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October 30, 2024 52 mins
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Presents. Come in. Welcome, I'm e. G. Marshall.

(00:27):
Welcome to the world of terrifying imagination, to the world
of enchantment, spells, the witchery. These are all words from
our childhood, pleasant memories of nursery, stories before bedtime. The
dark side of magic we knew nothing of, and when

(00:47):
we grew old enough to learn, dismissed as ignorance and superstition.
But once again, in our times, incantation, exorcism, and the
haunting belief in demonic possession are alive and abroad. They
are what this strange tale is about.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I tell you, doctor, it's the God's honest truth. They
brought the young man in on the rolling stretcher to
the emergency room and he had this big sort of
dent in his head. Oh, he didn't look like he
was breathing a towel. There was me with me bucket
and me pale, trying to clean up, just me and

(01:28):
the young man on the stretcher and the old wine,
old repeater we called p J. They brought in earlier,
snarling and dribblin. And that's when it happened. Came right
out of old p J's mouth and across the room
and right off the young man's nose like that, with

(01:50):
a burny.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Singley smell like the old.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Scissor grinder stone wheel used to make. Oh, a great
black cloud with red eyes in the middle and a
long fork tail. Oh, I've taken all bout it on
me mother's grave.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
It was the devil itself. Our mystery drama Possessed by
the Devil was written especially for the Mystery Theater by
Ian Martin and stars Donald Bucher. It is sponsored in

(02:30):
part by Contact, the twelve Hour Cold Capsule and Anheuser
Busch Incorporated brewers of Buttweiseman. I'll be back shortly with
Act one.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
If you take a look at the new nineteen seventy
five cause it doesn't take long to notice the European
influence is strong. And to be sure, there are some
new American cause that rival the Europeans, one being Buick's
new Skylock SR. But don't consider a Skylock SR because
of its touring car interior or it's rather bikish profile.

(03:01):
Consider it because it's a Buick possessing many of Buick's
nicer innovations, Like the new Buick V six, a peppery
little engine that spits out a plentiful amount of tork
while sipping a surprisingly small amount of gasoline. And if
you wish, Skylock SR can abound with creature comforts seldom
found on cars this size, with available items like Cruise Master,

(03:23):
speed control, AMFM, stereo. But you've heard enough now you
need to see and drive a Skylock Sr. And try
to remember it's not a European touring car.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
It's a buick. Buick dedicated to the free spirit. In
just about everyone who knows how to help you solve
your shopping problems. You're Better Business Bureau.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
Oh dear, all of this furniture is so beautiful. Look
at this beautiful leather cheer in this gorgeous oak table.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
And the prices are so low.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
I don't know which one by first.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
I'll help you, madam, But who are you. I'm the
man from the Better Business Bureau. Listen carefully, you. Federal
regulations require that furniture be properly labeled, describing what it's
made of, plastic, wood, veneer, and so forth. Be sure
to read the labels on the furniture.

Speaker 6 (04:20):
They'll help you.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh, I see why.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Look the label on this marble table says made of
marble dust. No wonder it's cheaper. Oh, thank you for
telling me.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Think nothing of that little lady. Just passing along another
consumer tip from your Better Business Bureau. From the beginnings

(04:53):
of history, it is there in some form possession, the
incubusts who ravish his maidens while asleep, the succubus who
tempts man into seduction in his dreams. The dybbook, that
lost soul who dies before his time and is compelled
to wander in space till he can steal a body

(05:16):
to live out his allotted years. In fact, superstition hallucination
here is such a modern legend. You be the judge. Okay,
doctor an ivy setup for old Wally Waino here glucose
and started right away.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
He don't look like he's long for this world.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
He hasn't got a cell, he hasn't drowned an alcohol.
His liver is like a washboard. But I'm not sure
I concur with your diagnosis, missus Gideon. Still I don't
know this time. Oh, another emergency, and this is supposed
to be the quiet hour.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
And do you want me to get out for a while?
Doctor I'm near finished.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
No, no, go ahead with get just don't get run
over by the stretcher. Put him over here. Boys, Now,
what are you fromming this time?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Oh? Your poor old souse dead to the world's the
word for you. All right, you've got me sympathy with
my arthritis marriage the time I've in tempted to have
a goal of a hard stuff myself. Oh but thanks
to sweet Mary, she's held me back. A little sacramental
wine who ease me bones, keeps me going. I had

(06:30):
a few tonight, I can tell you. Oh, but there's
always them breath sweetness to take it away.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
I hope. How's your patient, missus Gideon? Oh doctor, I
hope he's not a Catholic.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
The father might never make it in time.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
How's yours? Oh, mine's out of my league. What I
need is a brain surgeon. Huh, speak of the devil.
Considine just walked past the door, Doctor Considine. Doctor Considine, Sir,
I've got an emergency here and be here alone.

