Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: November 2, 1953 Suspense #524, "Ordeal in Donner Pass," presents the harrowing true story of the infamous Donner Party, trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the brutal winter of 1846-47. Patrick Breen, a God-fearing family man, serves as narrator and diarist, documenting the steadily worsening conditions as the wagon party faces a deadly choice. Despite Mr. Eddie's desp...

Originally Aired: October 26, 1953 Suspense #523, "Dutch Schultz," brings the violent world of 1930s organized crime to life as Broderick Crawford portrays the notorious gangster Dutch Schultz. When Ginch, one of Schultz's men, learns that the major New York crime bosses—Harry, Lepke, Lucky, Albert, and others—are meeting without the Dutchman's knowledge, tensions immediately flare. Schultz crashe...

Originally Aired: October 19, 1953 Suspense #522, "My True Love's Hair," John Harvison, a midshipman from the merchant ship Sumatra Bell, arrives at the island of Suva to deliver a message to the Jenwoods from their old friend Mr. Darren. There he encounters Rachel, a beautiful island girl living with the mysterious couple. Despite Mrs. Jenwit's ominous warning that Rachel represents evil and deat...

Originally Aired: October 5, 1953 Suspense #520, "Action," features Herbert Marshall as Bill, a man who awakens one Monday morning to discover a troubling numbness down his right side—the unmistakable sign of a stroke. Refusing to accept the fate of a slow decline into invalidism, Bill confides in his old friend Adrian Tillett over lunch at their club. While others their age succumb to gradual dec...

Originally Aired: September 28, 1953 Suspense #519, "Hellfire," wildcatter Wally Drake faces mounting pressure from investors as he drills his eighth dry hole in pursuit of oil. Lead investor McLean arrives with petroleum engineer Hotchkiss to scrutinize Drake's operation and question his expensive preparations, including pre-built storage tanks for oil not yet found. Just as the confrontation rea...

Originally Aired: September 21, 1953 Suspense #518, "The Empty Chair," stars Agnes Moorhead as Barbara Warner, a new high school teacher who takes up residence with her student Bobby Morrison and his anxious mother. On the first day of school, Miss Warner arranges her homeroom seats alphabetically but instructs the students to leave one chair empty for David Cooper. After school, Bobby drives his...

Originally Aired: September 14, 1953 Suspense #517, "A Message to Garcia," Lieutenant Andrew Rowan arrives in Jamaica with urgent orders from the War Department. With war between the United States and Spain looming within days, Rowan must find a way to reach the elusive General Garcia, leader of Cuban guerrilla forces fighting the Spanish. Washington desperately needs intelligence on Spanish troop...

Originally Aired: June 8, 1953 Suspense #516, "The Mystery of the Marie Celeste," presents a dark psychological thriller wrapped around one of maritime history's most enduring enigmas. Sam Newcomb, a desperate fugitive fleeing New York after killing his lover Grace and two others, stows away aboard the brigantine Marie Celeste. Tormented by guilt and questioning his own sanity, he initially plans...

Originally Aired: June 1, 1953 Suspense #515, "A Vision of Death," stars Ronald Colman as Judd, a nightclub mentalist who performs a seemingly flawless telepathy act with his wife Aurora. While giving his statement at a police precinct regarding a murder charge, Judd explains how their successful mind-reading routine works through an elaborate system of verbal cues disguised as casual patter with...

Originally Aired: May 25, 1953 Suspense #514, "Pigeon in the Cage," Gerald Brewer, a 31-year-old paperhanger with a pregnant wife at home, finds himself trapped in a stalled elevator between floors of the Rogers house. What begins as a frustrating inconvenience turns into a nightmare when the elevator stops directly above the living room, and through a narrow gap, Gerald witnesses a chilling scene...

Originally Aired: May 18, 1953 Suspense #513, "Vial of Death," tells the harrowing true story of a race against time that unfolds over one terrifying night. When Professor Harold M. Frolick rushes into the police station, Lieutenant Joe Holloway expects a routine stolen car report. Instead, he learns that the professor's vehicle contains a black medical satchel with a vial of cholera bacteria—enou...

Originally Aired: May 11, 1953 Suspense #512, "Othello, Part 2," continues Shakespeare's tragic tale of jealousy and manipulation on the island of Cyprus. The villainous Iago continues his dark plot against Othello the Moor and Lieutenant Cassio. After engineering Cassio's disgrace, Iago sets his wife Emilia to work persuading Desdemona to plead Cassio's case, while simultaneously planting seeds o...

Originally Aired: May 4, 1953 Suspense #511, "Othello, Part 1," presents Shakespeare's tragic tale of jealousy and betrayal set in motion by the villainous Iago. The scheming ensign seethes with resentment after being passed over for promotion by his commander, the Moorish general Othello, who chose Michael Cassio as his lieutenant instead. When Iago learns that Othello has secretly married the be...

