen,

the director feels that Martin was a key espionage agent.

We've got a lotta work ahead of us.

Special agents of the Boston office

were given a preview of the man they were to watch continuously.

If the Immigration inspectors are satisfied, that's good enough for us.

- Does that mean I'm free? - As far as we're concerned.

I told you I wasn't a criminal.

Paging Mr. Rider.

A week's surveillance of Dorndoff

established only one thing of special interest.

At two o'clock each afternoon, he made his appearance

at one of Boston's traditional meeting places.

Nationwide distribution of the Bureau's bulletin brought quick action.

From Philadelphia to Seattle,

police already knew many suspected communists with shoulder bags,

and some of these had distinctive walks.

Were you ever in Boston?

Boston? Never. I hear it's a dump.

Would you mind walking across the room?

Say, what is this?

Please, just over to the bench and back.

That's close, but not quite good enough.

Whaddaya mean, "not quite good enough"?

- That's all, Miss. - It's about time.

Listen, brain, you had no right to arrest me in the first place.

All right, let's go.

Special agents,

watching the comings and goings of Michael Dorndoff, could not surmise

that the investigation that started with an anonymous telephone call

would eventually lead them to Gregory Lazchenkov.

The Lazchenkov case, a synthesis of FBI procedures,

began in Moscow.

On the morning of April 14th,

Gregory Lazchenkov left his Jarejinskova Plaza headquarters

on an urgent mission.

A Red Army plane took him to Warsaw and then to the Port of Gdynia,

where he signed aboard the Polish freighter Prokiewicz.

His destination was the United States, and his orders were,

first, speed the penetration of Falcon, a new and secret American project

with headquarters near Washington D.C.,

and, second, extort information from Falcon's top mathematician,

Professor Albert Kafer, whose theories were being evaluated

on the newly developed, high-speed, electronic calculator,

somewhere in the vicinity of Boston.

On May 3rd, the Prokiewicz had docked in Boston.

One of its visitors was Robert Martin.

Lazchenkov. I never expected to find you here.

Sit down, Martin.

What's gone wrong? Have you been ill or just on holiday?

What do you mean?

I explained to the courier it's getting more difficult from day to day.

I've warned all my people to be very careful.

You were ordered to concentrate on Falcon.

So far, we have received nothing. Absolutely nothing.

We have one excellent contact at Falcon already.