Speaker 5 (07:00):
It's too near.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Course I didn't suit it. I couldn't laugh. Oh but
I did.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
I see this all the good saint? Hey, hey, mother,
Well where am I.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
In the Mercy Hospital?

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Oh, you shouldn't be getting up, ma'am. You're sure a
different kind of nurse.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I'm no nurse. I'm the cleaning woman. And you had
gotten to be sitting up, not with that cloud on
the head. Someone's after giving you?

Speaker 1 (07:40):
What cloud on the head?

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Why that great big dancist, Because as saub place, they brought.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
You in with.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
What are you talking about you? I'm right for the
operating room already, doctor Considine. He has a depressed skull factor.
I don't even know if he's still alive. Lord, what
are you doing on your feet? Doctor Considine? When you
help me getting back on me?

Speaker 7 (07:59):
Hey, hey, hold up, wait a minute. Look, there's nothing
wrong with.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Me, mister. An ambulance just brought you in here with
a skull fracture. You were out cold in deep shock.

Speaker 7 (08:09):
But there's nothing wrong. There's nothing the matter with my head. Look,
Holy mother, excuse me, mister.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Mike Michael Damo. While I'm a doctor Consudan, chief of
neurological surgery here at the hospital, would you mind sitting
down on this chair for a second and let me
check you out? Sure, Doc, I think I got to
admit I don't remember how I got here. To the hospital,
so maybe you ought to have a look at me.
Missus Gideon, what's the matter with you? You look like

(08:39):
you just saw a ghost.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
It wasn't no ghost, sir.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Doctor Daniels get over here, Yes, sir, would you mind
casting your eagle eye over the back of this young
man's head and show me one scintilla of evidence of
skull fracture or concussion? Doctor, all I know is Jake
Bronstein brought him on the wagon and he had a
decompressed area. You could have laid your hand in.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
That's right, so I saw it myself.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Someone here have been drinking. Daniels. Look, if this is
your idea of a joke, never mind, we'll we'll discuss
this later, mister Damon. Yes, doctor, for your own protection
as well as the hospitals, may I suggest that we
take some X rays of your head? Oh, Nurse, yes,
you can. Let doctor Daniels take over on the ivy

(09:29):
with the old man and will miss the Damon straight
to X ray. I want to pull out a head blade, yes,
doctor Demon. There are a couple of questions I'd like
to ask you. Excuse me, sir, Dad, Mike, you are right, son,
I fear fine, dad, except for a headache. Oh, doctor Considine,
this is my father, Reverend Damon, how do you do

(09:49):
a nurse? Can we get going? Dad? What happened? How
did I get here? Well? Perhaps you can explain, Reverend
as we walk along. I want to get to X Ray.
I wish someone could explain to me what happened. I can, sir,
Let me check the IV on Old Pj. Wait a minute,

(10:11):
what is it, doctor Pj. Here he's bought it this time. Oh,
this is not my night. We might have pulled him through.
Oh there's going to be the devil to pay around here.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Well you can say that again.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
It's the God's truth.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Doctor Considine. Came right out of the old man's mouth
and across the room and up the young man's nose
like that, with a burning cindery smell, like the orcissor
grinder squeel used to make a great black cloud with
red eyes in the middle and a long fortail I've
taken off on the mother's.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Grave towards the devil. Yes, yes, missus Gideon, I think
you can leave the medical discussion to us, and I'm
sure you have important work.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Wait, oh, bless I left me pale and mat there.
I hope nobody's the master Steven, that Marfatt had a
brand new head on his.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
At least I know now where the smell of alcohol
came from. I can't blame you for that, Danielson, but
I just can't accept it. In an emergency room, you
concentrate on a seemingly healthy patient while you ruse a
really sick old man. PJ was a repeater doc. He's
long overdue for urinic poisoning. Her cardiac arrest with this

(11:31):
young guy, Damon, Oh, well, well, well, complete your sentences.
I was just thinking that magnificent body physically way above
par and the injury I thought I saw well would
have left him a vegetable for the rest of a
long life if we'd pulled him through. Whyn't your age
that depressed fracture most of the brain should have been

(11:52):
injured beyond repair. Who say what you thought you saw?
Apparently you didn't see anything you heard, missus, Gideon, back
me up, doctor, come in, Oh it's the wet place,
doctor from X ray. Not up the viewing fields, Daniels,
and lets have a good look. Yes hard well, sir,

(12:19):
Oh somebody gave him a knock on the head. All right,
there's some exterior evidence of that, but of any fracture
none I can see. Well, you're the doctor of record.
We send him home. I see no reason not to. Okay,
now I'd better get up to a war coming coming. True. Well,

(12:52):
it looks a disappointed Give sweet How what are you
doing here? This are? Oh?

