Unknown Broadcast | Terror on the Heath and at the Gallows: Four Horror Stories of Murder and Suspense - Weekly Spooky: Scary Stories for Halloween

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Ah, my dear, so good of you to come back.
Oh what's that?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
I suppose I have been in a good mindset as
of late, although sometimes I feel a bit morose over
the idea of missing wide open spaces, places beyond my
humble habitat, as it were. Please please get comfortable. I'll

(00:44):
get you a little something to drink, something hot to
warm your soul and your spirit, while I have already
found something to chill our old bones. I miss the
fields and the son, I miss terror on the heat.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Come in, welcome, I'm e g marshall.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
I'm sure you will agree that almost every religion holds
that the soul is immortal and recognizes a life after death. However,
we're going to be telling you about people who believe
in reincarnation, and they have a somewhat different approach to immortality.

(01:53):
Those who believe in reincarnation are convinced that your soul
lives on in another person and his body in a
later life. Some men and women even claim they remember
bits and pieces of their former lives. I see a gallows,

(02:14):
it's a hanging man. I can hear the creak of
the gibbet and a rattle of chambers. I hear them plainly.
There are people watching people dress strangely dressed in clothing
of a different century, some of them agating and drinking.

(02:35):
They're enjoying watching a man hang, a man like me, me,
David Matts, who lives today.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I see them and they're hanging, and I know I
was there.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
I was there. Our mystery drama Terror on the Heath
was written especially for the mystery Theater by Murray Burnett
and stars Shepherd Strudwick.

Speaker 5 (03:18):
The KCBS Mystery Theater, the Theater of the Mind. There's
always news and more on KCBS.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Are you a browser, I mean a browser in a bookstore.
If you are, you will readily acknowledge that bookstores are
sectioned off with books in various classifications. One of the
largest sections has become the how to books. On those shelves,

(03:53):
the reader can find a book that will tell him
how to do almost anything, from painting or sewing.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
They're making a harpsichord.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Everything that is, except a book telling a man how
to explain to his wife that.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
He's leaving her.

Speaker 6 (04:10):
David Darling, I didn't know this was serious, very serious.
But whatever it is, we'll weather it. We've had quite
a few ups and downs in ten years of marriage.
Will handle it together.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
That's just it. This is this is something that you
will have to handle alone. I don't understand.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
Look, Jan, I don't know any other way of saying this.
I'm going to leave you.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
You mean that, don't you?

Speaker 4 (04:40):
Yes, I'm sorry, all right, David? Why I can't tell you?

Speaker 6 (04:47):
You can't tell me, David, look at me. I'm the
woman you loved. But at least I think you love me.
For ten years You're not.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Going I still love you, Jan, and I swear, Then
why are you leaving?

Speaker 4 (05:02):
Because because I have to have to, you won't have
a thing to worry about. I'll take care of you
and the children, just as if.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I were leaving you.

Speaker 6 (05:10):
I just don't believe this whole scene. It's like something
out of Alice in.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Wonderland or ed Gallan Pole what.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
I think, twenty five hundred a month should cover everything.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
But if you need you mean about Edgar Allan Poe.
Nothing is twenty five hundred going.

Speaker 6 (05:27):
To be using words as a smoke screen to hide
the truth.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
We've never done that. I guess there's no way a
man can ever tell a woman he's leaving. All I
want is the reason why you're leaving.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
That's just what I can't tell you. What are you
going to tell the children?

Speaker 6 (05:46):
Isn't that your job? You're the one who's leaving. Oh David,
this isn't like you.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
What's happened?

Speaker 4 (05:55):
I wish you was something simple and less cruel, like
being a to say, Jen, I've fallen in love and
I want a divorce. But it isn't like that at all?

Speaker 3 (06:07):
And what is it like a horror story?

Speaker 7 (06:15):
No?

Speaker 4 (06:16):
No, no, secretary is going to tell me that Dave
Mason's not into me.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
He'll see me and he's going to It's all right,
miss Manners, I'll see miss Dampson coming on. Well, thanks? Now,
what's this business about? You're leaving?

Speaker 7 (06:29):
Jad?

Speaker 3 (06:29):
All about? I suppose this couldn't be avoided? Why would
you want to avoid me? Your best friend?

Speaker 4 (06:35):
What is all this stuff about horror stories? Ned Grallan
Poe or it's just a figure of Oh sure, just
enough to make you walk away from what I know
was a good marriage. Thanks long, and you're going to
tell me why you're doing it, but only only if
you give me your solemn promise that you won't tell
Jan or Cicely.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
But that's exactly I know.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
I know, that's exactly why you came to find out
and try to help to tell Jan.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
But that's the one thing you can't do. Okay, you
have my word.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
I'd like you to look at these photostatic copies of
the English newspapers of the eighteen fifties?

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Are you kidding? Breed them?

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Hampstead Heath terror strikes again, vicious killer claims a victim
nine year old girl, stabbed to death. Look, David, I
don't see what these want. But these are just more
of the same police baffled.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
By Heath knifings.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Inspector Gregory of Scotland yard brands, slasher esadist.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
That's enough to give you the general idea.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
Yes, it's also enough to confuse me thoroughly. What the devil?

Speaker 3 (07:43):
The devil? That's a good word.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Ever?

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Hear a reincarnation one?

Speaker 4 (07:48):
Oh no, Now, wait a minute. You're not going to
try to make me believe that you are the twentieth
century reincarnation of this madman. And that should make it
obvious why I must leave Jan and cannot tell her
why And you believe this on the basis of these
newspaper clipping not quite long. There's more, much more. It

(08:08):
was incredible to me at first when was first about
six months ago, I read a book by Robert Ripple,
a book that was a factual account of the lives
of three notorious criminals of the nineteenth century. I was
impressed for the writing and by the author, an assistant
curator of the nineteenth Century wing of the Museum.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Of English History.

Speaker 4 (08:31):
There was one criminal in particular that fascinated me. I
somehow felt I knew him, This Hampstead Heath Knifer right,
And that was when I had the first dream.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Dream.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
Yes, I had a few drinks with Bob Ripple before
coming home and we talked about some changes, and I
dreamed I saw Hampstead Heath quite clearly.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
It's really a forest, you know.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
And then along a walk outside the forest, I saw
a woman's figure. I ran after her, and she turned
to face me with her hands outstretched, not to welcome me,
long to ward me off. And when I saw a
face and streaming blood, blood from knife slashes, and then.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
And then I woke up.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
All right, all right, So you had a nightmare. That
doesn't prove.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
That was only the first.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
They began to come more and more frequently, and in
greater and more monstrous de tale with women and young
girls and blood, and I don't want to open it up. Well,
all right, all right, I'll grant you it's pretty rough, David,
but still, okay, come on around behind my desk. What
do you see in the drawer?

Speaker 3 (09:45):
A knife?

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Not just any knife long, that's a switch blade with
a spring, lethal and illegal.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Okay, when did you get it and why?

Speaker 4 (09:53):
I don't remember buying it, and I have no idea
of how it got there, but I distinctly remember the
first time I saw it there. It was a day
after I had my face slept by a girl I'd
never seen in my life and been called a murderer.
What I was coming back from a lunch with Bob Ripple,
the author of the book that opened the floodgates, a

(10:15):
rather attractive girl in her early twenties approached us.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
I don't know exactly how it happened, but.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
Suddenly we found ourselves face to face and started to
indulge in that ridiculous walls of both stepping the same
way to get.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Out of each other's well.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
Oh, I know, I know, Suddenly she looked full at
me and hissed murderer and fainted right there on the sidewalk.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Well, she she was sick.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
That was what Bob Ripple kept telling me as he
hustled me away.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
But why why would she call me a murderer?

Speaker 7 (10:44):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
She's the one with problems. There's nothing wrong with you, Lon.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
Do you think it's possible but that maybe this girl
was the reincarnation of one of this killer's victims and
she recognized me as this killer. Oh No, I don't
think it's possible, but obviously you do.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
It was the next day that I saw the knife
in my desk. Look, Dave, look, you're in a state.

Speaker 4 (11:08):
How would you like to see a face long, my face,
my face on the picture of a nineteenth century killer?
What come with me? And I show it to you, Lon.
This is Robert Ripple, assistant curator of the nineteenth Century
wing of this museum.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Ah, nice meeting you, pleasure.

Speaker 4 (11:30):
Bob and I waited the room with the photographic exhibits.
Would you fill on in? Glad you This particular exhibit
started because of my interest in the three notorious criminals
of the era. Naturally, I collected all the newspaper clipping, stories, drawings,
and photographs I could find and placed them in the
room along with other items that I drew them into
the collection. I hear I exhibited the degeotypes of some

(11:55):
of the fabulous characters of the period, along with the criminals,
and heal on can look at this, to Garrett type
and tell me what you think. Let me see, well,
good looking guy, nice face. And if you want me
to say he looks like you, I'll say it. There's
a great resemblance, all right?

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Who is he? You tell him?

Speaker 4 (12:13):
That man is Charles Mason, otherwise known as the Terror
of Hampstead Teeth, the killer who was hanged at Tyburn
December ninth, eighteen forty one.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
I can remember, I can almost hear David.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Let him go back, Let him remember, you can hurt
him to try to bring him back.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Now, I can hear the wind.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
And the creak of the gibbet, and the James and
the people, the people shaving their eyes against the cool sun,
looking up to see what kind of monster was suspended
in air, paying with his life a slashed and bleeding

(13:01):
bodies of the women he had mutilated.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
God Lord, have you seen him like this before, only once.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
What do we do if it follows the pattern of
the other time. He'll come out of it soon. He's
coming around. I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
I guess I made a pool of myself. You couldn't
help it, Dave weld.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
On, what do you think? Well? I, uh, self hypnosis?
What self hypnosis? You read Ripple's book. It impressed you.
You became involved in the several hours you were here.
You saw that bagheera type that resembles you, and now
you've hypnotized yourself into believing that you're a reincarnation of
a murderous madman. I don't blame you for not wanting

(13:49):
to believe I'm the reincarnation of a killer like Charles
may Look, what just happened was frightening, but not necessarily
any proof that you're right, mister Ripple. Did you you
write about the hanging of Charles Mason?

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (14:03):
Certainly, And there was nothing Dave said that he couldn't
have gotten from reading your book. Huh, yes, that's right,
or some of the other books I showed him.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
There have been many graphic descriptions of the hangings of Tyburn. Ah. Well,
there you are, Dave I wish you were right, Dave.

Speaker 4 (14:20):
Yes, I've thought of something that might just solve your
friend's problem.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
All right, let's hear it.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
One of the most horrible on Mason's crimes was the
murder of a young lady named Letty Legroux in eighteen
thirty seven. Her nude corpse was found on Hampstead teeth
horribly butchered. Her clothes were never recovered. Or what are
you trying to say? If if Dave could remember what

(14:49):
clothes Letty Legroux was wearing. But how can we check
out whether I'm telling the truth. I can give some
kind of a description, but you just said nobody ever.
You'll have to trust me, Dave. I believe there might
be a clue if you're willing to give it a try,
of course, So we go back to the gallery. No,
you stay here, I'll go fetch to the Garrett type

(15:11):
of mission. It's hard to see because it's a storm brewing.
I see the leaves blowing and the trees bending.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
There's something else. I think you a woman.

Speaker 8 (15:34):
Please, I mustn't slip afore.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
He's following me.

Speaker 9 (15:38):
I know he's following your Dear God, help me.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
I see something going a dress. Yes, it's a dress,
alarm dress. The girl is holding it up, she's running.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
I have to carry gaining the leave of the dress.
What hollow is the dress?

Speaker 4 (16:00):
Day?

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Can you see? She's gone gone? The color of the dress?
Was it white?

Speaker 7 (16:07):
No?

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Not white?

Speaker 2 (16:08):
And yelling?

Speaker 3 (16:11):
A yellow dress with a pale.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
Matching scar and a lace handkerchief. The hankeetiff is white,
but the dress is yellow. There have been some fairly
convincing arguments on the side of reincarnations. There are a

(16:33):
number of reputable people who insist they can recall bits
and portions of a life lived in another time.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
I know one young lady who.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Vividly recalls a life as a waitress in Jamestown during
colonial days. But I don't know of anyone who can
recall being a murderer. I'll be back shortly with that too.
Now back to misteryes. On New seventy four KCBS. Most

(17:08):
people go to museums to view the works of art.
David Matson took his best friend Lan Henderson to a
museum to prove to Henderson that he Mathson was really
the reincarnation of a monstrous killer of the nineteenth century
named Charles Mason. He showed Lawn a degerotype of Mason,

(17:30):
and Lawn was impressed by the resemblance, but he demanded
more positive poof Bob. You said there might be some
clue you could learn something if I identified some.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
Clothes that a girl was wearing. I did. Did you
find the clue? I'm afraid we did, Dave. Afraid that
means you believe that Dave is the reincarnation of Charles Mason.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
I told you the clothes that lennyleg Grow wore when
she was slashed to death never been found. What I
didn't tell you was that some six or seven years
after her murder, a fine piece of white cambric that
had obviously been a lady's handkerchief was found on the heath,
together with some yellow material. Some historians were convinced that

(18:14):
the handkerchief had been Ladylick Rose, and that the yellow
material was part of a dress she'd been wearing, but
no one could prove.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
It until now.

Speaker 4 (18:27):
Until now, until you just described a yellow dress and
a white handkerchief.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Hello, Robert Ripple speaking.

