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Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Presented by OTR.FM Network

Unravel the Mystery with Suspense! - The Classic Radio Thriller Series Step back in time to the golden age of radio with ”Suspense!” - the iconic series that captivated audiences from 1942 to 1962 with its thrilling tales and unforgettable performances. Featuring over 900 broadcasts penned by renowned authors and directors, ”Suspense!” brought the finest in thriller and mystery genres to the airwaves. Broadcast on the CBS Radio Network, ”Suspense!” showcased Hollywood’s brightest stars, including Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Orson Welles, and Marlene Dietrich. Under the masterful direction of William Spier, known as the ”Hitchcock of the airwaves,” the series delivered gripping human dramas that kept listeners on the edge of their seats. From the eerie introductions by the ”Man in Black” to the evocative scores by Bernard Hermann and Lucian Moraweck, ”Suspense!” was a paragon of radio production excellence. The show’s unique formula of minimal rehearsal and genuine unease created authe...

648 episodes

  1. The Noose of Coincidence

    May 20, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: April 7, 1949 Suspense #335, "The Noose of Coincidence," Christopher Swan, a mild-mannered London bookseller, encounters a strange visitor to his shop—a man who shares his exact name and claims to be a mental telepathist and prophet. The mysterious Christopher Swan makes an unsettling prediction: the bookseller will soon marry a pretty, red-haired woman named Margaret. When this prophecy comes true within days, Swan's skepticism begins to waver. However, his marriage quickly sours as Margaret reveals herself to be a bitter, nagging shrew who resents his modest bookshop and covets his inherited fortune of 50,000 pounds. Months later, the unhappy bookseller encounters the telepathist again at Hampstead Heath, where the prophet delivers a far more chilling prediction. After accurately recounting intimate details of Swan's life—details that couldn't be mere coincidence—the mysterious visitor foretells that on the morning of November 9th, Christopher Swan will be hanged by the neck until dead. As the fatal date approaches, Swan must grapple with whether this prophecy, like the first, will prove terrifyingly accurate.

  2. You Can’t Die Twice

    May 19, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: March 31, 1949 Suspense #334, "You Can't Die Twice," stars Edward G. Robinson as Sam Brown, a struggling milkman whose mundane life takes a shocking turn on April Fool's Day. When police call to inform Sam's wife Katie that her husband has been killed by a hit-and-run driver on the Clinton Turnpike, the couple initially dismisses it as a cruel prank. But the news is confirmed on the radio, and they soon realize Sam's wallet was pickpocketed the night before. The body in the morgue, identified only by that wallet, belongs to someone else entirely. Katie sees an opportunity too tempting to pass up: with Sam's life insurance policy offering twenty thousand dollars with double indemnity for accidental death, she proposes that Sam disappear to Chicago while she collects the money. Despite his moral reservations about the scheme, Sam reluctantly agrees under pressure from his desperate, money-hungry wife. What begins as a bizarre case of mistaken identity quickly transforms into a dangerous game of deception as the couple attempts to exploit a tragic accident for financial gain.

  3. Dead Ernest

    May 18, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: March 24, 1949 Suspense #333, "Dead Ernest," stars Pat O'Brien in a harrowing tale of life and death hanging by a thread. Ernest Bowers, a 34-year-old man suffering from catalepsy, is struck by a car at a busy intersection. The accident appears minor—just a cut on the forehead—but Ernest's condition mimics death so convincingly that the ambulance doctor pronounces him dead at the scene. What no one realizes is that Ernest carries vital identification explaining his rare disease: a letter in his jacket pocket and a silver bracelet warning "Do not embalm me. I am not dead." But in the chaos following the accident, both items vanish from the scene. Two young boys, Robert Manelli and Tommy Stoner, find the bracelet and melt it down to sell for baseball money, destroying the warning. Meanwhile, Honest Jerry Murdoch from a local swap shop picks up Ernest's blood-stained jacket and quickly sells it to an unsuspecting customer for five dollars. As Ernest lies in the hospital morgue, pronounced dead and headed for autopsy, his wife remains unreachable. With his identification gone and the clock ticking toward the moment doctors will begin their work, Ernest's only hope for survival slips further away with each passing minute.