Speaker 2 (12:58):
I couldn't sleep after your call, so I drove over.
Is Mike back from the hospital.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
No, I thought the bell was Dad and Mike. They're
on the way home right now.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
How come you didn't go to the hospital.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
We've been trying to get in touch with Anton Azarak,
so Dad thought one of us should be here in
case he called back. I mean to find out what happened,
all right? And uh cool it?

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Oh what a name for a cat?

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Why? I see nothing wrong with it. I think your
martyr belongs in the minister's family.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Oh is that my fate?

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Is your wife to be?

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Of course not. We just called her that because Mike
and she never seemed to get along.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
It's hard to figure about the cat. I guess such
a kind, gentle sort of giant. I thought all animals
loved him.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Well, it depends what the word includes it. Wait a minute,
there's a car now, the return of the Prodigal sun. Now,
maybe we'll find out just what happened last night. And
that's honest all I can tell any of you. You

(14:02):
were making a fresh fire in the fireplace at half
past five in the morning and straightened up too fast
and knocked yourself cold on the underside of the nattlebee.
What other explanation is the rod? It is solid oak,
and the big round ornamental sphere as a menace. I
regretted it every time I've bumped my own head on here.

(14:22):
But Dad, you never hit your head hot enough to
knock yourself cold.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Mike, why were you making a fire at that time
in the morning.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, I wasn't actually making one. I was replacing one.
Professor Azarek was with me last night, coaching me for
an exam I have coming up, and well he got cold. Oh,
come on, it wasn't cold enough for a fire last night,
or maybe when you went to bed. But we were
up all night and the professors are pretty old. Man.
What are you doing up at that hour in the morning,
dare I really don't know. Something woke me and I

(14:56):
are you all right?

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Revengees.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Excuse me through the dear Yes, yes, I'm fine. I'm
just recalling that moment this morning, how vivid it was.
I was startled out of the depth of my sleep
to wide awakeness. I had a vision of Mike surrounded
by flames. It was so real. I even said a

(15:21):
little prayer. Then I hopped out of bed, went to
the window. It wasn't very dark anymore, and looking across
I could see that all the studio lights were on
and the front door open. I thought I'd better go
and have a look.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
And when you got there, you found Mike on the floor.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Unconscious, Yes, lying on his face, white as a sheet
and deathly cold. What when you call the hospital. It's
not like you to panic, I realized that. But the
back of his head looked as though he'd been felled
by some I'm superhuman male fist. It was all bent,

(16:04):
bent inward.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I thought. The hospital said, Mike was all right.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
I I am trudy, a clean bill of health, nothing
to worry about. My fault must have been an illusion,
of course. Well, I think if the inquisition is over,
I'm going to make up on some sleep. Oh a
damn cat, I've forgotten about her? Were your team hurrying
there away from me? In a very strange nights and morning?

(16:34):
I have a hauntingly uneasy feeling, I mean about Mike.
About Mike, I hope the hospital was right to give
him a clean bill of health. He doesn't seem himself
at all, not at all. Hello, Hello as a wreck, Michael,

(16:55):
What the hell happened last night? Okay, okay, not on
the phone. I'm going to rest now, but you'll be
sure to be here tonight. So far in our modern
legend we have caught up with superstition, which is magic,

(17:19):
both black and white, enchantment, spells, abracadabra. Well, there are
two more acts to come. I'll be back very shortly.
We're that too.

Speaker 8 (17:35):
When you say that, when you say.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's a lot of nobody has been said, when you've.

Speaker 8 (17:53):
Done as far as you came down to get the.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Same time you tell the world, and then with me
all the way when you.

Speaker 8 (18:07):
Say time you say you can enough to the little
noted everything, the hoy of the you're singing all that
when you say.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
And said, you've said it.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
And I was a boys Saint Louis will cope with
tomorrow for a brider you. There's one hope for tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
The children of today.

Speaker 7 (18:45):
You will live to inherit all we've done, will they
who will give love?