Speaker 10 (18:49):
This is missus David Natson.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
You don't know me.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Well, the wife of the publisher.

Speaker 10 (18:54):
Yes, that's right, I'd like to come and see you.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
What about.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Husband and the reason he left me? My dear missus Matson.
I find this conversation was strange. You perfect stranger calling
me to discuss your merital problems. Why in the world
would you believe that I would.

Speaker 7 (19:13):
Be told.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
By whom I can't understand why mister Henderson preferred you
to me because.

Speaker 7 (19:21):
He's our best friend, that.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
He finally gave me your name.

Speaker 4 (19:27):
They also has the information I have. That's all I
want tell mister Henderson. I find he's putting you on
to me cowardly. I have no intention, Missus Madison, love
seeing you or discussing your husband and his actions at
any time now or in the future.

Speaker 6 (19:49):
I must thank you, mister Ripple for your curtesy and
showing me so much of your part of the museum.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Not at all, Missus Larson, when the curator called and
told me you were interested in become a patron of
the museum, because only natural we should try to show
you the sort of things in which we spend your money.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Well, and you've impressed me very much, so.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
If you don't think me impertinent, Missus Larson, how much
so did you have any specific sum for a contribution
in mine?

Speaker 6 (20:17):
Not precisely. I really need more information. Now I must
return to Boston later today. So well, I just want
to thank you for making time for me in your
busy schedule.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
Pleasure. Oh really this picture? Uh de guerotype, Missus Lawston? Whatever?

Speaker 7 (20:36):
Now?

Speaker 3 (20:37):
Why this man? He looks so familiar? Who's he?

Speaker 4 (20:41):
A notorious killer man named Charles Mason who was hanged
in eighteen forty one?

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Now if we couldare move on's a moment.

Speaker 6 (20:48):
Now this vay seem somewhat strange request, But I would
like this bagariat type.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
I beg your pardon. I'd like to purchase.

Speaker 6 (20:57):
Them or let me say, I would make a substantial
bequest in the museum if I could have this picture.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
And why would you want that particular picture, Missus Larson,
I take it?

Speaker 3 (21:09):
No other will do will? Surely I don't have to
explain what you do?

Speaker 4 (21:14):
God, what what are you doing calling a guard to
escort you out of the building?

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Missus Matson?

Speaker 8 (21:21):
Why are you?

Speaker 4 (21:21):
And I'd advise you not to make a fuss, because
if you so much to utter another syllable, I'll call
the police and have you arrested for impersonating a donor
when you had no such intention.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Now get out of here. I honestly wait.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
I did help him at his I told you before
me on the golf course all afternoon, but I told you.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
To get a message to him that it was a
matter of.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
Life and death.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
We have I don't know why.

Speaker 6 (21:52):
Right now, listen, tell him I'm coming out to see him,
and he should wait there for me, no matter what happens.

Speaker 8 (22:06):
That picture, that picture, it.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Was exactly the face of David.

Speaker 6 (22:13):
I've got to find one. He's trying to avoid me.
It's too dark now for him to be out on
the golf course. Oh ouse, Well, it's gravel. I should
have remembered to change my shoes. I think I'll walk
on the grass.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
Who's that? Is there anyone there?

Speaker 6 (22:39):
I know you're behind that bush, and I'm not in
the mood to play any stupid games.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
No one. I got really nice?

Speaker 4 (22:49):
Oh, oh, cham Chen, Do you realize that guy could
have killed you?

Speaker 3 (23:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (23:04):
I don't know why he came at me, but I'm
very glad you got there when you did.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Well, I didn't. I missed catching him. Didn't you see
his face?

Speaker 6 (23:11):
No, no, He came up from behind me. He circled
around the bushes.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
I see, do you think you should stay in this
house alone? Well? Why not? It's my own home. Jen,
You're not completely right.

Speaker 6 (23:24):
I appreciate your concern. They'd never have let me out
of the emergency room at the hospital.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
They didn't think I was Okay. No, I'm his bandage.
It doesn't bother me at all, But you do me.
Why did you send me to Ripple? Oh? Jan, how
much do you know about reincarnation?

Speaker 6 (23:45):
You mean, the belief that your soul lives on in
someone else's body after you die. Yes, yes, well what's
all that got?

Speaker 2 (23:54):
No?

Speaker 4 (23:54):
Wait, David's involvement with Ripple's book has somehow convinced him
that the soul of this night eighteenth century killer Charles
Mason was in his body.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Oh that's ridiculous. Yes, that's what I thought too. Thought.
Then you believe?

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (24:09):
Please.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
After reading Ripple's book, Dave told me he felt strangely
familiar with all the events that related to Charles Mason.
He said he felt as if he'd almost lived them.
He went to the museum to talk with Ripple about
this strange phenomenon. And then he saw the picture, and
well you saw it.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Can you deny that.

Speaker 6 (24:31):
You allowed a resemblance to convince you that David was
a reincarnation of a nineteenth century criminal.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
I refuse to believe that there's more Jack.

Speaker 6 (24:41):
Nothing that you can say will convince me reincarnational.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Listen.

Speaker 6 (24:48):
People have been arguing about whether there really is such
a thing as a soul for century.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Now listen to me.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
David looked at that picture and went into some sort
of a trance. He recalled actual scenes in incidents from
more than one hundred years ago.

Speaker 6 (25:03):
David is a bright man with a vast store of knowledge.
His subconscious must retain his readings from hundreds of books
and manuscripts, and then, because of some quirk and his
vivid imagination, he's able to recall it.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
No. I know, I felt the way you did, and
I brought up the subject of self hypnosis. It was
then that David described the clothing of one of Mason's victims,
and that's one thing he couldn't have read or heard anywhere.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
Then you must believe that David was right to leave me. Well,
he loves you, what else could he have done? Trusted
that love trusted our years together, trusted the strength that's.

Speaker 6 (25:44):
Made our marriage work, and told me the truth and
tried to work it out together.

Speaker 5 (25:48):
Well, how do you go about working something like this out?

Speaker 3 (25:51):
If David really is I'm not going to consider that possibility.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
You have to why because of that bandage you're wearing
on your arm?

Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was somebody went after you with a knife. I know,
And why would anyone want to slash you? I don't know.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
We live in a violent world. No, no, Jan, No,
this happened at the club. This was no ordinary mugging.
What are you trying to say? I'm look, are you
sure there wasn't anything familiar about the man who attacked you,
something that might.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Remind you of were trying to make me think it
was David? Aren't you? You are trying to make me
say it was David. You think it was David, don't you? Jan? Look, Please,
we have to get out of my house.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
Please be reasonable, I said, and I meant it.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Oh lord, Oh, I'm so glad you came. Now. I
apologize for my behavior the other night. There was no no, no,
no no.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
I forgive you, Jan, I understand, But what do you
want from me now?

Speaker 6 (27:01):
To go with me to see Jason Beckwith and tell
him everything you know about this strange delusion of David's.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Jason Beckwith he's a.

Speaker 6 (27:11):
Professor of Romance languages at the university, and he's also
a highly regarded student of the occult. I shouldn't say student,
he's an acknowledged authority.

Speaker 3 (27:20):
Jan Have you seen today's paper? No? And you haven't
read the story about the woman who was killed in
the park last night.

Speaker 6 (27:29):
Lon, I promised I wouldn't lose my temper no matter
how many ridiculous though.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Hold it, it's not ridiculous. A woman was slashed to
death in Hudson Park Earl this morning by a man
with a knife. Now that's a newspaper.

Speaker 6 (27:39):
I suppose that you don't have a sneaking suspicion that
that man with a knife might have been David.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
You bet I have. David is not a killer, all right?
All right? Why don't you call him and ask him
where he was? He couldn't kill anyone?

Speaker 4 (27:53):
Are you afraid to call him?

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Hello?

Speaker 7 (28:06):
Oh, David Darling?

Speaker 11 (28:09):
How are you?

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Jan? Look Dan?

Speaker 4 (28:12):
If you didn't get to check, I'm sorry, but I
really have been bombed out for the last past few days.
I don't remember, Bob, try to talk. Look, Jan, I'm
not the guy in you.

Speaker 10 (28:26):
Don't you try to tell me who you are. David,
you're talking to the girl who married you.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
You just saw what you're up against.

Speaker 7 (28:34):
But I do, I don't know.

Speaker 10 (28:38):
You know, I know exactly what you believe, and I
also know it's a lot of nonsense. Oh darling, I
want you to come home.

Speaker 4 (28:47):
Lone should never have told you he betrayed me and
did you no good?

Speaker 3 (28:53):
I can't face you now ever, Well he hung up
on me, mm hmm. And what about last night?

Speaker 6 (29:06):
He couldn't remember? He well, I guess you must have
been drinking. Bombed out was the phrase he used.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
Put your mouths to, admitting that he doesn't have an
alibi for last night.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
He doesn't need an alibi. David is not a criminal.
He thinks he is.

Speaker 12 (29:21):
Well.

Speaker 6 (29:21):
He's getting a lot of support from some of his
best friends.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
And please believe I thoughted you wanted the museum You
didn't see and hear why?

Speaker 6 (29:28):
And you haven't lived with David for ten years?

Speaker 3 (29:31):
You think you can ever know David as I do?

Speaker 9 (29:34):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Well, how can I answer that? You don't try?

Speaker 6 (29:38):
Just come along with me and keep the appointment with
Professor Beckwith.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
It's not unusual for a wife to believe in her husband.
It's also not too startling to find that her husband
doesn't believe in himself. However, it's both strange and frightening
to find a wife that seems to be willing to
reach back into the past to prove her husband's innocence.

(30:10):
I'll be back shortly with Act three. The radio station
that lets you use your mind. You're listening to mystery
theaters four K CDs. The power of Love against the

(30:32):
power of death, the power of good against evil. Most
of us like to believe that good will triumph, but
very few of us are ever asked to put our
beliefs to the acid test.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
Janice is doing just that. She refuses to.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
Believe the evidence that her husband, David, is the reincarnation
of a nineteenth century killer. And she and her husband's
best friend and have come to an appointment with an
expert on reincarnation and your cult. Remarkable, most interesting, in fact,
one of the most remarkable stories I've ever heard. Professor

(31:13):
you can take my word for it. I saw just
what I told you. Nothing came from my imagination. My
dear Henderson, do stop calling me, professor, and do stop
being so defensive. I know you told me the truth.

Speaker 6 (31:26):
You don't mean you believe David is a reincarnation of
that killer, My.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
Dear missus Matson, Jan, my dear Jan. Before I can
answer that question, and before you panic, you have to
understand more about the whole theory of reincarnation.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
That's why we're here now.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
Reincarnation is part of some, but not all, Oriental religions,
the belief that the soul needs to be reborn, and
final liberation and release from this need is the highest
possible achievement.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Why is there a need to be reborn because of
impurities in the or sin? Professor? I'm sorry, mister Beckway.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
The final liberation of the soul, Henderson, is possible only
for a human being who has attained purity of thought.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
And if one doesn't have this purity of.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
Thought, then a new life is generated from an old
just as a new candle is lighted from an old one.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
A new life.

Speaker 6 (32:27):
You said, that's right, completely new and completely different. Trying
perhaps to rid yourself of impurities.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
Possibly, well, then how do you account for the almost
total recall that Dave had for the events and crimes
connected with Charles Mason.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
One explanation would be that he remembers them. But if
David was striving for a new life, I.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Didn't say there wouldn't be traces and memories of another life.
And I believe David has surfaced these memories. But that
doesn't necessarily prove David Metson is the reincarnation of Charles Mason.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
Well how else could Dave have none could.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
Have experienced the things he recalled A suspectator.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
No, no way back with I was in the museum
and you weren't.

Speaker 4 (33:13):
I saw and heard a deep emotional involvement on Dave's part.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
He was no spectator, Henderson.

Speaker 4 (33:19):
You've just put your finger on the single most significant
bits of evidence in this hostage history. In fact, it's
the cornerstone of a theory I'm beginning to form.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
Come on, now, look I feel like a criminal. Now,
don't be silly, but I'm setting David up.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
He thinks he's going to see me, and wait till
you see the look he gives me when you walk
into his arm. Come on, where are you going?

Speaker 6 (33:52):
We're going in the back way. If I passed the
desk the receptionist for phone David.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
Uh, you know January really something else. I just hope
that they had me worry about David Law. All right, David,
I'm sorry we used the back door, but it was
my idea. I can Why didn't you call to tell
David you look awful?

Speaker 7 (34:17):
You look so tired.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
You know you could use a vacation up at the lodge.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
We could, Yeah, how I wish I could that It
was as simple as that. I'd love to go away
with you for a while, just the two of us.

Speaker 6 (34:33):
Well, we can't, what I thought. I mean, we've got
some work to do.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
First, work Yes on your head. Now listen, Lon, what
is it. She's your wife and she's great, and she
has met with Professor Jason Beckwith and he's agreed to
work out an experiment.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
What kind of an experiment?

Speaker 4 (34:50):
Well, I think Jan had better explain it since she's
also going to be part of it.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Sorry, Jan, it sounds too risky, Darling.

Speaker 6 (35:03):
I've told you it's a controlled experiment. Who's with yes,
and Lon will be there too.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
The plain truth Jan is that I'm afraid, well, of course,
and you're afraid to come home and you're afraid to
see me alone. You're afraid to face the night. Is
that the way you want to live for the rest
of your life? I may have to, but don't.