  4. Murder Through the Looking Glass

    May 17, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: March 17, 1949 Suspense #332, "Murder Through the Looking Glass," stars Gregory Peck as Jeffrey Bruno, a Greenwich Village mystery writer who awakens on a train to Philadelphia with no memory of how he got there. When Jeffrey checks his wallet, he's shocked to discover identification and personal effects belonging to someone named John Blake, an insurance agent he's never heard of. His confusion turns to terror when he spots a newspaper headline screaming "Killer Blake Escape!" alongside a photograph that appears to be his own face. Jeffrey has no recollection of the past three days or why he was traveling under another man's identity. Racing back to New York, Jeffrey learns from his neighbor Rosalie that these unexplained disappearances have happened before—days when he vanishes completely and awakens with no memory of where he's been or what he's done. Now, with police hunting for a murderer who looks exactly like him and carries his face, Jeffrey must uncover the truth about John Blake and discover whether he's being framed for murder or if something far more sinister is happening during his mysterious blackouts.

  5. Three O’Clock

    May 16, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: March 10, 1949 Suspense #331, "Three O'Clock," stars Van Heflin as Paul, a watch repairman consumed by jealousy who plants a bomb in his own basement, set to explode at three o'clock when his wife Francie returns from shopping. After wiring an alarm clock to a box of explosives, Paul heads back to his shop to establish an alibi. But before he can leave, two burglars break into the supposedly empty house. Duke and his partner discover Paul in the cellar and, despite his desperate attempts to warn them, tie him up and gag him before fleeing with their loot. Now Paul finds himself bound to a pipe in his own basement, helpless and alone, watching the clock tick toward three o'clock. With over an hour until detonation, Paul frantically tries to free himself while wrestling with conflicting emotions about his wife. As the minutes slip away, he vacillates between justifying his murderous plot and desperately hoping Francie will return home early to save him. The irony of a watchmaker being at the mercy of time itself creates unbearable tension as Paul realizes the only people who knew his location have abandoned him to face the consequences of his own deadly scheme.

  6. The Lovebirds

    May 15, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: March 3, 1949 Suspense #330, "The Lovebirds," Martha has reached her breaking point after seven long years of marriage to her ailing husband Sam. While everyone in their small town admires them as the perfect couple, calling them "the Lovebirds," Martha harbors a dark secret: she has been waiting for Sam to die so she can inherit his money and escape to the exotic destinations she secretly dreams about. When guests discover her hidden collection of travel folders during their anniversary party, and the doctor declares that travel is "out of the question" for Sam's fragile health, Martha realizes she can no longer endure her role as the devoted caretaker. That night, when Sam asks for help reading the directions on his new sleeping pills because he cannot find his glasses, Martha sees her opportunity. She deliberately gives him false information about the dosage, telling him to take six pills instead of two. As the clock strikes through the early morning hours, Martha waits downstairs before finally going to Sam's bedroom to check if her plan has succeeded.

  7. Where There’s a Will

    May 14, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: February 24, 1949 Suspense #329, "Where There's a Will," Charles Ridgway finds himself in desperate financial straits, owing gambler Mr. Jepson ten thousand pounds with only four weeks to pay. His salvation appears to lie in his elderly Aunt Mary's newly revised will, which names him heir to her forty thousand pound fortune instead of his cousin Miriam. When Dr. Minnell warns that Aunt Mary's weak heart could fail from any sudden shock or fright, Charles conceives what he calls a "whimsical practical joke." He installs a radio in his aunt's home, insisting it will keep her mind distracted as the doctor ordered, then secretly rigs a microphone and wire from his old amateur radio equipment. One evening, while Aunt Mary sits alone listening to a Beethoven program, Charles speaks through the hidden microphone, impersonating her dead husband Patrick and claiming he's coming for her from beyond the grave. As Charles watches his plan unfold from the shadows, the line between practical joke and cold-blooded murder becomes dangerously blurred, with his mounting debts driving him toward an increasingly sinister solution to his financial troubles.

  8. Catch Me If You Can

    May 13, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: February 17, 1949 Suspense #328, "Catch Me If You Can," features Jane Wyman as Margot Weatherby, a woman who has just murdered her wealthy husband Phil at an isolated Colorado mountain inn. After suffocating him with a pillow, Margot faces an immediate crisis: Phil had warned her that he called his old friend, a detective named Rocky Rhodes, and hidden pills as evidence of her earlier poisoning attempt. Now she must find that evidence before the detective arrives. Her desperate search is interrupted when three unexpected strangers appear at the supposedly closed inn during a rainstorm: Mike Sheldon, a newspaperman from Chicago; Charlie Miller, a man with a telephone reservation; and Susan Quinn, a woman Miller met on the bus. Margot realizes that one of these three guests must be Rocky Rhodes, the detective her husband summoned. As she tries to maintain the appearance of a devoted wife tending to her sick husband, she must also determine which stranger poses the real threat and find the incriminating pills before her crime is exposed. With Phil's body upstairs and multiple suspects watching her every move, Margot's carefully planned murder begins to unravel.

