Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: September 13, 1955
In Suspense #615, "A Story of Poison," Dr. Neil Cream arrives in London seeking a fresh start after the death of his wife Emily in Hull. What the kindly boarding house proprietress Mrs. Minnes and her daughter Daisy don't know is that Cream methodically poisoned Emily over six months, watching with clinical detachment as she slowly succumbed. When Cream arrogantly submits an anonymous medical paper about the case to a journal, it catches the attention of Inspector Waring at Scotland Yard, who suspects the author may be describing his own crime.
As Cream settles into his new lodgings and charms his way into the Minnes household, he begins a romance with Mildred Vickers, a young woman he meets at a Hammersmith pub. He lavishes her with flowers, dinners, and theater outings, but when Millie casually announces she must end their relationship because her real sweetheart is returning from sea, Cream's veneer of civility cracks. What follows is a chilling demonstration of the cold-blooded killer's methods, leaving Cream haunted by nightmares as the police investigation begins to close in.

Originally Aired: September 6, 1955
Suspense #614, "Strange for a Killer," Henry Hayden arrives home from work to find his neighborhood surrounded by police. They're searching for Roy Jaleska, a dangerous fugitive who's been hiding in the boarding house next door to Henry's apartment building. When Henry calls his wife Jesse to warn her to stay inside with their baby Johnny, something in her voice tells him she's in terrible danger. Despite her words telling him everything is fine, Henry is certain someone is in the room with her, listening to every word. He convinces the police captain that Jaleska must have escaped across the rooftops and is now holding his family hostage.
Against the captain's warnings, Henry insists on going up to his third-floor apartment, promising to call if everything is safe. When he enters, his worst fears are confirmed. Jaleska is there with a gun, having used Jesse and the baby to evade the police dragnet. Now Henry faces the killer alone in his own home, with his wife and child caught in the crossfire. The police wait below for Henry's signal while inside, a desperate standoff unfolds between a terrified husband and a cornered, violent fugitive who has nothing left to lose.

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.

Originally Aired: August 16, 1955
Suspense #611, "A Study in Wax," Jack and Larry Cabell, two men working for the Canadian Geodetic Survey, face seven months of isolation in the frozen Northwest Territory. When their radio shack burns down in late October, they lose their only connection to the outside world, leaving them with just a small transmitter on a fixed channel. Cabell struggles with the loneliness while Jack seems content with the solitude. Their supervisor McLeod refuses to send a replacement receiver, forcing the men to endure the harsh winter cut off from civilization.
A week before Christmas, they open their gifts early, discovering a phonograph among the packages. Unfortunately, nearly all the records are broken except two: a collection of bugle calls and Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance." While the discovery initially lifts spirits, Cabell becomes obsessed with playing the classical piece repeatedly, grating on Jack's nerves. As the tension between the two men mounts in their confined quarters, their carefully maintained companionship begins to fracture, revealing just how fragile their partnership truly is in the face of endless winter isolation.

Originally Aired: August 9, 1955
Suspense #610, "Love, Honor or Murder," cab driver Harry rushes home with an unexpected discovery: a wallet containing twelve thousand dollars left behind by one of his regular fares, prominent news commentator Sidney Walker. While Harry knows he must return the money to his company before Walker reports it missing, his wife Helen sees a different opportunity. What begins as Harry's honest impulse to show his wife their momentary windfall quickly turns into something far more dangerous as Helen pressures him to keep the money, even threatening to leave him if he turns it in.
As the minutes tick by, Helen takes control of the situation, making calculated phone calls to determine whether Walker has reported the loss. She discovers that Walker suspects where he left his wallet and plans to give the finder a chance to return it before involving the police. But Helen's enigmatic smile and cryptic comments suggest she's formulating a plan that goes far beyond simply returning the money—a scheme that will test the boundaries of love, honor, and perhaps something much darker.

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.