Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Originally Aired: September 25, 1956
Suspense #666, "A Case of Identity," Harry Burton and his wife Edna have hatched an elaborate scheme to collect $100,000 in life insurance. After Harry secures a large policy from the skeptical Mr. Croyd, he picks up a down-on-his-luck drifter named Wallace from the park—a man who bears an uncanny resemblance to Harry. The plan seems foolproof: stage an accident in the mountains, leave Wallace's body to be mistaken for Harry's, and disappear with the insurance money. Harry drugs Wallace, switches clothes and identification with him, and sets up a fiery car crash on a remote mountain highway while Edna waits nearby to pick him up.
But things quickly go wrong when Edna's getaway car runs out of gas on the isolated mountain road. Desperate, they coast to a rundown gas station, only to find the surly attendant unwilling to help. With Edna hiding in the back seat and the unconscious Wallace still unaccounted for, Harry must convince the hostile station owner to give them fuel before their carefully constructed plan unravels completely.

Originally Aired: September 5, 1956
Suspense #665, "The Security Agent," presents a gripping tale of desperate men plotting an audacious escape from behind the Iron Curtain. In 1956 Poland, two middle-aged friends face a life-changing decision: Joseph Ostrovsky, a bus works superintendent, and Frederick Zilonko, a radio broadcasting executive, meet for their regular Saturday chess game when Frederick reveals a startling plan. When Frederick learns he'll be traveling to a mechanical exhibition in Prague by plane, he sees an opportunity to flee to freedom in Austria by hijacking the aircraft. Though Joseph initially dismisses the idea as madness, Frederick is deadly serious and claims to have found a mysterious third man willing to join their conspiracy.
As Frederick's travel plans solidify through his meeting with radio manager Comrade Kozun, the stakes become real. Frederick must convince his reluctant friend Joseph to take the terrifying leap with him, risking execution for a chance at freedom. The tension builds as the plotters prepare to transform a routine business trip into a daring flight to the West, knowing that one misstep could mean their deaths.

Originally Aired: August 29, 1956
Suspense #664, "Hold-Up," stars Joseph Kearns as Tim Chase, a grocery store owner with a deadly reputation. When a nervous young man enters his store and attempts a robbery, Tim doesn't hesitate—he shoots to kill, claiming self-defense even though the supposed weapon turns out to be only a fountain pen. This marks the third time Tim has killed a would-be holdup man, and he shows no remorse. His wife Hazel watches helplessly as her husband's quick trigger finger claims another life, this one a boy barely out of his teens.
Captain Runyon tries to reason with the cold, confident war veteran, warning him that someday he'll face a gunman faster than himself and urging him to leave the shooting to the police. But Tim remains unmoved, insisting that thieves deserve what they get and boasting about his understanding with guns. As reporters gather and questions mount about whether the killings are truly justified, Tim's chilling lack of sympathy raises troubling questions about a man who seems to relish his legal right to kill.

Originally Aired: August 8, 1956
Suspense #662, "Double Identity," stars Victor Perrin as George Lockman, a seemingly mild-mannered office worker who has spent five years patiently planning the perfect crime. Lockman works alongside Baker, a trusting colleague who shares the combination to the company safe with him. When their boss, J.T. Kraft, leaves town, Lockman seizes his opportunity. Using a clever ruse while Baker admires his own biceps, Lockman secretly keeps the safe unlocked, then steals fifty thousand dollars in cash. With a briefcase full of money and a plane ticket under the assumed name Robert Gelder, he begins his carefully plotted escape to Paris via New York.
However, Lockman's meticulous plan starts to unravel almost immediately. A chatty fellow passenger, Mrs. Lee, notices how nervously he clutches his briefcase. When the plane makes an unexpected stop in Chicago, Lockman's worst nightmare materializes: he encounters his drunken boss, Mr. Kraft, at the airport coffee shop. As Lockman watches Kraft board the same plane where he's left the stolen money, everything he's planned for five years hangs in the balance.

Originally Aired: July 25, 1956
In Suspense #660, “The Tramp,” three seasoned criminals infiltrate the crew of a decrepit tramp steamer bound for South America with a cargo of scrap metal. Their plan is simple: murder the aging captain, hijack the ship, and deliver it to pirates waiting in a secret Caribbean port for a hefty payday. But greed, mechanical failure, blackmail, and mounting suspicion quickly unravel the carefully orchestrated scheme. As the battered vessel begins to sink in the Atlantic, the conspirators discover that escaping justice may be impossible. A tense maritime crime thriller filled with betrayal, desperation, and darkly ironic justice.
Cast:
Ben Wright, Stan Jones, Joseph Kearns, Charlie Lung, Raymond Lawrence, Lou Krugman, Bill Shepherd

