Advertise on podcast: Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: August 2, 1955 In Suspense #609, “Black Death,” Dr. Gebhardt, director of a biological research institute, faces every scientist’s worst nightmare when an infected laboratory cat escapes into a crowded city carrying the deadly plague bacillus. As panic threatens to erupt, police launch a desperate citywide manhunt while the doctor races against time to prevent an epidemic. But the search becomes deeply personal when he discovers his young daughter has befriended the very animal everyone has been ordered to kill. A gripping medical thriller that blends scientific realism, emotional drama, and relentless suspense into one of the series’ most memorable postwar episodes. Cast: Edgar Barrier, William Conrad, Mary McGovern, Gil Fry, Jack Edwards, Jim Musser, Joe Cranston, Barney Phillips

Originally Aired: July 26, 1955 Suspense #608, "The Greatest Thief in the World," presents a puzzling case from Scotland Yard's files. An elusive criminal known only as the Squire has been stealing jewels from wealthy estates for five years, amassing half a million pounds without leaving a shred of evidence. When Sir Leslie Banbridge's safe is cracked after a shooting party, Peter Marriott is among the guests who had viewed the stolen jewels. Scotland Yard assigns a detective to watch Marriott, discovering his connection to a mysterious woman named Jenny who keeps parcels for him. The investigation grows more complicated when a stranger begins asking Jenny questions about Marriott, and later confronts Marriott himself at a tea shop. This man, presumed dead, reveals a startling connection to Marriott's identity, suggesting the case may involve more than a simple jewel thief. The central question haunting Scotland Yard remains unanswered: Are Peter Marriott and the Squire one and the same person, or is something far more complex at play?

Originally Aired: July 19, 1955 Suspense #607, "Backseat Driver," stars Vivi Janice and Parley Bear as Ellie and Joe, an ordinary couple returning home to the San Fernando Valley after catching a movie in Beverly Hills. As they drive through the dark, quiet Coldwater Canyon, they listen to news reports about Lewis Matrick, a vicious killer who murdered an entire family in New Hampshire and has just been spotted in Los Angeles. Joe assures his nervous wife that such violence happens to other people, not to them. But when they hear a voice from their backseat commanding Joe to keep driving, their complacent world shatters. The fugitive killer, gun pressed to Ellie's neck, has been hiding in their car all along. Joe must navigate an impossible situation as Matrick orders them toward open country, where the couple's chances of survival grow dimmer with each passing mile. When a motorcycle patrolman appears on the road behind them, Joe sees a desperate opportunity, but any wrong move could cost Ellie her life. The hunter has become the hunted, and Joe must find a way to outsmart a man who has already proven he will kill without hesitation.

Originally Aired: July 12, 1955 Suspense #606, "Kaleidoscope," presents Ray Bradbury's haunting tale of catastrophe in the void of space. When a routine cargo run goes terribly wrong, Captain Hollis and his crew of the third-class spaceship face their worst nightmare as a malfunctioning rocket tube explodes, tearing their vessel apart. The survivors—including Hollis, Stone, Applegate, Lespair, and Stimpson—are thrown into space in their sealed suits without propulsion units. Unable to control their trajectories, they become human meteors hurtling away from each other at thousands of miles per hour, each heading toward a different fate. Some plummet toward Earth, others drift toward the moon, but all face certain death. As their radio phones allow them to communicate for what little time remains, the crew members react in vastly different ways. Lespair reminisces about his secret life as an interplanetary bigamist, finding unexpected peace in his memories. Stimpson struggles with terror and disbelief. The bitter Applegate seizes his final moments to voice long-suppressed resentments against Captain Hollis, launching a mutiny that no longer matters. Suspended in the vast emptiness of space with only their voices connecting them, each man must confront the end in his own way.

Originally Aired: July 5, 1955 Suspense #605, "The Cave-In," brings listeners deep underground into a Welsh coal mine where a cave-in has trapped four miners—and one of them has been murdered. When rescuers make contact with the trapped men, shotfire man David Owen delivers shocking news: Ivor Williams is dead, and it's murder, not accident. Inspector Glid arrives to investigate and learns that Williams was a notorious womanizer who made plenty of enemies in the village of Clinoeth. Among the three men trapped with Williams' body are David Owen, whose daughter Glennis was Williams' latest target, and Ivor Davis, Glennis' fiancé. Both had publicly threatened Williams. As rescue crews work frantically to dig through tons of coal and rock, the investigation becomes a race against time. When Inspector Glid finally reaches the trapped miners after days of dangerous excavation, disaster strikes again. Just as contact is made, another cave-in seals everyone inside the shaft together—the inspector, the three suspects, and the body of the murdered man. Now trapped without water in the stifling darkness, Glid must solve the murder while fighting for survival alongside his prime suspects.