Speaker 6 (35:23):
You see the experiment offers us a way out. I
know you're not Charles Mason in any way.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
And when you say it, you almost make me believe it. Well,
it's true, so trust me. Oh, I trust you. It's me.
I'm worried about. How's your arm? It's much better. You
can see this out of the sling. The police haven't
found who attacked you yet. They're working on it. Now.
When do you want me to arrange for this? Badly hurt? Now?

(35:52):
It's just a surface cut. Now listen, David Darling, it's Wendy.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
I'll be back in a moment. I'm not feeling I'll
be with you in a minute.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
Jim Londo after him? What I don't want? Hurry David?

Speaker 13 (36:08):
Oh, Doland, don't tell you that go down?

Speaker 4 (36:19):
Why did you grab my hand on? Why didn't you
let me kill myself? Because that's no answer. You asked
about the alternative and this is the one that takes
care of everything.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
Are you sure about that?

Speaker 7 (36:31):
What?

Speaker 3 (36:32):
Who are you this is Jason that quest Darling. We
sent for him after after your stupidity. I knew exactly
what I was doing, and I knew.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
Why then explain it to I don't have to explain anything.
You don't find it difficult to believe that the soul
of a man dead more than one hundred years has
been reborn in your body.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
It's been pretty well proven to me.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
And because you're afraid of the soul of this murderer
will force you into killing your wife or some other women,
you decid it.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
To kill yourself. That's about it. And what happens to
the immortal soul? What I asked?

Speaker 4 (37:07):
What do you think will happen to that soul that
didn't die on the gallows at Tyburn in eighteen forty one?
What happens when David Matson blows his brains out?

Speaker 3 (37:19):
What happens to that soul? I don't know? Think about it?

Speaker 4 (37:28):
Does it go on to inhabit another body and continue killing?

Speaker 3 (37:33):
I would know that, do you know?

Speaker 4 (37:36):
But I'd like to try and find out if you'll
help me and go along with the experiment I have
in mind.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
You want to go ahead with this, Dave?

Speaker 4 (37:53):
Yes, okay, But I'm under orders to inform you that
this will be the last experiment into the past, conduct
it on these premises, and the Professor's briefed you on
what we hope to accomplish her tonight.

Speaker 3 (38:05):
No, not completely.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
I assume it's the continuation of your trips into the past,
with some additions.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
Mister Ripple.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
Those marbles you have in that bag, all right, hmm interesting.
I assume they're going to play some part in the
proposed expand oh they are, as will. The clothing I
have in this box? Is that a knife?

Speaker 3 (38:27):
It is with.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
A sharp blade, as sharp as I could get it.
Don't you think that? I believe that On the top
floor of this museum there's a long, narrow corridor which
runs the length of the building.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
Correct connects two rally use storerooms. I'm much for you.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
It's probably very stuffy up There is the window we
can open. Well, yes, yes, good, good, With the exception
of Jan, I suggest we all get up there quickly. Excellent,
mister Ripple. Er a corridor just as you described it,

(39:11):
And now the window has been opened and we're all
gathered here ready to start.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
I thought Jan was She told me she had to
be part of the experiment. She'll be a long leader.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
David, there were some things we had to keep from here, Ripple,
Is there anyway you could light this corridor better?

Speaker 3 (39:30):
It's fine the way it is. Uh, I'll move down
the corridor.

Speaker 4 (39:35):
Can you see this?

Speaker 3 (39:36):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (39:37):
Something shining a knife is quite visible to anyone with
normal eyesight.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
Professor.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
Good, Now, Henderson, if you'll station yourself about halfway down
the corridor and wait there, and uh, don't touch the marble.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
Don't worry. Never was any good at shooting marbles. Back
with where do you want me, Professor?

Speaker 4 (39:58):
As we agreed, wherever you think you'd send the museum's
interest best.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
I think I'll stay near you.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Fine. Now what we have is the corridor, perfect view,
and along the corridor gleaming knife. David, you stand on
my right, mister Ripple. That puts you on my left,
and we all agree the corridor is quite empty. Now,

(40:28):
mister Ripple, may I have the deguerotype here you are?

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Thanks? Now, David, look closely at this face.

Speaker 4 (40:39):
The face of a man named Charles Mason, and David.
As I drop the marbles one by one on the
stone floor, they'll start to bounce.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
And bounce, bounce, bounce back.

Speaker 4 (40:59):
Through the years. Listen to them bouncing, bouncing down the
long corridor of time and the years slide by, slide by,
alive with.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
The echoes of the past.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
Do you see them, David, I see them.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
And hear them as they walk. I'm walking walking along
near the top of the hero on the heath, and
I see.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
I see a single horse. He's silhouetted for a moment
against the moon. It becomes riding, riding, and he stops.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
In his bounce.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
And he hides so carefully in the bush back with
I haven't take what's happening.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
That's Ripple. He's under two. He thinks he's ash.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
They stand stone still, the man and the horse. The
bushes hid.

Speaker 7 (42:11):
Her.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
Lady, the lady, she's walking.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
She has a cape with a hood. I can't see
her face. Pretty lace and pretty face. I no help
against sharp steel, No, no, Ripple. He's got the knife.
He's down the card act. Look on, I got him,
I got your.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
Day, rolling on.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
Help hold me. Robert Ripple was pure evil. He was
also Charles Mason wanting.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Perhaps perhaps he just saw an opportunity to destroy a
good man. When he discovered that the you're a type,
and realize the man in it looked exactly like you.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
He simply took a nameless photo and gave it a
name and gave me the horrors.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
But, Professor, isn't there any chance of finding out who
the man in that picture really was?

Speaker 3 (43:17):
I'd like to know his real name.

Speaker 6 (43:19):
Oh, David, my darling. Let's just live in the twentieth century.
I admit it's difficult enough, but it's our very own.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
Here we are in the twentieth century, and I have
a little parlor game for you to play. Imagine yourself
is some famous character in history whom you know and admire. Okay,
now close your eyes and think hard and imagine yourself

(43:56):
alive back in those days. And as you think, you
may see some pictures in your mind that you've never
seen before.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
Try it. I'll be back shortly.

Speaker 4 (44:26):
I find this whole question of reincarnation fascinating.

Speaker 3 (44:30):
But there's an.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Area that's not very well covered in the books and
essays that have been written, and that is the question
of animals and their souls.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Do they possess souls.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
And indeed, do they return in some form as some
other animal?

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Or which I don't like to believe.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
Are those of us who sin greatly reduced to becoming
animals before we can stop trying to be reborn. Our
cast included Shepherd Strudwick, Marion Felders, William Redfield, Alan Clark,
and Chris Gambell. The entire production was under the direction
of Hymon Brown.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Well, I suppose terror is as terror does. Well, maybe
maybe not. I'm not entirely sure. Oh what's that? Oh no, no, no,
I'm pretty certain they don't bite. As I think back
to all the times in the past and in the

(45:38):
future that I've had the pleasure of spending time with you,
sharing such scary surprises, I'm proud to know that every
evening when we gather and enjoy ourselves, it's truly a
journey into fear.

Speaker 14 (46:01):
You finding life rather dull, dreaming again of exotic places,
wishing you were somewhere else. We offer you escape.

Speaker 7 (46:28):
Escape with us.

Speaker 15 (46:29):
Now to Istamboul, the nerve setter of Bulkan, intrigue and violence,
and the story of a man caught in the fatal
web of the most cold blooded political organization on earth.
As Eric Ambler tells it in his famous tale, Journey
into Fear, tho.

Speaker 7 (47:05):
Swam as you.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Yeah, it seemed as if a bar of white hot

(47:30):
metal had been suddenly pressed against my hand, and then
it was numb, but I could feel the blood beginning
to trickle through my fingers. There wasn't a sound, and
as I crouched against the wall, I became dimly aware
that the window was open and that someone was moving
by it. And then my eyes, becoming used to the darkness,
I saw that whoever had been at the window had

(47:51):
left by it. I reached for the light switch and
found it. The hand hurt like the very devil. Yes,
is that you Kopeikin?

Speaker 13 (48:13):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (48:14):
What is it? I have only this moment. Come in?

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Where are you in my hotel room? Listen? Something right?
That stupid has happened there. There was a burglar up here.
He took what shots at me as I came in,
and one of them hit me in the hand.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
Are you badly hurt?

Speaker 13 (48:28):
No?

Speaker 2 (48:29):
But give me a nasty shock.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
Have the police been notified?

Speaker 1 (48:32):
No?

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Not yet?

Speaker 16 (48:34):
Good Leave the matter to me. I will speak to
a friend of mine about it. He is connected to
the police and with great influence. As soon as I
am finished, I shall.

Speaker 7 (48:44):
Come over well.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
There's no need for that.

Speaker 7 (48:46):
Excuse me, my.

Speaker 16 (48:47):
Dear fellow, there is ever in need. You must stay
in your room until I arrived.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Well, I had no intention of going out. Well, if
you must come over Kopeikin, please hurry. I want to
get some sleep tonight.

Speaker 16 (49:07):
Does it occur to you that this man was shooting
to kill you and that he came here for no
other purpose?

Speaker 2 (49:12):
That's nonsense. The man was a thief. Why should anyone
wish to kill me? I'm the most harmless man alive.

Speaker 16 (49:16):
Are you remember I told you that I was going
to telephone a friend of mine.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Yes, we are going to see him at once. Well,
I'm tired, I want to go to bed.

Speaker 16 (49:27):
Unfortunately I have official instructions.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
A man tried to murder you tonight. Something must be
done about.

Speaker 17 (49:34):
It at once.

Speaker 7 (49:35):
Murdered?

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Are you out of your mind?

Speaker 16 (49:37):
I am sorry, my dear fellow. I can understand your feelings.
But this friend of mine is Colonel Hockey. He is
the head of the Turkish secret police.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Oh no, look here goppeg And what's this all about?
I thought you were my company's Turkish representative. Can you
talk about secret service and all that?

Speaker 7 (49:54):
Brother? Please?

Speaker 13 (49:55):
I cannot tell you anything more.

Speaker 16 (49:57):
It is to our mutual interest that we go at
once to Colonel Hockey.

Speaker 17 (50:01):
You must believe me.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
All this is sterearier of absolutely nothing.

Speaker 16 (50:06):
My dear fellow. It is most certainly not nothing. Get
your overcoat, it's called out.

Speaker 18 (50:21):
You must realize, mister Graham, that an attempt was made
to kill you tonight.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Now I don't see that at all. I mean I
disturbed the thief it is working, fired at me and
escape the thief. Unfortunately, No, I have a duty to do,
mister Graham. It is to protect you, protect me from.

Speaker 18 (50:37):
What you are in the employer of vessels Keater and
Bliss Limited, the English armament manufacturers. Yes, you are, I believe,
mister Graham, a naval ordnance expert.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
I'm an engineer and a naval ordnance happens to be
my subject exactly.

Speaker 18 (50:52):
And your firm has contracted to do some work for
my government set the new guns and torpedoes to re
arm our naval vessels.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Well, that's true.

Speaker 18 (51:01):
It is also true that our government stipulated that the
work should be completed before spring.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 18 (51:09):
Due to the international situation, we must have the equipment
in our dockyards by that time. Let us suppose then
that your thief had not merely graised a hand what
had killed you.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Well, actually, my company would send another man out.

Speaker 18 (51:24):
Which would take time instagram, unless, of course, there exists sketches,
drawings and all that they need to know about our ships.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Oh no, I mean I was forbidden to put certain
things on paper.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Ah.

Speaker 18 (51:41):
Then if you were to die, it would take a
great deal of time for another man to accomplish what
you have already done. No, and when spring comes, our
navy's strength is still precisely what it is now. Do
you know, mister Graham, that our enemies will do anything
to see.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
That it is so?

Speaker 14 (52:01):
Anything, mister Graham, do you understand?

Speaker 4 (52:05):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (52:06):
Quite so.

Speaker 18 (52:09):
I have here, mister Graham, a photograph of a man.
I am aware you did not catch a glimpse of
the assassin's face. But I want you to cast your
mind back over the time you have been in Turkey
and tell me if you have ever seen him before.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
Ah eh ah, hello, yes, well sure positive have a look. Opeikin,
he was at the cabaret you took me to tonight.
I remember him at the bar.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
Yes, he was there.

Speaker 18 (52:40):
Excellent why not Romanian I hired the murderer.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
We know him well.

Speaker 18 (52:48):
His price ranges from fifty thousand francs upward. His employer
is a man named Boroshin, who in turn is hired
by his country to eliminate you. Unfortunately we possess no
photograph of him.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
I begin to understand, of course, you do now replace
the problem.

Speaker 18 (53:08):
You must return to England safely. But how the train
is out of the question. You wouldn't live for an
hour your aeroplane.

Speaker 14 (53:16):
Unfortunately the weather here has disrupted service.

Speaker 16 (53:20):
There is the sastri Levant selling for Athens tomorrow afternoon, your.

Speaker 18 (53:24):
Small bottom, and we can see that your enemies do
not bother from Athens. You can take the plane to England.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
Well, I don't know, Colonel. In view of what you've
told me, perhaps I should get in touch with the
British embassy here.

Speaker 18 (53:37):
And what do you expect them to do? Send you
home in a cruiser?

Speaker 14 (53:41):
No, no, my dear mister Graham.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
This is a question of time.

Speaker 18 (53:46):
Leaving tomorrow afternoon will lend you in Athens the day after.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
That is how it is to be well. I seem
to have no choice in the matter.