Originally Aired: July 18, 1956
Suspense #659, "The Man Who Threw Acid," a young, idealistic assemblyman campaigns against organized crime in city government, drawing unwanted attention from the racketeers he's trying to eliminate. The boss orders a hit, and the job falls to Steve Clyber, a desperate middle-aged punk on the fringes of gangster society who sees this as his chance to finally prove himself to the mob. For just two hundred dollars, Steve agrees to throw acid in the assemblyman's face outside the athletic club at 5:30. As Steve kills time before the job, he can't resist dropping hints about his "big appointment" to acquaintances at his favorite bar, trying to shed his reputation as a nobody.
With a jar of acid and a glove in a paper sack, Steve follows his instructions from the contact man, who promises this simple job will earn him respect and open doors to bigger opportunities. The assemblyman, unaware of the danger waiting for him, works late into the night on an anti-racketeer speech, while Steve celebrates his coming success with an expensive Chinese dinner and dreams of finally becoming somebody important in the organization.

Originally Aired: July 11, 1956
Suspense #658, "Want Ad," brings listeners into the chilling world of a professional thief who uses newspaper classifieds as his hunting ground. The nameless criminal, narrating his own story, describes his methodical approach: scanning want ads for expensive items like mink coats, targeting desperate sellers, and using charm and a gun to steal what he came to buy. He lives with his unsuspecting wife Wilma, who believes he has an ordinary job. When she leaves for the day, he gets to work.
His latest target is Mrs. Phelps, a woman selling her $4,000 silver blue mink coat. Posing as Mr. Vernon, an interested buyer, he arrives at her home, inspects the coat, and negotiates a price of $3,400. Just when Mrs. Phelps believes she has made a legitimate sale, he reveals the truth: he never intended to pay. With a gun in hand, he takes the coat and leaves her helpless and terrified, all in a day's work for this calculating predator who exploits ordinary people's vulnerabilities.

Originally Aired: July 3, 1956
Suspense #657, "The Music Lovers," Inspector Hendon and Detective Mallinson set up a roadblock to intercept Harold Gibson, who is driving a gray saloon containing Jeffrey Spencer, a missing senior engineer from Staines Aircraft Industries. Spencer has been missing for six days, kidnapped by agents seeking classified information about an experimental jet aircraft he helped design. When police stop the car, they discover Spencer barely alive in the backseat, beaten and tortured beyond recognition. Though dying, Spencer manages to communicate through eye blinks that he refused to give his captors the information they sought. Within moments, Spencer succumbs to his injuries, transforming the case into a murder investigation.
Facing an uncooperative Gibson who claims ignorance, Inspector Hendon makes a controversial decision. He takes the prisoner to an empty shop across the road and threatens to use the same brutal tactics employed on Spencer. Walking a dangerous line between duty and the law, Hendon must extract information about Spencer's killers before they disappear, even if it means risking his career and crossing ethical boundaries that could cost him everything.

Originally Aired: June 26, 1956
Suspense #656, "The Treasure Chest of Don Jose," Jose Gasparilla, the great-great-grandson of the legendary pirate Don Jose, discovers a life-changing secret in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane. When his friend Pedro helps him clear the ruins of his demolished house on Black Cay in the Gulf of Mexico, they uncover an iron box hidden within the old family chimney. Inside is a rotting parchment containing directions to the pirate's buried treasure. Unwilling to share his inheritance with anyone, not even loyal Pedro who saved his life during the storm, Jose secretly travels north to Cape Cod and Dogbody Island to claim what he believes is rightfully his.
As Jose begins excavating the treasure site, complications arise. The local chief of police appears and asks suspicious questions, forcing Jose to work under cover of darkness. Digging frantically by lantern light, Jose finally strikes something solid beneath the sand—an ironbound chest. Overwhelmed with emotion at finding his ancestor's treasure, Jose breaks down in tears of joy and relief. But as the sound of the surf mingles with his sobs, something else intrudes upon his moment of triumph, suggesting that the legendary curse of Dona Margarita may be more than just superstition.

Originally Aired: June 19, 1956
Suspense #655, "A Sleeping Draught," a brutal drama unfolds aboard a convict ship bound for Australia. Captain and his crew transport 400 prisoners from London to the penal colony at Botany Bay, under the watchful eye of the ruthless guard Finch, who maintains order with his cat-o-nine-tails. Among the convicts is Jonathan Abbey, a gentleman murderer facing the gallows upon arrival in Sydney. When Finch reveals that each prisoner smuggled gold sovereigns aboard—amounting to over a thousand pounds—the voyage takes a deadly turn.
As the ship rounds the Horn, tensions escalate. A prisoner is found brutally murdered, cut to pieces with hidden knives, and Finch realizes a terrifying truth: some convicts are systematically robbing and killing their fellow prisoners for the gold. With the ship still days from Sydney and only a handful of weapons among the crew, the Captain faces an impossible situation. Armed with pistols and muskets, he and Finch descend into the stinking hold to confront the murderers, knowing that any one of the 400 desperate men could be responsible—and that the crew themselves may not survive to reach port.