Speaker 1 (18:51):
And shall the children of to day of the same
Chairman and the world save children fly. It's a world

(19:14):
to read.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
A LS travel returned to sility.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
You can reach out to help the child for information
right Save the Children Box one, twenty Grand Central Station,
New York. A young man rushed to the hospital with

(19:47):
a depressed fracture of the skull which should have mangled
his brain. A chronic drunken repeater back in emergency on
the edge of fatal acute alcoholism, and an aging cleaning
woman who thought she saw a malign spirit pass from
the drunk to the young man, now apparently in full health.

(20:10):
We'll be able to appraise just how healthy the young
man who made his remarkable recovery. Is you right there,
Professor Ezik Peace community, Must you be so formal after
last night and a day. I'm taking no chances. Maybe
with your superior intelligence you have no worries about our

(20:32):
abortive tempt at Satanism.

Speaker 9 (20:35):
But I have.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
Look, I was the victim and since a crack on
the head denied me any knowledge of what happened. I'm
only hoping you can give me the straight goods. The
straight goods it peculiarly inep term for what we are
engaged in, my brother in Satan. Damn it, it's not
a deal in semantics, hantem. Now, what happened after I

(20:58):
summoned up the fiend? How did you escape? And how
could I have been harmed? As long as I was
safe in the magic triangle within the circle? I warned
you to keep your feet still. If you touch any
part of the circle itself or the triangle within it,
you are at the mercy of all the devils in hell.

(21:18):
And if I'd known what I was getting into when
I picked your philosophy course, I'd have quit. You made
the mistake of not realizing how vulnerable your soul was.
Is the son of a minister? All right, all right,
I'm not crying over what happened. I just want to
know what it was. Where was I by the fireplace,

(21:39):
lying prostrate? The way you fell? After he hits you?
Who hit me? The devil you summoned? But where did
he appear? Outside the circle? Here the enter of the
outer beyond the outer. Of course, there was waters scattered
between the circles, and the wolf spain scattered through it.

(22:01):
And within the circle you had the brazier burning everything
as you ordered it and arranged it. Yes, but but
what went wrong? Your ego? What does that mean? You
lost your head? At least almost did. This was a
simple experiment by someone who's seen the true psychic to

(22:23):
raise a minor antichrist. The motive was strong enough to
create belief, or at least the hope of belief. You
wanted a familiar to procure your brother's woman for you, Beshal,
you were to call forth. Why did you call on Ashtaroth,

(22:47):
a giantess beyond your control? I don't know. But do
I have to explain? Oh? No, Ever since you became
my disciple, you told me that you have rusted after
the woman your brother brought home as his bride, the
only thing I've never been able to take from Rod
whenever I wanted him. When you finished the incantation and

(23:10):
summoned asht Arth, I thought the house would come down
about our ears. The earth rocked like the San Francisco quake,
and suddenly she stood without the circle, a huge figure
in chain mail and medieval armor, meddler and slaves. She said,

(23:31):
how dare you summon me for your petty desires? Learn
this lesson once, if not for all, Turn your face
from me in shame. And as you turned, she reached
out with her mailed glove and struck you on the
top and back of your head. You dropped like a
stone across the magic circles. They weren't designed from major devils,

(23:57):
you swore. No presents could cross them, nothing but her
arm and her fist. But it's five feet from that
outer circle to the center of the triangle where I
was standing. I told you the circle was for less
her demons. What happened after she struck me? The spirrit
disappeared too, was clogged with smoke. He opened the door

(24:19):
to let it out and came back to you. You
had fallen almost into the fireplace. I pulled her back
to arrange the furniture as best I could, and fled.
I thought you were dead. Oh I'm alive, Yes, yes,
but it's not possible. When I left you just before sunrise,

(24:42):
you were dead. What witchcraft can do, It can undo
whoever and whatever I am. I'm alive, Make no mistake.
About that. Goodbye, Tom, I don't need you anymore. Oh hi, Trudy,

(25:05):
I thought you'd gone with Roden Dad.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Oh, Mike, I thought you were over in the studio.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
We ran out of beer.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Ah, you're out of luck. Rob's bringing some home.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Well, I found something more refreshing. What you.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
If you've waited just a little longer, you'd have found me. Anyway,
I was going to wander over to the studio and
visit you.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Oh so that's where you stayed home.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Oh, don't be silly. Someone had to wash the dishes
as long as I'm house. Yes, I thought I ought
to do something for my keep.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Well, you're staying here tonight.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
One whole week Mom went up at Pop to his
thirty fifth class reunion, and they figured it with one
full fledged minister and a recent hospital dropout, I was
suitably chaperone a safe visit church. Rod and Dad say
when they'd be back, not too pretty late. I guess,
pretty rough section of town. That's why Rod insisted on

(26:00):
going along. What's the occasion that's one of your father's
oldest prishioners. I guess the old lady is dying.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
She asked for the minister her loss my game? What?
Oh no, think it's just a stupid joke. You said
you wanted to see the studio?