Originally Aired: April 27, 1953 Suspense #510, "The Man Within," presents a haunting tale of fear and betrayal. Andrews, a desperate fugitive, stumbles upon an isolated cottage where Elizabeth has just lost her father. She reluctantly shelters him, and he poses as her brother during the funeral, hiding among the mourners while terror gnaws at him. Andrews fears the vengeful Carlion, a former frie...

Originally Aired: April 20, 1953 Suspense #509, "Public Defender," Philip James Penn finds himself in serious trouble when police arrive at his boarding house on a Sunday morning. Sergeant Quinn and Sergeant Lacey question him about a burglary at the Ace Haberdashery, where Penn worked briefly over Christmas. The store's owner, Walter Callaman, reports that four hundred dollars was stolen, and bot...

Originally Aired: April 13, 1953 Suspense #508, "The Great Train Robbery," features Fred MacMurray as Walter Beaumart, a forty-two-year-old everyman who has spent sixteen years working at a toy manufacturing company for sixty-two dollars a week. Living in Oakland with his wife Bess, Walter has watched his youthful dreams and ambitions fade under the weight of endless bills and responsibilities. Wh...

Originally Aired: April 6, 1953 Suspense #507, "Around the World," presents the thrilling true story of the 1908 international automobile race from New York to Paris by way of Siberia. George Miller, an American driver, pilots a stock Thomas Flyer against specially built racing cars from Europe, including Frenchman Bossier de Saint-Chafrey in a De Dion, German Lieutenant Hans von Kopen in a Protos...

Originally Aired: March 30, 1953 In Suspense #506, "Tom Dooley," Confederate veteran Tom Dooley returns home to the North Carolina Smokies after four years of war, only to discover that Laura Foster, the woman he loves and fought to return to, has fallen for someone else. That someone is Paul Cabot, a Yankee doctor who has come to the defeated South. In a rage, Tom assaults Cabot and confronts Lau...

Originally Aired: March 23, 1953 Suspense #505, "The Signalman," a railway signalman keeps a lonely vigil at an isolated cutting where trains thunder into a dark tunnel. When a writer arrives unexpectedly to interview him for a biographical article, she finds him strangely unsettled by her greeting of "Hello, below there!" The signalman, who has spent thirty-four years at this desolate post after...

Originally Aired: March 16, 1953 Suspense #504, "The Mountain," presents a harrowing tale of ambition and survival at 22,000 feet. Six men remain at the fourth camp of an unconquered peak, determined to be the first to reach its summit. The team must split into two groups of three, and expedition leader Bob makes the difficult choice to take Perucci and the volatile John Eldridge on the first atte...

Originally Aired: March 9, 1953 Suspense #503, "The Dead Alive," stars Herbert Marshall as Philip Lefranc, an overworked English barrister seeking rest and recovery at a remote American farm. Arriving at the gloomy Meadowcroft estate, Philip finds himself in a household seething with tension. His host, cousin Silas, harbors a dangerous hatred for the farm's overseer, John Jago, even attempting to...

Originally Aired: March 2, 1953 Suspense #502, "The Storm," presents Frank Lovejoy as Larry Weston, half of a successful dance team with his wife Joyce. When old friend Al Morgan calls asking them to perform at his new Gulf Coast hotel in Sea Beach, Larry agrees—demanding $3,000 plus percentage and making the decision without consulting Joyce. The tension in their marriage mirrors the approaching...

Originally Aired: February 23, 1953 Suspense #501, "St James Infirmary Blues," featuring Rosemary Clooney, plunges listeners into the violent world of Prohibition-era New York. When Sheila arrives at a glamorous speakeasy with her date Freddie, she catches the eye of Nick Valpey, the dangerous triggerman for mob boss Brock Martin. After Freddie is dismissed, Sheila is quickly swept into Nick's thr...

Originally Aired: February 16, 1953 Suspense #500, "The Love and Death of Joaquin Murieta," presents the tragic true story of how a peaceful Mexican grandee's son transforms into California's most notorious outlaw. Joaquin Murieta and his wife Carmen arrive in the California goldfields seeking prosperity, but instead encounter lawless Americans who view them as a conquered people without rights. W...

Originally Aired: February 9, 1953 Suspense #499, "The Man Who Cried Wolf," presents a harrowing tale of Cold War desperation starring William Powell. Meros Leko, a Russian cipher clerk working at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City, has spent three years observing the freedoms enjoyed by ordinary Mexican citizens—freedoms he can only dream of under communist rule. When his superior, Comrade Zapotin...