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August 25, 2025 43 mins
CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a noteworthy attempt to revive in American radio dramas like Inner Sanctum (1941-1952) and Suspense (1942-1962). Radio dramas were widely considered "dead" 12 years prior to this series. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, or simply Mystery Theater, was created by Inner Sanctum creator Himan Brown and ran on CBS from 1974-1982. The show, much like older radio dramas, was introduced by a host (E.G. Marshall in this program), who steers us through the creaking door to start the episode. Many voices from the golden age of radio were featured, including Richard Widmark, Bret Morrison, Agnes Moorehead and many more.

Hope you enjoy this episode of Mystery Theater! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This radio mystery theater presents.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Come in or welcome. I'm G. Marshall.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Most people, although they are fascinated by the prospect, simply
do not believe in the supernatural. They consider that witches in, vampires, demons,
and all the other myriad spirits of the nether world
have gone out of style. But they no longer exist
except as figments of the diseased mind. Maybe, although they

(00:47):
would never admit to practicing black magic, there are witches
covens all over the world, even in our own America.
I take no stand in the matter. I leave you
with this story. Worry to decide for yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Don't talk about it if you don't want to. Jenny,
But what happened?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
We were driving back to the hospital after she after
Sharon died, and he was like a wild man.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
He was driving too fast, he was.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Burning rubber, like it had gone out of style. But
why maybe he wanted to commit suicide.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Not my brother, and not review of the car. But
such a terrible accident. How did you get out of
it alive?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
It it wasn't my time yet.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Our mystery drama Child of Misfortune was written especially for
the Mystery Theater by Ian Martin and Stars Norman Rose.
It is sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division and
contact the twelve hour Cold Capsule. I'll be back shortly
with that one. The home is a pleasant one on

(02:13):
the outskirts of a small town, not large or too expensive,
but with a feeling of being well lived in. By
the farthest stretch of imagination, no one could even accept
the idea of any ghost haunting this bright little villa,
or any skeletons skulking in closets. It's a house that

(02:34):
suggests nothing but life, and its occupants, Doctor Sam Taylor,
his wife Jane, and their son Bucky, just beginning his
thirteenth year, are just the sort of people you would
expect to find living in it, except for one thing.
Doctor Taylor is a general practitioner, but his specialized interest

(02:55):
is in pathology, the surgical dissection of the dead.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Uh Sam, that you sure, honey, I take it easy,
Go back to sleep. I'll be right with you.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
No, I wasn't asleep. I'm ay so scared when you're
out these days.

Speaker 6 (03:13):
Scared.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Now, come on, I don't have that many late nights.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
Well, even one a week is more than enough for me.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
God. Sorry, darling my life. You got to live it too,
remember for better for wordsitca house. I don't really mind.
It's sam except for except for what.

Speaker 5 (03:33):
Oh forget it, just what my mother used to call
night qualms.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I guess.

Speaker 5 (03:39):
Well, I'm a city girl that doesn't adapt too well
to the country.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
This is scarcely the country. And what's to be afraid of?
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
Squeaks, squeals, rustlings, I just being alone, I suppose.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
I mean, there's so much crime. And that's the second
time you hung up on saying something. Can you better
say it? Get it out of your thoughts. It's about me? Huh, Oh,
so silly.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I just wish that I hadn't taken the job in
medical examiner.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
Yes, but it's my field, Jane, cutting up dead bodies.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
That's what I get paid for, so I deliver. But
there are secondary benefits. What do we have to talk
about it tonight? It's only an understanding the causes of
death that we can make any attempt to keep it
from happening. Oh, come on about at three in the morning.
What a crazy discussion with a woman I love.

Speaker 5 (04:32):
I'm sorry, I'm a mope.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
Well, I worked too hard at more than one job.
We owe ourselves some time off. M Like Tim, he
lives it up all the way with Sharon. Why didn't
I decide to be an actor like my older brother?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Why didn't you? Because I wanted permanency, continuity, endurance. I
hope I bought it.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
I had this crazy feeling hovering over me all the time.
It was all an illusionment, Hornet. It's me has assumed
for any results from tonight unless we've got another da Damn,
I'd love not to answer it.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, then you just take it off the hook and
forget it.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
I wish my bump of whatever it is morality.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
Conformity was just a little smaller. I had to Jane. Hello, Yes, yes,
this is doctor Sam Taylor.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Who. Yes, of course it's about my brother's wife. Oh
is she less impossible? Well, have you any idea what
caused it? Oh? That's incredible.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
Look doctor, I'd like to discuss it with you further,
but first let me talk to my brother a moment.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
What did I die? That's Jim too? How huh uh?