  9. De Mortuis

    May 12, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: February 10, 1949 Suspense #327, "De Mortuis," Dr. Raggen finds himself in a compromising position when two neighbors, Greg and George, arrive at his home unexpectedly. They discover him in the cellar, having just finished filling in a section of the floor with fresh concrete. When Dr. Raggen claims his wife Irene has gone to visit friends, the neighbors grow suspicious, especially since they've been seeing Irene around the village with Harry Manning, a traveling salesman staying at the local inn. The situation escalates as the men debate details about the depth of the clay beneath the house and inconsistencies in Dr. Raggen's story about where Irene has gone. Greg and George, believing the doctor has murdered his unfaithful wife and buried her beneath the concrete, offer to help cover up the crime. They sympathize with Dr. Raggen, knowing Irene's reputation in the village and feeling somewhat responsible for not warning him before his marriage. Just as they're devising an alibi involving Irene running off with the traveling salesman, an unexpected voice calls out from upstairs, threatening to unravel everything.

  10. Backseat Driver

    May 11, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: February 3, 1949 Suspense #326, "Backseat Driver," stars Fibber McGee and Molly in a harrowing tale of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary danger. Joe and Ellie are driving home to the San Fernando Valley after seeing a movie in Beverly Hills, listening to radio news about Lewis Matrick, a vicious mass murderer who escaped police in downtown Los Angeles earlier that day. The couple discusses the killer's description and crimes, with Ellie worrying about their children at home while Joe reassures her that such terrible things happen to other people, not to them. As they travel through the dark, quiet Cold Water Canyon, their comfortable evening takes a terrifying turn when a man with a gun suddenly appears in their backseat, pressing the weapon against Ellie's neck and ordering Joe to drive. When headlights from a passing car illuminate their unwanted passenger, Joe catches a glimpse in the rearview mirror: light brown hair, pale eyes, and a slanted nose. The violent criminal they'd just been discussing on the radio is now holding them hostage, and Joe must navigate this deadly situation while keeping his terrified wife alive.

  11. The Thing in the Window

    May 10, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: January 27, 1949 Suspense #325, "The Thing in the Window," Martin Ames, an actor with too much time on his hands, becomes obsessed with what he believes is a corpse sitting motionless in a window across the street from his apartment. For days, he watches the gray-suited figure slumped in a high-backed chair behind blue draperies on the tenth floor. When his housekeeper Mary can't make out what he sees, Ames takes matters into his own hands, approaching the building superintendent Mr. Anson with his grim discovery. The window belongs to apartment 9B, home to the Landis sisters, two prim former schoolteachers who live alone. Despite Anson's reluctance and assurances that the elderly spinsters couldn't possibly be harboring a dead body, Ames persists and eventually involves the police. The refined Miss Landis sisters react with shock and indignation when officers arrive at their door with a search warrant, insisting they live completely alone. As the confrontation escalates and the door is about to be breached, the question remains: what exactly has Martin Ames been watching in that window, and what will the police find inside the Landis apartment?

  12. If the Dead Could Talk

    May 9, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: January 20, 1949 Suspense #324, "If the Dead Could Talk," stars Dana Andrews as Joe, a trapeze artist caught in a tortured love triangle. Joe is hopelessly in love with Fran, his partner in a three-person circus act, but she chooses to marry Tommy, Joe's best friend and roommate. Unable to accept losing Fran to his closest companion, Joe spirals into drinking and sleepless nights, haunted by visions of the couple together. His anguish builds until one desperate night when he purchases a gun from an all-night pawn shop, determined to eliminate his rival. Joe returns to the hotel where the circus troupe is staying and climbs the fire escape to the room he shares with Tommy, smashing through the locked window with bloody determination. Gun in hand, he waits in the darkness for Tommy to return, ready to commit murder. But when the door finally opens and Tommy appears framed in the hallway light, Joe must confront the terrible choice before him. The episode explores whether friendship, jealousy, or desperation will ultimately guide his hand in this tense thriller of passion and betrayal.

