Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: October 8, 1951 Suspense #442, "Betrayal in Vienna," Colonel Alfred Radel, commander of the VIII Corps and creator of Emperor Franz Joseph's feared Black Cabinet, faces a devastating personal and professional crisis. When he learns that his dearest friend, Captain Oscar Helsinger, has been executed as a spy in St. Petersburg, Radel makes a fateful decision to flee Vienna. At the...

Originally Aired: October 1, 1951 Suspense #441, "The Case Study of a Murderer," Beth Lathrop reflects on her marriage to Hank, a man she thought she knew until troubling changes emerge. When a series of brutal murders near Lincoln Park dominates the news, Hank becomes obsessed with following every detail in the papers. His fixation intensifies after he loses his job, and Beth watches helplessly a...

Originally Aired: September 24, 1951 Suspense #440, "The McKay College Basketball Scandal," presents the story of Fred Hudson, a 20-year-old junior and star basketball player at McKay College, where the sport isn't just a game but a way of life for the entire town. As Fred takes the court, something is clearly wrong with his performance. He's fumbling plays, losing the ball, and playing far below...

Originally Aired: September 17, 1951 Suspense #439, "Neal Cream, Doctor of Poison," presents the chilling story of Dr. Neal Cream, a calculating murderer who slowly poisons his wife Emily over six months. After her death is attributed to a refined intestinal disorder, Cream relocates to London and takes lodgings at a boarding house run by the widow Mrs. Minnes and her daughter Daisy. Though he fin...

Originally Aired: September 10, 1951 Suspense #438, "The Evil of Adelaide Winters," Adelaide Winters, played by Agnes Moorhead, defends herself from what she claims are unjust accusations. Speaking after years of paralysis caused by a bullet lodged in the base of her skull, Adelaide recounts her work as a medium during the war years. With her assistant Robert reading names of soldiers missing in a...

Originally Aired: September 3, 1951 Suspense #437, "Steel River Prison Break," starring Jeff Chandler, presents a tense escape drama based on actual events. Bragg, a hardened convict, has meticulously planned a prison break from Steel River Prison with his fellow inmate Muss. When Bragg hears radio reports of rising floodwaters threatening the area, he realizes they must accelerate their carefully...

Originally Aired: August 27, 1951 Suspense #436, "Report on the Jolly Death Riders," William Holden stars in this tense drama based on actual events. Lieutenant Harbor of the San Francisco Police Department investigates a tragic hit-and-run accident on the Oakland Bay Bridge. Warren and Gladys Milford are celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary when two hot rods racing across the bridge force...

Originally Aired: June 28, 1951 Suspense #435, "The Case for Dr Singer," When brilliant physicist Dr. Rudolf Ellman is shot outside the American Embassy in Switzerland and dies after revealing that secrets about America's thermonuclear weapons program are being leaked, the FBI must act quickly. Dr. George Singer, a scientist working on the top-secret H-23 project, is called to security headquarter...

Originally Aired: June 21, 1951 Suspense #434, "The Greatest Thief in the World," presents James Mason as Peter Marriott, a sophisticated gentleman who may or may not be the elusive criminal known as the Squire. Scotland Yard possesses two bulky files—one on Peter Marriott and one on the Squire, a jewel thief who has stolen half a million pounds over five years without leaving a trace of evidence....

Originally Aired: June 14, 1951 Suspense #433, "The Truth About Jerry Baxter," tells the harrowing story of a teenage narcotics addict struggling to escape a life of crime and addiction. Gregory Peck stars in this hard-hitting drama based on actual events. Juvenile investigator McIntyre works to help sixteen-year-old Jerry Baxter, a boy who started using drugs to fit in with his crowd and eventual...

Originally Aired: June 7, 1951 Suspense #432, "Tell You Why I Shouldn't Die," stars Richard Widmark as Nat, a smooth-talking Coney Island pitchman who must literally talk for his life. Charlie stands with a gun pointed at Nat's head, ready to kill him for stealing his girlfriend Eileen. With the police on their way, Nat launches into an elaborate pitch to convince Charlie he shouldn't pull the tri...

Originally Aired: May 31, 1951 Suspense #431, "Over Drawn," stars Dick Powell as Robert Farley, a bank teller who has spent 17 monotonous years waiting for the perfect opportunity. When armed robbers storm the bank one afternoon at closing time, chaos erupts and a guard named Pete Johnson is shot. While everyone crowds around the fallen man, Farley seizes his chance. He quickly stuffs his briefcas...