Speaker 4 (05:55):
Yes, yes, I see. Oh well, well for the moment,
I don't quite know what to say. Yeah, of course
I'll be there to make arrangeers with the funeral. Excuse me, funerals.
I can't believe it. What about the girl leave the donner? Yes,
of course I see. Well look just hold everything and
I'll be out there by tomorrow night. Yes, I should

(06:17):
make it before dinner. Yes, that's fine, and thank you.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
What is it?

Speaker 5 (06:20):
Sam?

Speaker 4 (06:22):
It's crazy, Jane, It's just crazy. Sharon had the mumps
and suddenly she's dead and so is Jim.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
How could both of them?

Speaker 4 (06:30):
I can't explain about his wife one of these things medically,
which shouldn't happen this day and age, but does.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
But Jim is something else again. Wait, now you're not
making any sense.

Speaker 5 (06:40):
Sharon died for months or complications, and Jim I have
no complications there.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
He was driving to the hospital and went off the
road into the canyon. Has burned to a crisp and
a car car on fire. It's an absolute miracle. With
Jenny escaped.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Their daughter was with him. Yes, how badly is she here?
According to doctor Holcombe, whom I talked to, she was
thrown clear and came out unscathed. Of Jane, I've got
to go out there first thing tomorrow. Of course, you
do you want to go along, you know, I do. Well,
what about Bucky? I could call Mom and Da. No, no, no, no,
forget it. Jim and I were never very close, you know,
I never even met his wife. I'll fly out there

(07:17):
and handle it. There's only one thing hot, dear Jenny.
I don't know if she has anywhere else to go.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
You might end up having a daughter more or less
in the house. I can't leave a child.

Speaker 5 (07:27):
Alone, course, you can't. You know she's welcome here, dine. Oh,
your poor brother and his new wife. What a terrible tragedy.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
From the Los Angeles airport. I went straight to the
hospital since there was no answer at my brother's home
in Beverly Hills. The physician in charge, a doctor Holcomb,
met me.

Speaker 7 (07:52):
How do you do, doctor Turner? Sorry to meet you
under such tragic circumstances.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
We're doctors, and particularly in my case, should be inured
to the act of death areas. Sometimes it never quite
happens that way, does it, no matter if it's in
the immediate family or not.

Speaker 7 (08:07):
I'd hope that most of us are still human beings.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
What happened to my sister in law?

Speaker 4 (08:11):
First of all, I don't know, but she had mops right.

Speaker 7 (08:17):
Doctor Taylor. She had glandular swellings. The whole lymph system
was invaded by something. But what it was, I haven't
the faintest idea.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
But because of death, massive vedema, blunge, heart failure, what
did the autopsy show? Nothing? Nothing?

Speaker 7 (08:35):
I'm a toxicologist myself. We had a neurosurgeon, a pathologist,
so mentioned any speciality you want, but had any relation
to this. None of us could even estimate what caused
her death.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Then it wasn't momps. I can't even tell you that, But.

Speaker 4 (08:50):
Weren't serum specimens taken all the way after she was
brought to the hospital shortly before her death. So or
since we have no epidemic here. As you can realize,
diagnosis is often difficult. Of course, the symptoms, especially in
an adult, could be could be anything. But tests, even
post mortar must have shown something.

Speaker 7 (09:11):
Nothing up detailer, and believe me, they were done exhaustibly.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
All of us here just.

Speaker 7 (09:18):
As puzzled as you must be. I've already told you
how your sister in law died almost literally smothered, choked
to death, as if by some evil force. But why
what caused it? Well, our records are all open to
you for study.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
I'm sure I couldn't find out any more than all
the distinguished men who've already tried it. Let's leave that
for the moment.

Speaker 7 (09:42):
My brother, I can be more specific about that. When
I have notified him of his wife's death, he well,
quite frankly, his reaction was almost what shall I say, paranoid,
paranoida cas He screamed something on the phone about well again,

(10:04):
he was so distraught.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
I thought that the word was witch, but of course
it could have been a more familiar one. Witch. In
what connection did he use it?