  13. The Too Perfect Alibi

    May 8, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: January 13, 1949 Suspense #323, "The Too Perfect Alibi," stars Danny Kaye as Sam Rogers, a man hopelessly in love with Catherine, the woman of his dreams. When Catherine and her fiancé Jack Stewart announce they're getting married on Monday, Sam's world shatters. Catherine is lovely and kind, while Jack is a handsome former football hero now working as a clerk in a sports shop. Despite his resentment of Sam's generosity and wealth, Jack accepts Sam's offer of help securing a lucrative position as sales manager at Allegheny Sporting Goods, asking only that Catherine not know about Sam's involvement. What Jack doesn't realize is that Sam has no intention of helping him get the job. Consumed by jealousy and desperation, Sam hatches an elaborate plan to eliminate his rival before the Monday wedding. He carefully constructs what he believes is the perfect alibi, attending a party where he makes sure to be seen by numerous guests throughout the evening. At precisely ten o'clock, Sam slips away to meet Jack under a dark tree on a street corner, his murderous scheme ready to unfold.

  14. To Find Help

    May 7, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: January 6, 1949 Suspense #322, "To Find Help," stars Ethel Barrymore as Mrs. Gillis, an elderly widow living alone with her maid Sarah and her aging dog. When a mild-mannered young man named Howard Wilton appears at her door seeking odd jobs, Mrs. Gillis hires him to do heavy cleaning work despite warnings from her roomer, Mr. Armstrong. At first, Howard seems harmless enough, but his behavior quickly becomes unsettling. He obsesses over keeping his coat safe from moths, barely makes progress on the floor he's supposed to be cleaning, and grows increasingly agitated when Mrs. Gillis checks on his work. The situation grows more disturbing when Howard accuses Mrs. Gillis of hating him because he wasn't in military service like her two sons, both of whom served and are memorialized in photographs around her home. His paranoid outbursts escalate, and he finally reveals the chilling reason he was rejected from the army: they found something wrong with his mind. Now Mrs. Gillis finds herself trapped in her isolated home with an unstable stranger, desperately hoping to find help before the situation turns dangerous.

  15. Break-Up

    May 6, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: December 30, 1948 Suspense #321, "Break-Up," follows Marty Connors, a disgraced ex-cop who has crossed over to the wrong side of the law. Suspended from the police force after being set up by a woman who stole his gun during a drunken encounter, Marty angrily rejects the warnings of his former partner, Detective Kivlahan, and takes a job as a bodyguard for criminals Doc Williamson and Max Shale. Despite Kivlahan's pleas to stay clean and wait for reinstatement, Marty bitterly throws away his career, driven by resentment toward Captain Brandt and the department that he feels betrayed him. Now riding in a car on the Queensborough Bridge, Marty finds himself in a horrifying position: Max Shale has ordered him to prove his loyalty to the organization by murdering Kivlahan, his former partner. As Marty reflects on how his involvement with Williamson and Shale—and his dangerous attraction to Rita, the sultry redhead at Doc's club—has led him to this moment, he must decide whether to pull the trigger and become a cop killer, sealing his fate on the wrong side of the law forever.

  16. Holiday Story

    May 5, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: December 23, 1948 Suspense #320, "Holiday Story," stars Herbert Marshall as Professor Wilfred Carpenter, a mild-mannered botanist long dominated by his overbearing wife, Hermione. When Hermione insists he shave his beard before their trip to America, the transformation proves more significant than either could imagine. At the bookshop, Wilfred encounters the sympathetic Miss Marion Markham, who mistakes him for a widower and offers the understanding companionship he's been denied for twenty years. As Marion reflects on what kind of woman his late wife must have been, Wilfred doesn't correct her assumption about Hermione being dead. The professor had been digging a peculiar pit in the cellar for exotic orchids called "devil flowers" by Arukanian Indians—plants that bloom underground in damp leaf mold. When Hermione forbids him to continue his project until after the holidays, Wilfred's meek compliance masks something darker. As the couple prepares for their voyage, the stench of foreign soil lingers in the cellar, and the question remains: what exactly does Wilfred Carpenter have planned for the holidays?

  17. No Escape

    May 4, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: December 16, 1948 Suspense #319, "No Escape," stars James Cagney as Harry Graham, a bus driver about to receive his town's safest driver of the year award. While racing through the dark canyon road to pick up his girlfriend Eve before the ceremony, Harry encounters another car. In the chaos of swerving and braking, the other vehicle plunges 500 feet down into the canyon, bursting into flames. Harry scrambles partway down the steep hillside, but stops himself as he realizes whoever was in that car is beyond help. When he sees approaching headlights, panic takes over, and he makes a fateful decision to drive away without reporting the accident. Harry arrives at Eve's house disheveled and shaken, lying about a flat tire to explain his condition. As Eve helps him clean up, Harry stares at himself in the mirror, wondering how he can still look the same when everything has changed. He faces an impossible choice between protecting his future with Eve and his kid brother Teddy, or confessing the truth about what happened on that canyon road. The episode explores how one terrible moment and a split-second decision can trap an ordinary man in an inescapable web of guilt and consequences.