Speaker 18 (53:56):
I am happy to see that you are cooperative, return
to your hotel. We shall see you safely aboard tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
The next afternoon go picking and Colonel Hackey saw me
aboard as a bon voyage gift, presented me with the
bottle of Johnny Walker and a small pistol, out of
which I put in my suitcase. Besides myself, there were
four other passengers, all of whom Colonel Hackey assured me
were harmless. The gangway went down, I bought, the ship

(54:33):
swayed gently, and the journey had begun. My companions were
an odd assortment of continental travelers. They were the Mattis
who occupied the cabin next to mine, a middle aged
French couple who argued incessantly. Their voices penetrated the thin
wooden bulkhead with dismaying ease.

Speaker 9 (54:52):
The sheets are damn No, no, it is simply that
they are called. You think not.

Speaker 19 (54:58):
You may sleep as you wish, but do not complain
to me about your kidney's called sheets to the Halbi
kidneys Sherry we hapy for our tickets.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
Then there was a mister Corvettli, whom I learned at
the dinner table, was a dealer in tobacco. A short,
heavy man with a smile fixed like that of a
pentriloquist doll.

Speaker 20 (55:16):
I go to England. Trade in tobacco is very good.
England buys much tobacco from Turkey. You know, with American
dollar so expensive and possibility of war, it is good business.

Speaker 7 (55:27):
Mister Mattie.

Speaker 21 (55:28):
So I arrange a good deal of transportation for tobacco companies.

Speaker 17 (55:32):
What company do you represent?

Speaker 20 (55:34):
A passa of Istanbul passar, I must say this excusy.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
The last passenger was a thick, round shouldered man with
a pale face and prominent blue eyes. He introduced himself
over a brandy on the lounge.

Speaker 14 (55:51):
My name is Halla, doctor Fritz Halla. I am a Cherman,
a vest term, and I am on my way back
to my country.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
How have you been long in Turkey?

Speaker 14 (56:00):
A few weeks? I came there from Persia oil business.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
Mister our chaology, Oh how interesting those were my fellow passengers.
At nine o'clock that night, the cutter came out from
Kanakali to take off the pilot. And when it came
a telegram it was from Kopeikin in Istanbul, and it

(56:27):
read H requests me to inform you that Bannatt left
for Sophia on trained all well, safe journey to England,
best wishes. I thought of the pistol in my cabin
and I laughed to myself. It was an egan day,

(56:52):
intensely colored in the sun, with small pink clouds drifting
in a bleached indigo sea. I lay in my bunk,
I had coffee, and in later I was standing by
the rail talking to the little frenchman.

Speaker 21 (57:07):
Beautiful, beautiful.

Speaker 17 (57:11):
My wife has no appreciation for the lights such as these.

Speaker 21 (57:14):
Oh, what a shame my wife, you mean, Oh, well,
one cannot have everything.

Speaker 17 (57:20):
She is a wonderful cook.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Ah, fortunate.

Speaker 7 (57:23):
Yes.

Speaker 17 (57:24):
Oh, by the way, have you met our new passenger?

Speaker 2 (57:26):
New passenger?

Speaker 17 (57:27):
Yes, didn't you know? We stopped at the island of
Lemnos during the night. He came aboard, then a greet.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
I think I hardly heard what he said, because at
that moment from the lounge stepped a maund. I meet
the high crowned, soft felt hat with the pale, dowy
features of a face I had seen before, a face
in a photograph, a photograph that Colonel Hockey had shown me.
It was the man who had tried to kill me.

(57:54):
The Romanian by Nat.

Speaker 15 (58:09):
Escape under the direction of Norman McDonald returns in just
a moment.

Speaker 7 (58:13):
Even the children cheer when they know school's open.

Speaker 15 (58:16):
And or Miss Brooks classroom. Yeah she's here, charming, romantic,
utterly mad cat and played at the hilt by Hollywood's
Eve Varden. You'll love her, You'll laugh with her again tonight,
and most of these same CBS stations, or Miss Brooks
starring Eve Arden. And now back to Escape.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
I heard Matis's voices, though from a long way.

Speaker 17 (58:41):
Off, monsieur, do you not feel well?

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Then I turned them, without looking at the man who
had just come on deck, I went below. Somehow Bannatt
must have learned that I was on the Sestri Levante.
He had taken the train for Sophia, and then as
soon as it had crossed the Greek border, left it.
It was a simple thing to fly from there to
Lemnas I thought of that telegram, Oh well, those idiots,
and I was caught. Bannatt wouldn't miss twice. He was

(59:06):
a professional murderer. I had to get help, and so
I went to the purses office. He was a precise
little man who smiled when I talked to him. Look,
I've found out there is a man on this ship
who is here for the express purpose of murdering me
in d And what is his name? Banat b A
M A T. He's a Romanian.

Speaker 12 (59:27):
Banat one woman, sir.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
And look here, you don't suppose he'd give his real name,
do you?

Speaker 7 (59:33):
Banat? No, there is no one of that name or
nationality aboard.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
He got on during the night at lemnas Ah. Hell
is mister Mavrodopoulos. He's a Greek businessman. That may be
what his passport says. His real name is Banat and
he's a Romanian. Have you proof of that? Have I
put it?

Speaker 3 (59:49):
Now?

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Look if you're just radio Colonel Hockey of the Turkish
police at Istanbul, he'll confirm what I say.

Speaker 16 (59:55):
As I say, sir, we do not have radio for
that purpose.

Speaker 7 (01:00:00):
I suggest that you leave the matter until we reach Athens.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
But can't you understand that man intends to kill me? No, Sir,
I do not understand. Nobody on this ship is going
to murder you. There are too many people about. Oh,
you have had bad dreams. It is ridiculous. I want
to see the captain. I am extremely busy, sir. If
you will close the door as you leave. I was

(01:00:28):
almost sick with fear and anger. As I left, I
went back to my cabbin. Well, I could still go
to the captain, but I could well imagine his reaction
to my story. There was no proof, and these people
were loath to stir up international complications. Oh, I was
alone with my murderers, somewhere on the ship with me.

(01:00:50):
And then I remember the revolver Kopeikin had given me.
I'd never handled a gun before, but at least it
would give me a chance. It was something. I went
to my suit casein I opened.

Speaker 22 (01:01:00):
It must be I put it in myself just before
I got on board.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
It had to be there. There was nothing. Someone had
been in my cabin and had taken the gun.

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
Ah, mister Graham, we were.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
All worried about you.

Speaker 17 (01:01:31):
I told them that you had the sickness too much.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
See No, I'm sorry, I had rather a bad headache.

Speaker 14 (01:01:39):
I hope that it is nothing serious.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
No, thank you, mister Halla.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
Have you met the misters.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
No, I haven't had the pleasure.

Speaker 17 (01:01:49):
This is our English friend, mister Grayham.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
How do you doing nice?

Speaker 21 (01:01:58):
The soup is nauseating, but you Graham I suggested you
do that partic of it when this to keep on?

Speaker 14 (01:02:04):
Sorry, mydea, tell me, Maples, are you bound for happens
or do we enjoy your company as far as Genoa.

Speaker 23 (01:02:12):
I go to Athens, then perhaps I continue on or
perhaps not.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
A difficult decision, eh mister Marredopolis.

Speaker 23 (01:02:23):
Yes, and not as your hand, mesieur. This bandage an accident.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
Nothing serious. A pullet wound, to be exact. Some dirty
little thief took a shot at me in Istanbul.

Speaker 23 (01:02:39):
Dirty little thief. And you must look after yourself carefully.
You must be ready to shoot back next time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Oh I shall. There's not the slightest doubted that to.

Speaker 23 (01:02:53):
Carry a pistol, naturally, that is good. One must be
so careful. You should be very careful.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
I don't think it's necessary. That sort of scum doesn't
risk his skin with an armed man. A grin that
had been on the Romanian's face faded. He hadn't liked that.
And then I thought of something. Bannat had taken my gun.
It must be somewhere in his cabin. If I could

(01:03:23):
slip away for five minutes, there was still a chance.
As soon as the luncheon ended, I excused myself and
I wandered off. I could see Bannat engaged in conversation
with my tea, and I prayed that it would be
a long one. Bannat's cabin was strangely bare, A gray
raincoat hung with a soft hat behind the door, and

(01:03:43):
a battered suit case was under the lower berth. But
the gun was nowhere to be found, nor was it
anywhere in the cabin. I went to my quarters, feeling
helpless and needing a drink to steady my nerves.

Speaker 14 (01:03:59):
I have been way I think for you, mister Grab.

Speaker 7 (01:04:05):
Mister Halla.

Speaker 14 (01:04:06):
I rather think that you have been looking for something
a gun? Possibly? Would this be it?

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Well, I don't understand how I know, mister Graham.

Speaker 14 (01:04:15):
Please don't come any closer.

Speaker 7 (01:04:17):
I sit down.

Speaker 14 (01:04:18):
I came to have a little talk with you. Sit down,
you know, mister Graham. Oh mavrodupless, or should I say,
but not as quite upset as I am. You have
caused us a great deal of trouble and money.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
Yes, I begin to see now. I wonder if your
name happens to be Boroshen not Halla.

Speaker 14 (01:04:39):
Dear me, I had no idea that you are so
well informed girl, Hackey must have been a very talkative mood.
And did he know I was in Istanbul.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
I don't think so.

Speaker 14 (01:04:49):
I thought not. You see, in order to take care
of you, I had to take a hand myself. Barnard
was extremely careless at your hotel. When I found yesterday
morning that you were to leave this boat, I had
to move very quickly. Luckily, there was a man named
Halla who had book passage with his assistant three days ago.

(01:05:09):
Therefore I took over his ticket and passport. Poor unfortunate,
but it would have been awkward to book passage at
the last minute without attacking Colonel Hacket's attention.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Yes, I imagine it would.

Speaker 14 (01:05:22):
And I supposing you come to the point, certainly it
must be clear to you that we cannot allow you
to return to England. The obvious method of reading ourselves
of your presence is to shoot you the moment you land,
but that could become complicated.

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
It could.

Speaker 14 (01:05:39):
The other alternative is to induce you to take a
holiday for six weeks or more.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
I see. In other words, you hold up my return
to England so that my company's work would be delayed
to the point of uselessness. For the Turkish government.

Speaker 14 (01:05:53):
You have a keen mind, mister Graham. Tonight we rich Athens.
If you like the idea, dear, you will live to
see you England again.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
And if I refuse to take this holiday, then things
will be complicated, will they not? I think you're bluffing.
Hasn't it occurred to you that I shall repeat this
conversation to the captain.

Speaker 14 (01:06:14):
It has occurred to me as a matter of fact.
The person was telling me about your little talk with
him this morning. I'm afraid that the ship's officers, including
the captain, have enjoyed the joke very much, as they
call you the mad Englishman and love well mister Graham.
Rich is it two be?

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
If I take this holiday, where will it be?

Speaker 14 (01:06:40):
In a charming villa near Athens? You will enjoy all
the comforts of home. I assure you. I shall give
you an hour to think about it. Remember you are
not at war, mister Graham. You are not a soultier.
In reality, you are doing your country no disservice. We'll

(01:07:00):
ever know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
He left me alone. It was not a pleasant choice
he had given me. I knew that Banatta and he
could keep their promise to kill me when I landed,
and I was equally sure that the holiday or Rochene
spoke of would be a very long one, that either way,
I should never return to my wife or to England.

(01:07:24):
I sat for half an hour, smoking and trying to think,
and then I remembered Matty. Yes, oh, may I speak
to you for a moment.

Speaker 17 (01:07:42):
But of course, what is it monsieur my share?

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
Would you come into my cabin?

Speaker 17 (01:07:47):
Certainly I should be back in a moment, My dear.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
I need your help.

Speaker 17 (01:07:53):
I thought that you looked serious. Is it money?

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
No, I want you to take a message for me
when we talk at Athens, A message, Monsieur Matti. You
are the only man aboard I feel that I can trust. Oh,
I am a no listen, I'm employed by a British
armor manufacturer. I am working in joint service with the
British and Turkish governments. No, when I get off the
ship tonight, an attempt will be made to kill me.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
This is true.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Is I'm afraid it is. What I want you to
do is to go to the Turkish consulate in Athens
and give him a message for me. Will you do that?
I will do it. You realize the message is highly confidential.

Speaker 17 (01:08:30):
I will say nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
All right, then this is it? Inform Colonel Hackey Istanbul
that Graham is forced to accompany Soviet agents Borosheen and
Banat traveling with passports of Halla and Maopolis.

Speaker 17 (01:08:48):
Is it possible?

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Unfortunately it is I go on. In the event of
my death, Please inform the British consul of these men
are responsible, mon dieux.

Speaker 21 (01:08:57):
So that is why you looked sick when I spoke
of mar Dopplos this morning. Why do we not to
get a shoot down the fifty swine?

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
I have you have a gun here?

Speaker 17 (01:09:06):
But yes, when won't trouble and then there is.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
Something else you can do for me. Let me buy
your revolver.

Speaker 17 (01:09:11):
I will not sell it to you.

Speaker 4 (01:09:12):
I give it to you here.

Speaker 3 (01:09:15):
Thank you, but let me help you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
No, no, this is splendid. I am grateful, Monsieur Mattie,
and you will take the message.