Speaker 7 (10:13):
I can't exactly say. It was something about so the
witch has had her way, and then he slammed up
the telephone. I tried to call him back, but the
next contact I had with him, with your brother, was
when they brought him or his remains to the hospital
after the accident.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yes, we can.

Speaker 7 (10:36):
Only presume that he was on his way over from
the valley on Benedict Canyon and somehow lost control and
went through the guardrail. The car was totaled, and your brother, you.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Don't have to go through that.

Speaker 4 (10:50):
I know that he was caught in the car and
the burndle crisp with him.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
But what happened? He couldn't have tried to kill himself.

Speaker 7 (11:00):
Well, it's one reason I was called in. There are
some who thought he might, under the circumstances, not have
been quite himself.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Oh sure, What was the alcohol in the blood? Normal?

Speaker 7 (11:12):
No other evidence of any drug. Under ordinary circumstances, I
might have guessed it a suicide attempt, except.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
For except for the fact that he had Jenny in
the car with him, and so that rules that out.
We use our comfortable little phrase death by misadventure, right, doctor,
all right, which completes the role of the dead, now
the living. I called the house as soon as I landed,
but there was no answer. Do you know where my
niece is?

Speaker 2 (11:39):
I most certainly do.

Speaker 7 (11:41):
Although she was and I must say that there's only
one word for it, miraculously unharmed. I was afraid of
post factum shock. I kept her here in the hospital
since she seemed to have no one else to care
for her. May accept yourself, how.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Is she well?

Speaker 7 (12:01):
I can only say that from any point of view,
she's a most remarkable and completely beguiling young woman.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Young woman because she's only sixteen.

Speaker 7 (12:12):
So I've been informed, and it's hard to believe her
self possession, and what shall I say in her strength
quite formidable, only matched by her general appeal. She's very
hard to resist. I might mention also that she's quite
incredibly beautiful.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
May I see her now? Yes?

Speaker 7 (12:33):
Yes, course, she's been waiting anxiously to meet her only
surviving relative.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
I followed, doctor Holcombe.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
I was conscious of a strange aura of mystery hanging
over my brother.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
And his wife's death. Somehow both seem so unnatural.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Oh, I don't, at the moment mean that I had
any precommission of the fact that there was anything supernatural
about them or the niece I was about to meet.
But I did have an uneasy premonition of well, I
don't know exactly why, and at any rate, it was
banished momentarily. The moment I met my niece, I must
say she was the most beautiful woman I've ever met

(13:13):
in my life, the woman A sixteen year old child
looking at her, listening to her, falling under her spell.
She was as lovely and compelling as any of the
great beauties of all the ages.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Well, Jenny, how do we feel today? Oh so much better?

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Doctor? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I brought you a visitor I know something more than
that a relative. Yes, I'm your father's brother, Jenny, Uncle Sam.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
No, that sounds funny, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Oh? Maybe?

Speaker 4 (13:45):
But I don't mind the comparison, Jenny. I I'm sorry
about everything.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Are you all right?

Speaker 3 (13:53):
I guess only what's going to happen to me?

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Now? Why you're coming to live with me and my wife?

Speaker 7 (14:01):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (14:01):
If you want to, I think that would be super.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Aren't you going to give me a kiss to let
me know I'm welcome? Uncle Sam?

Speaker 2 (14:07):
I'd be glad to do that little thing.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Mm, that was nice, And I think I'll just leave
out the uncle, alright with you? Sam?

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Should I have known right then? How could I possibly
have guessed?

Speaker 4 (14:28):
The dark, violet eyes, pools of strange and infinite wisdom,
the voice half child, half woman, and that ravishing body
all women, or most of all, the kiss far less
a welcome than an invitation to and promise of forbidden
things to come. I should have taken to my heels

(14:49):
and run as though the hounds.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Of hell were at them. But I didn't know.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
I didn't guess, and so I sealed my doom.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Intriguing What doom?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
What threat? Can a sixteen year old girl oppose to
a doctor in his late thirties. No matter how precocious
she may seem. Precocious, No, that is not exactly the
word for Jenny, as I think you will agree when
I return to continue this story shortly with that two.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Where were we? Oh?

