Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: January 12, 1953

Suspense #495, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Part Two," continues Charles Dickens' unfinished masterpiece with Herbert Marshall starring as John Jasper, the tormented choirmaster of Cloisterham. On a gray Christmas morning, Jasper discovers that his nephew Edwin Drood has vanished after going to the river the previous night with Neville Landless to watch the storm. When Landless is found on the heath, behaving suspiciously and bearing bloodstains on his clothing and walking stick, the circumstantial evidence mounts against him. Dean Crisparkle and the pompous Mayor Sapsea begin piecing together the damning facts: the documented quarrels between the two young men over Edwin's fiancée Rosa, their late-night departure together, and only Neville's return.

As the authorities interrogate Landless, he insists the blood came from struggling with those who apprehended him and that Edwin simply left him at the river to return to Jasper's lodgings. But with Edwin nowhere to be found and Neville apparently fleeing town, suspicion deepens. The episode captures the gothic atmosphere and psychological tension of Dickens' mystery while leaving listeners to wonder what dark secret John Jasper himself might be harboring.

Originally Aired: January 5, 1953

In Suspense #494, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Part One," John Jasper, a music instructor in the sleepy cathedral town of Cloisterham, begins writing what he calls his final confession as his grave is being dug. Through flashback, he recounts the tortured events that led to his doom, beginning with the return of his nephew, Edwin Drood, who has come home to celebrate with his fiancée, Rosa. Despite the cheerful reunion, dark currents swirl beneath the surface. Edwin and Rosa are engaged by family arrangement rather than love, and Jasper harbors secret, intense feelings for his nephew's intended bride. When Rosa confesses to Jasper that she loves another man but will marry Edwin out of duty, Jasper's inner turmoil deepens.

At Rosa's party, tensions explode when Neville Landless, a passionate young man newly arrived from Ceylon, openly admires Rosa and clashes with the proprietary Edwin. The confrontation nearly leads to violence before Jasper intervenes to restore peace. As Jasper stands beside Rosa at the piano, watching her hands, his obsession grows more dangerous, setting in motion the mysterious events that will seal his fate in this adaptation of Charles Dickens' unfinished masterpiece.

Originally Aired: December 29, 1952

Suspense #493, "Melody in Dreams," Detective Lieutenant Royals and Detective Sergeant Shank of the narcotics division respond to an unusual call: Walter Graff has made a citizen's arrest of his own sixteen-year-old daughter, Joan, after discovering marijuana cigarettes hidden in a coffee can in her bedroom. For six months, the police have been desperately trying to trace the source supplying an estimated $70,000 worth of drugs monthly to high school teenagers, but every lead has yielded only addicts, not dealers. Now, heartbroken and humiliated, Graff hopes his shocking decision will help authorities crack the case, even as he struggles with the pain of turning in his own child.

At police headquarters, Joan proves defiant and uncooperative during interrogation. She admits the drugs are hers but refuses to reveal her supplier, seemingly more concerned about detention home meals than the severity of her situation. Lieutenant Royals faces the delicate task of breaking through the teenager's arrogance and misplaced loyalty to find the real enemy: the person peddling narcotics to children. The case represents just one battle in an escalating war against teenage drug addiction that has the entire city demanding answers.

Originally Aired: December 22, 1952

Suspense #492, "Arctic Rescue," stars Joseph Cotten as Gerald Stewart, first mate of the Jessica, a ship embarked on a perilous Arctic expedition. The story begins with a stark contrast: Stewart and Captain Jonathan Blake lie stranded on a desolate ice flow in the Arctic night, waiting helplessly for death. Flashing back to June 1852, we learn how they arrived at this desperate situation. Lady Franklin has commissioned Captain Blake and his crew to search for her missing husband, Sir John Franklin, and his two ships, the Erebus and Terra, which vanished somewhere in the uncharted frozen wilderness while seeking the Northwest Passage. Despite Lady Franklin's warning to prioritize their own survival above all else, the men set sail from New York with promises to return by Christmas.

The Jessica ventures into increasingly dangerous Arctic waters, picking up ice pilot Patrick Hansen in Godham before entering the treacherous regions beyond the Arctic Circle. As the crew searches for clues about Franklin's fate among Eskimo settlements, they face the constant threat of being frozen in by winter ice flows, the same deadly trap that likely claimed Franklin's expedition.

Originally Aired: December 15, 1952

Suspense #491, "The Man with Two Faces," Detective Lieutenant Gus Palichek of Cleveland's homicide division faces one of his most baffling cases when workers uncover a skeleton in a packing case buried in a building's cellar. The victim had been dead for three years, crammed into a steamer trunk with quicklime, shot twice in the head. As Palichek investigates, he discovers something peculiar: nearly every clue left with the body appears to be a fake. The custom tailor's label sewn into the victim's suit is a plant, attached to cheap store-bought clothing. A piece of dental bridgework in the mouth contains more teeth than any normal person could have. Even the hair on the skull shows two different textures, suggesting it came from two different heads.