Speaker 17 (01:09:22):
It is understood, have no fear.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Half an hour later, I told Barashen that I would
agree to his plan. I'm sure that he didn't believe me,
but nor did he know that I was armed. It
was a forlorn hope. But if I was going to die,
I would have the satisfaction of knowing that others would
die with me. At eight o'clock sasstril Levante was approaching
her birth, I had agreed to pass through customs and

(01:09:53):
to meet Varashen on the street. As I stood at
the rail, watching the key drawing closer, I saw Nat
standing to one side, hand and pocket and a fat
smile on his face. He knew that he was going
to earn his fee tonight. Barrachines stepped off the ship first, turned,
waved cheer a little me. Bannatt followed him, and they

(01:10:15):
both disappeared into the custom shirt. I walked slowly down
the gangway. Mister Corvette came pushing after me.

Speaker 20 (01:10:23):
Yes, what is it, Kennel Huckey would be very angry
with me if I allowed you out of my side, Hucky.
I wanted to tell you before on deck, but Bynart
was watching. I did not dare to say anything earlier.
Your face gives away too much.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
Mister Graham, you correctly you're a Turkish agent, one of
Hockey's men.

Speaker 20 (01:10:39):
Yes, I nearly gave the game away when I spoke
of my non existent tobacco firm. I thought you would
know when the Frenchman questioned me. Kennel Hockey wanted to
be sure that you caught your plane safely.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
That is why I was aboard. But what can we
do together?

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
We go through.

Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
Customs and then we shall.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
Seeton's inspection, as ever on the continent, was slow, although
I find myself wishing that it would never end. But
it did, and if Corvette had a plan, the evidently
didn't feel that way. Have mentioned he smiled at everyone,
the plump little businessman who to all appearances, would deal

(01:11:16):
in ladies finery rather than international intrigue. We found ourselves
suitcases in hand, walking toward the street.

Speaker 7 (01:11:26):
So that is over.

Speaker 2 (01:11:27):
I find these inspections so tedious. Now look here to Betley.
I'm extremely grateful for your presence, But what are we
going to do? Boroshen and Bannatt are waiting out there
with a car. They're waiting for me.

Speaker 14 (01:11:36):
I know, I know it has all been arranged.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
What do you mean that we walked through those doors
and do it?

Speaker 13 (01:11:41):
Nothing?

Speaker 7 (01:11:42):
Absolutely nothing? You will see.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
I hope you have a gun? I have good So
have I?

Speaker 4 (01:11:48):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:11:49):
Yes, thanks to the Frenchman.

Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
There they are.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
But do we run for it? Go and work in
mister Graham. If your hand away from your pocket, that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
Are you mad? They'll kill us.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
You, mister Graham, not me.

Speaker 4 (01:12:01):
Go on.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
My overcoat is a gun. Please, do not make trouble.
Go on, a little idiot. You're one of them too.

Speaker 14 (01:12:09):
We're ready, worsh you taken long enough, hurry up.

Speaker 20 (01:12:13):
The converation left your pocket in, mister crap.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
I remember a perfect chuse a lative shots, and then
something cracked me on the skull and I was falling.
It was all very dark and comfortable, mister Graham, mister Graham,
mister Graham.

Speaker 16 (01:12:43):
Ah, he's all right, mister Graham, this good picking lucky
you're safe.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
Oh, oh, good show.

Speaker 18 (01:12:54):
You've been unconscious. Really you were at the airport. Now
you see. We found the bodies of two men in Ankara.
They were archaeologists Halla and his assistant. I realized that
Boroshine and one of his men must have boarded the
ship using their passport. As I found that out, we
flew a government plane here Kopekin and I to wait

(01:13:16):
for you.

Speaker 7 (01:13:17):
The Greek authorities were kind.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
Enough to assist, yes, sir, very kind, not at all.

Speaker 16 (01:13:23):
And now, my dear fellow, the plane is waiting to
take you to England.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
We'll see you safely aboard. Yes, I say, what about
Bannatt Woshene and badly?

Speaker 3 (01:13:35):
Oh?

Speaker 18 (01:13:35):
Yes, it was rather unfortunate after you felt they tried
to get away in the car, someone hit a tire,
there was a smash up, the petrol tank exploded.

Speaker 7 (01:13:46):
A tragedy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Oh yes, well, it's very decent of you, my dear fellow.

Speaker 16 (01:13:52):
It has been a pleasure. Come along. We will help
you to your plane. I am sure you're anxious to
get home to England and your wife.

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
Come on.

Speaker 15 (01:14:12):
Under the direction of Norman MacDonald, Escape has brought you
journey into fear by Eric Embler, especially adapted for Escape
by Anthony Ellis. Ben Wright was starred as Graham featured
in the cast where Wilms, Herbert, Edgar Barrier, Ralf Sedan
and Morrison, Jack Krushian, Louke Krugman, and Shim and Ruskin.
The special music for Escape was composed and conducted by

(01:14:34):
Ivant at Mars.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
My dear idea, I hope I haven't put you on
edge with all the talk of fear, terror, heaths and
so on. My only goal is simple, simple, It's to
make you feel welcome, to make you feel comfortable, to
get you to enjoy yourself and selfishly, I have a

(01:15:04):
little break from my mundane as well. But I don't
want you to think that I'm here to browbeat you
in some way or suspect you of something you may
or may not have done, because, after all, you're my friend,

(01:15:24):
and the last thing I'd ever want is to be
the accusing corpse.

Speaker 7 (01:15:40):
The Mysterious Traveler. This is the mysterious Traveler inviting you
to join him on another journey into the realm of

(01:16:00):
the strange and terrifying. I hope you will enjoy the trip,
that it will free you a little and chill you
a little. So settle back, get a good grip on
your nerves. Where are we going. We're going to journey
to the grave and learn the secrets of the dead.

(01:16:22):
In a tale titled The Accusing Course, some years ago,
when I was a county colonel, I was called in
on a most interesting case, a case which had begun
in the country home of Philith Drake, the wealthy stockbroker Roger.

(01:16:57):
Thank goodness you were able to get here in time.
Time Right after I received your call, what's wrong Philip,
you sounded so upset over the phone. Thanks, Vivian. She's
upstairs in her room packing. She says, she's leaving me,
leaving you. Why she seems to feel unmarried has been
a mistake, Roger. Won't you speak to her persuaded to stay?
After all, she is your sister. I am afraid, Philip,
that Vivian and I have never been as close as

(01:17:19):
sister and brother should be. She's always been wild and spoiled. Perhaps, Philip,
it would be better if if you were to let
her go. No, I couldn't do that. I love her, Roger.
I wouldn't want to live without her. Won't you please
try to persuade her to stay or right, Philip, I'll
do my best, but I must warn you I haven't
much influence e her.

Speaker 19 (01:17:40):
I'm all packing ready to why Roger Darling, what a surprise?

Speaker 12 (01:17:44):
What are you doing here.

Speaker 7 (01:17:45):
Vivian, Philip has told me. Now, surely you can be serious.
You know how he loves you, everything he's done to
make you happy.

Speaker 12 (01:17:53):
Roger. You aren't going to start on that, are you.

Speaker 7 (01:17:55):
Some day, Vivian, you'll get just what you deserve for
walking over people, breaking their hearts Every time I think
of you being my sister, I feel rather please. Would
you mind waiting in the other room. I'd like to
speak to Vivian alone. Oh all right, Philip, call me
when you want me.

Speaker 19 (01:18:13):
Really, Philip, no matter what you have to say, you're
just wasting your time.

Speaker 7 (01:18:17):
Vivian, how can you do this to me? You know
I love you, but I'd do anything to make you happy.

Speaker 19 (01:18:22):
That's sweet of you, dear. Would you mind letting in
your car to get to town.

Speaker 7 (01:18:26):
If you leave me, Vivian, you won't get a cent,
not the scent to you here.

Speaker 19 (01:18:29):
Really, did you ever stop to think, Philip, that there
might be another man with more money than you?

Speaker 7 (01:18:36):
Another man? Oh no, that couldn't be.

Speaker 13 (01:18:38):
And why not?

Speaker 7 (01:18:38):
But we've only been married three months. There couldn't be
anyone in that time. Oh but there was, Vivian. In
spite of what you've done, I'm willing to forgive you
and start over with you.

Speaker 8 (01:18:50):
But Darling, I don't want you to forgive me. I
want you to forget me.

Speaker 7 (01:18:53):
Vivian. You can't do this to me. I love you,
I won't let you go.

Speaker 17 (01:18:57):
I really must be.

Speaker 8 (01:18:58):
Saying goodbye now.

Speaker 13 (01:18:59):
He's waiting for me.

Speaker 8 (01:19:00):
In town, and I don't want to be late.

Speaker 7 (01:19:02):
If I can't have you, no one else will do.

Speaker 8 (01:19:04):
You here being ridiculous, I must go.

Speaker 12 (01:19:07):
No, Tellip, what do you doing?

Speaker 17 (01:19:10):
A gun?

Speaker 7 (01:19:10):
Yes, Favian, not gun. I told you if I couldn't
have you, no one else would.

Speaker 8 (01:19:14):
Oh, Philip, you're insane. Put that gun down.

Speaker 7 (01:19:17):
If you don't change your mind about leaving, I'll kill you.

Speaker 19 (01:19:20):
Even with that gun. You can't keep me, do you
hear I soon have died and go on living with you.
I'm going and you're not goining to stop.

Speaker 4 (01:19:30):
You shut.

Speaker 7 (01:19:36):
Bavian, Philip, Philip, what happened? I thought I heard Vivian Roger?
Is she dead? Yes? Philip? Do you do you know
what this may mean? Life, imprisonment, perhaps even the electric chair.
I know, nothing seems to matter now, but but you

(01:19:57):
simply can't throw your life away like that. Oh. Even
if Vivian was my sister, I don't mind telling you
that I always felt you were far too good for her.
She didn't deserve to be your wife. Oh please, Roger
health look for if if we were to get rid
of the body, who could possibly know that she didn't
leave here tonight as she planned oh, oh, it wouldn't work, Roger.
You can get away with as nonsense. Philip. Now, now,

(01:20:20):
if we were to bury her in the woods, but
no one would ever find the body in the woods.
I couldn't do that, and I'll do it. You can
wait here ti my return. But Roger, will I Philip,
you must let me handle this. You you better give
me the gun. All right, Roger, you are good now
you wait here? Will I get rid of the body.

(01:20:47):
Philip watched spellbound, unable to say a word, as Roger
picked up the body and left the room. As Roger,
carrying his burden past the gardener's shed, he picked up
a shovel. In a few moments, he reached the woods,
which began at the rear of the house and extended
for miles. He carefully made his way through the forest

(01:21:10):
underbrush until he was well out of sight of the house.
Then he stopped and looked about. I think this is
quite fine enough.

Speaker 19 (01:21:21):
I think you can put me down that Roger. I'm
tired of being carried like a sack of potatoes.

Speaker 7 (01:21:25):
All right, Well, let me congratulate you and your performance
as a corpse.

Speaker 12 (01:21:34):
Do you think he suspects anything?

Speaker 7 (01:21:35):
Of course, he doesn't. He's positive that he shot and
killed you.

Speaker 12 (01:21:39):
You've got the gun, haven't you?

Speaker 7 (01:21:40):
Certainly I've got it. You don't think I was going
to let him discover that the bullets had been removed
and blank. Cartre just uped you to do you?

Speaker 8 (01:21:46):
Oh no, not you, Roger. You always know what you're doing.

Speaker 7 (01:21:50):
I always try to my dear sister.

Speaker 19 (01:21:52):
You don't think Philip will give you any trouble, do you?
Outside of being in love with me? He isn't an
otter fool.

Speaker 7 (01:21:58):
Don't worry. I can handle Philip. Now here's the key
to the apartment I rented in town. You will find
my car quarter of a mile down the road.

Speaker 8 (01:22:05):
All right, I'll be waiting for you.

Speaker 7 (01:22:06):
I'll be there in a few hours. Let me see. Yes, yes,
this seems like a nice place to dig. The next morning,
Roger called on Philip at his office. With a calculating glance.

(01:22:28):
He noted that Philip's eyes were bloodshot and his hand
trembled as the two shook hands. How are you, Philip?
I couldn't sleep at all last night. I kept thinking
of Vivian. What if her disappearance is noticed? People begin
asking questions? All you have to do is tell him
that Vivian left you and you don't know where she is,
or things like that happen every day. Been very helpful

(01:22:51):
to me, Roger. Never I get a chance to pay
you for it, rest assured I will. That's very good
at you, Philip. The truth of the matter is you will.
You could do me a favor if you would, of course,
what is it? Well, I'm in the midst of a
business deal and I find myself a little short of capital.

(01:23:11):
If you could lend me some money, i'd appreciate, certainly, Roger.
How much do you need? Twenty thousand, twenty thousand, there's
quite a lot, naturally, Philip. If you feel you can't
lend it to me, I'll go to a bank and
try to Park. Isn't that I can't lend it to you, Roger,
it's just the amount surprised me. Shall I make the
check out to you?

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Yes, if you please?

Speaker 7 (01:23:32):
All right, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this, Philip.
As Philip wrote out a check for twenty thousand dollars,
Roger's smile. Things were working out just as he had planned.

(01:23:52):
An hour later, Roger entered an old brown stone House
and went to apartment to see.

Speaker 12 (01:24:00):
Roger, did you get it?

Speaker 7 (01:24:01):
Ha?

Speaker 3 (01:24:02):
Ha?

Speaker 7 (01:24:03):
What does this look like?

Speaker 8 (01:24:04):
Oh Roger, that's wonderful.

Speaker 12 (01:24:05):
Now we can clear on why there is no one
hundred thousand here.