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yes, precocious an adjective usually applied to a child, meaning,
of course, exceptionally early development, the ripening of something or
someone before its time. Well, that would apply to Jenny naturally,
but it would be only part of the story, the
tiniest part. For the rest lies submerged in dark layers

(15:59):
of history that are timeless and beyond boundaries few would
dare or nohow to cross, but which we will cross
as we dig for the rest of this fascinating story.
Flying home in the plane with Jenny a few days
later after the funerals, looking sideways as she peered out
an eager fascination of.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
The ground far below like any other young girl, I was.

Speaker 4 (16:22):
Ashamed of myself for other thoughts that had clouded my head.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Oh look, look is that luck Vegas?

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah, that's it? Oh sodom and gomorrah. Oh I don't
think it could be that wicked.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
I'd love to be able to go there and gamble.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Well, the percentages that all go with the house, you
can't win.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Oh, the luck couldn't run against me.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
I'd win. What's that mean?

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Just that I always do when I want to.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, I'm afraid it'll be a couple of years yet
till you can prove that out.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
You mean because I'm not of age, that's right.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
I don't think that's fair. Lots of things in life
don't seem fair, Jenny.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yes, it could have worked out if only.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Oh, poor kid, trying not to think about your mother. Oh,
it isn't her. Sharon was my real mother anyway. She
died when I was born.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
Then my father married her Sharon, and then when he died,
your brother came along. He's the one ie I was
thinking about.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Crazy.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
But don't talk about it if you don't want to, Jenny.
But what what happened?

Speaker 3 (17:33):
We were driving to the hospital after she Sharon died,
and he it was like a wild man. I asked
him to let me drive.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
But he wouldn't. He was driving too fast. It was
burning rubber, like it had gone out of style. But why,
I don't know. He was real gone on her Sharon.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Maybe you wanted to commit suicide?

Speaker 4 (17:57):
Oh no, no matter how frantic he was with grief,
Jim would never do that. I know my older brother
too well, and certainly.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Not with you in the car. No, it was just
a terrible accident. But how did you get out of
it like you did? It wasn't my time yet he.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Sounded like a combat soldier. You know you are quite
a fatalist, young lady, if you want.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
To call it that, old man. Oh, you're not old
at all.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Because I like Jim, only younger. I'm really going to
dig living of you. Sam and Jane. Jane was my wife? Oh, yes,
your wife. I wonder how she's going to feel about me?

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Who like footsteps over my grave? A far away icy
draft in a back layer of the line.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
Why the statement was innocent enough, But it was only
the way she said it, as if Jenny had already
made up her mind and how she felt about someone
she'd never met.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Jane Jane were here.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Oh I'm sorry dying near the car.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
M I missed you every minute though, Jane Darling. This
is Jenny.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
Hello, Jenny, Hello, missus aunt Jane. That's nice to hear
you know.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
I hope you'll be one of the family. I hope
I can. Where's the other member?

Speaker 5 (19:27):
Oh, Bucky was all in a dinner. He was dying
to meet his new cousin or sisters. I hope you'll
beat Jenny. But Peter Timmans's father had tickets for some
big League baseball games, so he took them up to.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Kansas City for lunch first, and then not back yet.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
He hoped you wouldn't mind, Jenny, Why should I?

Speaker 2 (19:44):
How old is Bucky? He's thirteen?

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Gee, I never would have thought you were that old, aunt, Jane.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
She doesn't look at this, she sam, well, I don't
think she looks old at all.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Anyway, She's not like Sharon or painted up and hair
dyed and all. It's nice to see someone I'm afraid
to look her age.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
I guess I should take that as a compliment. Come on, Jenny,
I'll take you upstairs and show you your room.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
I carried off the bags and then went downstairs to
make myself a drink.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
It was a little early in the day for one.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
But of course Jenny hadn't meant anything by her remarks.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Or had she Yeah, I could tell it.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
Jane was a bit miffed, which isn't like her, and
damn it, she had made me glance at the wife
I loved and noticed that she had a few strands of.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Gray hair and the wrinkles were beginning to show.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
But with unpacking, Bucky's arrival home, full of the game,
and the excitement at meeting Jenny, dinner and one thing
or another, it wasn't until we were in bed that
Jane and I had any chance to talk privately.