Speaker 3 (26:15):
Oh yes, would you mind mine?

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Look, I'm out of beer, but I've got some champagne
that's begging to be What it is? What is it?
A split? Just right for sharing? Shall we go? Hell?
Won't you walk into my parlors? Said Beelzebub to the fly.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
What's that supposed to mean?

Speaker 1 (26:45):
That is the advantage of a classical education, Belzebub, god
of the Philistine city of Akron. Now he was known
as the Lord of the flies. Ah, well, now there
you've got me sound horrid. Well, he wasn't very popular
with Christians.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
In fact, they called him the Prince of devils, lord
of the flies.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
It gives me the creeps.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Here's something to chase your creeps away.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Oh I don't want that, mic it goes right to
my head.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Or just a simp a good luck toast to sister
and brother in lawhood are getting to know your party?

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Well for me to be a party pooper? Ah, there's
nothing more cozy and reassuring than a room full of books.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
What's this section here?

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Oh? That that's the main reason I needed Dad's particular library.
Since my exam was in metaphysics, the.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Black Arts, the World of Witches, Essentials of Demonology, the
Satanic Mass. It's a strange collection from.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Minister, and it's always good to know your enemy. Nor
Dad's quite an authority on the devil in his work.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
And you are you thinking of becoming a minister? Mike?

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Mit me, No, no, no, no, there is the thought. Now,
My philosophy is too easy for that. I long ago
decided that if you can't fight them, join them. Can't
you see how evil I am attempting you with spiritus beverages,
coaxing you here to my layer, and now having anesthetized

(28:26):
my prey, making ready to spring.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
I don't think you're being very funny, Mike. Oh is
this where you hit your head?

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Oh? Yes, yes, so they say, Now I wasn't being
altogether funny.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
What do you mean.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
True? Have you any idea how jealous I am of
my older brother abroad? Why a month ago or whenever
it was they turned up with you. My first thought was,
why couldn't I find something like that?

Speaker 2 (29:00):
That's very flattering, Mike, But you're a little young for
the big step.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Not so young? As you think. Perhaps I don't care
what you and Rod have been to each other. It
was me you wanted, still want only you're afraid of
breaking your word. This is a joke. It's no joke.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
It might let go of me.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
You wanted me from the moment you laid eyes on me,
just as I have you.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Oh, you've been reading too many naughty books.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Don't laugh. There's nothing funny about this.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
No, not really offensive.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
You're afraid of me. You don't be still afraid of yourself? Now?

Speaker 3 (29:40):
That really is the last a protested.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Fasten your mouth to mine, whind yourself about me, Try
forbidden love and it will never let you go.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Oh that's Rod home with your father. You'll let me go, scream.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
What are you going to tell them?

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Nothing? Nothing? I wouldn't want them to know where to
take you are. I think that blow on the head
must have done more damage than you think. Mike, you
betsye is the carcerce a Hi?

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Rod?

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Dad?

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Well we didn't you.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Estra by Lucifer. I'll have you yet cowering at my
feet like a slave, to use you once and destroy
you as I should use your surrogate tonight. For whether
she may be Oh, dear, dear, how best you there's

(30:47):
something that happens to a girl on the other side
of town.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Let me see, Rachel, how awful?

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Ah? You got me going? You too, Jean, Well, since
you can read, I'll read it to you. The body
of Elizabeth Migner twenty one was discovered in Marsden Park
today by a passerby. Although it was later determined to
go and rape. The strange features of the case are
that she was not robbed and as though by some

(31:19):
ferocious animal. Tooth marks showed that her throat had been
literally ripped to pieces.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Good lord, where's Marsden Park?

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Clear over the other side of town?

Speaker 3 (31:31):
When did this happen?

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Night before last morning? Huh? I hope breakfast is already.
I'm famished. What's wrong with that cat? What's beginning to
bug me?

Speaker 3 (31:44):
A lot of things are beginning to bug me.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
What did you say? Hi?

Speaker 3 (31:47):
Nothing?