Speaker 7 (01:24:09):
No, my dear, I only got twenty thousand from it, but.

Speaker 12 (01:24:12):
We were out for a hundred thousand. Why didn't you
get it all this morning when you.

Speaker 7 (01:24:16):
Saw it, My dear Vivian, it simply isn't done that way.
Blackmail is an art, an art that calls for the
use of psychology. Philip will give us many times over
the money I hold in my hand, all in due time.

Speaker 19 (01:24:28):
Of course, you mean I'll have to go on hiding
in this miserable apartment until you finish your little game
with him, never being able to leave it for fear
someone will recognize.

Speaker 7 (01:24:36):
Come, come now, Vivian, You've got the radio and books.

Speaker 12 (01:24:39):
I won't spend weeks in this apartment. I tell you
I won't.

Speaker 7 (01:24:42):
I an't. You'll do exactly as I say, Vivian, exactly.
Do you understand, Roger, my arm your it is nothing
to what I'll do if you disobey me. Do I
make myself clear?

Speaker 2 (01:24:51):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (01:24:59):
A week past Yes, a week in which Roger patiently
bided his time for time he knew was working on
his side against Philip. Then one morning he called on
Philip at his office. Good morning, Philip, how do you
expect me to be this past week? I've been able
to think of nothing but Vivian and what happened that night, Philip.

(01:25:22):
You must stop brooding over it. Whatever happened was her fault,
not yours. Yes, yeah, you're right. That's what I need
is a vacation. Yes, yes, of course a trip would
do you a world of good, and if I could afforded,
i'd go along with you. You mean you haven't any money.
I'm I'm afraid not, Philip. That's what I've come to

(01:25:43):
see you about. I must have forty thousand dollars at once.
Forty thousand. Yes, I know it's a good deal of money, Philip.
Without it, I'll be ruined, naturally. I want to help you, Roger,
but forty thousand. If I don't get the forty thousand, Philipp,
I mean, isn't for me. You wouldn't want to see
if that happen. But you well, of course not Roger.

(01:26:04):
After all, Philip, I I saved you from prison. In fact,
I made myself an accomplice to Vivian's murder by not
turning you over to the police. Well, yes, I know you.
You could hardly expect me to remain loyal to you
if you weren't willing to help me. But you, I
see it seems I haven't any choice. Very well, Roger,

(01:26:29):
I'll write you out of check. Roger's eyes gleamed in
amusement as he accepted the check from Philip. There was
no longer any doubt that Philip understood him perfectly. Things
were working out exactly as he had planned. Later that day,

(01:26:54):
Roger went back to the old brown stonehouse. There was
a smile on his lips as he entered apartment to
look at this forty thousand dollars in cash.

Speaker 13 (01:27:06):
Oh, Roger, Now.

Speaker 7 (01:27:08):
Wasn't this wed staying in hiding for Vivion? And there's
plenty more where this game from? Who could that be?
You better get behind that screen, all right, Roger, Yes,
CLD for Miss Brown and a monster sixty four dollars. Oh,
you must be mistaken. There's no miss Brown here. This
is the address she gave. It's in care of mister

(01:27:29):
Roger Martinsen. That your name? Why, yes, but I.

Speaker 12 (01:27:32):
Don't know those packages are for me, Roger? How much
did you say? The cod was?

Speaker 7 (01:27:37):
Sixty four dollars?

Speaker 13 (01:27:38):
Miss?

Speaker 7 (01:27:40):
Here you are, thank you, Miss. Here's your receipt. Goodbye, goodbye.
When did you buy those clothes this morning? You mean
you went out shopping in spite of what I told you.

Speaker 19 (01:27:51):
Well, I was sick of being cooped up in this
apartment day and night.

Speaker 12 (01:27:54):
I had to do something for a chance.

Speaker 7 (01:27:55):
And one of my plans. You risk everything with so
much at stake.

Speaker 8 (01:28:00):
Stop looking at me like that.

Speaker 19 (01:28:02):
I tell you I couldn't stand being cooped up in
this apartment any longer.

Speaker 7 (01:28:05):
I give you orders to stay here, well I won't.

Speaker 19 (01:28:07):
I want you to get the rest of the money
at once so we can clear out, and if you don't,
I'll go shopping whenever I feel like it.

Speaker 12 (01:28:13):
You can't make me.

Speaker 7 (01:28:13):
Stay, you'll do exactly as I say. I won't allow
anything or anyone to interfere with my plants. I've worked
out every step perfectly, and there isn't going to be
any slip up. Another week passed, the week in which

(01:28:37):
Roger made no effort to see Philip. Then early one evening,
He got into his car and drove out of the
city to Philip's home in the country. Oh you're Roger,
come in, good evening, Philip. Oh well, where the servants?
This is their night off? Oh you're You're not looking

(01:28:58):
well at all, Philip. You shouldn't remain in this house
by yourself. What difference does it make where I am,
wherever I go? The memory of that night follows. Hard
to believe that it was only two weeks ago tonight,
that I killed her two weeks ago tonight, so it
was Oh well. Oh, by the way, Philip, do you
think you might possibly lend me sixty thousand dollars? Sixty thousand?

(01:29:23):
You can't be serious, but I am. But I lend
you that much already. Yes, I know, but I must
have more. No, I won't give you another cent. You
blackmailed me enough. Blackmail is a harsh word. What else
can you call it? You're just as hard and grasping
as Vivian was. Yes, but you must remember I am
alive and she isn't. And I suppose you're glad she's

(01:29:44):
dead in life. She was worth nothing to you. In death,
you're able to get sixty thousand dollars for her in death?
How do I know she is dead? I don't be foolish, Philip.
You saw her lying on the floor in this very room, yes,
But how do I know she dead? Was you who
examined her and told me so? And you buried the

(01:30:04):
body by yourself. I just wanted to spare you, Philip.
Just exactly where did you bury Vivian? As a matter
of fact, how do I know the whole affair isn't
stage for my special benefit so that you can extart
money from me. Now, surely you don't believe that, Pilip.
Why you shot her with your own gun? Yes, and
you took the gun away from me immediately after the shooting.

(01:30:25):
Suddenly that whole affair is becoming very clear. I kid you,
she's dead, Philip, and buried out in the woods. Then
I want to see the grave and the body you
say is in it. But this is ridiculous. I won't
go searching for a grave in the middle of the night.
You shouldn't have to search for it, Roger, not if
you really dug one. Come along. We can pick up
a shovel at the tool. So I won't do it.
I won't do it. I said, come along, Roger. Oh,

(01:30:45):
very well, but I'm not certain i'll be able to
find the grave. After all, the woods is fairly large,
and it's been two weeks since I buried. That's all right, Roger,
we'll stay out there until you do find her. A
few minutes later, Philip and Roger picked up the shovel
at the tool shed and then continued on their way

(01:31:08):
to the woods that began at the rear of the house.
Neither of the men spoke as they entered the woods,
Roger leading the way with a flag flight. Several times
he stopped trying to get his bearings, then plunged on again,
hoping to find a familiar landmark, which became apparent that

(01:31:32):
Roger was growing less and less sure of himself. Oh,
the gravest someplace around here, I'm certain of it. Perhaps
we ought to come back in the daytime. It might
be easier to find it then. I know, Roger, you
shouldn't have any trouble finding it now. If it exists,
it does exist, I tell you, it's just that the

(01:31:54):
woods are so confusing. At night. Everything looks so so different.
Just keep on searching, Roger, and perhaps this is the spot.
It looks something like this. Well, is it or isn't it?
I don't know. It looks like the place where I
buried her, and yet that I'm not certain. Only one
way to make certain, and that's just start digging. Yeah,
here's the shovel. But suppose this isn't for the spot,
then we'll dig somewhere else. In fact, we'll dig up

(01:32:15):
the entire woods if necessary. After all, you're certain she
is buried in the woods, an't you go ahead, Roger?
Start digging? Oh very well, Well, Roger, you've been digging

(01:32:39):
for twenty minutes now and you haven't uncovered her body.
Tell her, I told you I wasn't sure this was
the spot where I buried her. You're a great actor, Roger,
but I'm afraid this time you've overplayed your role. What
do you mean? Libian isn't dead, and there's no use
your pretending she is. Everything that's happened was part of
a scheme. The two of you plan to extort money
from me. I tell you she and where's a body?

(01:33:01):
I thought this was the spot that I must be mistaken.
I'm sure I didn't sell her any deeper than this, Philip,
turn the flashlight this way. What is it? Look you
see what I've uncovered? A hen, Yes, this is the
spot where I buried her, Philip. Just a few more

(01:33:24):
shovelful scene, I'll have her uncovered. Oh it can't be
stead here you are, Philip. Of course, she's been in
the ground for two weeks. But I think you can
easily recognize that it's Vivian. Yes, it's Vivian. Look, Philip,
here's the bullet hole under her heart, the bullet hole

(01:33:46):
that you made. I don't want to see anymore. I
have had enough. You should trust me a little more, Philip.
Everything I did was for your own good after all.
You you don't want to go to the electric chair,
do you. I don't care what happens anymore. I can't
stand having heard death on my conscience any longer. I'm
going to call a police. Don't be a pool flip.

(01:34:07):
You know what might well mean the electric chair. I'll
take my chances. Anything's better than going on living the
way I have these past two weeks. I'm going back
to the house and call it. Please come back, operator, operator. Wait,

(01:34:29):
don't do anything foolish now, you cut me off. Take
your hands off that phone. I want you to do Philipps,
to listen to me for a few minutes. At the
end of that time, you may you may do as
you please. Now that's fair enough, isn't it. Nothing you
can say will make me change my mind about calling
the police. Listen to me first, then if you still
want to call the police, you can now please put

(01:34:49):
the receiver down.

Speaker 3 (01:34:51):
That's it.

Speaker 7 (01:34:53):
Well, what do you want to tell me? Well? Do
you mind if I mix myself at drink? First? It's
it's been a rather difficult evening.

Speaker 4 (01:35:02):
Very well.

Speaker 7 (01:35:03):
Oh what about one for you? Philip? You look as
though you could stand a drink? No, thank you all
and answer do you go? What is it you want
to say to me? Roger huh oh, yes, say you?
Oh yes, yes of course. Ah, here's your drink, Philip,
thank you. Well, now what shall we drink to? We'll

(01:35:23):
drink to your good luck? Come what may there? I
feel a good deal better all right now that we've
had our drinks. Want to be about to say, oh, yes, yes,
I er. What I wanted to say was I I

(01:35:44):
never let anything interfere with my plans? Philip? What do
you mean by that? Simply that I can't allow you
to go to the police, and therefore you shan't. It
would spoil my plan. Oh it would, would it. Well,
i'd like to see you stop me. I have him
in a very little while. In fact, in just a
few seconds, you'll be dead dead. What are you saying? Yes, Philip,

(01:36:09):
the drink I mixed for you was poisoned. Aren't you
finding that it's becoming difficult to breathe? Well, you couldn't
have had Yes, I know, Philip. It'll all be over
in a matter of seconds now, I see it all you, Yes, Philip,

(01:36:34):
just a week ago tonight she died according to plant Cool.
I'm afraid Philip that you haven't the strength left to
reach the telephone.

Speaker 4 (01:36:53):
Mum.

Speaker 7 (01:36:55):
I'm afraid you and Vivian never had a chance, Philip.
I had things worked out perfectly, down to the smallest detail. Hello,
operator operator, please connect me with the police. It was

(01:37:17):
at this point that I was called into the case.
Inspector Carlton called me an hour after Roger Martinson had
phoned the police. When I arrived at the Drake mansion,
I examined the body of Vivian Drake and that of
her husband, Philip. When I had finished my examination, I
entered the library where Inspector Carlton was questioning Roger Martinston.

Speaker 24 (01:37:41):
Hello, Doc, oh, doc, this is Roger Martinson. Mister Martinson,
this is doctor Smith a county corner.

Speaker 7 (01:37:48):
How do you do Hello. I'll be within a few minutes, Doc.

Speaker 24 (01:37:51):
Just to go around now, mister Martinson, you were telling
me how you came to this house two weeks ago
tonight to see your sister and found that she was gone.

Speaker 7 (01:37:58):
Yes, yes, my in law Philip told me that she'd
gone on a vacation. I thought it strange at the
time that she should have gone away without saying goodbye
to me, as we were always very close. The days
passed and I didn't hear from her. Only was it
like your sister to go away and not right? No, no,
it wasn't, and that's what worried me. So he's passed
two weeks. Philip kept putting me off when I inquired

(01:38:20):
about Vivian's whereabouts. Well, tonight, I tonight. I couldn't stand
it any longer. I came to this house to have
it out with him. What did your brother in law
say when he saw you? He was quite agitated, and
my unexpected rival. When I couldn't get any satisfaction out
of him regarding Vivian, I threatened to go to the police.
Then he broke down and confessed that he murdered Vivian.

(01:38:42):
When did he murder He told me that he'd done
it two weeks ago. Tonight. Why, that was the very
night i'd come here to see Vivian and he told
me that she had left for a vacation. Hmm, I see, naturally,
when he told me he'd murdered her, I was aghast.
He led me to the woods and showed me the grave,
learned to the house, and before I knew what had happened,

(01:39:02):
Philip had taken poison. Then I called the police.

Speaker 24 (01:39:07):
Well, it seems like a plain case of murder and suicide.
Answered of a few questions at the inquest. I don't
think we'll trouble.