Speaker 5 (20:50):
I'm surprised about Sharon not being Jenny's mother.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yes, it's a mixed up history. Her whole marriage was
a mix up.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
You know.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
Imagine not being at your own bad You're never even
having a chance to meet his wife. My other brother
Ted was fit to be kind about it too.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
You were laid up with him on here. But the
police department could have let.

Speaker 6 (21:09):
Ted go on no way.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
He was on subpoena to the court as a witness
on that murder case. And you know, my oldest brother,
even if he could have gotten out of the duty,
always comes first, Oh older brother.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
There are only two of us left.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
Now, Oh my poor Sam.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
It's easier on me, I have you, Ted has nobody
thanks to me. No, we're not going to rake up
that ancient history. Well, I did steal you away from him,
nothing of the kind.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
I made the choice. Now, come on, that's enough agonizing
for tonight. You need some sleep.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
Look, dear, if it's asking too much of you to
bring Jenny into the house, Oh.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Don't be silly. I'm sure she'll be a help.

Speaker 5 (21:52):
Bucky's crazy about her already, and nothing's strange girl though,
my lord, how beautiful a little sex goddess can you be?

Speaker 2 (22:05):
At sixteen?

Speaker 5 (22:07):
She really put me in the shade, didn't she.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
You mean to remark about not mind being showing your age?

Speaker 5 (22:14):
Well, yes, if you want to know, do I well,
not to me, I do to myself.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
I look in a narrow damn her wish she couldn't
have met anything, of course not. It was just an
innocent remark. Except what do.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
I have?

Speaker 2 (22:32):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
I have the queerest feeling that for some reason she
she's antagonistic to me.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Not that it's done right, ridiculous. Everyone loves you.

Speaker 5 (22:41):
I don't know about that.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
What reason in the world could Jenny have for disliking you?
None in the world that I know of women.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
Look, let's just call this all off, baby, and get
some sleeping good night, But it wasn't a good night.
There weren't to be that many good nights left, although
I didn't know that yet. All through my half waking,
hat sleeping state, I was haunted in my dreams by
violet eyes, promising ancient wisdom and tight young flesh.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
And then it was morning.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
Then something like the old familiar life began all over again,
and the days went wheeling by.

Speaker 5 (23:20):
I don't mean to complain, dear, Well what is it
Jenny again? Well, I have to spend most of the
days with her.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
You are out working, of course, So what is it
that she's done? Well?

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Nothing really, just little things that somehow I don't know,
they rattle me.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Oh lord, I'm tired, so all right?

Speaker 5 (23:40):
For example, Well, I know it's going to seem silly,
but she's forever after me to cut my air or
give me a manic.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
What's wrong with that? She just wants to do something nice,
all right.

Speaker 5 (23:51):
Do the washing, clean up after dinner, anything, But why
does it have to be so personal?

Speaker 7 (23:56):
Well it ever?

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Think she might be trying to sort of heal the breach, But.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
There isn't any breach. We've just never gotten together and
another thing. Several times I found her in my room
prowling around my dresser. If she says she's looking for
a nail file or a powder or some ordinary thing, for.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Pete's sake, what else do you think she's trying to steal?
No than what he's sam don't let's quarrel. It's happening
more and more. I know I'll have a talk with her. Okay.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
I was thinking of taking Bucky up to see my
parents this weekend. But what I'd rather have us do
is just get away together.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
There isn't a chance, dear, I'm tied down on a
couple of cases. But where are you two going? That'll
give me a chance to set up some ground rules
with a Jenny.

Speaker 5 (24:42):
Well, all right, dear, can you manage alone?

Speaker 4 (24:45):
I think we'll make out. Jane, are you all right?
I mean physically?

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Well? I think so. I'm just very tired. Why let
me feel your neck? Why grand airry is a little swollen.
There's a pop in this under the eyes that.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
Oh please, I feel quite old and unattractive enough as
it is. A couple of good nights, sleep in the
mountain air and I'll be fine, and maybe you can
get Jenny straightened away. I'm sure this is best and
it will all.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Work out famous last words best.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
But I suppose in a sense it was the real
beginning of the eventual solution. The first night that Jane
was gone, I had worked late, and I hadn't the
slightest notion of working anything out, except that when I
got home.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Hello, Sam, I thought you'd.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Never get home. What are you doing up.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Waiting for you?

