The story centers on a hardened gangster, teetering on the edge of death—either from execution by the mob or hanging for his crimes. He discovers a mysterious notebook during the Christmas season in Chicago, a record that appears to be a deathbed confession or some cryptic directive.

The story unfolds in the grim grandeur of Mark’s Priory, the ancestral home of the Lebanon family. There's an eerie, oppressive atmosphere among the elite household — disquiet, secrets, and trust issues simmer beneath the surface. The calm is broken when the chauffeur is found strangled on the estate grounds. This grotesque shock plunges the household into panic; the servants are frightened, the family is unnerved .

The Case of the Frightened Lady, broadcast as part of BBC Theatre/Murder for Pleasure (Saturday‑Night Theatre) on January 5, 1963 and adapted by Cynthia Pughe.

John and Laura Bennett, grieving the recent loss of their young daughter, travel to Venice seeking healing. 

In a Venetian café, the couple meets a pair of mysterious twin sisters—one blind but professing psychic insight. She delivers an unsettling message: the spirit of their daughter is attempting to contact them. Laura is deeply shaken, while John remains sceptical yet disturbed.

A respected college don and an undergraduate are found dead—each in separate locked rooms, miles apart.

Both deaths occur on the same night under baffling circumstances, with no visible means for the killers to enter or leave.

Saturday‑Night Theatre, BBC Radio 4

Adaptation: Donald McWhinnie

Mallory arrives at a remote Scottish Highland hotel seeking peace after traumatic experiences abroad. While there, he overhears fragments of a secret island-language code being spoken by some guests , he hears the code again in a hushed conversation. Later, young Seraphina, a refugee child, is found murdered, seemingly silenced for knowing too much.

Author Charity Blackstock is one of the pen names of Ursula Torday (1912–1997), a British novelist known for gothic romance and mysteries.

A rancher’s daughter, Connie Meston, rushes home in panic. Her father has been brutally murdered during what appears to be a robbery-gone-wrong. The case initially looks open-and-shut, with suspect Jose Morales—a local man with motive and opportunity—quickly taken into custody on circumstantial evidence.

A cunning killer, nicknamed the Candy Man, arrives in town leaving behind a trail of unusual clues—most notably, sweet wrappers and a fondness for candy.

In the aftermath of the 1947 Texas City disaster, which caused massive explosions and dozens of unidentifiable deaths, convicted safe-cracker Frank Young seizes the chaos to fake his own death.

When the prison transport he's in is destroyed during the explosion, authorities believe Young is among the dead. His body is presumed to be one of the charred, unrecognizable corpses recovered from the wreckage.

However, Texas Ranger Jace Pearson has doubts. The identification is based on circumstantial evidence—there’s no solid forensic proof the body is Young’s. The scene was chaotic, the records incomplete, and the lack of dental or fingerprint ID raises suspicions.

The episode begins in Bradshaw County with Sheriff Bob Smithers and a local constable organizing a raid on a gambling den late at night. Amidst the bust, the constable treacherously guns down Sheriff Smithers and makes himself  the lead investigator in the hunt for the suspect.

Rancher John Smith and his son discover cattle rustling in a vast, open section of their range, during the confrontation, gunfire erupts and John Smith is tragically shot and killed .

The local sheriff, overwhelmed by the crime, contacts Texas Rangers for assistance. Ranger Pearson steps in to lead the investigation