Originally Aired: February 20, 1956
Johnny Dollar #331, "The Bennet Matter Ep 1," insurance investigator Johnny Dollar heads to San Francisco with Four State investigator Andrew Cord to probe a suspicious fire that destroyed a ten-story office building owned by Arnold Bennett. The building, insured for half a million dollars by five companies, went up in flames just a month after completion. Arson inspector Bill Underwood is convinced it was a professional torch job—the fire burned too hot and too fast to be accidental. A mysterious dark-haired man was spotted loitering near the building before the blaze, then fled on a bus moments before the fire erupted. The trio of investigators divides the work: Underwood will comb through the ashes for evidence, Cord will investigate Bennett's precarious financial situation, and Dollar will go face-to-face with the contractor himself.
Both Cord and Underwood warn Dollar about Arnold Bennett, a tough, intimidating character in his sixties with a colorful past as a sailor, soldier, bootlegger, and gunrunner who has never been beaten. When Dollar arrives at Bennett's office, he encounters the contractor's niece Elizabeth, a plain woman who hints that her uncle's temperament is formidable even on his good days.