Speaker 2 (25:44):
You look beat?

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Sit down on the couch, kick off your shoes and let.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Me get you a drink.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
No, I don't think I want to drink, Jenny, you
won't join me?

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Well, who said that you could have one?

Speaker 3 (25:54):
Me alone? And blast? Sam?

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Jenny, I I think that you're a little drunk, only
with power. What are you talking about?

Speaker 3 (26:07):
You've known it from the very beginning, Sam, you me,
don't tell me I didn't get to you and you're
just what I want.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
Now you listen, youngster, we'll just forget this. You've had
a drink and you don't know what you're saying or
suggesting what I do.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
And I'm not suggesting, And don't tell me you are
not buying.

Speaker 4 (26:31):
I can't believe that I hear what you're saying to me, oh,
you better believe you're under my spell.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
Now there's no escape, just as there was none for
your brother.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
Except the road he took. Why you, little witch, I
want to just saved by the bell. Don't count on it.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Go ahead, pick it up, Sam, pick it up, and
after you listen, you tell me who holds the whip hand?

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeap, doctor Taylor. Here, Oh Jane Darling, I didn't expect you.
What yes, but what are your symptoms? Mm hmm mm hmm.
But how at what about Bucky? I see no signs?

(27:21):
Huh yes, Well well well look we'll take no chances.
Can Bucky stay on with your mother and father?

Speaker 4 (27:27):
Goodnes's fine. Then you go straight to the hospital from
there and I'll be able to join you. Okay, No, no, no,
there's no no question. It sounds like mumps, but we'll
know as soon as we can run some tests I'll
see at the hospital, Darling.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
By, isn't she a little old for momps?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Doctor Sam? You'll be quiet.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Oh no, you're the one who's going to be quiet
and listen to me. What Sharon had moms too, remember,
and she died because I wanted her to.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
You are a little witch, on't you?

Speaker 3 (27:58):
And this time I don't want any mistakes. I'm going
to get just what.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
I want, Jenny revealed at last. Or is she Is
this just a girl shocked by a succession of tragedies
in her life who has lost contact with reality? Or
is it doctor Sam Taylor, whose preoccupation with the dead

(28:24):
and whose story we're listening to, Who is the man
who breeds fantasies? I will return shortly with Act three.

(28:45):
A vibrant, beautiful sixteen year old, sensual beyond her years,
who may be the epitome of all evil.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
The girl who may be.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
A psychiatrically distressed child or a witch. And on to her,
fighting desperately against her enchantments. A relatively young doctor who,
by his own admission, fights to escape her physical allure,
and who himself is overwrought, overtired, and wrecked by several
emotional shocks.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
What are you trying to say, Jennie? What is it
you want?

Speaker 3 (29:18):
It's very simple, Sam.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
You oh, stop talking like a silly child.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
But I'm not silly, not at all, nor am I
a child.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
I want you, and what I want I take. I'm
afraid that Jane would take a rather dim view of that.
Jane doesn't matter. She's out of this. What.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Oh, come on now, Sam, you're the one who's being childish.
You really think your wife has the mumps?

Speaker 2 (29:41):
What else could it be?

Speaker 8 (29:43):
A hex my charming lover, a fetish doll, stabbed and
stabbed again. A poison drips into its veins until it
swells beneath the skin of the unwonted as the cursed
one feels the thorns and spears pierced to the soul,
where rise in agony, knowing the body will die and

(30:06):
it will be lost, lost to scream down through all
the night years, hung between heaven and hell, never to
find a home. How do you think Sharon died? I
wanted Jim for my lover, but she stolen from me.
So I made her image and I made her dead.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Imad, Jenny, you're sick. How can a child dream such fantasies?