Following the one genuine lead he can find, Palichek traces the custom-made packing case to a factory fifty miles south of Cleveland. The order was placed by someone named George Gallagher and delivered to an address on Harrisburg Avenue. As the self-described "average" detective pursues this trail, he finds himself up against a killer who has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal his victim's identity—planting false clues while trying to erase the real ones.

Originally Aired: December 8, 1952

Suspense #490, "Joker Wild," presents a chilling portrait of celebrity comedian Harry Malloy, a man desperate to prove he's more than just a clown. After 22 years of making audiences laugh, Malloy has grown obsessed with being taken seriously. To demonstrate his capacity for tragedy rather than comedy, he carefully plans and executes a shocking act: he picks up a lonely young woman named Rosalie, lures her to a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and pushes her to her death. Malloy believes this murder will prove to himself that he's capable of creating something darker and more profound than mere laughter.

However, Malloy's sense of accomplishment quickly turns to frustration when days pass without any mention of Rosalie's disappearance in the newspapers. Her body hasn't been found, and no one knows what he's done. For a performer accustomed to public recognition, the anonymity of his crime becomes unbearable. Unable to contain his turmoil, Malloy seeks out his longtime friend Liz, desperate to share his burden with someone who might understand the man behind the famous comic persona.

Originally Aired: December 1, 1952

Suspense #489, "The Big Heist," presents the story of a pool hustler who gets drawn into something far more dangerous than his usual small-time cons. Jim Scott has been working the pool hall circuit, making just enough to get by, when he encounters Martin Collins, an easy mark who turns out to be sizing him up for an entirely different game. After a police raid at the pool hall, Collins vouches for Scott and introduces him to the legendary bank robber John Barry, who is planning what he calls a first-class job on the Colfax National Bank. Barry needs a third man for his meticulously planned heist and sees potential in the personable young drifter.

Scott finds himself thrust into the big leagues of crime, where the stakes are far higher than his usual fifteen-dollar cons. As Barry lays out the details of the operation, Scott must decide whether the promise of ten thousand dollars or more is worth risking everything. The master criminal has a reputation for running flawless operations, but even the best-planned heists can go wrong when the participants have their own agendas and the law is always watching.

Originally Aired: November 24, 1952

In Suspense #488, "Man Alive," San Francisco columnist Man Jackson finds himself drawn into a dangerous mystery when Mama Caruso pleads for his help at her waterfront restaurant. Her cousin Tony Colucci, a concertina player who entertains passengers on the Oakland ferry, has been viciously attacked. While performing on the foggy deck of the six o'clock boat, Tony was struck on the head after a strange encounter with an unseen man who asked if he was playing "Boris." The attacker disappeared into the mist, leaving Tony bleeding and unconscious. Dr. Oscar Ames, who treated Tony at the scene, believes the wound came from a gun butt, not a simple club.

As Man Jackson investigates, unsettling details emerge. Plainclothes police were waiting at the ferry slip, questioning passengers and even taking a red-haired woman with a package into custody. What seemed like a random assault on a street musician begins to look like something far more sinister. With national security potentially at stake and someone willing to kill to protect their secrets, Man Jackson must uncover the truth before another attack occurs on the fog-shrouded waters of San Francisco Bay.

Originally Aired: November 17, 1952

Suspense #487, "Death and Miss Turner," stars Agnes Moorehead as Rachel Turner, a woman who insists she is dead yet somehow goes out for a walk with her companion, Miss Briggs. Rachel struggles with fragmented memories and a determination to remain "dead," resisting Miss Briggs's efforts to draw out information about her past. During their outing in London, they visit a frame shop where Rachel encounters four oil paintings signed "R. Turner"—disturbing portraits of a faceless man rendered in exquisite detail. The sight triggers something unsettling within her, though she cannot fully grasp what.

Miss Briggs continues her careful campaign to unlock Rachel's memory, presenting her with an elaborate painting kit complete with brushes, colors, and canvas. As Rachel stares at the blank white canvas after Miss Briggs leaves to fetch Dr. Grice, her hand moves almost of its own volition, tearing open the charcoal wrapper. Whatever dark secret lies buried in Rachel Turner's mind threatens to emerge as she prepares to invade that white surface like plunging a dagger into a body.

Originally Aired: November 10, 1952

Suspense #486, "The Frightened City," stars Frank Lovejoy as Nick Crawford, a soldier returning home from war only to discover his brother-in-law Johnny has been murdered on Main Street. Nick finds his sister Janie living in terror, having received threatening notes warning that what happened to Daddy can happen to their baby son. Johnny was shot down while walking to the police station to tell the chief of police something important, and now everyone who witnessed the killing refuses to talk. Chief Crawford warns Nick that things have changed in town, but gives him the names of witnesses anyway.

Nick begins visiting those who saw the murder, including Johnny's employer Mr. Osbourne, Mrs. Mason who was beaten and thrown in a vacant lot for what she saw, and drugstore owner Mr. Nolan who had to scrub Johnny's blood off the sidewalk. Each one refuses to provide any information, paralyzed by fear of the same violence that killed Johnny and terrorized the other witnesses. Nick discovers he has returned to a community gripped by intimidation and silence, where even his own sister would rather forget than seek justice.