The Seventh Letter

Originally Aired: April 17, 1956 Suspense #646, "The Seventh Letter," a postman named Henry R. Gilligan is found murdered during his early morning collection run in a quiet Southern California suburb. Lieutenant Joseph Carter arrives at the scene to find Gilligan's body near an open mailbox with six letters scattered on the sidewalk. As Carter examines the evidence, he develops a compelling theory: seven letters were mailed in that box, but only six were recovered. Someone desperate to retrieve their letter must have confronted Gilligan, and when the postman refused to return it—bound by postal regulations—the confrontation turned deadly. Working with Sergeant Saul Morris, Carter begins investigating the neighborhood residents who had access to that mailbox. The question becomes urgent: what could someone have written that was worth killing for? As the detectives compile a list of potential suspects and piece together the events of that fatal night, they race to identify the person who mailed the missing seventh letter before the trail goes cold.