Speaker 3 (30:31):
No child, no fantasies.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
Come. I'll prove it to you, as if hypnotized.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
I followed Jenny upstairs to her room on my conscious mind, operating.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
As a doctor.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
At one level, I was accepting the fact that somehow
the trauma of this girl's past had ended in paranoia,
and I was thinking how best to handle her. But underneath,
writhing like some tethered snake and the morass of sense,
memory and superstition and fearably unknown, was a voice warning
me what I had known from the beginning, and I

(31:09):
was trapped in something beyond my comprehension or control. And
then in her bedroom, Jenny wrenched open the door to
her closet and pushed aside her clothes to reveal draped
over her suitcase stood upon end, a black cloth on it.
Between two gutterr invoted candles lay a dark a figure

(31:32):
with long, real red hair and tiny fingernails on the
modeled hands crossed over its breast, and effigy of Jane.
With revulsion, I remembered her laughing about Jenny's wanting to
trim her hair, give her a manicure, skulking in her bedroom.
Most of all, what made my blood run literally cold

(31:56):
was the sight of the two shiny silver bright skews
driven down through the doll's neck on both sides, heading
until the mork hat a falk, and the rest of
the slender stilettos, which waited neatly laid out, ready for
some future foulness.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
I wanted to be physically sick. Now do you believe
you really think that you killed your mother? My foster mother,
not my real mother.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
My real mother made me all I am. She was
me and I am her in one body, inseparable and
I will be with my child.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
But you must give me. Jenny, Jenny, what am I
going to say to you? Nothing? I will talk and
you will listen.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
It could have been your brother, but he wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
But there was this difference.

Speaker 9 (32:51):
He believed he saw me drive the last sacrificial knife
home and knew that at that same moment, Sharon died,
and he turned from me to seek revenge instead.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Ha ha ha ah.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
He thought he could kill me. Jimmy, what is it
that you want? I've told you you, But why me?

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Because you are in your brother's image, and because I
need a girl child to be there to carry on
my human Dyes when I am.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Called home, you're mad. And even though I don't know
if I am absolutely sane, I just don't know how
to talk to you. No need.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Just promise me to give me my girl child if
you want to save your wife, and if I don't,
the next pin shall pierce her heart like Sharon. After that,
I take your son if necessary. You have no choice.
No weapons are all mine.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
I don't think so. Oh god eh.

Speaker 4 (33:56):
As medical examiner, I have a license to carry it,
and it is loaded.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
There's nothing you can do about it.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
You try to stick the pin in your hand into
the doll and you might be surprised at my reaction.

Speaker 8 (34:08):
I'll it.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
I didn't believe you. I hope I'm right in believing you.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
What difference won't make?

Speaker 2 (34:21):
No one else will cry.

Speaker 9 (34:23):
I am an instrument of distortion, but I didn't expect
to be destroyed myself.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
At least you are destroyed with me. Oh no, you
little witch. You can't have it all your way.

Speaker 4 (34:36):
Let me tell you something. But your body is found,
it won't be near this house. And as medical examiner,
I will do the autopsy and remove the bullet.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Be very sure the bullet that is.

Speaker 4 (34:46):
Filed and the police records will not be the one
from my gun.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
You won't get away with it.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
I can try. I don't care for myself, only for
the innocent ones.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
You don't consider yourself what not?

Speaker 2 (34:58):
After knowing you can that will be the same again.
And Heaven alone knows where I belong.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
It was relatively easy. It was so simple for me
when extracting the bullet to exchange it for any one
of the slugs in the Morgue file of unsolved murders.
Who's going to look further. So it seemed as if
I had committed the perfect crime. I had gotten away
with murder. But I hadn't gotten away with murder. As

(35:27):
long as one person knows, dead or alive, you'll fail.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
And it wasn't just one person.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
It was sheer irony, sheer ironic coincidence that the homicide
detective called in was my brother, Ted.

Speaker 7 (35:43):
Well, whatever was the matter with Jane? Looks like she's
out of the woods.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
Huh yeah, Ted, the infection's gone, just a matter of recuperation.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Oh what is it? Ted? You're my brother, the only
one I have left.

Speaker 7 (35:58):
I'm a cop, and my fashion, myself, me, my honor,
whatever you want to call it.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Is something that can be invaded.

Speaker 7 (36:06):
It's all I've got in my life to give it.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Meaning, you're an honest man. Everyone knows that you knocked
her off, Sam, and I can guess why if you
mean Jenny, Yeah, how'd you know.

