Suspense - Radio’s Outstanding Theater of Thrills

Last Confession

Originally Aired: September 15, 1949
Suspense #350, "Last Confession," Jesse, a young woman living with her roommate Edna, becomes increasingly disturbed by newspaper reports of a brutal murder. Thomas L. Howard has been found stabbed to death in Woodland Grove, and Jesse's overactive imagination begins to spiral. As she pores over the details, she's struck by the victim's resemblance to Henry Hackett, a former boyfriend she abruptly rejected. Jesse recalls their final conversation when Henry warned her she'd be responsible if something terrible happened to him. When she realizes the murder occurred on Tuesday, July 12th between 5 and 7 PM, Jesse makes an unsettling discovery: she cannot remember where she was during those crucial hours.
While Edna easily recalls her own whereabouts that evening, Jesse's mounting anxiety grows more intense. She becomes obsessed with the black glove found at the scene, her own size five, and wrestles with disturbing questions about conscience, guilt, and whether anyone is truly incapable of murder. As Jesse's memories blur and her imagination takes hold, she begins to wonder if the unthinkable could be possible.

Chicken Feed

Originally Aired: September 8, 1949
Suspense #349, "Chicken Feed," stars Ray Milland as Ralph Clark, a San Francisco attorney whose marriage spat over a nickel spirals into a nightmare. After storming out of his house following an argument with his wife Mary about giving their son Junior a nickel, Ralph drives fifty miles to cool off. He stops in Lansing, California—a notorious speed-trap town—for a cup of coffee, only to discover he's left his wallet at home when he tries to make a phone call to apologize to Mary.
What begins as an embarrassing situation quickly escalates when Officer Brady grows suspicious of Ralph's lack of identification or money. Taken to the police station to make his call, Ralph watches helplessly as Mary refuses to accept the collect charges, still angry from their fight. With no way to prove his identity and the station's regular phone out of order, Ralph finds himself locked in a cell on suspicion of fraud and car theft. All for the want of a single nickel—the very thing that started the argument in the first place.

Nightmare

Originally Aired: September 1, 1949
Suspense #348, "Nightmare," stars Gregory Peck as Ben, a family man whose tranquil Fourth of July fishing trip turns into a harrowing tragedy. After a near-miss with children playing baseball the previous evening leaves him shaken, Ben drives his wife Elsa, who is recovering from a nervous breakdown, and their young son Stevie into the trout country. When the car runs out of gas on a winding mountain road, Ben walks to find fuel, leaving Elsa and Stevie behind. A local gas station attendant warns him about reckless drivers heading to a roadhouse called the Royal Coachman, and Ben witnesses a speeding car tearing dangerously up the road.
When Ben returns to his family, he finds his fishing rod broken in the road and discovers that Stevie has been killed by a hit-and-run driver. Elsa, traumatized and barely able to speak, describes how a speeding car came around the bend and struck their son while he practiced casting. As Ben tries to comfort his wife and process the devastating loss, Elsa reveals a chilling detail about the driver who killed their child and then returned to the scene.

The Day I Died

Originally Aired: June 30, 1949
Suspense #347, "The Day I Died," stars Joseph Cotten as Wells Galloway, a wealthy lawyer whose life has crumbled around him. Having embezzled bonds from an estate he was entrusted to manage, Wells retreats to his isolated cabin at Lake Latima to contemplate his desperate situation. His wife Leslie has fallen in love with another man, Norman Vale, and his money is gone. When his red-haired law partner Red Tuttle arrives demanding that Wells return the stolen bonds or face exposure to the police, a violent confrontation erupts. In a moment of rage and panic, Wells shoots Red dead, then flees into the dark woods in terror.
The next morning, a truck driver gives Wells a ride and shares shocking news: a cabin burned to the ground at Lake Latima, and the murderer has been identified through a ring and watch found at the scene. But the authorities believe the killer is Red Tuttle and the victim is Wells Galloway. Now legally dead, Wells returns to discover what it means to be a man with no identity, no authority, and no power over his own life or even his widow.

Ghost Hunt

Originally Aired: June 23, 1949
Suspense #346, "Ghost Hunt," disc jockey Smiley Smith embarks on a publicity stunt that goes terribly wrong. Looking to boost ratings and help property owner Mr. Thorpe sell a notorious house known as "the death trap," where four people have committed suicide since 1939, Smiley plans to spend the night there with psychic investigator Dr. Clarence Reed. Using walkie-talkies connected to his wire recorder, Smiley intends to broadcast proof that the house isn't haunted. The next morning, when Thorpe and real estate agent McDonald arrive to collect the two men, they find the house seemingly deserted except for the wire recorder still running. A frantic search leads to a horrifying discovery: Dr. Reed lying unconscious and covered in blood, while Smiley Smith has mysteriously vanished.
As Reed receives emergency medical treatment and the radio station searches for the missing disc jockey, McDonald and Thorpe prepare to play back the wire recording from the fateful night, hoping it will reveal what supernatural or sinister events unfolded in the haunted house.