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Rob?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
I don't think I'll have any breakfast this morning. I
don't feel like eating. No, Rob, please don't come with me.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
I'd rather be alone.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Love his quarrel. Look, you just take how brother mine
none of your business? For Trudy's sake, for everyone's sake,
would that it were, But unfortunately we know better, or

(32:17):
do we? The crime happened miles away, and the devil
that may possess Mike is there only on the evidence
of a tipsy charwoman who summons the devil, never calls
for him in vain, and once met, you are lucky
to get rid of them again. I'll return shortly with

(32:40):
Act three. Give your hand to a friend, give your
heart to your love, but give your cold. The common
cold is a rotten thing.

Speaker 4 (33:00):
You miss so much sneezing, drips and congestion can drag
you down. Then ask yourself the contact question six for
three or one? You'd need six colds over it's two
every four hours or three ounces of coal's liquid one
every four hours, or just one contact for up to

(33:20):
twelve hours continuous relief of those symptoms. That's daytime then
nighttime relief. Both the others have things for aches and fever,
and the liquid something for costs not found in contact six.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Hundred tiny time tis.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
The contact six or three or take contact oh used directly?

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Scady f beside it, But what if the sun stopped shining?
Why you'd be so surprised?

Speaker 10 (34:07):
You stare up at the heavens with those big blue eyes,
and the wind would carry all of your light up
to the skies and the sun would start shining again,
and the sun would start shining. You can help make
the sun start shining again through the United.

Speaker 11 (34:27):
Nations Children's Fund. This is Bill Anderson asking you to
be generous. When the neighborhood youngsters come to your door
to trick or treat for UNISEF this Halloween, please drop
a few coins in their little orange boxes and help
UNICEF bring better food, medical care, and education to millions
of needy children.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
In the kitchen of the Damon house, Rod glares angrily
at his brother, who shrugs it off and goes to
the refrigerator for orange juice. A troubled Reverend Damon eyes
both his sons as he closes and folds the tabloid
in his hands, as if it were just as unclean
as it is. Rod, unchallenged by Mike, breaks the silence. First,

(35:21):
I better go on upstairs and check and truly now
she said she wanted to be alone. Now, will you
stay out of us. I'm not even in it, just
an objective comment, so keep it to yourself. I come on, Rod,
I didn't mean to buddy and catch me up. What's
all the hostility about? No hostility, just the reaction to

(35:41):
a peculiarly unpleasant crime. I think I'll up and apologize
the truly for spoiling everyone's breakfast. That's a good idea
that if I can leave you two alone, I have
no quarrel with anyone. Now, forget it that I just
got upset over. Truly, I shouldn't have jumped on Mike.
Then let me see if I can make her future

(36:04):
in law a little happier in our house. What happened?

Speaker 4 (36:10):
Right?

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Oh? It all started over this tabloid story about some
poor kid who got raped and mangled in Marsin Park.
Oh here read all about it, and a gruesome all right?
That there's one of these every day, Yeah, but not
in such gory detail. It really got to Truly, I've
never seen her upset like that, I mean, so subjectively involved.

(36:36):
Oh what do you suppose triggered that? I don't know.
I just sure wish I did. Maybe it's better to
let sleeping dogs lie your future father in law. May

(37:00):
I come in for a minute, but don't look.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
Come on in, Reverend Damon.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Feeling any better. Oh not really, I should be ashamed
of myself reading that yellow sheet. I like to think
it helps keep my sense of balance, But maybe I'm
just a seeker of vicarious excitement.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Like that rather complete collection on Satanism and the occult
that you have in your studio.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Ah, you noticed that, did you?

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Not? Before last when I was over there with Mike
while you and Rod had gone to see your old
parishioner who was dying.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Did she As a matter of fact, no, she made
a remarkable recovery.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Really well, you look so sort of worried when you
came home.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
I thought I was worried about you, Trudy, and Mike.
Why you? Because I knew you were upset about something.
You can't be a minister for over forty years without
learning to read something about people.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
And Mike.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Mike is an enigma to me since I brought him
back from the hospital. Rather terrifying thought to realize I've
lost contact with my own son. I'd like to ask
pure help, Trudy, and I'll lay it right on the line.
Why were you at the studio with him? What happened there?

