The Lady in the Red Hat

Originally Aired: August 30, 1955 Suspense #613, "The Lady in the Red Hat," brings together three people connected to the city's most terrifying murder case. Newspaper columnist Mitch Mitchell has been writing psychological analyses of the serial killer known as the 13th Apostle, who has murdered five women in three months, each wearing something red. When Mitch receives an anonymous note promising important information about the Avenger if he meets at a community chapel at midnight, he discovers that fellow reporter Jeannie and Lieutenant Bill Dowell have received identical notes. Despite the police department's orders to stop his articles and warnings that this could be a trap, the three decide to keep the appointment. As midnight approaches and the trio gathers in the dimly lit chapel, tension mounts. Each realizes that the killer may have deliberately summoned them together, perhaps to claim another victim or to play a sinister game. With an organist playing softly in the background and snow falling outside, they wait in the first pew, each wondering if one among them could be the 13th Apostle. The stakes grow higher as paranoia sets in and every glance becomes suspicious in this dangerous rendezvous with a murderer.