Speaker 7 (01:39:13):
You anymore, mister Martin. That's quite a right, Inspector. I
shall be at your service anytime. Just a moment, mister Martinson.
I was very much interested in hearing what you had
to say to the inspector regarding the murder of your sister.
You say that your brother in law confess to murdering her,
two weeks ago tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:39:31):
That's right.

Speaker 7 (01:39:32):
That would be April second, wouldn't it. Yes, that's correct.
Then you never saw her alive after the night of
April second. Why well, why no, of course not. What
are you getting at that, please? Inspector mister Martinson, would
you mind telling me where you live at four hundred
and twenty five West one hundred and seventh Street. Tell

(01:39:54):
me were some clothes delivered to that address in your
care a week ago today, April ninth? Clothes? Yes, to
be exact, a woman's sports suit which costs sixty four
dollars and arrived cod While why not? You're lying, mister Martinson.
I have in my hand a slip of paper that
not only proves that you're lying, but that will send

(01:40:15):
you to the electric chair. Doc. What are you saying? Yes,
Inspector mister Martinson's plan was perfect, but he he slipped
up badly. I forgot the search Vivian Brake's clothing before
he buried her, and I examined her body just now
I found in one of her pockets this receiated bill
bearing the date April ninth, that proves beyond the doubt

(01:40:38):
that she wasn't murdered by her husband on April second,
as mister Martins in Yere claims. No, no, yes, mister Martinson,
the corpse has accused you from the grave of murder
and has given us proof of your gift. No, no,
it can be. I had everything planned perfectly, perfectly. Do
you hear down to the last detail? This is the

(01:41:09):
Mysterious Traveler again. Have you enjoyed our little trip to
the grave? Poor Roger, What a pity after all that
planning and hard work to be tripped up by a
sales slip found on a corpse just goes to prove

(01:41:31):
that you have to be more careful when you're burying
people you've murdered. Now, I recall another case where a
woman drugged her husband, And oh, you're getting off at
the next stime. I'm sorry. I hope you will join
me again soon, but if you do, please remember this.

(01:41:53):
Next Sunday, I shall take a train that leaves at
three thirty pm Eastern wartime. Don't forget Sunday afternoon at
half past three.

Speaker 25 (01:42:12):
You've just heard Chapter twenty of The Mysterious Traveler, a
series of dramas of the strange and unusual brought to
you each week by station w R. In tonight's program,
The Accusing Corpse, Don Randolph played Roger. Also featured were
Maurice Tarplin and Philip Clark. The Mysterious Traveler, written by
Barb Arthur and David Cogan, is directed by Jack McGregor.

(01:42:36):
Original music was played by Doc Whibble.

Speaker 1 (01:42:47):
You know, when I was but a young lad, I
always enjoyed running up and down the hills. In fact,
often I would fall down those hills. There was a
feeling that would rise up in your chest as you

(01:43:07):
lost control as you fell, not knowing where exactly you'd land,
or when it was a feeling beyond butterflies. Oh no,
it was something more exciting, more threatening. When I told

(01:43:29):
my father of such a feeling, I'll never forget him
saying those aren't butterflies. There the Hangman is.

Speaker 26 (01:43:39):
Rope, and now the alco all of.

Speaker 27 (01:43:55):
Welcome to the period of radio drama dedicated to a supera,
the unusual and the unknown.

Speaker 6 (01:44:03):
Comple with me my plans.

Speaker 27 (01:44:05):
We shall consent to the world of the unknown and
forbidden dog with a veil of time to slit them
and the supernatural.

Speaker 3 (01:44:13):
Rage is key.

Speaker 7 (01:44:15):
Come with me and listen to.

Speaker 27 (01:44:16):
The tailor the Hangman's Rope.

Speaker 4 (01:44:30):
Kim, it came from our right.

Speaker 7 (01:44:31):
We better take a look.

Speaker 4 (01:44:32):
Yeah, I hope nothing hanging from that tree swinging back
and forth.

Speaker 7 (01:44:44):
It's a man.

Speaker 27 (01:44:50):
The Harllow Fantasy will present The Hangman's Rope in just
a moment, and now for our story, an original tailor
fantasy entitled The Hangman's Rope.

Speaker 4 (01:45:09):
There is a legend now a.

Speaker 7 (01:45:12):
Tile about the England.

Speaker 28 (01:45:15):
For twenty three years, the executioner for the crowd Jack
Ketch was his nine governor Jack Kitch.

Speaker 4 (01:45:31):
I remember we were on our way back from the lake,
Jim and Carol and I. For some reason, we started
back to the city later than usual. We hadn't been
driving for more than half an hour when one of
those sudden spring storms.

Speaker 13 (01:45:49):
And now where did that come from?

Speaker 4 (01:45:51):
Someone said there might be a storm to night, and
I thought we'd be home before it broke. We'd better
put the wipers on.

Speaker 13 (01:45:56):
We started back till late tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:45:58):
Where was that held us up? Jim, I don't know
a lot of things. When I finally looked at my watch,
I couldn't believe my eyes.

Speaker 13 (01:46:06):
Find out here's a man. I can come to the car.

Speaker 4 (01:46:10):
You stay here, Carol, Come on, Arnie, we'd better take
a look.

Speaker 11 (01:46:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:46:13):
Right, we didn't hit him, did we. I don't think so.
How I would sell and be out in the middle
of the road on a night like There's a lot
of crazy people in this world, Arnie. He must have
been one of them. And I'm getting soaked now. He
was just about here.

Speaker 3 (01:46:33):
Huh.

Speaker 4 (01:46:34):
I can't understand, Jim fucker Claire. There far beside the tree,
I don't see anything because I was wrong. You know.
For a minute, I thought I thought I saw someone
hanging from their tree.

Speaker 7 (01:46:54):
Oh, you must have been mistaken, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:46:57):
I can't figure this out, Arnie. That guy was out
here on the road, right in front of us. I
saw him just as plain as day.

Speaker 7 (01:47:05):
No, there's no one around.

Speaker 3 (01:47:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:47:09):
Uh, we'd better get back to the car. Yeah, that's
for sure. There's no sense looking back at that tree, Ynnie.

Speaker 8 (01:47:15):
There's nothing back there.

Speaker 4 (01:47:17):
I don't know. I thought I saw someone swinging their
back and forth with it a rope around his back car.

Speaker 7 (01:47:25):
Now you couldn't have.

Speaker 4 (01:47:26):
Maybe it was some kind of optical illusions. It could
have been a shadow or a branch or anything. Yeah,
that's right. Anything, Well, there's a car.

Speaker 13 (01:47:35):
You two must like it out there in the rain.

Speaker 4 (01:47:36):
Are you kidding?

Speaker 13 (01:47:38):
No, I'm not.

Speaker 11 (01:47:39):
All the time that you were out there in the rain,
the man you almost hit was talking to me.

Speaker 4 (01:47:45):
What did you say?

Speaker 3 (01:47:46):
You heard me?

Speaker 4 (01:47:47):
Oh no, just wait a minute. I looked back at
the car a couple of times. I didn't see anyone
talking to you.

Speaker 13 (01:47:52):
Oh I don't know what's wrong with your eyes.

Speaker 11 (01:47:54):
Then I asked him if we couldn't give him a lift,
and he said no, we only had a.

Speaker 8 (01:47:59):
Little disc to go.

Speaker 4 (01:48:00):
Carol, Honey, this is the truth. We didn't see anyone
near this car.

Speaker 7 (01:48:05):
No.

Speaker 4 (01:48:06):
Look, I can prove it.

Speaker 13 (01:48:08):
He insisted that I take this.

Speaker 8 (01:48:10):
Oh well, that's strange.

Speaker 11 (01:48:13):
Thought he was such an unusual man, not American. He
insisted that I accept a ring from him, practically forced
it on me. I put it in my pocket and
now it's gone, and in.

Speaker 8 (01:48:30):
Its place there's a funny little piece.

Speaker 3 (01:48:33):
Of rope shook.

Speaker 7 (01:48:35):
Like a.

Speaker 8 (01:48:37):
Like a han's noose.

Speaker 4 (01:48:45):
I knew Carol wasn't lying to us. I asked her
if she would let me have a little piece of rope.
After I dropped them off at their place, I went home,
took it out and set it on the table. I
can't explain it, but there was something about that rope
which seemed old. It was made of him, the kind
of rope you would imagine Jack Ketch might have used

(01:49:07):
two hundred and fifty years ago when he was the Hangman.
That night, as I slept, my sleep was troubled. In
my dreams, there was a huge black gallows. I saw
a man climbing the stairs to his death. He reached

(01:49:31):
the top and stood there. Standing beside him was a black,
hooded man. He raised his hand and the trap door
sprung open. There was a scream, and then I saw
this man swinging back and forth. His face was hidden

(01:49:54):
from me, yet there was something strangely familiar about him,
as if I knew him quite well.

Speaker 27 (01:50:07):
We'll return to the tale of the Hangman's Rope in
just a moment. Back now to our tale of fantasy
entitled the Hangman's Rope.

Speaker 4 (01:50:23):
When I awoke from my dream, I couldn't get back
to sleep. From the black blankness of sleep, I had
come into contact with death. As the morning approached, I
fell into a nervous sleep. I was awakened. Hello, Arnie,

(01:50:49):
this is Carol.

Speaker 13 (01:50:51):
Could you meet Jim and me for lunch today.

Speaker 4 (01:50:55):
What time about one? I hope you'll forgive me, sounded away, Carol.
I just couldn't sleep last night.

Speaker 11 (01:51:04):
I didn't sleep either, anyhow, I'll see you at one.

Speaker 4 (01:51:12):
And I guess I wasn't the only one who missed
out on sleep last night.

Speaker 3 (01:51:15):
Huh, that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:51:16):
I don't know what it was, but I had the
craziest dream. When I woke up, I couldn't get back
to sleep.

Speaker 8 (01:51:21):
But that's what happened to me too.

Speaker 4 (01:51:23):
What kind of dreamer was it, Carol?

Speaker 11 (01:51:27):
Well, everything was dark and gloomy. I seemed to be
watching an execution, an old time execution, maybe two or
three hundred years old. A man walked up the steps
of the gallows. Another man was there, with a black
hood over his head.

Speaker 13 (01:51:47):
He raised his arm.

Speaker 8 (01:51:49):
The trap door opened, and.

Speaker 4 (01:51:52):
The man swung back and forth, and there was something
familiar about him. Isn't that right?

Speaker 3 (01:51:58):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (01:51:58):
But how did you know?

Speaker 4 (01:52:00):
Because my dream was the same as yours, sis, exactly
the same. Jim's and my vacations were due the following week.
We decided to spend it up at the lake where
his family had a cottage. Carol said, she might be

(01:52:20):
able to join us on the last weekend, but not
before that. Jim and I left the following Friday night.
I can certainly use this vacation and maybe we can
catch a few northerns this time. Maybe, Ah, is your
family gonna come up here while we're there? No, no,

(01:52:41):
Carol will be up the last weekend. That's all well,
and I guess we'll have the place to ourselves. Huh, yeah,
I guess.

Speaker 10 (01:52:48):
So.

Speaker 4 (01:52:50):
Hey, why are you stopping here last Sunday night? This
is where we stopped. I'm gonna get out and take
a look at the side of the road for a minute.

Speaker 3 (01:53:01):
Oh, Arnie, why don't you forget about it?

Speaker 4 (01:53:04):
I just want to check it, that's all. That's the
tree'st I think so on that limb, that's where I
saw him hanging. Oh, just thinking about it makes me nervous.

(01:53:25):
Come on, let's go back to the car, all right.
Girl said that while we were out of the car,
she was talking to the fellow we saw. If that's
the case, I can't understand why we didn't see him too,
you know, Jim, there just wasn't enough time for him
to get away from the car without our seeing him.
Unless unless, what unless he was never there?

Speaker 17 (01:53:48):
Ah, but that couldn't.

Speaker 3 (01:53:51):
Arnie look in the car seat.

Speaker 4 (01:53:57):
Another little piece of rope. Before I could stop him,
Jim threw the little noose out into the darkness, a
little piece of rope, and inanimate thing coiled and twisted,
which somehow seemed to be alive. We reached the cottage

(01:54:20):
perhaps half an hour later, and though we were both
disturbed by what would happen, still it didn't interfere with
our sleep. The next day we went out fishing early,
had little luck, and we're on our way back to
the cottage. From the woman who owned the property next
door stopped us.

Speaker 8 (01:54:37):
Good morning, mister Stanley, Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:54:39):
Good morning missus Bennett out for the weekend, well for
the next two weeks. Oh excuse me and miss Bennett.

Speaker 8 (01:54:45):
This is Arnold Slave, pleased to meet you, mister Slade.

Speaker 4 (01:54:48):
Well, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:54:48):
Here.

Speaker 8 (01:54:49):
You must be that young man at Harrol's good day.

Speaker 4 (01:54:52):
Yes, that's right, She'll.

Speaker 8 (01:54:54):
Make your fine wife, mister Slide.

Speaker 4 (01:54:58):
Yes.

Speaker 11 (01:54:59):
The reason I stopped, do you, mister Stanley, is this
there's something strange going on out here.

Speaker 4 (01:55:05):
Oh what do you mean?

Speaker 8 (01:55:06):
Well, the constable.

Speaker 11 (01:55:07):
Came by the other day and asked me if I'd
seen any strangers here.

Speaker 13 (01:55:12):
A couple of people have died over.

Speaker 11 (01:55:14):
On the other side of the lake, and the constable
ain't been able to find out what happened.