  18. The Sisters

    May 3, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: December 9, 1948 Suspense #318, "The Sisters," Lydia and Ellie Haskell live together in quiet isolation, two aging sisters bound by secrets and an uneasy dynamic. When Lydia returns from a mysterious shopping trip, she reveals she's purchased an expensive casket—a Duravo—for herself, to be held for three weeks. Ellie, the fragile younger sister who clings to memories of their girlhood and longs for letters from someone named David, grows increasingly anxious about Lydia's strange behavior and her own uncertain recovery from some past mental breakdown. Lydia maintains strict control over their household, forbidding Ellie from answering the door or descending the stairs alone, while Ellie worries that perhaps she isn't getting well after all. When a police detective arrives to investigate Lydia's unusual purchase, she calmly explains that she knows she's going to die within three weeks—calling it a premonition. The detective suggests it might be suicide, but Lydia insists otherwise. As tensions mount between the two sisters, dark questions emerge about what really binds them together and what tragic fate awaits in their shadowy, secluded home.

  19. The Hands of Mr Ottermole

    May 2, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: December 2, 1948 Suspense #317, "The Hands of Mr Ottermole," In the fog-shrouded streets of London's Casper Street district, a mysterious strangler stalks victims with terrifying efficiency, killing without motive or mercy. A veteran police sergeant with fifteen years on the force recounts the chilling crimes to a persistent newspaper man who has been lurking in the district's shadows, perhaps too interested in the murders for his own good. As bodies accumulate—including the tragic deaths of Mr. Wybrow and his wife, killed just steps from safety in their own home—the sergeant finds himself haunted by questions with no answers. Who is this killer whose strong, white hands reach out of the darkness? What force drives him to strike in this impoverished neighborhood where there's nothing to steal but lives? The investigation intensifies as the sergeant walks his beat, always arriving moments too late, while the strangler seems to move like a phantom through the foggy streets. With suspicion falling on anyone who walks these lanes at night—including the newspaper man himself—the hunt for the murderer becomes increasingly desperate in this atmospheric tale of urban terror.

  20. The Screaming Woman

    May 1, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: November 25, 1948 Suspense #316, "The Screaming Woman," young Margaret Leary takes a shortcut through Mr. Kelly's vacant lot on Thanksgiving Day when she hears something terrifying: a woman's voice screaming from beneath tons of freshly dumped dirt and debris. The voice comes from the area where she and the neighborhood children used to play in a large concrete pipe they called "the fort," now completely buried. Panicked, Margaret races home to alert her parents, but neither her mother nor father takes her seriously. They dismiss her pleas as childish imagination and insist she wait through an agonizingly slow Thanksgiving dinner before her father will even consider investigating. After dinner, Mr. Leary finally accompanies Margaret to the lot, but when they arrive, the screaming has stopped. He hears nothing but wind and the distant trolley. Margaret desperately insists the woman was there, trapped beneath the fort where Kelly's dump trucks have piled massive loads of dirt. Her father remains skeptical, suggesting the "screaming woman" doesn't perform for grown-ups. As the sun sets on Thanksgiving Day, the question remains: was someone truly buried alive in that lot, and if so, is there still time to save her?

  21. Sorry, Wrong Number

    Apr 30, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: November 18, 1948 Suspense #315, "Sorry, Wrong Number," presents Agnes Moorhead as Mrs. Stevenson, an invalid woman alone in her home who becomes inadvertently entangled in a terrifying situation. While attempting to reach her husband's office at Murray Hill 4-0098, where he's supposedly working late, the operator accidentally connects her to a crossed line. Mrs. Stevenson overhears two men coldly discussing plans for a murder: a woman will be killed at 11:15 PM when a train crosses a nearby bridge to mask any screams. The killers mention specific details—a private patrolman's routine, lights in a house, jewelry to be stolen to make it look like a robbery. Desperate and increasingly frantic, Mrs. Stevenson attempts to trace the call and alert authorities, but she encounters frustrating bureaucratic obstacles at every turn. The operators insist they cannot trace a disconnected call without official authorization, and she's shuffled between the chief operator and various departments. As precious minutes tick away and Mrs. Stevenson's anxiety mounts, she realizes the authorities may not act in time to prevent the murder she's accidentally discovered.