Originally Aired: June 28, 1955 In Suspense #604, "The Holdout," twelve jurors gather in a stuffy deliberation room to decide the fate of Clyde Avery, a man accused of murdering his wife's lover. The first ballot reveals an eleven-to-one split for conviction, but as the hours wear on, doubt begins to spread through the jury room. Mr. Donovan, initially appearing uncertain, starts quietly approaching fellow jurors like Mrs. Carmichael, Miss Keller, and Mrs. Medina, pointing out contradictions in the testimony and raising questions about the direction of the bullet wound and whether a struggle occurred. He emphasizes the wife's suspicious testimony and plants seeds of reasonable doubt in their minds. As the second ballot is taken, the verdict shifts dramatically to eight-to-four in favor of guilty. What seemed like a straightforward case of premeditated murder grows increasingly murky as Donovan's careful conversations bear fruit. The jury foreman, Mr. Muncie, grows frustrated with the shifting votes, while the impatient Mr. Vale demands they reach a quick decision. The tension mounts as the jurors must grapple with whether Clyde Avery is truly a cold-blooded killer or whether reasonable doubt demands his acquittal.

Originally Aired: June 21, 1955 Suspense #603, "Over the Bounding Main," Marty Evans and his dissatisfied wife Claire embark on what should be a simple fishing trip to Catalina Island to meet their wealthy friends, the Warrens. Claire constantly berates Marty for his financial struggles, comparing him unfavorably to their more successful acquaintances. They board the fishing boat Pelican in the pre-dawn hours, crewed by young deckhand Ignacio and the mysterious Captain Moran. What begins as an ordinary charter quickly turns sinister when the stern rail mysteriously breaks during Marty's first catch, nearly throwing both him and Ignacio overboard. Claire emerges from below looking strangely pale and frightened, and the boat's engine conveniently fails, leaving them drifting in thick fog. As Marty dozes on deck, he awakens to overhear a chilling conversation between Moran and Claire. They're discussing a plan involving twenty thousand dollars, with Moran insisting Claire follow through on her part of a scheme. The target of their murderous conspiracy becomes horrifyingly clear: Marty himself is worth more dead than alive, apparently due to a substantial life insurance policy. Trapped on a disabled boat in the fog with conspirators who want him dead, Marty must find a way to survive this deadly voyage.

Originally Aired: June 14, 1955 Suspense #602, "The Whole Town's Sleeping," transports listeners to a sweltering summer night in a small Illinois town gripped by fear. Lavinia Nebs, a confident 37-year-old woman, insists on keeping her plans to see a movie with her friends Francine and Helen, despite warnings from the nervous Mrs. Hanlon about "the Lonely One," a strangler who has been terrorizing local women. When Lavinia and Francine take their usual shortcut through the dark ravine to reach the theater, they make a horrifying discovery: the body of their friend Eliza Ramsell, the killer's latest victim. Despite this gruesome find, Lavinia refuses to let fear control her life. She persuades the reluctant Francine and Helen to continue on to the show, determined to forget what they've seen. But the terror follows them when a mysterious stranger who had been asking about Lavinia at the drugstore appears to be trailing them. As paranoia mounts and her friends grow increasingly frightened, Lavinia must decide whether her defiant independence is bravery or dangerous foolishness in a town where the Lonely One still walks free.

Originally Aired: June 7, 1955 Suspense #601, "Frankenstein," brings Mary Shelley's classic tale to chilling life. Dr. Victor Frankenstein confides a terrible secret to his friend James, a minister: he has assembled a complete human body from various parts and believes he can give it life. Using a mysterious compound he discovered years earlier while reviving a dead dog, Victor has already made the creature move its limbs. Despite James's horrified pleas to destroy the abomination and abandon his godless experiments, Victor proceeds with one more test, injecting the lifeless form as the minister watches in dread. To their shock, the creature doesn't just twitch—it begins to breathe, its eyes opening with terrifying awareness. Victor is exhilarated by his achievement, convinced he has accomplished a miracle for science, while James insists the soulless thing must be destroyed immediately. As the two men argue over the fate of the living creature strapped to Victor's laboratory table, Elizabeth returns home unexpectedly. Victor must now decide whether to reveal his monstrous secret to the woman he loves.

Originally Aired: May 31, 1955 Suspense #600, "Beirut by Sunrise," Mildred Gideon, a third-grade schoolteacher from North Dakota on a Mediterranean cruise, awakens before dawn to witness the magical sunrise over Beirut. The romantic moment turns to horror when she sees an American sailor stumble from the shadows on the dock below, a knife buried in his back. Before dying, the sailor gasps a cryptic message about "Sultan's turret" and "15th step." When Mildred finds a local police officer and brings him to the scene, the body has vanished without a trace of blood, leaving her looking like a foolish, over-imaginative tourist. Shaken but determined to enjoy her shore leave, Mildred returns to the ship where she breakfasts with her fellow passengers: the boorish Frank Grady from Akron and the sophisticated, mysterious Mr. Haroon. As she joins a guided tour of Beirut's ancient bazaars and marketplaces, Mildred can't shake what she witnessed. The sailor's dying words haunt her, suggesting she's stumbled into something far more dangerous than a disappointing vacation.