Speaker 4 (01:55:19):
Paw, how did these people die?

Speaker 11 (01:55:23):
Well, that's what's so strange about it. Both of them
were killed by hanging hang. That's right, old mister Taylor,
who lived about a mile down by the shore.

Speaker 13 (01:55:35):
He was one of them, and he couldn't hardly walk.

Speaker 11 (01:55:38):
They found him swinging from a tree, but he was
several feet off the ground, and nobody can figure.

Speaker 13 (01:55:46):
Out how he got up there.

Speaker 4 (01:55:51):
What the woman had said frightened me. It seemed as
if we were getting deeper and ever more deeply into
something from which who would never be able to get away.
That night, it was Saturday, Jim and I went out
for a walk. It was a particularly dark night. The
moon was obscured by clouds, and as we walked along,

(01:56:12):
I could hear the chirping of many crickets, and occasionally
a bullfrog's hoarse voice raised in protest. Nold, this thing
has me worried in what way? Jane? This whole thing
last Sunday night and today, when we stopped by the tree.
And then what missus Bennett told us. I've been thinking
about it too. That's strange. On the crickets have suddenly stopped.

(01:56:40):
It's too quiet, Jim, she came from over there.

Speaker 7 (01:56:47):
We better take a look out.

Speaker 3 (01:56:52):
That's too quiet.

Speaker 4 (01:56:53):
Just as you said. There must be something terribly wrong
up here.

Speaker 2 (01:56:56):
I hope nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:56:57):
Huh. Look hanging on that tree, swinging back and forth.
It's it's a man.

Speaker 3 (01:57:10):
What are we going to do?

Speaker 7 (01:57:12):
We better cut him down?

Speaker 4 (01:57:13):
No, we better call the authorities first. I guess you're right.
Come on, missus Bennett's got a phone. If we hurry,
we may be able to get out a great deal
of help to the authority. Jim, did you notice how
high that branch was? I saw it. Yes, Why mister Stanley,
it's your missus Bennett. They we use your phone?

Speaker 8 (01:57:34):
Well I suppose so.

Speaker 4 (01:57:36):
Come in, Mike, thank you, but it's in the other room.

Speaker 8 (01:57:39):
Let what's the matter, mister Slade. It looks like something's
happened to upset you.

Speaker 3 (01:57:48):
To what's happened?

Speaker 4 (01:57:52):
We were out for a walk. Yes, we heard a scream.
I think you better get on your scream and come
from He found a man hanging from a tree. Right, Yes,
we'll stay here at Missus Bennett's. Yeah, thanks, are what
you're doing me.

Speaker 8 (01:58:08):
The truth, young man.

Speaker 4 (01:58:09):
That's the truth, ma'am.

Speaker 8 (01:58:12):
Mister Stanley, is what mister Slade told me.

Speaker 4 (01:58:16):
The truth. I'm afraid it is.

Speaker 13 (01:58:18):
Ah, then no one.

Speaker 8 (01:58:20):
Is safe around here. I wonder who it was.

Speaker 4 (01:58:24):
What difference does that make, Missus Bennett. A man's been murdered.

Speaker 13 (01:58:27):
It makes a lot of difference, mister Slade.

Speaker 3 (01:58:30):
If it was.

Speaker 11 (01:58:31):
Bill Roberts, then it was just like the other two.
I saw him just the other day and he said
someone was playing a joke on him, that he'd been
sent to a little piece of rope shaped in the
form of a noose.

Speaker 27 (01:58:52):
You are listening to the Tale of the Hangman's Rope
on this week's Journey down the Corridors of the Hall
of Fantasy.

Speaker 7 (01:58:58):
We'll return to.

Speaker 27 (01:58:58):
Our story in Jeff the moment, and now back to
our story entitled the Hangman's Rope.

Speaker 4 (01:59:13):
A little piece of rope. Both Jim and I stared
at each other for a moment. It might be coincidence,
we need that, but it was difficult trying to make
ourselves believe that. About half an hour later, the constable arrived.
You two found him, right, Miss Stanley, that's right. We
were off taking a walk, we heard a scream and

(01:59:34):
then we found him.

Speaker 3 (01:59:35):
Can't make heads and tails out of this.

Speaker 7 (01:59:37):
Three of them, three deaths in two weeks, all the
same way.

Speaker 4 (01:59:41):
They all received a little piece of rope just before
they died, A little piece of rope.

Speaker 27 (01:59:46):
Yes, right, I say all three. I ain't seen the
body yet, but I have a pretty good idea who
it is, Bill Roberts.

Speaker 8 (01:59:52):
It's enough to make a person afraid of the dark.

Speaker 3 (01:59:54):
Constable, Yeah, I ain't it.

Speaker 27 (01:59:56):
Well, I want you to to take me to him.

Speaker 13 (01:59:59):
I'll go too.

Speaker 4 (02:00:00):
No, you stay here, you stay off the phone.

Speaker 27 (02:00:03):
I don't want the rest of the people to hear
anything about this, at least with the time being.

Speaker 7 (02:00:07):
Things are bad enough as it is.

Speaker 4 (02:00:09):
All right, come on, let's go now.

Speaker 27 (02:00:14):
Remember what I said, missus Bennett.

Speaker 13 (02:00:15):
Don't you worry none, Constable.

Speaker 27 (02:00:18):
I think that woman stays off the phone. The whole
county of you in an uproar. She doesn't.

Speaker 4 (02:00:23):
Do you have any idea who's behind these deaths? Well,
I haven't a funny thing. He was up so high.
I don't see how he could have gotten up there
by himself.

Speaker 7 (02:00:33):
No, he wish I had something to work on.

Speaker 27 (02:00:36):
Well, we'll see if he's just like the others a
little while.

Speaker 26 (02:00:39):
How far away was.

Speaker 7 (02:00:43):
There?

Speaker 4 (02:00:44):
He is, constable?

Speaker 27 (02:00:46):
I want to get a look at his face. Yeah,
I don't afraid of that. Who is it, Phil Roberts?

Speaker 4 (02:00:55):
But how did he get up there?

Speaker 27 (02:00:57):
Branch's twenty feet off the ground. Take an acre that
the car left. Three Bill wasn't any acrobat.

Speaker 4 (02:01:03):
Well how did he get up there? I don't know.

Speaker 27 (02:01:06):
Three people received pieces of rope, and then a couple
of weeks later we find him.

Speaker 7 (02:01:11):
Hanging from a tree.

Speaker 3 (02:01:13):
You tell me the answer.

Speaker 4 (02:01:22):
We cut him down, but it took almost an hour
to get up on that branch. To do it, we
put him in the Constable's car and drove him back
to town. Before he left, we told him that we
too had received the little gift, the noose of rope,
which had been, in three instances, the forerunner of death.

(02:01:44):
When we got back to the cottage, we had a
bite to eat, and, seeing as we weren't in the
mood to sleep, we sat down to read. I picked
up a little book I hadn't seen before and read
it from cover to cover. It held an eerie fascination
and I wasn't able to put it down to the
last page had been turned and the last word read, Jim,

(02:02:05):
where did you.

Speaker 3 (02:02:06):
Get this book?

Speaker 7 (02:02:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:02:07):
I don't think I've ever seen it before. Why it
looks like a first edition of two hundred years ago.
Let me see it.

Speaker 29 (02:02:15):
Here a short history concerning the mysterious reappearance of Jack Ketch,
the hangman who served as executioner for twenty three years.

Speaker 4 (02:02:27):
I've never seen this book before. Well, then, how did
it get here?

Speaker 3 (02:02:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:02:31):
Jack Ketch say he was the hangman in England who
took too much pleasure in his work.

Speaker 3 (02:02:36):
Isn't that right?

Speaker 4 (02:02:37):
I think?

Speaker 3 (02:02:37):
So?

Speaker 4 (02:02:38):
How much of this did you read? All of it?
It's not very long, and this is what I got
out of it. Before he died. The book says he
had made some kind of a pact with an evil power.
It seems they actually do have a written copy of
that agreement somewhere in England. There's his signature and an

(02:02:58):
illegible scrawl that no one has ever been able to decipher.
The fact promises life after death for him in exchange
for certain services then the book says that year after year,
some rather mysterious deaths have occurred. They find the victims
hanging from the branch of a tree, a tree almost

(02:03:19):
impossible to climb. And the book also says that each
of the murdered people received a little piece of rope
before their deaths, identical to the ones Jack Ketch used
as executioner. That is the warning, the warning of death
to follow. But that's impossible. The man's been dead for

(02:03:39):
over two hundred and fifty years. That's right, he's dead.
But the rest of the story, it's exactly the same
thing that's happening to us. Two days later, in late evening,
the rest of the story unfolded. Gone down to the

(02:04:00):
store to pick up some cigarettes. I had been down
to the shore doing a little fly casting and had
started back up to the cottage. I was surprised at
how quickly night had fallen. I wish that I'd brought
along a flashlight from somewhere across the lake. I heard

(02:04:21):
the cry of a dog, and the sound of it
filtered through and was carried along by the night. Are
For some reason, I became unaccountably nervous. I stopped walking,
I felt someone was watching me. Then from the darkness
of the trees, a man emerged.

Speaker 7 (02:04:42):
Here.

Speaker 4 (02:04:42):
Now where do you go? And or back up to
my cottage. I was doing some fly casting till night came.
Any luck, No, I'd better be going. Tell me dairy?

Speaker 7 (02:04:56):
Why nice out here?

Speaker 4 (02:05:00):
I suppose so?

Speaker 28 (02:05:02):
He's trying to sing in the little teachers They stopped
little creatures, that's right, Govenor. Crickets and the frogs they
stopped talking.

Speaker 4 (02:05:22):
Yes they they have you frightened the beak Governor? Of
course not what are you laughing at?

Speaker 7 (02:05:34):
You wouldn't understand the governor?

Speaker 9 (02:05:39):
Is that you down there, mister Snad?

Speaker 4 (02:05:41):
Oh uh, yes, missus Bennett.

Speaker 8 (02:05:43):
Do you mind if I join you?

Speaker 4 (02:05:45):
No? No, of course, not good.

Speaker 7 (02:05:47):
I'd better be going. Go. I'll see you the other t.

Speaker 13 (02:05:54):
Who are you talking to?

Speaker 4 (02:05:55):
I don't know he he just stepped out of the
darkness and there he was. Well, I guess he's going now, yes,
I guess he is.

Speaker 13 (02:06:04):
Where's mister Stanley?

Speaker 4 (02:06:05):
He went down to pick up some cigarettes. He should
be back soon.

Speaker 8 (02:06:09):
When the constable told me to tell you that he'd be.

Speaker 13 (02:06:12):
Out tonight, Oh thank you would?

Speaker 11 (02:06:15):
Would you mind walking me back to my place, mister Slade.
It's rather frightening out here when it's this dark.

Speaker 4 (02:06:23):
I'll be glad to that man you.

Speaker 13 (02:06:26):
Were talking to. What did he look like?

Speaker 4 (02:06:30):
I don't know. I couldn't see his face. He had
an accent. It sounded like he might have come from London.

Speaker 3 (02:06:37):
Wait a minute, eh.

Speaker 11 (02:06:39):
I, I can't understand it. The crickets and frogs. They've
been starting and stopping all night. They must be afraid
of something.

Speaker 4 (02:06:50):
Every time they stop.

Speaker 8 (02:06:53):
What'd you say?

Speaker 7 (02:06:54):
Every time they stop?

Speaker 4 (02:06:57):
Something happens for a while. I'm walking miss Bennett back
to our cottage. Anything wrong, Oh? I got back from
the Star and I was wondering where you were. It's
just that I have a strange feeling that something is
going to happen. Let's go up to our place in
missus Bennett. Maybe the constable will want to see you too.

Speaker 11 (02:07:18):
That's a good idea, man, says mister Slade. The strangest
things have been happening out here lately.

Speaker 4 (02:07:27):
We'll be right there. Jim, Well, there's someone up here now.
I thought of what, Jim, something's wrong, mister Slade.

Speaker 2 (02:07:35):
I don't know, Jim, what's the matter?

Speaker 3 (02:07:40):
Answer me?

Speaker 9 (02:07:41):
Oh, mister slade.

Speaker 8 (02:07:53):
Look who hanging from that tree.

Speaker 9 (02:07:57):
It's it's mister Standley.

Speaker 28 (02:08:07):
There is a legend you now a pile about the hangman.
For twenty three years the executioner for the Crown jack
Ketch was his nine governor jack Ketch.

Speaker 1 (02:08:33):
Thank you so much, my dear, for another evening. I
do so enjoy them, and I hope you do too.
Please know, I'll be right here waiting waiting for you
to come back, same place, same time, same fear. But

(02:08:53):
for now, the sun will be rising soon, and I
suppose you should go home and I should head back
to wherever it is I tend to go. So please
be safe on your journey home. It could be a
long sojourney in the dark, not knowing what might be watching,

(02:09:19):
what might be waiting. But I'm sure, my dear, there's
not anything to worry about. So go on now, wander
your way home over the river, through the woods, past
the railroad tracks in the old cemetery. But do me

(02:09:39):
one favor. As you lay your head down and blink
away your consciousness, be thankful for what you have be
seeing you

All Episodes

Unknown Broadcast | Terror on the Heath and at the Gallows: Four Horror Stories of Murder and Suspense

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Unknown Broadcast | Terror on the Heath and at the Gallows: Four Horror Stories of Murder and Suspense