(38:33):
You won't tell Rod, not if you don't want me
to then what I'd like.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
More than anything is to tell someone, most of all you,
for Mike's sake, because I think he needs help and
you're the only one who could bring it.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
To him or make him go find it.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Well, Reverend Damon, this is a pleasure. I'm on my
way to a class and we talk as we cross campus. Yes,
just what is the name of your course that Mike
is taking? Philosophy perhaps more specifically metaphysics rather free wheeling.
I mean it's it's advanced, and we spend more time

(39:22):
on the perimeters than we do on the core subjects.
Just what were you and Mike up to that long
night before his injury? I was coaching him for an examination?
An examination and what on what subject? By the class
I teach general philosophy? And you left before Michael was hurt?

(39:42):
For good lord, Yes, would I have left the boy
if you were injured? Would you have flipped the scene
unless you were up to something dark and vile enough
to stay in your reputation. I am sorry your boy
was hurt. I had no part in it. I resent
your holier than that accusations. If you'll excuse me, I
have a class waiting for me. Love for the rug

(40:19):
does it? Oh, my dear Lord, just what I was
afraid of? What are you afraid of? Dad? You Mike
that you turned away from God to seek the devil? Why? Mike?

Speaker 9 (40:36):
Why?

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Who knows?

Speaker 9 (40:39):
Now?

Speaker 1 (40:39):
What shall I tell you? Life's a drag. It has
no purpose, no goals, no triumphs that aren't tarnished. There's
no good in man, nothing but pettiness and meanness. And
me first, and the devil take behind me. That's not
what I brought you up to. Believe. No one blames you, Dad,

(40:59):
Prudy the last straw that Rod could find the woman
who wanted, and she could turn out to be the
one that I need. So I chose his worship, and
here we built my altar. Don't desecrate that name. The
altar belongs to God. This altar belongs to Satan. See

(41:23):
the circle traced in vermilion paint, exactly nine feet wide
and eight for charcoal.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
One within.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Light, the vote of candles, burn the incense, let the
mass begin. What are you doing? I won't tolerate this
sacredly who can no more move than the woman I
desire can resist my power. I am the way I
am the darkness I am the truth, Lord of the universe,

(41:54):
whom the winds fear. I am he who smileth ever
fright afare you.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
And me.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
For a boneless one that did create the darkness and
the light.

Speaker 9 (42:08):
Thee I command to serve me and send me the
woman I did lie, Trudy, don't come in here from
the ring.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
On he Rod did your brother? He's gone mad on
of the outer world. Step stay back. I was my
fee dead. Well thou standest leave or leave except.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
The woman who is mine?

Speaker 1 (42:37):
What's going on about? He's going for fruty. I loot
the joy and I haven't known you murder your own
body and I p around. You know I could always take.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
You, Oh Rod, I hope you haven't hurt him too much.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
I don't worry, baby. He always had a glass jaw.
He had something more perishable than that called the hospital.
You better tell them to bring a straight jacket. The
top of the night to you, missus Gideon. And what's

(43:14):
that wee bottle in the paper bag? A little potty.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Nothing of a sort, doctor snot ettic. That's a noggin
of holywater blessed by me on mon signor which I
carry with me when I come near.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
This place ever since three days ago?

Speaker 2 (43:29):
What happened to old PG?

Speaker 3 (43:32):
Did anyone ever turn up to claim him?

Speaker 1 (43:34):
No? Oh, by the way, while we're on the gossip column,
guess who's back in the hospital.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Not the other one, the same.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Lying in the emergency room under a deep sedation in
a straight jacket.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Oh what did they bring him back here?

Speaker 1 (43:51):
For? That's what doctor Considine and his father, the Reverend Damon,
are discussing now in the prep room. Well, if you're
going to swab out of the emergen see, you'd better
get at it fast.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Well, I'll tell you something, doctor, If I'm to be
there and alone with that devil, you'll never see emergency
this clean again. For I imagine the man Senior's holy
water to be pale right now.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
Just in case, of course, we'll run every neurological test
in the book on him. Under the circumstances, Reverend Davon,
I'm not sure it will do any good. I'm afraid
the trouble is psychiatric. Well, it has to be one
or the other. And last word, to accept Missus Gideon's
diagnosis of possession. Missus Gideon, I remember now she was

(44:40):
one of the people like the inkern who remembered that
they thought they saw a considerable skull compression which never existed.
Believe me, just an illusion like Missus Gideon's. What was
Missus Gideon's illusion? Well, I'm afraid she'd had a drink
or too, and she had some wild star worry about

(45:00):
a black devil streaming out of an old dipsomaniac who
was also in the emergency room and being sucked up
through your son's nostrils. I'm really even embarrassed, dimensions, that's nonsense.
Come in, excuse me, Doctor Considine that the patient is
coming to Sir Damon. Yes, sir, he's still in the

(45:22):
straight jacket. I uh, I think, Reverend, if you don't
mind until we see what state he is, I don't mind.
You might as well both know that the police by
now well aware that my son was responsible for the
violent death of the young woman the night before last,

(45:45):
while under the possession of whatever devil's or devil owns him.
Shall we go by Nodle and Tamos and pilfer.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
For no one, pretty heavy, I am belive.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Lord of the flies, and your bon canna.