Originally Aired: May 17, 1951 Suspense #429, "Another Man's Poison," follows Claude Bourry, a 46-year-old real estate man of modest means who stumbles upon a brown paper package containing $98,000 while picking wildflowers. Despite his wife Elise's insistence that he turn the money over to the police immediately, Claude consults his lawyer friend Tom Haskell, who explains that the law allows him...

Originally Aired: May 10, 1951 Suspense #428, "Death on My Hands," finds bandleader Dixie seeking refuge in a quiet New England valley town, looking forward to a simple one-night stand at the local high school dance. After an unexpectedly successful performance, Dixie runs into Julia, his former band singer, and the two plan to catch up after the show. But backstage, a teenage fan named Emily snea...

Originally Aired: May 3, 1951 Suspense #427, "When the Bough Breaks," stars Rosalind Russell as Evelyn Stryker, a woman in her late thirties who has just been acquitted of murdering her wealthy grandfather. As newlyweds Harry and Evelyn move into their new home, they believe the nightmare is behind them. However, their fragile fresh start is immediately threatened when newspaper reporter Corcoran...

Originally Aired: April 26, 1951 Suspense #426, "The Thirteenth Sound," Mrs. Skinner has meticulously planned and executed the murder of her husband George. She shoots him four times in the back as he attempts to climb through a window at the abandoned Johnson house, then carefully stages the scene to make it appear as though an unknown assailant committed the crime. When Jonathan Brown from the s...

Originally Aired: April 12, 1951 Suspense #424, "Early to Death," follows Evie Weston and her lover Ben Faber as they execute an elaborate scheme to steal a $300,000 company payroll during a flight over Mexico. The pair stages a plane crash, deliberately leaving their pilot Duke to die while they parachute to safety with the money, which they bury in the mountains. After convincing investigators t...

Originally Aired: April 5, 1951 Suspense #423, "Murder in G Flat," stars Jack Benny as Hercules Remington, a mild-mannered piano tuner who finds himself in police custody after making an extraordinary discovery. When Hercules accidentally switches identical brown bags with a mysterious bald-headed man on the subway, he expects to find his tuning tools when he arrives at the Lippinridge School of M...

Originally Aired: March 29, 1951 Suspense #422, "Death Pitch," stars Jack Carson as Nick Arnold, a carnival worker who decides that words will be his weapon to eliminate anyone standing between him and what he desires. Nick works for a struggling circus co-owned by Duke and Lee, though Duke runs everything while Lee drowns himself in drink and memories of his glory days as a lion tamer. Nick has h...

Originally Aired: March 22, 1951 Suspense #421, "Three Lethal Words," stars Joan Crawford in a chilling tale of obsession and revenge. Jane Winters, a screenwriter recently recovered from illness, arrives at the office of Philip Lewis, now head of a studio story department. She pitches him what she claims is a new story idea about Sally Summers, a 43-year-old screenwriter married to Chris, an acto...

Originally Aired: March 8, 1951 Suspense #419, "A Vision of Death," presents Ronald Colman as Judd, a nightclub mind reader who finds himself in a police precinct explaining his sophisticated act with his beautiful wife Aurora. As he recounts their story to a skeptical lieutenant, Judd reveals the secret behind their successful telepathy routine: an intricate code system disguised as casual patter...

Originally Aired: March 1, 1951 Suspense #418, "The Gift of Jumbo Brannigan," stars William Bendix as Jumbo Brannigan, a career criminal who walks out of prison after serving yet another sentence with no intention of going straight. Despite promising the warden he'll make an honest living and provide a home for his fourteen-year-old son, Jumbo plans to return immediately to his life of crime on th...

Originally Aired: February 15, 1951 Suspense #416, "The Death Parade," stars Agnes Moorehead as Ellen Johnson, a meticulous office worker whose orderly morning routine is disrupted when a rude stranger deliberately spills coffee on her dress. Forced to return home to change, Ellen discovers an unsealed letter on the sidewalk addressed to a Sheila Mannox. The cryptic message warns that someone name...

Originally Aired: February 8, 1951 Suspense #415, "The Windy City Six," takes listeners back to the Roaring Twenties, where drummer Carstairs "Rimshot" Hamilton finds himself in dangerous territory. Playing with his jazz band at Crazy Jack Fisher's speakeasy, Ham can't keep his eyes off a beautiful girl named Cora, despite warnings from her menacing companions, Bull Hurley and Red Rocks Farrell, w...

Originally Aired: February 1, 1951 Suspense #414, "Fragile-Contents Death," Postmaster Jordan receives a chilling anonymous phone call that transforms an ordinary morning into a desperate race against time. The caller warns that a time bomb has been mailed to someone in town, set to detonate at 2:30 that afternoon—just five hours away. The deadly package will also explode if opened. When Jordan pr...