Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

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...

Originally Aired: January 25, 1951 Suspense #413, "Aria from Murder," opens with renowned opera baritone Niccolò Mazzini calling police headquarters from his dressing room at the Grandier Opera House between acts of Don Giovanni. He confesses to Lieutenant Morgan that he has committed murder, then proceeds to explain the events that led to his crime. Mazzini reveals his fatal weakness: his affair...

Originally Aired: January 18, 1951 Suspense #412, "The Well-Dressed Corpse," Ruth Franklin, a successful advertising executive and one of the ten best-dressed women in America, is found disheveled and incoherent in a Hell's Kitchen alley, wearing only a policeman's overcoat. When Captain Rourke questions her at the station, she confesses to murder. Through her account, Ruth reveals how her polishe...

Originally Aired: January 11, 1951 Suspense #411, "Vamp Till Dead," stars Ginger Rogers as Amy Watkins, a secretary who travels from New York to work for the brooding writer Paul Gentry at his isolated estate. From the moment she arrives, Amy finds herself drawn into an unsettling atmosphere. Gentry openly tells her that people believe he murdered his wife Isabel, whose body was found with a broke...

Originally Aired: January 4, 1951 In Suspense #410, "Alibi Me," small-time hustler Georgie finds himself in desperate trouble after a confrontation with his childhood rival Julie goes horribly wrong. When Julie muscles in on Georgie's punch board territory in their old Brooklyn neighborhood, Georgie storms into Julie's office for a showdown. Their lifelong hatred is well known to the police, parti...

Originally Aired: December 28, 1950 Suspense #409, "A Ring for Marya," John, a struggling immigrant store owner, presents his wife Maria with a beautiful diamond ring as part of his carefully orchestrated plan. Burdened by business failures and trapped in a loveless marriage to a woman he wed only for her father's money, John convinces Maria to commit insurance fraud by burning down their failing...

Originally Aired: December 28, 1950 Suspense #409, "A Ring for Marya," John, a struggling immigrant store owner, presents his wife Maria with a beautiful diamond ring as part of his carefully orchestrated plan. Burdened by business failures and trapped in a loveless marriage to a woman he wed only for her father's money, John convinces Maria to commit insurance fraud by burning down their failing...

Originally Aired: December 21, 1950 Suspense #408, "Christmas for Carole," Paul, a bank teller earning $48.50 a week, faces a desperate crisis when his pregnant wife Carol must stay bedridden for two months with round-the-clock nursing care costing more than his entire salary. As Christmas approaches, Paul watches money pass through his hands daily at the bank, feeling the mounting pressure of deb...

Originally Aired: December 14, 1950 Suspense #407, "A Killing in Abilene," stars Alan Ladd as Jeff Mander, a man who has traveled 300 miles from Abilene to find Lee Burridge, the man who murdered his brother Seth two years ago. Jeff arrives in Pleasant Valley just as the townspeople unearth the body of Fred Coston, beaten to death in the same brutal manner as Jeff's brother. The angry citizens, le...

Originally Aired: December 7, 1950 Suspense #406, "After the Movies," stars Ray Milland as Al Benig, a juror sequestered during a sensational trial. When Al and his wife Ann go to the movies during a brief recess, they stop at a local drugstore for ice cream. There, Al discovers an envelope containing ten thousand dollars and a cryptic, threatening note. The message reads: "This is your first half...

Originally Aired: November 30, 1950 Suspense #405, "The Lady in the Red Hat," features Van Heflin as Mitch Mitchell, a columnist whose provocative articles about a serial killer known as the Avenger have attracted unwanted attention. The Avenger has murdered five women in three months, each victim wearing something red. When Mitch receives an anonymous note inviting him to meet the Avenger at midn...

Originally Aired: November 23, 1950 Suspense #404, "Going, Going, Gone," finds married couple Wally and Jan Pindell caught up in an increasingly dangerous situation after a routine auction visit turns extraordinary. When Jan insists on bidding for a mysteriously sealed old trunk, Wally reluctantly agrees, thinking it's just another impulse purchase. They secure it for three dollars, but immediatel...

Originally Aired: November 16, 1950 Suspense #403, "On a Country Road," stars Cary Grant as David, who makes a fateful decision to take a shortcut with his wife Dorothy during a violent storm. As they drive through the desolate woods of Long Island, radio bulletins warn that Nellie Galler, a dangerous escaped mental patient who has already murdered multiple people with a meat cleaver, is loose in...

Originally Aired: November 9, 1950 In Suspense #402, "Blood on the Trumpet," Victor Roberts, a talented jazz trumpeter in New Orleans, finds himself under arrest for the brutal murder of his wife Sarah. As Sergeant Juno interrogates him, Vic recounts the deteriorating marriage that led to tragedy. Sarah constantly belittles his musical dreams, calling him a second-rate horn blower and a has-been,...