Originally Aired: May 24, 1955 Suspense #599, "I Saw Myself Running," Susan begins experiencing terrifying recurring nightmares that blur the line between dreamer and dream. Each night, she finds herself running from an unseen pursuer, but something is different about these dreams: there are two of her, both present and visible to each other. One Susan watches while the other lives through the terror, and she discovers that the frightened woman she's been seeing isn't her at all, but a separate entity trapped in her dreamscape. This other woman experiences all the fears Susan thought she'd outgrown, from childhood phobias of caterpillars to nightmares of falling from airplanes, and she begs Susan not to wake up and leave her alone. When Susan confides in her husband Freddie and seeks help from a doctor, they dismiss her fears as simple exhaustion and overwrought nerves. The doctor prescribes sedatives for a good night's sleep, but Susan grows increasingly desperate, convinced that something terrible is about to happen. As the dreams intensify and the boundary between the two Susans becomes more fragile, she faces an impossible choice: stop sleeping entirely or confront whatever horror awaits in the shadows at the top of that endless staircase.

Originally Aired: May 17, 1955 Suspense #598, "Lili and the Colonel," presents a gripping tale of colonial tension and deadly secrets in Kenya Colony, East Africa. Lieutenant Charles Temple, a young British officer stationed to combat the Mau Mau uprising, encounters the imperious Colonel M.O.V. Abernathy at the exclusive Ribb Valley Club. When a neighboring farmer, James C. Carey, is found murdered beneath a rose bush, Temple enlists the Colonel's help in identifying the body. The investigation takes a sinister turn when Temple suspects that the Colonel's head boy, Ngambe, may not be the Jalulo tribesman he claims but rather a Kikuyu with possible Mau Mau connections. The danger escalates dramatically when Mrs. Abernathy's cat is found hanged outside their home, a clear Mau Mau warning. During the attack, Temple shoots one of the intruders, and before the wounded man dies at a clinic, he reveals crucial information: he is Matemba, a Kikuyu with Mau Mau ties, and his brother is none other than Ngambe himself. Temple returns to warn the Colonel, only to find the household deserted except for the increasingly unstable and heavily drinking Mrs. Abernathy, who seems to harbor dark secrets of her own.

Originally Aired: May 10, 1955 Suspense #597, "Going, Going, Gone," finds newlyweds Wally and Jan Pindale making an impulsive purchase at an estate auction. Despite Wally's protests, Jan insists on buying a mysterious old trunk covered in peculiar stains for just three dollars. When a nervous little man named Mr. Minchy suddenly offers one hundred dollars for it, then two hundred, the Pindales grow suspicious. The auction house even tries to substitute a different trunk, but Jan stands her ground. Back home, the couple opens their bargain purchase and discovers it's filled with what appears to be a fortune in jewelry—diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and pearls that Jan insists are real. When Wally scratches a ring across their window and it cuts the glass like a genuine diamond, their excitement turns to fear. Mr. Minchy appears at their door, desperately offering first fifty thousand, then one hundred thousand dollars for the trunk, warning them ominously that "the consequences will be upon your own head." As the Pindales try frantically to reach the police, they find themselves trapped by a chatty neighbor monopolizing their party line, while danger may be lurking just outside their door.

Originally Aired: May 3, 1955 Suspense #596, "Remember Me," Harry Nora finds himself in a desperate situation when his plan to rob Mr. Leibowitz's small neighborhood store goes violently wrong. Just as Harry is leaving the scene of his crime, Ruth Shaw walks in, a former high school classmate who recognizes him immediately. Ruth has never forgotten Harry, the popular football player she once had a crush on, and she's delighted by this chance reunion. Harry realizes he's been fatally identified and must now silence the only witness who can connect him to the murder. Carrying Ruth's groceries, Harry maneuvers his way into her apartment, pretending to reminisce about their school days while actually planning her death. As Ruth cheerfully shows him pictures from their old class yearbook and makes coffee, she remains oblivious to the danger. The elevated train rumbling past her window gives Harry a chilling idea about how to commit the murder without being heard, but the question remains whether he can go through with killing this innocent woman whose only crime was remembering his face.

Originally Aired: April 26, 1955 Suspense #595, "Sight Unseen," Colin Farragut, a journalist for the Times, experiences a disturbing encounter while relaxing in the park one evening in 1926. Two ordinary-looking men in bowler hats approach him, addressing him by name and insisting he come with them. Though they refuse to identify themselves or explain their purpose, they speak with eerie certainty that he will eventually comply. When Farragut demands answers and threatens to call for help, they calmly respond that he will come "sooner or later" before mysteriously disappearing into the shrubberies. Convinced it's a prank by his friend Richard, a Scotland Yard sergeant, Farragut tries to dismiss the incident. Later that evening, after meeting with Richard and confirming the sergeant had nothing to do with the strange encounter, Farragut takes Ellen, a restaurant worker he's been seeing, to the Palace dance hall. The evening takes an uncomfortable turn when they run into her employer, Mr. Wimper, a shifty Cockney character Farragut thoroughly dislikes. As the story unfolds through a letter Farragut writes to Richard, the journalist finds himself caught in circumstances that grow increasingly ominous.