The Trap

Originally Aired: June 16, 1949
In Suspense #345, "The Trap," Agnes Moorhead stars as Helen Crane, a physician's secretary living alone in a large, labyrinthine house. Helen becomes convinced that someone is secretly living in her home when she's awakened in the middle of the night by whistling echoing through the empty rooms. The police find no signs of forced entry or burglary, dismissing her concerns, but Helen insists that small, disturbing details prove an intruder's presence: a missing muffin from her bread box, a stopped clock mysteriously wound and ticking again, and most alarming of all, a change of address card filled out on her own typewriter, with its distinctive defects, requesting her mail be forwarded to Paris, France.
When Helen shares her fears with her employer, Dr. Perry, he too dismisses her claims as neurotic delusions born from exhaustion and an overactive imagination. But Helen knows what she heard and saw. As she returns home each day, she becomes increasingly aware that someone is moving through her honeycomb of rooms and closets, staying just out of sight, planning something she cannot yet fathom.

Lunch Kit

Originally Aired: June 9, 1949
Suspense #344, "Lunch Kit," brings a chilling tale of sabotage and betrayal at an atomic plant. Jonathan, a young man torn between duty and conscience, reluctantly helps his father execute a deadly plan. His father, a fanatic convinced that atomic fission will destroy the world, enlists an old-timer mechanic named Gus to build a bomb disguised inside an ordinary lunch kit. As Gus carefully fills a thermos bottle with nitroglycerin and attaches a detonator set to explode at 6:30 the next morning, Jonathan's anxiety builds. He must transport this deadly device to the plant where he works, all while carpooling with his talkative coworker Mike, who suspects nothing.
Every bump in the road during the tense drive to the plant threatens disaster. Jonathan keeps the speed under 25 miles per hour while Mike complains about being late and the lunch kit rattles ominously in the dashboard. Once at the facility, Jonathan passes through the security gate with his innocent-looking lunch kit, the guard making small talk while death sits just inches away. The clock is ticking toward morning, and Jonathan must decide whether to follow through with his father's apocalyptic vision.

The Ten Years

Originally Aired: June 2, 1949
Suspense #343, "The Ten Years," stars Joan Crawford as Clara, a woman confined to an institution, haunted by memories of her sister Adele. Clara recounts their childhood promise to remain together "always and forever" after their mother's death, a vow that binds them into adulthood. When Clara falls in love with Douglas Foley and marries him despite Adele's desperate pleas, her sister cuts off all contact in a bitter, unforgiving silence. Years later, upon returning from Europe with her husband and young son Doug, Clara attempts reconciliation, only to find Adele transformed—her hair white, her demeanor strange and unsettling.
The situation turns tragic when Clara's husband is murdered in their garden, killed by a narrow wound to the heart. Though acquitted due to insufficient evidence, Clara faces new horror when her son Doug encounters the reclusive Adele at her dilapidated home. When Doug's friend Roy rushes to Clara with alarming news, she realizes her young son is alone with Adele—a woman who insists that Douglas Foley must "die again." Clara's memories reveal a chilling tale of obsessive devotion, broken promises, and the terrible price of abandoning a sacred childhood vow.

The Night Reveals

Originally Aired: May 26, 1949
Suspense #342, "The Night Reveals," presents Frederick March as Harry Jordan, a fire insurance investigator whose world begins to unravel during a single strange night. When Harry awakens at 2 a.m. to find his wife Marie's bed empty, he questions the elevator operator and learns she left half an hour earlier. Marie claims she only stepped out for aspirin ten minutes ago, but the details don't add up. She's walking from the wrong direction, her timeline contradicts the doorman's account, and an uncomfortable tension settles between them as they return to bed in silence.
Almost immediately, Harry receives a call about a devastating fire just blocks away on 98th Street, in his own district. The next morning, while inspecting the gutted building with his supervisor Mr. Palmiter and the Commissioner, Harry discovers something curious in the ashes beneath the twisted remains of baby carriages: a blob of yellow metal that looks suspiciously like gold. As Harry pockets his discovery and heads home early, the pieces of a troubling puzzle begin taking shape, connecting his wife's mysterious nocturnal excursion with the conveniently timed blaze.

Consequence

Originally Aired: May 19, 1949
Suspense #341, "Consequence," stars James Stewart as Dr. Phil Martin, a physician whose seemingly perfect life conceals deep unhappiness. When his old college friend Ted Wolf visits after ten years, Phil confesses a shocking truth: he despises his marriage to Gwen, who has forced him to abandon his dreams of meaningful medical work to maintain their wealthy lifestyle. What Ted doesn't know is that Phil is desperately in love with his nurse, Joe, whose father has discovered their affair and threatened to expose them to both the hospital trustees and Gwen.
As Phil struggles between the two women in his life, the tension escalates. Joe announces she's leaving town for good, believing their impossible situation offers no solution. Phil begs her to run away with him, willing to abandon everything for a fresh start, but Joe knows Gwen would never grant him a divorce and would destroy his career if he tried to leave. With Ted waiting back at the house and Phil's carefully constructed world collapsing around him, a desperate decision looms that will have lasting consequences for everyone involved.