Speaker 7 (36:19):
The bullets you switched why'd you have to pick one
of my cases? And Feldman in particular. It's funny the
way life is. I just found his gun after all
these years, too late to use against him because he
just died. But no bullet from that gun could have
been fired to kill Jenny. So then I checked and

(36:39):
the bullet I found in the files came.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
From Well, guess whose gun? Mine? Heel with a wife
like Jane.

Speaker 7 (36:48):
How could you have done it?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Sam? How could that little triumph be with it? And
what am I going to do now?

Speaker 4 (36:58):
So I told my brother Ted about it from the
very beginning.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
I think you've gone right off the track.

Speaker 7 (37:04):
You ought to see a psychiatrist, maybe a lawyer.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
What do you mean a lawyer? All right, at the moment,
it's less that you're my brother, and that you happen
to be.

Speaker 7 (37:12):
Married to a woman I love, and I have a
kid who deserves every decent break you ought to get.
That's holding me in my conscience back Every cup instinct
I have tells me to go looking for a warrant
for your right let's head.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Wait, don't do that to jam and Bucky. It wasn't me,
did it? It was you? What are you going to do.
I don't know. It's something I got to think out.
How would I have solved that problem?

Speaker 4 (37:38):
Don't ask me, because Jane handed me a far bigger
one when she came home from the hospital.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Where your husband? Can I come in? Why not? Or
the door seems to be locked? I'm sorry, I forgot.

Speaker 4 (37:53):
It's never been locked before in all our marriage.

Speaker 5 (37:55):
I never felt quite this way before in all our marriage.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Like how like?

Speaker 5 (38:02):
I don't know you, Sam?

Speaker 2 (38:04):
After two weeks in the hospital that kept us apart.

Speaker 5 (38:07):
No, since Jenny came into this house and was alone
with you while I was gone and died, you think
that I killed him?

Speaker 2 (38:16):
I don't know. I think she killed our love. What
did you do? Sam? Get her pregnant?

Speaker 5 (38:22):
We could have worked that out maybe, But why didn't
you answer?

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Jane? Did you honestly think that I could have?

Speaker 7 (38:29):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Right?

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Please don't lie.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
If there were any rational explanation, why a child that age?

Speaker 4 (38:36):
Can you give me any I don't know, Jane, I
don't see how I could.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
I don't think I could tell anyone anything that they
would do. Where are you going? Uh not? Just for
a drive? Think? Maybe find some way out of this.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
I put the top down and drove over by the
old quarry, reaching the convertible around.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
The turns until the tires screeched. The wind rushed by me,
the wind that I hoped would clear my head, but
instead it brought a ghost voice whispering in my ears.
Where are you going?

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Sad?

Speaker 2 (39:10):
I don't know no place left for me to go?

Speaker 8 (39:14):
In your room, lady, how about die?

Speaker 2 (39:20):
I don't belong there.

Speaker 5 (39:22):
You've no longer belong in your own You're long.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Just the lounges. Leave me alone, never.

Speaker 7 (39:35):
Had so.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Sin sound you'll come in with ard. Can't get away
with that. You deserve to die? Perhaps now so do you?

Speaker 6 (39:56):
Justice must be served?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
How to me? How to me?

Speaker 6 (40:06):
Don't let me wonder?

Speaker 2 (40:10):
You know you want me.

Speaker 6 (40:13):
You're all right, damn you you win.

Speaker 8 (40:29):
Iver.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
As I said in the beginning, few people really and
truly believe in the supernatural. Certainly Jane and Ted would
never have accepted any such world to them. Sam's unfortunate
accident was fortunate for Jane and it closed a chapter
in her life in terrible sadness, and for Ted it
was in a sense of relief since it solved a

(41:07):
problem that lay on his conscience, and in the long run,
it was the beginning of his real life, for eventually
he and Jane married.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
I'll be back.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Shortly once again, looking back, we have threaded our way
through the maze that winds back and forth across the
border of real life and shadow life. And as always

(41:40):
it seems, we end with not answers but questions.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Are there truly creatures beyond our kin?

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Or is everything just in the mind To tell the
basic truth? There's nothing either good or bad. It's thinking
makes it so. Our cast included Norman Rose, Chaddter Rowland,
John Copeland, and Court Benson. The entire production was under
the direction of Hyman Brown Radio. Mystery Theater were sponsored

(42:10):
in part by True Value hardware stores.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Missus e g.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, Pleasant three

(43:00):
h
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