  22. Muddy Track

    Apr 29, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: November 11, 1948 Suspense #314, "Muddy Track," Harry Clark is flat broke and nursing a Coke in a bar when he meets Brandy, a woman with connections to the local bookie, Augie Persian. Before the night is over, Persian offers Harry an easy job answering phones in an apartment, paying five percent of the take from his illegal betting operation. The setup seems almost too good to be true, and Harry's instincts tell him to walk away, but desperation wins out. Working from apartment 3B, supposedly rented by a woman named Eleanor Grayson, Harry spends his first morning taking bets and admiring a photo of a smiling woman by the telephone. When Harry finally takes a break to search the kitchen for coffee, he discovers why Persian was so eager to hire him. Brandy lies dead on the kitchen floor, her blonde hair matted with blood. Harry realizes he's been set up as the perfect fall guy, positioned at a murder scene with his fingerprints all over the apartment. Now he must figure out who killed Brandy and why Persian wanted him to take the fall.

  23. Death Sentence

    Apr 28, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: November 4, 1948 Suspense #313, "Death Sentence," stars John Garfield as Tommy, a private investigator who returns from a Brazilian vacation only to find himself in deadly trouble. Six months earlier, Tommy had captured Maxie Dunn, a killer working for crime boss Lou Cromwell, collecting a fifteen thousand dollar reward in the process. Tommy thought the killing was a private matter and Lou wouldn't care, but he was wrong. Within minutes of arriving back in town, Tommy is summoned to Lou's office, where the powerful gangster delivers a chilling ultimatum: Tommy has exactly seven days to live, the same amount of time until Maxie goes to the gas chamber. Lou explains that letting Tommy grab one of his boys makes him look weak, and in his business, appearing weak is fatal. Tommy can either handle his own death sentence himself or Lou's men will take care of it when the week is up. Though Tommy protests and considers going to the district attorney, Lou dismisses the threat, insisting their conversation was merely friendly with no witnesses to any threats. As Tommy leaves to rejoin columnist Brad Cummings at Lou's cocktail party, he's determined to find a way to beat the house at its own deadly game.

  24. Give Me Liberty

    Apr 27, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: October 21, 1948 Suspense #312, "Give Me Liberty," stars William Powell as Earl French, a cunning embezzler who has successfully hidden a quarter of a million dollars from authorities. While being transported to prison by train, handcuffed to a detective, French sees his chance for freedom when the train crashes. The detective becomes trapped in the burning wreckage, his legs pinned by debris, desperately begging French for help. The detective claims not to have the key to the handcuffs, and as the flames grow closer, French makes a brutal choice: he attacks the helpless man, switches their identities by placing his college ring on the detective's finger and swapping wallets, then flees into the night. Now everyone will believe Earl French died in the wreck. However, French's newfound liberty comes with an unexpected complication—he's still wearing the handcuffs, and the chain binding his wrists proves nearly impossible to remove. As morning arrives, French grows increasingly desperate, trying everything from holding his hands overhead to drain the blood, to rubbing the chain against stones until his skin tears. Finally, he resorts to building a fire in the woods, hoping heat will break his steel bonds.

  25. A Little Piece of Rope

    Apr 26, 2026 · 30 min

    Originally Aired: October 14, 1948 Suspense #311, "A Little Piece of Rope," stars Lucille Ball as Isabel, a con artist who preys on wealthy older men by posing as an innocent schoolgirl. Her scheme is simple yet effective: she lets respectable gentlemen pick her up near exclusive schools, waits until they drive to a secluded location, then knocks them unconscious with a blackjack and steals their wallets. Her victims never report the crimes, too ashamed to admit they were pursuing what they believed was a young girl. Isabel has built a comfortable life from this racket, earning up to a thousand dollars a month while her landlady believes she's a sweet, invalid tenant who takes therapeutic walks. Everything changes when Isabel targets Alexander Rice, a seemingly ordinary insurance salesman who picks her up near Miss Cadwaller's school. After knocking him out as usual, she discovers something horrifying in his wallet: newspaper clippings about an unsolved series of murders and a small piece of rope. Isabel realizes she has just robbed the notorious strangler who has killed five girls in the past year, always leaving them in the hills with rope around their necks. Now the hunter has become the hunted, and Isabel must figure out what to do with her deadly knowledge.