The Frightened City

Originally Aired: September 27, 1955 Suspense #617, "The Frightened City," Nick Crawford returns home from military service in Korea expecting a warm homecoming, but instead finds his town gripped by terror and his brother-in-law Johnny Stewart murdered. His sister Janie reveals that Johnny was shot down in the street on his way to tell something to the police chief, and she's been receiving threatening notes warning her to stay silent. When Nick demands answers, he discovers that four witnesses saw the killing, but fear has sealed their lips. A woman was brutally beaten and left in a vacant lot, another witness had a bomb thrown into his house, and the others refuse to speak. Nick confronts each witness one by one—Johnny's employer Mr. Osburn, the traumatized Mrs. Mason, drugstore owner Mr. Nolan who had to scrub Johnny's blood from the sidewalk, and former G.I. Tom Roxton whose wife nearly died in the bombing. Each encounter reveals the same paralyzing fear as the word spreads through town that Nick is asking dangerous questions. He realizes he has returned not to the peaceful hometown he remembered, but to a frightened city where something sinister lurks in the shadows and speaking the truth can get you killed.