Speaker 8 (46:07):
All of.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Good Lord, he's out of the straight je, I'll get help.
What's going on here?

Speaker 7 (46:14):
Is it good?

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I'm not preserves, it's the devil in carnate.

Speaker 7 (46:17):
I stay away from talk with your going in to
a Christmas is firing.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Stay away from him. Leave him to me. Michael, my son,
call me not by that still sing angel's name. Say away,
old man, when I carry in my hand of the ball. Michael,
I warned you, you ad minus a man of the cloth.

(46:42):
Get back, get back? True? What happened?

Speaker 2 (46:50):
Sure, twas the monsienus hourly watery. It's just the strongest life.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Uncle. No, all right, boys, gold Daniels, you're too late.
Excuse me, Reverend, let me see Daniels come here, sir.
Was that the depression you were talking about when this
man was first brought in? Yes, sir, that's what I

(47:15):
thought I saw, at least that's what we all see now.
But I haven't any answers. I only know that I'm sorry,
Reverend Emmon, but your son is is dad. He hasn't
been my son since his first visit here. The mercy

(47:39):
of God is that whatever possessed him died with him
thanks to this lady here.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Oh, if I hadn't had the Holy water, The Lord
does move in mysterious ways, don't he?

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Reverend Sir, in mysterious ways and kind ones. What a
few day the Reverend Damon's tabloids might have had if
Michael had ever come to trial for the death of
that poor innocent girl. Innocent Perhaps that's the theme of

(48:22):
this dark history. If Michael had been less innocent and
it had the guts to be less self interested and bored,
how different his world might have been. But that's the answer,
isn't it. We all make our own world. We can't
rely on anyone else to make it for us. I'll

(48:44):
be back shortly.

Speaker 12 (48:45):
Here's a medical puzzle. A person has a deadly disease
yet leads a normal life. How is it possible? The
answer is chemotherapy. Through this treatment, thousands of cancer victims
regain active, product reductive lives despite their cancer. Many of
these people can continue in their jobs for years while

(49:06):
the anti cancer drugs, which we call chemotherapy, control their disease.
But many types of cancer remain difficult to control. Through research,
the Chemotherapy Foundation is stimulating the development of new drugs.
More types of cancers will someday be controlled. The question
is not if but when you can help by contributing

(49:28):
to the Chemotherapy That's Chemo CGMO Therapy Foundation, Box eight,
New York, New York, one hundred twenty eight. That's the
Chemotherapy Foundation, Box eight, New York, New York, one hundred
and twenty eight. This is a public service message from
the Chemotherapy Foundation.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Pose. I should resist the impulse, but I have to
admit I can't. It's one of the rewards for being host,
particularly with guests who can't answer back, at least directly.
So just for once a homily, reach out and find life,

(50:20):
take it and make the most of it. For if
nothing else, our story proves to the hilt the oldest
of adages. If you don't, the devil finds work for
idle hands to do. Our cast included Donald Bucher, Joan shay, Ian,

(50:42):
Martin Guy Cerell, and Leon Jenny. The entire production was
under the direction of Hyman Brown. Now approve you of
our next tale. No trouble, though he went numb pretty
I thought he would.

Speaker 7 (51:01):
He wanted me to give you a message, but then
he couldn't remember what it was. Oh Earth, and he
thinks you're some kind of a.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
Ward poor man. You know, mister z I didn't much
like it inside that room. You knew you were coming out.

Speaker 7 (51:18):
Who Ever dreamed up the black room anyway, I have
no idea. Somebody must have.

Speaker 6 (51:23):
There's always been a black room far as I know.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Hell of a place. Years. How long will he last?
You think? Matter of days? Weeks? Possibly? Then what he'll
go mad or die? Wonder what he's doing now?

Speaker 6 (51:41):
Oh, counting by twos, then by threes, then by Four's
anything to keep from thinking, that's what they all do.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Radio Mystery Theater were sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division.
This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to
our Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until
next time, pleasant dreams,
Advertise With Us

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